Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Two of the areas that have been identified as a school improvement focus for 2021 are Oral Language  Development and Writing. At our Staff Development Day on the first day of Term 2 our staff engaged in professional learning led by our fellow colleagues, the members of our School Writing Team. This is an ongoing initiative, and we are extremely grateful for the additional support provided by the Education Officers from CEDoW.

In 2021 we have sought the expertise of Nicole Couret, a Speech Therapist who is partnering with us and providing her professional expertise to support the building of staff capacity to develop and enhance oral language, in order to transfer oral skills to enhance written texts. Nicole is presenting demonstration lessons in classrooms and debriefing with staff about the specific strategies that were employed. 

The development of the skills associated with becoming an independent writer are complex and begin long before students enter the school setting. Literacy development can be likened to the building of a house. It is necessary to have very strong foundations that are laid in oral language before we can attempt to build the walls, these are the associated skills necessary for reading and writing. In child development, oral language always precedes written language, so it is necessary to foster the skills of oral language before writing. Just as it is impossible to run before learning the skill of standing steadily on both feet, it is logical that a child who is unable to use language features in their spoken language will struggle to use these features in their writing. One of the most valuable skills that underpin future academic success is vocabulary development. The easiest way to develop vocabulary is by reading to children. By exposing children to ‘book language’ we can reveal literate language and vocabulary that may not be encountered in conversations alone.

Did you know that a child who reads for 20 minutes every day, is exposed to about 1.8 million words of text every year? This advantage is reinforced by a 2012 research project conducted by the University of Melbourne. The project set out to explore the connections between parents reading to their young children and their child’s later reading and other cognitive skills.

The key findings in the article Reading to Young Children: A Head-Start in Life - https://www.education.vic.gov.au/documents/about/research/readtoyoungchild.pdf reported that the frequency of reading to children at a young age has a direct effect on their schooling outcomes regardless of their family background and home environment.  

• Reading to children at age 4 - 5 every day has a significant positive effect on their reading skills and cognitive skills (i.e., language and literacy, numeracy and cognition) later in life. 
• Reading to children 3 - 5 days per week (compared to 2 or less) has the same effect on the child’s reading skills at age 4 - 5 as being six months older. 
• Reading to them 6 - 7 days per week has the same effect as being almost 12 months older. 
• Children read to more frequently at age 4 - 5 achieve higher scores on the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests for both Reading and Numeracy in Year 3 (age 8 to 9). 
• These differences in reading and cognitive skills are not related to the child’s family background or home environment but are the direct result of how frequently they have been read to prior to starting school.

This is why reading is a non-negotiable expectation of home learning for all grades. Reading to your child as well as having them read to you can be one of the most important ways parents can support learning. It is important for children to hear good models of fluent and expressive reading. The material read can be used as a platform for discussion. By asking lots of questions and encouraging the making of predictions and connections with other situations parents can help to support the development of comprehension skills. Please don’t confine reading to home readers alone. These books have a special job in practising skills but don’t always contain the long and complex language essential to stimulate the building of language and thinking skills.

There are many other ways parents can support the building of a child’s potential as a learner. Other such areas that contribute to supporting learning are summarised below. 

SLEEP – School age children require approximately 11 hours of sleep a night. Children should be in bed by 8:00 pm and should self wake naturally at around   7:00 am. Activities that compromise this essential routine should be kept to a minimum.

DIET – All children require a healthy diet. Plenty of fruit and vegetables, but also a diet high in iron, which is essential for brain development.

LIMIT SCREEN TIME – This includes all types of screens – television, computer, iPad, iPod, phone, X-box etc. Often these forms of technology can act as babysitting devices. These activities do not build fitness or talents, but can build addiction. They can also rob our children of opportunities to engage in conversation and build social skills. These are the essential ingredients for play and growth. An alternative could be to use ‘screen time’ as a reward or for down time after interactive play.

PLAY – All children should have the opportunity to have 15 minutes of undivided adult attention each and every day. During this time whatever toys and games are available can be used to engage in creative and imaginative play. Become a child again and show your child how to play. Most of all engage in lots of talk and conversation. This sends a vital message and demonstrates that everything else during this time can wait and that we are prepared, as parents, to put our child at the centre of the universe. This is a parenting investment that will reap many rewards in the years to come.  

Wishing both our parents and children many rewarding opportunities that will inspire lifelong learning in the week ahead.

Tina Murray

Principal

CONGRATULATIONS - We are pleased to share the following wonderful news with our school family. 

Mr and Mrs Mammone welcomed a third beautiful daughter, Amelia Francesca Mammone on 20 May 2021.

Mr and Mrs Biviano welcomed their first child, Oliver James Biviano on 24 May 2021.

SMART DEVICES - Mobile phones and other digital devices (e.g., SMART watches) have become an important and invaluable part of our modern lifestyle. 

The school understands there are times when possession of a mobile phone/digital device can provide a sense of safety and security while travelling to and from school. However, given this is a primary school setting we should consider the use of these devices within this context. In general, students should not bring valuable items to school – as they can be easily lost or damaged, which is often distressful for a primary aged child. 

If a mobile phone/SMART device is required for reasons of specific safety or urgency then the following procedures are in place to manage this and apply to all students. 

• The student will place the phone / SMART device (marked with name and class) into the device box located in the Office each morning for safekeeping. 
• The mobile phone / SMART device will need to be collected at the end of the day. 
• The student will be responsible for collecting their own device each day. 

Students who bring mobile phones / SMART devices to school do so at their own risk. 

It has always been the school’s practice to pass on important messages to students throughout the day. Phone messages from parents e.g., change to home arrangements will be communicated to students via the Office so that class teachers are aware of and can support these arrangements.

Parents will be contacted if a student is found using a mobile phone/ SMART device in an inappropriate manner (for photography, recording, bullying). 

The device may be confiscated and returned to the parent. 

The student would also be subject to the appropriate disciplinary consequence.  

CHURCH CAR PARK - Parents are reminded that the Church car park is unavailable for parent parking both before and after school. We have had a number of recent incidents where After School Buses have been unable to pick up students or leave the site due to parents double parking in the Church Car Park.

We thank you in advance for maintaining the safety and security of all students.

P&F MCDONALD'S FUNDRAISER

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Parents play an important role in this development. I have included strategies for parents taken from the Friendly Schools Programme, to use to support your children in this area.

Research has shown that children’s learning is influenced by a range of social and emotional factors. How well children do at school is affected by things such as:

• how confident children feel about their abilities.
• how effectively they are able to manage their own behaviour.
• how well they can concentrate and organise themselves.
• how effectively they can solve problems.
• how positively they are able to get on with teaching staff and with peers.
• how effectively they take into account others’ needs.
• how well they can understand and accept responsibilities.

Communicating with your children

Regularly talking with and listening to your children reinforces that they can talk with you about both the positive and more challenging parts of their day. Make sure to engage them in genuine conversations about a variety of topics that are fun as well as more serious and thought provoking topics.

Reassure your children that they can talk with you no matter what the topic. Try to arrange times when you can walk or sit side-by-side and chat. This is a more relaxed way to have a conversation and enables your children to feel more comfortable talking with you about difficult topics.

Ask yourself:

• Are there times each day when I am able to share some time with my children?
• Do I really listen to my children and what they have to say?
• Do I show my children that I am really interested to hear their opinions and thoughts?

When your children talk with you about day-to-day things, where possible, stop what you are doing and listen.  Try to keep in touch with what is happening in their lives.

LILLIAN DEL GIUDICE

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

SEMESTER ONE REPORTS/PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Semester One Reports will be available to parents via COMPASS on Friday 18 June.  Parent Teacher Interviews will take place the week beginning 21 June.  Booking times for Semester One Parent Teacher Interviews are now open on COMPASS.  Timeslots are 15 minutes each. Please use the COMPASS online booking system to book in your time with class teachers.  If for some reason you are unable to attend during this week, please contact the class teacher directly.  Online bookings will close on Friday 11 June at 3.00pm.

Congratulations to all those students who have remembered to bring their Library bags and return their books, well done, an awesome effort!!! There are still 297 books which are overdue from students who forget their Library Bags, so please have a look around at home and see if you can find them.  Students with outstanding loans are encouraged to bring them back as soon as possible. The Library is open at Lunch 2 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week, and students are welcome to come in then and borrow. Thank you.

Damaged books - If a book is damaged or torn whilst at home, please do not attempt to repair it. While we appreciate your efforts, we have the correct materials at school and it is easier for us, and better for the book, if we repair it here. Using sticky tape to attach torn or loose pages is not ideal. Please just ask your child to let us know, and we can fix it. The students do not get into trouble if a book is accidentally damaged, we would rather know about it so we can do something about it! If a book is damaged beyond repair, then we do ask that it either be paid for or replaced by something similar. Please try to keep the books away from younger siblings – we have had a number of books which have had to be thrown out because they have been scribbled in and torn, or water-damaged. Thank you for your support in this matter.

Scholastic Book Club - The brochures went home last week, ordering is available online as indicated on the brochures. No orders or money are able to be accepted at school. Orders close for this issue, Issue Four, Friday 4 June. Thank you for your support of this program, it is a great way to buy books for your children.

Premiers' Reading Challenge - Remember to keep reading for the PRC, we have plenty of time to read the required number of books and register them online. If you are familiar with login details you can login at home and register all completed books. If not, we will be able to login at school and complete the lists. The website has the list of books as well as the login button for each student: 

https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html

You can also go to our Oliver home page at https://oliver.dow.catholic.edu.au/miev and click on the link to take you to the website. Remember Kinder – Year 2 must read 30 books, and Years 3 - 6 must read 20, with 5 Personal Choice books allowed.

"Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read." 

Marilyn Jager Adams, child development expert

Happy reading!

Mrs Susan Bryant - Teacher Librarian

Upcoming RE Events:

ACTIVATE Fire - Tuesday 8 June 2021

Sacred Heart Mass - Friday 11 June 2021

ACTIVATE Fire 

ACTIVATE fire is a primary school Youth Ministry initiative providing catechesis and an opportunity for an encounter with Christ for our Year 6 students. The theme of this event centres on the Sacraments of Initiation with a focus on Confirmation. Our Year 6 students will be participating in this program next week when we host the event at our school. We will be welcoming two of the other schools in our diocese; Holy Family, Ingleburn and St Francis, Edmondson Park who will be joining us on this very special day.

Sacred Heart Mass

Every year we hold a very special mass on the Feast of the Sacred Heart. During this Mass we award one student our very special Sacred Heart Award. This is awarded to a student who has displayed loving, caring and empathetic qualities towards others and who opens their heart to the needs of others.

Mrs Debusch, who used to be a principal at our school, introduced this award many years ago. This award is a long standing tradition at our school. This mass will be held next Friday with Years 3-6 attending due to COVID-19 restrictions.

RE Team News

St Joseph Liturgy

Six Green had a great time learning about sleeping Saint Joseph in the church. 

Father Slawek was talking about the respect, justice and courage that

Saint Joseph can show us. We had a few people who were saying the Prayers of the 

Faithful and a few people who placed some feet on the stands. These represented walking in the footsteps of St Joseph.  Mr Orazi talked about a quote in Mrs Mortimer’s book that she is reading.

Christian Trabouleish (Year 6)

Values

The Year 6 Religion Team have been scouring our Infants playground this week looking for students who have been displaying our school values. They were incredibly impressed at the way our students have been showing the values of:

• Leadership
• Compassion
• Stewardship
• Faith
• Celebration 
• Doing Your Best

Mrs Kirsty Simpson

Religious Education Co-ordinator