OLHC News Issue 14 Term 2 Week 3 2022

Principal Report

Dear Parents, Friends, and Carers,

Catholic Education Week
Catholic Education Week 2022 will be celebrated from 22-28 May. The theme for Catholic Education Week this year is “Share the Good News!” This theme is based on scripture from the Gospel of Mark
-“Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” – Mark 16:15
Our communities are beautiful places that can and do enrich the mystery of Christ’s identity and enable his way to be continually raised up in and by community. “Go into the world and proclaim the good news to the whole of creation,” is an urgent invitation to our community to comprehend the meaning of Jesus’ life to grasp what this looks like in following and enacting God’s dream for the world. We pray that our communities inspire from within to be people of peace, hope, and love in these times of displacement, anxiety, and concern for Earth as our common home: to realise each unique community’s intimate connection in proclaiming who Jesus is and what it means to follow in the light of the gospel for these times. Catholic Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate and enhance the reality of this identity, to dialogue with the Catholic faith tradition and the world in which we live to interpret and proclaim the good news.
St Mary’s School Warracknabeal is hosting us for Catholic Education Week celebrations this year on Friday 27th May. We will also be joined by students and staff from St Patrick’s School Nhill and St Joseph's School Hopetoun.
We will be leaving at approximately 9 am and returning at 3 pm. Students are to wear their sports uniform and take their drink bottle, fruit snack, and recess snacks. Lunch will be provided by the parents of St Mary’s School. If your children have different dietary requirements please have them bring their own additional food. 

Our day will begin with Mass, followed by activities based on the theme of Catholic Education Week. We look forward to a beautiful day celebrating our Catholic schools! 

Please keep an eye on our SIMON platform for further information and the permission form to be signed online.

NAPLAN  COMPLETED

NAPLAN is the national literacy and numeracy assessment that our Year 3 and 5 students undertake each year in May. This year NAPLAN was held across three days this week from 10th May to 12th May inclusive.
The NAPLAN tests were administered through the Online National Assessment Platform. The year three Writing test is the only test that will continue as a pen and paper assessment this year.

The year 3 and 5 students who participated in the NAPLAN tests should be very proud of their achievements.  During each test, they were focused, alert, and did their best.  Their attitude before and during each test was positive and upon completion articulated how confident they felt about their efforts.  Amazing efforts to all participants!

Foundation Enrolment 2023 – Principal Tours
We invite all prospective families to come to Our Lady's school for a visit to see for themselves our great school and learning in action. New and existing families are invited to contact principal@olhcmurtoa.catholic.edu.au or phone 53852526 to arrange a personal tour of our school and learn more about how Our Lady's Primary school can be your first choice for your child’s primary education.

Until next week.                                                                                                                                                                

Kind regards

Mrs. Cathy Grace                                                                                

School Advisory Council Report

On Wednesday, our School Advisory Council met for the second time for the year.  We still have a parent vacancy on the SAC.  If you know of someone who is willing to support our school by joining our SAC team, please contact me and I will organize the nomination form.  There are only about 4 more meetings for the year.  This is not a huge commitment and it would be great if we could fill this position before the next meeting in June.  If you wish to know what the position involves, please call the office and speak to either myself or Joan.  Alternatively, you could speak to a current SAC member -Scott Finnigan,  Rosalyn Donasco, or Carling Henderson.

Discussion at Wednesday's meeting centred around the School's Master Plan, Child Safe Standards, Annual Report to the School Community, and upcoming Kinder visits.

Master Plan

Two Capital Grant applications (one Federal and one state) have been submitted for our school to support our Master Plan in building a new main wing.  On the 24th May, two Capital Grant Committee members will be visiting our school to gain further observations and information to support our applications.  We should be notified by the end of October or early November if our application/s have been successful.  

New Child Safe Standards

The New Child Safe Standards begin on 1 July 2022.  The implementation of the new Victorian Child Safe Standards and Ministerial Order 1359 is of paramount importance for us and extends the culture of care offered in our educational communities.

Catholic Education Ballarat (CEB) will endeavour to provide clarity in their advice and the necessary information to assist us as efficiently as possible to implement the new standards.

The new standards include a number of additional requirements to:

• involve families and students in efforts to keep children and young people safe,
• focus on the safety of Aboriginal children and young people,
• better manage the risk of child abuse in online environments,
• improve governance, systems, and processes to keep children and young people safe.

Policy template and guidance materials will shortly be made available and DOBCEL schools will be required to update their child safety strategies, policies, and practices to strengthen their culture of child safety by 1 July 2022. 

Guidance material for schools will include a Child Safe Standards Action Checklist that we can use to identify actions we need to take to implement the new standards.

We are confident that we are well placed to build on our existing child safety strategies, policies, and practices in order to strengthen our culture of child safety and comply with the new standards.

Our key objective will be to start with the necessary compliance elements and then move towards embedding an exemplary culture of child safety over time. CEB is working to update or develop the necessary policies to support schools in meeting the requirements of the new standards.

Kinder Visits

In the near future, we will begin to visit the Murtoa Kindergarten and get to know the Kinder children.  We will begin with our Junior students initially and once relationships have been established we will then introduce our Senior students to the group.  The plan is to continue regular visits to the kinder and then invite the Kinder 4-year-olds to our school.  This is part of our transition program as well as a way for our students to support others in the local community.  Further information will be communicated to families, once final details have been confirmed.

NCCD....National Consistent Collection of Data

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992This link will open in a new window (DDA) and the Disability Standards for Education 2005This link will open in a new window (the Standards), Australian students with disability must be able to access and participate in education on the same basis as their peers. To ensure this, students with disability may receive adjustments to access education, based on the professional judgement of teachers, in consultation with the student and/or their parents, guardians or carers.

The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) gives Australian schools, parents, guardians and carers, education authorities and the community information about the number of students with disability in schools and the adjustments they receive. The Australian Education Regulation 2013 requires all schools to report the data collected for the NCCD to the Australian Government on an annual basis.

Please see the NCCD sheet for parents below for further information.

Free School TV...

Today parents face a multitude of modern-day challenges in raising happy, well, and resilient young people. Whilst there is a great deal of information available, this can often be confusing and overwhelming for parents looking for guidance.

SchoolTV addresses this as a new online resource designed to empower you as parents with credible and sound information with realistic, practical ongoing support strategies.

The recommendation is to have a menu item on your school’s web page for easy access as well as the parent portal. We have placed a link under the 'For Parents' icon across the top menu bar of our school website. This will give you easy access to the site whenever you require it. Having the SchoolTV link on our webpage also promotes a well-being focus by your school for prospective families as well.

Scroll further into our newsletter for the latest School TV report.

Below is the direct link to our School website and our School TV Portal page.

https://olhcmurtoa.schoolzineplus.com/

Mass Times & Parish Information

Mass: St Mary's Church, Murtoa
Sunday 15th May  8.30am                                                                                                                                                            

Free SchoolTV: SPECIAL REPORT: Respectful Language

In today’s world, it is becoming apparent that some young people are being influenced by the language around them. It is becoming more common for them to hear derogatory terms or offensive language on the streets, on social media channels, streaming services and in some forms of modern music. Proliferating the use of such language can sometimes normalise, glamorise and sanitise their impact, taking their meaning out of context. Words can be misconstrued to be hurtful, racist, homophobic, mysogynistic or even discriminatory. Using disrespectful language is considered socially unacceptable, and if not addressed early, can become a serious problem.

The use of derogatory language or the act of swearing at someone, or about someone, is actually a form of verbal violence. It transgresses the usual rules of social interaction by impinging on an individual’s self-image and sense of dignity. Therefore, many schools enforce a zero tolerance policy when it comes to such language. Parents and carers also need to play an important role in enforcing this approach by proactively monitoring what their children are viewing or being exposed to and discussing the use of words or their origin. This can help prevent inappropriate or disrespectful language being used in the classroom, school yard or other situations.

Whilst some students may use swearing or derogatory terms for attention seeking purposes, others may use it simply because they are still learning how to moderate their language. As young people develop their language skills, it is important for them to have a clear understanding of the impact of their choice of words on others and how their words can impact other people’s perspective of them - an important and essential skill to learn as they progress in their personal and professional development.

(written by Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg)

Calendar Dates

Please click on the link below to take you directly to our School Calendar.

Term 2 COVID-19 information

There are some important changes to COVIDSafe measures for schools that will apply from the start of Term 2.

Face masks

From 11:59 pm Friday 22 April, face masks, while recommended, are not required in any school setting. This means students in grades 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks. Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask may do so, including those who are medically at-risk.

Rapid antigen test screening requirements

Students who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. This was previously 8 weeks.

Household contacts

Students who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are not required to quarantine. They may return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times during their 7-day period. They are required to notify the school that they are a household contact.

Students aged 8 years and above who are household contacts are required to wear face masks when indoors at school unless they have a valid exemption.

If a student household contact returns a positive RAT result, they must isolate for 7 days.

Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools

Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

RAT screening program reminder

RATs will continue to be supplied for the first 4 weeks of Term 2 to support the early detection of COVID-19 in our school.

The testing recommendations will remain the same this Term for students and staff with:

• mainstream schools – recommended to test at home twice a week
• specialist schools – recommended to test 5 days a week at home due to the higher risk of severe illness for medically vulnerable children.

As we approach winter and flu season, the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 and booster shots for students 16+ remains the best way to ensure protection for students and staff.

If you have any concerns about getting your child vaccinated, please get in contact with your GP or another health professional who can answer your questions.

Thank you for your ongoing support in keeping our school safe.

Active Kids Voucher program

Round 4 of The Get Active Kids Voucher Program is now open.

Victorian families with a Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card can apply for up to $200 to support their child's sport and active recreation activities.

This can be used to support uniform or registration fees, and is valid for Auskick, NetSetGo, junior netball, footy and hockey registrations.

Applicants can apply for one voucher per eligible child between the period Monday 21 March 2022 to Tuesday 31 May 2022.

https://www.getactive.vic.gov.au/vouchers/