Dear Parents and Carers

As we further progress through Lent, our prayer reminds us to continue to be kind and giving in our actions as we approach Easter, a time of hope. 

The image for our prayer is a gift completed during art lessons from our Year 5 ⁄ 6 students in 2022 and hangs in the front office. The beautiful mosaic has a cross as the central motif, illustrating how our faith is central to our school. The stars represent Mary who guides us on our spiritual journey. The yellow gum is Indigenous to our area and is used for smoking ceremonies. The dragonfly represents hope and resilience in our forever changing world. The Barwon River runs through the mosaic. Important to Wathaurong people, the river represents life, freedom and the passage of time. Each day I feel blessed and privileged to be serving in such a wonderful, warm and respectful community with terrific students, staff and families. During this time of Lent and each day, may we be grateful for all we have in our local context and continue to reach out to others in faith, hope and love.

SZAPP and Communication: Communication is such an important part of any community organisation and contributes greatly to positive relationships. We  acknowledge at Our Lady Star of the Sea we have a few platforms for you to navigate as there is no one platform that does it all. This can be overwhelming, especially if you are new to the school. In consultation with the School Advisory Council, we have updated our app. The visual below of the school app now has more added direct links to most of the platforms including newsletter, PAM for attendance and reports, canteen, Operoo, and more. We encourage you to  please download this app for easier access to most communication.

2024 Annual Action Plan and Professional Learning: Please see below a visual of our 2024 Annual Action Plan which stems from our 4 year School Improvement Plan. We continue to reflect and consider discerningly each year, through various data sources,  what it is we are wishing to improve on or “get better at,” for the benefit of your child’s education and outcomes.

Our  Three Priority Areas are Identity, Dialogue, and Agency. 

You will notice some actions for this year include coaching, further building teacher capacity in Mathematics, exploring Science of Learning evidence based research,  increasing student voice and agency in their learning and Indigenous Perspectives. Coaching  is recognised as having a huge impact on teacher capacity and ultimately student outcomes as it picks up on the reality of our context and is action focused. Our school has  a supportive organisational structure with our hubs including extra human resource to enable opportunity for coaching.  We look forward to seeing the continued benefits. 

Alongside this, all teachers have developed personal goals for action and to access internal coaching or professional learning. They have  also devised  a professional learning hub goal. As we strive for improvement, Nationally and Internationally, there is unequivocal evidence that the quality of teaching is most significant in affecting student outcomes. Effective teachers can be a source of inspiration and, equally importantly, provide a dependable and consistent influence on young people as they make choices about further education, work and life. We thank all our teachers and leadership staff for striving to achieve these goals set and working collaboratively for the benefit of all students.  

Cross Country: Congratulations to Boyd House who took out the 2024 Cross Country shield.

Many thanks to Sam Scott for all the wonderful planning and organisation of this successful event. Special mention to all of our students for the positive way they engaged in the event and did us all proud. A great effort.

Beginning Reading Parent Session: Kylene Gray, our Junior Literacy Leader, led a great session on how to best support our children in their reading journey. The parents/ carers also engaged in how parent volunteers can support in the classroom and the  expectations at Our Lady Star of the Sea. Many thanks to the following parents who attended as we work together in partnership, enabling our students to flourish. Samantha Ho, Lauren McMinn, El Keane, Alicia Mills, Jess Swain, Tenille Favazza, Anna Pickering, Carrie Salter, Matthew Dixon, Sarah Franks, Janelle Dixon, Carlie Haber, Lizzy Talbot, Olga D’Arcy, Rochelle Gant, Jess Larkin, Leish Pulford, Louise McDonald, Renee Debrincat.

Safety Chat:  Recently some students riding bikes were approached by a secondary school student to buy a vape while riding home. This left the students feeling threatened however utilised the useful strategies of sticking together, riding off straight away and reported the behaviour to their parent. Please chat to your children about riding together and reporting any worrying behaviour to an adult. 

Wishing you all a peaceful fortnight ahead. 

Kerryn