Newsletter Term 2 Week 6, 2024

Pupil Free Day -Tomorrow Friday June 7 - Preschool & School

Tomorrow,  Friday June 7 is a Pupil Free Day. This day was booked at the beginning of the year and set aside for staff professional learning. It is necessary for staff to access quality professional development and continue to experience new learning to support better student outcomes. As this date is the Friday before the June long weekend, it may be a really great opportunity for a short family getaway somewhere in country SA. I thank you in advance for your support with this.

We will be offering the OSHC program on this day for families who may need child care.

New Reception Classes Term 3

We will be starting two new Reception Class at the beginning of Term 3.  These classes will be based in the rooms behind the current Growing into Reception Class.  Brianna Schwidder and Ros Braham will take 1 class and Elizabeth Dalman will take the other.  Elizabeth is an OLV old scholar and has been teaching / working in the US and is returning with her family.

Port Adelaide Enfield Council Railway Tce Proposal

Background

The car parking in the back car park (Kiss & Drop) and issues along Railway Tce have historically been a point of discussion at School Board meetings.  This area has been a problem even dating back to the 1980’s.

There have been a number of complaints made to the Council about the backing up of cars along Railway Tce caused by cars waiting to turn into the back Car Park.  The Council have been observing and have made a proposal to solve this issue.

Proposal

The proposed solution involves installing “No Stopping” signs from 8am – 9.15am and 2.15pm – 4.00pm on school days along Railway Tce as depicted in the diagram.  This initiative not only aims to encourage road users to utilise the Kiss & Drop park but also to alleviate the congestion at the Railway Tce & Gedville Road intersection during these peak periods.

This is currently in the process of consultation.  We await Council’s direction.

New Playground Proposal

As part of the Stage 2 Building Project is the construction of a new playground area.  This will be located where the builders site huts are currently located and where a number of trees were removed this week.  We have consulted the students and we have been observing the children playing at Josie Agius Reserve and ensured that the most popular pieces of equipment will be included in the new playground.  The theme of the new playground will be “Train Stations”.

I have included a plan of the playground in with this newsletter.  This should be completed after the building has been completed.

Reception Enrolments in 2025 (Term 1 & Term 3)

If you have a child born between:

• 1st November 2018 and 30 April 2020 - Term 1 start
• 1 May 2018 - 31st October 2020 – Term 3 start

Students enrolled to attend OLV begin Growing into Reception (2 full days on their non Preschool days in the 2 terms prior to beginning Reception).

If you would like them to attend Preschool /  Reception at Our Lady of the Visitation School in 2025 / 2026 please contact Tracy on 8440 9700 as soon as possible to organise a personal Principal tour of the school.

Those due to begin in 2025 / 2026 – our Preschool enrolments are quickly filling up.  Priority will be given to those children who will be attending OLV or have had a sibling who has attended our Preschool.  Please get your application in asap to avoid missing a spot.

CAN YOU HELP?

Our Outreach Program is in demand:

St Vinnies Can Drive Winter Appeal – non-perishable items needed by June 28th 2024.

BackPacks4SAKids – warm winter pyjamas required.

All items to be brought into school.

If you are able to assist, please do, it would be VERY MUCH appreciated.

Thanking you in advance.

Dates for Diary – ALL WELCOME

Monday 10th June – Pupil Free Day
Tuesday 18th June – Refugee Mass hosted by 4KK - OLV Church 9.30am
Friday 20th June – Assembly hosted by 2LB - Veritas Centre 2.20pm
Tuesday 2nd July – Celebrating NAIDOC Week Mass hosted by our NUNGA group - OLV
                                  Church 9.30am
Friday 5th July – Assembly hosted by 2EH Veritas Centre - 2.20pm

What’s been?

We celebrated our Pentecost Liturgy on Monday 20th May 2024. Well-done to 5/6LI for their leadership throughout the liturgy.

Pentecost means fiftieth (50th) hence why Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection. Pentecost day was celebrated yesterday in the Church and is often referred to as the ‘birth-day’ of the Church. Today we celebrate ‘the great beginning of the Church’, the day the Holy Spirit first came to the confused and frightened disciples.

This Pentecost event created one family of nations. Even we as individuals have a gift of tongues. It is the gift of love soaked into us by the Holy Spirit. Love unites, love is a common language, by means of love we can speak to all nations.

We celebrated our Visitation of the Blessed Mary story on Friday 31st May. The liturgy was hosted by 4/5JN who diligently took us through our school’s name’s sake. It was a beautiful celebration of Mary and Elizabeth and 4/5JN did it justice. Well-done.

Friday 31st May was a very special day, honoured to Mary, the Mother of God. Our school gathers its name from that special time when Mary, the Mother of Jesus, visited her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Can you imagine what Mary must have been thinking when she was called to be the Mother of God. Saying YES to the unknown. That may be a difficult concept to ponder.  When the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he told her that she was going to be the Mother of Jesus and that her cousin Elizabeth was also going to have a baby.  Once the Angel left, Mary set out to visit Elizabeth and help her.  This visit has become known throughout the Church as The Feast of the Visitation.

We remember that God is at the heart of everything we do at OLV. The Visitation is our story, our school’s journey for all. We are learners navigating our way through life, learning to be more supportive of one another and to be there for one another: we do so with respect and care because everyone belongs here at OLV. Each day we need to make a conscience decision to say YES to being the very best version of ourselves, following Mary’s example.

Year 2 Line Art – (The Arts and Mathematics Cross-curriculum)

Lines are considered one of the 7 most fundamental elements in Art.  Lines can add texture or shading to any subject in a painting or drawing. Students can express emotions or show movement in any artwork using just lines. In this artwork our students used lines to guide the viewer's eyes through the art piece by creating focal points and perspectives. They used diagonal lines, fun zig-zagged lines to vertical, horizontal, parallel lines, curved lines, broken, straight, thin, or thick lines!  

Italian – Mia Famiglia

This term in Italian, Year 2 – Year 6 students learned about family members. We learned how to say the names of family members, how to introduce them and then describe them in Italian. Learning tasks were both written and oral, allowing us to develop our Italian vocabulary and pronunciation.

Year 2 – Year 3 students identified their family member and described them in Italian. George from 3KG wrote about his Mum, stating ‘Mia Mamma é gentile, divertente e simpatica!’ – My Mum is kind, funny and nice!

Year 4 – Year 6 students identified family members, introduced them, described their appearance and then their personality. This involved changing singular words to plurals and selecting the appropriate masculine or feminine noun depending on gender. Hannah from 5/6AM wrote about her brother. She said ‘Questo é mio Fratello. Mio Fratello si chiama Louis. Lui ha marroni capelli e marroni occhi. Lui é divertente, disordinato e alto.’ – This is my brother. My brother is called Louis. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He is funny, messy, and tall.

An excellent few weeks of learning occurred in the Italian room!

World Environment Day

This week OLV celebrated World Environment Day. Since we have introduced our students to Carlos the Compost, Larry Landfill, Rosie Recycling and Timmy 10c, they have shown so much more care and enthusiasm for waste management at school. The children celebrated World Environment Day by dressing up in their favourite bin colours and participating in environment-related activities.

Here is 5/6AM making pledges to support a healthier environment.