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Ms Angela Gilbert / Mrs Sarah Jackman
Mr Garry Birch / Mr Chris Golightly
Dear Parents & Carers
Following a five week secondment to the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office, it was great to come back last week to school life here at Lourdes. Nothing like 440 kids to liven up your day!!
One thing I do know is it is always reassuring to know that the school is in very safe hands at times I am away from school. I sincerely appreciate the dedicated efforts of Ms Murray, Mrs. Moore and Mr. Franzmann for their respective leadership roles during my absence.
I also noticed the number of exciting activities that have and will continue to occur for the remainder of the term. The event calendar is certainly getting a workout. The reassuring thing about this is that even though a multi-million dollar building project is in full swing… we haven’t used this as an excuse not to do things just because they may be harder to do. Life goes on and the staff and students adjust and get on with things.
While providing a range of opportunities is important to maintain engagement levels in the students, the need for parents to be involved and engaged in their children’s schooling is vital. There is plenty of research that shows the direct link between success at school and the level of parent involvement. I don’t mean parents have to be at the school every day of the week to be seen as involved. Your level of engagement with the school can occur in many ways. Taking an interest in what is happening in the classroom, assisting with homework, reminding children of upcoming events, ensuring the correct uniform is being worn, helping out in the classrooms, being part of your kid's show and share moments, attending as many school/classroom events as possible, celebrating successes along the way, talking positively at home about school and teachers, volunteering whenever you can, coming along to P&F meetings…the list is almost endless and nothing on the list is too difficult to do.
With our Fathers’ Day celebration taking centre stage this week, I would like to give a big shout-out to all the dads. One thing I have noticed over my time here is the increasing number of dads bringing their kids to school. Unlike me, I’m sure you are not scared of your wives or partners and are not just following orders…I hope you enjoy this time with them walking hand in hand to school each day. What a perfect opportunity to share time and be part of school life.
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 is true…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.
Parent/Teacher Interviews:
Parent Teacher Interviews this year will be managed through the Parent Portal for all classes. If you have not yet signed up to use our Parent Portal, please do so at your earliest convenience. Previous communication with access keys and instructions on how to set up Sentral for Parents have been forwarded home. You are welcome to drop into the office to see Carla who can assist you or send an email to lourdes@twb.catholic.edu.au to ask for assistance.
You are now able to book a convenient time to meet with your child’s teacher. Depending on teacher availability, these will be conducted in Week 9 or 10 of Term 3, and/or in Week 1 of Term 4. Available times will be shown in the Portal. These interviews are vital to maintain clear communication about your child’s learning progress and provide a great opportunity for teachers and parents to clarify understandings around learning and assessment, as well as effort, attitude, and behaviour in class and around the school. Teachers will be able to provide next learning steps and provide suggestions to support learning at home.
Summer Uniform:
Officially next Monday is the changeover date to the summer uniform. However, as we have swimming lessons next week, all students are permitted to wear their sports uniform each day to make getting changed a lot easier.
Pupil Free Day:
A reminder that this Friday 2nd September is a pupil-free day. Please refer to Ms Murray’s Teaching & Learning section for further information about what school staff are involved in throughout the day.
Family Games Night:
Be sure to book in for the upcoming Family Games Night on Friday 9th September from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. There will be five rounds of games including animal bingo, music bingo, trivia round, Pictionary and one round of minute to win it. Our Year 3s and 4s will present their line dancing which will be followed by some family fun dances like the Chicken Dance, Macarena, Bus Stop and Nut Bush City Limits. There will also be prizes for best-dressed tables/families. Bookings are essential through www.trybooking.com. Please refer to the P&F news in the newsletter for the link.
Fathers’ Day:
Great to see so many dads and grandads present at this week's Mass and sausage sizzle. As I mentioned at the end of Mass, the strength of any school community can be measured by the level of involvement of parents at events such as yesterday’s celebration. Many thanks to Mrs. Moore for her organisational efforts and to all who assisted with the set-up and catering. Your help was greatly appreciated.
Upcoming Events:
Friday 2nd CTJ Day (Pupil Free)
Monday 5th Summer Uniform & Swimming Lessons
Tuesday 6th School Board Meeting
Friday 9th Family Games Night
Saturday 10th Parish Garden Party
Monday 12th Ballgames Carnival (Newtown Park)
Tuesday 13th Yr.4 Gala Sports Day (Touch Footy)
Wed 14th Celebration of Early Years (Prep – Yr.2)
Thurs 15th Crazy Sock Day – Free Dress & P-2 Gymnastics
Fri 16th Final Assembly 12:00 p.m.
Thanks for reading and I wish all of our Dads a very happy Father’s Day on Sunday.
Chris
Mr Chris Golightly
Principal
Thank you to our parents and carers who have already signed up to our Parent Portal and are now seeing the benefits of this student information system.
Using the portal, you will by now have already booked a time to meet with your class teacher for a Parent Teacher Interview. If you are still needing help, please contact the office.
The Parent Portal will also be used for parent consent for many of our upcoming excursions and camps. There may be times when you will be sent a link to a Microsoft Form to complete, for example, Swimming Lessons consent form. This is simply because Microsoft Forms provides the option to gain more information needed for that activity.
Thank you for your understanding as we navigate new ways of gathering information to assist with school processes and procedures.
Please contact me or the office staff for any queries or concerns.
Kind regards
Miranda
This Friday 2nd September is a pupil free day for Consistency of Teacher Judgement (CTJ) Day.
CTJ Day is a valuable opportunity to undergo moderation of teacher assessment and judgements against the Australian Curriculum’s achievement standards. Moderation involves considerable professional collaboration and is a specific assessment practice that helps to develop consistency for teachers.
Assessment and gathering evidence of learning is an integral aspect of teaching, and is part of the cycle of planning, teaching, assessment, and review. Improvements in assessment practices, and in more consistent teacher assessments, grow from professional learning opportunities for teachers.
This year Class Teachers will join with teachers from St Thomas More’s, St Stephen’s Pittsworth and St Francis de Sales Clifton at St Thomas More’s School, Toowoomba. Teachers from St Mary’s Goondiwindi will also join us online. These schools have all been involved with the Writing Improvement Strategy.
Students from Prep – Year 6 at each of these schools have all completed a writing activity using the same writing stimulus. Writing samples have been assessed using a standard monitoring tool. These assessed samples will then be used to engage in professional dialogue about expectations for below, expected and above the year level achievement standard. It is always a productive day for teachers.
School Officers will spend the day involved in professional development opportunities either online or in person at Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office. No doubt, all staff will benefit from the opportunity to learn new ideas for the benefit of our learners.
Miranda
Miranda Murray
Assistant Principal
Faith & Religious Education News
Today we celebrated our annual Father’s Day Mass. We thank all the Dads, Granddads, Pops and Pas who were able to come along to celebrate with us. We hope everyone enjoyed our Sausage Sizzle morning tea. We thank the many cooks and helpers who came along to help us with this celebration! It was a wonderful community event!
The Year 6 Captains and Sports Captains will represent OLOL at the Annual Diocesan Mass for Our Lady of the Southern Cross at St Patricks Cathedral tomorrow. It is always such a pleasure to take our young people to such an occasion.
Our next gathering for the Sacrament of 1st Reconciliation is on Tuesday 6th September at 7.00pm. A plan for the seating in the church will be emailed from the parish. The children will have a practise of the ceremony during school time on Monday and will be able to guide their chosen guests to their seats. We will have short final meeting at 3:30pm in the church on Monday 5th September to check seating, certificates, and final questions. Candidates and their chosen guests are asked to be at the church on the 6th by 6:40pm. Completed Reconciliation workbooks should have been brought to school by last Monday 29th August. The children need to know their “Act of Contrition/Sorry” prayer. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the OLOL Parish (07 4634 1453 Monday – Friday 9.00am – 1.00pm) or email olol.parish@bigpond.com
We have our Crazy Socks Coloured Clothes Day on Thursday 15th September. Wear your craziest socks, with your sun safe coloured clothes, suitable footwear, brimmed hat and bring along a gold coin for the Catholic Mission. Also, remember to bring in a pair of new socks for our school donation to The Base Soup Kitchen. Socks can be sent in at any time. Please support both these initiatives to encourage our students to be thoughtful Global Citizens for our local and global communities.
There is no assembly on Thursday 1st September 2022 due to the Father’s Day Mass and Thursday 8th September 2022 due to swimming commitments.
N.B. There is a Pupil Free Day on Friday 2nd September 2022
Our End of Term Assembly is at 12 noon on Friday 16th September 2022.
If you have any other RE queries or questions, please contact me on Janice.Moore@twb.catholic.edu.au or contact the school office.
Have a wonderful week.
Janice
Janice Moore
Assistant Principal Religious Education (APRE)
Prep
Thank you to all our mystery readers – we have had such a great response. The children have loved the variety of stories and received a great surprise when the mystery reader turned out to be someone they knew! This is our last week.
We have only two letters of the alphabet to learn!! Very exciting – then we can read and write anything!! But we must remember to practise – name, sound and formation. AND Don’t forget some letters make different sounds when they are beside different letters – sh, ch, er, ur, ir, ar, ow, oo and the list goes on. Phew – there’s so much to learn! Lucky that Lourdes Learners never give up!
Book Week was a great success – we loved getting dressed up and telling our friends about who we were and what book we came from. The Readers Cup competition was lots of fun. Thank you to Mrs Leathart and Mrs Monte.
We are looking forward to catching up for your parent interview – it’s an exciting time to show you work samples and to see the progress your child has made. Please make sure you fill in your preferred time.
Help please – we need lots of boxes – all shapes and sizes for the last Wednesday of this term which is our Early Years Celebration. Please keep them at home until the Tuesday. Each class also requires at least 3 helpers for our activities.
Swimming begins next week. We change to summer uniform which makes dressing a lot easier – details of the lessons are in the school newsletter.
Happy Father’s Day to all – take care and keep on smiling!
Cheers,
Melita, Tabitha and Liz
Year 1
Welcome to week 8. The learning in year one continues despite the move to our temporary classrooms.
Last week, the children looked amazing in their Book Week costumes. It was wonderful to listen to them describe the character they came dressed as.
In Maths, we are reinforcing our understanding of numbers, and are thinking about how to partition two-digit numbers using place value.
In English, we have been practicing our writing and although we have a lot to remember (neat handwriting, punctuation, our sentence Hi 5, including different sentence starters, starting on the margin, using effective spelling strategies - just to name a few) we are starting to think like an author. Students have also used the illustrations to help them understand the story. They have drawn pictures to create a story map of our text ‘The Echidna and the Shade Tree’. In the next coming weeks, they will use these story maps to write about the beginning, middle and end of the text.
Remember that swimming lessons commence next week.
Have a great week.
Jen and Ange
Year 2
Welcome to Week 8! We have certainly been busy in Year 2. While thoroughly enjoying reading George’s Marvellous Medicine, we are working hard on writing some fabulous procedures. Roald Dahl certainly has a way with words, which hopefully will influence our writing. We are counting down the days for the Matilda production at St Thomas More’s Primary School. Please fill in the permission note on the Sentral Parent Portal if you haven’t already, so that we can all attend this special event.
Book Week was enjoyed by all, and we especially loved participating in The Readers Cup! Many thanks to Mrs Leathart and Mrs Monte for organising such a great day, and to our families for the huge efforts putting together such amazing costumes.
In Week 9 we change to summer uniform as we welcome the warmer weather. We also have swimming lessons! Children will get changed into their swimmers at school. We encourage them to have thongs to wear to and from the pool as it is much easier than dealing with our joggers at the pool! Please make sure all belongings are clearly named.
Week 10 is a very exciting and busy week!
Monday: Ball Games Carnival and Matilda performance
Wednesday: Under 8s Day
Thursday: Crazy Sock Day and Gymnastics (Please bring in sock donations for the homeless)
Friday: Assembly at 12 o’clock
Lastly, we would love some volunteers to assist at Under 8s day. 2V parents will be manning the threading station, 2D parents are in charge of the biscuit icing stall and 2T parents will supervise a painting station in the Prep eating area. The day starts with a liturgy at 10am, followed by morning tea. The activities start at around 11am and run through until about 12:45pm. It is always a fun-filled day and we would be most appreciative of your help.
Thanks for you amazing support over the term and happy holidays!
Dennielle, Sarah, Aleisha
Year 3
This week is our moving week – 3S have already moved to their new room and 3G and 3GM will be moving to the old music room tomorrow. We are all excited to be in our new rooms for the rest of the year.
Thank you to Mrs Leathart and Mrs Monte for organising a wonderful Book Week – it was great to see the fun that the students had last week and the wonderful costumes on Thursday.
Next week, we will be swimming each day at 10:30am. Students are asked to bring an extra small snack that they can eat before the lesson – we will eat our full morning tea when we return to school. Please wear sports uniforms every day next week and ensure that you have everything you need each day.
We wish all fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers and special people a very happy Father’s Day for this Sunday.
Have a great week,
Angela, Sarah, Demi and Janice
Year 4
A big welcome back to Mr Golightly – we have missed you! Congratulations to the West Zone student representatives who competed at The Darling Downs Carnival last Wednesday - Nate Sullivan, Slater Hope, Nate Halpin and Billy Bishop. We are all very proud of you!
This week we have begun moving classrooms for 4G and 4L. The 4L classroom is now located downstairs of the new building and 4G is now located upstairs of the new building.
The students all enjoyed Book Week dress up. It was so fantastic to see the effort parents and students put into creating the costumes. Thank you to Mrs Leathart for organising all of the Book Week activities throughout the week, they were certainly enjoyed by all of the students.
The Father’s Day Mass was celebrated in style today. It was so wonderful and special to have some of our fathers come to visit and share morning tea. Thank you to Mrs Moore for all the thoughtful preparations.
Gala Day is yet to be confirmed and we will inform parents closer to the date. This Friday, the 2nd of September, is a Pupil Free Day and the school will be shut and no one will be able to access due to the building project.
Swimming begins on the 5th of September and concludes on the 9th of September (week 9). Children are encouraged to wear sports uniform for ease of changing and please check that all belongings are clearly labelled. One more week of homework to go – let’s finish strong!
Finally, we welcome our new teacher aide, Ms Crawford, to Year 4 – you have already made your mark and we are grateful to have you supporting our wonderful students.
As the term end nears, this is a great time to remind your child to be resilient and show persistence both within the classroom and in their friendship groups. The teachers certainly encourage this at school.
Have a great couple of weeks everyone!
Suzanne, Toni and Garry
Year 5
We are so close to the finish line for this term and there are certainly lots of things happening. This week has been the long anticipated moving week into our new classrooms. As always, we approach these times with patience and resilience, and take every instance as a learning opportunity. It has provided many opportunities to practise skills of listening to understand and the power of self-control. We look forward to sharing our new learning spaces with you in the coming weeks after we are all settled in.
On Wednesday we celebrated the contribution of Fathers, Grandfathers and significant male role models in our lives. It was wonderful to see the number of families at school involved in the sausage sizzle.
Budgeting has proven to be a source of excitement and engagement for students, especially learning skills in Excel. They are absolutely loving Excel, and we have had many students asking about how this skill is applicable at home. What a wonderful way for them to take ownership of money and how it can be spent. Definitely, a skill they can carry with them for many years to come.
Due to their engagement and depth of researching, we have been continuing to work on Science, Hass and English writing elements at school this week. We will be moving into creating SWAY presentation in week 9, to present in week 10.
As you are aware, the end of the term brings heightened emotions and ensuing friendship issues. We have spoken to students over the last few weeks about being respectful in the way we talk and act, but also about spreading gossip or rumours. There are two sides to every story, and there are often several unknown factors that contribute. What is often left out are the events that happened prior to an incident. We have been encouraging students to ensure that they are speaking up at lunchtime, when most incidents occur, and that they must speak to the teachers, or Mr Golightly and Ms Murray, who are often on duty across the road. Now, at this time of term, is when we need to put our best foot forward and keep a positive mindset.
A few reminders
Friday 2nd September is a pupil free day as teachers engage in our annual CTJ Day.
Week 9 – Swimming Week (sports uniform all week and we encourage students to come with their swimmers under their uniform as we swim early in the day. Note: don’t forget the underwear)
Thursday 15th September – Crazy Sock Day Free Dress (Gold Coin Donation) and Pie Day
Last Friday – 16th September – Assembly at 12pm.
Tim, Jess and Emily
Year 6
Halfway through Week 8 and we’re coming around the bend with this term’s finish line in sight.
Book Week / Readers’ Cup
Book Week is one of the most enjoyable weeks of the year. Well done to all of the students who combined their imagination and fine motor skills to create fantastic costumes. Competitive spirit was on show during the Readers’ Cup competition. Congratulations to all the students who worked hard to familiarise themselves with the two texts. Thank you to Mrs Leathart and Mrs Monte for all the time and effort that they put into preparing and running the events.
DD Track and Field Carnival
Congratulations to Hayden (1500 and 200), Jack (100, 200), Evie (Discus), Maddie (Multi) and Leyla (1500) for their outstanding performances and selection in the DD team. What an effort!!
Camp
Our first camp meeting was held last Monday evening. Thank you for your attendance. Hard copies of camp information were distributed. If you were unable to attend, the information would have been sent home with your child.
QAMT Mathematics Competition
Super effort to our three teams of Mathematicians who placed first (Harry, Jay, and Archer), second (Ellie, Cody, Damian) and equal third (Aiden, Jorja, and Reeve) at the QAMT Maths Comp in Week 6. Special thanks to Mrs McKenzie for preparing the students so well.
Last night the teams performed admirably during the next stage of the competition.
Fathers’ Day Mass and Sausage Sizzle
What a joyous celebration we had today to recognise all of the father figures in our lives. Thank you to Mrs Moore for organising the wonderful Fathers’ Day Mass and sausage sizzle and to all the members of the school community who were in attendance.
Diocesan Feast Day - "Mary of the Southern Cross"
Mass at 10:00 a.m. St. Patricks Cathedral – Our Y6 School & Sports Captains will be attending.
Parent–Teacher Interviews
Thank you to all the parents/ guardians who followed the links and booked a PT interview. If you are intending on booking, please do so asap via Sentral. If you do not require an interview, please email your child’s teacher to let him/her know.
Parliament House Trip
Our Yr 6 students will attend an excursion to Parliament House in Brisbane on the last day of term – Friday 16 September. Permission notes and details have been sent via Sentral app. Thank you to Mrs Coren for organising this event.
Pupil Free Day
A reminder that this Friday 2nd September is a pupil free day. Teachers will attend a consistency of teacher judgement day at St Thomas More’s School with other diocesan colleagues.
Swimming Week
Week 9 is swimming week at The Glennie Pool. A reminder that all students are expected to participate in this wonderful opportunity. Students are encouraged to bring slides/thongs for the trip over, as well as a warm jumper/jacket. Packing extra food for the week is also encouraged.
Larry, Kylie and Shauna
Italian
This week we learnt names of food and practised the phrase; “Mi piace and Non mi piace.” We have added sentences to our short speech about ourselves, naming food we like and food we do not like. Students will present their speech next week.
Signora Simmons
Art
Prep: Last week the Preps made a zany zebra using techniques of drawing, fringing paper and painting. This week students will use collage techniques to create a yoyo picture.
Years 1 to 3: The students have had a busy couple of weeks completing their Father’s Day projects. This week each year level has begun a new project. Year 1 are creating a picture of black and white statue cats. Year 2 are using watercolours to paint a monarch butterfly. Year 3 will also use watercolours to paint a picture of a dragonfly on a flower.
Mrs Loretta Simmons
This week we would like to provide information on two topics – (1) How to help students with working memory problems and (2) Developmental Language Disorder
Children with working memory difficulties
Working memory refers to the ability to hold information in short-term memory while simultaneously processing it. We use working memory to meaningfully participate in everyday activities such as conversations, to decode unknown words when reading, and to do mental arithmetic. For example, we may use our working memory to decode an unknown word when reading – so, we might say and hold the letter sounds ‘f’ ‘r’ ‘o’ and ‘g’ in our mind (working memory) and then combine the sounds to decode the word ‘frog’.
Along with reading, other classroom activities that involve working memory include the following of multiple-step instructions, copying sentences from the board, spelling, maths and participation in discussions and debates.
Children with working memory difficulties have a reduced capacity to temporarily store and process information in this short-term ‘mental workspace’.1 While many of these children will have average or higher than average verbal and nonverbal intelligence, they can have difficulty with:
- paying attention and concentrating
- following lengthy instructions
- decoding words and learning to read
- complex thinking
- personal organisation.
Working memory continues to develop in children until around mid-adolescence. As children with working memory difficulties mature, the gap between their working memory capacity and that of their peers significantly increases.
There are many ways to assist a student to further develop their working memory. Here are a few suggestions:
Help the child to believe in their capabilities
- Help the child to see themselves as ‘active’ learners. Children with working memory difficulties are often ‘passive’ learners, having limited attention skills and trouble monitoring their own learning. Praise the child for their participation and attention, and privately chart learning growth with the child.
- Promote being brave and ‘having a go’. Empathise that it is okay to make mistakes while learning, and that making mistakes is an integral part of learning. Encourage the child to attempt an answer, even if they are not sure, rather than make no response at all.
- Praise the child when they ask questions to clarify a task. Children with working memory difficulties often will not seek assistance and may tune out or distract other children when they don’t understand a task. Praise that identifies the use of effective strategies such as asking questions about the task helps to build the child’s confidence and motivation regardless of the difficulty of the task. For more advice on praise read the Psych4Schools blog post ‘Can praise cause students to underperform?’
- Help the child to ‘talk themselves’ into knowing how to commence a task, and regularly monitor the child while they are working. This may help minimise task failure and long periods of frustration. Seat the child with a buddy who is able and prepared to help them start the task and assist them from time to time. Alternatively, you could provide the child with a card outlining step-by-step guidelines for completing the task.
- Help the child to believe in their own capabilities (self-efficacy).
Build attention skills and monitor learning
- Use the child’s name to gain their attention prior to giving the instruction. Ensure the child is listening to your instruction.
- Ask the child to make eye contact with you, then have them watch where your finger is pointing if you are using visual prompts, to ensure they are following your instruction.
- Use visual information as much as possible to support verbal communication. For example, include hand gestures to point to items you are speaking about or provide written information such as step-by-step instructions. Remember, visual prompts, or being able to read the information relieves the burden on the child’s working memory making them more likely to successfully be able to complete the task independently.
- Ask the child to repeat an instruction or ask, ‘What is the first thing you need to do? What is the next thing to do?’ rather than simply asking ‘Do you understand’?
- Observe the child’s actions and reactions. Monitor the child’s facial expressions to gauge their understanding. When the child starts a task, watch to ensure that they understand what is required and to check whether they are making errors. For example, a young child with working memory difficulties may make simple counting errors during a maths task by not maintaining one-to-one correspondence, or an older child may need to be reminded to refer to a tables chart to help them with multiplication.
DEVELOPMENTAL LANGUAGE DISORDER (DLD)
There are three things you need to know about DLD
- Developmental Language Disorder is when a child or adult has difficulties talking and/or understanding language.
- DLD is a hidden disability that affects approximately two children in every classroom, affecting literacy, learning, friendships and emotional well-being.
- Support from professionals, including speech and language therapists and teachers, can make a real difference.
DLD: Diagnostic terminology, frequency, causes
- Consensus on terminology: The recommendation for the use of the diagnostic term Developmental Language Disorder has been published (Bishop et al., 2016; 2017), with an account of how consensus was reached.
- Frequency: DLD affects approximately two children in every classroom. A recent epidemiological study in the UK, the SCALES study (Norbury et al. 2016), found that 7.5% of children had DLD with no associated biomedical condition.
- Causes: DLD tends to run in families. Twin studies indicate strong genetic influence on DLD, but this seems to reflect the combined impact of many genes, rather than a specific mutation (Bishop, 2006). The popular view that DLD is caused by parents who don’t talk to their children has no empirical support.
- Neurobiology: There is no evidence of any brain damage in vast majority of cases; there may be subtle differences in size of different brain regions and proportions of grey matter, but this is inconsistent from child to child. As yet we have no ‘biomarker’ for DLD (Leonard et al, 2006)
DLD: Associated difficulties
- Relationship to other conditions: DLD commonly occurs with ADHD and dyslexia. There has been much debate about overlaps with mild autism (Bishop, 2008). Many children do not have the social problems characteristic of autism, but some have mild autistic features. There is, however, a marked difference in the help available for children with a diagnosis of autism vs DLD. This difference persists into adulthood, where both dyslexia and autism are recognised disabilities, whereas there is very little awareness of DLD.
- Literacy and academic attainment: Close links exist between DLD and dyslexia (Bishop and Snowling 2004) Many children with DLD meet criteria for dyslexia (McArthur et al, 2000). Even if the child can read aloud accurately, there are often problems with understanding of what is read (Stothard et al, 2010).
- Social difficulties with peers: Being able to express oneself fluently and to quickly grasp what others are saying can have a big impact on social relationships. The Manchester Language Study found that by 16 years of age, 40% of individuals with DLD had difficulties in their interaction with peers (St. Clair, Pickles, Durkin & Conti-Ramsden, 2011), 50% of 16 year olds recall being bullied in childhood (in comparison to less than 25% of typically-developing teenagers) and 13% have experienced persisting bullying since childhood. (Knox & Conti-Ramsden 2003). Better understanding of DLD by adults and peers could help avoid these negative outcomes.
DLD: Employment and Mental Health
- Employment: DLD needs to be taken seriously because it can increase the risk of unemployment and lack of independence in adulthood (Conti-Ramsden & Durkin, 2008). Nevertheless, those with milder problems often hold down jobs, but usually of a relatively unskilled nature (Whitehouse et al 2009).
- Mental Health: Children with milder DLD show few difficulties. In contrast, approximately two thirds of children (64%) with persisting language disorder exhibit some externalizing behaviours (e.g. conduct problems: aggression ‘fights with other children’) and/or internalizing difficulties (e.g. withdrawal: solitary, tends to play alone) (Conti-Ramsden & Botting, 2004). Fortunately, these difficulties often resolve in adolescence (St. Clair et al., 2011), yet teenagers with DLD are two and half times more likely to report symptoms of depression than their typically developing peers (Conti-Ramsden & Botting, 2008). Most therapies for children's mental health problems are 'talking therapies' which may not be optimal for children with DLD. DLD: Intervention
- Intervention: For interventions to be effective they must be of high quality and of sufficient duration - an increasing number of promising ones are being developed (Law et al 2015). Indeed, robust controlled trials in schools have shown that interventions delivered by teaching assistants, who are trained and supported can bring about significant gains in Language (Fricke et al., 2013; 2017 and Literacy (Bowyer, Crane et al, 2008). Some children will need longer-term support for problems that are likely to persist despite intervention (Boyle et al, 2010). Research has found particular difficulties of intervening with children with receptive difficulties.
If you have any concerns about your child and their schooling please contact your child’s teacher. We are happy to meet with you and their class teacher to discuss your concerns and possible modifications to accommodate your child’s needs.
Allyson & Maria
Allyson Jessen & Maria Kehoe
Learning Support Teachers
Upcoming Dates
Week |
Date |
Event |
Venue |
Who |
9 |
5/09/22 |
Swimming Lessons |
Glennie Pool |
P-Grade 6 |
10 |
12/09/22 |
Ball Games Carnival |
Newtown Park |
P-Grade 6 |
10 |
13/09/22 |
Gala Day (TBC) |
Kearney’s Spring |
Grade 4 |
Representative School Sport—Toowoomba & Darling Downs Teams
Throughout the course of the year Toowoomba Primary School Sport and Darling Downs School Sport offer trials to eligible students for a variety of team and individual sports. To be eligible for selection, students need to be born in 2012, 2011 or 2010. Strict nomination requirements apply, and it is at the sole discretion of the school to decide whether to nominate individual students.
In order to gain interest levels and an idea of previous experience, an electronic representative Sport Nomination Form has been sent out. This form outlines all relevant information regarding the trials for the whole of 2022. Please thoroughly read all information. If your child is of a high standard in their chosen sport/s and would like to be considered for nomination, please complete the nomination form. No student will be nominated for a trial without a completed medical form and online expression of interest. Here is the LINK for the form.
Congratulations to the following students on their selection in the Darling Downs Track & Field Team:
Grade 6: Madison, Jack, Leila, Hayden, and Evangeline.
Good luck at State Championships.
Prep – Grade 6 Swimming Lessons – Week 9
Prep to Grade 6 Swimming Lessons forms will emailed home next week. Please keep an eye out for this email and respond to it as soon as you can. It takes a large amount of time to collate all the data from these forms, and your prompt completion greatly assists with this process.
Please see below for the general swimming details:
Who: |
Prep - 6 Students |
When: |
Week 9, Term 3 - – 5th – 9th September 2022 |
Where: |
Glennie Aquatic Centre |
Travel: |
Bus to and from venue |
Cost: |
$44.00 – This will be charged to your school fees. |
What to bring: |
Togs (girls – 1-piece swimmers), Towel, Goggles & Thongs or sandals. A bathing cap will be provided. Students are discouraged from wearing rash/sun shirts. These restrict the swimmer’s movement and weigh them down in the water. |
What to wear: |
Students are to wear their sports uniform each day this week, with their normal joggers. They will change into their sandals or thongs at school. |
Lesson Times
9:00 |
9:30 |
10:00 |
10:30 |
11:00 |
11:30 |
12:00 |
12:30 |
1:00 |
1:30 |
Grade 6 |
Grade 5 |
Grade 4 |
Grade 3 |
Grade 2 |
BREAK |
1B |
1M |
Prep H |
Prep LJW |
Just as with any other classes, swimming is part of the curriculum and children are expected to participate unless a note of explanation is provided. Participation in this program is highly recommended, for the students in grades 5 & 6, as many of the activities on camp are water-based.
Spectators are not permitted to attend Swimming Lessons. We appreciate your support with this.
Book Week
What an amazing week we had last week for Book Week 2022. Congratulations to everyone who participated in the variety of activities throughout the week. We had plenty of FUN activities happening to promote BOOKS and READING. Check out the photographs of all the different activities that were on offer throughout the week. Thank you to families for getting on board with our dress up day on Thursday. We know and appreciate a lot of effort goes into getting costumes sorted each year. The children looked fantastic and were so excited to share their costumes with us. Thanks for your continued support of all things Library.
Book Week Highlights
‘Stellaphant’ Storytime
Emoji Book Title Challenge
Chalk Drawing
Readers Cup
Dress Up
Readers Cup Winners
Congratulations to our Readers Cup WINNING teams. Well Done Everyone!
Prep Noelle, Scarlett, Rafael and Norah
Year 1/2 Ben, Rory, Elouise and Emma
Year 3/4 Euan, Jaxon, Benita, Peyton and Ashley
Year 5/6 Jony, Tom, Henry & Will
Holiday Borrowing
As always we encourage students in Year 1-6 (up to 6 items – no home readers) and families (up to 10 items – no home readers) to borrow for the upcoming school holidays. Students must return all items and have NO overdue books to borrow for the holidays. Please on the lookout for Overdue notices coming home soon. Please look for items and return them to us as soon as possible to avoid lost book fees. If you are having trouble finding books please pop in on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday to discuss with Mrs Leathart or Email: Danielle.Leathart@twb.catholic.edu.au
IntegratedSTEM
Planning is well underway for the next phase of the Security Systems Program. Students are building on their knowledge of circuits to complete their ideas and designs. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the team from IntegratedSTEM for offering their programs in 2022. We will NOT be offering STEM sessions in Term 4. We look forward to welcoming the IntegratedSTEM team back in 2023.
Chess
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Lord for his continued support of Chess at Lourdes. We do NOT offer lessons in Term 4, but we look forward to recommencing Chess in Term 1, 2023.
Book Club
Issue 6 catalogues have arrived, been unpacked and have been handed out. All orders are to be placed via LOOP. See instructions below. Thank you for your continued support of Book Club at Lourdes. Please place all orders by August 31st 2022.
Enjoy your books.
Danielle & Gael
Mrs Leathart & Mrs Monte
Spring in Toowoomba is such a glorious time and it is at last starting to show its beauty in our amazing school gardens. Spring is generally the best time to plant in the garden, and we have had a lot of enquiries about when the next plant stall will be. Unfortunately though, with so much happening over the next few weeks we are unable run a stall.
However, Mrs Kelly and I are happy to sell at morning tea or lunchtime, and myself after school, if there is something there that you just must have.
Thank you again to those who have donated pots and an extra big thankyou to Tyler Shakespeare's Grandma for her kind donation of various decorative pots.
Happy Spring everyone...
Jo
TCKC - Outside School Hours Care
We have been having so much fun over in the OSHC with book week and incorporating a different book theme into our program each day. Our most popular and loved activity was ‘Where’s Wally’ which educators hid little Wally’s around the school hall and prep space for children to find where Wally could be hidden. This game was a lot of fun and included many children having discussions about their strategies and working together as a team.
Pupil Free Day
We have an upcoming pupil free day on Friday 2nd September. We will be operating from Sacred Heart Primary for the Pupil Free Day from 6:30am – 6:00pm. A wonderful program will be run by our educators, if you are wanting to book in for this day please reach out to our team.
OSHC Staff
We have had some new staff start in the OSHC so it is time we introduce all our staff to the school community. We have Miss Alannah as our Coordinator, Miss Mackenzie as our Assistant Educator, Miss Jacinta as educator, Miss Pol as educator, Miss Ella as educator, Miss Lyndsay as educator, Mr Patrick as educator and Miss Cassie as our vacation care educator. Now a little about some of our new educators; as we all know Miss Alannah & Miss Mackenzie have been around since the beginnings of OLOL OSHC with TCKC.
Miss Jacinta was at OLOL last year but moved into a Coordinator position at another school to help get them up and running, she has now moved back to OLOL to focus on the remainder of her studies to be a primary school teacher!
Miss Pol has just joined our team and comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience behind her to come support our team.
Miss Ella has been here for a while, she is almost finished her certificate in early childhood education and care.
Miss Lyndsay is one of our school aged educators who comes to us twice a week after she finishes school and joins our vacation care team.
Mr Patrick is another of our school aged educators who comes to us 3 times a week, the boys are loving having a male presence at OLOL OSHC!
And lastly Miss Cassie is a school based trainee at OLOL and comes to join our OSHC team over vacation care with many children already knowing and loving having Miss Cassie around in the school holidays.
The OSHC Team
Miss Alannah, Miss Mackenzie, Miss Jacinta, Miss Pol, Miss Ella, Miss Lyndsay, Mr Patrick
Contact Details
Email – OLOCare@tckc.qld.edu.au
Phone – 0429 572 021
Alannah
Alannah O'Neil
Coordinator
Diocese of Toowoomba Catholic Kindergartens and Care