Term 4 Week 7 Newsletter - 24.11.23

Principal News

Dear Parents and Guardians

Since moving to our temporary site at Dibbs Street, we have achieved an enormous amount together for the benefit of our children and our staff. This work will continue as long as we are at our current site and we will continue to invest in the facilities to ensure our children have everything they need to be successful. We currently have new playgrounds works occurring for passive play, sandpit areas, climbing structures and a new mud kitchen.

As well as investing in our school facilities, we have also remained focused on our learning and teaching agenda. I was extremely proud to listen to our school learning results be shared at our recent principals gathering in Coffs Harbour. We have achieved outstanding results and student growth across our classes and this is the result of the work of our dedicated staff. I am incredibly proud of these achievements and we must celebrate this success for our children.

Earlier in the year, we held our school community meeting regarding the future of our beautiful school. During the meeting parents were invited to nominate themselves to be selected as part of our School Future Working Group. Nomination forms were also sent to all families who were unable to attend the meeting. I am pleased to advise that the following people have been successful in being part of this working Group.

• Maureen Armstrong
• Trenton Bailey
• Kate McMurray
• Jeri Hall
• James Forbes
• Joel Jensen
• David Willis
• Amanda Neale
• Sara McDonald
• Jason Bashforth

The role of this group is to provide parent voice regarding potential options for our school, look at advantages and disadvantages of possible options and when required, seek further voice from our parent community. This group is not a decision making group and certainly doesn’t represent everyone in our community.

Hearing the voice of our community is important. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself having a conversation with one of the names above during the coming weeks, as the work we are doing is not confidential and is to be shared with all families in our school community as we work together to make the best possible decisions for the children and families we serve in Catholic Education in Lismore.

Sincerely,

Michael Piccoli

End of year dates

Week 8

Friday 1st December: Competitive Swimming Carnival (nominated students only)

Week 9 

Friday 8th December: 2:30pm Final 2023 Assembly;  5-7pm Christmas Tableau; 6:30pm for the Tableau performance

Week 10   

Monday 11th December: Reports go live on Compass; 1:35pm Go Up Afternoon (teachers and TA's with 2024 classes)

Wednesday 13th December: Year 6 Graduation liturgy and dinner

Thursday 14th December: Rewards Day (Year 6 Waterslides; K-5 Water play at school- organised games) 

Friday 15th December: Last day for students

2024 Class Teachers and Teacher Assistants

2024 sees a bit of a restructure of our teams with several staff moving grades. Students will find out their class teacher in Week 10 on Monday 11th December at our Go Up Day.

2023 Christmas Tableau

Our annual Christmas Tableau will take place on Friday 8th December. Gates will open at 5pm and the Tableau will begin at 6:30pm.  Please bring your own picnic rug or chairs and picnic. 

A  big thank you to the team of Year 6 parents who offered to make platter boxes for families to purchase. These are available to purchase through the Flexischools app for $20 each and feed between 3-4 people. 

We will run a ham raffle with 15 ham vouchers up for grabs.  Tickets will be $1 each.  Thank you to Hutley's Butchery for suppling the vouchers.  If you are a lucky winner, you will need to contact Hutley's to place your order and advise of a pick up date. 

We will also hold a Raffle for a variety of prizes with tickets priced at $2 each:

1st prize- $1000 Fuel Voucher

2nd Prize-Resonator Music Voucher

3rd Prize-Woolworths hamper

4th Prize- Gingerbread House

We are looking forward to another great celebration. 

Building Works update

We currently have playground works being completed behind the four demountable classrooms. We have designed the space in response to our students' feedback around some alternate play options they wanted. 

Our new play space will have three sandpits, a climbing structure and potentially a slide, a mud kitchen, car track and other nature play areas. We hope to have it completed before the end of term.

The student toilets will also be having an upgrade during the January holiday period.

2024 Dates for your Calendar

School uniform reminders

As we come to the end of the year, we have noticed a number of students in incorrect uniforms. Please see the information below from our School Uniform Policy:

• Nail polish and makeup are not to be worn.
• Children are not to write on their skin and will be asked to wash any such writing off.

Hair Guidelines: Students attending Our Lady Help of Christians Parish School are expected to wear their uniform in a way which reflects pride in the school and in their personal appearance. Accordingly,

• Hairstyles should be appropriate to this expectation
• Hair should be clean, brushed and generally neat – not unruly
• Hair that is collar length or longer needs to be tied back

The following are not permitted:

• Variations to hair colour
• Hair fringe past the forehead
• Spiked cuts
• Wedge cuts
• Track cuts
• Multiple braiding
• Rat’s Tail
• Mullet cuts

If you are unsure of school uniform or hair requirements, please contact the school for clarification. If your child has grown out of their school shoes and will be wearing another pair in the interim, please send in a note explaining this.

Mission News

In the spirit of Jesus' generosity to all, this Christmas we are supporting our Parish community by providing hampers to those needing a little bit of help this Christmas. The hampers will include food and Christmas items. We will also support children in hospital over Christmas, with gifts to make their Christmas a little bit brighter. 

Please see the flyer above for more details and please only give what you can. We look forward to putting smiles on the faces of our Parish and wider Northern Rivers community this year at Christmas.

Year 3 Walking Rosary

Year 3 braved the heat to pray a walking Rosary last week. As we held our rosary beads and prayed the Hail Mary over and over again, we thought about happy times in Mary’s life. We call these the Joyful Mysteries.

Well done Year 3 for a very prayerful experience, despite the heat and sharing our space! 

Making Jesus Real Awards 

KP

Charlotte C  -  For being a supportive friend and caring for others.

1L

Sylvia S  -   For her beautiful and reverent participation during prayer and meditation. Keep shining your light Sylvia!

2L

Jethro P -  For always Making Jesus Real in everything you do. You are a fantastic role model both in the classroom and on the playground.

2P

Ned M  -  For showing consideration towards others and being thoughtful in your actions. We are lucky to have you in Year 2 Ned!

3L

Taze P  -  For being an incredibly kind friend. Thank you for noticing when someone needs help and taking action to make things better. Thank you Taze!

3P

Alistair P  -  For showing great determination when challenged with complex reading and writing tasks. Well Done!!

4L

Noah M  -   For being a kind and caring friend when others are in need. Well done Noah! 

4P

Isaac S - For being a kind and caring friend. Keep shining Isaac!

5L

6P

Archie W  -  For the positive and happy way you support those around you, including your teachers.  Thank you Archie!

Learning & Teaching

Kindergarten - practising their number formation and writing skills.

Year One - continuing to develop their multiplicative thinking and understanding of arrays.

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Year 2 - using formal units to measure the distance travelled by their paper planes.

3L- playing verb charades in English and measuring capacity in Maths.

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3P-creating posters in Science and publishing writing.

4L-giving feedback in writing and outdoor maths fun.

4P-creating character profiles.

5L-collaborating to edit a passage of writing.

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Year 6 Camp 2023

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OLHC Achievement Awards 

KP

Archie B  -  For extending yourself to compose interesting compound sentences. Well done Archie!

Lucas T -  For your dedication and hard work towards your sounds and applying them to your reading. Keep it up Lucas!

Regan Q  -  For applying your number knowledge to solve addition and subtraction problems.

1L

Vera H  -   For her consistent engagement and dedication during InitiaLit. Keep up the great work Vera!

Leo C  -   For his outstanding effort and growth with his spelling. Keep up the great work Leo!

Lachlan C  -   For his effort and attention towards segmenting and blending new words. Keep up the great work Lachlan!

2L

Nash H  -  For your dedication and positive attitude towards learning in InitiaLit. You lead by example Nash!

Sophia B  -  For fantastic descriptive writing. You are always looking for ways to improve and to achieve your writing goal.

2P

Maddie F  -  For your impressive use of language features in your writing. You sure know how to captivate an audience. Keep it up Maddie!

Michael W  -  For applying spelling strategies to spell unfamiliar words during InitiaLit. You are a Superstar Michael!!

3L

Isla D - For always asking for feedback and working hard to make your writing even better. Your determination to improve shows how much you love learning and growing as a writer. Well done!

Lachlan S  -  For your incredible determination and progress in improving your spelling skills.  Your hard work and dedication are starting to pay off! Keep up the fantastic effort!

3P

Mason E  -  For showing high, critical thinking, as well as responding in a positive way during Maths lessons. Keep up the amazing work.

Mason Mc  -  For being a kind and thoughtful friend who considers the feelings and needs of others.

4L

Quintin F  -  For applying his knowledge of place value to solve capacity problems. Great job Quintin!

Charlotte F  -   For always displaying an exemplary attitude towards learning. You are a star Charlotte!

4P

Tilly P  -  For the consistent effort you are applying to the writing process. Your hard work is paying off Tilly, so proud of you!

Brayden M  - for becoming a more independent worker and applying feedback given. Well down Brayden, this is how you grow as a learner!

5L

Harper J  -  For consistently excelling in all aspects of the classroom, showcasing persistent effort and dedication to her learning.

Violet M  -  For your achievements in spelling and your active participation in collaborative classroom discussions.

6P

Maggie A  -  For continuing to challenge yourself in all areas of your learning.  Keep up the amazing learning!

Sports News

Polding Athletics

On Friday the 13th of October, Harper Jasmin attended the Polding Athletics Carnival in Sydney and participated in the track and field events 800m run and 1500m run. Harper came 9th in the 1500m Run and 10th in the 800m Run, this is an outstanding achievement. 

Harper is definitely well known for her exceptional soccer skills, but to step out of her comfort zone and compete against students who train in such events on a daily basis, is truly inspirational. As a school, we are extremely proud of Harper’s achievements in the area of athletics.

Summer Sports Trials

During Week 7, we had 5 students trial for the Diocese Summer Sports Trials. Patrick Collins, Mason Box, Bly Bashforth and Tilly Preston all attended the Basketball trials on Tuesday the 21st of November. Robbie Grace attended the Touch football trials on Thursday the 23rd of November. All the students proudly represent our school and they worked hard to show their skills.

Congratulations to Noah Middleton. He will progress forward to the Polding trials for softball and this will take place in June 2024.

Competitive Swimming Event

Our Lady Help of Christians Competitive Swimming Event will be held on Friday the 1st of December at Southern Cross University Pool. This is a representative pathway for swimming. Students in Years 1 - 5 have already nominated their interest in participating in this event. Please ensure you go to the events tab on Compass to approve your child to attend this event. 

If you are available to walk with the school to and from the pool, please indicate this on the Compass event question form.

Leaders of Sport

This fortnight our Leaders of Sport, Hugh and Tully interviewed Heidi and Riley about their favourite sport.

School News

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLANNING

The safety of our students, families and staff is our highest priority. In order to best ensure this, the Our Lady Help of Christians leadership and staff, supported by the Catholic Schools Office, plan for a number of possible incidents, emergencies or natural disasters that could take place at school or during the school term. The events of recent years have reinforced how important this planning is and we all have a role to play when it comes to emergency management, including families.

Our students participate in various safety drills and staff participate through training and safety drills. We’d like to share with you the role of parents and families in emergency management.

School Lockdown

A number of the situations we plan for include a school lockdown as one of the immediate safety actions to ensure the safety of our students and staff. We understand that some may understand the word ‘lockdown’ to mean there is an immediate safety risk to all students. It is important to understand that when a school initiates a lockdown this may not be the case.

Depending on the situation, the purpose of a school lockdown will differ. A school lockdown may be a preparation step for an evacuation, or a school lockdown may allow emergency services access to an area of the school without having to navigate past students. Regardless of the purpose of a school lockdown, no one can be admitted to the school grounds other than emergency services.

Should we initiate a school lockdown, parents and families will be informed via text message and Compass notification. We will also inform parents and families as soon as the school lockdown has been lifted or if there are any actions required of parents and families. It is important that you do not attempt to attend the school during a school lockdown. We understand that you may be concerned however attending the school may also add risk to a possible emergency situation, block emergency services or impede an evacuation.

Natural Disaster

In the event of a natural disaster, such as flood or bushfire, the school leadership, supported by the Catholic Schools Office, will determine if it is safe for the school to open. If there is a probability the school may have to close part way through the day, the school will not open for that day as it is extremely difficult to evacuate a school site and ensure all students are able to go directly home safely.

In a bush fire or flood event it is important that parents and families have a plan to get your child/ren home from school, or into your care, at short notice. Please be aware that school buses may not be running and the school cannot allow your child/ren to go home to an empty house or home with another parent without your permission.

Family Preparedness

How can you help us prepare for emergency situations? Please ensure that:

• You have downloaded the Compass app and have allowed notifications.
• Any changes to your contact details or custodial arrangements have been updated with the school.
• You have a bush fire/flood plan in place that all members of your family understand.
• In the event of a school lockdown or evacuation, directions in the parent notifications are

It is always our hope that these measures will never be needed but it is also our responsibility to ensure our school community is prepared and informed should the need arise. We thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.

Katie Rose (Acting Principal) and Nigel McIntyre, Work Health and Safety Manager, Catholic Schools Office

Attendance

Student Attendance
All students should be in attendance at school each day unless sick, or attending necessary events (e.g. funeral, medical appointment etc) that cannot be scheduled outside of school hours. 

Absent from school
If we have not heard from you, via the Compass Absence feature, you will receive an SMS generated by Compass at 9.30am. Please respond by clicking on the link in the SMS (the link is active for 7 days but can only be used once). In the case of shared care of a student, both parents will receive an SMS but we ask the parent who has the child in their care that morning to respond. A medical certificate is required if your child is absent for three or more consecutive days due to illness.

If you do not advise the reason for your child’s absence, you will receive a letter from the school requesting an explanation, which we ask you to return within 7 days of your child’s absence so that we can update your child’s attendance records. 

Late Arrival
Students arriving after 8.55am, need to enter via the Office. Please submit late arrivals via the Compass Absence feature or phone the office.

Early Departure
Please use the Compass Absence feature or phone the school to notify us of early departures. The office cannot guarantee your student will be ready for an early departure without adequate notification. 

Absence due to holiday/family event:
Less than 10 days: Please notify the school that your student will be absent via the Compass Absence feature.
More than 10 days: Complete Form 01 Extended Leave Notification.

Absence due to Diocesan  or Polding Representative events

If you child is attending a Diocesan or Polding representative event and are absent from school, you will receive an absence message from Compass at 10:30am. You will need to respond to this to confirm your child's attendance at the event so that they are not marked absent.  This is to ensure rolls are accurate. 

Messages
Please phone the Office PRIOR to 2.45pm to advise of any changes to afternoon arrangements. This will provide office staff with the best chance of ensuring that your child receives the message. Last minute phone calls at this busy time of the school day are not ideal and we cannot guarantee that late messages will be received. We all experience emergencies from time to time and that is understood and accepted.

Lost Property
Lost Property is located outside the under the COLA at the botom of the ramp. Please clearly label all items that are brought or worn to school.

Community News