Newsletter Term 1 Week 8

Dear Families,

Congratulations to all the members of our swimming team on their very successful results at the Catholic Schools Swimming Carnival.

Congratulation also to Matt Perry who will be the Acting Principal at Christ the King Warradale next term.

KAREN ANDREWS TO RETIRE
After 21 years teaching at Star of the Sea, our Italian Teacher, Karen Andrews, is to retire at the end of the term.  Karen is currently on leave (and interstate for a family wedding), so we may not get the chance to farewell her this term.

SCHOOL AGM
Next term we will be holding the AGM on May 5^th, 7:00pm in the Stella Maris Building and all parents are invited to attend (COVID restrictions permitting).  This will be a more traditional AGM at which voting for new members will occur.  There will be more information about this next term.

COVID RESTRICTIONS
At this stage there is still not change in the current rules but there is a lot happening in this area.  The current situation is this…

For parents you are generally being asked to refrain from coming onto the school site.  Of course, there will be exceptions to this, but if you come onto the school grounds, please wear your mask. 

A local, approved decision, to parents coming on-site, relates to Reception and Year 1 parents.  Due to the fact that our school is surrounded by busy roads we are allowing these parents to drop-off and pick up using the MDC asphalt area.  If you are doing this, please wear your mask and practice social distancing. 

We are asking all parents to refrain from entering classrooms/buildings at all times unless it is absolutely necessary.  We have begun onsite/face to face meetings where necessary.

COVID restrictions for schools are meant to be revised and implemented on Monday.  The new Education Minister is being sworn in today so we will see how quickly action happens!  There is a large amount of print media about this area, the source has been the Premier and Rick Persse (CEO, Department for Education).  There has been talk of increased testing, individual classes and schools returning to remote learning and even extending the April school holidays.  If anything changes for next week, we will communicate this via SkoolBag.

SCHOOL CALENDAR
Some parents have enquired about the school calendar not being published this term.  Due to COVID we made a decision not to publish a term’s worth of dates, simple due to the rules changing every four weeks, it is hard to predict what we can and cannot do.  Take the last week for example, we were unsure whether the swimming carnival could happen and we had to cancel the whole school performance for Harmony day.  These decisions are often made late the week before!  Excursions and Camps have been planned for, changed and at times just cancelled.  You may have noticed in our newsletter that we try and publish up and coming important dates.  We have also been making far great use of SkoolBag this term to notify parents about changes.  This week we did send out a school calendar, via SkoolBag.

PARENT TEACHER CHATS
Just a reminder that the next formal opportunity to meet with teachers will be early next term (weeks 2 & 3), when we hold our Parent Teacher Interviews.

NCCD
Currently teachers are putting in a lot of work in the background collecting information for the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD).  In our school nearly 100 students are included in this process.

The NCCD is a collection that counts:

• the number of school students receiving an adjustment or ‘help’ due to disability
• the level of adjustment they are receiving to access education on the same basis as other students.

Students are counted in the NCCD if they receive ongoing adjustments at school due to disability. This ‘help’ allows them to access education on the same basis as a child without disability. The NCCD uses the definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

Funding from the Australian Government for students with disability is based on the NCCD through the student with disability loading.

Students with disability who are counted in the top three levels of the NCCD (extensive, substantial and supplementary) attract the loading. Funding is based on a per-student amount at each of the three levels of additional support. The amount of the loading reflects the level of support students with disability need to participate fully in school, with higher funding for those who need higher levels of support.

An adjustment is an action to help a student with disability take part in education on the same basis as other students.

Adjustments can be made across the whole school (eg ramps into school buildings). They can be in the classroom (eg adapting teaching methods). They can also be for individual student need (eg providing personal care support).

The school assesses the needs of each student with disability. The school provides adjustments in consultation with the student and/or their parents, guardians and carers.

Schools must make reasonable adjustments if needed. The Disability Standards for Education 2005 define ‘reasonable adjustment’ as an adjustment that balances the interests of all parties affected.

Schools identify which students will be counted in the NCCD. They base their decisions on the following:

• adjustments provided for the student (after consultation with the student and/or their parents, guardians and carers)

• the school team’s observations and professional judgements

• any medical or other professional diagnoses

• other relevant information.

School Principals must ensure that information for the NCCD is accurate.

PUPIL FREE DAY – TERM 2, Monday May 2nd
While this day was meant to be devoted to Faith Formation.  Due to the workload teachers are under, we have decided to change the focus and we will use this time to allow staff to work on the NCCD process.  Usually, we would have provided some time out of the classroom, this term, to do this work, however it is very hard to come by relief teachers now that COVID is so entrenched.  This will also take the pressure off our teachers with this important work.

LAST DAY OF TERM – CASUAL CLOTHES
The last day of term is Thursday April 14^th.  This will be a casual day, just for fun (no money required).  Children will be dismissed at the usual time (3:05pm).

Regards
Damian Weeks

Hello Friends,

I hope you had a chance to experience the excitement and thrill of the Adelaide Fringe Festival and catch a couple of shows that were on during what is traditionally called ‘mad march’. I also hope you have had a chance to enjoy this fantastic Autumn weather. I had the pleasure of witnessing a few sunsets of late which have proved visually fantastic. I also extend my thanks for the well wishes I have received as I prepare to head to Christ the King School in Term 2. I am looking forward to another professional challenge and the new learning and Iook forward to bringing my new skills back to Star of the Sea in Term 3.

Staffing
I would like to extend a thank you to our staff here at school for their flexibility and support as we navigate these Covid times and attempt to replace our staff with regular TRT to allow for learning continuity in our classrooms. As you would be aware both testing positive to Covid and being a close contact means extended absences from the classrooms and the learning roles for our staff. I would also like to say thank you to our community for their support and understanding as we navigate these challenges.

Seaview Rd
Traffic congestion on Seaview Rd has now reached a dangerous point with motorists continuing to stop on the northern side of the crossing waiting to collect students. Our road monitors and pedestrians find it nearly impossible to see oncoming traffic when there are cars parked near the crossing and along the yellow clearway zone. I remind everyone that the entire side of the crossing between the Seaview Rd gate and Marlborough St is a NO PARKING ZONE. Council inspectors are now monitoring this section of road and will fine motorists for parking or stopping in this area. I ask that you share this information with anyone in your family or friendship circle who pick up and drop children to school.

To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. Tony Robbins

Thanks and Blessings
Matt Perry

Third Week of Lent (Week beginning Monday 21st March)     

We are now in the third week of Lent with the Project Compassion story of Janice, a Wagilak woman and traditional dancer who tells her family’s stories through movements handed down over generations.

Like many remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, Janice’s faces a range of challenges – low employment and education, financial hardship, poorer health and lower life expectancy.

With your help, Caritas Australia supports Djilpin Arts Aboriginal Corporation, which operates a centre for traditional and contemporary Aboriginal arts and culture, providing employment and generating income for local communities.

Janice believes that Djilpin Arts’ work is essential to create opportunities for young people to stay on-country, to share intergenerational knowledge between elders and the younger generation - to promote healing, and to keep culture alive.

Watch a short film about Janice’s story here.

Please support Project Compassion: lent.caritas.org.au