1 May 2019

Newsletter Articles

School Calendar

PRAYER

EASTER PRAYER

Lord we lift our hearts to you.
As the dawn breaks, may we carry the unity we share into every
moment knowing that we are one with the risen Christ.

Lord, we lift our eyes to you.
As the sunrises, may this moment stay with us, reminding
us to look for the beautiful colours of promise in your word.

Lord, we lift our prayers to you.
As the dew air falls, may we breathe this morning in and know that like the earth,
you sustain us, keep us and work within us always.

And so, we lift our voices to you.
We celebrate the greatest day in history, when Jesus rose from death,
defeated darkness and bathed the world in stunning resurrection light.
May we ever live to praise you!

Amen.

Principals Report

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Students,

Being in a school where there is always something great happening, in combination with working with the best staff ever, always makes coming back after the holidays easier. As you would have noticed this week our new Foundation and Year 1 classroom renovations are nearly completed. It is going to be a fantastic new learning area for the school, along with the new ‘super’ library that will follow when the staff and students move into their new classrooms. Thanks for all of the support already and patience with this project – this promises to be once again a great term.

On the last two days of Term 1 all the staff of Our Lady of the River School joined with the staff from the other Riverland Catholic Schools to begin our ‘Making Space for Learning’ Trauma Sensitive School Project. The two days of training as part of a CESA Trauma Sensitive Schools Program was led by the Australian Childhood Foundation. The in-service informed and taught us about brain development, forms of trauma, the psychological impact of trauma on brain development, the social, emotional and behavioural implications for children affected by trauma, strategies to support children exhibiting trauma-consistent behaviour and learning difficulties.

Our Project Question will be decided upon this term around the themes of how
effective are:
- the explicit teachings about the brain in helping children to articulate their needs?
- teachers and children understanding and using the ‘5 point scale’ - does this support us in keeping positive and calm?
- does a student buddy system based on ‘Growth Mindset’ activities provide another positive level of support for children?
The OLOR staff will collect pre and post data to identify which strategies work well and if learning about the brain assists all children in understanding the difference between the thinking brain and the feeling brain. The Project continues into 2019. As part of our work in this Project, students were learning about their brains through the MindUP™ Curriculum. This curriculum is grounded in Neuro-science, activated by Mindfulness, inspired by Positive Psychology and a Catalyst for Social Emotional Learning.

On Thursday, May 9 we will once again be holding our Mother’s Day Mass. We really value the Mothers in our community and would love for you all to join us in celebrating them at our Mass on May 9, at 9.00am in St Mary’s Church. We ask that you send one photo per family of a special mum or carer to RosemaryP@olor.catholic.edu.au no later than Tuesday May 7 to be included in the presentation. We look forward to celebrating with all of the special ladies in our community. Morning tea in the parish centre afterwards.

God bless each of you.

Mrs. Ros Oates
Principal

Religious Education News

Easter Season

During the school holidays all Christian families celebrated the beginning of the Easter season and it is the highlight of our Catholic faith. The Easter Story, also known as the Passion of Christ, tells of the humble beginnings of Christianity. During Holy week we reflect on the key events in Jesus’ life which lead to his sorrowful death on the cross, then on Easter Sunday we celebrate his resurrection. With the resurrection of Christ, God's Kingdom is established on earth, in the form of the Church. It is a time of hope and new beginnings. As Catholics we attend Mass and share in the sacred meal as we celebrate such a joyous occasion. We then spend the day indulging in our own customs of Easter, each different in their own ways and equally as special and significant.

In our OLOR community we have families of many different faith and cultural backgrounds that we strive to celebrate and show a deep respect for so that each family feels that they have a place of significance here at our school. The Chocolate Carnivale was a wonderful way for each family to contribute to our school and acclaim our diversity within. Easter can mean many things to each family, for some, it has a special spiritual significance and symbolises a time of new life like that described above, while for others it can mean a well anticipated break from work, a chance to spend time with family and friends or a great excuse to indulge in chocolate bunnies!

No matter what your Easter traditions are, my prayer for you is that God will bless you abundantly during the Easter Season and keep you safe. We hope your special day was filled with the laughter and warm smiles of your loved ones as you created wonderful memories to hold onto.

Last Term, during the season of Lent, the Year One students made promises to live in the Spirit of Jesus and be kind. We combined our Lenten promise with our Growing with Gratitude lessons and created some short videos with a simple message – CHOOSE KINDNESS.

We hope you enjoy them.

Year One Paws- Rewind – Be Kind Videos

NET Ministries

During week 10, last Term, our Senior Students teamed up with the Senior Students from St. Albert’s to participate in some workshops presented by NET Ministries.  NET (National Evangelisation Team) Ministries is a group of young Catholic people who visit schools and parishes around Australia to put into action the Church's mission to teach about God’s kingdom and the Gospel Values we live out daily in our Catholic Faith.

The workshop provided the year 6 and 7 students with a wonderful opportunity to take some time to reflect and to learn what ‘Steppin’ Up as a Leader’ is all about in the footsteps of Jesus. Students were challenged to think about the actions and choices they can make in their daily lives to make life better for others using Jesus as a teacher and example. The year 4 and 5 students were inspired to consider how they have the capacity to take a stand and speak up for what they believe in as they explored the NET Ministries ‘Encounter Day’. Changing the world begins with them choosing to be ‘agents of service and change’. It is the small changes they make that can brighten up their lives and those of others around them.

The smiles in the photos are testament to how much the students enjoyed their time with the NET Ministries team.

Author Andrew Macdonough Visit.

As our school prepared for Holy Week and the coming of Easter, we had the honour of a visit from Riverland raised author Andrew McDonough. Andrew is the creator, writer and illustrator of the Lost Sheep children’s ministry books. These books retell many of the stories from the bible, helping students connect with and understand the stories in a modern context. During his visit, Andrew told the students how he approaches his writing, where his inspiration comes from and what techniques he uses to make a connection with his reader. Andrew told the students how he didn’t enjoy writing when he was at school, he used to draw pictures on his school books, which was against the rules! And as punishment, his teachers made him write stories … which [at the time] he hated. He went on to explain how his first book took many years and lots of editing, checking and changing before it was finally printed. Students were fascinated as they watched Andrew recreate his illustrations of Cecil the Lost Sheep on our whiteboard. Andrew shared several of his stories with the students, accompanied by his bright and colourful illustrations. We thank Mr McDonough for visiting OLOR and sharing his passion and experience with us.

Chrism Mass

In preparation for Holy Week and the Celebration of Easter, it is a tradition that the Chrism Mass is held each year in the Cathedral in Port Pirie. The School Captains and I travelled for many hours to represent Our Lady of the River at this beautiful Mass. It celebrates the blessing of the oils which are used throughout the year in parishes during the celebration of Baptism, Confirmation and the Anointing of the Sick. St Mark's Cathedral was full as Bishop Greg O'Kelly, the priests of the diocese, parishioners and students from each of the thirteen schools gathered to celebrate Mass and renewed their commitment of faith. It was such a special and moving experience to see all Priests of the Port Pirie Diocese process down the aisle together and gather at the altar, signifying their unity across the diocese. You may notice some familiar faces in the photos. Charlotte Wishart and Zoe Sims accompanied the bearer of the Oil of Catechumens, (this oil used in Baptism to signify wisdom and strength), down the aisle.

First Holy Communion

Congratulations to Ruby and Charlie Wishart who celebrated their First Holy Communion on Palm Sunday in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Loxton. Wishing you God’s richest blessings, may you always know the Peace of Jesus in your hearts and be guided by his example of Christian love.

Project Compassion

I extend a heartfelt thankyou to all members of the community who have supported Project Compassion this year. If you still have Project Compassion boxes at home with donations, could you please forward it to the front office in the coming week. The funds raised will make a tremendous difference to the lives of many in our world.

May God’s gentle PEACE be with you always…

Rosemary Perre
Religious Education Coordinator

School News

Pupil Free Days 2019 – Reminder school holidays at the end of Term 2 are 3 weeks.

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.

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.

‘Parent Teacher Interviews’ will be held over the next few weeks. I ask that families prioritise to see their child’s teacher during the dates of Wednesday 1st May until Friday 17th May. Teachers will be sending out a Parent Teacher interview reply slip to you by the end of this week if you have not already received a note.

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.

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.

The ‘early bird’ discount of 5% off tuition fees for full payments has now concluded.

Federal Election Update - Catholic Education’s key election objectives

Catholic schools are a vital part of Australia’s education landscape; from humble beginnings almost 200 years ago, Catholic Education is now the nation’s largest provider of education outside the government.

The key national issues for Catholic Education at the upcoming federal election are:

• increased capital funding
• more resources for early childhood education
• religious freedom in schools

To find out more go to:  http://www.cesa.catholic.edu.au/news/federal-election-2019

WOOLWORTHS EARN AND LEARN

Our school will again be participating in the Woolworths Earn & Learn promotion this year. It’s easy for everyone to help collect stickers. Spread the word and get grandparents, neighbours and friends involved and collecting for Our Lady of the River School.

Between 1 May and 25 June 2019, collect as many stickers as you can and drop into school collection box in our school’s office area or the community collection box at Woolworths Berri.

The more stickers we collect the more resources we can get for our school. Woolworths is once again partnering with Australia’s biggest supplier of resources for school, Modern Teaching Aids. This means we’ll have access to a wide range of resources across every possible category including ICT, science, sports, mathematics, arts and crafts and more.

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

Years 3/4 Class – Mr. James Preece

The budding young scientists in Years 3 and 4 were busy at the end of last term learning about the different properties of materials used to make our clothes, gloves and bags. But what happens when we throw these things away? To find out, in Week 11 we buried some fruit samples next to samples of different types of bags to see just how long it could take for bags to decompose in soil. Students learned why these tests need to be as fair as possible the hard way with a relay designed to be as unfair as possible, but they just got on with it! Stay tuned for the results of our investigation.

Sports News

Yours in Sport,

Mr Cotter

Special Events

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

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 Pat or Sandy in the front office.

TERM 2 Reminders

Community News

Kidshotz Photography

Happy Birthday!