The swimming carnival is being held on Monday 21 February 2022 at Warringah Aquatic Centre from 9:30am to 2pm for students in Years 2 to 6. 

Please ensure your child is at school on Monday by 8:45am to travel to and from the carnival by bus unless you are a volunteer on the day. 

By now you will have completed Compass and School Interviews to enrol your child in swimming race/s. Unfortunately, no changes can be made from now on.

Students are to wear their sports uniform and can wear colours to support their colour house. Hair spray and streamers are not permitted.

• Tasman - red
• Dampier - blue
• Bass - green
• Flinders - yellow

Students who need a School Opal card or travel pass but have not yet applied need to apply or update their details as soon as possible.

In the Opal network, students should travel with a Child/Youth Opal card until they receive their valid School Opal card. If outside Greater Sydney, parents should contact their local bus operator to discuss their travel needs.

New Student Opal cards (including new Term Bus Passes) will be sent to the student’s nominated postal address within two weeks of their application being approved.

Students living in rural and regional (R&R) areas will receive their travel pass from their nominated transport operator. It may be issued via their school or be sent directly to them at home. Note: some R&R operators do not issue travel passes. Students/parents should confirm with their nominated operator if they do not receive a pass.

Terms of Use
Students using Opal cards must tap on and tap off in line with the Opal terms of use. All students are required to comply with the Student code of conduct. The code of conduct aims to ensure the safety and well-being of school children and other passengers. It is important that parents ensure their child is aware of this, as failure to comply with the code of conduct can result in a suspension from travel.

Welcome back to school for another great year of reading and borrowing in the library. All children have a library lesson every week and they will be borrowing every week in this time.  To help your child please send them to school with their library bag and their library books each week.
 
Library lesson and borrowing days are:
Tuesday:      3-1A, 3-2F, S-2HB, 4-2E
Wednesday:  2-1M, K-1BK, 2-2C, 2-3E, S-1BL
Thursday:     1-1V, 1-2S, K-2DK, S-3GB, 4-1H
 
Procedures to help your child in the library:
The children in the younger classes usually finish their books by the next lesson and swap them all, however older children often need to renew their books as they are still reading them especially for longer chapter books. We ask that they bring all their books every week and then if they are not finished reading them, they can renew them in their borrowing time. They can continue doing this until they have finished the book.
 
Children in Kindergarten, Year One and Year Two will be given one new book if they leave their books at home (for the first time and then they will receive a reminder note if they leave them at home the following week) and usually we will send the new book in a plastic bag. Primary children (Year 3- 6) need to bring all their books back to school before they can borrow more. This encourages Primary children to be responsible for their own books and not to rely on you to remind them each week.
                                                                                                                  
How to keep your child’s books dry and clean: 
All children need a library bag with their name on it. It can be the school library bag or any other library bag you wish, but please make sure it is large enough for bigger size books.
 
Encourage your child to have a set place to leave their library books so they are easier to find for library day. Always use a bookmark, don’t turn down the corner of the page or leave the book open as it breaks the spine.  To encourage your child to read let them see you reading and using a bookmark as well.
 
Some of the children carry their library bags outside of the school bags, often these bags are not waterproof. Please explain to them that their library books will get wet if it rains on them. The same thing will happen if they put their library bag next to their cold-water bottle with condensation on it!
 
How you can help in the library:
You can help the library in several ways.
 
Firstly, you can cover the new library books at home. We usually send you home ten books at a time and the contact to cover them with and because we usually get lots of volunteers you would probably only do this three or four times a year.  We would prefer not to send books home on the bus so you will need to pick them up at school if your child catches the bus home.

If you are able to cover books please send an email to olgc@dbb.catholic.edu.au with the following details:

• Your name
• Phone number
• Eldest child's name
• Eldest child's class

Secondly you can send in plastic or paper shopping bags so we can use them for children to put their books in when they leave their bags behind. Just send them in with your child in their borrowing time.
 
Happy reading,
 
Michelle Thomson and Nat Cox
Teacher Librarians

Our canteen is open 5 days per week (on a trial basis) for morning tea and lunch. You are able to order your child's order on Qkr! or they can bring cash for over the counter items.
 
Please ensure you update your child's class in Qkr before placing an order. Select the Profiles tab, then select your child's name and amend their year/class and select Update Profile. 
 
If you would like to volunteer in the canteen please click this link, no experience necessary. Please note all volunteers on the school site need to be fully vaccinated.

We have received a letter and certificate from the NSW Government to congratulate our canteen as the menu is meeting the requirements of The NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy. 

Thank you to Niki Gavranic for preparing the canteen and providing this service for our students. 

Welcome back to what is shaping up to be a truly special year, with classes resuming and our educators determined to finally shake the COVID monkey off our backs.

A special thank you to our OLGC staff, and the Broken Bay Diocese for striving to implement new COVIDsafe measures and testing procedures so that school can get back to how it was pre-pandemic.

As you have no doubt seen, alerts have been sent home, yet classes are still taking place.

For returning and new families, we would like to take this opportunity at the start of this year to welcome all parents and carers to the P&F general meetings. Your input and suggestions are an invaluable resource to ensure the school remains a cornerstone of our community.

Furthermore, if you have any questions you would like answered, or matters raised, please contact the P&F executive on pf.olgc.forestville@gmail.com

URGENT: Class Parents Needed
We are yet to have a Class Parent step forward for seven classes across Years 1-4. If you can spare the time, please consider taking up this role, as it is a vital position to the wellbeing and care of our students.

A class parent is the coordinator who ensures that our families remain connected socially and acts as a conduit between families, the P&F, teachers and school executive.

If your child is in one of the classes below and you can volunteer, please contact the class parent coordinator Julia Palmer on juliampalmer76@gmail.com.

We still need class parent nominations for the following, 
2-2C
3-1A
 
We appreciate that it is a big responsibility to be a year 5/6 class parent, so this year we are setting up a working committee of many members to cover all three classes and need volunteers from the following to participate;
S-1BL
S-2HB
S-3GB

Second Hand Uniform Sales
Thank you to Samantha Game (Year 1 parent) for volunteering as the Second Hand Uniform Co-ordinator this year. Uniforms are sold online only via:

https://www.olgcdbb.catholic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OLGC-Second-hand-uniform-order-form.pdf.

Likewise, if your child has outgrown, clean, high quality uniforms, please donate them to the office.

Thank you to our amazing volunteers
Thank you to the wonderful Year 1 parents who volunteered to collate “Tears & Tissues” packs for new Kindergarten parents and thank you to all the volunteers who assisted with the construction of the wicking beds for the school garden program.

Families taking the time to contribute to the fabric of school life makes OLGC an amazing community. The welcome to new families is an important event, and with the new garden facilities our students will now have a wonderful resource to learn and grow with.  

P&F General Meeting dates for 2022
Please see attached the P&F meetings set for each term this year. We would encourage as many families as possible to attend the meetings and contribute to the running of your child’s school.

• 15 March
• 14 June
• 30 August
• 8 November (AGM)

OLGC P&F Committee

Mater Maria Catholic College

Open Day is on Wednesday 9 March 2022 from 4pm to 7pm.

Visit the Mater Maria website to watch the virtual tour and to find out more information about the Open Day.