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Our Journey Towards Pentecost:
On Holy Thursday, we celebrated the beauty and mystery of the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, Jesus broke bread, shared wine with his disciples, and foretold his own death. The sharing of that meal and Jesus’s words “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19) are the foundation of what we celebrate each week at Mass to this day.
Over the Easter Tridium we witness the final experiences, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It is the liturgical highlight of our Catholic faith and reinforces our belief in the forgiveness of our sins to enable us to experience the promise of eternal life. We are continuing to journey towards Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, when the holy spirit emboldens the believers of Jesus to take His message out to the world.
Holy Week has passed.
Yet how we long to live by the wonderful story we have heard.
Let us remain ever beside you at the table of the Last Supper.
Show us who is hungry. And give us the courage to offer them bread from your table.
Show us who is thirsty. And give us the strength to lift up the cup of your love.
Most of all, show us how to linger at the table, serving others—
Doing ALL that we do In remembrance of You,
And the way You were when You walked this earth.
We lift these simple, limited words Up to you, O God.
Amen
Adapted from Erin M. Cline
Class Masses:
As we move out of the restrictions of Covid 19, we welcome families back on to our school site. In particular, we look forward to our family members joining us for our school events, including our class masses. Please access the Term Two calendar which is being distributed to our community so that you can identify when your child’s class will be responsible for preparing and celebrating Mass or liturgical celebrations during Term 2.
NAPLAN
This week our Year 3 and Year 5 children have participated in NAPLAN. Thus far they have undertaken the Writing and Reading components. Next week they will complete the program by doing the Conventions of Language and Numeracy tests. The data we obtain from these assessments is pivotal in guiding our professional development program as we aim to consolidate the areas of strength and address topics which are identified as requiring attention. We congratulate our children for the manner in which they have participated in the tasks thus far.
Writing Professional Development
The staff at Our Lady of the River School and St Joseph’s, Barmera, are currently engaged in a professional development project focussing on improving writing outcomes for our students. It is our aim that staff will investigate best practice in teaching writing and identify the core guiding principles that will become the non-negotiable features of our learning program. It has been pleasing to witness the strong camaraderie between both staffs and their robust commitment to ensure we can work with our children and families to enable our children to be confident and creative writers.
Mark LeMessurier Workshop (What’s The Buzz)
It was a tremendous opportunity for the staff at OLOR and St Joseph’s, Barmera, and representatives from St Albert’s and St Joseph’s, Renmark, to reflect and review the important elements of how to support young people in developing and utilising strategies to support their social and emotional competencies. The complex world in which our children live has resulted in an increasing number of young people displaying anxiety and depressive behaviours. At the core of supporting our children is ensuring that our educators have developed a genuine connection and trusting relationship with them. Mark describes the challenge of working with children through a lens of ‘soft eyes and a warm heart’. Whilst some people may see this approach as too lenient, Mark is firm in ensuring children are held accountable to natural consequences which enable a young person to own their behaviour and rehearse the new actions which will enable them to behave in a socially acceptable manner.
Thank you to the families that were able to attend the afternoon workshop with Mark to listen to his research and strategies to assist them in undertaking their valuable parenting role. We were able to reflect on our parenting styles, discuss which consequences are effective for our children and to be made aware of resources which we can draw upon when confronted by the tricky behaviours of our sons and daughters. Mark was clear with staff and families that working with complex children is tough! However, it is heartening that we can access resources, such as Mark’s, which have proven effective in assisting many mums and dads to raise children who can successfully regulate their behaviour and be valuable members of our families.
https://www.marklemessurier.com.au/main/articles/pift.shtml
SAPSASA
Covid 19 played a significant role in impacting the SAPSASA Program in Term One. Consequently, we have commenced Term 2 with a flurry of sports in the first fortnight to ensure our children were able to access activities that had been postponed. Congratulations to our children who have represented our school or district in:
- Swimming
- Mountain Bike
- Australian Rules Football
- Netball
I am grateful to Mr Tom Charlton for his dedication to our children in enabling them to participate in these sporting opportunities. Likewise, I acknowledge the commitment of families to encourage their children to strive for their best effort and to play fair.
Choir & Wakikiri
A massive thank you to Ms Jade DiGregorio for her enthusiastic commitment to enabling our children to access the Wakikiri and Riverland Music Festival Choir. I also acknowledge the children who are attending rehearsals before school and spending time at home to consolidate their knowledge of choreography and song lyrics. It is tremendous that OLOR is able to offer these performing arts opportunities and that our children participate so enthusiastically. We look forward to witnessing the final performances later in the year.
SPORT - Term 2 Starts with a bang!
Hi all,
It has been a busy start to Term 2 with several boys representing OLOR at the SAPSASA Mountain Bike Championships at Craigburn Farm. This is the second straight year OLOR has entered a team into the championships. Well done to Max Schubert, Wavely Marsden and Eli and Will Cresp on finishing 17th out of 65 schools overall.
OLOR had 4 students represent the Riverland District team at the recent SAPSASA Swimming Championships in Adelaide. Bode Gates received a bronze medal in the 10-year-old division while Wavely Marsden took away the silver medal in the 12-year-old backstroke. Ella Rothe was equally impressive on the day, finishing 3rd in the 12-year-old butterfly. Finally, a big congratulations to Max Schubert on winning 3 gold medals for the 12-year-old 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke. The Riverland team placed 4th overall.
The Riverland SAPSASA Boys District Football Carnival was held on Monday, 9th May Berri Oval. Bailey Exarheas, Max Schubert, Wavely Marsden and Charlie Wishart played in the Berri team in what was a high-level competition. As coach of the Berri team, I was immensely proud of the boy’s efforts on the day as well as their development. Their sportsmanship will hold them in good stead going into the future. Special mention must go to Wavely Marsden, who was selected to try out for the Riverland District team to compete in Adelaide later in the year. Good luck Wavely!
The Westies Shield Girls 9-aside Football Carnival was also held on Monday, 9th May on Berri Oval No. 2. 12 Year 5/6 girls from OLOR tested their skills against numerous schools from around the Riverland. Impressively, the OLOR girls won 5 games, including a whopping 53-0 win over Berri Primary, to finish 5th overall. A big thanks to Ms Nicolette Roberts and Kayla Tsorotiotis for taking the coaching reigns on the day.
Please keep checking for SAPSASA dates on the calendar below.
Have a great weekend!
Kind regards,
Tom Charlton
OLOR Sports Coordinator
Sporting Quote of the Week: |
“Victory is in having done your best. If you’ve done your best, you’ve won.” |
Term 2 SAPSASA Dates |
|
Event |
Date |
Boys District & Girls Crows Cup Football Carnivals @Berri |
Monday, 9th May |
Riverland SAPSASA Netball Carnival @Loxton |
Friday, 13th May |
Riverland SAPSASA Soccer Carnival @Loxton |
Friday, 17th June |
Arts/Music
On Friday in Week 1, choir students attended their first cluster rehearsal for the year at the Bonney Theatre in Barmera. They sang beautifully and were great representatives of our school. Our next cluster rehearsal will be later this term.
Scholastic Book Club
Last week, your child received Issue 2 of Scholastic Book Club. If you would like to place an order, please fill in the order form and send with correct money or cheque (made out to OLOR) in an envelope marked with your child's name and class on the front. (OLOR receives a small percentage of sales which goes towards new books for our Library).
Orders being paid by credit card need to be placed online through the Scholastic web site and clicking on LOOP Orders. Orders are due in by Wednesday, 18th May.
Please see Sandy if you have any questions regarding ordering. Thank you.
Uniform
A reminder that school uniform items are accessible through Tri-State Graphics, 216 Renmark Avenue, Renmark Ph: 8586 5815
As the weather becomes cooler it is important that our students are wearing the correct uniform items and not random coats and jackets.
Principal role Being Advertised
Our community would be aware that the Principal role at Our Lady of the River School is currently being advertised. We trust that the advertisement will draw a wide range of applicants and that our school community will be blessed with a candidate that will sustain and build the tremendous aspects of Our Lady of the River School.
T 2 Calendar
Our Term Two calendar will be updated in our Schoolzine newsletter. We will also provide a PDF version via SZapp and Seesaw so that every family is aware of the events which will be held at OLOR this term.
Farewell Karlie
Today we farewell Karlie Vince from our Front Office as she commences her maternity leave. We wish Karlie every blessing as she prepares to enter motherhood. May she be blessed with a healthy baby and experience the awe and wonder of creation. We look forward to having Karlie visit us at OLOR in a few months time and introducing us to her bub.
AGM – School Board nominations
On Tuesday 24th May at 6pm our 2022 Annual General Meeting will be held in our multi purpose room. This is an opportunity to identify the blessings our school has received over the last twelve months and to articulate our goals for the coming year. Considering that the Principal role for Our Lady of the River School is currently being advertised with a commencement date of Term Three, it is a wonderful opportunity to consider nominating yourself to our School Board.
The School Board enables strong parental involvement in building and sustaining the following dimensions of Our Lady of the River School:
- Catholic Identity
- Learning Program
- Administration & Policy Review
- Community Building
If you would like to discuss your involvement and discover how to nominate for the OLOR School Board please contact Paul or Mel via the Front Office.
Instrumental/singing Lessons at OLOR
Would your child like to learn a musical instrument at school?
Music Alive School of Music has been partnering with OLOR to provide guitar lessons at school and is now able to offer students the opportunity to learn piano, strings (violin, viola and cello) and singing at school.
Piano, strings and singing lessons will be provided by Catherine Heuzenroeder, an OLOR parent and experienced teacher who is the accompanist for the Riverland Primary Schools’ Music Festival and regular contributor to the Young Riverland Musical Society (YRMS) program.
Learning an instrument develops musicality and is recognised as stimulating brain function, including maths and language skills. It brings a host of transferable skills including improving memory, concentration and building determination and resilience. It’s also a lot of fun!
Students who learn a musical instrument through Music Alive have the opportunity to perform at recitals, sit nationally-recognised exams and enjoy the social benefits of playing in ensembles.
If you would like more information or want to register for lessons starting soon, please contact Music Alive School of Music on info@musicalive.com.au or by phoning 8584 5561. Catherine can be contacted directly at catherineheuzenroeder@outlook.com or by phoning 0417 530 070.