Newsroom

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From the Acting Deputy

14.03.19

Hello everyone,

I think the Adelaide Cup long weekend came at a perfect time for us all to recharge our batteries.  I hope you had the opportunity to connect as a family – I know I really needed it with my two munchkins. As we have entered the half way point of term, I must acknowledge all the hard work that the teachers and students are putting into their learning. I hope the upcoming Parent Teacher Interviews in Weeks 9 and 10 offer some insight into your child’s progress so far. I encourage you to book in a time to meet with your child’s class teacher(s).

Ash Wedesday and Lent

Last week we entered into the important season in the Church’s liturgical year, Lent.  We celebrated a reverent and beautiful Mass for Ash Wednesday and the children engaged brilliantly with Father Krish’s homily on the three aspects of Lent – giving alms, fasting and praying. Each class also received their Project Compassion boxes to begin raising money for Catholic charities. Many of our students have taken this on board further and arranged stalls selling a variety of things during recess and lunch. It is great to see them in action.

Thank you

A special mention to all who generously made donations of pancake mixture for our Shrove Tuesday morning. We had a wonderful group of parents and staff members who cooked and served the pancakes and supported with the clean up afterwards. We are most appreciative of the group of volunteers we have at Star of the Sea! The kids absolutely loved their pancakes and I saw some really interesting topping selections!

No BULLYING Day

This Friday 15 March we will be having our No Bullying Day at school. Students will receive wrist bands to support awareness. Every student will also sign their name as a pledge to NO BULLYING on the courts as a visual reminder of this very important message.

What is bullying? (Our Star of the Sea definition).
Bullying is a desire to hurt + hurtful action + power imbalance + repetition + unjust use of power + evident enjoyment by the aggressor + repeated behavior + sense of being oppressed by the victim.

Bullying can take many forms such as: physical (hitting, tripping...) verbal (name calling, insults...), social (lying about, excluding...), psychological (threatening, manipulating...) and cyber (using technology – phones, social sites...).
Other hurtful behaviours are, at times, mistakenly labelled as bullying. Upsetting and harmful things happen, but not all of them are bullying:

  • Mutual arguments and disagreements are upsetting, but usually everyone involved wants to solve the problem and there is not a power imbalance. A mutual argument or disagreement is not bullying.
  • Not liking someone, unless you deliberately and repeatedly try to cause someone distress, exclude them or encourage others to dislike them, is not bullying.
  • Single acts of meanness, spite, conflict, rejection, exclusion, physical harm and emotional aggression can cause great distress. These things are not examples of bullying unless someone is deliberately and repeatedly doing them to you.

At Star of the Sea we do not tolerate bullying. If you suspect bullying is occurring, please make a time to speak to your child’s class teacher and or someone on the Leadership team. We are all here to listen.

Hope you have a wonderful remainder of the week.

Many thanks
Kelly Manera