Newsletter Term 2 Week 8, 2024

Semester 1 Reports

Once again this year your child’s school reports will be available online - SEQTA Engage. We did this in Semester 2 last year.  The high majority of families have downloaded the app to ensure the Semester 1 Report can be accessed. This format is in line with other Catholic schools in South Australia.

Reports will be available for parents to access on Friday 5 July (last day Term 2).  These will be followed by Parent Teacher Conversations in Week 3 of next Term.  Reports give us a small snapshot into your child’s attainment when measured against the Australian Curriculum. This report is one of a number of strategies used by your child’s teacher to communicate their progress with you.  Reporting plays a key role in developing effective school / family partnerships to support student learning.

Growing into Reception GiR

At Our Lady of the Visitation School, our Growing into Reception program is highly successful and appreciated by the students and parents.  This program assists children transitioning to our school.  GiR has been developed by our OLV staff and is specific to our school. It allows an opportunity for children to become familiar with the school, the sights, the sounds, the movement before they start as Receptions.

As our current cohort of children get ready to become big receptions next term in our Mid-Year Intake, I know that they are ready and prepared to make the big step into school.  A special thank you to Vanessa Atkinson for being the GiR teacher and I would also like to thank Christina Lagonicos and Rochelle Delia in supporting the development of the program.

Our new GiR’s will begin in Week 2 of Term 3 as they journey to start Reception in 2025.

Social Media

At State Government level, our Premier Peter Malinauskas has commenced discussions about putting forward legislation to further move the legal age to 14 years old for social media platforms. There is also another initiative called ‘Let Them Be Kids’ where there are ongoing efforts to move this age to 16 years old to provide a further 36 months support for our Australian children minimising possible exposure to cyberbullying and inappropriate content.

While all the above unfolds, I want to once again remind all parents that, at present, the following social media platforms are for children 13 years old and over.  This means that no primary age child should have a personal account with Snapchat, Discord, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube Channels.  Parents need to resist any pressure that your child places on you to begin using these social media platforms as they are not psychologically mature yet,

Messenger Kids is available for children below the age of 13, however, it is essential that it is linked in a way that parents can monitor their child’s conversations as children have been, at times, unkind and hurtful in their messages or videos.

My aim to is encourage all parents to make our school community free of social media and work together as a school community to provide the safest possible emotional environment whilst at school which is both the physical school environment and the online world environment

St Vinnies Can Drive Winter Appeal

non-perishable items needed by June 28th 2024

Thank you to the many who have brought in donations for our Term 2 outreach fundraiser St Vinnie’s Can Drive Winter Appeal. Know your generosity will be gratefully received. We have one more week before this outreach fundraiser finishes, so if you have not had the opportunity to donate, you still have time to do so.

All the items collected, have been separated into our Sport Teams. All items collected, per team, will be added to the relevant House Team points for the Spirit Cup on Sports Day. Our House Leaders have tallied the donations and so far, the tally reads:

St Mary -        Green Team –  228 items
St Dominic -   Red Team –     208 items
St Elizabeth - Yellow Team – 148 items
St Anthony -   Blue Team -     139 items

Which means the St Mary - Green Team is in the lead. Will this be the case by the end of next week?
Again, thank you for your support this term, we really appreciated your generosity.
Remember, all items to be brought into school.

Refugee Week

We celebrated our Refugee Mass on Tuesday 18th June 2024. Well-done to 4KK students and Ms. Kersten for their leadership throughout the Mass.

Thank you to the many families who took time out of their day to join us in this celebration. It’s always incredibly heartwarming, especially for the students, to see so many families engage and participate in school community events.

As we gathered to celebrate Refugee Day, we remembered the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution.

In our entrance procession our students brought forth: a cross as a symbol of hope and faith, scales as a symbol for equality and justice, a friendship circle as a symbol of unity and a candle as a guiding light.

In this month of June, Pope Francis is focusing his monthly prayer intention on migrants, refugees, and those fleeing from their home countries. We have families within our own community who, from their own experience as former refugees, have faced hardships being forced out of their homes and living in difficult conditions without basic necessities. As a school community, we offer our unwavering support showing them they are not alone and that we stand united with them.

Pope Francis invites us to join in the prayer for migrants: "We pray that migrants fleeing from war or hunger, forced to undertake journeys full of danger and violence, find welcome and new opportunities in the countries that receive them."

Staff Reflection Day Friday 7th June 2024

Staff Reflection Days are more than a bonding experience. They are opportunities for staff to explore our Catholic faith and their faith journeys. Catholic school communities have, for many years, engaged staff in Reflection Day experiences to deepen their relationship with God.  Therefore, making space for extended time for reflection, enables and invites staff to listen deeply to the movement of the Spirit.

On Friday 7th June, staff engaged within many charitable organisations as a ‘Service to Others’ the theme for our Reflection Day: St Vinnies (various outlets and departments), Red Cross, BackPack4SAKids, and Stella Maris. Much of the day was spent being of service to the individual organisations: cleaning, packing, serving, gardening and so forth, with a section of the day reflecting, pondering, and unpacking our Dominican Pillars: Prayer, Community, Study and Ministry. Why is it important to contemplate our Dominican difference, especially during a time such as this? Our Dominican difference means our students are formed with the 800-year-old Dominican commitment to justice, truth, reconciliation, and compassion, always encouraged to be responsible for making the world a better place and embracing the future with hope. For this belief to be a success, us as educators need to be informed.

The Dominican Order (also known as the Order of the Preachers) is a Catholic religious order best known for its commitment to holistic education (educating the whole person: spiritually, mentally, physically, cognitively, and socially), the pursuit of truth (Veritas) and its focus on preaching — spreading the Gospel through words and actions to inspire change (through embracing activities around the Golden Rule, Empathy, Compassion, etc.). Founded by St Dominic de Guzman (1173-1221) between 1206-1216, the order embraced a life of prayer and study, which led to a ministry of preaching – the early beginnings of the four Dominican Pillars of Prayer, Study, Community and Service.

At OLV, we believe the pillars are not just boxes to be ticked, they are the rhythm of life and a way of being here at our school. Our Dominican charism is open and porous. It honours intelligence, beauty, justice, community, and individuality to bring into being a full humanity.

St. Teresa of Ávila (attributed)

Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which He looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

SMS Messages from the School

As part of our Student Information System we have an SMS function which we are starting to utilise. This will allow us to be able to contact parents quickly for various reasons, for example:-

• In case of a school emergency.
• If an excursion/event needs to be cancelled
• As a school or class reminder

We have been trialling the SMS messages for minor Sick Room visits.  When a child visits the sick room for any minor issues we are able to inform parents to make them aware of what has happened and so that they can follow up at home if required.  Please note however, that if your child needs to be collected due to illness or injury you or an emergency contact will be called.

The phone number the SMS will come from is 0475907819, it might be worth saving it in your phone as OLV Message or something similar.

Please ensure that the mobile numbers that we have for you are kept up to date.

Family Details & Student Information

It is really important to have at all times the correct information for all students.  If you have recently moved address, changed your phone numbers and/or your email address, could you please make sure that the office is made aware of the changes.

Emergency contacts other than Parents - You may like to add one or two more names to your records as an Emergency Contact  (e.g. Grandparent, Aunt/Uncle, older Brother or Sister or even a close friend),  that way if there is ever an issue and we are unable to contact either parent in an emergency then we would have another one or two people to contact.

Medication & Medical Details

Does your child have any medical issues that we are unaware of?  If so please let us know as a matter of urgency so that we can update our records.

If you would like us to administer medication to your child during the day, please make sure that a Medication Authority form is completed.  Medication of any sort needs to be in the original packaging with the Chemist Label showing the child's name, medication dosage, expiry date etc.

We also ask that if your child is to have 1/2 a tablet etc. then the medication needs to be precut before being given to the office.

No medication is to be given to the students to keep in their school bag.  All medication will need to be handed into the office and a Medication Authority signed by a Parent or Caregiver.

Anxiety Coach Course

We often worry as parents – will our children do well in life, will they be happy and safe, will they make friends at school? 

Sometimes it can seem like our children are burdened with their own anxieties too. Everyone becomes anxious, but how do we know if our child’s anxiety is out of the ordinary? Sometimes it can be hard to tell if their worries are anxiety, or just a part of normal day to day life.

Anxiety Coach™ for Parents is a self-paced online child development course, designed by psychologist, author and teacher Michael Hawton.  The course aims to support you and your child through the ups and downs of life and equips you with practical skills to enable you to build resilience in your child. 

See the link below for more information, and to purchase the online course. https://www.parentshop.com.au/parents/anxiety-coach-parents

Julie Taylor
Wellbeing

Year 1CS – The Visitation Art

In our Religion lessons this term, a major focus has been on the story of The Visitation – where Mary, the Mother of Jesus, visits her cousin Elizabeth, the Mother of John the Baptist. To connect this with our Art unit, students have been busy creating a beautiful collage to portray the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth.

Collage art is a fantastic way to encourage creativity and exploration, as well as getting children to experiment with composition and colours. Students used a variety of materials including paper, cardboard, pencils and oil pastels to create their collages. They cut out various shapes and patterns and used different shades of colour for texture and effect. They then glued Mary and Elizabeth on the path they drew.

We loved creating our collages and now have a wonderful display in our classroom!