24 Term 4 Week 2

Welcome to Term 4!

It is hard to believe that we’re almost at the end of October and in the final term of the 2024 school year! It has certainly been a busy year full of learning, fun and great experiences and term 4 will be no exception. Here’s a snapshot of some of the current happenings at Stella Maris.

School Camps

This week, our Year 4s headed off on their annual school camp to El Shaddai, which is our final school camp for the year. From all accounts they had a wonderful few days away. Camps provide students with a unique experience that has many benefits for our students. They are of course, great for developing, cementing and establishing positive relationships between staff and students, while also developing key capabilities, qualities and skills – such as independence, resilience and courage. Often these experiences are what students most remember about their Primary schooling experience, and we are very proud of being able to offer such rich and varied experiences for the students at Stella. Our staff are to be thanked and applauded for their willingness to provide these experiences for the students.

World Teachers' Day

This Friday, 25^th October is World Teachers’ Day in Australia, where we acknowledge and celebrate the amazing work that our staff do each and every day to support the young people in our school. This year the theme is ‘Hats off to Teachers’ and we thank all staff for their commitment, dedication and expertise that they bring to their role.

Dyslexia Awareness Month

October is Dyslexia awareness month, which encourages school and local communities to help shine a light on Dyslexia and open up the conversation in order to raise awareness and knowledge of Dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.

If you are looking for more information, Code Read Network and SPELD SA have some great online resources. I also invite you to contact me if you would like to discuss the specific needs of your child.

Transition

Next week we will welcome 31 new Receptions and their families for their first transition visit in preparation for 2025. Our new students will join with our current mid-year group to form our two Reception classes for 2025. I know you will join us in welcoming our new students and families into the Stella community.

Parents & Friends Committee

It is a busy couple of weeks for our P&F committee and I would like to draw your attention to two major events. I thank the P&F committee for their unwavering dedication and hard work to the benefit for our whole school community.

This Saturday 26^th October, the P&F will be cooking the BBQ at Bunnings Marion from 9am-4pm to raise money for our school. It would be great to get some support from our Stella Maris families, so pop down on Saturday and grab a sausage or two. If you are able to assist on the day, please contact Kylie Bowman

The P&F are also busily preparing for this year’s school disco, which will be held on Friday 1^st November. The disco will be held in the downstairs break out space, with all students being signed in and out by parents/caregivers. Tickets can be purchased for $5 via QKR! for the following time slots:

Reception- Year 2: 5:30pm-6:30pm and Year 3-6: 7pm- 8pm.

Please see the advertisements below for these P&F events.

As always, thank you for your ongoing partnership and support! We look forward to a great term, full of opportunities to build on what has been a great year at Stella Maris so far.

Kind Regards

Ella