Dear Parents & Carers 

Hard to believe we are nearly at the halfway mark of the Term! But what a great start to the new school year. The students have settled into the routine exceptionally well and now that most of our extra-curricula activities have commenced, school life is set to get even busier. The great start has a lot to do with you, the parents. It is obvious you have made sure your children are well prepared for school each day and speak positively to them about the many exciting things that they can experience and the importance of a quality education. This gives kids a head start. Leaving home with a positive mindset about learning goes a long way to ensuring they have a top day at school. The teachers and support staff also deserve recognition. Their efforts in preparing learning experiences, a welcoming and caring environment and willingness to offer extra-curricula opportunities, provide a structure for maintaining a supportive school culture. 

At the Parent Information sessions, I took some time to inform you of some of the major things that are planned for the 2021 school year. The majority of initiatives are a direct result from the feedback received in last year’s School Renewal and Improvement Process. Your responses went a long way in assisting us develop our Strategic Plan for the next four years.  

While these are important projects, I also spoke about the need for parents to be involved in their children’s schooling. There is plenty of research that shows the direct link between success at school and the level of parent involvement. I do not mean parents have to be at the school every day of the week to be seen as involved. Your involvement can be in a variety of ways. Taking an interest in what is happening in the classroom, assisting with homework, reminding children of upcoming events, ensuring the correct uniform is worn, attending as many school/classroom events as possible, celebrating successes along the way, talking positively at home about learning and teachers, volunteering whenever you can, coming along to fundraising or social events…. the list is almost endless and nothing on the list is too difficult to do.  

Children just love seeing their parents being present and involved and from personal experience as a parent of three kids, their years at primary school will go by in a blink of an eye….so don’t waste this time…get in and enjoy the little things because one day you will look back and realise that they were the big things. It’s the little things in life that matter. 

What makes us remember things is how we felt at a particular time. If children have a positive and enjoyable experience at primary school, the odds are that they will carry this forward to secondary school and then one day hopefully provide their children with a positive attitude towards school.  

Children will remember how the important adults treated them; how they listened to what they had to say; how they established clear rules and boundaries; how they were fair but firm; how they knew how to have fun together and with us; how they modelled respect to one another; how our parents and teachers praised us for our efforts rather than our results. And if parents and teachers don’t do these things, then, they’ll remember that instead. 

There is no doubt that we as parents and teachers are a very important influence on the degree to which our children will have a healthy self-image. The memories we give our children to take forward in their lives, will be based, in great part, on the type of influence we provided. 

Welcome BBQ & Disco

To provide an opportunity for the school community to come together for a social occasion, a beginning of the year welcoming BBQ and Disco for all families will be held this Friday 19th February from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Please note that all children are required to be supervised by an adult throughout the evening. Entry to the disco and sausage sizzle is complimentary. Steak burgers will be available to purchase for $5. A bar and light refreshments will also be available. Look forward to seeing you all there. 

Leadership Assembly

Tomorrow, our Year 6 students will receive their leadership and school captaincy badges at a special leadership assembly. Mr. Marty Savage – Senior Education Leader from the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office will be our special guest. Please note that this assembly will commence at the earlier time of 2:00 p.m.  

School Fees

Due to a recent introduction of a new financial management system in all Toowoomba Diocesan schools, the generation of school fees for families has been delayed. Time is being dedicated to ensuring information has been successfully migrated from the old system. School fee payments can be made prior to you receiving your invoice. If you are unsure of what the school fee amount is, please contact the front office.   

Volunteers

Parent and grandparent volunteers are vitally important for the successful operation of many school operations and events. Without the help of volunteers, we could not begin to offer a number of the opportunities available at the school. All volunteers however are required to be registered at the school. Please keep any eye out for information from the school in relation to what is required if you wish to be a volunteer. I personally thank you in advance for your valued support.  

 P&F Association

The Annual General Meeting of the Parents & Friends Association was held last night. It was great to see so many new faces at the meeting. Don’t get me wrong….it was good to see the old ones as well! The P&F at Lourdes has always provided wonderful moral and financial support for school endeavours. Meetings are always conducted in good spirit and more importantly are pretty short!! A cordial invitation is always extended to all parents, especially any new families who would like to become a little more involved in school life.  

For further information, please refer to the P&F report in our fortnightly newsletters. P&F meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month. For your convenience, meeting dates have been included in the school calendar which all families received during the first week of term.  

Executive members of the P&F for 2021 are: Ross Haylock (President), Mandy Ryan (Vice-president), Maria Morcom (Secretary), Vanessa Pohlner (Treasurer) and Chris Golightly (Principal).

Cross Country/General Fitness Training

Our annual morning fitness program commenced this morning. These sessions will be offered for any student in Year 3- 6 every Wednesday and Friday mornings 7:30 a.m. at Newtown Park (weather permitting). Students may wear their sports uniform on the Wednesday if they attend the training sessions. The students will be accompanied back to school by the supervising teachers at approx. 8:15 a.m. in readiness for class.  

Stop, Drop & Go

To assist the teachers on duty at the stop, drop and go zones, it would be appreciated if you could display your family name either on the visor or dashboard of your car. Not all teachers recognize parent/grandparent faces or the make of vehicle. Having the kids ready on the footpath greatly improves the efficiency of these zones.  

Late Arrival at School

All students who arrive late for school must report to the front office prior to going into class. In saying this, all possible effort needs to be made to ensure children arrive at school with plenty of time to be settled and organised for the day ahead. Late arrival does disrupt learning and places the child who is late at a disadvantage as they miss important information of what is required and instruction of what needs to be done. An organised start to the day provides valuable support for your child and the Teacher.  

Swim Squad

Congratulations to all students who recently represented the school at the recent Catholic Schools & West Zone swimming carnivals. Your conduct and performances were impressive and you all proved to be wonderful ambassadors of Our Lady of Lourdes. Special congratulations to those who were selected in the West Zone Team which will compete at the Darling Downs Championships on Wednesday 3rd March.  

Building Project 

If you were at the Parent Information nights you would have heard the great news about the major building project. Thanks to our successful application for a Federal Government capital grant of $4.8 million to construct additional classrooms and administration buildings, the school is now in a financial position to proceed with the project which is estimated to cost around $6 million. This project will greatly enhance the character of the school, desperately provide additional learning areas and place Our Lady of Lourdes in great standing for generations to come. Due to the restricted space and limited options in relocating classrooms, the project will be completed in 3 gradual stages over a 12 month period commencing this year’s June/July holidays. 

The building project will of course provide its fair share of disruption and headaches. The kids will have a ball watching a new school being built, however Teachers’ patience will be tested by noise and major changes to routine such as alternate play areas and transitioning around the school. For parents, the use of the stop, drop and go zones will be vital as at times during the construction, access to the site will be restricted. Short term pain for a long term gain will be our mantra and your patience and understanding throughout the building project will be greatly appreciated.  

If you have any queries in relation to the building project, please do not hesitate to pop in and see me. I am more than happy to sit down and go through any questions you may have. We do have some preliminary plans which again I am more than happy to show you. Once these have been finalised, a number of displays will be set up around the school for your perusal.  

Thanks for reading….. 

Chris