25 March 2019

Newsletter Articles

School Calendar

PRAYER

St. Joseph’s Prayer – LENT

Holy, loving God, as we celebrate our special Saint, may we,
like Saint Joseph, grow to put all our trust in you, even
when we do not understand your ways. Help us to place our
hands in yours, and follow your way of love.

We ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen

Principals Report

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Students,

We had a number of wonderful celebrations over the past two weeks. Last Tuesday we celebrated the feast days of two special Saints in our Catholic Church, Saint Patrick and Saint Joseph. The students and teachers helped to raise valuable funds for Caritas – Project Compassion by donating a gold coin to wear the colours of green (St Patrick) and red (St Joseph’s team colour) to school for the day. A total of $56 was raised.

To follow this celebration we enjoyed Mass with the Year 1 class on Thursday 21st March, to celebrate Harmony Day. It was wonderful to see the younger students in our school engaging through the responses, singing, demonstrating reverence for the Mass and acknowledging the differences and uniqueness of us all. Thank you to large number of parents and family members for your attendance and to Mrs. Perre for all her organisation of the Mass. The orange colour of Harmony Day and the colours of the many traditional costumes worn by the students across the school looked amazing. Again, thank you to the families for making such a wonderful effort.

Keep an eye on our school diary for the planned Masses for Term 2, as we would love for you to join us.

School Staff Farewells

This week Our Lady of the River says goodbye to Mrs. Bernadette Scotford, who has worked for the past 7 and half years in the school Administration office. Bernie’s warm welcome and smile will be greatly missed by all in our community. We wish her well in her new employment opportunity at the Loxton Hotel. Bernie’s last day is today.

I wish to also announce the resignation of Mr. Shaun Kelly. Shaun’s teaching career at Our Lady of the River School began in 1995 and since then he has taught in every year level and had an enormous impact on the students under his care over all those years. We will never forget a number of events that Shaun has organised in the school over the years but the main one that comes to mind is his work with the ‘Stations of the Cross’ performance of our senior students in our Easter Plays. He has been a wonderful colleague and support to the school community and we wish Shaun well in his new teaching endeavours into the future.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

Parents are always welcome to meet with their child’s teacher to discuss their child’s progress. Please make an appointment with your child’s teacher if you have any topics of discussion around learning or programs run in the school.

Normally the school would allocate a designated two weeks for Term 1 compulsory ‘Parent Teacher Interviews’. Due to the enormous amount of events on in the school in the coming weeks I have decided to postpone this until early Term 2. I ask that families prioritise to see their child’s teacher during the dates of Wednesday 1st May until Friday 10th May. Teachers will be sending out a Parent Teacher interview reply slip to you by the end of this term.

During this time every family has the opportunity to meet with their child/s classroom teacher in order to gain some feedback on how they are going and to look at goals for their learning moving forward. An important part of the process is for you as parents and careers to ask any questions that you may have regarding your child/s school life. I encourage every family to take this opportunity as our partnership in supporting the education of each and every child, enabling them to be thriving people and capable learners.

NAPLAN

This year the students will experience for the first time the NAPLAN test being completed online. The online practise test will be held next week for our Year 3, 5 and 7 students. Writing for Year 3 students will still be in the paper format. Last year these students had the opportunity to trial the practice test for NAPLAN Online. The test next week will allow us to check our technology platform and give our students a chance to practise using computer testing before NAPLAN weeks May 14-24th (Weeks 3 & 4, Term 2). No results from this test are recorded.

Pupil Free Days 2019

All staff from our school will be attending the following training in 2019.

Term 1 - Week 11 (Thursday 11th April and Friday 12th April) – TRAUMA Training ‘Making Space for Learning’ run by the Australian Childhood Foundation. All Riverland staff will be attending.

Term 3 – Week 1 (Monday 22nd July – Friday 26th July) – Our Lady of the River, staff Josephite Retreat, Office 365 training and teacher observations in Catholic Schools in Adelaide.

These days are approved pupil free days. Please note these days in your diary.

Chocolate Carnivale Updates

A big thank you to the community for getting so excited and supporting our efforts to organise our largest fundraiser for the year. We have now confirmed a number of major sponsors, with more to come. Thank you to Mishes Kitchen, Rosenthal Automotive and Berri Medical clinic, to date, with more to come.  

We have entertainment by ‘Trick’, acoustic band members Dale and Patrick Broughton for the night and the Riverland Rock and Rollers are returning to show us their best moves. We have the largest slippery dip bouncy castle and our school Wonderballs are to return. Classroom teachers are organising a range of fun games and stalls to be running throughout the night. There are also a number of community stall holders who have booked a display space to sell their products.

Please encourage your family and friends to come along for a fantastic night of fun and chocolate excitement. Remember our theme is ‘Country’ night. I look forward to seeing many ‘ye ha’ costumes filling our school yard.

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

LENT – Project Compassion.

In Lent we promote Project Compassion, for a giving campaign undertaken each Lent by CARITAS Australia to help us see the great work that is led by CARITAS communities across the world, to help improve the lives of people in areas that do not have the resources we have. We teach our students that a small donation can make such a difference to others: eg $100 provides First Australians with nutritional food, vital to body health and strengthening community bonds. $150 provides the opportunity for children with a disability to attend group learning activities, vital to increasing communication skills. $45 can buy school supplies for students in Zimbabwe who dream of a brighter future. May this Lent be a chance for all of us to take some time to pray, to see how we can give to others and make that difference in the great model that Jesus did in his service to all.

As we continue our Lenten journey it is the perfect time to reflect on our actions in the world.

Do you ever sit back and reflect on your day? It can be very easy to think about all the things that didn’t go according to plan during a day. But what went well? What happened during the day that made you smile? If you do one thing for the rest of this Lenten season, take some time at the end of each day to write about something that made you smile. You’ll be surprised how many special moments you have ha, when you focus on the good.

Last Thursday 21st March, the Year One students hosted a Mass to celebrate Harmony day. It was a day to celebrate our inclusiveness respect and belonging of all Australians no matter their culture, linguistic background or faith journey.

Our Lady of the River School embraces and lives out these values daily as we ensure that everyone feels they belong. It was heartwarming to see the beaming smiles on the faces of our students as they proudly dressed in clothing that represented their cultural and religious heritage.

Year 4 and 5 Students enjoyed some time outside on Harmony Day.

If you would like to find out more about Project Compassion, please visit the link below:

Thank you for your support.
May Peace be with you.
Rosemary Perre

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

Class news

Literacy Co-ordinator – Special Education

I've been really excited this week - we have had our first delivery of new decodable books and some cool literacy games which have been a hit with the students. We have had so much fun learning to blend sounds and identifying the different vowels in words! Playing educational games with children is such a quick and easy way to develop skills not only in literacy or numeracy but also gives children the opportunity to experience losing, taking turns and playing by the rules even if the game isn’t going their way.

What is a decodable book?

Decodable books are written for students learning to read in the early years or for older students who need more practice to develop decoding skills to learn to read. Each book gradually introduces a new sound or letter pattern so words are much easier for students to read fluently.

The new decodable books for older students at OLOR will be available to take home very soon.

Happy reading!
Melanie Steele

Sports News

Sport Report

In Week 8, the year 3-7 students begun their unit on Golf during PE lessons on Thursdays and Fridays. Golf is an invaluable sport to pick up the skills for as it is known to be a lifelong sport able to be played by people of all ages and abilities. I have always found the best part about golf is that the more inexperienced you are, the more opportunities you get to improve! The year 6/7 class are very fortunate to have local Riverland players and instructors, Bonnie and Terry, to take them for a one-hour session on a Friday afternoon.

Below are some photos of the Year 4 and Year 6/7 lessons.

Sapsasa News

RUNNERS UP @ SACPSSA Swimming Carnival

The OLOR Swimming team had an excellent day out at Magill Pool as we competed for the third year in a row at the SACPSSA Swimming Carnival on Thursday 14th March. It is an excellent carnival for students, especially our younger competitors, to be exposed to competitive swimming in a fun and relaxed environment. All the girls were positive and experienced success at some point!

Congratulations to the Year 7 4x25m Relay Team consisting of Charlotte, Molly, Amity and Lily who are the new record holders of the event with a time of 1:13.34. Well done girls!

Special mention to Bella, Maddison and Ruby who were more than happy to help out a lone swimmer from another school so he could compete in the team medley and team freestyle relay events. An excellent example of compassion and care!

Congratulations to Amity on receiving Age Champion and a big thank you to the parents who drove us down and helped out.

Riverland District Athletics Carnival

The Riverland District Athletics Carnival was held on Wednesday March 20th at the excellent facilities of 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. Despite the warmer weather, the students were in good spirits all day and even had plenty of energy to burn right at the end!

Thank you to the parents, grandparents and relatives who either drove, attended, supported and/or assisted in officiating events and cheering on the kids. It is very much appreciated by myself and the students!

Riddle of the Week

I reach for the sky, but clutch to the ground; sometimes I leave, but I am always around. What am I?

Week 7 Answer: The match!

Quote of the Week

Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.
- Oprah Winfrey

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.

SCHOOL FUNDRAISING EVENT

Thank you so much for the support we have received to date. A reminder that we need your help in organising this event. Please return raffle books by Monday 8th April and all chocolate box fundraising monies returned by Wednesday 10th April.

Please contact Ros as soon as possible if you have any questions.

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

What’s Happening Term 2

Community News

St Joseph’s Barmera - Gala Night

St Joseph’s Barmera is holding its annual gala night at the Barmera Golf Club on the 29th March

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!

Congratulations to the following students who are having a birthday in

MARCH:
Reception – Maddison Adams
Reception – Mitchell MacGregor
Reception – Harleen Singh
Year 1 – Thomas Morgan
Year 2 – Aurora Lacey
Year 2 – Jacinta Mundy
Year 2 – Charlie Wishart
Year 3 – MacKenzie Pitt
Year 3 – Harley Verrall
Year 4 – Royan Kipkosgei
Year 4 – Alexander Foley-Jennings
Year 4 – Gurmanpreet Kaur
Year 7 – Kaylee Verrall