Our Lady of the River School eNewsletter

We have had a great start to the year this week. It has been fantastic to see the classes get back from their Christmas and summer holiday break and start their learning for the year. Students have been settling back into routines and setting goals for the term ahead.

We welcome two new staff members this week who have joined our school, Anna Strachan and Alexia Sourbis. Anna joins us on Monday and Tuesday each week in a Counselling and Wellbeing role, and Alexia joins our ESO team. We also officially welcome Amalie Fiebiger, Luke Dunn and Emma Remkes to our school. Heidi Schwartzkopff has joined us for the opening two weeks of term in Emma’s class, as Emma recovers from an illness diagnosed during the holidays.

This year we look forward to hopefully less disruption due to COVID, and more opportunities to go back to ‘normal’. We know there is still some COVID in the community and remind families that students who are unwell should stay home if they have cold or flu-like symptoms and get tested for COVID-19. If students have COVID-19, please advise the school as soon as possible, and stay at home until all acute symptoms (runny nose, sore throat, cough and fever) have cleared. While the incidence of COVID is small compared to last year, we are mindful that for some it is still a danger and we want to minimize the risk to all of our families.

Our Diocesan theme this year is Called to Community and it invites us to revisit what it means to be part of a Catholic school. We value the connections and relationships we develop being part of a community where love, respect and compassion are values we live out each day. This year we want to rekindle those connections within our school. The first opportunity for this is next Thursday at our Parent Information and Welcome night. We invite all families to join us for information sessions in each classroom, as well as a free barbecue and chance to meet and welcome other families. We look forward to other opportunities to gather this year as well and will keep you posted once dates are finalised.

As always, I welcome feedback about the things that we do at school and value the input of families. Please feel welcome to contact me at school anytime, or via email mslagter@olor.catholic.edu.au

I look forward to seeing you at our Parent Info/Welcome night next week and also look forward to a great year ahead.

God Bless.

Michael Slagter

Principal

OUR DIOCESAN THEME FOR 2023: Call to Community

Our Diocesan theme unites us across the Port Pirie diocese through our Liturgical Year celebrations and even our everyday interactions with each other. It provides a focus for us in our continuous endeavour to nurture our students as they learn and grow. This year our theme is ‘Call to Community’. Staff and students will explore this theme in two parts. First, there is the call – a summons/ duty and the next part is the community - how can we live, work and thrive as a positive community.

Call – In next Sunday’s gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples that they are ‘the salt of the earth and the light for the world’ (Mt 5:13-16). Jesus challenges each of us to use our salt to add flavour to our communities and discover our talents (our lights) and let them shine. This is our ‘Call to Community.’ When we add flavour and let our lights shine, we are helping our communities to flourish.

Community - Being part of an engaging community gives us a sense of belonging. Every community operates with specific boundaries to meet the needs of that community. Having a sense of community embraces spirit, character and pride and is a vital element of a healthy community. It is a feeling that people within the community matter to one another with a shared faith that their needs will be met through commitment and togetherness.

Our ‘Call to Community’ is central to all we do as humans; we are by nature relational, and therefore we are called to live in relationship with each other. Our ‘Call to Community’ is at the heart of all we do here at Our Lady of the River School. The commitment and dedication of all staff to this call are evident in how our students have settled well into school life.

We will gather as a school community on Wednesday, 22nd February, at 7:00 am to celebrate our school Welcome Mass and Ash Wednesday Mass. Our community festivities continue with an egg and toast breakfast, and you are all warmly welcome to join our celebrations.

Rosemary Perre
APRIM

For those of you who do not yet know me, my name is Melanie Steele and I have the role of Leader of Learning over the St Joseph's Barmera and Our Lady of the River School's. There are many different parts to my role but my main one, and most important one I think, is working together with Michael, the teachers, parents, and students to ensure that our school is a place of rich learning and continued growth in all areas of the curriculum.

This week I have spent time with teachers discussing learning programs and identifying diverse ways we can assess students to ensure that our teaching meets the needs of all students.

Please come up and introduce yourself if you see me in the yard. I am looking forward to seeing familiar and fresh faces at the Parent Information Night on Thursday.

We've had a great start to the year at OLOR! Students have settled into learning and are showing great effort, enthusiasm and care in the classrooms and out at playtimes. We look forward to a wonderful year ahead!

We welcome our new foundation students this week, Lillie, Hannah, Charlotte, Alexa, Bodee, Gurbaz, Portia, Gurman, Frankie and Felix. We hope you enjoyed your first week of school.