Road Safety

Our Lady Star of the Sea School is committed to providing a safe community for all our members. To assist your child to develop road safety skills and be safe, we once again remind you to use the supervised crossing on John Dory Drive.

Children need to develop vital road crossing skills for when they become mature pedestrians. For these skills to develop, children need experience crossing roads with parents and carers.  Research suggests that it is important for children to hold an adult’s hand when crossing the road up to the age of 10 years.

Also, children need to learn to make use of supervised crossings.  When parents use a supervised crossing with their children, they model the safest way of crossing a road, increasing the chance that their children will also look for the safest option as a  mature pedestrian. Parents who do not use the supervised crossing at the front of our school and cross the road with their children from behind the bus are placing themselves and their children a great risk of being hit by a vehicle. They also miss the opportunity to help their children develop vital road crossing skills.  

Behaviour Management through Restorative Practices

‘It is not small people who ask for forgiveness. It is large hearted, magnanimous, courageous people who are ready to say what are some of the most difficult words in any language: “I am sorry”. But once uttered, they open the way to a new opportunity, the possibility of a new beginning, the chance to start again, having learnt a lesson from the past’. Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1998)

Discipline practices at Our Lady Star of the Sea school are based on Restorative Practices. Restorative Practices involve the building of positive relationships and establishing a supportive environment that is fair, consistent and democratic. The underlying principle is that relationships are important, and when a harmful or disruptive incident occurs, the focus is on the harm caused to the relationship and the subsequent repairing of that harm; rather than what rule has been broken and therefore what consequences will be imposed. Restorative Practices gives the school a unified and consistent approach to the management of children's behaviour. The school also aims to develop responsible self-discipline amongst students. The school believes that the school community is responsible for an effective policy, therefore communication and support between staff, students and parents is essential.

Restorative Practices Strategies include Circle Time, Affective Questioning, Restorative Circles and Conflict Resolution. Please take 3 minutes to watch this clip, introducing what Restorative Practices looks like in Catholic communities.

An introduction to Restorative Practices

Paul Anderson, Student Wellbeing Leader