Advent is the season of new beginnings. A new liturgical year begins on the First Sunday of Advent. Week by week, candles are lit on the Advent wreath as the time of Jesus’ birth draws near.

Dear Parents,

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank many of the people who have made this year at our school so successful. A huge thank you to Georgie McElligott and all of the members of our Parent Association. The Association continues in their marvelous work of fund raising and organising and supporting school functions across our school year. All of the funds raised throughout the year are used to purchase resources and provide opportunities that enhance your children’s learning and school experiences. Thank you to all the parents who have actively been involved in our school in many ways that include:

working and supporting the children in the classrooms attendance and support for school functions involvement in sacramental workshops and celebrations attendance at school assemblies involvement in excursions and incursions assistance in our canteen (Thank you to Di and Loretta) helping at special school events e.g. sports day, ‘fun’ days.

I’d also like to acknowledge the staff at our school for their dedication and their professionalism. On a daily basis I see how our teachers, aides and office staff support the many academic, social and emotional needs of the children in our school. I’d also like to thank the Deputy Principal/Teaching and Learning Coordinator Mary Kearney, our Well Being Coordinator Libby Sheedy, our Religious Education Coordinator Trish Segrave and all of our curriculum leaders. The school could not function without their expertise and commitment. Thank you to Felix and Silvana our school crossing attendants for looking after your children as they navigate Landells Road and Gaffney Streets.

Thank you to all of our children for their hard work and all of their efforts this year.

Regards Alan Sweeney

NEWSLETTER Tuesday 2 December, 2014

St Oliver Plunkett Primary School

Landells Rd, Pascoe Vale, 3044 93545411

www.sopascoevale.catholic.edu.au

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

DIARY DATESFebruary

December 3 Parent Association Xmas Dinner Annointing of the Sick Mass 11a.m. 8 Graduation Mass 7pm Human Rights Day 12 End of Year Mass 11.45 a.m. Reports Home Parent Helper Afternoon tea 2.30 – 3.30 Last Day for Canteen 16 P/T Interviews - Optional 17 Children finish at 3.15pm (Children’s last day) 18 School Closure Day (2015 Planning) 19 School Closure Day January 2015 28 Book Pack Collecting 9.15 – 12.30pm Staff return to School 29 Term 1, 2015 commences for Students

Wednesday assembly

Click HERE to view the roster for term 4.

Click HERE to view the Class Mass roster for term 4. Masses are on THURSDAY at 10.00am.

From the Principal…

EDUCATION IN FAITH

The end of year school Mass is on 12 December at 11.45am. At the Mass families leaving the school will be presented with a certificate and the juniors are leading the singing of the Communion reflection. All parents are welcome. Thank you to all those people who were able to donate books to the library in Papua New Guinea. The response was quite amazing. ST. OLIVERS PARISH GIVING TREE To help families in need this Christmas, St Oliver’s Parish is collecting donated items of food and drink that will be distributed by members of The St. Vincent de Paul Society. No perishable items or past use by dated foods please. The tags giving suggestions of what to buy are available at the church.

Trish Segrave Religious Education Coordinator Special Advent Children's Liturgy You are invited to a special Children's Liturgy for the Four Sundays of Advent - 30 November, 7 December, 14 December and 21 December, where the children will be doing a special activity around the Jesse Tree including presenting the symbols in the Offertory. St Oliver's Children's Liturgy is especially for children aged between 5 and 12 years to come along and celebrate their own special Gospel of the Lord. All are welcome to attend. We would love to see lots of children there as we celebrate this very important time in the Church's calendar. Aislinn Breen Children’s Liturgy Coordinator

What’s happening around the levels..

What’s happening around the levels…

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: This week we will focus on the Jesse Tree as a

symbol of advent. We will also be revising the Christmas story in preparation for our Christmas assembly and participating in Christmas Art activities. The grade 6 students will be practising for our Graduation Mass WRITING: Students will continue personal writing pieces and publishing for

their profile books.

READING: We will be watching the movie Holes together and will reflect on the

similarities and differences between the book and movie. Students will discuss the way characters are portrayed.

MATHS: We revisit transformations of shapes- flip, translate and rotate. We will

also be revising symmetry and lines of symmetry.

INQUIRY: Students will be devising their own menu based on their

understanding of a balanced diet. Just a reminder...

Senior G will be visiting Dorothy Impey Nursing Home this Thursday - weather permitting.

Homework is due on December the 4th. Click HERE for a copy of the current Grade 5 homework task sheet

Click HERE for a copy of the current Grade 6 homework task sheet

SENIORS

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: We will finish our unit, ‘Emmanuel, God is with Us’, by reading and discussing Matthew’s account of the Magi visit. WRITING: This week we will look at letter writing and each student will write their own letter to Santa and post it in the city on Friday. READING: This week the students will read a variety of Christmas picture books and complete a Literacy quilt summarising the characters and important events. MATHS: This week the students will continue working in their groups on measurement. We will be focusing on various aspects of measurement. INQUIRY: This week in our unit, ‘Energise Me’ the students will continue working on their actions, and begin presenting them to the class.

Click HERE for a copy of the current Middle’s homework task sheet

MIDDLES

What’s happening around the levels..

JUNIORS

RELIGION: This week we will conclude our unit, ‘Advent and Christmas’, by

creating and participating in a prayer litany about Mary. We will also look at what happened in the story of Jesus’ birth and build on the children’s prior knowledge about this significant event in the church year.

READING: During shared reading, our study of narrative texts will focus on the

purpose of varying our voice tone for the direct speech of the text characters. We will also focus on how adjectives and interesting descriptions add meaning to the text and help capture the attention of the audience.

WRITING: In Writing, we will continue to look at the features of a narrative. The

children will be finalising the editing and publishing of their individual narratives. They will also focus on including an appropriate illustration that details the characters and setting of their writing piece.

MATHS: In Maths, we will be continuing on with the measurement units of capacity

and mass. Junior C and Junior D will look at capacity and practise estimating, measuring and comparing the capacity of containers using informal tools e.g. cups and spoons. Junior L and Junior R will focus on mass and practise hefting and comparing the mass of a variety of classroom objects as well as ordering them from lightest to heaviest.

INQUIRY: This week during Inquiry, the children will conclude their own ‘Personal

Action Chart’ showing the various activities they do now and how they can improve the amount of activity they do in a week. Click HERE for a copy of the current Junior’s homework task sheet

PREPS

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: We will be introducing the children to the

Christmas story. We will also be practising for our assembly item for week 11.

READING: We are continuing to look at letters to help with our letter writing.

WRITING: We will begin letter writing and the children will start writing their

letters to Santa. MATHS: In Maths we are looking at capacity. The children will be using

different sized containers and using different objects to fill them. REMINDERS. . . .

- This Friday is the last day for M100W testing! Please make sure your child brings in their book.

- If you haven’t done so already please fill out and send back the excursion note for our trip to the city ASAP.

- This is our last week of reader books. Can children please return all books to their classroom by this Friday 5th December.

WELLBEING

MICHAEL GROSE- PARENTING INSIGHT Please click HERE to access the parenting sheet. This week’s insight looks at ‘Are you amongst the 10% of smart parents?” Parenting is one of the toughest jobs but we need to understand that no one needs to do it alone. Michael suggests some ideas to help parents build their support network. It has been terrific to see so many more children getting active to and from school. Keep up the great work and don’t forget to get your passports clicked each day. Our next ‘Hands Up’ count will be next Wednesday. Stay healthy and keep fit. Libby Sheedy Wellbeing Coordinator

SPORTS NEWS

Congratulations to all the boys who played cricket last Friday at Epping Reserve for the Milo T20bast Regionals. Well done to Billy Kalessoglou, Damian Maccarone, Zander Capello, Lachlan Cometti, Cooper Siliato, Hamish McGregor, Luke Whitchurch, Matthew Miano, Jake Pitruzzello, Vincent Giacchi, An Vu, Jack Pelosi, Matthew Brogna, Jacob Marchionni, Joshua Abdullah and Anthony Manduca. Thank you to Mr McKenzie for taking the boys along to such a great event. A BIG thank you goes to all the parents who drove the boys to Epping Reserve on the day. Without your support we couldn’t have been a part of such a fun filled day. Thank you to all the staff, parents and children for another fantastic year in Sport. I hope that next year is just as successful!! Many Thanks Giulia Mazzarella

Sports Coordinator

GENERAL NEWS

FAMILY DETAILS UPDATES It is important that we have accurate student & family information, particularly home, work and mobile numbers of both parents and emergency contacts. Please inform the office if there are any changes to any of these details.

SUNSMART POLICY A reminder that all children as part of the school summer uniform children are required to wear their SCHOOL broad rimmed HAT during recess and lunch times, as well as during physical education/sport lessons, during terms one and four. NO HAT, NO PLAY! JUNIOR WRITERS OF THE WEEK

Over the year we have seen very creative and talented writers emerge in the Junior grades. Each week we will be acknowledging some children who have followed the

writing process to develop a piece of work. Congratulations to these children. This work will be displayed outside each of the Junior Grades.

Congratulations to the following children JC – Lucas Hoerner JD- Georgie Denes and Julia Bongiovanni JL –Luca Scalogna JR – Joshua De Marco

STUDENT AWARDS

Chiara Scodella, Eamon Sheehan, Marcus Funnell, Ava Jakimov, Christina De Filippis,

Nicholas McColl, Johan Boobal, Georgia Featherstone, Julia Bongiovanni, Marcus

DelCampo, Nicola Gravina, Stephanie Skouris, Tianna Romeo, Stefan Hatzievangelou,

Ethan Doherty, Josh De Marco, Kiara Schipano, Lucas Russo, Noah Schiavello, Leah

Tabet, Dawood Sada, Carla Whitchurch, Sarina Valstro, Xavier Said, Alana Capuana,

Danielle Ferraiolo, Paul Mokbel, Liam Tierney, Giulia Palmarella, Christian Dupre,

Cameron Bell, Julius Guzzardi, Matthew Edwards, Josh Abdallah, Giovanni Piperno

LIBRARY Borrowing has now finished for 2014. It is important that all books be returned to the Library as soon as possible to allow time for stocktake. GRADUATION SUPPER For the graduation supper, the hall will be open prior to the graduation mass in order for parents to drop off the items brought for the supper.

CANTEEN

Thursday 4 December Cathy Giacchi, Melissa D'Aolia Friday 5 December Sandra Cutajar, Lisa Blaney, Carmela Ramondetta Monday 8 December Deb Roberts Lisa Barker

Please click HERE for a copy of the Canteen Menu Please direct enquiries to Di Tabone dtabone@ozemail.com.au or 0423 596 221 LAST DAY FOR CANTEEN IS FRIDAY 12 DECEMBER.

PARENT ASSOCIATION

PARENT ASSOCIATION

CLICK HERE FOR THE CURRENT PARENT ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER SCHOOL BANKING With only 3 weeks of school banking left, it is your last chance to claim this year's reward prizes. Please be aware that our last day to order for prizes will be on Tuesday 9th December ...so be sure to redeem your tokens not to miss out! Please note: the Penguin key ring, Whale pencil case, Handball & Swimming Bag reward items are no longer available. We need your help!!! If you are interested in volunteering to help next year on Tuesday mornings from 9am-10.30am please contact Diana 0419331966 or fill out attached slip & hand it into the office. We work on a roster system so it only works out to be a couple of times a term. PRELOVED UNIFORM PROGRAM A donation basket is located in the school office foyer. All donations must be clean and have no rips. The second hand uniforms will be available for purchase at the last assembly for term 4.If you require this service beforehand please contact Georgie 0405 435 770 to arrange an appointment BUSINESSES OF THE WEEK The featured businesses in the “Business of the Week” section of the school website are Hadfield Dental Group, HeadStrong Fitness and Tania Vanstone Tennis. For more information regarding the St Olivers Business Directory please email bd@sopascoevale.catholic.edu.au XMAS RAFFLE This year the Parent Association has put together 3 prizes per class for the Xmas Raffle. The raffle will be drawn by Santa at the last assembly for 2014 on Wednesday 17th December. Raffle tickets were sent home last week. Each ticket is $1 or $5 for the book. UP AND COMING EVENTS FOR TERM 4 #2015 Calendars….November… delivery expected mid-December #Xmas Raffle…Wed 17th December

School Banking Program I (name) _____________________________ am available to help with the school banking program on Tuesday mornings My Contact details are: __________________________________________

Christmas Hamper Raffle 2014

Raffle tickets have already been sent home..$5 per book

In years past we have asked for donations in the raffle and then also asked you to purchase the tickets, however this year

the Parent Association have decided to put together the raffle, to thank all our families for their support in our fund raising efforts in

2014.

We have been very busy organizing hampers for each class, in fact we are organizing 3 prizes for each class……that is 28 hampers in total and

14 boxes of chocolates to be won!!!!!!

Raffle tickets and money must be returned to class by Tuesday 16

th

December

Ticket prices $1 each—5 tickets in a book.

Remember you have to be in it to win it.

Raffle will be drawn on Wed 17th

at assembly by Santa!! .

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas Thank you from the Parents Association

St Oliver Plunkett

From last week children have been doing varieties of

Christmas activities. Those are pipe cleaner ornaments,

wooden mobile snowman, star wind charm, Christmas

colour jewellery, Christmas colour paper chain and

wooden pop stick candy cane. Their creations are

amazing. Yesterday children decorated our mini Christmas

tree. It looks good. In the afternoon they played with water

balloons. It helped in the hot weather.

Upcoming Activities: Cooking gingerbread house shape

cake, Santa’s socks, Christmas tree foam door hungers

and Christmas shape cookies are planned activities.

Unplanned activities are available to children according to

their interest.

This week also, OSHC children try to minimise white paper

usage and look after the environment.

OSHC Staff – Gowri.