OLHC News Issue 16 Term 2 Week 6 2022 - 3rd June

Enrolment 2023 – Personalised or group Tours available anytime!

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 5385 2526 to arrange a personal or small group 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.

Our well-organized transition program working with Murtoa Kindergarten will ensure that your child starts their education at Our Lady's School feeling confident, and hopefully with no tears, regardless of what year level your child starts.

For our Foundation children, we have many opportunities for your child to become familiar with their teachers, peers, and buddies.

Students enrolling in Years 1 - 6 will be invited to attend the State-wide Transition Day which is usually held in early December.  This date will be confirmed closer to the time.

Principal Report

Dear Parents, carers, families, and parishioners,

Last Friday 27th of May, OLHC staff and students had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate the contribution that our Catholic schools make to their local communities across the Diocese. With St Joseph’s
Hopetoun, St Patrick’s Nhill, and St Mary's, Warracknabeal we were able to come together in worship, hospitality, and fellowship to “Share the Good News” and celebrate Catholic Education Week. As a Catholic education community, we celebrated and shared the good news with approximately 180 staff, students, and parent volunteers. As communities of faith, hope, and love, as education providers, as community hubs, as employers, as active community partners, and in the service of parents who all want the best choice for their children, Catholic schools make a measurable contribution to our society. Education, centered on the Good News of Jesus, the love of the human person, and hopefulness about the future, is how we "share the good news" every day. That is something to be incredibly proud of. A huge thank you to the St Mary's staff, Parents club, and family volunteers for the tremendous work involved in making the day such a success. We had beautiful weather and all the students had a fabulous time. The Principals and staff from all the schools are incredibly grateful for the day, and all the students had a lot of fun. 

Until next week.                                                                                                                                                                

Kind regards

Mrs. Cathy Grace                                                                                

Black Ranges Winter Sports

Navraj and Maeve participated in the Black Ranges Winter Sports today at Stawell. They were part of the Dunmunkle Cluster teams which are a combination of students from Our Lady's, Murtoa College, Rupanyup Primary School, and Minyip Primary School.

Navraj played Football at Central Park, Stawell, playing 4 games and Maeve enjoyed competing in the Netball team, at North Park, Stawell,  also playing 4 games.

The winning team from today's Grand Final will be the Black Ranges representative at the Greater Western Region Championships to be held in Ballarat on Friday 17^th June. 

Early mornings and reporting student absence through PAM

The weather has now turned to bring blessed rain but also cold snaps, especially in the mornings. Please ensure your children leaves home in the mornings wearing a jumper and/or coat, beanie, and/or scarf, as it is quite bitter on their arrival to school. For the older students, with your assistance, they can take greater responsibility for ensuring that they have their jumpers and warmer uniform at hand. Throughout this week we have had many absences with students and also some staff ill. Please notify your child’s absence, preferably through PAM, or call the school as early as possible on the day of their absence as teachers do not always have access to emails early in the day due to yard duty and other commitments. Thank you all for your patience and understanding. I understand some families are still navigating how to access and use PAM - the Parent Access Module through the SIMON Everywhere portal –please call the General Office if you need assistance in setting PAM up on your phone.  We will organize one on one support so that you have everything set up at your fingertips.

Parent Access Module - PAM

Once again this semester's reports will be sent online through PAM. Teachers are presently working very hard to moderate their children’s work to ensure that their reports are accurate and up to date with where their learning is positioned. I thank all teachers for the energy, thoroughness, sincerity, and professionalism that they bring to their report writing. Our Lady's continues its firm commitment to working in partnership with parents to enable our children to achieve their best.  This online system provides parents access to a range of information specific to their child including Mid and End of Year Reports, calendar of events, and recording of student absences. Our mid-year reports will be available on PAM from Friday 17th June.  This of course is dependent on the technology working and we have no technology hiccups.  If any issues arise, the school will send out a message to let families know when the reports will be available.   If you have any difficulties please contact Joan in the General Office or email  jlane-storey@olhcmurtoa.catholic.edu.au

Mass Times & Parish Information

Mass: St Mary's Church, Murtoa
Sunday 5th June  8.30am                                                                                                                                                           

Communication from St. Paul VI Parish- regarding Sacramental Programs: 

To all the families awaiting to complete their Sacramental Programs, 

We (the Parish) want to sincerely apologise for the extremely long delay in between the Sacramental Program preparations you and your family have made and the final stages in completing this journey, whether it be First Communion, Reconciliation or Confirmation. 

Obviously, Covid restrictions and lockdowns over the past two and a half years have had a dramatic impact on the way we live our lives. Our Parish community has had to adhere to the governmental guidelines, and has made decisions over this time to ensure the safety of all our Parishioners and families in our community.  

Please know that we are working hard behind the scenes to ensure that you and your families get to properly celebrate the Faith Journey your young person has been on. We are hopeful of locking in dates and times very soon that will allow these spiritual celebrations to take place. As soon as these are locked in we will let you know. 

We would like to thank you all for your understanding and patience in regards to this matter and look forward to supporting you and your families into the future. 

If you have any questions in regard to this information, please contact the Parish office on: 

wimmeramallee@ballarat.catholic.org.au 

Or call 5382 1155. 

Thanking you in Advance:

Justin Amor

St Paul VI Parish Wimmera-Mallee Position Vacant Administration Officer

Calendar Dates

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

Updated COVID-19 information

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.

RAT screening program changes

RATs will continue to be distributed to you as they have been throughout this school year for the remainder of this term.  However, from Monday 23 May 2022, we do not recommend that your child complete a RAT twice a week as previously advised.

RATs however will continue to be required by students who are household contacts to attend school (5 negative tests over a 7-day period) or who have symptoms.

The ongoing supply of RATs to families in our school will ensure that parents and carers will have them should they need them if their child is a household contact or has symptoms.

Families must continue to notify the Department of Health and the school if their child returns a positive RAT result. Additionally, you should inform us if any of your children are household contacts.

Thank you also to all families who has got their child vaccinated. Vaccination continues to remain the best way to protect students and staff in our school.

Getting vaccinated is easy and bookings can be done via the coronavirus website. If you have any questions about the vaccines, I encourage you to speak to your GP or a health practitioner.

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.

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.

Positive Partnerships is offering a FREE webinar - "Understanding Behaviour".  See the below flyer for details.

Yarriambiack Shire is offering  FREE information sessions (in person and online) - "Education and Care as a Career".  See the below flyer for details.

Yarri Yarns

DUNMUNKLE CHILDCARE UPDATE

Due to the change in government after last weekend's Federal Election, the election promise for the Dunmunkle Childcare project will not come to fruition. Council has submitted a grant application under the Building Better Regions Fund (Round 6 - due for announcement later this year) and is currently working on a submissions for the Community Child Care Fund to diversify our funding opportunities. This project is a priority for Council and will continue advocating to all levels of government to realise our plans for establishing a childcare centre in Murtoa.

POWER REBATE EXTENDED TO 30 JUNE 2022
The $250 Power Saving Bonus (PSB) is a one-off $250 payment to provide direct support to vulnerable Victorian households experiencing energy bill stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PSB will be available to over 900,000 eligible Victorian households and limited to 1 per eligible household.  The PSB program has been extended to 30 June 2022. 
Eligible households can apply on the Victorian Energy Compare website or through a participating community organisation. If you are having trouble submitting an application, contact the email support team at info.vec@delwp.vic.gov.au or phone 1800 000 VEC (832).