28 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

School Calendar

PRAYER

Principals Report

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Students,

I had the pleasure of attending the year 4-7 Aquatics camp at Aldinga last week. We were blessed with amazing weather and we all had a great time learning about the beach environment and having a go at new aquatic activities. Thanks to the staff, Cobie Drogemuller and Tayla Nash for giving up their own family life to attend and especially Luke Cotter for all his work in organising the camp. Also, thank you to one of our newest parents, Brenton Halupka, for being a great support for the four days. The students participated in many aquatic activities including, kayaking, surfing, body boarding, snorkelling, wave skiing, wind surfing, stand up paddling. They also learnt about surf life-saving and the skills needed to be safe at the beach and swim in the ocean. Overall the student behaviour and engagement in all camp activities was exemplary. I’m sure you will enjoy looking at the many photos in this newsletter.

School Sports Captains 2018

Congratulations to our senior students who have been selected as School Sports Captains this year. These students along with our School Captains will be working with the staff to ensure that a student voice is present in the organisation of events in the school and to be positive student role models, who will uphold the school values and encourage their peers and the younger children.

School Parking Safety

Just another friendly reminder to parents and carers to only park in the designated car parking spaces only. These are the vertical parking on Verran Terrace, church car park and quick drop off area on McIntosh Street. For the safety of our students please DO NOT park across the road on the Verran Terrace, out the front of the houses and across the road from the school front entrance. (refer to the photograph below)

Thank you for your cooperation in ensuring the safety and well-being of our students.

School Photos

School Photos are Wednesday 14th March. All students are to be dressed in their day uniform, please (not P.E. uniform). A reminder that all shoulder length hair must be tied back and hair apparel must be in the school colours of navy, yellow or white.

Recently, very large colourful bows and ribbons have been worn by the girls that are not in the school colours and additional jewellery. Please refer to our school uniform policy if you are unsure.

School Photos Package Information for 14th March

School Photo Packs will be distributed today. Each child will receive an envelope and they must be returned with the child on school photo day with the envelope containing the correct money. Unfortunately the front office will not be available to assist in money change. Sibling order envelopes may be collected from the front office and also returned on photo day.

Cracking the ABC Code

A few weeks ago the parents who attended our parent information evening were exposed to the Cracking the ABC Code concept being used in every class in the school. All the class teachers spoke to those who attended about our new approach to spelling and reading this year and beyond, using ‘Cracking the ABC Code’ strategies as a part of our whole Literacy curriculum.

This approach of learning to spell and read involves the children learning about graphemes, phonemes, the use of vowels in words, syllabification, spelling and reading rules, and much, much more. This multi-sensory teaching approach is not something that is easy for parents to understand so each newsletter we will try and provide you with some basic understanding of what the children are learning in class.

The biggest change that most parents will notice is that spelling words for students are words that match their spelling ability. Word knowledge will be assessed in the form of a dictation (not the traditional Friday test) and assessment will be ongoing throughout the week including the observations of everyday writing and spelling rule knowledge. The students will be working daily in class on their words to explore how the graphemes make sounds, the rules associated with words and the relevant suffixes and prefixes.

Homework focus for the whole school will be around the children learning a spelling rule, NOT learning a list of words at home for the time being. As students become more familiar with the spelling activities, connected to a rule, we will endeavour to send more home for students to complete.

The absolute best thing you can be doing with your child at home this term is asking them questions about what they are learning. This will reinforce what your child has been doing during the day. Listen to them read, read to them and expose them to the love of books, even if it is only for 5-10 minutes before going to bed. For the older students, ask them about what they are reading and what they like about it? You may have to find with them reading materials including magazines, novels, information text on devices or newspapers etc. Year 6/7’s still like listening to someone read to them……. we are doing it in class, actually all classes and the students are loving it. Pictured are Kenzie S, Wavely M and Cruz M showing their work with words in class this week!

Cracking the ABC Code for Parents

Phonemes (phonemic awareness): is hearing the smallest sounds in words. For example the word ‘hat’ has 3 phonemes – ‘h’ ‘a’ ‘t’.

Graphemes: The way of writing down a phoneme. It is learning the way sounds are made by different letters or groups of letters being put together. For example the word ‘chat’. The ‘c’ and ‘h’ together make the ch grapheme sound.

Vowels: Five of the 26 alphabet letters are vowels. a, e, i, o, u. The letter ‘y’ is sometimes considered as a vowel as it makes the ‘i’ sound. Every syllable has a vowel.

‘CHOCOLATE CARNIVALE’

Saturday 24th March – 4pm till late.

This event, like last year’s, we have a ‘Chocolate’ theme but for something different we have added a Rock & Roll flavour to the 2018 Carnivale. Best dressed prizes awarded on the night! We plan to have Carnivale food, events, stalls, games and entertainment all held on the OLOR site.

We now have two large climbing walls booked for the event, which is exciting.

If your business would like an ‘early bird’ sponsor opportunity for the event, please see the principal or call her on 0417787843. Major sponsors can utilise our Crawford Terrace fencing for advertising your company and will be included in all advertising for the event. Sponsorships are $200 per company. Letters will be distributed to local businesses in the coming weeks.

We will also ask families to make donations towards our Chocolate themed cake stall and a small amount of other ingredients, if possible, to go towards our main food stalls on the night. On the night we will need people to volunteer on stalls or games for no more than 1 hour (if we get enough support). If you are not available to help in any capacity on the night then we ask for a monetary donation of $20 per family to go towards purchasing what we need. This night in the past has been a great success for our school community. The more that get involved, the less work for others and the more valuable funds raised for the school.

Ros Oates
Principal

Religious Education News

LENT 2018

Project Compassion

Caritas Australia is 110 years old, a Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development. Caritas is Latin for love + compassion – two qualities which are central to their work.

Project Compassion 2018 shows the many ways Caritas Australia work around the world with their many local partners to offer hope to the people most vulnerable to extreme poverty and injustice. There are posters and donation boxes around the school for Caritas Project Compassion. Any donation, no matter how big or small, would be greatly appreciated. Donations can be placed in the donation boxes sent home recently or in each classroom.

Together we can help those less fortunate and work towards the creation of a just world.

2018 Sacraments

The Sacraments are significant milestones in the faith journey of our children. At our school the teachers and students work together with the Parish to prepare to celebrate the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation. First Reconciliation will be celebrated in Year 2, First Eucharist will be celebrated in Year 3, while Confirmation will still be celebrated in Years 6/7. The Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist will be celebrated this year. If you wish your child to celebrate a sacrament in 2018, please return the reply slip sent home in the student diaries this week.

Port Pirie Diocese News and Information

Pastoral Letter for Lent 2018 from Bishop Greg O’Kelly SJ.

Diocesan Assembly Flyer. Please register if you are interested in attending.

• Bishop Greg is visiting tonight for an overnight stay.
• He will say the Thursday 10.00am Mass in Barmera and a quick cuppa after.
• We welcome Fr. George Sigamony a Sri Lankan Priest working at Caritas Australia’s Headquarters, Alexandria Sydney to Waikerie, Morgan, Barmera and Loxton this weekend promoting Project Compassion.
• WORLD DAY OF PRAYER: Friday 2nd March, 9-30 am at the Berri Church of Christ, 1025 Old Sturt Highway. Every one most welcome to a4end. Topic: “ All God’s Creation is Very Good”
• Next Sunday 4th March is our morning tea morning and CWL are going to have a trading table for Project compassion, please bring along any cakes, biscuits or goods to sell, and a couple dollars in your pocket.
• We are still looking for a couple more people who would be available to help with working the power points at Saturday night & Sunday morning masses. Everything is all on the computer ready & help is available. As many of you know Davila & Natasha are leaving Berri and returning to Melbourne, they are leaving weekend of 17th & 18th of March. We thank them very much for all their help in our Church and wish them all best for the future. Your support would be appreciated no matter how small. Please contact Val 85821882 or 0466627851. Thank you.

School News & Events

Foundation & Year 1 Mass

On Thursday 22nd February, the Year One and Foundation classes hosted a Lenten Mass about kindness and leadership.

The Year ones were great leaders and the Foundation students did a remarkable job hosting their very first Mass ever. All children read and sang beautifully. Thank you to the many Parents, Grandparents, Friends and Parishioners who came along to celebrate with us, and spend time with us afterwards at our morning tea. You helped to make our Mass very special.

NAPLAN

Students in year 3, 5 and 7 will participate in the National Literacy & Numeracy Testing from May 15-18. NAPLAN testing provides a one off snap shot of how your child is progressing in their education. If any parents wish to withdraw their child from one or all of the tests, please advise the principal in writing before March 16th 2018.

Australia’s Clean-up Day

This year OLOR will participate in Schools Clean Up Day this Friday 2nd March. This initiative has been going since 1992, where schools across Australia have made a real difference to their environment and local communities through participating in Schools Clean Up Day. This is a fun and engaging way to teach young Australians about the responsible disposal of rubbish. The classes will have areas inside and outside our school yard to clean up at 9.30am as a part of their daily fitness. All parents are welcome to join us. We encourage students to bring along a pair of gardening gloves to protect their hands, however we will provide basic plastic gloves and collection bags for this event.

Year 2 Assembly

The year 2 classroom theme this year is about being Superheroes. We are superheroes in training and are learning to have a Superhero Mindset. In Literacy we have been looking at similes. At assembly we shared some of our Superhero simile writing.

Berri OLOR Planned Playgroup Early Readiness School (B.O.P.P.E.R.S.)

B.O.P.P.E.R.S playgroup is held on Tuesday mornings during school terms at Our Lady of the River School from 9am till 11am. It is where children learn in a play based environment, which prepares them for kindergarten and school. Pictured are some of the activities children have access to at B.O.P.P.E.R.S.

SPORTS NEWS

Congratulations OLOR SAPSASA Swimmers

The Riverland SAPSASA Swimming Carnival was held last Friday, 23rd February. Sincere thanks to Mr. Cotter for organising the students and parents for attending to assist on the day. Congratulations to our successful swimmers.

Ella K, Marley M, Molly W, Charlotte W, Alex H, Zoe S, Oliver S, Amity K, Bella G and Raahil S.

Tips for Parents

‘When children experience any type of problem at school’, is a useful article for all of us to read. We all have many examples of mistreatment that happen daily in our lives. If this mistreatment is reported and dealt with then it should be left in the past. If the mistreatment continues, especially after a report or a number of reports, then it moves into the area of bullying. We work hard to make OLOR a safe place. Often the word bullying is used instead of mistreatment. Children need to be aware of the difference and the importance of reporting when they feel uncomfortable or when someone mistreats them.

Schoolzine Newsletter and Calendar

A reminder that the calendar is only available online through the School App ‘SZapp’. Having it online will ensure that it is current and always up to date. The Newsletter will continue to highlight upcoming events to ensure that parents and families are fully aware of what is on. The newsletter is every fortnight on the odd weeks, e.g. 1, 3, 5 etc. and will come to your email inbox or ‘SZapp’ on the Wednesday of those weeks. I encourage all families to install the ‘SZapp’ on your smart phone or Tablet. To ensure you receive the newsletter in your inbox each week, please ensure the front office has your correct email addresses. If you do not have an email address, please let the front office know (this week) so that we can send paper copies home with your eldest child.

Finally, I thank you for your efforts in preparing your children so well for what has been a smooth, though exceptionally hot, start to the year. We look forward to the year ahead and I wholeheartedly offer my support to you as we work together in the education of your child.

It was once said… The beginning is the most important part of the work. Plato

Fortnight Reminders

Community Events

World Day of Prayer

World Day of Prayer "All God’s Creation is Very Good" Friday 2nd March 2018, 9.30am at the Berri Church of Christ, 1025 Old Sturt Highway. Every one most welcome to attend.

Happy Birthday!