OLOG eNewsletter Term 3 Week 6

Good afternoon Parents and Caregivers,

 Thank you so much for your beautiful welcome to the school.  I have enjoyed meeting many of you already. It has been a delight to be in classrooms, getting to know the children and seeing the learning in action. It is clear that the consistent routines at the beginning of the day are key to successful learning at school.  

Whilst handball in the mornings before school is frantic, I have been impressed by the level of good sports personship demonstrated as they play. 

It was a busy week last week with Catholic schools Open Week, Principals Tours, School Board and of course our Book Week parade.  It has been a privilege to host many families looking to enrol their children here at Our Lady of Grace and to be able to share my insights about school. It is an exciting time for the school community with building plans to enhance learning and the plans for 2025 staffing and class structure coming together. 

The OLOG Way is an explicit and clear way to purposefully define who we are, what we stand for and most importantly how we expect our staff, families and children to work towards living out our values.  It provides a framework to explicitly teach expected behaviours and then re-teach where necessary.  The partnership with families is critical to ensure we work towards our OLOG way, every day.  

Visible Wellbeing 

Visible Wellbeing is a whole-school, evidence-based program tailored specifically to address the wellbeing needs of Australian young people. Based on the science of Positive Psychology, Visible Wellbeing provides both staff and students with a toolkit of strategies to support wellbeing and buffer against mental illness.  

Our work continues in this space with our staff, providing professional learning sessions during the term.  This week, the most recent module focused on  ‘Attention and Awareness’.  Building young people (and our own) capacity to attend and be more aware will provide greater focused learning.  It is also about ‘lingering’ when you notice something and learning to savour that moment. As you know, I am walking to and from school each day and I have been practising this concept of noticing, being more aware and then lingering. As I walk out my front door, I now notice the beautiful sounds of birds chirping as they arise for the day.  I have now become more aware of this sound.  As I lingered, I spotted the colours of their feathers and savoured that moment… ready for the day ahead.  Perhaps as a family, you might take a moment to practice noticing, becoming more aware and lingering to savour the moment.  It is such an important skill for our wellbeing. 

Right to Disconnect 

No doubt you have all seen this week's  news around the Fair Work Commission’s new paper titled ‘Right to Disconnect’.   

At Our Lady of Grace, the wellbeing of our staff and the importance of their partnership with you is a top priority. 

We recognise that maintaining a healthy work-life balance is vital for the effectiveness, satisfaction, and productivity of our team. 

We will be opening up a conversation about what this means for our community – our staff and families to ensure continued partnerships that allow for balance and trust.  

No doubt this is also an important conversation in your own workplaces.   

We understand that parent/ caregiver engagement with us goes hand in hand with student wellbeing and success and productive communication with parents/ caregivers is an essential feature of a positive school culture. Digital technologies have greatly assisted in this regard and the use of parent/ caregiver information apps such as Audiri and Seesaw, social media (for general school information), our school website, SEQTA and the use of email communication directly with staff,  is now routine. We appreciate that parent/ caregiver expectations as to staff accessibility have evolved in the context of enhanced digital communication practices. While representing efficient modes of communication, the breadth of digital communication options can create ‘availability creep’ where school employees become more accessible in locations and at times of the day, weekends and during periods of leave when they should be able to disconnect from work. These recent laws which have taken effect provide school employees a right to disconnect.  

In the interests of respecting the rights of our staff and recognising the importance of facilitating and promoting healthy communication, we are introducing across our schools the following as standard protocol during term time: - Noting our staff spend a significant amount of their workday focussing on teaching or other activities applicable to their roles, staff will endeavour to respond to parent/ caregiver communications requesting a response within 48 hours, noting staff will discern whether an urgent matter requires a shorter response timeframe; and - Parents/ caregivers are encouraged to contact the school front office in the first instance for general information. We ask that parents and caregivers be mindful and supportive of the above. Thank you for your understanding. 

Father’s Day Breakfast 

We are very excited about welcoming Fathers and those like Fathers this Friday morning.   

Being a ‘father’ is an enormous privilege and responsibility and our school staff want to thank you for the role you play in supporting your young person to thrive in the world, be resilient and capable and most importantly  ‘a good human’.  Happy Father’s Day. 

A reminder that there will be an eating area only for our visitors as we have children at school with an allergy to egg.  Please ensure if you are eating that you wash your hands before leaving the eating area.   

Disco 

Thank you to Sara Cox and our P&F for organising the school disco next Friday, 6th September.  Please keep an eye out on Audiri for further information about pick up and drop off arrangements. It will be an exciting event.  

Lisa McCormick
Acting Principal

MITIOG

The Made in The Image of God Sexuality and Respectful Relationships Curriculum (MITIOG), is the official program for sexuality and respectful relationships education in South Australian Catholic Schools for R-12. Each year our students engage with age-appropriate curriculum content regarding sexuality and respectful relationships through MITIOG. 

This will be taught from Weeks 6-10 (depending on year levels).

Brochures and a letters explaining what to expect to be taught at each year level for MITIOG were sent via SeeSaw last week.

If you have any questions please contact your child’s teacher.

Upcoming Term 3 Masses/Liturgies

• Father’s Day Whole School Liturgy; 30^th August @ 9:00am
• St Teresa of Calcutta “Mother Teresa”; Year 5/6EB Mass 5^th September @ 9:15am

The Season Of Creation

The Season of Creation is an annual Christian celebration to pray and respond together to the cry of Creation. It unites our Christian family around the world to listen and care for our common home. The Season of Creation begins on September 1, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and concludes on October 4, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology. This year’s theme is ‘To Hope and Act with Creation’ with the symbol ‘the firstfruits of hope’, inspired by Romans 8:19-25. During this Season of Creation, we are called to work together for a future of hope and action to make our world a better place.

Joy and Blessings
Debbie Scuteri

OLOG Fee Statements will be issued Monday via your eldest child or published to the Community Portal for those currently registered.

1. Afterschool sports charges have been added to accounts for those participating in sports this term.
2. Afterschool sports charges are due in the term incurred, please make your payments by the end of Term 3.

Please review your statement for accuracy to ensure your payment plans will be sufficient to clear account balances by 15th November 2024.

 If you are experiencing difficulty managing your fees or if you have any queries regarding your account or payment plan please contact Kerri Rowell on 8177 9100 or finance@olog.catholic.edu.au 

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We are excited to announce that our annual swimming lessons for children in Reception, Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3 will be taking place in Term 4, 2025. These lessons are a wonderful opportunity for our students to build confidence in the water and learn essential swimming skills in a safe and supportive environment.

Schedule:

• Week 1: Reception Swimming Lessons
• Week 2: Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3 Swimming Lessons

Location: Marion Swimming Centre

As always, we rely on the invaluable support of our parent community to help ensure the smooth running of these lessons. We will need volunteers to assist us on the bus when travelling to and from the swim centre, as well as maintaining appropriate supervision ratios at all times. If you have the necessary clearances registered at the front office and are available to assist, please reach out to me as soon as possible.

Important: Online Consent Form

To streamline the process and give our children more time in the water, we are introducing a new online consent form this year. We ask that all parents complete this form promptly to ensure their child’s participation in the swimming lessons. This will also assist swimming staff to ensure time in the water is maximised. 

Further information regarding appropriate swimwear and exact lesson times will be shared in our next newsletter, so please keep an eye out for those details.

Thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to another successful and enjoyable swimming program!

On Thursday, 22nd August, our school participated in the South West SAPSASA Athletics Day, enjoying a beautiful winter's day that was perfect for competition. Over the past few weeks, our students have dedicated their time including before school sessions to refining their techniques in various field events such as High Jump and Discus, and practicing hard for track events like the 100m, 800m, and relays. Despite the challenging conditions, including practicing baton changes on a very wet winter's day, our team displayed remarkable resilience and skill.

We are thrilled to announce that our school placed 3rd overall, a fantastic achievement by our team of 25 talented students born in 2012, 2013, or 2014. They battled hard and achieved some outstanding results:

• Iyla Gracin (2013): 1st in Long Jump, 3rd in 200m, and 2nd in 100m
• Olivia Raymond(2014): 1st in 1500m, 1st in 800m, and 2nd in 100m
• Kyan Woodruff(2014): 2nd in High Jump

Our relay teams also excelled:

• 2013 Girls Relay Team (Lucy Ryan, Iyla Gracin, Layla Quirk, Olivia Raymond): 1st place
• 2012 Girls Relay Team (Christine Chong, Alessia Richards, Jaylien Fridmanis, Rayza Shrestha): 2nd place
• 2013 Boys Relay Team (Darcy Thur, Jackson Ferres, Finn Raymond, Nate Heinrich): 2nd place
• 2012 Boys Relay Team (Flynn Black, James Newbold, Max Adami, Arlo Doak): 1st place

We extend a special thank you to all the parents who attended and supported their children throughout this journey. Your encouragement and involvement played a crucial role in our team's success.

As we await the official results to see which of our athletes will represent OLOG and the South West District at the statewide Athletics Championships, let's take a moment to congratulate our entire team for their hard work and dedication. Every student gave their best effort and we couldn't be prouder of their achievements. 

Well done, team!

Last week the debating team had their last debate of the season. The debate was ‘That hobby-horsing should be an Olympic Sport’. The girls did a lot of research into hobby horsing and had some great ideas. They won the debate, and Rayza got the Speaker award.

The girls have put a lot of work into debating over the last two  terms, and it has been special to be a part of their debating journey. The hard work paid off for them, as the team ended up 18^th out of 114 teams – Well done girls!

Raewyn McIntosh
Debating Coordinator

The reception classes have been very busy this past week with lots of learning and finished with a visit to Adelaide Zoo. 

OLOG came alive last Wednesday as we celebrated Book Week, which was themed "Reading is Magic".  Students and Staff enjoyed dressing up and the photo wall set up in the library was definitely a big hit!

Thankyou to our parent helpers who sorted, packed and assisted at the Father's Day Stall on Wednesday28th August.  There was plenty of excitement as students chose a gift for their special person.  

Please complete the Student Continuance Form via Audiri.  This is especially important if your child will not be returning to OLOG next year. 

Informing the school of absences

If your child is not going to be at school due to illness, or will be late due to an appointment, it is imperative that you inform the school by:

• Phoning the 24 hour student absentee phone number: 8177 9191 before 8.55am; or
• Completing the absentee form in the Audiri app; or
• By emailing the class teacher or olog@olog.catholic.edu.au

Advance Notice of Absence / absence of more than five (5) days

For advance notice of your child’s absence, please complete the Application for Exemption from School Enrolment/Attendance Form, which is available from the Front Office.

Unexplained absence

If a child is not present and the school has not received an absentee call or email by 9:30am, the office will contact parents (generally via text) to ascertain the student’s whereabouts.

If your child is late

If your child arrives after 8:55am, they will need to enter through the Front Office and be signed in manually by a parents/caregiver via the IPAD (Passtab), then go to the classroom. If this process is not followed and the student has been marked as absent, an automated text message will be generated.

Early Departure

Should any child need to leave the school grounds during school hours e.g. dental/doctor appointment, parental permission must be given. All students must be signed out at the Front Office by their parent/caregiver before leaving the school.