Newsletter Term 2 Week 5

Dear Families

We are looking forward to Friday’s celebration of our new building with tours starting from 2pm.  The highlight of our celebration will be at the end of the day on the green courts, where we will have some entertainment, coffee cart, sausage sizzle and tattoos for any families who would like to join in the celebration, whether it be for 15 mins or one hour!  Tours will continue every 15 mins after school.  Hoping to see you there.

AGM
We have held our AGM, which reviewed the 2023 year, and I am pleased to announce that you can read all the reports which are on our website.  Thank you to everyone that contributed to the reports and to all the School Board members who graciously give of their time.

The new School Board will gather for their first meeting on Monday June 17th.  We welcome new members Jessica Superina, Jessica Rutkiewicz and Alana Dichiera who will be joining continuing elected members Dave Slovinec, Nathan Foulis, Elizabeth Sarris, Amy Diggins and Kirsty McCulloch.  Our two continuing nominated members are Emma Marsden and a staff representative to be announced soon.  The other members are Ex-Officio, being the Parish Priest Father Manu and School Leadership Damian Weeks and Annette Diassinas.  We thank retiring members Kopano Shepheard, Brad Dunstan and Katerina Andrushenko for their service.  Kopano served on the Board for two years, bringing the perspective of the staff to our discussions. Brad had been on the Board for four years and was part of the Maintenance Committee that has done such good work around our school, especially in regard to the oval.  Katerina had been on the Board for two years and played an important role on our Finance Committee during this time.  Thank you Kopano, Brad and Katerina for giving your time to help improve our school.

Personalised Plans for Learning (PPLs)
If your child has one of these plans, we will email these to you next week.  This document is a living, changing document that possibly will change as the year goes on.

The PPL has a section for a parent signature indicating that the document has been developed as a collaboration between the family and school. If you can sign the PPL electronically, please feel free to return a signed copy of the PPL via email to your child’s teacher.  If you cannot sign this electronically, there is a proforma that can be signed and returned to school.

Long Service Leave
I will be taking term 3 off and will be visiting the USA during this time.  Please find attached a letter from CESA announcing that Annette will be the Acting Principal and Kelly the Acting Deputy during this time.

Regards
Damian Weeks

Welcome to Week 6.  If you can believe it, we are already halfway through Term 2.   

RECONCILIATION WEEK
This week is Reconciliation Week.  National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.  Each year this is held from 27th May to the 3rd of June as these dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey – the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision which recognised that Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for 50,000+ years.  In 2008, former Prime Minister Rudd’s apology, did much to build understanding, bringing people together in unity for reconciliation, hope and healing. 

The theme for 2024 is Now More Than Ever.  This theme is a reminder to all of us that no matter what, the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will —and must —continue.

There have been many moments in Australia’s reconciliation journey that make us want to turn away. But when things are divisive, the worst thing we can do is disengage or disconnect.

Now more than ever, the work continues. In treaty making, in truth-telling, in understanding our history, in education, and in tackling racism. We need connection. We need respect. We need action. And we need change.

May God’s Spirit inspire us to be people of reconciliation, inclusion and hope in this great country. 

In the spirit of Reconciliation, we acknowledge Australia’s First Peoples as traditional custodians of this land and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. 

TECHNOLOGY ADDICTION AND SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
You may have recently seen on TV the Channel 7 Spotlight program on the growing challenge of tech addiction in children and Peter Malinauskas recent announcement regarding the proposed restriction of social media for younger children. This is certainly a growing concern for parents, educators and schools who frequently see the effects of excessive and inappropriate use of tech by children on their academic achievement, ability to engage in learning and social difficulties.

Leaders in schools deal with extraordinarily challenging situations for primary students which have all occurred outside of school and on devices; including students falling asleep in class due to frequent night gaming, cyberbullying, access to pornography, grooming by online predators through apps and games, aggressive behaviour and fixations on violence from online games. These are all very real, disturbing and have significant impacts on students’ mental health and functioning. As a school we teach cyber safety to our students, but parental control is vitally important in ensuring our children are safe.

On the 19th of June, the Catholic School Parents of South Australia (CSPSA) are running a Cybersafe Families workshop with Todd Murfitt.   The workshop will explore how we as families can work together with our children to be Cybersafe. Todd Murfitt has a unique perspective on the importance of technology and education, following nearly twenty years as an educator, with the past ten years being a primary principal in South Australia. 

You can register via this link 

5 tips to support healthy use:

• Build a family media plan that balances time with and without devices
• Create screen-free times and places in your home, such as meals and bedtime
• Monitor apps and ensure they are age appropriate and safe
• Have regular discussions as a family about online activities
• Make sure your child knows they can come to you about their experiences online, even if they feel embarrassed or worried

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/issues-and-advice/parental-controls
https://www.internetmatters.org/issues/

SACPPA CONFERENCE
Last week Damian and I attended the Annual SA Catholic Primary Principals Association Conference.  The theme of the conference was “Leading a High-Performance Culture Now and in the Future.”  The speakers we had for this conference were second to none with national and internationally renowned presenters.   The structure of the program and the focus for the conference was two-fold. Through the Keynote presentations, it helped to build leadership capacity and understanding of what educational experts are saying about relevant and high-quality school focus points on fostering a high-performance school culture. The workshops were designed to provide space for dialogue and to hear about the practical application of these ideas and sources of information about a particular topic of interest to help enhance implementation in our school.

Listening to ultra-marathon runner and elite sportswoman, Jacqui Bell was a highlight for me.  Her story inspired and motivated me with strategies on how to overcome adversity and nurture a high-performance mindset.   She focused on ‘What is your why? What are your why nots? The importance of finding time for yourself and helping to see that those roadblocks are just things to run past, jump over or walk around. 

We also had some fantastic learning opportunities with Paul Kidson, Glenn Savage and Adam Voigt. It was positive to see how strong our Star of the Sea culture is and the wonderful work of our Teachers, ESO’s Leadership Team, OSHC, Administration and Maintenance Staff do in bringing this wonderful culture to fruition every day. 

Dear Families, 

Welcome to Week 5!

Vote of thanks
Have you heard your child talk about an educational or administrative support officer working in our school? We are blessed to have a wonderful group of individuals who go above and beyond to support all elements of school life from learning, wellbeing, OSHC, front office, grounds, intervention, library, playgroup, Little Stars and the canteen. We recently acknowledged their contribution to our school during World Support Staff Appreciation Week. Their work, support and connection with our young people has a big impact for so many in our community. We extend our thanks and gratitude for their valuable contributions to Star of the Sea School.

Teaching and Learning
This year our intensive professional learning focus for our staff is the area of Mathematics and Numeracy. We have been guided by a CESA consultant, Carla Thomas, who meets fortnightly with the Leadership team and Leaders of Learning to deep dive into how numeracy is taught and assessed at our school. The key components of this professional learning include establishing a school Numeracy Agreement, using our student data to inform numeracy improvement strategies, planning and mapping curriculum and assessments aligned to Version 9 of the Australian curriculum, exploring and utilising key pedagogical practices and resources for teaching Mathematics effectively and using case management to inform intervention required. We look forward to continuing this work to ensure consistency across our school and achieve better outcomes for all our learners in Numeracy moving forward.

School Events
There was quite the buzz in the air last Friday with two memorable events at Star of the Sea. The first was the slick McLaren car that transported Daniel in Year 3 to school as part of the SAFM Dream Ride competition. What an entrance and what a car! The smile on Daniel’s face went from ear to ear and the sound of the engine as it left our school grounds was loud! We received feedback from the SAFM crew letting us know how wonderful and accommodating Daniel, our students and staff from Star of the Sea were to make this memorable event occur. It is always wonderful to hear positive feedback! The afternoon concluded with our whole school gathering on the courts to witness some very talented students perform for our annual Stars Got Talent event. The audience was treated to wonderful performances, ranging from singing, dancing, piano playing, theatre and gymnastics. The surprise of the afternoon was from one of our ESO’s, Connor McLeod who blew everyone away with his stunning vocal performance!

Wellbeing
I was reminded of the quote below when I was supporting a young person recently and thought it was a good reminder for all of us as parents who can sometimes feel frustrated by challenging behaviours.

In most situations, your child does not want advice – what they want is relationship. Their emotional response is NOT saying ‘fix this’, it is saying ‘see this.’

Action for Happiness: Joyful June

June’s focus on the Action for Happiness website centres on joy! Rephrasing our questions with our children after school about their day to focus on a positive could be a simple way of seeing joy in what may sometimes be a ‘full’ or ‘overwhelming day’. Many of our classes have gratitude journals which support this notion of appreciating the blessing we have in our lives. I encourage you to look at June’s joyful suggestions with your children to see if you can action some of them as a family.

https://actionforhappiness.org/sites/default/files/Jun%202024.pdf

Enjoy the weekend ahead!

Kelly Manera
Assistant Principal Learning and Wellbeing