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- Prayer
- From the Principal
- Hub News
- Sports News - Cross Country
- School Photo Day - Monday 18 March
- National Ride 2 School Day Friday 22 March
- Wellbeing Library
- Sustainability News
- PFA - Easter raffle
- 2025 Sibling Enrolments
- Upcoming Important Dates on the Parent Calendar
- School Communication
- Secondary College Tours
- Community News
Dear God,
Thank you for this time of Lent when we remember Jesus. Help us be kind and loving like Jesus was.
Guide us to do good things and say kind words.
Please forgive us when we make mistakes.
As Easter gets closer, fill our hearts with happiness and hope.
Amen.
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
Travelsmart News
Please find a link to our current library of books related to wellbeing and parenting topics that you may be interested in borrowing from the school. There is a link for each book that provides you with some more information if required. If you would like to borrow one of the books, please email Natalie Skahill at nskahill@staroceangrove.
Last Friday all 26 classes in our school participated in Clean Up Australia Day (for Schools). At the start of the clean up everyone went off in their class groups to their allocated area with their red, blue, yellow & white classroom bins.
Some of the areas we picked up rubbish were: the school yard, the playgrounds, staff car park, the football oval and soccer grounds, the sports club rooms, the tennis courts, skate park, the footpaths up to the church and the church grounds.
As a school we collected approximately 1412 pieces of rubbish from the school grounds and surrounding area. What a great effort!
Some interesting stats:
- Orange Hub (Yr 6) collected the most rubbish with approximately 335 items from the soccer fields and sports clubrooms area
- Next was Yellow Hub (Yr 5) with 317 pieces of rubbish from the skate park and surrounding area.
- The categories that there was the most items of were: Softplastics (mostly chip and snack/lolly wrappers) with 418 and Paper Items with 403
- We were very shocked to find a total of over 150 cigarette butts, most of these came from around the football, netball & soccer buildings.
- We were also surprised to see that some of the Year 5 students found lots of large plumbing (PVC) pipes that were dumped and also big pieces of old timber. We are going to repurpose some of the pipes and make them into worm towers to put in our veggie gardens.
- We collected almost 50 items that can be taken to a collection point for a 10 cent return (Container Deposit Scheme Vic), this money will help us to purchase some plants for our Autumn planting in the veggie gardens.
- Do you know where our local drop off points are? Check out his link to find out: https://cdsvic.org.au
Thank you to all students and staff for your efforts and enthusiasm to make our school and surrounding areas a cleaner, safer and more enjoyable place to be.
Yr 6 Sustainability Leaders
Daisy, Seb, Jett, Cruz & Iyah
Families are asked to donate as follows
Year 3-6: Easter eggs
Prep - Year 2: Bags/ baskets
Please send tickets and eggs in no later than Tuesday 26 March
If tickets could be separated and folded upon return,
we would be forever grateful.
Let’s all do our best and try not using snap lock bags/plastic.
Raffle to be drawn the last day of term Thursday 28 March.
If you have a child due to start school in 2025 we ask that Applications for Enrolment are lodged before the end of Term 1. As applications are received by the school, you will be contacted to make a time for you and your Prep 2025 child to meet with Kerryn. To access forms and further information click here.
Term 4 2024
Thursday 21 November: Yr 5 Parish Mass/Year 1 MOPA Excursion
Friday 22 November: Yr 5BC assembly
Thursday 28 November: Yr 3 Parish Mass
Friday 29 November: Staff Professional Learning Day - Student Free Day
Staff Planning Day for 2025
Tuesday 3 December: School Concert 5:30pm-7:30pm
Wednesday 4 December: Prep orientation
Thursday 5 December: Prep orientation
Tuesday 10 December: Whole school orientation/Prep orientation
Wednesday 11 December: Future leaders days 2025
Friday 6 December: Diversity Day 2pm assembly
Tuesday 10 December: Whole school orientation day 9.15am - 11am
Wednesday 12 December: Yr 6 end of year excursion
Friday 13 December: Yr 6EB assembly/End of year Mass
Monday 16 December: Whole school Beach Day (students are welcome to bring plastic shovels and buckets. Ensure they remember to bring sunscreen and hats).
Wednesday 18 December: Yr 6 Graduation Assembly/Last day of school Students finish at 1pm
Term1 2025
Tuesday 28 January: Staff return
Wednesday 29 January: Staff professional Learning day
Thursday 30 January: Students return
Please note: Please refer to the Parent Calendar for all dates
| Schoolzine App |
School app, used for sending reminders, notifications and for providing access to PAM, Parent Calendar, newsletters, School website. Additionally, you can find the newsletter and information, including the canteen menu. |
| Staff email address | first initial and surname@staroceangrove.catholic.edu.au |
| School newsletter |
Our main form of communication is the fortnightly newsletter, emailed on Tuesdays. Group emails from the school office will also be sent through the Schoolzine platform. |
| School website |
www.staroceangrove.catholic.edu.au Access to policies/procedures, school information and parent calendar. |
| Parent calendar | Link to calendar can be found on our website Home Page and school app. |
| PAM Parent access module | A platform for lodging student absences and gaining access to student digital school reports. Past years' reports are also stored on this platform.
Please click the link here: http://pam.staroceangrove.catholic.edu.au . This will take you to the PAM login page. Your username is the email address you have provided to school. For new families please sign up now by clicking the link here: http://pam.staroceangrove.catholic.edu.au This will take you to the PAM login page. Click on the 'Forgot Password?' link and follow the prompts. You will be asked to enter your email address, then you will need to access the link sent to your email address. You can then create a password and this, along with your email address will be your login to PAM. * Use the School App for a quick access to PAM |
| Permission notes |
 Operoo is an electronic version of permission forms and information for excursions, camps and parent/student meetings. It also provides you the opportunity to update medical information promptly while providing the school with instant access to the emergency information provided by you.
* Use the School App for a quick access to Operoo
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| Seesaw |
 Student digital learning journal and providing an additional means of reminders for the entire parent group.
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Our Lady Star of the Sea Ocean Grove School Facebook Page: Sharing of learning experiences and events hosted by the school. OLSOS Parents Ocean Grove Vic Parent Chatter Facebook: A platform for parent reminders and queries. OLSOS Ocean Grove Recycled Uniforms Families may post here to purchasing, sell or give away of school uniforms.
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| Canteen Online Ordering |
The canteen service is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays operated offsite by Kylie Taylor.
Ordering cut off time is 8.30am.
Fresh Salad boxes are available on Wednesdays only.
Sushi is for Fridays only, these MUST be pre ordered by Thursday. To cancel an order:
Before cut-off time (8.30am): Login to your account and select ACTIVE/CANCEL ORDERS. Locate your order and select CANCEL on the right-hand side of the order (you may need to scroll across to see the cancel link).
Orders are processed through www.quickcliq.com.au You can order up to 30 days in advance.
* Use the School App for a quick access to our canteen online ordering platform
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| Student Medical Forms |
Students who require ANY medication at school must have their medication stored at the office, accompanied by the relevant forms, as below. No medication will be dispensed without these being completed and up to date.
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| School Assembly |
School assemblies are held every Friday morning 9am in our school gym, known as Djila Tjarri. All welcome.
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Our mission at Bellarine Performing Arts is to enrich the lives of young performers in a fun, safe and creative environment. Whether it’s expanding abilities or building confidence, we are here to enhance our community by providing theatre arts education, dance, musical theatre, vocal training and performance opportunities.
For more information and enrolments visit our website at:
www.bellarineperformingarts.com.au
