Term 3 Week 10, 2021

Sports Fun Day –  Tomorrow Friday 24 September on our school Oval

Sports Fun Day is fast approaching!  This year not only do we have to manoeuvre through the issues associated with COVID, but we also now have to battle the weather!  Our plan in the event of passing showers, is that students will return to their classrooms and parents can seek shelter in the Veritas Centre.

The following information will help explain our expectations regarding Sports Day.

• Parents / Grandparents can attend Sports Day.  
• All Adults (staff excepted) are required to wear facemasks
• All visitors must QR Code
• All students are expected to attend Sports Day – GiR – Year 6.
• School will start at normal time
• The Out of School Hours Care service will be available for before and after school care as usual.
• Students are permitted to wear a coloured polo top or t-shirt in the colour of their sports team. TOPS MUST NOT DISPLAY BRAND NAMES, LOGOS OR OFFENSIVE IMAGES/SLOGANS.
• No coloured zinc or hairsprays etc are to be brought to school – this can be applied at home
• All students must wear their school sports shorts and school hat and bring a bottle of water.
• Please apply sunscreen to your child(ren) before they come to school - it will be re-applied by staff during the day as needed.
• Toilets – Parents / Grandparents are asked to use the Veritas centre toilets – all children are to use the other toilets.

Our Sports leaders will assist Mr Merrett in coordinating Sports Fun Day.  Our Sports Leaders are:

St Elizabeth (Yellow)                                                 St Mary (Green)
Mayah Edwards & Lucas Kalaitzis                               Eden Gallagher & Jake Atkinson

St Anthony (Blue)                                                      St Dominic (Red)
Mackenzie Howie & Jacob Leonard                             Ella Gustard & Jayden Poulton

We look forward to sharing the day with you and your family. 

End of Term

This term has been busy and we forget that we began it in lockdown.  All Year 2 – 6 students will be bringing home their laptops today (Thursday).  This is to ensure that in the event of a lockdown during the holidays, home learning can begin.  R/1 students would receive work via Seesaw.  The last 18 months have taught us to be ready and flexible in our planning.

As we come to the end of Term 3 I would like to acknowledge our school staff.  They are dedicated and committed to support students and families. 

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable time with your children over the school holiday break and I look forward to working with you all again next term.  Term 4 is always an extremely busy term. 

                 Term 4 begins on Monday 11th October

Uniforms

The students will change over to Summer Uniform beginning of Term 4, as always a 2 week changeover is allowed due to weather.

The uniform shop will be open for any purchases during the school holidays on Thursday 7th October - 8.15am - 10.15am.

Aquatics / Swimming Lessons

Year 5/6                      Week 1 (Aquatics)
R/1’s & 2/3’s               Week 2
Rec Red & Yr 4          Week 3

Parents have received information regarding swimming lessons at Largs Bay Pool in Week 2 & 3 and Aquatics in Week 1 of next Term.  Unfortunately, parents will not be allowed to watch lessons.  This decision is similar to last year, where we follow the Largs Bay Pool's COVID Management Plan. 

We had concerns last year but all the students rose to the challenge of becoming independent.  Like last year we will support all students, we will have ESO's (minimum 3) along with class teachers to be based at the pool to assist with the changing and management of the students. 

We view this with a positive mindset where the students can put into practice their independent skills of changing, looking after their belongings and being able to follow teacher / ESO instructions.  I can ensure you that all students will be safe and cared for.

Hello everyone,

I hope that you and your families are well.

Season of Creation
In this ‘Season of Creation’ (September 1^st to October 4^th), we are mindful of how we can care for God’s beautiful creation – both today and in the future. Our staff and children are very lucky to be able to access some wonderful learning resources from many singers, authors and artists on the ‘Butterfly House’ website. I have included a link to an online picture book influenced by Pope Francis’ writing from 2015, “Laudato Si”.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jk5Po3i3jvI&feature=youtu.be

Sacramental Program
Registrations are open if you would like to participate in the Family Faith Formation for the coming 2021/22 cycle.  Children will be prepared to receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Holy Communion.  If your child is not baptised, or if they are baptised in another faith and you would like to prepare for the Sacraments of Initiation, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  If you are interested please contact Sr Marie in the Parish Office as soon as possible on 84496378, or email me at pfitzgerald@olv.catholic.edu.au.

Southern Cross
Each month, the Adelaide Archdiocese publishes a newspaper called, “The Southern Cross”. The September edition has many fantastic articles, two that I would like to point out.

On page 6, there is an article addressing how our shopping habits can positively affect our environment – complemented by a full page poster on page 16. On page 19, there is an article regarding the national Bishop’s publication, “Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor”. This statement emphasises the need to “…respond to the social, economic and ecological issues…” our world currently faces. The article is a good reflection on this significant church statement.

A direct link to the September issue of “The Southern Cross” is attached below.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/829107fa-3ac8-45a6-8aaa-e9766f6ab98d

God bless you and take care,
Patrick.

The R/1 Unit and Reception Red Class have been studying the ‘Narrative Genre’ in Literacy this term.  All 5 classes have focussed on Fairy Tales as a theme.  After reading and viewing a variety of different Fairy Tales in class, we have been learning to sequence, retell and role-play parts of well-known stories.  We have also enjoyed creating art work to show some of our favourite characters.  Fairy Tales are fantastic stories to read, regardless of your age.  They are traditional stories that help develop people’s imagination and love of literature. 

In Reception Red, after exploring the story of the Three Bears and how Goldilocks navigated her way through the forest, we also examined what she saw there. Three bowls, three chairs, three beds and three bears and used this information to extend our number knowledge. In these last two weeks of term, we have used directional language and positional language terms and explored what this looks like through games and activities. It has also helped us prepare for the fun day of Sports activities this Friday.

In R/1 Red we have been learning about Narrative.  The students chose a fairy tale character to depict through crayon and water colour art works.  The students then used their knowledge of adjectives to describe these characters.  

In R/1 Yellow we have been reading and sharing narratives from fairy tales. Our artwork shows some of our favourite characters in fairy tales. 

In R/1 Blue, we read multiple fairy tales but focused on Jack and the Beanstalk to help us understand some of the main features of narratives.  The main features we focused on were the characters, the setting and the orientation, complication, and resolution.

In R/1 Purple, we have read and viewed various fairy tales.  Our main focus was on The 3 Little Pigs.  We made story maps featuring the characters, setting, complication and resolution.  We also made masks to depict our favourite characters.

OLV performed extremely well at the Port SAPSASA Cross Country Championships held on Tuesday 14^th September 2021 at Point Malcolm Reserve Semaphore Park. The students ran for a distance of 2,000 metres. There was a total of 410 students at this event from 14 local schools. Some 54 students from OLV completed the distance. Well done! The weather was great! A huge thank you to Amelia Maddern, Shey Angove and Michelle Edwards, for helping with marshaling, organisation, setting up the  course and first aid. Thank you to Lorenza Bianchini, Leanne Sheargold, Julie Taylor and Frank DeTullio for supervising and organizing the students. Thankyou also to the Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club for cooking a BBQ and Stir for their Coffee Van.

The following students have qualified to represent Port SAPSASA at a 2022 State Cross Country Championships at Oakbank Racecourse on 9^th June (TBC) 2022. Kobe Fowler, Ajok Kuir & Mayah Edwards.

Congratulations to all students on their wonderful performance.

Yours in Running
John Merrett