Dear Parents and Carers

During this Lenten period we are asked to take time to pray, to fast, to repent and to give and do for others.

As a family in today’s world, Lent is also an opportunity to develop our own character strengths and acknowledge our Catholic values. Firstly, we must identify our strengths and secondly, we must be given an opportunity to develop other character strengths, or Catholic values, that may not necessarily be on top of our list. Teachers will work through activities with students during this time reflecting on Scripture and making faith and life connections, leading up to the Easter story. As a family, you can support this time with helping your children to acknowledge what they are grateful for and what they may be able to give and do for others, using character strengths such as kindness, love, spirituality, forgiveness, compassion and empathy.

If you are interested to further reflect on and consider what Lent means for Catholics I recommend this link to you. LENT

COVID Update:

With minimal or no community transmission at present, we can also now invite you back to enter your child’s classroom one morning a week if you wish to do so. This is a great time to make a plan with your child and communicate clearly that on the other days you will continue the "kiss and drop" approach. A reminder that this happens within a 10 minute window and masks are worn indoors. We thank you for your support with this as we continue to manage numbers onsite. Assemblies are also now open for all families to attend as you wish, not as per the timetable previously shared. Please only access the assembly area via the outside of the buildings and sign in using the QR codes on the silver tables near the basketball court assembly area. The next assembly will be on Friday 5 March due to the student free day for staff professional learning this Friday.

Barbecue Enclosure and Outdoor Learning Centre: We are ready to embark on our Outdoor Learning Centre and Barbecue enclosure. Our Lady Star of the Sea values God's creation and our wonderful world.  We place a large focus on sustainability with our whole learning community. We educate and encourage our students to be stewards of creation and care for our planet. We have in fact won recent awards from Victorian Sustainability awards for community leadership and curriculum leadership and the Victorian Gardens awards for promoting outdoor learning and spaces. We have raised money for this particular project over the last couple of years through the PFA fundraising and with our Earth Fest and received a $6,000 grant from Libby Coker-Federal MP for Corangamite to go towards this project. The rest of the funds will come from our building donation account and school funds. This has been factored into our budget for the year. In summary, our reasons for undertaking this project are: 

Due to a current building project we have lost a portion of our main vegetable garden and over the last couple of years have had plans completed to relocate our main vegetable garden to another area of the school where this facility will be built. Also to have a larger vegetable garden to cater for our population and with our kitchen gardens learning focus this will be a wonderful accessible learning area. 

Not only will it promote more community engagement but it will also enable and enhance our learning and teaching focus on sustainability and be more accessible to students and families, supporting authentic, purposeful and engaging learning. 

Part of this structure is an outdoor learning space or classroom. This year we have introduced Sustainability as one of our specialist subjects and this space will be used daily. This also fits with our school improvement plan and annual action plan of ensuring meaningful, authentic and purposeful learning outdoors for our students which supports student voice and action, wellbeing and engagement. 

An outdoor area for the learning community to gather and meet, promoting the sense of a community that values belonging and cooperation. For example Father's and Significant other's bbq night, Mother's Day Breakfast,barbecues at the end of our working bees. 

Story Dogs: Our Lady Star of the Sea is very excited to have a new regular visitor to our school to help our students with their reading. ‘Wally’ and Jeff will be visiting every Wednesday to help our year 2 classes with their reading.

The Story Dogs program partners with the classroom teachers to help students with their reading. ‘Wally’ and Jeff will help the same 4 students each week. The students will come out of their classroom and sit one-on-one with ‘Wally’ and Jeff and read to ‘Wally’. ‘Wally’ loves to listen and will not mind if the student makes a few mistakes, he just wants to have a fun time so that books and reading become a joyful experience. Jeff King is also the grandfather of 4 of our current students: Izzy and Gus Montgomery and Ivy and Billie King.

‘Wally’ is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and he loves going for walks and playing at the beach. ‘Wally’ has been practicing at home with his new reading rug and books so that he will be ready to help the students. He is super excited about starting and going to school each week.

Welcome ‘Wally’ and Jeff!

Tutoring Re: 2021 Tutor Learning Program 

In October 2020, the Victorian Government announced the Tutor Learning Program, which provides funding for the recruitment of tutors to support students to accelerate their learning in English or Mathematics during 2021 to compensate for the disruptions they have experienced last year. We have begun this tutoring program across Year 1-6 with a selection of students for Term 1 and will continue to offer it throughout the year with different students each term. 

Our Lady Star of the Sea decided to use current teaching staff to implement this program throughout the year. Kristen Leonard (Learning Diversity Leader) and Byron Taylor (Learning Support Officer training to be a teacher) have begun working with small groups of children from each year level, twice a week for 45 minutes during Term One. Miranda Kelly (teacher) is also supporting with the planning of the Mathematics lessons.

Parking: Please be aware of the signage around the school particularly the bus zone on Marlin Drive. We have had a call regarding cars parking in the bus zone on Marlin Drive at pick up time. We are also expecting the council to increase parking spaces in the drop off zone and change the signage to 2 minute parking from 3.30 pm- 4 pm over the next few weeks. Please be mindful of safety out the back of school at the Surfside Centre entrance as traffic has increased and discuss with your children who use this entrance and are on bikes, scooters or walking to be aware and take care. We are also liasing with council to support signage in this area.

A Baby Girl: Congratulations to Miss Taliah and family on the safe arrival of a beautiful baby girl,  Neve Lucy De Beer. Little sister for Noah. 

Wishing you and all the family many blessings during this Lenten season

Kerryn