Term 2, Week 4

16 may 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 22 May
All School Prayer
(Early Years - PM)
9:00am in the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

​Parents and carers are welcome!

upComing Events

Term 2​​​​​
  • Walk to School Day - Wednesday 17 May
  • School Photos - Monday 22nd May - Tuesday 23rd May
  • Assembly (1M) - Friday 26th May (2:00pm - 2:45pm)

MRs seagar'S  Reflection

Principal

‘Do all you can with the means at your disposal and calmly leave the rest to God’.
Mary MacKillop
Welcome everyone to Week 4.

​Mary MackIllop, who began the Sisters of St Joseph, and her sister Annie taught in a schoolroom built in Penola in 1867, having previously shared a converted six-stalled stable with two horses and an ever-growing number of pupils. How far we have come at Our Lady of Lourdes: from a weatherboard school room to the buildings we have today.

Our Lady of Lourdes has been fortunate enough to be granted an Admin refurbishment beginning in the Christmas Holidays 2023 – 2024. 
​
This refurb will create:
• A new entrance to our school off Stewart Street allowing more centrality for the administration of the school.
• A central spine from Stewart Street through to the blue door entrance connecting Admin to the classrooms.
• A completely rebuilt admin block creating new spaces and offices for the school.
• A rebuild of the main entrance for staff and parents into the school and admin block from the Top Cement Area.

This Admin refurbishment is the first stage in the school masterplan that will see the whole school improved over the next 5 – 10 years.

Plans are in the final stage for the Admin Capital Works and will be shared with the community as soon as is possible. There will then be time for consultation with the community. A timeline will then be created in preparation for the building; communicating this clearly to the community with information about how these areas will be decanted and the modified provisions that will be needed to continue effective administration of the school during this building process.

This is a very exciting time for the school as we have the opportunity to modernise and accentuate aspects of our school, for educating into the future, whilst maintaining our essential culture and Charism.

Reflecting through photos on the journey of our school buildings:

The original school convent
“In January 1891, three great hearted women, Sisters M. Francis McCarthy, M. Baptist Osborne and M. Gonzaga Johnson took up residence in the sandstone cottage which still stands at 81 Steele Street. One room at the cottage became a school room until a new school and convent were built in 1893, at a cost of 500 pounds”
“The main school building was a wooden rectangular hall at the top of the hill, just outside the white picket fence of the Convent. It had a door in the eastern wall with no porch or any protection from the weather.  We hung our hats, coasts and bags on pegs on the wall.The desks were benches long enough to accommodate five or six pupils, the seats long backless forms. There were two easel blackboards."  
1917 - 1918.

​To this in the future (concept drawings):
Our Lady of Lourdes Masterplan
Our Lady of Lourdes under the guidance of Catholic Education Tasmania has begun the process of a Masterplan for our school. Please see the documents attached which reflect the wishes of 16 students, staff and parents who worked with an independent team to share their wishes for OLOL into the future. The Facilities Team from Catholic Education Tasmania have been working with a Project Team (Leadership, Admin Staff, Groundsman, Student Support) to draw up some possible plans for this Master Plan. These will be shared with the community, for your input, as soon as they are available.

On the 4th of April, an informal Sense-Making Workshop was held online with the leadership team from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School. In the workshop, participants were presented with systemised feedback and a summary of the visions and challenges, of each group, as well as all the workshop outputs. They were asked to identify top challenges, reverse engineer those challenges to themes, and to start developing their school vision. The conversation was followed by the participants creating actionable ‘quick wins’ for what they can do now that will cost no money to improve their schools. 

The results of this workshop helped inform the Place Vision and Principles report that will be provided to Catholic Education Tasmania with this report.

​*See attached reports.
Our Lady of Lourdes Place Vision
Our Lady of Lourdes Workshop Summaries 

Social & emotional learning 2023

Parent Conversation
The Wellbeing Team would like to invite you to join us for a conversation about separation anxiety.

Should this be something that you may struggle with at home or at school drop-off, we would welcome an opportunity to hear of your experiences, feelings and frustrations, and/or strategies that have worked for you and areas where you would like more support. The Wellbeing Team looks forward to working together with parents and caregivers on this topic so that we can share information, ideas, strategies and suggestions. This way, we will grow stronger together and be better able to support caregivers whose child/children may experience separation anxiety in the future.

Date: 22nd of May
Time: Morning Drop off - 10 am
Location: Upstairs Meeting Room (next to wingani)

Morning tea will be provided. 

Please RSVP here. We look forward to seeing you there.
RE NEWS
Mother's Day at OLOL
Carol Seagar’s Speech to the Mums of Our Lady of Lourdes on Monday 15th May.

Today we gather as a celebration of a mother’s love.  In reality we should show our appreciation of this everyday but like so many things in life we take a mother’s love for granted. Your selfless, unconditional love that has passed down the generations of all mums, lives on today in those of you gathered here.  This love is the basis of such a  unique and  irreplaceable relationship and we can attest to this when we experience the loss of our mums.  This love guides us through life even when we don’t know we are the recipient of such love.  When children leave home, start careers, travel, move into relationships, have children, grow older themselves -  a mother’s love does not diminish.  My own mother at age of 85 has a love for me as strong as the day I was born.  
​
This love has these components:  a forgiving nature; always seeing the positive; always there to console; always there to nurture, to aid, to advise, ….

You are a giver of gifts; gifts that allow the child to flourish as the most perfect being God intended.  
However we have to also acknowledge that being a mum is at times exhausting, sorrowful, difficult and on-going – the role never stops.  But mums have the strength within them to bridge the difficult times with the dream of ongoing nourishment through love for their child.

We acknowledge Mary the Mother of Jesus as a truly wonderful person because of her willingness to be just this – the MOTHER of Jesus.  I am sure that Mary felt at many times the burdens of motherhood – on her journey to Bethlehem , uncertain of where she would give birth; of losing Jesus as a boy when he didn’t return on the homeward journey with them from the Temple, and witnessing his death – such stress; but a mother’s love copes with all of this.  Mary displayed forgiveness, kindness and grace and allowed Jesus to grow and flourish and  it is these traits that I see daily in the mums around us.

Now today we give back to the giver our gift of endless appreciation and reciprocal love.  Children I ask you to hug your mum regularly, take the time to say “I love you” and thank you; to willingly help out and to never take her for granted.

A big ask I know.  Children please join me in thanking the mums here for being absolutely the best mums they can be.

School news


​Move Well Eat Well – National Walk Safely to School Day
At OLOL we encourage all parents, carers and staff members to promote and encourage safe and regular walking as a normal part of every child’s day.  Friday 19th May is National Walk Safely to School Day.  To acknowledge this, at Our Lady of Lourdes we will be offering a ‘walking bus’ on Wednesday 17th May 2023. 
​All students from Kinder to Grade 6 are invited to meet Staff outside Harris Scarfe in Fenton Way at 8:20am.  From here we will walk directly up Fenton Street and turn right into Stewart Street to be at school in time to commence the day.
Let’s see how many families can make an extra effort to walk to school this week.  Remember Part Way is OK!  Perhaps, park the car a little further from your usual parking area and walk part of the way to school with your children.  ​
​School Gates
The school Steele Street gates will now be locked from 3:30 pm each day.
If requiring any assistance after this time, please come to the Stewart Street school entrance and knock for assistance.

Student Free Days 2023
Student Free Days for 2023 are:
Term 3: Monday 24 July
Term 4: Monday 16 October
​
Uniform Shop
Uniform Shop Hours
Monday - Thursday:   8:00am - 10:00am
Wednesday Afternoon:   2:30pm - 3:30pm
New stock available: Polar tops, ties & track pants.

Outdoor Play and Learning
Dear OLOL community,
We are seeking resources for our lunchtime Loose Parts Play. If you have access to resources such as pipes, plumbing connections, flexi pipe, milk crates, tarps etc. we would very much appreciate your donations. 
Please contact the school admin team via: [email protected]
Rosie Psychology - Webinars for Parents

​Compass - Entering an Attendance Note

Student of the week

Sports News & Rosters

Click here to access 'Sports News, Registrations and Rosters​​
  • Devon Netball 
  • Soccer - Season Commences 1st April 2023 
  • NW Football League Primary School Roster 
  • Devonport Primary Basketball Roster​

Mersey Leven Catholic parish

Weekend Masses
Saturday Vigil
  • 6:00pm St Mary's, Penguin
  • 6:00pm Our Lady of Lourdes Devonport
Sunday
  • 8:00am St Joseph, Port Sorell
  • 9:00am Sacred Heart, Ulverstone
  • 9:30am Our Lady of Lourdes, Devonport
  • 11:30am Holy Cross, Sheffield
  • 5:00pm St Patrick, Latrobe

TECHNOLOGY NEWS

eSafety
The eSafety Commissioner website is a Government website that provides up to date, effective advice and support for parents, educators and children to safely and effectively navigate and manage the challenges that often come with being 'online'.

We encourage you, as parents, to access the eSafety Commissioner website to further develop your understanding of the Apps your children may be using, how to have difficult conversations with children regarding a range of online behaviours and how to recognise that your child may be experiencing harmful online behaviours such as cyberbullying, looking at inappropriate content for their age or perhaps overuse of technology.

You can visit the eSafety Commissioner website here: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

Additionally, you may like to view the attached resources which can be downloaded directly from the eSafety Commissioner website: 'Online Safety: A guide for parents and carers' and 'eSafety: Early Years - Online safety for under 5s'
School Technologies Focus

Community News

Click here access 'Community news'​​​
  • Devonport Surf Life Saving Club - Aquathlon - 17th March
  • City of Devonport Brass Band
  • Net Set Go Come and Play - Netball  5-10 years
  • Devon Dragonflies North West Netball Clinic
  • Tasmanian Tennis Academy
  • Tennis
  • Hockey
  • Studio 81 Dance Company
  • Mersey Leven Catholic Church - High Tea
  • School Holidays @ Hive
  • NAB - AFL Auskick - skills development program

Policy in Focus

This week in our 'Policy in Focus' section of the Newsletter we have attached Catholic Education Tasmania's Outdoor Play and Learning policy.  As we reinstate loose parts play at lunchtimes it is timely to view and read this policy.

Tasmania Catholic Education Commission Outdoor Play and Learning 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