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- Religious Education
- Principals Report
- National Simultaneous Reading Day
- Australian Early Development Census
- School Attendance
- Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD)
- Leader of Learning
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- Year 5 Class
- Scholastic Book Club
- NAPLAN
- Thursdays Pick-up 2.30 pm
- Term 2 Calendar
- Health and Wellness
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- Happy Birthday!!!!
Pope Francis’s intention prayer for May
Catholic Education Week
Last week we joined Catholic Schools across South Australia to celebrate Catholic Education Week. This year schools in the Diocese of Port Pirie were inspired by the theme of hospitality. Hospitality can encompass so many things, at the heart of it is that we ensure people feel that they belong. Showing hospitality can be hosting big events or as simple as a welcoming smile. Below are some photos of the different ways our school offered hospitality during Catholic Education Week.
Pentecost
Next Sunday concludes our season of Easter, and the feast of Pentecost is celebrated. Pentecost is a significant event in our Catholic tradition when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is celebrated on the Sunday 50 days after Easter (the name comes from the Greek pentekoste, "fiftieth"). Pentecost is when the disciples first encountered the Spirit, promised by Jesus, that animated them to spread the gospel of Jesus and gather believers to form what would eventually become the Church. This is why Pentecost is regarded as the birthday of the Christian Church, and the start of the Church's mission to the world.
Sacramental Program
The Sacrament of First Holy Communion will be celebrated on Sunday 6th June at 9:00am in St. Mary’s Church. Lily Andrews, Ally Sweet, and Ocea Vallelonga along with parish members, Jemilla Dowell, Adam Hunter, Indie Knowling and Chelsea Rosenzweig have begun preparation for this special sacrament. We congratulate these children on their sacramental journey and wish them many blessings. Please keep our sacramental children in your prayers. You are very welcome to join the celebrations by attending Mass and supporting our students.
Father in Heaven,
We ask for your blessings on our students as they prepare for the Sacrament of First Holy Communion. We pray that their relationship with You be strengthened as they receive the body and blood of Jesus. May they always know the peace of Jesus, the light of his love and the joy of his life. May they be forever blessed as they continue to trust in You and grow in Your Grace.
Amen
May the generous hospitality of God’s gracious love be with you always,
Rosemary Perre
APRIM
Click on the below link to read the latest edition of The Southern Cross:
Dear Parents, Caregivers, Staff, Students and Friends,
Welcome to Week Three! There is quite a bit of additional testing and data collection occurring for some year groups over the next few weeks. Our Junior Primary students will be involved in the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). This data collection occurs once every three years and is vital in giving us a national picture of children's development, health, and well-being in their first year of full-time school. While most of the data collection is completed by our educators, there will also be some small tasks that students will finish with the teacher. Please don't hesitate to come and see us if you have any questions about this.
In addition to the AEDC, our Year 3, 5 and 7 students have participated in their online NAPLAN testing, which began on Tuesday. Most of this testing should be completed by the end of next week. There are times when students experience some anxiety before and during the testing period of these assessments. Please let me know if we can support your child at school if you are concerned.
Last week we celebrated Catholic Education Week, a time when we celebrate and acknowledge the history and rich tradition that forms the basis for the high quality contemporary Catholic education that Catholic schools in South Australia provide to the community. We have new signage placed on our school fencing and have informed families that there are no school fees for our Bright Start Transition program and our mid-year Reception families in 2021. Please encourage friends who are considering a Catholic education for their children to book a personal school tour with me in the Administration Office (85821128).
Families are also reminded that St Francis of Assisi College, Renmark, is accepting enrolments for Year 7 and Year 8, 2022. If you're interested in an enrolment interview with the Principal, Nathan Hayes, drop into the office, 129 Renmark Avenue, Renmark, or call 8595 4500, or visit our website www.assisi.catholic.edu.au Mr Nathan Hayes will also be visiting our school on Thursday May 20, attending our Foundation/Year 1 Mass at 9am and morning tea afterwards.
Appreciation to the school community for your donations towards our morning tea hampers distributed this week to our chosen community service providers, thanking them for their efforts and care provided in our town of Berri.
We also heard from more than 60% of our community through the Communication Survey. Leadership is pleased with the 4.07-star rating for parent/carers feeling well informed about what is happening in the school. We thank parents for their suggestions and ideas on how to further improve our communications. Seesaw is now our most popular and preferred communication tool outside of our fortnightly newsletters.
Peace and best wishes for a beautiful fortnight ahead.
Ros Oates
Principal
National Simultaneous Reading Day
Our Lady of the River School will be participating in the National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) annual event on Wednesday May 19. The NSS aims to engage children of all ages to enjoy books by creating a sense of excitement around reading. Reading ignites a spark of adventure that a child can carry within their heart well into their adult life. At Our Lady of the River School we value the skills of literacy this is promoted through this vibrant and fun event.
For the first time ever, not only will the official story for National Simultaneous Storytime be read by over 1 MILLION kids across Australia and New Zealand on Wednesday 19th May 2021, but it will also be read by astronauts from the International Space Station! At 11 am all the students will join together as a whole school to listen to the text 'Give me some SPACE'.
Australian Early Development Census
Playing our part to build a national picture of child health.
In early 2021, our school, along with thousands of others across the country will begin preparations for the fifth Australian Early Development Census (AEDC).
The AEDC gives us a national picture of the development, health and wellbeing of children in their first year of full-time school. Since 2009, the census results have helped communities, schools and governments plan services and develop better policies to target support for children and families. Children don’t miss any class time, and parents/carers don’t need to supply schools with any new information for the census. The AEDC gives us data at a school and community level - it isn’t an assessment of individual children.
Some teachers have also noticed that completing the assessments made them more aware of the needs of individual children and the class as a whole and that the census results are useful in planning for transitions to Year 1 and developing class programs.
Participation in the AEDC is voluntary. Parents/carers don’t need to take any action unless they choose not to include their children in the census.
To find out more about the census and how communities are using the data to help children and families visit the AEDC website: www.aedc.gov.au.
If you have any questions, you can contact the Principal, Mrs Ros Oates.
Education for your child is important and regular attendance at school is essential for your child to achieve their educational best and increase their career and life options.
Arriving at school and on time:
- Ensures that students do not miss out on important learning activities scheduled early in the day
- Helps students learn the importance of punctuality and routine
- Gives students time to greet their friends before class
- Reduces classroom disruption.
Student learning is more successful when students are present consistently for the whole school day. Students who arrive “just a few minutes late…” miss out on vital information on the day ahead. Please refer to our infographic attached to this week's newsletter.
Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD)
'Today Our Lady of the River School participated in the Annual Walk to School Day. It was wonderful to see so many parents and friends join staff and students for this walk.
Thank you to Brooke from Magic FM for coming along and highlighting to the community through their live radio broadcast the objectives of (WSTSD).
Walk Safely to School Objectives:
- To encourage parents and carers to walk to school with primary school age children and reinforce safe pedestrian behaviour.
- To promote the health benefits of walking and help create regular walking habits at an early age.
- To ensure that children up to 10 years old hold an adult's hand when crossing the road.
- To help children develop the vital road-crossing skills they will need as they become mature pedestrians.
- To reduce the car dependency habits that are being created at an early age and which will be difficult to change as children become adults.
- To reduce the level of air pollution created by motor vehicles.
- To reduce the level of traffic congestion.
Decodable Texts - taken from Little Learners Love Literacy Information page. Decodable books are stories (or nonfiction texts) written for young or struggling learners to read by ‘decoding’ (sounding out and blending sounds to read words). Each decodable book only uses the sounds and letters that children have been explicitly taught to date. Decodable books also use a small number of taught high-frequency tricky words (Heart words) that are not yet decodable, but are needed to construct sentences in continuous text, such as ‘said’ and ‘one’ and ‘the’.
Decodable books…
- Only use words that can be decoded (or taught tricky words
- Follow the phonics teaching sequence used in the classroom, so children never have to read a word thatthey cannot sound out and blend
- Avoid predictable sentence structures
The purpose of a decodable book...
- To practice and apply letter-sound relationship knowledge taught to date through a meaningful, continuous text
- To build fluency, stamina andcomprehension
- To build confidence and enjoyment in reading.
Mel Steele
Leader of Learning
Hi all,
Welcome to Term 2!
School sport is about to ramp up again with the SAPSASA Cross-Country Carnival next Wednesday 19th May at Waikerie. The SAPSASA Soccer Carnival will closely follow this event on Friday 28th May at the Steve Poutakidis Playing Fields, Renmark. We wish all of our OLOR competitors the best of luck!
I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate all the OLOR competitors who competed in the SAPSASA Football/Netball Carnival held at Loxton on 6th April. It was a fantastic day in terms of weather and we had some great results. The girls played some exciting and skilful netball throughout the day, making it all the way to the grand final. Thank you to Naomi Mitchell for helping with coaching duties.
The Berri football team, coached masterfully by Mr Cotter, also showed some exciting signs and competitiveness during their games.
From this event, we had several students selected in both the netball and football teams who will compete in Adelaide later this term. Congratulations to Bella Gates, Miley Mitchell, Tatam Hunt, Connor Kruger and Jack Hunter. We know they will all represent OLOR and the wider Riverland district with pride.
Have a great weekend!
Kind regards,
Thomas Charlton
Year 7 Teacher/Sports Coordinator
Year 5 were very excited to host this week’s assembly. We had learnt a new song for our opening prayer, called “A Rightful Place” by Steve Angrisano. The song invites us to be a part of building God’s kingdom of truth and grace, and speaks to our diocesan theme of ‘Come and Stay’ as it encourages us to let people know they will always have a place in God’s kingdom.
Last term, in Geography, we learnt about natural disasters like floods and fires. Our assessment task was to design a town and show the safety measures that could be put in place to protect the citizens from any flood risks. The students designed some amazing towns and had some super creative ideas on how they could mitigate flood risks. During assembly we showed videos of students giving a tour of their towns.
In Week 1 this term, the Year 5 and 6 classes joined to begin a unit of work called ‘Healthy Plants, Healthy People’.
We had some guest presenters from Ag Communicators come in to talk to us about plant science and help us create our own science experiments investigating adaptations on plants. We are investigating the impact of salt, different types of soil, and coloured light on wheat plants. They have sprouted quite quickly, and we are now tracking and comparing their growth to see what we can learn about maximising crops by altering the growing conditions. Stay tuned for our results!
Please see Sandy if you have any questions regarding ordering. Thank you.
A reminder to families of Years 3, 5 and 7, NAPLAN is in Week 3 & 4, 14 – 22 May. Please ensure these dates are in your diaries and that your children are promptly at school on these days as the assessment time frames start in the morning block. NAPLAN tests the essential skills for every child to progress through school and life, such as Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar and Numeracy. It is important to remember that NAPLAN is not about passing or failing but about assessing learning progress. It is one test on one day, not a representation of all your child's strengths and abilities.
Please feel free to contact your child's teacher or the Leadership Team if you have any questions at all about the NAPLAN Assessment Program. Results for individual students will be sent home to families once they arrive at the school later in the year.
Our teachers have been working with students to ensure that they are prepared and confident for the NAPLAN Assessment. I am sure that all students participating will demonstrate their personal best.
Parents are requested to notify the Administration Office if their child is to remain at school after 2.30 pm till 3.15 pm.
If parents are more than 15 minutes late after school for pick-up any days, please collect your child from the Administration Office. This process must be followed to ensure all children are safe.
Please keep up to date with everything happening at Our Lady of the River School via our school newsletter. Attached with today's newsletter is a draft calendar for Term 2, 2021.
Over the past couple of weeks we have had a number of students and staff who have required time at home because of ill health. As we head into the cooler months, when cold and flu symptoms are common, it is important that we are mindful of our own health and the health of others. If your child has any symptoms please do not send them to school. Cold and flu symptoms are quickly spreading and infecting others - maybe our immunity is low after the lack of contact we had over last winter.