13 March 2019

Newsletter Articles

School Calendar

PRAYER

LENTEN PRAYER

Fast from judging others; feast on being kind to others.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that care.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from worry; feast on trust.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility; feast on nonviolence.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.

Gentle God, during this season of fasting and feasting,
gift us with your presence, so we can be a gift to others in carrying out your work.

Amen.

Principals Report

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Students,

We are well into the second half of the term, the weeks are literally flying along. As you look back on the six weeks your own child/ren have been back at school, are you happy that they are settled into their new class and learning? For the majority of you the answer will be ‘yes’ and for others it has taken longer than you’d hoped. The key to this, of course, is how well you communicate with their teacher. It is also about the routines you are setting at home…diet, sleep, not too much screen time, a combination of lots of cuddles and a bit of tough love when required. If you ever have worries please make an appointment to see your child’s teacher. As I move around classrooms each day you can see how things are not only settling but some really great learning experiences are happening in classrooms.

These visits really are the highlight of my day. I see children proud and excited about their learning and it really is wonderful.

The other big one is READING to your child/ren or have them read to you, this is a big key to a child’s learning. This term you will see a transformation in the junior primary area of the school. We are renovating the classrooms, making some classes moves and over the Easter holidays providing for all our learners more access to books. We will have a new ‘super’ library so that all the students can read more and therefore read better. Our aim is to ‘flip’ the interest in technology/gaming (still valuing its importance of course) and bring back a love and importance of books. Many children live in a ‘book desert’, unfortunately. They have no real access to books at home and they are not reaching their full potential without books because poor reading leads to poor literacy skills.

Our new ‘super’ library will provide access to books and promote literacy. We are going to increase student motivation, engagement, and help students become critical thinkers, analytical readers, and informed imaginative citizens. If you have an abundance of good quality children’s books and primary aged novels at home you would like to donate, we would really appreciate it. Please pop them into the administration office.

Another highlight last week was the bright and early but beautiful Ash Wednesday parish Mass. It was such a peaceful time with parishioners, families and all children responded in such a quiet and reverent way. The lesson of course, was about acknowledging that we make mistakes, that we need to say sorry and we move onto trying to be a better person, especially during LENT. Lent is an opportunity to give to others through project compassion, focussing on being like Jesus and sharing what we have with others, especially those in need.

Congratulations to all the students selected for School Sports Captains. The children who came along to our Ash Wednesday Mass were presented with their badges. The school captains also received their badges on the day. Pictured below.

School Fees

Now that you have received your school fee account for Term 1, it is really important that you are making regular payments if you haven’t already. If you need any help setting up payments just call Pat in the Office. If you feel like the account is too big for you to manage you’ll need to make an appointment to see me so we can make a plan that works for you and for the school.

Remember there is an ‘early bird’ discount of 5% off tuition fees for full payments. This means $75 discount for 1 child, $121 discount for 2 children and $132 discount for 3+ children. This discount is not available after Term 1, 2019.

Mrs. Ros Oates
Principal

Religious Education News

Gratitude Buddies

As a part of our Growing with Gratitude Program each student has been matched up with a school buddy. The students will spend time together every second Friday afternoon working with their Gratitude Buddy on Growth Mindset activities.

Our Gratitude Buddy system will provide our students with opportunities to practice the five habits of happiness from the Growing with Gratitude program. Through looking after and caring for younger students, our Senior Students will learn the skills associated with empathy and compassion, and our younger students will feel safe and develop their self-confidence. Our Gratitude Buddy system will offer all students the opportunity to connect with each other and work towards becoming happy and resilient people.

Since beginning the Gratitude Buddy system, students have met twice and have a a wonderful time getting to know their Gratitude Buddies.

LENT – Project Compassion.

Last Wednesday 6th March, begun the season of Lent in the church’s liturgical year.

Our school traditionally hosts our Ash Wednesday Mass at 7:00 in the morning. A cross was placed on our foreheads in ash, reminding us that God’s love is unconditional and we can find our own peace in God’s forgiveness of our wrong doings. It was heart-warming to see so many people attend and celebrate the beginning of the Lenten Season with us. Thank you for being a part of our Lenten journey.

Lent is a season to prepare for the biggest celebration in our Catholic Tradition, Easter, where we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus. During the season of Lent we think about our relationship with God, and we make commitments to strengthen that relationship through fasting, prayer, and charity.

One of the ways that we can undertake special acts of charity during lent, is to make weekly contributions to Project Compassion. This charitable work is sponsored by Caritas Australia. Your gift, no matter how small or how large, is directly used to support people living in less developed overseas countries. Caritas is the church’s overseer aid agency and provides help to people living in extreme poverty or people suffering in the wake of natural disasters.

I am truly grateful to be living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, it is challenging for us to recognise the scale of extreme poverty in some regions of Australia and around the world. An example of this is that about 600 million people lack access to clean water and 2.3 billion people have no basic sanitation.

Project Compassion’s 2019 theme of “Hope” focuses on six stories that profile Caritas’ life-changing development work in communities all over the world. The stories come from Zimbabwe, Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, Australia, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

A special focus during this year’s appeal will be on the consequences and the response of Caritas Australia to the current global water crisis.

I encourage everyone to support Project Compassion so that we continue to transform lives, strengthen the resilience of communities and contribute to peace and stability.

Leading up to the season of lent, you should have received boxes into which you could place a small donation, each week your child can then bring their donations into school and add them to the class collection box. If you did not receive a box, please ask at the front office. All contributions will be collected and sent into Caritas Australia. after Easter.

Throughout Lent we will also host some fun fundraisers in continuing to support Project Compassion in the amazing contributions they are making to poverty-stricken communities across the world.

If you would like to find out more about Project Compassion, please visit –

Thank you for your support.

May Peace be with you.

Rosemary Perre

St Patrick’s, St. Joseph’s and Harmony Days – Next week

Sunday 17th March, we have the Parish Picnic Mass at Kingston on Murray. Mass is at 11am followed by a b.y.o. lunch. All Welcome to come along for some fun and laughter. Don’t forget to wear green!

Tuesday 19th of March we will be celebrating St Joseph's Day. Our Mini Vinnies group and the school captains are raising funds for CARITAS by having a casual day. The theme is ‘green’ for St Patrick or ‘red’ for St Joseph’s. During lunch time we will have a number of fun activities happening and music in the yard. Each child that participates in the casual day theme is asked to donate a gold coin. We welcome all our families and friends to come and join us for our lunch time activities at 11.50 am.

Harmony Day, Thursday 21st March, we will celebrate the day beginning with a whole school Mass that has been organised by the Year 1 class in St Mary’s Church at 9.00 am. ALL are welcome and there is morning tea afterwards, orange goodies available. For free, children are encouraged to wear their traditional ‘cultural’ costume or wear the colour orange to acknowledge the day.

Shrove Tuesday

A very big thank you to Stacey and Steve Hunter as well as Cilla Marsden for their assistance in cooking our amazing pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

‘Shrove Tuesday’ is traditionally the time before the fasting season of LENT which, begins on Ash Wednesday.

The children all enjoyed the extra snack at lunch time. See our photo gallery.

The latest edition of the Southern Cross features all the latest news and information on our Catholic community. Click on the following link below.

Witness - Latest Addition

The Witness is a bi-monthly publication of the Catholic Diocese of Port Pirie. Issued every February, April, June, August, October and December.

School News

Drama News

This term drama lessons have started off with a bang! Lots of very enthusiastic students all keen to share their ability to perform and perfect their stage skills. From learning about working in mime, adopting different characters to the older students using scripts, watch this space as OLOR has plenty of talent to showcase.

Below is of the year 6/7 students practicing juggling which is an important skill they need to play a particular character in the play we are looking at which is called ‘The Peacemaker’

Claire Dalzell
Drama Teacher

Get Pedalling on National Ride2School Day 2019

FRIDAY 22nd March, we encourage all those students who have a bike and of course a bike helmet to join us at the Berri Oval at 8.00am. As a group we will all safely ride our bikes to school from the Berri Oval.

We will join approximately 3,000 other students across Australia who will be encouraging all students to get physically active on their journey to school.

This year students are always encouraged to bring along their scooters to school as we have safe scooter riding at lunch and recess at the hard court. A helmet is encouraged and must be worn for the harder tracks.

Literacy Co-ordinator – Special Education

Long and short vowel sounds

The ability to say and hear the vowel sounds is fundamental to understanding and applying many spelling rules.

There are five vowel letters in the alphabet - a,e,i,o and u. The letter y is a semi-vowel which means it can sometimes act as a vowel for instance in the word 'by' or 'sky'. The other letters in the alphabet are called constants.

Vowels are short if they are making their sound - a for apple, o for orange, i for insect, e for egg and u for umbrella. When vowels are making their long sound they are saying their name /ay/ cake, /ee/ leaf, /ie/ kite, /oa/ boat and /ue/ moon.

A good rule of thumb when reading a vowel in a word is to try sounding the word out with the short vowel sound first.

The first rule is the Cracking the Code spelling rule program 'Every syllable has a vowel and sometimes the y acts as a vowel.' Using this rule is a great way to check with kids that they have enough vowels in a word. If a child spells the word insect as 'in/sct' you can count the syllables (2) and identify a syllable with a missing vowel.

In classes the Year 2/3 class explored how to make long vowel sounds and the Year 1 class listened for qu (kw) sounds in words. The 6/7 class are exploring Rule 32 - when do I use 'le' or 'al' on the end of a word? I wonder if you know - check with a year 6/7 if you're unsure.

Happy spelling!
Melanie Steele

Sports News

Last week at the Ash Wednesday Mass, we appointed and presented our School and House Captains with their badges. I would like to formally congratulate the following senior students on being named House Captains. May you lead your teams with grace, respect, care, compassion and integrity.

Sapsasa News

This week, ten Year 4-7 students will compete at the SACPSSA Swimming Carnival at Magill. For some of our younger competitors this will be their first time competing. The school has experienced great success in the past - winning the Carnival in 2017, and coming in a close second in 2018. We wish the students all the best! Thank you to the Kassebaum family for organising trainings at Berri Pool in the lead up to the event.

The Riverland District Athletics Carnival is to be held on Wednesday March 20th (Week 8) at Loxton High School. The Carnival is a great opportunity for students to be introduced into large competition meets and gives them the chance to be selected in the Riverland team to compete in Adelaide at the State Championships later in the year. Good luck to the 17 students competing next week! We hope to have loads of fun!

Congratulations to Abby F and Amelia M
U14 Girls Div 1 Grand Final Winners - Riverland

Riddle of the Week

You have three stoves: a gas stove, a wood stove, and a coal stove, but only one match. Which should you light first?

Week 5 Answer: A mirror.

Quote of the Week

I can't say this enough - the food that you put into your bodies can actually help you get better grades. And it can also affect your performance in sports and other activities too. You see, when you give your body the best possible fuel, you have more energy, you're stronger, you think more quickly.
- Michelle Obama

Yours in Sport,
Mr Cotter

School Magazine

The cost of the 2018 School Magazine is $20 per copy. If you would like a pictorial magazine capturing the memories of OLOR’s 2018 year, please see Bernie in the front office.

Special Events

PLEASE REFER TO the school website or SZApp for all school year calendar dates.

Professional Development Dates for 2019

To give families plenty of warning and preparation for child care, could you please make note of the following dates that will be student free days in 2019.

Term 1: Thursday 11th April and Friday 12th April

All Staff: Australian Childhood Foundation ‘Making SPACE for learning’ (Trauma training)

Term 3: Monday 22nd July - Friday 26th July (all Week 1 of Term 3)

All Staff: 7 Steps to Writing, Making SPACE for learning and Religious Staff Retreat

SCHOOL FUNDRAISING EVENT

We need your help in organising this event.
Please contact Ros as soon as possible.

REMINDERS

PLEASE READ THE NEWSLETTERS CAREFULLY. Everything you need to know about the school week and dates is on the school app. (SZapp) You can download on all smartphones and tablets for free. We get a lot of phone calls & text about events and programs that have been advertised widely.

Policy Documents

School Uniforms

We would like to make aware to OLOR families we have a large collection of second hand uniforms in good condition. If any families are interested please see Bernie or Sandy in the front office.

TERM 1 Reminders

Community News

Barmera Netball Club-Junior Netball Trials

Barmera Junior Netball Trails will take place 27th March and 3rd April. 4:30pm-5:30pm. All intended players must register to trial. Please visit our Facebook page “Barmera Netball Club” or email: barmerajuniornetballclub@gmail.com

Kidshotz Photography

$30 Portrait Fundraising Event. The entire $30 goes directly to the host group (OLOR) for fundraising plus up to 15% of what you spend. Ask your friends, neighbours and extended family – anyone can book in – call 1300 309 776 (There are only 18 spaces available, so be quick!)

Happy Birthday!