Our Lady’s Primary School

We are delighted to share with you the wonderful happenings and achievements taking place in our school community. As we continue to strive to nurture young minds and foster a culture of excellence, we are always thrilled to observe the remarkable progress and success of our students and staff.

Academic Triumphs

Our students continue to shine brightly in their academic pursuits. From outstanding performances in standardised tests to innovative classroom projects, our school community is dedicated to cultivating a passion for learning and academic excellence.

We are very proud of our STEM program. This term the students from prep to year 6 are exploring becoming “digital creators”. A digital creator is someone who develops digital tools and media to solve problems and communicate. Over the course of this term the students have been reflecting on the type of digital creator they want to be and the media they want to create. Through the term, the students have been investigating digital threats and developing skills and strategies that will help to protect them online. They have been learning to identify scams and unreliable information as well as reflecting on their digital footprint and consider the ways that online behaviours can impact their lives off line. At our celebration of learning in at the end of the term, each student will develop a digital resource that will enhance the safety and creativity of our school’s digital community. It really is outstanding learning!

The use of High Impact Teaching Strategies, (H.I.T.S) ensures our teaching is targeted and engaging. An example of what this looks like in a Year 3 /4 classroom….

The study of English is central to the learning and development of all students. We design, plan and sequence learning that is explicit, modelled, guided, practised, assessed and reviewed. Sometimes this happens all in one lesson or over a series of sequenced lessons. During English learning sessions, reading and writing skills are explicitly taught and modelled. The 3/4 students presented their understanding and learning about reading and writing their memoirs at assembly. An example of how we make learning visible to our students:

Learning Intention – we are learning about writing memoirs/anecdotes:

• • I can write a hamburger paragraph with a main idea as a topic sentence

• • I can write a paragraph with supporting details

• • I can write a summing-up sentence

Extension – I can add language features such as alliteration and the rule of three to make my writing interesting.

Extracurricular Enrichment

Beyond the classroom, our students are actively engaged in a diverse range of extracurricular activities. Just recently we hosted our whole school athletics carnival where our students demonstrate remarkable skills enthusiasm, and sportsmanship. We have a very strong sports program at OLPS and are proud of our achievements at local and district levels.

Community Engagement

At the heart of our school is a strong sense of community spirit. Our PFA is a powerhouse of an organisation and is always working hard to raise funds for our school but to also provide the opportunity for relationships to be build across our parent community. Our recent welcome picnic was a wonderful success and we look forward to our annual Mother’s Day function and Year Level social gatherings.

To engage our parents in the learning of the student, we recently hosted a webinar entitled “Managing Big Feelings. Here at OLPS we have been in partnership with Inform and Empower, an organisation that supports our work in Digital Safety. We were thrilled so many of our families take up these opportunities.

Staff Dedication

All these achievements would be possible without the unwavering dedication and passion of our staff. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the commitment of Mrs Julie Leung, our Office Manager. Following 29 years of service to Our Lady’s Primary School, Julie will retire on Tuesday, 19 March. We thank Julie for her service to not only our school but to catholic education.

Together, we are shaping the future leaders of tomorrow, and we look forward to celebrating many more successes in the months ahead.

By Annie Engellenner, Principal

Published: 15 March 2024