Newsletter Term 3 Week 1

Dear Families and Friends,

Welcome to Term 3! I hope you had a wonderful holiday filled with opportunities to reconnect and reenergise with your children, family, and friends. I am delighted to step in as Acting Principal for Term 3 while Damian is on Long Service Leave.

I am fortunate to be supported by our exceptional Leadership Team, including Kelly Manera as Acting Deputy Principal, Dominique Laurendi as APRIM, and Daniella Pipicella, our new Leader of Learning for the remainder of 2024. Each member brings a wealth of skills in curriculum development and student wellbeing, and we look forward to collaboratively supporting our school community in the term ahead.

Over the holidays, we welcomed Elly Tsinivits as our new permanent OSHC Assistant Director. Elly brings extensive experience, having previously served as both an OSHC Assistant Director and Director. She has already begun meeting with some of our students and started her new role this week. Additionally, we extend our congratulations to Geordi Caridi on securing a permanent teaching position at Star of the Sea.

We are excited for the term ahead and the continued growth and success of our students.

WELCOME NEW STUDENTS
This term we are delighted to welcome our new Reception students and their families to our Star of the Sea family along with other new students across the school in Year 2, Year 4, and Year 6. 

Receptions 

RRF 
Alia Guy Sebastian Monte Hugo Fletcher Audrey Rory Thomas Harper Olivia Olena 
Chiara Ava Fergus Ontario Grace Lawrence Mayla Bloom

RB
Freddie Sofia Zoe Evelyn Lewis Anesu Harry Amina Ethan Blair Xavier Daisy Harrison Patrick Madison Keanu Emmy

Year 2 – Saskia
Year 4 – Mason and Isha
Year 6 - Leonardo

Little Stars Term 3 and 4

We are all looking forward to getting to know you and watching you grow, learn and flourish at Star of the Sea. 

PARENT AND CAREGIVER SURVEY - COMPLETE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A $50.00 GIFT VOUCHER!
All families have received invitations via Audiri to complete a survey we are currently conducting about our school climate through the Catholic Education Living Learning Leading Survey. 

This is an important opportunity for you to let us know how things are going for you and your child/ren. Please be assured that your feedback will be anonymous and confidential. CESA and school staff will use the data to identify strengths and areas to work and build upon as part of our continuous improvement.

You can easily complete the online survey at www.NSIPartnerships.com.au and enter the code SOTSSHBLLLP in the start questionnaire field. It only takes 3 - 5 minutes. The closing date for the survey is FRIDAY 23 AUGUST. Send a screen shot of the completed page to the front office (info@star.catholic.edu.au) and you’ll go into a draw to win one of 4 gift vouchers.

STAFF BABY NEWS
We are delighted to share the wonderful news that two of our teachers have recently welcomed new additions to their families!

Sam Carpenter and family celebrated the arrival of a beautiful baby girl, Maggie Carpenter, born on July 2nd.

Kaya Nicholls and family welcomed a handsome baby boy, Harvey James Capitanio, born on July 20th. 

Both women and their gorgeous babies are doing well. 

APPOINTMENTS WITH TEACHERS
A reminder to families to please schedule an appointment to meet with teachers if you would like to discuss your child. Our teachers are always happy to meet, but the mornings when they are setting up for the day or during class time are not suitable. We appreciate your understanding.

Have a safe and wonderful fortnight.

Annette Diassinas
Acting Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome to Term 3! It was lovely to see all the children’s smiling faces as they returned to school on Tuesday. We look forward to connecting with you across the term in the yard, parent teacher interviews and other significant school events.

NEW RECEPTIONS
There is nothing more special than watching our newest Receptions commence school for the first time. We welcome our transition classes to the Star of the Sea family. During the week I have visited them to see how they have all settled in and asked them about what they are looking forward to doing here at school. I share with you some of their gorgeous sentiments.

Hugo – Going to the nature play area
Ontario – Playing on the playground
Audrey – Playing in my classroom
Ava- My teacher teaching me
Sebastian – Buying an ice block in the canteen
Alia- Having lunch at school
Zoe – Playing with the dollhouse
Keanu – Playing in nature play
Rory – Going to play basketball

WELCOME TO LINDA CLUNE
We welcome Linda Clune this term to continue working with our staff and students in the area of Literacy, specifically phonics and intervention. Linda first worked with us as a mentor in 2019 when we initially implemented our whole school approach to explicit structured synthetic phonics instruction. Linda will be here on a Thursday and Friday. We welcome Linda to the team and are excited to have her support and expertise as we continue to improve our literacy and intervention practices.

HATS
A reminder that hats are now required to be worn in Term 3 as part of our Uniform Policy which can be found on our school website. Class teachers have shared this expectation with the students.

ONLINE SAFETY
We understand that as a parent or carer, ensuring your children's online safety is a top priority. The eSafety Commissioner offers excellent resources to help you with this. The link below provides valuable tips and tricks on using parental controls and other tools to maximise online safety in your home.

eSafety Comissioner - How to set up Parent Controls

ACTION FOR HAPPINESS CALENDAR: ALTRUISTIC AUGUST                                            As we head into August, I share with you next month’s Action for Happiness resource. ‘Altruistic August’ focuses on our awareness of being kind and concerned about the well-being of others. Evidence suggests that being aware of your own acts of kindness, noticing this action in others and being grateful can increase feelings of happiness, optimism and satisfaction. Some of the daily suggestions go beyond some of the more obvious actions we would normally consider. For example, perhaps try and give people the gift of your full attention, or ask someone how they feel and really listen to their reply or notice when someone is down and try to brighten their day. A downloadable version of the calendar can be found below.

https://actionforhappiness.org/sites/default/files/Aug%202023.pdf

Enjoy the weekend ahead!

Go well

Kelly Manera
Acting Deputy Principal

STAFF RETREAT DAY

          “We must strive to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.” Catherine McAuley

On Monday 22 July, our Pupil Free Day, the Star of the Sea staff came together for a retreat day, called “My Journey. Your Journey. Our Journey”. Our staff retreat day was a wonderful opportunity to get to know new staff members, connect with each other, hear stories, reflect and pray together.

It was wonderful to be able to gather as a whole school staff community where we had 70 staff attend.

We were graciously hosted by the Sunny Brae Estate where we were well looked after and generously fed.

Our guest speaker for the day and  was Sr Cynthia Griffin who has been a Sister of Mercy for more than 70 years is an old scholar of Star of the Sea.

Sr Cynthia took us on a historical journey where she shared how Catherine McAuley began the Sisters of Mercy order and how they eventually established our school here at Henley Beach.

We were also blessed to have some other old scholars come and speak to us about their memories of Star of the Sea and how being part of this community has had a lasting impact on their lives.

As a staff we listened to stories of our school’s history, we reflected on how the Mercy values are still important for our students today and we looked forward to what is needed for the future of Star of the Sea.

It was a spiritually nourishing day and a beautiful way to honour the past, present and future of our wonderful school.

I leave you with a quote that Sr Cynthia kept referring to during the day and encapsulates our day together so beautifully.

“Leadership involves a creative interplay between Past, Present and Future, where the memory of our roots gives us courage in the face of the unknown.” - Pope Francis.

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM
Term 3 is a very special term for most of our Year 4 students as they will be celebrating the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion later on in September.

We ask that our school community keep these students in your prayers, as these students travel along this important path of their faith journey.

With Gratitude,
Dominque Laurendi