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- Religious Education
- Principals Report
- Leader of Learning
- NAPLAN 2021
- School Photos 2021
- Monster Easter Raffle
- Student Achievement
- Harmony Day Sunday, 21st March
- Sports Report
- Headphones
- Scholastic Book Club
- Work Health & Safety
- 2021 School Fees
- Canteen Menu & Price List
- Happy Birthday!!!!
- Community News
Project Compassion "Be More" Causal Day
On Friday the 5th March, The Year Seven Students hosted a Casual day to support Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion for 2021. Students were invited to attend school dressed in an outfit that encouraged them to “Be More”. The Theme for this casual day was taken from Project Compassion, and the inspiration for the Theme this year comes from St. Oscar Romero. St Oscar was a hero to his people, and he was the voice of the voiceless. He dedicated his life to stand up against injustices such as poverty, assassinations, and torture. He persevered in the face of adversity. His famous quote, "Aspire, not to have more, but to Be More!" is the focus of Project Compassion 2021. In our Religion Lessons, the Year Seven students have explored what it means to be more for others. We discussed how we could be more by being charitable, giving up ourselves and our own time to serve others. The students committed to giving up some of their time without having anything materialistic returned to them. They tapped into their own interests and talents and shared these with the rest of the school to make our casual day a little more fun. Some students organised futsal games, and there was an outdoor dance party and cupcakes and cookies were. The day was a huge success, and our school raised $320 towards Project Compassion. I wish to thank everyone for their generous donations of money and time to support a terrific cause.Polish Afternoon Tea
On Wednesday 17th March, we were graced with a visit from our new Bishop, Karol Kulczycki, and Director of Catholic Education from the Port Pirie Diocese, Mrs Nichii Mardon. To commemorate this special occasion, we decided to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and St. Joseph’s day together with a Polish afternoon tea. Students dressed up in red and green to honour both St. Joseph and St. Patrick. In an attempt to make Bishop Karol feel at home here at Our Lady of the River School, we hosted a feast of delicious polish sweets, which included pączki – a traditionally filled doughnut, chruściki - a fried polish pastry and Ciasteczka Maslane z Dzemem – a polish cookie filled with jam. Traditional polish music organised by Oliver Sims completed our afternoon tea. The School Captains led Bishop Karol and Mrs Mardon on a Tour of our school, where they were impressed by singing from our Year 2 and Year 3 students. Bishop Karol sampled our pączki and said they were about 70% the real deal. This was a wonderful way to welcome the bishop, and I’m sure he will remember our OLOR hospitality with fondness.
First Reconciliation
There will be a First Reconciliation Workshop hosted on Thursday 25th March at 4:00 in the Multipurpose Room. I am looking forward to touching base with the parents of our First Reconciliation students.
Students from OLOR will celebrate the First Sacrament of Reconciliation on Monday 29th March at 6:00 pm in St. Mary’s Church.
Easter Liturgies - Our Lady of the Riverland Parish
HOLY THURSDAY | Berri: 7:00pm, Loxton 7:00pm |
GOOD FRIDAY | Renmark 3:00pm, Barmera 3:00pm, Waikerie 5:00pm |
HOLY SATURDAY EASTER VIGIL | Loxton 7:00pm |
EASTER SUNDAY |
Berri 9:00am, Morgan 9:00am, Waikerie 11:00am, Renmark 11:00am Barmera 6:00pm |
St. Joseph's Day
This morning, all students gathered in the school gym to celebrate a Liturgy of the Word for St. Joseph’s Day. We also had a special prayer for Harmony Day, which is celebrated nationwide on Sunday, March 21st.
Below is the official Prayer for the Year of St. Joseph,
May God’s peaceful Spirit be with you always,
Rosemary Perre
APRIM
Dear Parents, Grandparents, Carers and Friends,
School Board
The Our Lady of the River School Board has an advisory role in our school. The Board functions within the general goals for the parish and the school's vision and mission statements. The board membership comprises the parish priest, school principal, one staff member elected by the school staff, parent members elected by the parent body and a parish representative.
The five main areas of responsibility of the School Board are:
- Policy
- Budget
- Planning for the provision and maintenance of school buildings and equipment
- Communication between school and parish communities
- Curriculum policy
Our Lady of the River School Board meets on the third Tuesday of every month, during school term. Prayerful reflection, discernment and consensual decision making are the operating principles of the School Board.
At the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, March 16, the principal thanked and farewelled the following parents for their involvement on the School Board, Chelsea Andrews, Sarah Rothe, Michelle Kennedy and Jayne Wishart.
We have been fortunate that all leaving members have supported and contributed to many initiatives that have made Our Lady of the River School such a special school today.
Board Members
The Our Lady of the River School Board is responsible for working with the School Leadership Administration Team. One initiative we look forward to planning in 2021 is the placement of new play equipment in the schoolyard.
We acknowledge the leadership of the Board members for 2021.
2021 Board Members
Ex-Officio Members:
President – Fr Paul Bourke
Principal – Mrs Ros Oates
Elected Members:
Chairperson: Tammy Kregar
School Representative: Luke Cotter
Parent Representatives: Teresa Colligan, Ryan Vallelonga, Cilla Marsden, Mel Halupka, Dimitria Dale
Parish Representative: Sue Dolling
As a body, the School Board is always seeking to harness the expertise, talents and resources of members of the school community and wider local community for the benefit of the School. There are positions vacant for parents and caregivers on the 2021 School Board. Please see Ros Oates or speak with a current School Board member if you wish to be involved.
St Francis of Assisi College
A Catholic Secondary School for the Riverland opening 2022.
This week successful Community Information Sessions were held in Renmark and Berri.
The College will open with Year 7 and 8 in 2022.
Year 9 will commence in 2023, with a year level added annually until we grow to be a Year 7 to 12 learning community by 2026.
Enrolment applications for St Francis of Assisi will begin in Term 2.
Bishop Karol Kulczycki blessed the site of the College on Thursday, March 18th. Thank you to Jack Hunter for joining Mrs Oates to witness this ceremony and prayer service.
Jack is pictured with Bishop Karol and Fr Paul at the new site on 258 Twentyfirst Street, Renmark.
Ros Oates
Principal
Going home today for students in Year 3-7 is further information about the iheart program that is currently being taught by myself and Ros Oates. Each week students from 3-7 have participated in an hour session about innate wellbeing and resilience. Iheart, which stands for Innate Health Education and Resilience Training, is a program that has been designed to help our children learn about how to experience more of that clarity, perspective, security and resilience – more often. This in turn will begin to build a sustainable culture of resilience and well-being across the whole school.
As well as sessions being taught in classrooms - staff are also participating in the Teacher Wellbeing And Resilience course. All staff and students will be speaking the same iheart language and we are all taking this very special journey together.
I encourage you to speak to your child about the iheart program and what they have taken from it so far. If you have any questions or would like to find out more about the program please see Ros or me. We are moving slowly through the course and have nearly completed the first four foundational sessions together.
Students in R-2 have not participated in any iheart sessions and we are eagerly awaiting the release of the iheart Junior Primary Curriculum.
Mel Steele
Leader of Learning
As previously mentioned, students in Years 3, 5 and 7 around Australia sit the NAPLAN tests. The NAPLAN tests are four individual tests used to determine a student's current level of understanding in the key areas of Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (including Spelling and Grammar and Punctuation) Numeracy.
Students will be sitting the NAPLAN tests online apart from Year 3 doing the writing test on paper. Students will be using school devices. In Week 9 of this term, Thursday, March 25 (10.45-11.45am), all Year 3, 5 and 7 students will sit a national practice test. This test will allow students to experience the test situation, and the different ways questions will be presented and the various online tools. This practice test also tests our state and nation digital capacity for many students to be online simultaneously. All students are strongly encouraged and supported to participate in both the practice test and the actual testing in Week 3-4 of next term.
However, if parents wish to exempt their child from the NAPLAN testing, please discuss this with the principal. We will provide a detailed timetable at the beginning of Term 2 for the testing. With today’s Newsletter, there is a NAPLAN information pamphlet for parents of students in Year 3, 5 and 7. There is also a NAPLAN privacy notice outlining the collection of information about students. If you have any further questions or concerns about your child participating in the tests, or any questions generally, please feel free to come and see your child’s class teacher or the principal.
School photos will be rescheduled to Thursday 6th May. More information will be given out closer to the date.
Photograph / Video Consent Forms
A reminder could all parents please make sure they have completed the consent form sent out in January and return it to the school as soon as possible.
Thank you
Please remember to keep selling tickets for our Easter Raffle. If you sell a book you are most welcome to request another 1-2 from our office.
Donations for our Easter raffle are coming in steadily, thank you so much to all families who have donated something towards our prizes already. All donations on an Easter theme are gratefully accepted.
Cash donations are also appreciated in lieu of an item if it is a bit tricky to get to the shops or deliver a donation to the school. All raffle books are to be returned and donations to be received by Wednesday, 31st March. The raffle will be drawn on Thursday, 1st April. Thank you everyone!
Congratulations to Alexander Foley-Jennings on his outstanding achievements in the local Berri Baseball competition this year. Alexander won the Junior Club Person Award, the perpetual Phillip Goldspeen.
Harmony Day Sunday, 21st March
The continuing message of Harmony Day is "Everyone Belongs". Managed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Harmony Day is celebrated annually around Australia.
It is a day where all Australians celebrate our cultural diversity. We are encouraged to experience and celebrate that our differences make Australia a great place to live! Also clustered with Harmony Day is National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence, March 20, which both seamlessly intersect with our school community committed to making sure we are a community that uses 'Safe Hands and Safe Words'.
In Week 9, Mrs Singh is organising fun activities for students to participate in our mission to engage in daily practises of restoring broken friendships with forgiveness, fairness and justice.
Hi everyone,
Today, seven students from OLOR competed in the South Australian Catholic Primary Schools (SACPSSA) Swimming Carnival held at the SA Aquatic Centre. A full report on the day will be presented at our next assembly on Thursday 25th March. We hope to see you there.
I would like to thank all those parents who nominated their child(ren) for the Riverland SAPSASA District Athletics Day next Wednesday 24th March at Waikerie. Due to the fantastic numbers we received, the school has hired a bus to transport students to and from the event. We wish all our competitors the best of luck.
The school would like to wish Ella Rothe, Max Schubert, Emma Schubert, Wavely Marsden, Slater Marsden and Oliver Sims the best of luck at the Country Swimming Championships held next Friday 26th March. We know you will make us proud.
Kind regards,
Mr Thomas Charlton
Year 7 Teacher/Sports Coordinator
Term 1 | Term 2 | Term 3 | Term 4 |
Tues Week 4 – SAPSASA Swimming @ Loxton |
Wed Week 4 – Cross Country @ Waikerie | Fri Week 1 – Basketball @ Loxton | Fri Week 1 – School Cricket Cup @ Berri |
Wed Week 9 – Athletics @ Waikerie |
Fri Week 5 – Soccer @ Renmark | Sun Week 2 – Golf @ Berri (students only) | Fri Week 6 – Softball (Year 5/6/7) @ Glassy Park |
Tuesday Week 11 – Football (Berri Districts)/Netball (OLOR) @ Loxton |
*Fri Week 8 – SANFL 9-aside football (TBC) | Thurs Week 5 – Tag Rugby @ Berri | |
Tues Week 9 – Hot Shots Tennis @ Berri (Year 3/4 |
We have decided as a school if all students could please provide their own personal headphones for school, Bluetooth headphones are compatible and we are able to help students connect them, however Students must ensure the headphones are charged every day. If you require headphones the ones pictured below will be available to purchase for $7.00 from the front office, please let us know if you require any as we need to place an order as soon as possible.
Note to all Parents: No Glass containers / drink bottles etc. are to be bought to school due to safety reasons. Thank you.
Pat Perre
Don’t forget to pay fees in full by the 9th of April 2021 to receive the 5% early bird discount.
If you have any questions please contact the school on 0885821128 or email info@olor.catholic.edu.au