Principal’s Message

When giving his homily on Sunday, my Parish Priest spoke about Golda Meir, the first female Israeli Prime Minister from 1969. He shared that he had seen an interview with her where she said that she used to be jealous of beautiful girls when she was young, until it dawned on her that she would become good at the things that others were not good at. This led her to a path of becoming an engaging conversationalist, an astute debater and ultimately to her appointment as the first female Prime Minister of Israel. Apparently, she was the original ‘Iron Lady’ before Margaret Thatcher. For Golda this was at a social and political time when a female commanding such a position was definitely not the norm. She saw herself as being given lemons, and yet she made lemonade.

My Parish Priest then reflected on how in life, we all have a cross to bear of some sort, yet it is our decision to not only bear that cross, but what we allow that cross to do to us, do we let if defeat us or are we able to learn, evolve, adapt and perhaps even benefit from this experience to come out of it a better, stronger person. As Ghandi said, “Your struggles develop your strengths”. For me the recent Paralympics provided so many examples of this, with so many athletes performing on the international stage at an elite level. The story of Lauren Parker comes to mind, an elite able-bodied iron woman who hasn’t let a life changing accident change her mindset or her will to get the most out of life. (Read more about Lauren here https://bit.ly/3lfY863)

In terms of us as parents, reflecting on this has helped me understand that my role as a parent is not to ‘remove’ all obstacles for my children, but to guide them in their navigation of these obstacles, whatever they may be. We need to allow them the opportunities to find their way so that through this they will hopefully develop resilience and persistence moving forward.

 

Mr Michael Morris

Principal

Leadership Team Message

Athletics Carnival

Information for the upcoming Athletics Carnival has been sent home via SMS, follow the link here: https://bit.ly/3nvbhe7. Children will be notified of what events they are in, in the coming days. The Athletics Carnival Sausage Sizzle note was sent home on Monday, please ensure that you return it to your child’s class teacher by Monday 20 September. A major change this year is that children are to be dropped off at the venue where possible. Children will be supervised at the track from 8.00am, with a map and drop off times for different year levels being sent home as well. Please adhere to the drop off times to help us minimise congestion in the carpark.

Athletics Carnival Sausage Sizzle and Cake Stall

On Monday, an order form was sent home with all students in Pre-Primary to Year 6 for the Athletics Carnival sausage sizzle. Please complete the order form and return it to your child’s class teacher, with the correct money, if your child would like a sausage sizzle down at the oval on the day. We are also requesting donations to run a cake stall for morning tea on the day of the carnival. Thank you for your support!

OLA Faction Carnival Sausage Sizzle Information

NAIDOC Mass

On Thursday 9 September we were privileged to have Dr Roma Winmar, an award-winning Noongar Elder share song and introduce our NAIDOC Mass with a Welcome to Country. This Mass was postponed from our previous date, and it was great to come together to recognise the oneness that makes us all Australian.

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Italian Week

This week, we celebrate Italian Week at OLA, thank you to Signora Pizzo for organising our celebrations this week. Next week’s newsletter will include a full wrap up of our events.

Departing Students

If your child will not be returning to OLA in 2022, can you please advise the School Office as soon as possible. Emails confirming your child’s departure can be sent to admin@ola.wa.edu.au

Class Placement Requests 2022

We have come to the time of year where many parents are beginning to think about what classes their children will be in next year. Teachers spend a large amount of time looking at the myriad of combinations of students, trying to find the optimal combination for the classes, taking into account the social, behavioural and academic variables before settling on the classes for the following year.

If you have a request for your child’s 2022 class placement, please email Assistant Principal, Rebecca Smith, with your request and reasons. Please note that this is a request only and there is no guarantee that your request will be fulfilled in 2022.

Staffing

For the remainder of 2021, Mrs Jane Sloss will remain as the Administration Officer at the front desk. As mentioned in the previous newsletter, Mrs Chris Balen has stepped down from her role after twenty-two years of service to OLA.

Year 6 REACH Collaboration Day

On Friday 3 September, the Year 6 REACH group attended a STEM and problem-solving day at St Peter’s along with St Paul’s and St Luke’s. The students worked through problem-solving activities, a STEM activity and spontaneous problems while interacting with students from the other schools. The students thoroughly enjoyed themselves and are to be commended for representing OLA with enthusiasm and excellence. A big thank you to St Peter’s for hosting us!

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Parent Meeting Info

Please ensure that you have booked in your Week 10 interview time with your class teacher via SOBs. If you are unable to book or need to look at an alternative time, please contact your child’s class teacher as soon as possible.

Parent-Teacher Meeting Booking Instructions Term 3

Team Colours Day

It’s that time of the year again when we get to show our support for all of the different teams we support, across all of the different sports we follow on “Team Colours Day”. Wear your team’s colours on the last day of school for the term, Friday 24 September.

Health Care Card Concession

Parents, if you are the holder of a current Health Care Card and have not notified the front office please do so. The Health Care Card Discount Scheme, introduced in 2005, provides an automatic fee concession to the holders of eligible means-tested family concession cards (Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card). This discount applies to all year levels from Kindergarten to Year 12.

Thank you.

Michael Morris and Rebecca Smith

The OLA Leadership Team