9 November 2017

Newsletter Articles

School Calendar

Principals Report

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Students,

This week we launch the new, Our Lady of the River School newsletter. We are pleased and excited to inform you that we’ll be producing a new eNewsletter with Schoolzine. The move to this new format will enable us to communicate with the school community across multiple channels. It will promote and enhance our engagement with parents, students and the wider community. We believe you’ll find the eNewsletter highly engaging, as it will provide us with a more efficient and effective means of connecting with you. The new format will allow the inclusion of video, photo galleries, online bookings, mobile app, feedback forms, calendars and so much more. You can even select at the top of the page a translation button to read your newsletter in your preferred language e.g. Greek or Punjabi. As of the 20th November 2017, our school newsletters will be distributed by email to families once a fortnight in this format. You will be able to print your newsletter or refer to past newsletters in the ongoing archives section. In time, we intend to include a YouTube Channel, Feedback link, App and Parent Portal button as well. Schoolzine advertising is another positive aspect of our newsletter.

School Play

Not long to go before our 2017 OLOR Musical to be performed as a matinee, 10am on Wednesday 22nd November and night performance 6.30pm on 23rd November in our school hall. We look forward to seeing a large crowd especially for our night performance. All family and friends are welcome and only on the performance night there will be for sale a barbecue tea, drinks and snacks, available from 5.30pm.

The main cast will be required to stay at school after 3.20pm, on performance night and all other students are asked to arrive no later than 6pm and meet with their class teachers. It is important that families indicate via the form to indicate how many people will be attending. This will assist us with seating arrangements. Please indicate if disabled seating is required.

Religious Education News

Vinnies Christmas Appeal

Across South Australia, the St Vincent DePaul Society ‘Vinnies’ has over 3,000 members and volunteers who continue the vital work of visiting people in their homes, providing assistance and friendship. Our Lady of the River school annually supports many fundraising efforts to support our local St Vincent DePaul Society. This time of the year we support the Vinnies Christmas appeal. The focus of this appeal is on collecting toys, vouchers, non-perishable Christmas goods that can be distributed by our local volunteers to families who may otherwise miss out. In the church we will have a wishing tree for families to donate Christmas goodies for inclusion in our Christmas hampers. Please feel free to drop in a donation to the front office of the school by the end of this term. We ask that monetary and voucher donations be placed in a secure and sealed envelope.

Help us make a positive difference in our community by being involved in the Vinnies Christmas Appeal.

Christmas Mass Times – Our Lady of the River Parish

Sunday 24th December 6.00pm Morgan & Loxton
Sunday 24th December 7.00pm Renmark
Sunday 24th December 8.00pm Waikerie & Barmera
Sunday 24th December 9.00pm Berri
Monday 25th December 9.00am Berri
Monday 25th December 10.00 Renmark

Reformation

Sunday, 5th November, I gathered with many others, for the 500 years of Reformation celebration at the Loxton Lutheran School, Life Centre. Pastor Darrin and Father Paul both spoke about the many things we have in common like the power of the Holy Spirit and our continual need for prayer in these times of change. This was a special time where everyone was able to gather and share their experiences of faith in our communities.

Welcome

A warm welcome is extended to our newest students beginning their transition to school this term in preparation for beginning full time school next year.

Cailin Altus, Lilly Andrews, Qasim Dawar, Harriet Dixon-Chapman, Lilly Grant-Dempsey, Trishanpreet Hundal, Bailey Marr, Thomas Morgan, Agamjot Randhawa, Mitchell Strong and Ocea Vallelonga.

Ros Oates
Principal

Coming Events

Sports News

On Tuesday 7th November, 2017, the senior girls and boys represented the Riverland in the Schools Tag Rugby SAPSASA carnival in Adelaide. All the students enjoyed the day and we especially thank Mrs. Stacey Hunter and Mr. Fenwick for assisting with supervision and travelling to Adelaide.

This term we also have a number of students representing OLOR in SAPSASA Cricket and Tennis. Congratulations to Mitchell Foulds and Josh Sargent (Cricket) and Stefan Vallelonga (Tennis). These children will be in Adelaide playing in their respective carnivals in Week 6 of this term.

Sports Co-ordinator
Luke Cotter

Fund My Neighbourhood

Big news!

Our Lady of the River School has been successful in the Fund My Neighbourhood $40 million dollar program to improve our local neighbourhood. OLOR’s Outdoor Active Community Playground is eligible to proceed to the public vote. WE NEED YOUR VOTE!!!!

Community people over the age of 18 can vote for our idea until November 20th 2017. Full details of how to vote are on the website:

Only the ideas which receive the most votes will be funded. PLEASE promote and encourage your friends, family and people in your neighbourhood to vote for OLOR’s idea.

OLOR's Outdoor Active Community Playground - $150,000 project is to be located next to the Catholic Church and available for the community and visitors to use.

Funding Facts

Recently I met with our local member, Tim Whetstone MP at OLOR, to raise concerns in relation to our current state school funding of Catholic schools.

Early next year there will be an election and the Catholic Education office has provided information to school communities regarding the inequity of funding in comparison to other states in Australia.

The OLOR School Board and myself work very hard with you as a community to provide small class sizes and fantastic staff and resources but it’s getting harder and harder and more disappointing when you read in the media that state funding initiatives and programs are not for our school AT ALL. We are all tax payers in this state and we don’t get any funding for capital development by our State Government for our school? That’s why grants are so important but again, there are few of them these days.

Should you feel as passionate about this issue as me, a letter template is attached to this newsletter to formally lodge your concerns with our local member. These are the same concerns I raised with our local member recently. It’s critical for our future that State Government funding be made available to all education sectors, not just some.

Canteen News

Term 4 – New items

• Chicken & Corn Pie - $3.50
• Strawberry Yoghurt - $2.50
• Frozen Ice Sticks - $.50

Happy Birthday!

Our Lady of the River School has a new app!

SZapp is a great way to keep up to date with our latest news and information. Using SZapp will give you easy access to information such as:

• Newsletters on the go
• Latest News & Reminders
• Calendar
• Policies and Documents
• Event Bookings
• Digital Forms

When subscribing to Our Lady of the River School please make sure that you add yourself to any of the applicable groups. This will ensure that you are receiving all relevant notifications.

SZapp

Learn how to install the app

Apple Devices:

1. On your device, open the App Store.
2. Search the App Store for SZapp.
3. Download and install SZapp.

Android Devices:

1. On your device, open the Play Store.
2. Search the Play Store for SZapp.
3. Download and install SZapp.

Find your School

Select your school's region.

Search for and select your school.

Register a User

Before you can add your school, you will need to register.

Enter your email and name.

Create your password.

Confirming your Email Address

Once registered you will be sent an email to confirm your email address. Open your mail program and click/tap the URL to confirm.

Upon completion, you will then be shown a confirmation screen.

Allowing Permissions

Upon installation of the update, you will be asked to allow access to storage on your device. This is required to ensure that SZapp can access the necessary files to store crucial data on your device.

Please click the affirmative options on each pop-up.

Note: The pop-up message you see may differ depending on your device.

Managing Notifications

Choose which group/s you would like to receive notifications from.

Groups with arrows indicate that there are sub-groups which you can join.

Home

The Home tab displays the most recent news item and links to important school information and tools.

Feed

The Feed tab shows a summary view of all news items which you have subscribed to.

Manage

The Manage tab allows you to customise what information shows in your news feed and what push notifications you will receive.

For more information please view our FAQs

Click here to download a printable Installation Guide

Click here to view SZapp FAQs