Dear Parents,

Welcome back!

I hope you all had a wonderful two-week winter break. It was great to hear some of the interesting holiday stories from the kids this week. Some families headed overseas, some hit the slopes, and others had a quiet break at home. Whatever you did, I hope you had a wonderful time and the kids are ready for another term.

I often get asked by parents about what are the best strategies to help support their children at home with their homework. Times have changed, and the way we teach today is slightly different than it was 15 - 20 years ago. In our fortnightly newsletters, we will provide some helpful tips about how you can best support your child at home with their learning. Our first edition can be seen below. 

Just a reminder that our new Sunsmart policy requires students to wear hats outside all year round. As our sun becomes more damaging, it is important to protect our students' skin. Even on a cloudy, cold day, the sun can still cause harm. We also have sunscreen available in every classroom for our students to use. Please encourage your children to apply sunscreen at recess and lunchtime.

Last term, we had our annual Inquiry Expo, which was a great hit! All the students showcased their learning and engaged the parents in finding out more about their projects.

I previously mentioned developing a new five-year plan for our school. The plan will outline developments in the curriculum, building and maintenance, communication, parent involvement, and extracurricular activities. Thank you to those families who took the time to complete the survey to help guide us in making OLOL the best school it can be. Our next step is to develop this plan with the School Leadership Team and School Advisory Committee and it will be shared with you once it’s complete. 

Our Term Two Classroom Overviews are now available for you to view. The overview outlines the learning that will take place this term in each year level, with some great units on Australian Animals, the Olympics, Australian History, and Product Design. I urge you to log into our Parent Portal and have a read. Also, keep an eye on our Schoolzine calendar as there are many wonderful events such as Book Week, Kinect2Dance, 100 Days of Prep, the Olympics, 5/6 Hooptime, Father’s Day Celebration, Grandparents’ Day Celebration, and more. Please take a minute to look through the overviews as well as the Schoolzine Calendar to stay up to date with the great things that are happening.

Together, we can achieve great things. Thank you for your continued support and dedication.

Adrian McAlister

Human beings are not meant to be alone, but to live together in community, to immerse ourselves into collective life. Mostly, we live in the world in the way that suits us, although sometimes there are compromises and trade-offs required because love is larger and more enduring than convenience. This is how we negotiate the world and most often how we know that love is in it. 

In various iterations across time and culture, we have been told that we can be happy as human beings if we have someone to love, something to do and something to hope for. 

What are you hoping for today?

Ann Rennie

On Wednesday, we had the privilege of attending our final Whole School Mass, celebrated by Father Hayes. If you have not yet had the opportunity to bid farewell to our esteemed Parish Priest, he will be celebrating his final Parish Mass this Sunday at 11:00am at St Peter's Church in Toorak. We hope to see you there.

These wonderful words were shared at Mass on Wednesday:

Dear Father Hayes,

On behalf of all staff and students at Our Lady of Lourdes, we wanted to wish you one final farewell.

As you prepare to embark on this new chapter of your journey, we want to express our deepest gratitude for your unwavering dedication and service to our school community.

Your spiritual guidance, compassionate heart, and steadfast faith have profoundly impacted the lives of all students, staff, and families that you have served. Your presence in our school has been a beacon of hope, love, and encouragement, fostering an environment where faith and education go hand in hand.

Our Semester One Inquiry Expo was a great hit! Thank you to all the parents who came out to see our student's hard work. You can see what our students are learning next Semester on our Parent Portal.

Helping children to become numerate does not need a high level of mathematics. It means:

• encouraging children to try, then keep trying
• encouraging children to think (reason)
• supporting children while they do homework (which means encouraging them and taking an interest, but not thinking about them)
• modelling numeracy with children (including interpreting data, charts and diagrams)
• talking aloud when solving problems (every day or mathematical)
• getting children to check their answers (Does this answer make sense?)
• encouraging children to help with
• cooking (especially measuring out ingredients)
  • paying bills
  • scheduling events in the day
  • reading maps and giving directions
  • shopping
  • measuring –– and thanking them for their support
• do not say “Maths is hard” or “I was never good at maths”. Numeracy capability is not inherited but attitudes are contagious.
• ‘What do you already know about this problem? How might you work it out? Have you seen a problem like that before? Tell me a little more about your thinking.

To focus on your child’s problem-solving approaches and their reasoning:

Ask questions and give instructions like:

• “What do you already know about this problem/question?”
• “How might you work it out?”
• “Explain why you think that is the answer?”

Do not focus only on the correct response, the process/approach is important

Allow your child to experience some confusion. It is an essential aspect of the learning process.

During a recent School Advisory Council meeting, the necessity for OLOL to adopt a year-round SunSmart policy, rather than limiting it to Terms 1 and 4, was discussed. Excessive ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure can lead to sunburn, skin and eye damage and skin cancer. UV damage accumulated during childhood and adolescence significantly increases the risk of developing skin cancer later in life. Given that school hours and activities coincide with peak UV periods, our comprehensive, evidence-informed SunSmart policy outlines effective UV protection strategies.

The sun protection measures detailed in this policy are to be implemented for all outdoor activities throughout the year. Limiting these measures to Terms 1 and 4 is insufficient to mitigate the risks associated with UV exposure. In light of this, we are requesting that students wear a school hat throughout the entire year to ensure their safety.

Our Scholastic Book Fair will commence on Monday 19th August. The Book Fair will be held on:

Monday - Wednesday 8:30-9:00am

Monday - Tuesday 3:30-4:00pm

The children will have an opportunity to view the books on Friday and create a 'Wish List' which can then be puchased using the QR Code which will be sent home on Friday afternoon. You can also come and purchase the books from the School Hall at any of the times above.

In order for the Book Fair to run we would appreciate some assistance on the days. If you are free please sign up here.

We hope to see you there!

Mary Gammilonghi

OLOL will be celebrating Grandparents Day on Wednesday, 4th September.

Grandparents and other special people are invited to join us for a Liturgy led by P/1A in the Church. Visitors will then be invited into the classrooms to take part in student learning. The morning will conclude with a Morning Tea held in the School Hall for our special guests.

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

See below the link to the fact sheet for parents, guardians and carers - Nationally Consistent Collection of Data
https://www.nccd.edu.au/tools/fact-sheet-parents-guardians-and-carers

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school.

*please note that all dates are correct at the time of publishing this newsletter however dates are subject to change and therefore it is important to check the SZapp and subsequent newsletters for any changes that may occur.