Our Lady of Good Counsel School

God of love,

We pray for peace in our world, and an end to war.

Instead of hatred, let there be love.

Shelter your children and protect us.

Guide us and keep us from harm,

so we can build a world of love and live our lives in peace.

Amen.

Dear Families,

Welcome back to Term 3, which is packed full of events and excitement. It is bound to be a very busy 10 weeks, but there is lots of wonderful things to enjoy over the course of this term, and many opportunities to come together as a whole school community.

Here are some of the bigger events to make a note of:

31 July - Sacrament of Reconciliation

2 August - Olympic Day Carnival

5 August - Athletics Carnival – Jumps & Throws Day

7 August - Japanese Exchange Students visit- Year 5 & 6 | CEWA STEM Conference – Year 4’s

8 August - Whole School Mass – St Mary of the Cross | Art Show – 5pm to 7pm

9 August - Pre-Primary Assembly

14 August - Science Week STEM Quest | Science Fair

15 August - Whole School Mass – Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary

16 August - Athletics Carnival PP-Y6

20 August - Book Week Parade – 9am

22 August - One Big Voice

23 August - Pupil Free Day

26 August - Kindy & Pre-Primary Fathers Day morning – 9am

29 August - P&F Father’s Day Stall

30 August - Year 1 Assembly | Pre-Kindy Photo Day

31 August - Tournament of Minds Regional Final

2 September - Father’s Day BBQ Breakfast | Father’s Day Prayer Assembly

6 September - Kids in Space Showcase | Wyndham Students arrive

11 September - EduDance Concert

12 September - R U Ok? Day | Andrew Chin Incursion & Concert

17 September - Interschool Athletics Carnival

20 September - Merit Assembly

Congratulations to Elle (Y1) and Chloe (Y3) Mulholland who were baptised into the Catholic Church over the school holidays.

Congratulations to Toby Hughes who sat his AMEB Grade 3 Piano exam over the school holidays and received a ‘A’ grade with honours.

Toby also recently represented OLGC at the Catholic Performing Arts Festival on Monday, in the Piano Solo Performance section. Toby played so beautifully, and received outstanding feedback on his performance from the adjudicator.

A very big thank you is extended to Lizette, Leonardo and Lilijana Gatehouse for their offer to paint the OLGC sign on the corner of Miles and Prisk streets over the holidays. This is a tremendous improvement to the sign and creates a much more appealing presentation for our school. We are very grateful for this kind offer and your time in undertaking this project.

A sincere welcome to our new Year 2 Teacher, Ms Annette Barron. Annette joins us from her role as Year 2 Teacher at Holy Cross College, Ellenbrook. She has already made such a warm and positive impact on the year 2 students in these early days and is a very welcome addition to our school community. Please introduce yourself to Annette if you see her around the school.

Thank you to Mrs Rigoli for her efforts in planning and organising the upcoming Art Show. It is bound to be a wonderful community event that allows us to celebrate the great art efforts of our students.

Please see the information that has been distributed by Mrs Rigoli, especially if you would like to order pizzas for the evening. All money raised from the event will be reinjected back into the art program to enable a greater scope of activities and resources for the students.

Our teachers undertook the Talk 4 Writing training at the end of Term 2, with the intent that this will be implemented as a whole-school approach to teaching writing at OLGC. Talk 4 Writing is an evidenced based writing program, endorsed by DSF, that originates from the United Kingdom. it provides students with an excellent base of oral vocabulary as the springboard from which they learn and build their pieces of writing. This highly engaging program enables students to deep dive into the structure, grammar and vocabulary of written text before innovating and independently applying these skills.

Students will begin to see the program implemented into their classrooms this term. It has been wonderful visiting classrooms this week, and already seeing the program in action. Students begin by learning a story orally, with actions, mapped to a story map. Perhaps ask your child if they have begun the program and ask them to tell you the story? I am sure you will be amazed at the great oral language skills that they will have already begun to develop.

A reminder that all children enrolled to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation are required to attend this week’s workshop with a parent/caregiver. The workshop will be held in the Hall on Thursday, July 25 at 5.30pm.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be celebrated at 6pm on Wednesday, July 31st at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church. Our students have been preparing for this important step in their faith journey and the sacrament offers moments for reflection, forgiveness, and a renewed sense of spirituality. Please keep these students in your prayers as they find God’s unconditional forgiveness and are called to forgive others.

The Religious Education program in schools aims to help students learn the teachings of the Gospel as proclaimed by the Catholic Church. Students develop a sense of the nature of Christianity and how Christians live their lives as part of their learning.

The Religious Education Assessment (REA), previously known as the Bishops’ Religious Literacy Assessment (BRLA), is a system-wide, standardised assessment for students enrolled in Catholic schools across Western Australia. The assessment is developed by the Religious Education Directorate at CEWA. Students in Years 3 and 5 will participate in the online assessment during class time next week.

The purpose of the REA is to measure student learning of the content in the Religious Education curriculum. The faith of students is not assessed. The REA provides a ‘point in time’ snapshot of student achievement in Religious Education across different levels. Students’ knowledge and understanding of the content in the Religious Education curriculum is assessed using a combination of multiple-choice and short and extended test items.

The test items are developed specific to each year level and are categories according to four content areas; Jesus, Bible, Sacraments and Prayer and Church. The intended use of the REA is to support and complement school-based assessment programs in Religious Education.

A new delivery from Perm-A-Pleat has arrived in the office.

If you have placed an Order recently then please come in to collect your parcel.

Thank you.

Please also refer to the attached maps to buy tickets for the matinee performance of One Big Voice at the Perth Arena on Thursday 22nd August at 12.00pm. The best blocks to view OLGC will be 204 and 306.

The link for purchasing tickets is here: OBV Tickets

Kirsten Bennett

Music Teacher

Uniform update:

Samples are available to try for size at the school office.

All uniforms are now available on line through the schools website. Click on 'Uniforms' and it will take you to the Perm -a -Pleat website where all details will be shown.

All uniform orders need to be collected from the School Office and will not be delivered to the classrooms. The orders are delivered to the school every Tuesday. (Cut-off is Thursdays for a Tuesday delivery.)

Thank you

Terri Benedetti

Purchase your OLGC cap or OLGC umbrella so that you can display your full support for our school and your child's team when out and about, or at events such as Interschool Carnivals or Netball games.

Please note that the cap is not part of the school uniform and is not design to be worn by students at school or when representing the school in uniform.

Please join us to cook up meals for those most needed in our community.

We have confirmed the following dates for this year that we will be cooking:

• 13/09/2024, 9am-11am; and
  
• 22/11/2024, 10am-12pm

There is a register link in the flyer which came home via your class SeeSaw page which will take you straight to our form. Otherwise link is here if needed.

We would love support from our school community on this.

OLGC P&F Committee

ADHOC CALENDAR FOR 2024.

St Catherine’s House of Hospitality is a retreat and conference centre located at 113 Tyler Street, Tuart Hill.

In order to keep the Centre affordable for those who need it, we are reliant on the support of volunteers. We’d love to hear from you if you can offer a few hours a month.

Opportunities for volunteering include: hospitality (setting up the dining room and serving in the kitchen); cooking and gardening. You’ll join a vibrant community where strong friendships are made.

Please ring Sr Elizabeth RSM on 9443 9020 or email stcatherines@westnet.com.au

You are invited to a Social get-together for volunteers on either 1 July or 22 July at 10.00am at St Catherine’s

Our new season of VacSwim

We have recently opened enrolments for the October school holidays and want as many of your families to benefit from the programs as possible.

As we head towards summer, a lot of families are starting to get back into the water or planning holidays by the beach, rivers, or swimming pools. It is important we help them support their child to stay safe and confident in the water.

VacSwim provides children aged five to 17 years with the opportunity to develop and progress their swimming and water safety skills during the October and summer school holidays. We offer programs for beginner, intermediate and advanced swimmers at over 175 locations across Western Australia.

I invite you to download the promotional materials on our website to promote VacSwim to your school community.

Enrolments are now open, and families can enrol online. For postal enrolments, an enrolment form can be downloaded on our website. We also have translated fact sheets available in multiple languages.

For further information, details of locations and how to enrol, please visit our website.