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- Special Call-out to Foundation Parents
- Wellbeing Workshops
- Sacramental Update
- Cyber Safety
- OLOL Spirit Competition - Lock down Skill
- Light in the Darkness
- Outreach Project from St Agnes' Primary School, Port Macquarie
- Thank you Message from Vicente
- Parenting Workshops
- An Update on Sezana's Spoonville ...
- Outstanding School Fees for 2020
- Sacre Coeur Virtual Information Sessions
Special Call-out to Foundation Parents
In the last weeks I've been spending a lot of time working with next year's prep parents. One thing that concerns me is the impact on these new families of not being able to properly engage with our school.
One of the things that makes OLOL special is its community and when you're not allowed to meet with people it makes it difficult to make and cement firm friendships.
So here I am all worried about next year's parents and then I thought hang on ... what about this year's new parents!!!
With this in mind, I'm sending some special LOVE to this year's Foundation parents. Some of you already had children in the school and therefore had already established both a connection with the school and each other. Others, however, were new, and apart from our first Mass, Welcome to OLOL Disco and a drinks night in February, there has been little to no opportunity to make you feel part of our special community.
Please know that you are loved and when we finally not only get back but get back to being able to socialise - boy oh boy will we have some socialising to catch up on.
We are very excited to complete this busy term with our Wellbeing Workshops, from Wednesday 16 - Friday 18 September.
Families will receive a presentation of OLOL staff-led videos, each running a wellbeing activity. All activities align with the GEM (Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness) themes of our Resilience Project curriculum. These activities promise to be engaging and are a wonderful opportunity for students and their families to engage in valuable learning.
The presentation will be posted on the Online Learning Hub's Wellbeing Page on Sunday 13th September at 5pm.
The SRC have been busy supporting this event, and have created beautiful art to advertise our workshops, while also reflecting upon what wellbeing means to them.
Please see below for some beautiful examples:
The Sacraments of Reconciliation/Penance, First Reception of Eucharist, and Confirmation will not be celebrated in the Archdiocese this year. If we receive any further information we shall inform you as soon as is possible.
Any further enquiries may be directed to
Fr Hayes at the Parish Office: 90688600.
In last week's Wellbeing Feedback Survey we asked the question, "I understand the child safety rules and guidelines around Online Learning." We had 8.3% answer NO. To address this, I spoke specifically about online safety protocols for families during last Monday's assembly and asked all children to go to the Cyber Safety section of our Online Hub and read over the various elements with their parents.
As the whole school does not necessarily attend the Monday assembly I am going over this again.
Since last week's survey and this Monday's talk with the students, you may be aware that there was a horrifying video uploaded onto TikTok, Insta and Facebook. We have continually asked for your support of our cyber safety policy which upholds the world wide protocol that children under 13 are not to hold social media accounts.
There is a reason for this. You cannot unsee things. Our strict policy is to protect our students, your children from seriously damaging posts. This was never truer than this week.
If, as an adult, you see material that is alarming or dangerous we ask that you report it to the social media platform you’ve seen it on, or to eSafety at www.esafety.gov.au/report/illegal-harmful-content.
Please go to the Online Hub and read our Cyber Safety section and discuss it with your children. Please be vigilant in monitoring what your child is watching.
Thank you so much to the families who participated in 'Light in the Darkness' last week. You have to watch the presentation that Miss Archer has put together. It is really beautiful. It was also shared in last week's Parish Bulletin prompting the lovely response below.
Click here for presentation Light in the Darkness Photos
After looking at the link seeing how the parents and children of OLOL took up the invitation to participate in the VCC suggestion of ‘A Light in the Darkness’, I decided to write and congratulate all who participated.
approached the idea. As principal you must be thrilled with the result.
Outreach Project from St Agnes' Primary School, Port Macquarie
I was recently approached by a school in New South Wales with a beautiful and thoughtful opportunity. Due to the current COVID lockdown in Victorian, the Year Six Leaders from St Agnes' Primary School in Port Macquarie (NSW) have very kindly offered to video themselves reading stories that they would like our students and teachers to use on our digital learning platforms.
They are also creating messages of support for our students to view during this lockdown.
The very special thing about this project is that OLOL actually has a link with St Agnes. We didn't know this at the time that we agreed to be part of the initiative but Angus (who is one of St Agnes' school captains and initiators of this project) is actually Ella Pieramati's big cousin! What lucky children Ella and Ollie are to have such a thoughtful leader as a cousin!
St Agnes has conducted a comprehensive risk assessment around this program and I, as principal, have signed off on behalf of the staff and families of OLOL agreeing to the following protocols.
- Only share the videos on an agreed password-protected learning platform such as Google Classroom or Seesaw
- Only share the videos with students from Our Lady of Lourdes School Prahran East. If the child is in the infant's school, this may be shared on the learning journal parent access on Seesaw
- Ensure that all staff engaging with the videos are aware of these protocols
- Not edit or change the content of any videos after they have been shared by St Agnes’ Primary School
- To be aware and familiar with the Australian Publishers Association Copyright during COVID-19 (Copy available through OLOL) pandemic guidelines and to only use videos in a manner appropriate to these guidelines.
- Not use these videos for any other purpose, other than to support student learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kate de Bressac (Deputy Teaching and Learning at the school) also wrote ' We are sending our prayers and support to your school community, this is a wonderful opportunity for our students to live and action their faith through serving others in this difficult time".
We will have our students respond to this lovely action of support but I wanted families to know as well about the beautiful thoughts and gestures that are happening in our country despite the ongoing annoyingness of the virus.
At OLOL, we have been researching the philosophies of Dr Steve Biddulph which align with our school's values and the themes of our current Wellbeing curriculum. Dr Biddulph has authored many well-known books including, but not limited to: Raising Boys, and The Complete Secrets of Happy Children.
Dr Biddulph's information sessions have been launched using an online webinar format and are open to parents across Australia. He hosts different workshops, including: Raising Boys, Raising Girls and The Secret of Happy Children.
A variety of dates are available, and sessions are $16/2 adults as well as free entry to selected sessions for healthcare workers.
Please click the link below for more information regarding available session times, booking and further information about Dr Steve Biddulph.
https://www.stevebiddulph.com/Site_1/2020_Talks_Program_Goes_Online_%21.html
These sessions should prove to be very valuable, and particularly so during these challenging and unpredictable times.
I am looking forward to attending, and welcome any feedback from parents and carers who attend any of Dr Biddulph's webinars.
Many Thanks,
Angelique Gabriel- Wellbeing Leader
An Update on Sezana's Spoonville ...
Well after our article in the last newsletter the population in Sezana's Spoonville went through the roof!!! As I live very close by I have noticed many many people stopping to look at and discuss the colourful display. Thank you to those who participated and know you are bringing a smile to the faces of many of the locals. Like the Light in the Darkness initiative, it is nice to be part of projects bigger than ourselves.