Dear Parents and Carers,  

This coming fortnight sees us celebrating our dads and significant adults in our lives. I trust you will plan something special with your family to  celebrate your dad’s or a significant adult.  In Scripture, St. Joseph is known as Jesus’ father and the husband of Mary. Matthew 1:19 states that Joseph was “a just man.” It has been mentioned he  showed holiness through the ordinary events of daily life. St Joseph wasn’t a man who did miracles, or raised people from the dead; he was a humble servant of God who was considered worthy enough to be Jesus Christ’s father in the flesh. Joseph lived his life in fulfilment of his duty as a father and husband. He supported the holy family of Nazareth with the work of his hands. He knew their aspirations, their hardships and their hopes. We pray the prayer of gratitude above for all our dad’s and significant others as they make a positive difference to our lives.

Extra Curricula Activities: Despite the COVID restrictions and now lockdown, 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, Year One swimming, Year Two excursion to the Begola Wetlands and Beach, SEOL workshops with Year 5 and 6 learning around sustainability  and Year Prep outdoor learning at Kingston Park. Onsite all of our students have also engaged happily in other outdoor learning activities and engaging learning. The character strength of zest is evident in our daily interactions at school and your children are an absolute joy and privilege to observe and interact with onsite and for now remotely. We hope you have been accessing hub news via the newsletter to see some wonderful photos of your children’s experiences as we endeavour to stay connected with you.

With a sense of gratitude, we also thank you, as parents and carers, for your support and involvement with Learning From Home. We look forward to having you all back onsite sooner rather than later and we know that day will come in time. In the meantime, we welcome any feedback or if you are requiring support. Hopefully the day's learning went well today and your children will continue to navigate home learning with independence. We are here for you. 

On Friday Year 2 students explored and celebrated our great outdoors! We were given a guided tour of the Begola wetlands by local community group, Friends of the Begola Wetlands. We learnt lots about the wetlands and how we can care for it. We then wandered to the beach and Maddie, from Barwon Coast, taught us about the special features and importance of our coastline and how we can care for it. We are so lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world. A big shout out to those volunteers who give back to our wonderful community sharing their knowledge, passion and care for our local environment.

First Eucharist: We congratulate Jabez Bellingham, Eve Bennett, Billy Bianco, Finn Briggs, Matilda Dalton, Chloe Davies, April Dowling, Matteo Fragapane, Amelie Flynn, Owen Gallagher,  Blake Hachem, Isabella Kiddle,  James McIntyre, Ella Mitchell, Rory Quinn, Heidi Salisbury, Jasmine Turner, Olive Wearmouth, Lachlan Cunningham, Holly Sargeant, Harvey Martinelli on their First Eucharist last Sunday and particularly thank the Year 4 teachers and Lib MacPherson and Rebecca Nancarrow our Religious Education Leaders as we see all our Year 4 students successfully receive the Sacramet of First Eucharist in beautiful celebrations.

Book Week: This Friday we have Book Week celebrations. Please be sure to enjoy a book with your child and help develop their love of reading.

Father’s and Significant Others Celebration: Our Lady Star of the Sea School acknowledges the important role fathers, grandfathers and carers have to play in the lives of their children. Obviously we will not be able to go ahead with the planned sausage sizzle on Tuesday 31 August but we will find a special way to acknowledge our dad’s and significant adults remotely and communicate this through the Learning From Home slides. 

Mindfulness for Ourselves and Our Children: A research study has shown 22 August is the day across the year where wellbeing can be at its lowest. At this time of year, coming to the end of a long, cold winter and Spring almost in sight it is important we continue to take time to calm our thoughts and allow for positive thinking. Click here for 12 simple ways to teach our children and ourselves  about the importance of mindfulness. Like the way we look after our physical health with good sleep, diet and exercise, mindfulness is a positive way we can support us having good mental health. Begin with two minute mindfulness exercises and build from there. Remember when thoughts creep in to refocus on your breathing.

Finally, I came across this in the last few days and felt it is very fitting to recognise our beautiful children/students in what is indeed challenging times for them at present and they are doing a great job.

Everyone is applauding everyone
but our children.  These little heroes 
have stayed indoors more than they've ever known.
Their worlds have been turned upside down and they don't know why. 
All these rules they've never known.
Not being able to see family or give hugs.
Vacations, sports and activities, play dates and school cancelled.
Adults talking about others becoming unwell,
news reporting death after death. 
Our poor children's minds must be racing.
Every day their resilient little bodies get up
and carry on despite all that's going on.
So here's to our little heroes:
today, tomorrow, forever. 

Stay well and connected for the fortnight ahead.

Kerryn