Newsletter 3rd of May

Dear Parents, Friends and Students of Our Lady of Lourdes

Welcome Back: If I have not yet had the opportunity to greet you in person, I would like to extend a warm welcome back to all OLOL families to Term 2.  I hope everyone enjoyed a blessed Easter and some special family time, ready for yet another action-packed term. On behalf of the entire community, I would like to extend a warm welcome to Mrs Stawowy who is with us for the term while Miss Reeler enjoys her long service leave. 

ANZAC Day: We commemorated ANZAC Day on the first day of Term Two with a beautiful service provided by Year 5 students. Thank you to the students and Miss Geiles for leading such a beautiful memorial. 

Mother’s Day: Coinciding with our first Class Assembly for the term, we will be celebrating our special mothers and grandmothers as well. Please join us for danishes, scones, tea, coffee and juice on Friday, 12 May in the undercover area from 7:45am. For catering purposes, please keep an eye out to RSVP if you will be attending.      

OLOL P&F Meeting: After such a successful P&F meeting in Term One, we are hoping to have even more parents join us for our Term Two meeting on Wednesday 10 May. The agenda will be uploaded to the school website by the end of the week. If you are available to join us to hear of the events planned for the remainder of the year, the meeting will be held in the Hall at 5:30pm. All OLOL parents are welcome to attend. 

New Classroom Doors: If you have paid a visit to school to start the term, you will have noticed that our new classroom doors have been installed. Removing the solid wooden doors and changing them for aluminium will add natural light to our learning spaces and give a clear line of sight into all classrooms for Code of Conduct purposes. It also gives our classrooms a more modern look. I’m sure you would agree that they look great!   

Previous Staff Reflections: On Monday 24 April, the OLOL staff gathered for a special day of professional learning called ‘Faith Story & Witness’. During the day, Mr Gray stepped us through the very beginnings of Our Lady of Lourdes School back in 1958 under the direction of the Sisters of Mercy. We were given the opportunity to read reflections from previous staff and over coming newsletters, I will share these with the community. The first is from Sister Clare Rafferty. 

Sister Clare Rafferty 

A few thoughts from the ‘dim and distant past’. I began my teaching career at Our Lady of Lourdes in 1961 teaching 65 energetic Year 3 boys and girls. The classroom was the third room in the building which housed the Church and one other classroom. As the congregation grew the desks had to be removed from the classrooms every Friday afternoon and stored in a space next to the canteen. They were then brought back to the classroom on a Monday morning! After a couple of years, the Year 3 class was fortunate to be located in a newly built classroom on the west end of the building close to the canteen. It was so much easier to manage a classroom where there was no furniture being moved each week. 

The 8 years in which I taught and lived at Nollamara were happy ones. The school was in its 4th year when I started teaching there and the number of students continued to grow. Parent support was wonderful and everyone did what they could to help with school and parish needs. Fr Kelly was particularly supportive of the Sisters and he was very proud of the school. The building of the Parish Church was a great occasion and it was also a relief for those who taught in the building which had previously been used as the Church. 

For the first two years the Sisters travelled by bus from St Brigid’s Convent, West Perth to the school. Then the late Mr Frank Parkinson who was a taxi driver, drove the Sisters to and from school each day. What a patient man he was, as we were not always ready when Frank arrived! Then the Convent was built. This was done by means of the very generous men of the parish, using their building skills. What a pleasure it was to live in a new Convent which was quite a different design from the Convents of the day. I enjoyed life being so close to school and Church. 

After 8 years, I moved to the country but was back at Nollamara again in 1975. This time, I taught Year 5 for one year and then went to teach at St Gerard’s. However, I continued to live at the Nollamara Convent for another 6 years and caught up with many of the friends I had made in the earlier years. 

MJR Message – Always Look for the Good: As we have only been back at school a short time, instead of listing our Spirit of Jesus Shout Outs, I thought I would take an opportunity to share a very important message from the MJR way of life.  

Too often, we are drawn to the negative rather than the positive. You only have to sit and watch the evening news to highlight this point, where a ‘good’ news story seems very hard to find. MJR is all about seeing the good in yourself, others and the world around you. It is about being ‘switched on’ to the Spirit of Jesus moments that occur each day. This is something you can work on at home. When you ask your child, “How was your day at school?” don’t allow them to begin with a negative. Tell them that you would like to hear three positive things first. It is amazing how attitudes can change when we look for the good in our lives. 

Term 2
Last Day of Term 2 – Friday 30th June
Mid-Year break: Monday 3^rd July – Monday 17th July

Term 3
Students: Tuesday 18th July – Thursday 21st September
Term 3 break: Friday 22nd September – Sunday 8th October

Term 4
Students: Tuesday 10th October – Friday 8^th December

Student Free Days and Public Holidays 2023

Term 2
Monday 5th June – WA Day

Tuesday 6th June – Pupil Free Day

Term 3

Monday 17^th July – Pupil Free Day
Friday 22^nd September – Pupil Free Day

Term 4

Monday 9^th October – Pupil Free Day