Newsletter Term 1 Week 2, 2025

A Strong Start to the School Year

Dear School Community,

I am delighted to share with you the wonderful start we have had to the school year. Our students have shown remarkable dedication to our core values of Being Respectful, Being Caring, and Being Learners. Their enthusiasm and commitment have set a positive tone for the term ahead.

I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the entire community for the warm and caring welcome I have received. Your kindness has made my transition into this role incredibly smooth and enjoyable.

During the first two weeks of school, we have focused on building strong relationships within our classes. Research consistently shows that positive relationships and self-efficacy are crucial for effective learning. When students feel connected and confident, they are more likely to engage deeply and achieve their full potential. Read more about the importance of relationships in education.

Thanks also for your patience and flexibility working around the building projects happening at the front of the school, including the replacement of the roof and soffit over the Administration Building, the GiR Learning Space and the Music Room, the resurfacing of the courts, and the installation of the new playground. These works will continue to enhance our learning environment for years to come. Please note the temporary changes in the back carpark, which have been made to ensure a safe entrance and exit to the school yard.

I would also like to remind all families to close gates behind them as they leave, especially the gates onto Victoria Road. We have some students who like to explore, and we want to ensure they are kept safe.

Collaboration between school and family is essential for the success of our students. By working together as a cohesive team, we can overcome challenges and ensure that every individual has the opportunity to learn, develop, and grow. Even when things are difficult, our partnership remains vital to fostering a supportive and enriching environment for our students.

Thank you for your continued support and dedication to our school community. Let's make this year a memorable and successful one!

Building Independence in Children

As we continue to foster a supportive and enriching environment for our students, we emphasise the importance of building independence in children and young people as they enter the school yard. In line with our approach to learning and work being undertaken in cognitive load theory, the reduction of unnecessary distractions helps students focus better and enhances their learning experience. Therefore, we kindly encourage all parents and families to say their farewells to students before they enter the building to start their day.

Your school-aged child is likely to have more independence than they have ever had before. This can be exciting, frustrating, or stressful for both you and your child. Although getting children involved may take longer to complete activities, it is crucial to their development as it:

Increases their confidence
Enhances motivation
Builds self-esteem
Helps problem-solving skills
Fosters empowerment

You can build your child’s independence by providing opportunities where they can safely make choices or complete activities on their own. If giving your child choices, give a few appropriate options. Open-ended questions may result in undesirable answers that could lead you to refuse your child's choice because it is either unhealthy or impractical.

To support this, we ask that all students line up in the designated area. Any parents onsite after 8:55am are required to sign in at the front office as part of our WHS requirements. This practice not only helps in maintaining a focused learning environment but also ensures the safety and security of everyone onsite.

Thank you for your cooperation in helping us create a focused and independent learning environment for our students.

Change in Date for Student Free Day

We would like to inform you of a change in the date for the upcoming student free day. Due to the availability of our presenter and the important work our staff is undertaking in Maths, the student free day will now be on March 7. We appreciate your understanding and flexibility with this change.

Thank you for your continued support.

Warm regards,
Sean

Welcome

A very warm welcome back to school. A special OLV welcome to all our new families who have joined us this year, it’s wonderful to have you on board. We trust our school-home partnership is a collaborative and holistic relationship, one that supports and improves the education of your child.

God, as we welcome our new students and their families to our community, we pray for your blessings upon them. May they feel a sense of belonging and warmth as they navigate their new environment. Guide them with wisdom and courage in their studies, grant them strength to overcome challenges, and foster meaningful connections with their peers, friends and teachers. Bless their homes with peace and support. In Jesus' name, Amen.

A very warm welcome to our new staff members at Our Lady of the Visitation:

Sean (Principal)
Donna (Administration)
Roni (Teacher)
Lily (ESO / OSHC).

We are thrilled to have them join our team and excited to see the unique perspectives and energy they will bring to our whole school community. When around the school, please pop in and say hello.

Dear God, Help us to be gracious and supportive guides to those we now call our new colleagues, but whom we will soon call our friends. Together, help us to do Your work by doing our work with excellence and reverence. God bless our shared mission and future. Amen.

Pilgrims of Hope

Pope Francis has declared 2025 a Jubilee Year – encouraging all to be ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. As a staff, we continuously look for ways to be a source of hope in our immediate community and further afield, the world. It is with much hope and anticipation that the work we do demonstrates care with compassion immersed in dignity and respect to all we serve.

In our OLV school community, ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ would manifest as a collective effort to foster positivity, inclusivity, and proactive action towards creating a better school environment, where students and staff actively demonstrate optimism, support for one another, and a commitment to making a positive impact both within our school and wider community, often through acts of kindness, community service, and open dialogue about challenges and solutions.

Not limited to but we strive for:

A positive school environment
Open communication
Promoting student leadership
A strong sense of community outreach
A faith-based reflection
Personal growth

Loving God, as we begin another academic year, we ask your Holy Spirit to be with us, that we may always use the gifts you have given us to the best of our ability. We pray for all the students we will be privileged to teach during the coming months and ask that we may try to see in each of them the many and varied gifts and talents with which you have blessed them. We make our prayer through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Welcome Back Whole School Mass

On Thursday 6th February, we celebrated our Welcome Back to School Mass hosted by 6AM with Fr. Joash presiding. The theme for the Mass was promoting the being of Pilgrims of Hope but through the lens of the Golden Rule – treating others as we wish to be treated. Few rules are one-size-fits-all but the Golden Rule ultimately inspires us to treat others with respect, kindness, and fairness. Knowing the golden rule requires a level of self-awareness.

Marks Gospel (Mark 6: 7-13 Go out and preach the Good News) describes Jesus sending out his disciples to preach the kingdom of God, of which can be achieved through our words and actions. The passage reminds us of the importance of trusting in God, being the very best version of ourselves, and treating others equally.

Thank you for the many families who attended the Mass with us. Your presence is always welcomed, and your support is always appreciated.

Jesus, we pray that You’ll help us to remember Your Golden Rule – to treat everyone the way we want to be treated. Help us to treat EVERY person the way we want them to treat us. Amen.

School Representative Council

The Student Representative Council (SRC) at Our Lady of the Visitation is a group of elected students from Reception to Year 6 who represent their peers in school decision-making. Each class elect two students to represent their class. SRC gives students the skills to create and to implement, to lead and to follow, to learn from mistakes and to succeed. Most importantly, they give students the opportunity to represent the views of their peers, and to succeed in making those views heard. SRCs are structured to give students a voice and opportunities to develop leadership skills.

This year, 2025, we are trialling a restructure of our SRC where the student elected is elected for the entire academic year which aligns with our structure given to our House Leader group. It is with much anticipation that this restructure will give a deeper purpose and continuity to the group especially when shifting from Semester One to Semester Two.

Thank you for your support and cooperation in this school matter. Well done to all our newly elected SRC representatives, I look forward to working alongside them guiding their ideas and initiatives.

Sacramental Program

This a gentle reminder that if you would like your child to complete the Sacramental Program during 2025, please contact:

Bernadette Smith – Sacramental Coordinator / Pastoral Associate – familyfaith@catholicparishes.com.au – 08 8449 6378.

The program starts Tuesday 18th February 2025 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Semaphore at 7pm – 8pm. Please let Bernadette know if you are interested. Thank you.

Linda Caldinez

Community Portal

School fee statements will be available on the Community Portal from Week 4.

For those families new to the school or those that have yet to access the Community Portal, an invitation email will be sent to you over the next few days from noreply@civicacloud.com.au. Please check your junk or spam Inbox if you do not receive the invitation email.

Click on the link in the invitation email to complete your Community Portal Account Registration. Note that this link will only be valid for 7 days.

Invitations to the Community Portal will be sent to the parent/caregiver email address/s provided in our student records system. Where no email address has been recorded, no invitation can be made, in such cases we invite parents to notify the school administration team of their current email address.

Once activated you can access the Community Portal from: -
https://cesa-portal-auth.civicaed.com.au/

You might find it useful to Bookmark this page for ease of future access.

The CESA (Catholic Education of South Australia) Community Portal offers a secure centralised platform where you can access important school and student information from any location on any device at any time. The Community Portal will be made available to parents/caregivers within our school community and will provide you with information and services relevant to your child(ren). Only designated parents/caregivers will have access to their respective students’ information.

The Community Portal will enable easy access to:

Finance Statements
Review Financial Transactions
Make Online Payments
View Medical Details
View your Child’s Demographic Information
View Emergency Contacts

Enhanced functionality is planned later to enable the ability to update your child/ren’s demographic and medical information, provide school news, calendar and communications. However, at this initial phase our focus is initiating access and enabling parents/caregivers to view their information.

Carpark Safety

Church Carpark

We have been informed by a number of families that there have been a number of near misses in the Church carpark due to incorrect entry and exit. This causes us grave concern as we have many of our students and their families walking through the carpark at several points during the day. It is for this reason we need to reiterate the importance of entering and exiting the church carpark correctly. When entering the carpark you must immediately turn left following the clearly marked arrows on the ground to find a park. This will hopefully limit near misses on those exiting the carpark properly. The near misses have occurred when families have entered the church carpark with total disregard to the arrows driving across the carpark into oncoming traffic. Safety will always be our priority and we are blessed to have such a facility as other schools around do not.

Please see carpark photos below for reference.

Staff Carpark – Victoria Road

Due to ongoing building works and the upcoming relocation of OSHC services, we kindly remind you that the carpark directly off Victoria Rd is reserved at all times for staff only. This measure is in place to minimise vehicle movement during the busy drop-off and pick-up times at the start and end of the school day.

When cars are moving in this area and children are being dropped off, we increase the possibility of near misses and critical incidents. As a school community, we are all committed to the safety of the children and young people.

For the safety of all children, we ask that you use the back drop-and-go area, the church carpark, or street parking when dropping off or picking up students. Ensuring the safety of our children as they travel to and from school is our top priority.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Back Carpark

This carpark is supervised by a teacher after school.
It is a Kiss and Drop Zone only. Do not park and leave your car to pick up your child/ren.
Parking in this carpark is only permitted in the diagonal parks along Railway Tce.
Children are to only access cars along the striped pedestrian crossings.

For the safety of all our children we ask that you be more vigilant around drop off and pick up times and thank you for your cooperation. We also ask that you kindly pass these reminders on to anybody else who may be picking up or dropping of your child/ren.