Welcome

I sincerely hope all in our Lourdes’ community enjoyed a happy Easter and families were able to spend time together during the school holidays. I also hope you are enjoying the start of Term 2, and everyone is into the swing of a new term. Although, it may be strange with four-day weeks until Week 4 of the term!

Welcome to our many new families who join us this term. We trust you will value the opportunity to be a part of OLOL.   

As you may already know from previous communication, sadly, Chris Golightly has
finished his time as Principal of Our Lady of Lourdes. He is currently taking professional renewal leave, trekking the Camino de Santiago along with two other Principals from the Toowoomba Diocese. In Week 7 of the term, he will commence his new role as Senior Education Leader at the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office. This means that many other Catholic schools in our diocese will benefit from Chris’ wisdom and experience. There will be an opportunity later in the year to formally farewell Chris. The recruitment process has begun for a new Principal of Our Lady of Lourdes to commence in 2024.  

ANZAC Day

Thank you to those who were able to join us for our ANZAC assembly on Monday. It was a special occasion, led beautifully by our Year 5 students. We were joined by a special guest speaker, Corporal Mackenzie Golightly, the eldest daughter of Chris Golightly. Mackenzie encouraged our students to take on the ANZAC spirit, including working hard, taking responsibility for your own actions, persisting and learning from mistakes, and being kind. Sacrifice, Responsibility, and Mateship are all virtues we can aspire to live out each day. We certainly thank Mackenzie for sharing inspirational words with us and thank her for her service. Thank you to all veterans, men, and women in our community who serve our nation.                 

High Expectations for Learning

As always, we have a busy term ahead of us with many exciting learning opportunities for our students. Our teachers have been hard at work, preparing engaging and challenging lessons that will continue to build on the foundation of learning that was established in Term 1. Teachers and support staff will continue to build a culture of learning and thinking in and out of the classroom. Actively participating in the learning will be an expectation, so too will monitoring our own actions to be global citizens so we can make a positive impact in our world.

Parent Engagement

We value the importance of parental involvement in your child's education and encourage you as parents to stay connected with your child's teacher. Ask teachers and your child about the traits of a learner and a global citizen, ask them about your child’s progress and what learning goals they have. We encourage you to join in and participate in school events and activities. This all contributes to building and nurturing our wonderful school community.

Digital Technology

I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents about remaining vigilant while your child is using personal devices and social media.

We cannot deny the positive advantages of digital technology, including the ability to connect and communicate with each other around the world and the ease with which various applications make our life easier, not to mention the creative ways we can transform teaching and learning. However digital technology does present challenges. Children are exposed to words, images, and material that can be seductive. They are vulnerable to harm and violence online just as they are in the physical world. Thus, children's technology use needs to be managed and monitored.

Popular applications such as Snapchat and TikTok, require its users to be over 13 years of age. Hence, these apps are not appropriate for our primary school children. Don’t be afraid to set expectations and boundaries around technology use – their online reputation needs to be protected. It is never too late to start adding rules. Keep devices out of the bedroom – children need sleep. Devices can be charged in another room and alarms can be bought that do not have access to the internet. Remind older siblings to not share or expose younger children in the family to content or applications not suitable.

The benefits for your child to gain information and entertainment so easily must be positive and truly developmental, otherwise, we have let them down. Parents and carers need to be fully aware of the content and the amount of time children spend pursuing these opportunities.

For more information about child safety online please visit https://www.police.qld.gov.au/safety-and-preventing-crime/personal-safety/childrens-safety/whos-chatting-to-your-kids 

Mobile Technology

At school, to avoid distraction from learning and the possibility of loss or damage to personal devices, all mobile phones and smart watches that can access the internet, send and receive texts, and take photos etc, must be handed in to the office upon arrival. They can then be collected from the office prior to leaving the school grounds. Permission from the teacher on duty is required prior to using these personal devices in any way whilst waiting to be picked up from school.         

Upcoming events

Miranda

Ms Miranda Murray
Acting Principal

Welcome back to Term 2.  

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter Break filled with the blessings of the Resurrection.

We ended Term 1 with our Holy Week prayer. Each class prepared a part of the story beautifully. 

Last Wednesday afternoon we finished our Easter Story. We thank Mr Franzmann, Mr Birch, and the Year 6F class for the time and effort they put into sharing their version of a touching and reverent Resurrection Story with us.

These prayers would not have been able to happen without the technical expertise of Mr Anthony Davis.

We have been having difficulty with our projectors and sound system. Mr Davis has been able to provide us with a screen, projector, and speakers to keep our prayers happening. We thank Mr Davis for the time and support he has given us.

On Monday, we commemorated Anzac Day, remembering the Anzac legacy of mateship, ingenuity and persistence which has inspired our Australian Spirit for future generations. We thank the Year 5s and their teachers for their prayerful and thoughtful assembly. We were so lucky to have Corporal Mackenzie Golightly from the Royal Australian Airforce as our Anzac Day guest speaker – her presence was deeply appreciated, and we know Mr Golightly would have been so proud of his confident daughter. We also thank Trooper Lachlan Smith from the Oakey Army Base for his presence and willingness to answer questions after our ceremony.  A special thank you goes to Mrs Sarah O’Neil for her beautiful floral wreath.

Last Sunday candidates for Confirmation and First Eucharist met in the church, for their third preparation session.

Calling for photos of Mothers and their Children for our Mother’s Day Mass in week 4 on Friday 12^th May at 10 am– Send in One photo per family.  Email to Janice.Moore@twb.catholic.edu.au   - Please ensure photos are emailed to school no later than Friday 5^th May 

Please note we have assemblies at 2 pm on a Thursday in Week 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and at 12 noon on Friday of Week 10

Diary Dates  

Thursday 4^th May – 3GB Assembly -2 pm OLOL Hall

Sunday  7^th May – 4^th Confirmation and First Eucharist Preparation Meeting 10:30am OLOL Church

Friday 12^th May – OLOL Mother’s Day Mass 10 am - a special morning tea has been organised after mass for our OLOL Mums and Grandmothers – please stay and share some morning tea with your children.

Monday 15^th May – Short Confirmation Practise 3:30 pm OLOL Church

Tuesday 16^th May – Sacrament of Confirmation 7 pm OLOL Church

Thursday 18^th May – Short First Eucharist Practise 3:30 pm OLOL Church

Sunday 21^st May – Sacrament of First Eucharist – 11 am OLOL Church

Thursday 15^th June – Favourite sports team Coloured Clothes Day – Gold Coin donation for St Vincent De Paul

Friday 23^rd June – NAIDOC Assembly led by Year 4 - 12 noon

It’s another busy term!

Have a blessed week!  

Janice

Janice Moore
Assistant Principal Religious Education (APRE)

Prep

Welcome to Term 2 and thank you for sharing all your Easter news in your child’s holiday diary. It was great to read about everyone’s holiday.

We have jumped straight back into our Prep routine – learning never stops! Each class sent home their class newsletter outlining the curriculum for the term – the extra for Term 2 is we introduce word families and children have home readers as well as their picture books from the library.

It's very important to start back into school routine – diet, exercise, homework, sleep, extra activities, chores, the Lourdes Way all need to fit into a timetable that suits your family.

Please always pack a school jumper/jacket – our playground can get chilly as we move closer to Winter.

It was great to catch up at interviews – please know we are always available for a chat.

A big thank you to our parent helpers who turned up again this term! Your time and assistance are much appreciated.

Cheers,

Melita, Liz and Loretta

Year 1

Welcome to Term 2! It was wonderful to have everyone back at school, feeling refreshed and enthusiastic for another exciting term of learning and fun! We spent time last week revisiting what it means to be a Lourdes Learner and the importance of always trying our best. We aren’t afraid of finding ourselves in the Learning Pit because we know that mistakes help our brain to grow!

In English over the next few weeks, we will be learning about and reading Dreamtime Stories. We are reading How the Birds got their Colours, and discussing the characters, setting and plot. We are learning to write creatively, expanding on our ideas using rich vocabulary. We call these words WOW words. Some of the WOW words that have appeared in our writing so far are shuffled, pierced, scavenged and delicious.

Our Mathematics focus is counting strategies, and strategies for addition and subtraction. We have reviewed the count on and count back strategies using a number line. We know it is more efficient to start at the larger number when counting on, so even if the number sentence is 6 + 3, we know to start at 6 and count on 3. This week we are investigating the rainbow facts strategy. These are our number combinations to ten. It is important that we can visualise and recall these facts, so please help us practise at home.  

We been talking about ANZAC Day and why it is an important day for Australians. Last Friday we made ANZAC biscuits and listened to a story about a little girl baking biscuits to send to her father overseas. We commemorated ANZAC Day as a school on Monday with a very special ANZAC Day assembly, led by Year 5.

On Monday, we had our final fire safety lesson with our fire officers. They showed us around the truck, told us all about the equipment and flashed their lights and loud siren for us. We were even lucky enough to have a turn spraying water from their powerful firefighting hose. It was so much fun!

A few reminders of Year 1 routines:

• Monday
  • PE lessons and sports uniform for 1T, 1B and 1M
  • Library borrowing for 1M
• Tuesday
  • Library borrowing for 1T and 1B
• Wednesday
  • Wednesday Workgroups (starting in Week 2)
  • Specialist lessons for Art, Music and Drama
• Friday
  • Sports uniform for 1T, 1B and 1M

Have a great week!

Jen, Dennielle and Laura

Year 2

Welcome back! It was great to see all of the students happy and ready to learn last week. A special welcome to Franklin (2G) and Alex (2D) and welcome back to Eloise in 2B. It is great to have you at Lourdes!

In Science this term, we will be exploring patterns in the sky, focusing on the Earth, Sun and Moon. We are looking forward to visiting the Planetarium in Brisbane on Tuesday 9^th May – please complete any outstanding permission forms or contact your child’s teacher if you have not received one.

In English, the first unit we will be exploring is about Information Texts. Students are enjoying this unit as we are reading, learning and writing about animals.

Our Religion unit this term, is called ‘Life of Jesus & His Mission’. We will explore the historical context of Jesus and the way he would have lived here on Earth.

In Maths, we continue working through our Think Mentals and revise place value, numbers to 1000, and number sequences & patterns. This term, we will also learn about fractions – halves, quarters & eighths, time – minutes, hour, o’clock, half past, quarter of an hour (quarter to/quarter past), 2D shapes and length.

Our HASS focus will be a Geography unit which will allow us to explore how People are Connected to Places. We will explore how the First Nation Peoples maintain special connections to Country/Place. We will also examine the connections of people in Australia to people in other places in Australia and across the world. At some stage during the unit, your child will need to know their house address.

Our specialist lessons remain on Wednesdays – Visual Arts, Music, Drama and PE. Year 2 are having fun with our wonderful specialist teachers - Mrs Simmons,  Mrs Rosier, Mrs Holzheimer and Mrs Wann.  

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

Sarah, Ange B and Ange G

Year 3

Welcome to Term 2! We are so excited for another fantastic Term ahead. It was lovely seeing the return of our little Lourdes Learners and hearing all about your busy holiday breaks. We extend a warm welcome to Mrs Sarah Goldthorpe who has returned from her travels around Australia and has joined 3GB four days a week (Monday to Thursday). We have all enjoyed Sarah’s return to Our Lady of Lourdes; she makes a wonderful addition to Year 3!

Last week, we introduced our focus in each subject area for the term and spent some time re-establishing routines and expectations both in the classroom and playground.

In English, our focus this term is on Procedural Writing. This is a fun, hands-on unit where students will explore the structure and language of procedural texts and be invited to create a variety of exciting things following the instructions of a procedure. Procedures are a great text to explore at home by inviting your children to help with cooking (following recipes), art projects, chores/tasks (e.g. washing the dog), etc. The different sentence types that students learnt in Term 1, such as Adverb Start, Preposition Start, and W start, will be useful in writing comprehensive steps. Students will also aim to use precision in their writing by adding specific details (e.g. ‘Mix two eggs into the brownie mixture.’, rather than ‘Mix in the eggs.’).

Our Mathematics focus recently has been on fractions. Students have revised what fractions are and how they are represented, as well as identified them in the classroom/world around them. In Year 3, students focus on 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, and 1/10. We will continue to explore how fractions can be represented in different ways and adding/subtracting fractions with the same denominator.

In Science, students will explore heat energy and conduct a number of experiments (a great link to procedures in English!) to learn about how heat energy travels and different sources of heat energy. Students will be exploring Australia’s neighbouring countries in HASS this term and learning about their similarities/differences to Australia.

A few reminders of Year 3 routines:

Monday

• Homework brought back, marked, and new homework handed out
• Specialist Lessons for Art, Music, and STEM

Wednesday

• Library borrowing for 3L, 3G, 3GB
• PE – students wear sport uniforms

Friday

• Cohort Meeting
• Sports Uniform for Friday afternoon sport

Have a great weekend and please email through any questions.

Demi, Toni, Sarah and Garry

Year 4

Welcome to Term 2! Students have settled back into the school routine and hit the ground running with their learning. What fantastic Lourdes Learners we have in Year 4!

To start our new term, we revisited what it means to be Lourdes Learners and the importance of trying our best, we also reflected on our overarching Lourdes theme of being kind.

In English this term students will continue to develop their literacy skills and we will link our Hass topic, The First Fleet, with English as students write and present a recount of a convict’s life. Students will also design and make a small toy for a convict child in their Design Technology lessons. During Maths lessons we will continue to work on our number facts, addition and subtraction, units of time and focus on fractions. We will explore various eco-systems and life cycles in Science. In Religion we will focus on the Sacraments and prayers which we can use to help us in our lives and explore the parables in the New Testament. We will continue to attend mass each Wednesday to prepare students who are making their sacraments for this year.

This term our specialists lessons (music, drama and S.T.E.M) will remain the same as last term and be held in the middle session on Mondays and P.E is every Wednesday. Students are welcome to wear their sports uniform Wednesdays and Fridays. Students will wear their winter uniform in week 3.

We are looking forward to our excursion to the Empire Theatre on Thursday to see a play based on the book, “Mr Stink”, we will share photos in the next newsletter.

Please enjoy photos of Cross Country and Gala Day from the end of last term. Students had a fantastic time at both events and demonstrated superb sportsmanship!

We look forward to another excellent term!

Suzanne, Aleisha, Jessica and Danielle

Year 5

Term 2 started off with a bang with two short weeks and our ANZAC day ceremony.  We would like to commend the Year 5’s on their reverence and respect for service men and women during this commemoration. We have received many reports from members of the community about the wonderful job they all did. So, well done Year 5! 

Key Dates 

• Friday 28^th April – Zone Cross Country
• Monday 1^st May – Labour Day Holiday
• Friday 12^th May – Mothers' Day Mass & morning tea@ 10am
• 11^th – 16^th May – Book Fair
• Friday 19^th May – Games Night 5:30pm – 8:30pm
• Tuesday 30^th May – Athletics Carnival Day 1
• Thursday 1^st June – Athletics Carnival Day 2
• Thursday 15^th June – Sports Team Dress Up Day – Catholic Mission Gold Coin donationSt Vincent de Paul
• Thursday 22^nd June – Ball Games carnival
• Friday 23^rd June – NAIDOC Assembly @ 12pm – Final Day of term

Term 2 curriculum focus 

Religion: Students will develop their understanding of the Beatitudes and the Ten Commandments to help us understand Jesus’ message.

English: Term 2 brings revision and new rounds of learning. We will spend time revising Persuasive writing and its associated language features in week 1-6 and will move into how persuasive writing can be transferred into a debate setting.

Maths: During this term students will engage in three impact cycles.: 

• Cycle 1: decimals and revision of place value
• Cycle 2: fractions/percentages
• Cycle 3: perimeter and area
• Cycle 4: NETS

HASS:  Students investigate colonial Australia in the 1800’s. Students look at the founding of the British colonies and the development of a colony. Students explore what life was like for different groups in this colonial period.  

Science: In Term 2, students will be exploring matter and in particular, the observable properties of solids, liquids, and gases by modelling the motion and arrangement of particles. Students will have fun conducting research projects and sharing information to inform their peers. Throughout the term, numerous investigations and experiments will be conducted to assist the students with their understanding of matter.

CANVAS 

This term students will continue to use CANVAS to access content for the above curriculum areas. We have been using this resource since the beginning of the year and the students are well versed in knowing that they can access this content at any time—revision, online learning from home. Parents, if you're interested, get your child to take you on a tour so you can see what is going on. 

Homework 

Homework resumes this week. A reminder that homework is issued on Tuesdays and is due the following Tuesday. Homework is a beneficial as it gives the students more opportunities to consolidate their learning. Students are required to complete the following allocated tasks: 1 Reading Eggs task, 1 or 2 Maths Online tasks, 1 revision task on Maths Online and spelling words practise. It is also expected that students read a quality novel for at least 20 minutes, 5 times per week. 

We understand that life is busy! To assist with homework commitments, the Year 5 classrooms are open from 8:00am on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for students to come in and work on their homework.

Jess, Emily and Amy

Year 6

Welcome to Term Two and a special welcome to Mr Birch and Mrs Cruice who will be working with 6F. A warm welcome also to our new student, Ariana Lugg who joins 6M.

Our term began with a great excursion to Brisbane last Thursday. As part of our HaSS studies, our classes were fortunate to see Queensland Parliament in action with debate between government and opposition in full force! Mr Trevor Watts our Member of Parliament for Toowoomba North met our students and spoke about his role and the purpose of the Hansard records. Our science unit on planets culminated with the Planetarium visit. This also coincided with the hybrid solar eclipse and totality live screened to Brisbane from Western Australia. Tour guides at both places commented on the excellent participation, knowledge, and respect of our Year Six leaders.

Rupert Simpson: At the Planetarium, I saw replicas of rovers that were coded to go to Mars.

Lexie Moore: The Legislative Council at Parliament House is no longer used. However, the Queen has been here and sat on her special seat – only for monarchs.

Noah McCann:  A flake or stone from Mars was on display at the Planetarium.

Student timetables and assessment planners have been distributed this week. These documents help build executive functioning skills and are to be placed in a study space to consistently refer to.

Boy Overboard is our English text for our first unit this term. All students have their own copy and are asked to bring them to and from school each day. This helps if students are absent to keep up with the set reading. Each student has a number assigned to them and are responsible for their book for the entirety of the unit. Some of these books are on loan from Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Dalby so we appreciate appropriate care and responsibility.

Kylie, Shauna, Garry and Helen

Visual Arts

Welcome back to term 2 for Visual Arts.

Prep

Preps began the term by completing a picture of “Gerald Giraffe” from the story “Giraffes can’t Dance”. It was a lot of fun exploring the colours of a night sky with blue and purple paint. We will continue the term creating artworks based on the letter of the week. The students will get to experience many different drawing and painting and collaging techniques along the way.

Year 1

This term the Year 1’s will investigate using colours to create feelings and emotions through artwork. Our first project was based on using warm colours to created Autumn pictures. Students experienced printing Autumn leaves as well as drawing and painting an image of Autumn trees.

Year 2

The Year 2’s had fun last week mixing primary colours to make secondary colours. This week they will complete their artwork by adding collaged mice to go with our colour wheel story, “Mouse Paint Fun.”

Year 5

The Year 5’s will demonstrate different techniques and processes in planning and making artworks. They will explore the techniques of printing, including mono printing, stamping and collagraph. Our first printing project is stamping. Students are in the process of creating an original stamp by engraving into foam. They will use their stamp to create a print.

Year 6

This term the Year 6’s will work on the Principles of Design in Visual Arts. They will create artworks based on the Principles of Design. Last week they began a sampler art work to demonstrate four of the seven principles of design. The 7 Principles of art and design are: balance, rhythm, pattern, emphasis, contrast, unity and movement. Artists use the elements of art and design – line, shape/form, space, value, colour and texture – to create a composition as a whole. The elements of art and design are the tools of visual artists.

Mrs Simmons

Italian

Buongiorno a tutti!

This term the students from Years 5 and 6 will revise common phrases and greetings. They will learn body parts and colours to help describe themselves. They will tell the time, days of the week and describe the weather. They will look at common foods from Italy and work towards writing a recipe and making an Italian dish.

Signora Simmons

Upcoming Dates

Cross Country Results

Congratulations to BEETSON on another House Cross Country Win!

Congratulations to the following Students on placing in their respective age groups. The underlined students have also been selected in the school team to compete at West Zone Cross Country next term:

Prep Boys: Sebastian, Hugo, Manyok & Nicolas.

Prep Girls: Grace, Brooke, Madeleine & Elise.

Grade 1 Boys: Ori, William, Parker & Archie.

Grade 1 Girls: Harpah, Jess, Sunny & Vanessa.

Grade 2 Boys: Nate, Ryan, Joel & Joe.

Grade 2 Girls: Emmeline, Halani, Indianna & Arlia.

8 Years Boys: Semisi, Max & Tom.

8 Years Girls: Evelyn, Cassidy & Addy.

9 Years Boys: Hudson, Drew & Isaac.

9 Years Girls: Charlotte, Hayley & Bethany.

10 Years Boys: Nate, Slater, Oliver, Ben, Zuma & Ned.

10 Years Girls: Delilah, Millicent, Liliana, Abbey, Amelia & Amarni.

11 Years Boys: Nate, Henry, Peter, Clancy, Angus & ‘Alani.

11 Years Girls: Charlotte, Heidi, Abbey, Indie-Rose, Mikayla & Arohamae.

12 Years Boys: Blake, Thomas, Harry & Riley.

12 Years Girls: Isabel, Olivia, Layla, Abigail, Jorja & Kaylee.

Living Spirit Awards: April (Bradman) & Hugh (Bradman)     

Calendar Update

Please make note of the following changes to this year’s sporting calendar:

• Darling Downs 10-12 years Regional Track & Field Trials:

Monday 14^th August (1500m after school at Glennie) and Tuesday 15^th August (Full day at Harristown SHS).

Representative 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 2013, 2012 or 2011. 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 2023.  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 form.

Here is the LINK to nominate a student. Please submit a new response for each individual child.

Please see below for upcoming trial dates. Please ensure that you confirm these details when the trial notice is released.

Congratulations to the following students on their selection in representative teams:

2023 Track & Field Carnival - Parent Information

* See schedule of events below

Age-Group Divisions

All students will be issued with a colour-coded name sticker that states their name and year of birth.  House marshals will provide students with their sticker when they check in on day 1 at O’Quinn Street. This will greatly assist staff in ensuring all students are where they should be and competing in the right age group.  Students compete in their age group not their class year.  Please see below if you are unsure what age group your child falls into:

All students in grade 3, who are born in 2015, will participate in the 2014, or 9 years, category for Long Jump.  However, as they are not of eligible age, they will not participate in High Jump, Discus and Shot Put, nor will they be eligible for age championship points.  They will simply be participating in these events to provide them with a valuable experience and to gain participation house points.

Event Eligibility & Nomination

Points Allocation - Individual Age-Championship & House Points

The following points will be awarded to individual athletes and their respective houses according to the overall places that they obtain in each event.  Heats will be run for all track events (in the 9-12 year’s category), except for the 800m.  One participation point will go towards each students’ individual and house tally following these heats.  Subsequently, finals will then take place to award the major individual age championship points and house points, as below. These points will also be awarded to all 9-12 year old’s for field events.

1^st Place – 10 points (Blue Ribbon), 2^nd Place – 6 points (Red Ribbon), 3^rd Place – 4 Points (Green Ribbon), 4^th Place – 2 Points (Yellow Ribbon) and 1 Point - 5^th place onwards.

80m, 100m & 200m Final Qualifications

All 80m, 100m and 200m events will be timed and the fastest 8-9 runners will proceed to the final.  All students will be required to remain at the finish line until all heats in their age group have been run.  Finalists will then be named, and they will proceed directly to the track marshals to run their respective final.

High Jump

Only Students in the 9-12 Years age groups will be eligible for this event.  They will be required to nominate, as well as clear a qualifying height during PE lessons. Qualifying heights and numbers will vary depending on individual cohorts.

High Jump – Fosbury Flop

As per risk assessment guidelines, only students that have obtained a certificate of competence will be allowed to perform the Fosbury Flop.  If your child would like to be considered, please contact me on the details below prior to the carnival day.

Medal Presentations

No presentations will be held at the oval.  A special assembly will be conducted to present all age champions from 2014-2011 and winning houses on Friday 2nd June at 2:00pm. As with Swimming and cross country, medallions will be presented to age champions in the 9-12 years age category.

Catholic Carnival and West Zone Carnival Team Selection

Following the school Track & Field Carnival, Our Lady of Lourdes will be selecting a team to represent the school at the Catholic Carnival and West Zone Carnival.  Only students born 2011-2014 are eligible for team selection.  OLOL are limited to the following numbers of entries in both carnivals.  Only students born 2011-2013 are eligible to participate in the Shot Put and the Discus at zone level:

Students born 2018-2015 are also offered the opportunity to participate in the track events at the Catholic Track & Field Carnival.  The top 3 runners in each age group will be selected.

As you may be aware, the students turning 8 this year, born in 2015, are enrolled in Grades 2 & 3. 

This presents a challenge when selecting the fastest three 8-year-olds to attend the Catholic Schools Track & Field Carnival, because they do not all race their heats on the same day. To enable us to compare these students on a level playing field, we will be running an 8-year-old final on Friday morning, June 2, after the Prep – Grade 2 heats.  These finals will take place at approximately 10:00am.  The finals will consist of the top four Grade 2 boys, and the top four Grade 3 boys, all born in 2015. The same will also occur for the girls. I will notify the Grade 3 teachers, after the carnival on Tuesday, which students have been selected to run in the final on Friday. 

More information regarding the school track & field team will be made available at a later date.

Absence from the school carnival

If your child is unable to attend one or both days of the school Track & Field Carnival, and they would like to be considered for the school team, please contact me on the details below.  The school will grant exemptions on the same grounds as Darling Downs School Sport. These grounds for exemption are as follows:

1. Medical condition on the day of the carnival & they have a medical certificate.
2. Attending another Zone, Toowoomba, Darling Downs, Queensland School Sport or School Sport Australia Championships or equivalent in community sports.
3. Bereavement or compassionate reasons

If one or more of these conditions have been met, the school will organize to record times and distances for the affected student, preferably prior to the carnival, as a means of team selection.  It is important to note that these times and distances will only be considered for placement in the school team, and not to go towards Age Championship Points.  To be awarded age champion the student must attend the school carnival.  Please contact me if you require further clarification.

Canteen

There will be a canteen open on Day 1.  Please remind your children about making sensible purchases.  Children will not be allowed to purchase lollies, sports drinks or soft drinks.

Helpers/Volunteers

If you are available to help with marshaling, timekeeping, scoring, amongst other jobs, please email me on the address below.  It is not possible to run the event successfully without the help of our parents.  Thank you in anticipation of your assistance. 

OLOL Track & Field Carnival Medallions – Sponsorship

In previous years various families and businesses have donated the Age-champion medallions to be given to the children.  All donations given will be acknowledged in the school newsletter and carnival program.  If you would like to contribute to the purchase of the medallions, or know someone that might like to, please email me:

Rachel.Wigan@twb.catholic.edu.au

Track & Field Carnival - Schedule of Events – Day 1

O’Quinn Street

Track & Field Carnival - Schedule of Events – Day 2

O’Quinn Street Oval 

Rachel.Wigan@twb.catholic.edu.au

TBall Clinic

On Tuesday 21^st March Deb Prouten, the TBall/Softball development officer for the Darling Downs organised a professional coach and player of many years to come to OLOL and run TBall clinics for the Year 6 students at school. We are very appreciative she was able to work around us and allow us this opportunity. 

As part of developing skills in specific sport areas, it is vital for students to learn from sporting coaches who are experts in their field.  Karen was the TBall expert to teach the students at OLOL. She was very thorough when teaching different skills and taught the students little tips to improve their game such as the finger spacing in the gloves. Thank you to Karen for allowing the students this exciting sporting experience in Tball and sharing your knowledge and wisdom of the game.

Hockey Clinic

On Tuesday 21^st and Wednesday 22^nd March Emily McKewen the Hockey Development Officer for Toowoomba organised a professional coach and player from the Toowoomba Hockey Association to come to OLOL and run hockey clinics for the Year 3 and 5 students at our school. Jasper was the sporting coach and the hockey expert to teach the students. The Year 3 and 5 students have been learning hockey this term in PE Lessons and this experience further improved their skills and they were able to apply them in a game situation. It was great to see the students test their skills in the hockey coaching clinics.  Thank you to Jasper who gave his time to teach hockey at OLOL.

Kara Wann

ANZAC Day 

We have a range of books available to commemorate ANZAC Day at Lourdes. ON DISPLAY and AVAILABLE NOW! 

AccessIt 

Don’t forget about our school Library Catalogue. Students can search for books, read Britannica, try Huey the Bookbot to select a new book to read, watch a clip on Click View and lots more! Students (or parents) can even check their current loans! Sign in to ensure FULL access (Click View, Britannica). 

Overdue Books  

Just a gentle, after holiday, reminder to return all overdue library books as soon as practical. Overdue letters will be sent home in Week 4 for long term overdue items that require attention. If an item has been lost, misplaced or damaged, please drop by the Library on a Tuesday / Wednesday or Thursday to chat with Mrs Leathart about it or Email: Danielle.Leathart@twb.catholic.edu.au  

Book Fair 

Our Scholastic Book Fair is nearly here! It will be open from May 11 – May 16 so come along to find the best new books and help to earn free books for our library! We will have Eftpos Facilities and Cash Payments will be accepted also. There will be a variety of great, brand new books for sale plus novelty pens and posters too. Be sure to drop by the Library and check it out. 

Book Fair Opening Times 

Chess 

I am pleased to inform you that Chess lessons will run each Tuesday from Week 3 – 9 in Term 2  from 7:45 – 8:30am in the Lourdes Library starting May 2nd 2023. Mr Les Lord will provide his expertise through coaching and game play during these sessions. The aim of these sessions is to build students' knowledge and skill in the game of Chess.  
 
Students will need to have permission to attend sessions and the cost is $8 per lesson or $56 for the term, this will be charged to your school account. This means no money will be accepted; by signing giving permission you are agreeing to have the chess fee of $56  added to your school fees. This is to cover Mr Lord’s fees for providing lessons to our students. We do try and keep costs to a minimum, but it is very reliant on student numbers. When we have more than the minimum number of children attend, this fee may be reduced. Permission notification will need to be received before commencing the lessons in Term 2.  
 
When: Tuesday from Week 3 – 9 (7 lessons this term due to the ANZAC Day Holiday) 
Time: 7:45am - 8:30am 
Where: Lourdes Library 
Cost: $56 ($8 per lesson) 

Please give permission via the Portal. Email Danielle.Leathart@twb.catholic.edu.au if you have any issues. Don’t delay sign up – places are strictly limited. 

Toowoomba Catholic Schools Chess Competition

On Monday 24^th April a team of Lourdes Chess players participated in the inaugural Toowoomba Catholic Schools Chess Competition. The competition saw players from 8 schools come together, including players from Cunnamulla, who joined us virtually. Lourdes players were competitive in each round and fair in their play on the day and we congratulate them on their efforts. Special mention to Oscar who won himself a beanie for good sportsmanship. Well done Oscar - that is what being a Lourdes Learner is all about. He was nominated for this recognition by a player from another school. Congratulations to Josephine, Joey, Oscar, Noah and Oliver - we are very proud of the Chess players you are becoming!

Enjoy your books. 

Mrs Leathart & Mrs Monte

Our Lady of Lourdes will be participating in the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Arts Fest 2023 - a new initiative that will provide opportunities for students to take part in workshops, to perform in front of audiences, to collaborate with students from other schools and to be inspired by each other. The festival includes opportunities for student groups from TCS Primary and Secondary Diocesan schools to share their skills in music, drama, dance, visual arts and media arts. This event will be held from 19-22 June 2023 in Toowoomba - so please mark that date in your calendars. More information will be given as we make preparations to participate in this new opportunity for the Arts. 

Last term OLOL was invited to enter the Home Grown section of the Toowoomba Royal Show. We were provided with a raised garden bed and potting mix, and were instructed to create an attractive edible garden display.

Hugo from Grade 5 most willingly stepped up and put this together for us and was rewarded with first place.

Congratulations Hugo....a budding gardener in the making!!!

Jo