Dear Families,
Here we are at the halfway mark of the term already! The school routines are very much established despite the challenges of Covid. Last week there was a release of the new Covid rules from CESA and SA Health, these will apply from until 25 March 2022. In case you missed it, we are repeating this in today’s newsletter.
For parents you are generally being asked to refrain from coming onto the school site. Of course, there will be exceptions to this, but if you come onto the school grounds, please wear your mask.
A local, approved decision, to parents coming on-site, relates to Reception and Year 1 parents. Due to the fact that our school is surrounded by busy roads we are allowing these parents to drop-off and pick up using the MDC asphalt area. If you are doing this, please wear your mask and practice social distancing.
We are asking all parents to refrain from entering classrooms/buildings at all times unless it is absolutely necessary.
WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR – BEACH CLUB
Last year we introduced a number of “lunch Time Clubs” for those children who are looking for something different to do at lunch time. This year we have expanded this for Year 2-6 children, to include an opportunity to go to the beach (there is no going in the water). As a trial we are allowing a Year level each day to experience this, but with duty of care, we can only take 20 children at one time. There is a sign-up sheet for each year level, every week. The year level teacher is also looking for a parent helper each week that could attend (1:05pm to 1:35pm).
This term we will be running the Year 3-6 Clubs in the Sella Maris Club. The activities are:
Monday – Games
Tuesday – Yoga
Wednesday - Dance/Meditation
Thursday – Canva
Friday – Games
For R-2 the Clubs run in the Atrium. The activities are:
Monday – Drawing
Tuesday – Dance
Wellbeing - Wednesday
Thursday - Lego/Building
Friday - Construction
The library is also open every day at lunch time.
PARENT TEACHER CHATS
The Book-a-Chat meetings have been held for another year. If you missed out on this opportunity, please make contact with your child’s class teacher. The next formal opportunity to meet will be early next term (weeks 2 & 3), when we hold our Parent Teacher Interviews.
VOLUNTEERING AT STAR OF THE SEA
We are very happy to have volunteers assisting teachers and the school (although we are limited with this under the current rules. Volunteers add to the quality of what we are able to offer at the school. The process for becoming an approved volunteer is a four step process:
We are beginning this process for new volunteers for our school and all the information can be found in this newsletter.
PLAYGROUP
Our very popular playgroup began this week. It is again held on Tuesdays in the Parish Hall. The group is run in conjunction with the Parish and is for Parents, Grandparents and care givers. Bookings are essential and further information can be found on the school website.
SCHOOL ROUTINES
As school routines begin to take shape you will notice that homework will beginning to appear, the majority of which is reading. The importance of reading cannot be underestimated and has been the topic of thousands of pieces of research. For example, in a study of the out-of-school activities of fifth graders, Anderson, Wilson, & Fielding (1988) found that time spent reading books was the best predictor of a student’s reading proficiency. Some examples from the study are…
A student reading at home for 2 minutes a day would read 100 000 words a year and would be in the bottom third of reading ability when compared with all 10 year olds
If that student increased their reading by 10 minutes a day, they would bump up into the top third of reading ability when compared to all 10 year olds
Those students in the top 10% of readers, when compared with all 10 year olds, read for 21 minutes a day, reading nearly 2 million words a year away from school
Please keep in mind that when children bring home readers they should be quite easy for them to read. The rule of thumb is no more than 5 errors per 100 words, this is because the aim of reading is to comprehend the text.
STAR OF THE SEA SCHOOL IS ALLERGY AWARE
We are concerned about the safety and well-being of all our students. Many of you will know someone who is affected by anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction. Our school does its best to be an allergy aware school. Staff have had training in severe allergy management and we have implemented lots of strategies to help keep students at risk of anaphylaxis as safe as we can. We have a number of students who live with the risk of anaphylaxis to foods and insect stings. Whilst these children are being taught to care for themselves at an age appropriate level, we ask that you help us educate your child on the importance of not sharing food with others, washing hands after eating and calling out to an adult if they think their friend with allergies is sick. With increased awareness and understanding of anaphylaxis, you will be able to help protect those around you.
A food allergy is an immune system response to a normally harmless food protein that the body believes is harmful. When the individual eats food containing that protein, the immune system releases massive amounts of chemicals, triggering symptoms that can affect a person’s breathing, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and/or heart. Anaphylaxis is the most severe form of allergic reaction and is potentially life-threatening. It must be treated as a medical emergency, requiring immediate treatment and urgent medical attention.
It is estimated that up to 400,000 (2%) Australians, including 1 in 20 children suffer from food allergies and some of them will experience a life-threatening (anaphylactic) reaction.
Mild to moderate allergic reaction
• Tingling of the mouth
• Hives, welts or body redness
• Swelling of the face, lips, eyes
• Vomiting, abdominal pain (note these are signs of a severe allergic reaction if the person has insect allergy)
Severe allergic reaction- anaphylaxis
• Difficult/noisy breathing
• Swelling of the tongue
• Swelling or tightness in the throat
• Difficulty talking or hoarse voice
• Wheeze or persistent cough
• Persistent dizziness or collapse
• Egg
• Milk
• Peanut
• Tree nuts (cashew, almond, pistachio etc)
• Wheat
• Sesame
• Soy
• Fish• Crustacea (prawns, lobster, crabs etc)
Peanuts are the leading cause of severe allergic reactions, followed by tree nuts, shellfish, fish and milk. Adrenaline/epinephrine is the first line treatment for severe allergic reactions and can be administered via auto-injector, called the EpiPen®.
To learn more about anaphylaxis and food allergies, go to www.allergyfacts.org.au and www.allergy.org.au
As the only way to manage a food allergy is avoidance, the school has implemented several strategies to help prevent a severe allergic reaction. We can never totally eliminate the risk of an anaphylaxis but we can all do things that will help lessen the risk. Please consider the child with food allergy when packing your child’s lunch or when sending in food for any occasion, including school excursions. Foods that ‘May contain traces of nuts or nut products’ are fine for the non- allergic students to consume at school as long as they do not share food.
SCHOOL BAG application is our major link to families delivering school alerts, information as well as our new electronic version of the school newsletter instantly and directly to your smartphone and/or tablet. In your devices “App Store” search for “SchoolBag” and follow the very simple instructions.
STAR OF THE SEA SCHOOL FACEBOOK SITE
This year we are continuing our Facebook site to celebrate some of the fantastic things happening around our school. On Facebook you can search for our site by using Star of the Sea School.
SCHOOL HOURS
Just a reminder that children are welcome at school from 8:20am, when our gates are opened, and a teacher is on yard duty. At the end of the day, we supervise children in the yard till around 3:25pm. Any remaining children are then seated in the front office and should be picked up no later than 3:30pm.
CARS AND CHILDREN
The safety of our children is paramount to the operation of any school and where our children and cars share the same space every care is needed. We make many appeals to parents about parking, kiss and drop etc. Sometimes we have neighbours and their visitors or workmen not paying attention to the parking signs. The council are quite vigilant at checking around our school over the first few weeks and I have already seen a number of police patrols before and after school. As you know Military Road is out of action for some time. We appreciate those families who have moved to Seaview Road for “Kiss and Drop.” For the safety of everyone the Council has designed a map for movement if you must access Military Road. The biggest problem so far has been people coming down the Crewe St to access Military Road, please enter via Chester St and for the safety of everyone please refrain from driving up Military Road and doing a U-turn. The council map is included in this newsletter.
TERM 1 NEWSLETTERS
Our next newsletters will be in weeks 8 & 11.
Damian Weeks
Principal