Our Lady of Grace Newsletter No images? Click here It is by love that God has always led me, by love God reproves me, by love that God lets me see love in all. TERM 1 WEEK 1 - 05 FEBRUARY 2020 PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGEDear Parents, Each year brings the excitement and inevitable change of classes, teachers and classmates. It is normal to have some ‘nerves’ about a new classroom, new teacher, new classmates and changes to friendship groups as children move through the grades. The initiative to meet and greet before starting school emerged from our Wellbeing Strategy and the OLG SHARER model. We believe students have the ability to learn from and cope with change, our job, as adults, is to help them process this and to acknowledge their concerns. We are also called to help children recognize and be grateful for the many opportunities change brings us. As parents and teachers our language we use with our students reflects our mindset around change, we will always work with our students to help them be skilled in adapting to, creating and embracing change. One thing that is constant in this world is change. Our staff met for two days last week and started to drill down into the OLG Vision for Learning and what this means for our students and staff. Over the next couple of weeks we will be refining and re-energizing the following areas to make them more consistent across the school. Information will be provided on these aspects of school life that are already in place in many classes; · Christian Meditation Next week is a busy one with Year 6 Student Leadership Retreat, Parent Information Evening and our first Whole School Mass. The Parent Information Evening is an important step in being able to communicate to our community the focus for the year and all the classroom information to make your child’s year a productive one. We listened to your feedback last year and we have refined our communication to parents, this will be explained as will the many new initiatives at school including the exciting “House” system as well as the launch of our Vision for Learning. We will meet in the Multi Purpose Area for a 6pm start then class information sessions commence at 6.30pm and repeated at 7.00pm. I look forward to seeing as many parents as possible on Wednesday 12th February 6pm in the MPA. Our first whole school Mass is an important one where we get to acknowledge the many types of leadership in our school. We will present our Leadership Team, School Board, Parent & Friends Association and our Student Leaders as well as welcome our new staff to Our Lady of Grace. Please join us in the Church for 9am, you are very welcome to sit next to your child with their class for Mass. Our sign on the grass reads, “Hi friends, welcome”, thanks to Mr Thomas, our gardener for helping us with this greeting to you all. Friends work together, look out for each other and work through issues respectfully, they share joy, sadness and laughter. Welcome to our school community as we work to bring our Vision for Learning to life this year. God Bless. Gabrielle Doyle Student Wellbeing With the current hot weather staff have made the decision that the Multi Purpose Area will be made available to all children at lunch time when the temperature reaches 36 degrees. On those days oval play will be suspended and children informed that they may play in the MPA. The Hive is always open at lunchtime for children and various student groups run during lunch, (Chess, gardening etc). This is passive play and often children wish to be active during recess and lunch. If they choose to play outside children will be encouraged to play in shaded areas, drink lots of water and generally adapt to the heat. Sun block is available in each classroom and each classroom is air conditioned. Information regarding the Coronavirus and the possible impact on schools is provided in a daily update by Catholic Education WA Ltd. As this information is rapidly changing, due to the nature of the virus, information will be updated on our website daily. Notifications of changes will be sent through flexibuzz. Please read the information as misinformation provided by well meaning people can be distressing for families. Please speak with Vicki Ryan if you are concerned at all or seek clarification. Device Enrolment and Management Update This year, Our Lady of Grace School has begun the implementation of a 1:1 iPad program in Years 4 – 6. All students in Year 1 – 3 will have access to technology through a levy on school fees. It is not a requirement that iPads be purchased for students in those year groups. As I visit each class, it has been a joy to witness how excited the children are about using the technology in their learning. As with any new system, there are always glitches that can cause frustration, and I thank families for their patience as we work through these issues. We are working very closely with our IT partners to ensure that all devices are correctly managed on school premises. The online safety and upskilling of our children is our priority in all our decision making. At the end of 2019, parents were invited to purchase devices through the school portal. These devices are now enrolled and being managed by our school management system Jamf School (formerly Zulu Desk). Those devices purchased outside of the school portal have been enrolled in the system, however they are not being actively managed. In order to complete this step, our IT partner has advised that device need to be manually configured at school. This will cause the iPad to be wiped. Once this process has been completed, other apps can be installed. So that no information or data is lost, it is important to ensure that photos and other important data is backed up. This process will begin next Tuesday
11th February. We are more than happy to offer support in backing up your child’s data if required. Student Support Literacy Over the next three weeks teachers in Years 1- 3 will be completing assessments in literacy and numeracy. These assessments are used to help identify students who may require further support. At Our Lady of Grace, a number of different support programs are offered to students with identified needs. In literacy we offer Reading Recovery, Sounds Write and Levelled Literacy Intervention (LLI). Reading Recovery is designed to support students in Year 1. Sounds Write is a phonic based program for students in Years 1- 6 and LLI focuses on reading comprehension for students in years 1- 6. These programs are offered based on the needs of the students. Mrs Cutrona and Mrs Allison teach these programs and will notify parents by letter in week 4 if their child has been identified as requiring extra support. Numeracy - EMU (Extending Mathematics Understanding) EMU is a numeracy support program. It is a research based intervention program that is designed to extend mathematical understandings for children who are not gaining as much as they need from the classroom mathematics program and require extra support with the year level mathematics learning. It is a developmental, comprehensive and strategic approach to mathematics learning, for students in the early years of schooling. Students in Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 are assessed using the Mathematics Assessment Interview (MAI) in February. From these results and in consideration with the child’s classroom teacher small groups are formed to join daily intensive mathematics lessons with the EMU Specialist Teacher. Parents are informed early in Term 1 and again in Term 3 if their child demonstrates that they would benefit from a small group intervention and their child is invited to join a 10 - 20 week program. Mathematics Assessment Interview - MAI Throughout the first three weeks of Term One all the students in Year 1, 2 and 3 will be assessed with the Mathematics Assessment Interview (MAI). The MAI assessment is a research based, diagnostic tool. It is a one to one interview conducted by the classroom teacher. It is used to provide insights into the student’s thinking and mathematical understanding in the areas of counting, place value, addition/subtraction and multiplication/division. The data profile collected offers focused planning for teaching in the classroom, it highlights both the strengths and needs for each student in the class. The Mathematics Assessment Interview is also a valuable opportunity for the classroom teacher to talk to each of their students individually and gauge how they feel completing mathematical tasks. Gifted & Talented The Our Lady of Grace iHOTS program (Identified Higher Order Thinking Skills Program) is run by Mrs Gen Fenlon and is designed to develop student’s innovation, problem solving skills, critical, creative and abstract thinking skills and knowledge in a variety of ways, covering an array of subject areas. Students are identified for the program through a series of standardized tests and teacher surveys, to ascertain those who would most benefit from this different style of learning program. Term Dates 2020 Term 1 Monday 3rd February - Thursday 9th April Term 2 Tuesday 28th April - Friday 3rd July Term 3 Monday 20th July - Friday 25th September Term 4 Monday 12th October - Friday 11th December Choir Begins 🎵 Senior and Junior Choir begin in Week 2. Choir is held in the new music room. Practice times are as follows: Senior Choir: Wednesdays 8:00 – 8:45 am. Please bring an A4 display folder Junior Choir Please check next week’s newsletter for full choir information. Senior Choir Musical Instrument Lessons Father Hyigenus Father Hyigenus returns from holidays this week. On behalf of our school community, I would like to offer Father Hyigenus our deepest sympathies on the passing of his Mother. Uniform Shop Sacred Heart Applications – Priest References Please note, as Father Hyginus is away, the Parish Priest Reference for Sacred Heart applications have been extended to 13th March. New Sacramental team members required 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 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 Please find attached the 2020 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 - GF is available. We will no longer have additional items available due to food wastage costs. This year we will have available Gluten Free bread, available for all sandwich fillings, toasted is also available. Any queries please feel free to come and see us. Thank you to the parents who have joined our roster system this term. Please ensure you to tick the canteen button on flexibuzz receive your shift notification and for all canteen news. The canteen cannot operate without the assistance of volunteers so if you would like to help out and get to know how we work, we would love you to join our roster. Please contact Peta Taylor - 0419 260 832 if you would like to go on the roster and see the joy on your child's face when they visit. By supporting the canteen, you ensure the viability of this service is available for our OLG Community. Please remember you can order online at: https://quickcliq.com.au/sign-up.aspx Welcome back to our parents and friends of OLG! The P&F Committee is looking forward to sharing our complete events program and meeting dates with you via FlexiBuzz and the newsletter over the coming weeks. OLG 2020 Events – Welcome Back Picnic OLG 2020 Wall Calendars Place your orders: http://www.trybooking.com/BHFLD OLG Business Community A warm welcome back in Term 1 and hoping everyone had an enjoyable school holiday break! P&F Executive Committee We acknowledge the original custodians of this land, the Nyungar people, and show our respect for their ancestors and traditions. Our Lady of Grace School |