Newsletter Term 2 Week 3

Dear Parents and Friends,

The mornings are certainly colder and the desire to get out of bed definitely requires greater effort! But still the happy faces of the children coming to school in the morning, is confirmation that the cold weather will not deter children from bouncing into school and making the most of their opportunities. Thank you for the effort that goes into getting the children to school on time in the mornings and ensuring they are packed and ready for a big day of learning ahead.

It is also great to be able to write a newsletter that doesn’t entirely focus on COVID-19. This week we have seen over 98% of our children return to face to face learning. The teachers and staff are delighted to have all the children back on site with us, comfortable with their familiar routines and procedures. I am are very grateful to everyone for persevering with our new pickup and drop off arrangements – we continue to be informed by the SA Health and Catholic Education SA in regards to the practices we are using. One benefit from the new drop and pick up arrangement may be less of the flu impact across the school this winter. We continue to have additional cleaning practices across the school and constant hygiene reminders to the children.

As the children settle back into routines and face to face learning, a number of children may be experiencing certain levels of anxiety due to uncertainty and times of change. Attached is a free online workshop presented by the Life Buoyancy Institute Foundation and Federation of Catholic School Parent Communities SA. The workshop is to be held on Thursday 14 May from 7:00 – 8:00pm and is aimed to 'help families and schools support children to feel well, deal with stress and be successful while the coronavirus continues affecting their schooling, social activities and daily family life'. Click on the following link to book

Parent Teacher Interviews
First semester Parent/Teacher Interviews have been taking place over the last two weeks, providing information to parents about how students have been progressing with their school work and social interaction in the classroom and the school yard. This year the Parent Teacher Interviews have been conducted over the phone or by Zoom but none the less they are still an important opportunity to summarise and highlight the achievements so far and to point out areas for growth. I urge all parents to ensure they have made contact with classroom teachers to arrange a time to have a conversation; research tells us that feedback regarding student progress is one of the top ten most powerful influences on learning and achievement.

I hope that all our mums had a lovely day on Sunday with the ones you love and you enjoyed the beautiful gifts the children made for you. The teachers do an amazing job coming up with new and different ideas each year. My mum still has and uses a serving tray I made out of used match sticks for her when I was in Year 5. We always have a good laugh when she brings it out.

To show you how much we value our mother’s at Star of the Sea for all you do for us we have put together this video to express our love.

Enjoy the weekend ahead
Joe De Tullio

With our recent focus on remote learning and using various devices to get us through our day, I encourage parents to be mindful how much too much screen time is for our children.

There have been countless videos capturing life in isolation and lockdown and one app that seems to be gaining quickly in popularity and momentum is Tik Tok. The app is recommended for children aged 12+ years.  I urge all parents to make sure that the privacy settings on any device that has Tik Tok on it be set to a high level ensuring only those people who are invited can see the videos created. Also vitally important is that no personal details can be derived from the videos posted. Children should not appear in videos in their school uniform or have identifiable images in the background of videos. People appearing in videos on Tik Tok should know that the videos have been taken and have given their approval for the uploading of videos.

Social networking and gaming applications enable people to interact with one another online. Here's a description of some common ones young people use.

All pick up points around our school are busy places and I once again urge motorists to exercise extreme care ad caution around our school. In particular, north of the Seaview Rd pick up point is CLEARWAY zone, marked with a yellow line and means that no vehicles can stop or park along the length of the yellow line. We have been highlighting this area with bright orange cones over the past weeks. 

Vehicles that stop on the yellow line obstruct southbound road users’ view of the crossing and present a hazard for pedestrians crossing Seaview Rd.

Please help to keep our children safe by NOT parking in this Clearway Zone. Council Parking officers are active around our school at drop off and pick up times are issuing parking fines.

This quote was by St Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan Friar, who died in place of ten others during World War 11. He looked to Mary for comfort and strength. May is a special month in the church when we remember Mary, Mother of Jesus. It can be comforting praying traditional prayers of the church, often learnt in childhood; the Rosary, based on the Hail Mary, can be soothing, almost mantra like, in times of anxiety and stress. Join me in meditating on the Joyful Mysteries of Jesus’ life by praying a decade of the Rosary. Song to Mary.
 

Thank you for the contributions for our food hampers. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Our casual day tomorrow will raise much needed funds for purchasing essential baby goods to support the young families in our area.