Term 1, Week 3

14 February, 2023

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School

​We are Respectful
We are Responsible
We are Safe
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School is located on the traditional lands of the Punnilerpanner people of the North Nation. We acknowledge and deeply respect the Palawa people, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Community, and all Elders past and present. We are committed to learning alongside our students and community in this place, and support the continued sharing of knowledge and culture.

What's On?

Whole School Prayer

Monday 13 February
9:00am in the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.  Parents and carers are welcome!

​This week's focus will be "The Good Shepherd" from Matthew's Gospel.

upComing Events

Term 1​​
  • Leadership Assembly (Friday 17th February)
  • Parent-Teacher Meeting - Prep - Grade 6 (Tuesday 21st February)
  • Grade 5 Excursion (Tuesday 7th March) - Clarendon House

Mr Farr's  Reflection

Deputy principal

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career.  I've lost almost 3000 games.  26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.  I've failed over and over and over again in my life. 
​And that is why I succeed.
​
Michael Jordan
Welcome everyone to Week 3.

I love the above quote from Michael Jordan whom I personally regard as the greatest basketball player of all time.  It so clearly puts into perspective what hard work and resilience is.  When the world is quick to look at MJ’s highlights, achievements and successes he put them all into perspective by explaining that these only come about from hard work and being able to keep striving for greatness in the face of failure.

This is resilience.

Effectively, resilience is our ability to bounce back from life’s challenges and difficulties.  Being able to do this consistently can support us, or shield us, from emotional and mental health challenges.  Of course there is a lot more to emotional and mental health than simply being resilient that we are not going to explore here, but it’s a pretty key starting point.

In our school wide Social and Emotional Learning program “Bounce Back” we explore with all our students "resilience as the ability to cope and ‘bounce back’ after encountering negative events, challenges, difficult situations or adversity and to return to almost the same level of emotional well-being.  It is also the capacity to respond adaptively to difficult circumstances and still thrive.  Children and young people need to be both socially and academically resilient to flourish in today’s world.” (McGrath & Noble, 2021).

It is exciting to see our students ‘bounce back’ from setbacks, challenges or situations that for them, are difficult.  I’ve witnessed it in our playground during games of soccer, in classrooms during maths and writing lessons and when announcing leadership positions.  But the pendulum swings the other way as well.  I’ve witnessed a number of students having great difficulty to ‘bounce back’ from things that happen in the playground, things that you and I might perceive as ‘little things’, but to some children they’re big issues.  In classrooms I have witnessed our students become so worked up because they are struggling to understand a maths concept that they begin to cry, again, this can be seen as a big issue for many children.

Being, and developing resilience can be hard.  ‘Bouncing back’ is not always easy to do and we openly communicate that to our students.  However, we do take every opportunity we can to support them to develop resilience.  When students make poor behavioural choices we discuss with them the different choices they could have made, we communicate with them that this experience is a learning experience and talk about moving forward from it with new learning.  We talk about FAIL as being the ‘First Attempt In Learning’ and support our students to focus on what they did well and how they can do even better, rather than only focusing on what they did wrong.  These are broad, non specific examples, I know, but it is through this language that we support our students to become resilient people.

This year my daughter is in a class where she is not with her close friends.  If we think about the ‘5 friends lists’ that we make at the end of each year, my daughter is in a class with one of those friends and, although they see each other outside of school and are definitely good friends, she doesn’t play with him at school very often.  Was this upsetting for her?  Of course!  But, we as parents have tried to do our best to support her to ‘bounce back’ and be resilient.  We have helped her to focus on the positives about her class - she loves her teacher and she loves the way the room is set up - the opportunities this brings - to make new friends, to develop greater confidence - and explicitly explaining how this experience will make her more resilient and ‘stronger’.  Was there a temptation to be a ‘lawnmower parent’ and try to ‘fix’ the issue beforehand so that my daughter had a smooth path to follow?  Of course!  Is there a temptation, especially seeing as I work where she goes to school, to be a ‘helicopter parent’ and hover over her making sure she is OK?  Absolutely!  Am I tempted to focus on any negative experiences that she may have at school and use these to justify my desire to 'fix' the issue?  Definitely!  The biggest challenge for me as a parent is to not try to ‘fix’ the situation, but to try to instil in my daughter the skills for her to work through, cope with and be resilient as she experiences it.  And I must say, we have been at school for 8 days and she is loving it!

Maybe you've had a similar experience or have been faced with a similar situation but a rather different context, but I wonder how you support your child to develop resilience and what challenges you experience in doing so?

2023 NAPLAN Grades 3 & 5

2023 NAPLAN Grades 3 & 5

Students in Grades 3 & 5 will be sitting NAPLAN between 15 and 27 March 2023.

The National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are already learning at school. On its own, NAPLAN is not a test that can be studied for, and students are not expected to do so. 

NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process – it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance; however, students and parents may use individual results to discuss progress with teachers.

This is the first year NAPLAN will be held in March, having previously taken place in May. This change was made so school systems would have access to results earlier in the school year, so they can be used to inform teaching and learning plans for the remainder of the year.

Why NAPLAN is conducted online
NAPLAN online provides a better assessment and more precise results.  One of the main benefits of NAPLAN online is that it uses tailored (or adaptive) testing. This means that students receive questions better suited to their abilities, so they can show what they know and can do.  Online testing also allows us to provide a wide range of accessibility options to support students with disability to access NAPLAN.  Feedback from students is that they find the online test more engaging.  Please note that students in Year 3 complete the Writing Test on paper.

Parent information brochures and other resources
Your questions answered on NAPLAN and what it means for your child: NAPLAN information brochure for parents and carers
The link will take you to the official National Assessment Program (NAP) website.

Please contact Mr Farr if you have any further queries regarding NAPLAN or your child's participation in NAPLAN.

re news

Our Lady of Lourdes Feast Day
On Saturday 11th the Church celebrated the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes.  This is a special day as the apparition of Mother Mary in Lourdes in 1858 to a country girl named Bernadette is the name of our school.  Mary, who we call our Lady of Lourdes, gave Bernadette a message for all of us, which is to pray and to turn our hearts towards God and towards our brothers and sisters, as Christ taught us.
​We pray that we too may hear Our Lady’s call and open our hearts to God.
Hail Mary
Hail Mary full of grace,
The Lord is with you,
Blessed are you among women,
And blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death.
Amen

Social & emotional learning 2023

This year at Our Lady of Lourdes we are having a strong emphasis in learning 'resilience'.

Here are two inspirational quotes Grade 5 are using as a reference point:

"Sometimes you have to accept you can't win all of the time"
Lionel Messi

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."
"Mistakes help you grow."
James Joyce

Watch this space for more...

School news

Parent Teacher Conferences (Prep - Grade 6) - Tuesday 21st February
Parent Teacher Conferences for Prep to Grade 6 are being held next Tuesday 21st February, this will be a chance for you to share your child's strengths and areas for growth. 
Parent Teacher Conferences are now open and can be booked via the Compass Portal today.
 
Leadership Assembly (Friday 17th February)
This Friday is our Leadership Assembly for 2023. 
During this Assembly we will have an opportunity to listen to the School Captains of St Brendan-Shaw College share their experiences and understanding of leadership, as well as acknowledge and present our Grade 6 Leaders for 2023 - School Captains, House Captains, Aussie Sport Leaders and Junior Joeys - and our Term 1 Student Representative Council members.
We invite you to join us to celebrate these students, particularly our Grade 6 Leaders.
Below is a list of the Grade 6 students who have been selected to a Leadership position for 2023.
We look forward to seeing you at our 2023 Leadership Assembly at 2:00 this Friday 17 February in the McCarthy Centre.
Found - Apple Watch
An Apple Watch has been handed into the Devonport Police Station. It was found in OLOL school grounds, Monday 13th February.

Grade 1 Uniform
A reminder that as decided last year by the school community all Grade 1 students are wearing full sports uniform every day.

Canteen
The Canteen will now be open on Mondays for over the counter sales at first lunch.
PLEASE NOTE* Lunch orders are still UNAVAILABLE on Mondays.

Sully the Therapy Dog
Uniform Shop
Our Lady of Lourdes now has available at the Uniform Shop navy or white socks to be worn with the PE uniform.
​Please find below the updated version of OLOL Uniform Policy.
​
eSafety Webinars for Parents and Carers
Join one of eSafety's free webinars for parents and carers.
These live webinars give parents and carers the knowledge, skills and tools to support their children to have safe online experiences.
eSafety 2023 webinars include a broad range of topics that will be delivered by eSafety's expert education and training team. Most of the webinars are 30 minutes long.
For further details or to register visit:
https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars

Student of the week

Sports News & Rosters

Click here to access 'Sports News, Registrations and Rosters​​
  • Devon Netball 
  • Soccer Prep - Grade 6 
  • NW Football League Primary School Roster 
  • Devonport Primary Basketball Roster

Move Well Eat Well

Community News

Click here access 'Community news'​​​
  • Bluff 2 Boat Ramp Fun Run
  • City of Devonport Brass Band
  • Mersey Learn to Row Program
  • Net Set Go Come and Play - Netball  5-10 years
  • Tennis
  • Hockey
  • Studio 81 Dance Company

Policy in Focus

This week in our 'Policy in Focus' section of the Newsletter we have attached our Child Safety Policy.  This policy outlines the expectations, procedures and processes that we undertake to meet the CET child safety legislative obligations.

CATHOLIC EDUCATION COMMISSION TASMANIA CHILD SAFETY POLICY

OLOL School Calendar

2023 Term Dates

​
2023 TERM DATES
TERM 1
Friday 3 February - Thursday 6 April
TERM 2
Wednesday 26 April - Friday 7 July
TERM 3
Tuesday 25 July - Friday 29 September
TERM 4
Tuesday 17 October - Thursday 14 December