News

Congratulations to the Boys and Girls who attended the Parramatta Diocesan Netball Gala day at Penrith on Tuesday 13th September. This year, five teams took part in the gala day: Junior Boys, 9 Yr Girls, 10 Yr Girls, 12 Girls and one Mixed senior team. All five teams played with amazing sportsmanship, pride and resilience. Thank you to all the parent helpers who assisted on the day. Thank you especially to Ms Critchlow for umpiring and coaching, Mrs Moujalli, Mrs Willemse & Mrs Nowak for coaching teams and transporting students and to Miss Cavagnino for organsing the day, finding umpires from Nagle and training all the teams. An amazinfg team effort!

On Thursday 8th September, Ms Byrnes, Javiar, Anika, Christina, Sienna and Mrs Bou Serhal attended the annual Diocesan Education Mass celebrated by Bishop Vincent. Mass was followed by the Agency Mass expo to highlight the work of Mission Agencies in the Diocese of Parramatta. The mass for the Parramatta Diocese was a welcoming experience. We are very fortunate to have attended such a beautiful celebration of catholic education. Representatives from all schools in our Diocese attended. As it was the feast of the nativity all hymns were reflective of the divine grace of Our Lady. The church's decor was beyond stunning and the phenomenal hymns produced by the amazing students of Catherine McAuley, really stood out. As well as a great spiritual experience the missionary expo provided us as students, with the awareness of world wide problems such as refugee support and food donations. There were a wide variety of both primary and highschools which were all just as respectful and reverant as each other. A huge thanks to the parish of St Patrick's Cathedral, Bishop Vincent and Ms Byrnes as well as the parent helpers for making this experience possible. Javiar, Anika, Christina and Sienna.

On Thursday the 8th of September OLOL students acknowledged R U OK? Day with a whole school prayer. RU OK? Day encourages people to stay connected and have conversations that can help others through difficult times in their lives. The day focuses on building the motivation, confidence and skills of the help-giver – the person who can have a meaningful conversation with someone who is struggling with life. The teachers were even treated to a special Coffee delivery for their wellbeing 😊. You might like to ask someone today- R U OK?

On Friday the 9th of September it was so exciting Year 6 were able to hold again their Market Day fundraiser to raise money for their Graduation Disco. The students have been preparing their stalls for weeks and the students were very excited to buy some delicious treats and play some games. The fundraiser was a huge success. Thank you students for supporting and well done Year 6!

On Friday the 2nd of September the OLOL Community gathered for the first time since 2019 to celebrate Father's Day! We started with a lovely breakfast in the playground, followed by open classroms and concluded with a lovely Mass in the Church. Thank you to the Parent Group for organising the Father's Day stall and the Breakfast. It was a lovely celebration for all our Dad's!

What an incredible Book Week Celebration today! The costumes were just amazing! Well done to Mrs Cividin and the Book Week Committee for putting together a fantastic day for the students of OLOL. Including a wonderful Book Week Assembly and Costume parade, morning tea and a story with parents in the playground, different classes working together on activities based on the books of Alison Lester, followed by our favourite whole school Trivia competition after lunch. After 3 years, it was wonderful to celebrate Book Week in person again! 😄📘📗📕📙

Over the past few weeks OLOL has been busy desigining and creating our school Totem Project. A totem is a natural object, plant or animal that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have connection to. Each individual can have several totems that represent different levels of kinship and connection. Each school in the Parramatta Diocese is to create something to represent our Totem object. With the help of Father Henry, we chose the Willy Wagtail bird as our school Totem as we see them in our playground and they have some blue feathers on their chest- our school colour. Our SRC students have been busy researching with Mrs Messina the Willy Wagtail and other symbols to represent out school. They are sharing this information in a Slideshow over the next few weeks at assembly. We are very proud to share our totem paintings on Canvas- showcasing 7 hills and in each hill a symbol: Our Lady of Lourdes, Our School, Our Parish, Mary Our Mother, a symbol for Students, the Willy Wagtail and a symbol for community. Every student in the school helped Mrs Willemse paint the Totem Project, by adding a fingerprint dot. We are thrilled with how it's turned out and are looking forward to seeing it be presented as part of the Catholic Schools NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander State Education Conference in October 🖤💛❤️

On Monday 15th August, OLOL held a liturgy in the school hall to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. The Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this Feast, Catholics traditionally celebrate Mary going to heaven. The tradition is that 'God took Mary, body and soul, to heaven after her life on earth had come to an end'. Thank you to the Stage 3 students and teachers for organising such a beautiful Liturgy celebrating the Assumption of Mary.

On Thursday the 11th of August the students of Our Lady of Lourdes were able to put their faith in action in this week of service for the Feast of St Mary MacKillop, by taking part in our annual concert for our Over 50s Parishoners. Thank you to the classes who shared a song and actions and the choir for their beautiful performance, as well as our Year 5 and 6 students who came to teach and play some maths card games with the Parishoners. It was a lovely morning and so special to be able to do this again after 3 years!

On Friday the 5th of August the OLOL community gathered in the school hall to celebrate the Feast day of St Mary MacKillop with a special Liturgy. Thank you to the Year 3 and 4 students and teachers for leading the school in a reverant, reflective litugy that celebrated the wonderful life and work of Mary MacKillop.