Dear Parents and care givers

Today we are celebrating the opening of our new school buildings on an important day – Mother Foundress Day. Mother Siedliska was the foundress of the Sisters of The Holy Family of Nazareth, and we are fortunate to have had the influence of the Sisters in our school over the past 60 years. The charism or special focus of the Order is to minister to families modelled on the Holy Family. The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, loved each other and loved God. We will have the privilege of having 3 Sisters of the Holy Family with us at the opening and at the Mass at 1pm. The Provincial Superior, Sister Margaret Kozub, will be visiting with Sister Anita and Sister Maureen for the first time in her new role. The children have all learned about Mother Foundress this week, ask your child what they know about this remarkable woman and her Sisters.

The vision and forethought for the development of the new build will be acknowledged at the formal opening and I will take the opportunity to thank the School Board, Mr Chris Kenworthy and the Parents and Friends for the facilities we share. The Federal Government’s contribution to the funding of the build will be acknowledged as will the contribution of parents from our school who have contributed to the Building Levy over the years. Every building and resource our current students use and play on has been contributed to by our generous parent community.  I am grateful to those who have come before us for these lovely resources.

The second part of our Mother Foundress Day is our Mass and afternoon tea to thank our many volunteers. We are blessed to have parent, grandparent, family and parish members who contribute to our school in so many ways. Some are just starting their journey with our school community and some have contributed over many years. No matter how you have volunteered or how long you have volunteered for you have made a positive contribution to the lives of our students and school community for which we are grateful. I look forward to sharing this Liturgy, certificate and afternoon tea with all our volunteers tomorrow starting at 1pm in the Church. We have volunteers in LAP, classrooms, Art classes, canteen, Library, Class Representatives, School Board, P&F, busy bees,

This weekend the Feast of Christ The King is celebrated in our Liturgical Calendar. The Feast of Christ The King marks the beginning of the Season of Advent. The Season of Advent is an opportunity to pause and reflect as we wait for the birth of Christ. It is a time of waiting – which is something that we do not naturally do in this day and age of instant gratification. We have been most fortunate to have repurposed the beautiful material banners from the Our Lady of Grace Parish and have them hanging in our MPA to remind us of this special time. You are welcome to view the banners in the MPA with your children to talk about the symbolism and colours used.

My thanks to those generous families who once again donated goods to The St Vincent De Paul Christmas Hamper appeal. This is a great collaboration with the Parish St Vincent De Paul Association and was capably led by Mrs Christou and her team working with Sister Anita, Mrs Walsham and the Year 6 Wellbeing Ministry.

God bless

Gabrielle Doyle
Principal

This week's assembly is presented by the students in Pre-Primary Blue.
Congratulations to the students who received a merit award at last week's assembly.

Library Roster

This Friday, 4 students from Year 5 will be attending the Catholic Youth Summit at Chisolm College with Mrs Wandek. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet other students and work together to build resiliency, cooperation and leadership skills. The students will be actively participating in a range of activities that will involve them physically, mentally and emotionally. They will then bring back to their classmates, ideas and skills that will develop our future leaders.

THANK YOU
Thank you to the parents who volunteered their time on Saturday morning to help spread mulch.  The gardens look spectacular.
We are very honoured to have many parents who donate their time to help out around the school doing many things.

ENROLMENTS FOR 2020: As we are now in the process of preparing for next year’s enrolments, it is now time to advise the office if you are leaving us at the end of this year (with the exception of Year 6). We do however require notification in writing and where your child/ren will be attending next year. Please hand your letters into the office as a term's notice is required. Thank you.

UNIFORM SHOP
If you have received notification that your uniform order is ready for collection, can you please do so as soon as possible. The Uniform Shop is open Tuesday afternoon 2.15pm - 3.00pm and Friday 8.15am - 9.00am.  Thank you.

Administration of Schools (AoS)

Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) has committed to a new Administration software platform that has been a work in progress for the last couple of years.

As the demands of modern schools increase, the services required to support schools increase faster still. AoS (Admin of Schools) is a comprehensive engine designed to integrate all of these services and unit them in one central management system. Our Lady of Grace School have been working with staff from CEWA in preparation for the implementation of AoS, to replace our current Administration System.

Please be aware that this will occur as of Friday 6th December. There will be several changes such as a new BPAY reference number and SEQTA logins.

BPAY reference number - We will send you a Fee Statement showing your current balance and updates payment details in the coming weeks. Please take note of your new BPAY reference number on the attached Fee Statement. Prior to making any BPAY payments, please update your bank account details to the new BPAY reference number.

Seqta Engage - We will send Parents/Carers a link to setup their accounts. All families are required to setup their new account within a week of receiving the link in order to access past reports. Please ensure you keep your username and password, in order to use this again at the end of the year.

We appreciate your patience during the transition period.

Colour Blindness and Scoliosis.

Colour blindness means that a person cannot distinguish some colours or see the colours differently to other people. Very few people who are colour blind are ‘blind’ to all colours. Commonly, the colours seen differently are greens, yellows, oranges and reds.

Scoliosis is an abnormal sideways curvature of the spine. It can be detected by a simple examination of the back. The normal spine has three curves – one in the neck, on in the upper back and one in the lower back. These curves can be seen from the side, but when you look from behind the spine should appear straight. If the spine has a sideways curve, this is scoliosis.

An information leaflet on colour blindness will be distributed to all pre-primary and year 6 students in term 4. Please take the time to read the pamphlet.

While the Scoliosis information leaflet will be given to all year 6 students in term 4. Please take the time to read the pamphlet.

For more information and see the Colour Blind Awareness and Support Group on http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~doverton/

If you have any concerns regarding, colour vision testing please discuss it with your general practitioner, an eye specialist or optometrist.

If you have concerns regarding Scoliosis please discuss this with your general practitioner.

You can also contact your local Community Health Nurse, Sandra Carmody on 0404 087 710

BOOKLISTS 2020
In our many forums for feedback this year I have heard lots of feedback about booklists from parents. Teachers are looking at booklists and using current resources to reduce impact on families whilst ensuring students have the resources they need for learning.  The ICT Strategy for Year 4 – 6 in 2020 will impacts booklists as less stationery is required. In an effort to reduce costs to families the school will bulk order specialist stationery for 2020. The booklist for 2020 will include one Mathematics text book and some year specific resources, such as a recorder for Year 3 as well as generic pencils/pens/pencil case. A letter explaining the reduced booklist, the ordering process and the payment process will go out next week.

I look forward to hearing your feedback next year once we have trialled this new system.

iPad's for  Years 4 - 6 2020
If you wish to have your iPad delivered this year you will need to order through the school portal no later than 25th November 2019 and they will be delivered to the school by 16th December.  Any purchases after this date will be delivered in 2020.

If your child turns four before 30 June 2021 they are eligible to enrol in Our Lady of Grace School 2021 Kindergarten Program.

Tours, interviews and enrolment for Pre-Kindy and Kindy are now open.

Don't miss out : Please contact Vicki Ryan for an enrolment package and an interview time on 6241 9500 or email: vicki.ryan@cewa.edu.au

Friday Morning Early Year Tours are now available at 9.30am

Please find attached the Canteen Menu
Ordering is available via https://quickcliq.com.au/

Alternatively you can place your child's order in the class canteen bucket. 
For existing users of Quickcliq

If your child's order does not go through and they have no lunch, we will supply them with a sandwich.  We will no longer have additional items available due to food wastage costs.
We have Gluten Free Bread, available for all sandwich fillings this year, toasted is also available.  Any queries please feel free to come and see us.

We thank you for your continued support of the canteen.

Flexibuzz - Tick Canteen Box 
This is a whole school reminder for everyone to please tick the canteen box on FlexiBuzz for all future canteen related information, including updated rosters, roster swaps and reminders. This information will only be posted on FlexiBuzz, not on Facebook, so please tick the box and tell all your friends to do the same, otherwise you'll miss out.
Thank you,
Jemima and Peta.

REQUIRED:

A NEW SACRAMENTAL TEAM MEMBER 
We are looking for an interested parent to join our Sacramental Team.  Planning for 2020 will take place over the coming weeks and the team  would like to continue to work at improving the way we support families as they bring their children to the sacraments.  If this interests you please contact Clare Broad sacramental.olg@gmail.com

Our Lady of Grace are seeking parents who may be interested in joining the ministry of the acolyte or senior altar ministers. 

Please consider before expressing your interest, your commitments with your children and family. 

Rosters are geared around masses on Saturday 6pm, and Sunday 7.30am, 9.30am and 5.30pm. You may be rostered to serve at any of these times, although preferences are at times considered. Please contact Carla Christou for more details.

0413 567462 or carlachristou@iprimus.com.au

CHURCH CLEANERS NEEDED
The current roster needs an injection of new volunteers to ensure our church is cleaned each week for the weekend masses.

We try to have groups of 4 or 5 who dust and vacuum on either Friday or Saturday mornings.  Each group is rostered on to clean about 4 times a year.  Everything you need is provided in the cleaning room at the back of the church.  Please consider joining this valued ministry.  You can join by yourself and be placed in a group, join with a friend or make up a group of your own.  

If you would like to join the roster please contact Clare Broad sacramental.olg@gmail.com or Sheralee in the Parish Office 9448 4888

TERM 4 EVENTS

§  P & F AGM Meeting                 Wednesday 27th November @ 7.00pm

§  P & F Parents Sundowner          Friday 29th November @ 7pm

§  P & F OLG Dads Group             Sunday 1st December @ 2pm

PARENTS SUNDOWNER

§  Friday 29th November at North Beach Lawn Bowls Club
All parents are invited to come along to our end of year sundowner at North Beach Lawn Bowls Club.

From 6.30pm for lawn bowls, grazing and cheap drinks. Tickets are $15 per person, and can be booked via TryBooking: https://www.trybooking.com/BGXYN

ROCK CLIMBING – OLG Dads Group

§  Sunday 1st December at City Summit, Malaga

We look forward to all dads and kids coming along and joining our OLG Dad’s Group. In association with the P & F and The Fathering Project for some indoor rock climbing fun. Starts at 2pm and cost is $20pp. Please reply via our Flexibuzz post or on our OLG P & F Facebook page.

2020 P & F EXEC COMMITTEE Positions - AGM
As part of the Constitution, P & F Executive Committee members are required to step down to make way for new Committee members at the end of their 3 year tenure. Based on this the following positions will be available at the end of this year:

·         Vice President

·         Secretary

·         Treasurer

Coming along to the AGM is another great opportunity to be directly informed and learn how you can get involved in making a difference for our kids. If you’re interested in wanting to make a difference for our kids, and would like to learn more about these positions please speak to or email Tony Papotto – exec@olgpf.com

Have a great week everyone!

P & F Executive Committee

VacSwim 2019-20
Enrol now for VacSwim summer holiday swimming lessons!

With swimming pools and beaches a big part of the Western Australian lifestyle, it’s essential that your children learn how to swim and stay safe in the water.

VacSwim is for all children - from beginners to more advanced swimmers. Your children can start as young as five years old.

There are over 180 VacSwim locations around Western Australia, so wherever your family is spending these summer holidays, there will be lessons near you.

Enrol your children in VacSwim now at education.wa.edu.au/swimming.