Term 3 Week 9

We celebrate positive comments about our students, we finally acknowledge a ‘night out’ community gathering, we congratulate some new permanent staff members, we ramp up preparations for our concert and we prepare for a break! This is week 9.

POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS:

I see daily examples of students ‘living’ our values here at Stella. We have Compassionate, Respectful, Inclusive and Courageous actions occurring on a daily basis. But it is always nice when I receive messages from people ‘outside’ our school who provide me with similar observations. Recently, I had three such encounters. A relief teacher who was with us recently, went out of her way to see me at the end of her day to let me know how amazingly RESPECTFUL she found our students. Each class she went into she was met with polite and engaged students. She made a point of telling me how “not all schools are like this”, in fact not many schools she had been in recently had made her feel so welcomed and ‘happy’ to be working.

At Sunday mass recently, a parishioner from Holy Spirit spoke to me about how much she has missed our students at the Tuesday morning parish mass. “The joy and love they brought to the mass through their engagement, behaviour and singing made the mass so joyful”.

And finally, a local resident called me over one lunch time when I was on duty. He felt obliged to speak to me about how when he walks past each day – in the morning before school and at times during play time, he sees and hears consistently INCLUSIVE and COMPASSIONATE language and behaviour exhibited by our students. He wanted me to pass on his congratulations to the kids.

I spoke to the students about these observations and the messages given to me and I provide them to you because you deserve much of the credit for this as well. At Stella, we aim to raise GOOD SAMARITANS who are Compassionate, Respectful, Inclusive and Courageous – and I think we are doing a pretty good job!

QUIZ NIGHT:

What a delight it was to be able to have a community gathering last Saturday night! As I said on the night, this feat should not be underestimated. It took lots of energy, phone calls to the COVID hotline and SA Health, a location change or two, re-ticketing and plenty of committee meetings and emails and messages. But we got there! And it was a super night.

The fact that over $3000 was raised, was secondary to the ‘raising’ of community spirit and being able to connect and interact in ways we haven’t been able to do since COVID hit in March last year.

I want to extend my deep sense of thanks and well done to our Quiz night committee – Maureen Watts and Kylie Bowman particularly for their energy, hard work and organisation but also to Donna Egarr, Tamara Blasbery, Jess White, Pamela Cook, Marianne Northcote, Tony Carbone and … Grateful thanks!

We also extend a huge thanks to the many, many sponsors who made the night the success it was. Their generosity ensured the prizes were hugely high quality and well sought after. Please ensure you have a look at the list and support those businesses who have supported us. And a final big thanks to Rodney our quiz master who stepped in at the last minute after our original quiz master came down ill at the last minute. He was simply brilliant.

Oh, and a special congratulations to the winning table on the night – a strong team effort from the Stella Staff!

STAFFING NEWS:

Due to some recent staff retirements and the ongoing, sustained growth in enrolments at Stella Maris, we recently advertised permanent teaching positions. I am pleased to let you know that after a very thorough process, our panel appointed Nicole Giannoni, Brooke Penney and Hannah Moroney to these permanent positions. You would know these three outstanding teachers very well with Nicole (Yr 1) being with us this year and Brooke (Yr 3) and Hannah (Yr 5) having started with us last year. All three were extremely impressive – articulating their current knowledge of contemporary educational practice and a strong vision for Stella Maris moving forward with confidence and experience beyond their years. I am sure you will join with me in congratulating these three teachers.

We have now begun looking at finalising a number of contract teaching positions for 2022 and I look forward to sharing further staffing news with you in the coming weeks.

CONCERT:

We are ramping up preparations for our bi-annual concert – “Stella’s Celebration of Musicals”. As you would be aware this will take place on Thursday the 21^st of October at the Seaton Christian Famil Centre. Students will perform a matinee and evening performance for your viewing pleasure.

Tickets for PARENTS only for the evening performance in the first instance will go on sale on Monday. You will receive a note with details about ticket purchasing on Monday afternoon.  There are no restrictions on tickets for the matinee performance. This morning we had our first whole school run through and I was very impressed with what the students have put together.

STAFF REFLECTION AND RETREAT DAY:

Last Friday we had our Staff Reflection and Faith Formation day. It was a really beneficial day. Our whole staff gathered off site and we reflected on our call to be Good Samaritans, on how we can be ‘lived examples’ of our school values and we took time out to give ourselves permission to ‘just be’. I thank and congratulate Paula Clarke for her organisation and facilitation of this day.

PUPIL FREE DAYS COMING UP:

As I’ve mentioned a few times, schools are entitled to 5 pupil free days per year. These days are used as professional learning and formation days, with different focus areas and facilitators used in various ways. Our School Board are asked to ratify these days as part of their governance role in our school.

We didn’t have any pupil free days in the first semester of the year, and as such, while not ideal for families, it does mean we will have a number of pupil free days ‘clumped’ in this last part of the year. Our upcoming days with their focus will be:

Monday 11^th October (first day of Term 3) = Maths focus

Friday 22^nd October (day after the concert) = Resources focus

Friday 10^th December (last day of school) = 2022 planning day

I thank you for your understanding of these dates and their importance to our whole school development. As always, OSHC services will be provided for families who require it on these days.

END OF TERM:

As this will be the last newsletter of the term, I take this opportunity to wish you a very relaxing holiday break. I particularly congratulate our 18 new Receptions who have made it through their first term of school – and done so brilliantly.

I think the two week break has come at just the right time for everyone. Stay safe, and I look forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday the 12^th October.

James

The Book Fair

The Scholastic Book Fair is back! Although ran a little differently this year, students and families have the opportunity to purchase some great books. The theme this year is Reading Oasis: A cool place to discover hot books!

Purchases are available from September 16^th to September 21^st, with all purchases needing to be made via the online only portal: https://parentpayments.scholastic.com.au/BookFairs

All purchases made will benefit the Stella Maris Resource Centre by accruing points towards new books. Please see the flyer below for further information.

RUOK Day!

Last week we celebrated RUOK Day and Gratitude day which raised awareness of mental health and wellbeing. We celebrated this with Community Prayer and classroom based activities. One of the activities was an affirmation activity, where students shared kind words about each other. A similar activity was also arranged for staff to share positive affirmations. We hope that days such as these will help our school community to find comfort and the strength to reach out to those in need today, tomorrow and in the future.  

If you have any concerns regarding your child's wellbeing, please don't hesitate to reach out. A significant part of my role is supporting students and families in this area and I welcome a conversation at any time.

FYOSLA

This week we have been completing the First Years of School Literacy Assessments (FYSLA) for all students in their 1^st, 5^th or 9^th term of school. These tests allow for R-2 teachers to capture early literacy data, foucsing on oral language, concepts of print and reading levels. This allows for monitoring of individual student progress and intervention as required.

Ella Kirkham

Assistant Principal (Learning & Wellbeing)

Three cheers for the  year 3 sleepover! Good luck to our students and teachers - a display of courage by all. You'll have a wonderful time and what a great opportunity to prepare for future camps to come!