Newsletter Term 1 Week 11

08.04.21

From the Principal

Dear Families

Here we are at the end of term one in a blink of an eye! The Easter season was celebrated with a whole school liturgy last Tuesday and it was great timing for the school to gather together as a community for our first visit to the church in 12 months.

There have been or will be several staff changes, in case you missed them here is a summary.

NARELLE SANDERCOCK - ACTING DEPUTY PRINCIPAL
Narelle is a teacher at Cabra College and has held the following key leadership responsibilities:

• Pastoral Care Coordinator and House Fellowship Program

• Student Wellbeing and Academic Success

• Leadership of House Activities (assemblies, liturgies, awards, sports day)

and Pastoral Care Teachers in Boylan House

Narelle will be working with us until the end of term 2 while Matt Perry is on Acting Principal duties at our Catholic School in Clare.

DONNA MARSHALL – OSHC DIRECTOR
Donna came to us from our Catholic School in Mt Barker. She has spent some time working Port Lincoln and before that, she ran the St Mary's OSHC program for many years. We are thankful for the time that Jess Joseph and Tori LeCornu gave us as Acting Directors in the interim.

KAYA NICHOLLS – MUSIC TEACHER
Kaya will be beginning as our Music Teacher in term 2. Kaya has worked at our Catholic School at Glengowrie and Nazareth College, as well as the Clovelly Park (Education Dept School) in music/arts positions. Kaya is taking up the position that Cathy Turner held. We thank Jess Joseph for her work for some of this term in teaching classroom music.

YEAR 1 - ELYCE DAVIDSON
Elyce comes with a wealth of experience having taught for a few years in Victoria. Upon returning to our State she has worked at St Pius X and most recently has held a position at Christ the King. Elyce will be replacing Abbey Hinge who is taking parenting leave.

PUPIL FREE DAY – TUESDAY APRIL 27TH
Next term, the staff will be attending the Mary MacKillop Precinct to immerse ourselves in the history of the life of our first saint. The centre offers an interactive, ‘hands-on’ experience – using audio and visual storytelling to engage and inspire the young and not-so-young. An important aspect of the Mary MacKillop Museum is to provide teachers with RE and History curriculum resources and activities. These have been designed by experienced educators, to promote a better understanding and knowledge of the Josephite story, the legacy of Mary MacKillop and how it continues to impact society today. We will welcome children back to school on Wednesday, April 28th.

BOARD TALK
At last month’s School Board meeting we were very fortunate to have two special guests attend, Dr Neil McGoran, Director CESA and Amanda Humeniuk, School Performance Leader. Neil spoke on Catholic Education and the role of Star of the Sea School in the bigger picture. The Catholic Education Office, with the role of the Principal and our School Performance Leader, will ensure that the school is making improvement in the following areas:

1. Catholic Identity

2. Academic Outcomes

3. Community Engagement

4. Financial Position

At the end of the presentation Board members were invited to ask questions to Dr Neil McGoran.

As usual, there is always quite a lot of work going on to keep our school looking beautiful. The following tasks have been completed this term:

Finished off Bench seat
Military road garden planted
Locks and Door maintenance around school
Drain cleaning
Partek fixed up damaged courts
Working through workplace inspection checklists, fixing defects
Installation of new evacuation maps in all buildings

Upcoming works Holidays & Term 2

Coping going on Military road garden bed
Trees going in Nature Play on Seaview road
Coring and Verdi drain on oval Glenelg turf
Start bin area redevelopment / new slats for bin enclosure
Air conditioner Maintenance
Partek fixing up defects

Enjoy the holidays,
Damian Weeks

From our Acting Deputy Principal

Thank you to everyone at Star of the Sea School for your warm welcome this term! I am absolutely delighted to have this opportunity to work in your vibrant learning community and I am looking forward to getting to know everyone better in Term 2.

I am enjoying the transition to a primary educational context since starting at Star of the Sea School in Week 9 and I am confident that I have learnt the names of all staff thus far! I hope to be able to say the same for all students throughout the winter weeks of Term 2. Relationships matter always and learning is relational, which is why I take the time to get to know everyone.

Celebrating Holy Week with various classes last week and then coming together as a whole school community in Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church this week to celebrate the resurrection of Christ was a true privilege. The energy and gusto with which children participated nearly lifted the roof off!

Just prior to leaving for the Easter long weekend break on Thursday afternoon, I had the opportunity of facilitating an ‘earth friendly’ Easter egg hunt with the students of 3I. We discussed the impact of all those Easter egg foil wrappers on the environment and imagined how large the ball of foil would be if we crumpled together the Easter egg wrappers of all Easter eggs from all families across our entire school and even the wider Adelaide region. Many a student sat wide eyed with imaginations running wild at the thought of such a large foil wrapper ball! (This was not the learning intention, but none the less, we were having fun and the students grasped the concept of an ‘earth friendly’ egg hunt).

Using an egg-shaped window cut out, (which we later recycled) students were challenged to create an image of an Easter egg with different coloured wrappers from nature. This is what they produced!

Even if it was just for those few minutes that afternoon, that students were able to consider the impact of lifestyle choices on the environment, then that was a positive! Apologies to any families whose children attempted to create giant foil balls out of their Easter egg wrappers over the break! Another positive of our ‘earth friendly’ egg hunt, as pointed out by several students, was that the Egg hunt was ‘tooth friendly’ too!

As the Term 1 holidays approach I extend my well wishes to all families for a safe and happy break. Just as the batteries of our devices need recharging regularly, so too do our bodies and brains. I hope the holidays provide an opportunity for a complete shut down and re-boot too!

See you all next term, Narelle