Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School East Warrnambool eNewsletter

Acknowledgement of Country

Today we acknowledge and pay our respects to the First Peoples, the traditional custodians of the lands and waterways and thank them for their continued hospitality.

We acknowledge and celebrate the continuation of a living culture who have lived with Creator God through creation of land, sea, waterways and life.

Prayer

Leadership & Stewardship

Principal's Message

Dear members of the OLHC school community,

On Wednesday afternoon I rushed home, walked the dog in gale force winds, jumped through a shower and came back for one of my favourite evenings on the OLHC calendar. The I AM exhibition in Grade 6.

Central Idea: People’s passions provoke and sustain learning and creativity while providing a way for them to contribute to the community.

Lines of Inquiry:

-why passions matter

-the background and or history of your passion

-the evolution of your passion

-your connection to this passion

About ten years ago I floated this Exhibition idea past Eugene with the pitch that this was the way to keep senior students engaged in term 4. In addition to that, I knew from personal experience that when we get to do work on something we care deeply about that motivation and engagement are ever present. This is so important as these children can have one eye on high school at this time of the year. Also influencing our drive to run this program is an old philosophical adage that goes something like

People need 3 things in life to be truly happy

Someone to love
Something to do
Something to look forward to

Hopefully the I AM exhibition hit some of these factors for the children.

Congratulations to our grade 6 children for showing us what they are passionate about.

I also want to recognise the work of the grade 6 team of Marie, Sam and Ollie for their amazing efforts as well as other OLHC staff including Stacey Drake, Kathy Freeman, Gen Howland. This is a significant undertaking and one I’m very proud of.

Important Dates Term 4

Mon 4th - Mon 11th December - Yr 6 Beach Safety Program

Tuesday 5th December - Yr 2 Poetry Cafe

Wednesday 6th December - 2024 Foundation Transition 2

Wednesday 6th December - End of Year Mass @ 12.30pm

Thursday 7th December - Yr 6 Graduation

Friday 8th December - Yr 5 Fun Day

Monday 11th December - Yr 4 Fun Day

Tuesday 12th December - Orientation Day & Second-hand Uniform Sale

Wednesday 13th December - Foundation & Yr 3 Fun Days

Thursday 14th December - Yr 1, 2 & 6 Fun Days

Friday 15th December - Students' last day for 2023 finish @ 3.25pm

Friday 15th December - Volunteer's Morning Tea

Monday 18th December - Staff's last day for 2023

18th December 2023 - 29th January 2024 - School Holidays

2024

Monday 29th January - Staff return to school

Tuesday 30th January - Students start school

Wednesday 31st - Foundation students rest day / Scheduled esting day

Wednesday 7th February - Foundation students rest day / Scheduled testing day

Wednesday 14th February - Foundation students rest day

Wednesday 14th February - Ash Wednesday

Our school has partnered with an independent provider called TheirCare to provide exceptional Outside School Hours Care services for our school community.

The program is available for all children at Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School East Warrnambool from 6:45am until 8:45am in the morning and from 3:25pm until 6:00pm each school day.

During School Holidays & Pupil Free Days the service will operate from 6:45am until 6:00pm.

Families wishing to use this service can visit the TheirCare website: www.theircare.com.au

Families are eligible for a Government Rebate called the Child Care Subsidy which can reduce the cost per session by up to 90%.

More information can be obtained by contacting the school or ringing TheirCare Support Team on 1300 072 410.

TheirCare provides a stimulating and safe environment for all children. During sessions, children develop life-skills, friendships, confidence and creativity through play-based programs.

Teaching & Learning @ OLHC

A Message from Mr A

Week 9 Term 4

FOUNDATION 2024

On Thursday we welcomed our newest crop of students for some transition time with next year’s Foundation teachers. It’s amazing how quickly a year goes and it was pleasing to welcome new families into our community. The students have another session next Wednesday and then the official Orientation Day kicks off on Tuesday 12th December.

SWIMMING F-2/BEACH SAFETY

Friday signalled the last day of our swimming program for 2023. This is a great opportunity for the students to develop their confidence in the water and is a highlight for many students at the end of the year. Our Grade 6 level heads down to the surf club next week for their Beach Safety sessions.

GRADE 2 WRITING

There is some good writing coming out of the Grade 2 area at the moment. The students are deep into their Poetry in Motion unit and we’re lucky enough to have some examples below of their Scaffolding Literacy pieces. Great work Grade 2!

I AM EXHIBITION

Wednesday night we celebrated the culmination of the I Am Inquiry unit for our Grade 6 level, with their exhibition in the Eugene Dalton Hall. There is a power of work that goes into this and credit goes to both the students and teachers for the end result. We were lucky enough to have Tom Sexton, the Executive Director for the Ballarat diocese, drop in unexpectedly on Thursday and it was with pride we were able to show him through the exhibition. Tom travels to all the schools in the diocese and has been involved in education for a long time and I believe his exact words to Steve while walking around were ’I’ve never seen anything like this in a primary school before’. Steve must’ve had an extra pinch of pride as he was the main driver of this concept when we first introduced the unit. Tom is an avid Hawks supporter so he had a little bit of extra interest in Nash Talbot’s stall.

Go Hawks!

Have a great weekend with your family.

Naish

Cyber Safety Bits with Mrs Murfett

Hello Parents, Guardians and Friends,

Each week the Digital Technology teachers Ms Fitzgerald and Mrs Murfett will be bringing you new cybersafety tips and what is going on in the technology room this week. If you have any questions or concerns regarding cybersafety please contact us on:

Sarah Murfett: smurfett@olhcwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

Ensuring we create an environment where young people feel that they can talk to a trusted adult is vital in keeping our children safe online. Below is an activity to start a conversation with your children about online safety. For further resources please see the eSafety website, https://www.esafety.gov.au/.

Awards

Classroom Awards

Foundation

Finn Murfett

Nicholson Niruban

Harper Romaniszyn

Levi Hill

Yr 1

Arlo Waterson-Locke

Piper Theobald

Charlie Loft

Ellie Ryan

Connor McAllen

Kai Deveraux

Yr 2

Freddie Spikin

Layla Williams

Charlie Isles

Jon Kelly

Charlie Lucas

Bella Green

Toby Perrett

Yr 3

Michaleen O'Brien

Macy Skene

Savannah Davis

Freddie Isherwood

Lyla Shiells

Monty Veale

Yr 4

Kyson Rogers

Shanaya Nicholls

Kahzali Attrill

Sophia McCarthy

Stephanie Tims

Zane Palmer

Yr 5

Milah Knowles

Camdyn Spencer

Sam Gardner

Matisse Aberline

Tobias Warhurst

Summer Lowe

Yr 6

Poppy Spikin

Darcy Burns

Alana Scott

Imogen Johnson

Isaac Lowe

Lenny Thornton

Spirit of Our Lady's Award

Amelia Hawken

Lenny Chiller

Laila Conn

Peggy Chiller

Daisy Talbot

Mali Irving

Faith & Culture

Parish Office Hours: 9am - 4pm Monday - Friday

P: 5562 2231

E: southwestcoast@ballarat.catholic.org.au

Like Leaves in the Wind
(Mark 13: 33 - 37)

I’ve known several people in the last three years who were told by their doctors they were terminally ill. In each case, these folks immediately made decisions about their lives that they’d been delaying until now. People who know they’re dying can’t afford to save anything until later. There may not be a “later”. There’s only now.

The rest of us are kidding ourselves if we think we’re not dying: not now, not any time soon, maybe never. When Jesus says, “Be watchful!”, we think he means the other guy. We put our faith squarely in “later”. Some of us belong to the Church of Later, in which we fully intend to be good, spiritual, faithful people – at a future time to be announced.

Some of us may live to a satisfying old age and wear out with a smile. Some of us will get a deadline from our doctors and have some lead time to prepare. Many of us are left in the dark as to when we’ll die or how. This can make us sloppy about the way we live, even arrogant about it. Not taking death seriously is a real mistake in the spiritual life. The church’s wisdom is to remind us, right from the start of the church year, that mortality is just what it says it is: a short-term proposition.

What are the lessons that death teaches you?

Slow Down, You’re Moving Too Fast

“So, stay at your post, watching. You have no idea when the homeowner is returning, whether evening, midnight, cockcrow, or morning. You don’t want anyone showing up unannounced, with you asleep on the job. I say it to you, and I’m saying it to all: Stay at your post. Keep watch!” (Mark 13: 35 - 37)

Like so many others before and after me, when I was in university I discovered the power of caffeine. I could stay up all night and prepare for an exam. With my photographic memory it was just a matter of going over the material enough times to imprint it in my brain. The combination of NoDoz and strong espresso did the trick for a factual kind of exam. But, if the test meant using my cognitive abilities or writing an essay, I was in trouble. My mind would race too quickly for me to sort things out. It would have been easier to have rested before those exams.

Advent begins with the encouragement to stay awake and be ready for the coming of our saviour. There are no short cuts or artificial ways to do this. And we have only four weeks (actually three this year!) to prepare ourselves. It’s a short period of time, especially when we are ironically so busy with all the preparations for what we are trying to celebrate.

So what are we to do? We need to take the time to remember why we have all these traditions: the tree, ornaments, presents, parties – all of this must be put in their context. We can either walk through them like we are asleep, or become frantic and overstimulated by it all. Or we can make the conscious choice as Advent begins to pray and reflect on what the birth of Jesus means to us and to our world and how we can make the presence of Jesus more real for ourselves, our loved ones, and people of good will. Today we have the time. But we know how quickly this time will pass.

Please find below the link for the November 2023 edition of “Our Diocesan Community”.

ODC Magazine

Wellbeing

If you want to learn to ride a skateboard or get better at maths, you need to practise. It’s the same when you want to feel happier!

Here are some easy ideas to give Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness and Emotional Literacy a try every day. Because the more you practise, the better you will feel.

Let's Practice!

Helping Kids with Worry, Anxiety and Stress - Parents and Carers

Four amazing life lessons children learn from tough times

Yesterday I listened to a tearful parent describing the bullying her child had experienced at high school. The day before that, at a seminar, another parent was in tears as she talked about her child’s reaction to her divorce. And the day before that, I supervised another one of my psychologists who told me about a client’s parent who was not coping as they watched their child experience symptoms of trauma after a house fire.

One of the greatest sources of pain as a parent in life is watching your child suffer. I get it.

My children have experienced only mild amounts of adversity – and yet, when it happens it still breaks my heart. Our greatest instinct is to protect our children from suffering, and when we can’t do that, it hurts really, really bad. Dare I say, sometimes it hurts US more than our kids.

So to all the parents out there with kids and teens who are struggling, this post is for you.

It contains no tips about how to help your child, no parenting strategies and no ideas about helping your child problem solve or feel better. Instead, this is all about helping you, dear parent, find a bit of hope, a way to cope and a way for you to survive your own worry and pain.

This post is about the amazing, life changing lessons I’ve seen children and teens learn in the midst of challenges and struggles. This is about way children gain from struggle, how they can benefit, increase their skills and learn wisdom from sorrow.

I hope this gives you some small amount of comfort.

The Four Amazing, Life Changing Lessons Children Can Learn Though Tough Times

1. I am not alone in the world

When kids and teens go through tough stuff and they have an adult who listens, cares and even weeps tears with them – they learn this: I am not alone. When the going gets tough, there are people who will rally around me, care about me and be on my team.

Children who are loved through tough times learn that their Mum/Dad/Nana/Papa/Aunt (or whoever it is) will listen to them and be there for them – even in hard times. Learning this lesson is life changing.

Once children know that they will not be abandoned in the middle of struggles, they are more likely to take risks, develop coping skills, be less afraid of problems. When children know there are people around them who will support them in difficult times they grow to become adults who have better emotional, physical, and mental health.

Sure, kids and teens who haven’t been through challenges might know they are loved. But children who experience adversity and get loved through that adversity – they really know: I’m loved no matter what happens to me. And this lesson is worth its weight in gold.

2. Children in tough times learn that life (school/friends/people/life)isn’t perfect

Most children, when they are very little, don’t have any understanding of how tough life can be. Most have not yet struggled with the harsh realities that adults know exist. This is fine. It’s okay to protect children, for some time, from some things.

But at some point, children will be exposed to the darker sides of life. People aren’t always kind. Money is finite. People die. Relationships don’t always last. School isn’t always interesting. Decisions aren’t always fair. The question is – when should this happen?

The truth is, we usually don’t have a choice as to when our kids learn this. But I suspect that adults who have not experienced these things in their childhood tend to have a tough time in some ways. Young adults I see who have had little adversity to deal with sometimes fall apart at a hint of drama. In contrast, people who go through tough times during childhood learn early on that some problems are not always “solved” but “lived with”.

These kids know that life can be difficult, and that fairy tales don’t exist. They don’t have to learn this as adults – they know it – they really know it. And this can save them from a lot of pain and a lot of falling apart later on.

3. Children in tough times learn that they are fighters, and a problem solvers, and copers.

When children experience challenges and tough times, and then find coping strategies – well this is when the magic really happens. As hard times unfold, many children develop coping skills, ways of communicating hard stuff, how to get to sleep when you are worried, how to ask for help and how to accept it. They listen to real – and tough conversations where the big issues of life are discussed and they join in. They learn about finding things to do rather than sit and listen to the voices in their head. They learn how to take a breath and keep going after shocks and hurts. They learn to stand up for themselves. They learn resilience.

A study done in the US a few years ago asked adults about the adversity or tragedy they had experienced as a child – whether they felt they had a small amount, a medium amount or a very high amount. Then they asked them about their coping skills now in adult hood. An interesting picture emerged from the results. The adults who felt they had a very high amount of adversity or tragedy in their childhood had low coping skills as adults. This probably isn’t greatly surprising.

But here’s the kicker, the adults who felt they had a very SMALL amount of adversity or tragedy in childhood also had low coping skills as adults. It seems that experiencing some tough times, and some challenges in life as a child leads to the maximum amount of coping skills as adults.

Our kids and teens are learning incredible skills when they go through tough times, skills that they will have for their life. And they can see themselves as fighters, problem solvers and copers. Which is exactly what they are.

4. Children in tough times learn that challenges are not catastrophes

I’m a little hesitant to add this one because for example children, their challenges really are catastrophic. If you are in the Phillipines for example and your child has lost all their family members, home and community – then this one doesn’t apply to you. And other situations that children go through are truly tragic.

However, often our children are experiencing really, really tough times but they are not catastrophic. On a scale from stubbing your toe as a “1” right up to global warfare/catastrophe as a “100”, most of our children are probably on the lower end of 100 than the higher.

Most children, once they go through tough times, start to understand this. They figuratively check their pulse and realise that they have survived the difficult circumstances. They notice that they still can have fun, laugh and have moments of being okay, even while they are going through something really tough. They see that the sun still rose and that they, fundamentally, right now – they are okay.

This means, next time the challenges come – these children have the potential to see context and perspective. They can see the tough times in life as really sad, tragic even – but not the end of the world.

So to my fellow worried, sad parents of sad and worried kids, when you’ve done everything you can for your child, and you are lying in bed at night thinking about their struggles – and your heart is breaking, remember these things.

If you are empathic and caring, if you are helping your child face their challenges head on, if you are helping your child notice their coping skills and the joy in their life – then your child, even while they are suffering, is learning some amazing stuff.

Hold on to that, and maybe, just maybe you might be able to get back to sleep.

Parents & Friends Association

Save the Dates!

Next Meeting - Tuesday 5th December - Where & Time TBC

Tuesday 12th December - Second-hand Uniform Sale 1pm - 2pm

Community Picnic

Every Tuesday for the rest of term 4

Icy poles for sale on Tuesday at 11.00am

50c per single Zooper Dooper (COINS ONLY PLEASE)

Foundation, Year 1 and 2 in the Courtyard

Year 3 to 6 sold from the Canteen

Funds raised will support our Mission activities

Game

Date & Time

Venue

Offer

How to redeem

Melbourne Renegades vs Perth Scorchers

Sunday 10 December @ 7:15PM

GMHBA Stadium, Geelong

$15 Adult + $5 Kids

Ticketmaster Link

General Reserve

Unlock code: 15GADES13

Melbourne Renegades vs Brisbane Heat

Thursday 21 December @ 7:15PM

Marvel Stadium, Melbourne

KIDS GO FREE to General Admission

Ticketmaster Link

No code required

The 41^st Annual Warrnambool Surf T Surf Fun Run/Walk event is once again being run on Sunday the 7^th of January 2024. Last year OLHC won the school's Challenge. Our aim is to go back to back but also encourage young children to get out and be active with the added benefit of potentially raising funds for our school. The winner of the Challenge will have the most participants registered under your team’s name across all 4 fun run events. The events are 10km run, 6km run, 6km walk and 3km Lap of the lake. The prize is a $1000 donation to the winning school. We will have runs on Saturday mornings starting this weekend 11th November. Keep your eye on DOJO

If would like to run in our team please click the link below and register.

Join my team, OLHC team to participate in the event, Warrnambool Surf T Surf Fun Run/Walk

https://raceroster.com/events/2024/71146/warrnambool-surf-t-surf-fun-runwalk/register?team=589525

Team code: OLHC 24