Dear Parents,

We have continued to have an extremely busy term with many wonderful extra-curricula activities happening for our students. Some recent ones include Indonesian Day, Prep Grandparents day, Book Week, Professor Bunsen Burner, Year 3 swimming, Respectful Relationships student forum, Kids Teaching Kids sustainability focus, Chess club, Kelly Sport and the Indigenous Literacy Book Swap to name a few. The character strength of zest is evident throughout the learning community and particularly noted at Friday’s 5 LG assembly via the Book Week parade. Thank you to all the families and efforts you made with the wonderful costumes.

With a sense of gratitude, we also thank you, as parents and carers, for your support and involvement with the extra- curricula activities you have supported over recent weeks.

BYOD Program:  

Thank you to the Year 2-5 parents who took the time to complete the short survey sent out last week regarding the proposal to introduce a Mobile Device Management (MDM) tool to assist in the management of our school BYOD iPad program. This 2 question survey is still available to complete. 

We are constantly looking at ways to enhance this program and ensure it is as successful as possible in providing authentic and effective learning opportunities for students through innovative teaching and learning experiences. Please be assured the parent voice is appreciated, listened to and considered when making decisions moving forward. 

We understand that at times student use of an iPad in the home can present some families with challenges and we want to work with you to help alleviate these pressures. We also are listening to some concerns relating to the introductory age of our program. 

In considering all feedback we still feel from an educational perspective, that Year 3 is an appropriate age to begin to introduce the iPad as an added learning resource. It is a good age  to embed safe practises in using the device and working in online spaces, with parents being able to set expectations in partnership with the school and manage the use from this age. Students also start to build skills and understanding of technology as a powerful tool in the learning process that will be ubiquitous in their future educational lives.

These are our 'Why' statements about implementation of a BYOD program.

* Better engage students in their learning

* Enhance their learning in ways that were previously not possible

* Develop skills crucial to life now and beyond school

* Personalise learning to better meet individual needs

* Differentiate instruction

* Digitally enhanced monitoring, assessment and feedback

Please note iPads are neither a substitute nor a replacement for the techniques and processes we are already using. They are a learning tool and parents can reinforce this with their children at home. We would also like to reiterate that we are here to support families having difficulty managing at home by keeping the devices at school for you as required and showing you how to restrict the settings. We acknowledge that working in partnership with you also means we use the shared language of the importance of having a balance of "green time versus "screen time".

In order to further support Year 3 students in 2020 and listening to the feedback on the surveys from the current Year 2 families, we are looking to introduce JAMF (mobile management device) for Year 3 only and are offering an information session on Tuesday 10 September at 6:30pm to explain this more clearly. For parents from other year levels who expressed they would like JAMF, that at this point it will be rolled out as a trial for Year 3 with a possibility of expanding in the future. In the meantime we are  happy to support you with adding restrictions and invite you to make a time with Andrew Rayson.

Therefore in moving forward we will trial JAMF at the Year 3 level, ensuring a high level of support for students and families with their new devices.

Father’s Day Celebrations: Along with our Father’s and significant others night we are also inviting families to Mass on Sunday 1 September at 9 am , where all fathers will be acknowledged. It will also be Children's Liturgy and a sausage will be on offer at the end of mass. We hope to see some families there.

Working Bee:

A huge thank you to the following students and parents who supported our last Working Bee led beautifully by Mark Monahan. Working Bees are opportunities to contribute in a positive way to our learning community, model to our children the importance of volunteering and also meet new people. We were able to complete a few important jobs and look forward to seeing more families at our next one in Term 4. Thank you again to the following parents and students: Angus Carr, Jane Carr, Damon Carr, Georgia Maier, Nicole Maier, Todd Wombwell, Nate Wombwell, Henry Wynn, Arthur Wynn, Clancy Wynn, Nick Wynn, Mark Monahan, Xavier Monahan, Connie Smith, Grace Azzopardi, Jay Azzopardi, Sue Constable and Charlie Coles. 

Instagram: You may have noticed an Our Lady Star of the Sea Instagram account has been created. The purpose of this is to create another avenue to easily engage with the parent community who are using this platform and also encourage more volunteers to get on board with events. This platform is used in the wider community and encourages more people to support our events if they are alerted to it.

Here is our Social Media Policy.

CEMSIS Surveys 2- 20 September: By the end of the week each family will receive an email with a PIN. We invite you to  participate in the CEMSIS – Catholic Education Melbourne School Improvement Survey which is a comprehensive collection of data from students, staff and families. We believe it is timely and will provide a rich source of information that will further enhance our strategic directions and implementation of our annual improvement actions. The survey will take 15-20 minutes to complete. Thank you in advance. 

School Photos:

I trust you have all received your photos. Just letting you know in 2020 we will be going with a new provider for school photos. This provider will be Arthur Reed Photos. More details to come in time about the process for ordering.

Berkat for the fortnight ahead

Kerryn