Newsletter Term 3 Week 2

Welcome to Term 3, Families and Friends! It’s August already, how did that happen? The year is flying by!

This term we welcome our littlest learners to the Star of the Sea School community with the Mid Year Reception class commencing. The start of school is always such a big and beautiful milestone for families, and we feel privileged to celebrate these milestones with you. Our successful transition-to-school program, called ‘Little Stars’ is up and running again, with a morning and afternoon group visiting us on Wednesdays for the remainder of the year. Our inclusive community continues to embrace all new students and families and we were delighted to be able to host informal morning tea sessions with the families of these learners! Thank you to the Star Outreach group for preparing the morning tea for us, for our Little Stars Educators Tania Condelli and Kylie Casey and the Mid-Year Reception Teachers, Abbey Hinge and Skye Llewellyn.

Each year level team has been busy this past week to ensure their Term 3 programs are classroom ready! The enthusiasm and genuine interest of our educators to plan and prepare contemporary learning opportunities is a sign of their passion and investment in ‘future proofing’ young learners. Year level newsletters will be hitting your inboxes shortly, (if they haven’t already) and it’s within these that you will find further information about specific learning content, excursions, incursions, and other important school community events and information. These year level newsletters are produced for families twice per term with one to mark the start of a new learning cycle and the other toward the end of a learning cycle. Learning initiatives to look out for this term include Stars Got Talent, School Disco, Book Week, Swimming, Camps, Catholic Schools Music Festival, Concerts, Sacrament of Confirmation and First Communion, Whole School Feast Day and so much more!

We have several ESO staff taking their final leap into teacher training this term with their final Professional Experience placement happening. Our well wishes are with Hannah Dalidowicz, Kyra Karagiannidis, Chloe Gariboli and Georgia Adamson for a successful learning journey in their various learning placement contexts. Education is an extremely rewarding career, and we have no doubt that they will all return to us with a wealth of knowledge and experience!

Star of the Sea School, like every other workplace, is experiencing the impact of Covid-19. We thank families and students for their resilience and flexibility as we support staff to quarantine, recover and return to work when they are well. This means that your child may have a new or different teacher from time to time this term. As with any staffing decision, the needs of the learning cohort are taken into consideration first! We always aim to provide educator continuity for classes and just as each person may parent slightly differently, so too do teachers; they may teach slightly differently. They may set up learning routines that look and feel different to those of the regular classroom teacher. Not every teacher is the same and this is a good thing! Diversity and difference are a part of life and a Relief Teacher in a classroom provides a valuable opportunity for children to practice resilience, adaptability, learn something new and perhaps even develop gratitude and appreciation for the pedagogical practices of their regular classroom teacher who is absent.  Many thanks to our extremely supportive, caring and adaptable relief teachers for the important work they all do in keeping students engaged and learning programs going!

The bible contains many verses that provide a source of strength for people during different or difficult times. Isaiah 41:10 is one I’d like to share with all in our community now. “So do not fear, for I am with you: do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”.

God Bless and go well, Narelle Sandercock

 “Never see a need without doing something about it.” Mary MacKillop

Australia’s only saint, Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, was instrumental in bringing catholic education to poor children across Australia.

The World Bank estimated that in 2016, 61 million primary aged children could not access any schooling. I couldn’t have imagined my life without school, could you? Here I am, still going to school, surrounded by young, eager minds and teachers who have a love of life-long learning.

We should remember that for many countries the challenge of education will be exacerbated by the challenging times we find ourselves in. Our prayers go to all those who are in war torn countries where their daily life is far from what they ever envisaged.

Hector Chundaloo's painting of Mary MacKillop hangs in the National Museum of Australia. The bush tucker minyjiwarra (bush plum tree) on either side of Mary is a sign of how her spirit nourishes the Australian people, of how she follows the Ngapuny way (God's way). The hill country represents her different camping places here on earth.

Mary MacKillop, pray for us.

Stella

Today I visited the Year 3 classes to be present with them as they engaged in dialogue with each other in seeking the answer to ‘Who is God?’.

To nurture our thinking we read ‘Where’s God?’ by Victor Kelleher and Elise Hurst. We then shared our ideas of how God was revealed in the story. We then went deeper with our dialogue and asked the same question of where is God in our lives? Together we agreed that God is in our hearts and God is where we feel safe, courageous and loved. We also agreed that we need to keep asking questions and that there are different types of truths, such as different religious beliefs and different experiences.