12 June 2019

Newsletter Articles

School Calendar

PRAYER

Port Pirie Diocesan Prayer

God of peace,
Create in us a peace-filled heart.
Help us find quiet times to be still and reflect on your presence with us
Assist us to act with love, forgiveness and compassion, so we can live peacefully with others
Guide us in showing respect and care for all of creation
In all our thoughts, words and actions, help us be peacemakers in creating
the world you desire.
We ask this in the name of the light of Christ, Spirit of peace.

Amen

Principals Report

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Students,

Catholic Education Week is the annual event held in South Australia to promote the special ethos of Catholic schools and to highlight the great things that take place in Catholic schools every day.

This special week strives to highlight how Our Lady of the River School and all Catholic schools make a difference in the lives of those in our care and in the wider community.

This year’s theme ‘Peace be with You’ is important to remember and something we can stretch beyond just the one week’s celebration. We all engaged in so many wonderful activities last week based around the theme of peace and now our challenge is to continue our actions of peace further into our everyday lives.

Too often the understanding of the word “peace” is limited to thinking only of worldly peace – the absence of war. But the word peace – as announced by the angels to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus – has a much more spiritual significance.

We all have too many things in our lives that need to be maintained, repaired, replaced, cleaned, used, worried about, etc. Too many things to do.

People who don’t have a lot of peace these days – everything seems to be noise. Everything seems to be urgent. Everything seems to be important. It becomes overwhelming.

We can be running around thinking things are getting done when they’re not and find ourselves tired and confused.

Therefore we need to be reminded about how to deal with the things that come into our life, we need a filter to maintain peace. Like many of the activities the children, staff and families participated in last week, if we can take a few minutes out every day to connect with ourselves and just be still, we will be able to gain perspective and feel comfortable—irrespective of the goings-on around us.

All this is necessary for finding peace in our life and when we have that peace, we are able to move forward, more good things start to happen, deeper peace is enjoyed, and a much more higher quality of life is experienced.

A huge thank you to the staff and especially Mrs. Rosemary Perre (Refer to her report in Religious Education this week) for all her organisation of our Catholic Education Week activities. We really appreciated how all our families supported each and every event and as the photos below show, the students did experience many moments of joy and peace.

New Refurbish Rooms and School Frontage Complete

It was a great way to begin our Catholic Education Week with the children in Years Foundation and Year 1 being able to use their new refurbished classroom and outdoor space. The overall look and outcome of the project exceeded my expectations, adding quality and inspired design to the junior primary learning spaces. We have also created an attractive school façade that has had nothing but positive comments from the school and wider community.

A big thank you to the school board and OLOR community for your fundraising efforts over the past 4-5 years to support this project into becoming a reality.

Another big thank you also goes to Stallard Meek Architects, Michael Kregar Building and contractors, including Lekcomm Brian Gates’ Electrical.

Thank you to Italo Vardaro for the above photos

Mrs. Ros Oates
Principal

Religious Education News

Catholic Education Week 2019

What a fantastic week we have just had at Our Lady of the River School. Last week we, along with all Catholic Schools across South Australia celebrated Catholic Education Week. Catholic Education Week aims raise awareness and celebrate the strengths and distinctiveness of our Catholic schools. It is a time to share our Catholic identity and the many positive learning experiences that take place each day.

In 2019, across the Diocese of Port Pirie, the theme for Catholic Education Week is Peace.

‘Peace be with you’ is the greeting of the risen Jesus. It is making peace with the past, experiencing peace in the present as the world God desires, and the gift of God giving this peace as the reality of the future. The world God desires is a reality in Jesus Christ.

Peace is a balance of harmony where all creation experiences wholeness, completeness, prosperity and tranquility. In all our actions and our words, especially during Catholic Education Week we strive to promote Peace in ourselves, in our community and in our environment. Each day of the week, students participated in activities that did just that.

Our week was launched with an assembly featuring special guest appearance from Mr. Malcolm Elliott from Australian Primary Principals of Australia who spoke of his role as President of APPA and read the students a book promoting Peace within ourselves.

Mr. and Mrs. Fewster from St. Vincent de Paul Society, also guest starred at our assembly, they spoke of the good works that St. Vinnies do in the community to help those in need. Thank you all very much for the kind contributions you made to our St. Vinnies drive. These were presented to Mr. and Mrs. Fewster at the assembly and were greatly appreciated.

Our Pinwheels for Peace fence looks amazing, our Simple Soup Day was a huge success, and hopefully some of you received a special gift of peace in the form of a beautiful peace pebble beautifully decorated by your children.

On Wednesday some of our Indian students shared a little of their culture with us as they performed some Bhangra at the Berri Stadium, where all four Catholic Schools of the Riverland joined together to celebrate a peace filled Mass, followed by a day of fun to celebrate our unity within the Riverland.

On Thursday we continued our festivities with a Peace Walk. All schools in the Diocese of Port Pirie took part in this walk to symbolise that we are one in our faith and one in our mission. Each student's contribution to the walk amounts the total number of kilometres it would take to travel to each school, some 2,262km! This was followed by a liturgy hosted by the Year 2 and 3 students. We were extremely blessed to be immersed in God’s creation and have the serene and calm River Murray as a feature of this Liturgy, which was quite fitting as we were reflecting on our call to care for our common home. Our day of Peace by the River was so much fun, we spent the day enjoying natural surrounds and connecting with nature. We are stewards of God's creation and our Peace Day on Thursday was an opportunity to reflect on self, others and marvel at the created world.

The week was concluded with our annual Catholic Education Week walk to school, promoting the importance of safety as pedestrians on our roads. I wish to thank Sargent Steve Hunter who escorted our students to school safely. The highlight of Catholic Education Week for me was seeing the sea of smiles daily as the students participated in all the events of the week. I extend a very big thank you to all families for their support throughout the week, and to the many parent volunteers who helped out in many different ways to ensure that our week was positive and peaceful.

Sacramental Celebrations

It has been a big week of Sacramental Celebrations in the Our Lady of the River school community.

Congratulations to Adam Hunter who celebrated the Sacrament of First Reconciliation on Monday 3rd June. Reconciliation is a Sacrament of healing, where we come to Jesus for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In this Sacrament, we confess our sins to a priest. He forgives us in Jesus’ name. The grace we have lost is given back to us. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus comforts us. He strengthens us on our journey. We are reconciled with God, with the Church, and with the people we have hurt. Through this sacrament we celebrate Jesus’ gift of forgiveness.

On Sunday 9th June, our students joined with students from St. Joseph’s school in Barmera for a beautiful ceremony to celebrate their First Holy Communion. Congratulations to Will and Eli Cresp, Layla Vallelonga, Kenzie Sweet and Mackenzie Pitt who the very first time shared in the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, where they ate the bread and drank the wine - the body and blood of Jesus. First Holy Communion is a Sacrament of Initiation, where these students are welcomed into the church. As Catholics, we celebrate this Sacrament often, it is a reminder that Jesus is with us daily and also a reminder of our call as Christians to share God’s love.

May each of our Sacramental students be filled with the gifts of God’s love, peace, and compassion. May they be guided by the example of Jesus on their journeys of faith.

May God’s Gentle Peace be with you always…

Rosemary Perre
Religious Education Coordinator

Parish news!

On Sunday 19th May, Little Adelaide Onofria, was welcomed into the Our Lady of the River Parish as she celebrated the Sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is the first Sacrament of initiation. Adelaide is the daughter of Amy and Pierce Onofria, and Granddaughter to Sandy Sando. We wish Adelaide God’s richest blessings.

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

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.

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.

School News

Year 6/7 Fundraiser

Please support the Year 6/7’s camp fundraiser by ordering your delicious Pizza Slices & Fruit Pies, perfect for the winter. The flyer and order form are below.

Class news

Pentecost Sunday

The year 2/3 Class made windmills to represent the wind and fire around the celebration of Pentecost. Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit and ends the season of Easter. The class discussed ways in which we can bring love, peace and joy to others just like the Holy Spirit. The Church calendar now moves into ‘ordinary time’ and classes have changed their prayer cloths back to the colour of green.

Literacy News

As the students continue on their Seven Steps to Writing Journey we have learnt about Step 4: Dynamic Dialogue. In this step students will identify dialogue within a text but also learn the importance of cutting to the chase and leave out the boring parts of conversation.

Authors cheat when they write dialogue, they go straight to the interesting part. We want students dialogue to be dynamic and move the story along.

Take these two examples

a) The teacher told us to stand back from the cage as the bear was growling loudly but Jeremy didn't listen.

b) " Stand back!" shouted the teacher, but Jeremy didn't listen. Suddenly the bear growled loudly. "Jeremy!" cried the teacher, "get away from the bear NOW!'

Can you see how the dialogue has makes the text so much more exciting.

What can you do at home?

Give children a starting line to help them avoid the boring parts. For example they could come up with a conversation between a ghost and a flying pig. Suggest where they could begin like - "Hey! Watch where you're going!"

Practise in the car creating dynamic dialogues between characters that cut out the rambling and practise how to move conversations along.

The Year One class explored dialogue in the book - Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!

Happy writing!
Melanie

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

Happy Birthday!