Newsletter Term 3 week 2 2025

Welcome back to Term 3

It’s great to be back at Our Lady of the Visitation School after having Long Service Leave in Term 1 and spending time at Roxby Downs last term.  The students, staff & parents have all be so welcoming, it is like coming home.  Many thanks to Sean Perry for stepping into the Principal position for Terms 1 & 2 and to the Leadership Team for supporting him.  I have been amazed at how all the children have grown and developed in my absence.

Welcome back to a busy Term 3! We are excited to start the term, which will be full of new learning opportunities and special events. We encourage all students to take on the challenges this term brings and to support each other along the way.  A very special welcome to new friends and families.  We were delighted to welcome our new families to Our lady of the Visitation Preschool & School this term as our Pathway children transition into Preschool, Growing into Reception and Mid-Year Reception. This is a significant milestone in the lives of both children and their families, filled with excitement for the educational journey ahead and the endless possibilities it holds.

It has been a wonderful start to Term 3, with a great sense of energy and excitement around the school. Students returned eager to reconnect with their friends and share stories with me with what has been happening at OLV. It’s been fantastic to see everyone settling back into their learning routines so smoothly with the support our dedicated staff.

Staffing Update Term 3

I wish Sandra Naismith a relaxing and enjoyable break as she begins her Long Service Leave, her Inclusive Ed role will be taken by Jess Cowan, with Rachael Curren taking the Year 1 class whilst Jess fulfills the other role and Laura Welyhorskyi will take on Sandra’s teaching role.  Sadly, Julie O’Nions has not been able to return this term due to illness and Isabella Perin has taken responsibility of the class until a replacement can be found.

I also welcome our Mid Year Reception teachers Ros Braham, Tobi Cibich, who is returning Emily Gower and Teresa Deren, who comprise our Mid-Year Reception team.

Term 3 Calendar of Events

 A Term 3 School Calendar for you to be able to plan to ensure that you can attend school events has been emailed to all parents.

St Dominic’s Day

As a community, we celebrated our Dominican heritage with a St Dominic Mass on Thursday, where our new Parish Priest Fr Josy presided at our Mass.  Our commitment to the spiritual vision of St Dominic and Dominican Spirituality is present in all aspects of our day-to-day life at OLV. We always strive to integrate our mission into all of our structures, all of our policies, all of our curriculum and across all elements of life at our school. We must always strive as individuals, and as a community, to ensure that following the example of St Dominic is evident in our relationships and in how we treat each other on a daily basis.  The Veritas Centre is named after the motto of St Dominic, meaning Truth.

All of our whole school masses will now be celebrated in the Veritas Centre, as we have out grown the space available in the church.

Book Week will be held Week 5 Monday 18 – Friday 22 August

During Book Week, students will be engaging with a variety of activities to promote a love of books, libraries and reading. As part of this celebration, on Friday 22 August we invite all students to come to school dressed as a story character.  This is prior notice for you to begin to get busy and organise the costumes!  We will have a whole school gathering on the courts (weather permitting) at 9.15 where students will be given the opportunity to parade their costume. Parents are welcome to attend.

We look forward to celebrating Book Week 2025!

Parent Teacher Conversations Week 3

Parent Teacher Conversations (Parent Interviews) will be conducted next week with Wednesday 6 August being the late night.

Online bookings have now closed. If you have not booked an interview time, please make contact with your child's class teacher.

Interview times have been sent to your child’s teacher.  Interviews times are 15 minute blocks.  

Communication between home and school is vital for effective teaching to take place.  These interviews will give both teachers and parents an opportunity to discuss how your child is progressing.  Meetings will be for 15 minutes and please be punctual so that everyone can get their full appointment time. Children are not allowed outside to play during interview times because of safety and supervision concerns.

Living Learning Leading Parent and Caregiver Survey

Please can I ask for three to five minutes of your time to complete a short survey to support us in always striving towards excellence in our performance as a school. Please see the Link and Password on the pictured survey attachment below.  This LLL survey is an opportunity for you to tell how things are for you and your family and know that we value your feedback and will try to respond to the information that you provide.

The feedback does NOT include the data of individuals; rather, feedback involves graphs based on feedback from all parents and caregivers. To ensure anonymity, aggregated scores are not provided for groups of less than four parents or caregivers. It is your impressions that we are seeking. There are no right or wrong answers.

If you have more than one child at school, please respond based on the experience of their oldest child at the school. 

Dear Families,

Welcome to Term 3! We hope the school holidays gave your family the chance to rest, recharge and spend quality time together.

As we begin a new term, we are reminded of the gift of new beginnings — an opportunity to continue learning, growing in faith, and strengthening our community. This term brings with it many moments of joy, curiosity and connection, and we look forward to sharing them with you and your children.

Let us begin Term 3 in prayer:

Loving God,
Thank You for the gift of a new term and the many opportunities it brings.
Bless our students, staff and families as we come together once again.
May our hearts be open to learning,
Our minds ready for challenge,
And our hands willing to serve others.
Guide us to be people of respect and care and continue the love of learning.
May Your presence be felt in all we do this term. Amen.

We are truly grateful for your ongoing support and partnership. Together, we look forward to another rich and rewarding term here at OLV.

As you may know, during Weeks 2 to 4 this term we celebrate three special feast days in our Catholic tradition:

• St Dominic – founder of the Dominican Order, whose spirit inspires our school’s charism
• St Mary of the Cross MacKillop – Australia's first saint and a model of compassion, service and strength
• The Assumption of Mary – honouring Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her faithful 'yes' to God's call

We warmly invite you to join us for these school Masses (31/7 - 4KK, 7/8 – 1/2JI and 14/8 – 5JN), held on Thursdays at 9:30am in the Veritas Centre with Fr. Josy. Your presence is always welcome as we celebrate these important moments in our faith calendar.

These three feasts beautifully connect with our school values:

• Respecting: St Dominic and Mary both lived lives of deep respect — for God, for others, and for truth. They model what it means to listen, honour others, and live with integrity.
• Caring: St Mary MacKillop dedicated her life to the care and education of the poor and vulnerable. Her words, “Never see a need without doing something about it,” continue to inspire us to show compassion and take action in our daily lives.
• Learning: All three figures valued learning — not only academic learning but learning that shapes the heart and spirit. St Dominic championed education as a path to truth; St Mary MacKillop opened schools across the country; and Mary, in her quiet strength, teaches us to reflect, trust and grow in faith.

As we honour these saints, may their lives inspire us to live out our values with purpose and grace.

And, from the PARISH……..

You’re invited to a Retreat: Cast Your Anxiety and Burdens onto the Lord
Saturday 23rd August from 9:15am to 3:30pm
At Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church 420 Seaview Road Henley Beach
Speaker: Fr Josy Sebastian MSFS
Please bring your own lunch tea/coffee provided
Enquiries and bookings phone Pauline 0403002240 by 21st August
Cost: Cash Donation
All Welcome

Thank you, God bless
Pauline Cotton 0403002240

STELLA MARIS

We are in need of some more volunteers for our Centre at Taperoo – CAN YOU HELP?

We work on a roster basis – days are Mondays to Fridays from 1pm to 5pm.

In 2024, we assisted 1,125 seafarers – without STELLA MARIS, the seafarers are left to their own resources. Seafarers are always grateful for the support they receive.

Please contact the Centre Manager: Ian Keane on 0438344400 or the Parish Office on 84496378 for more information. Thank you.

Term 2 - Using Positional Language in Reception

RJW
Students in Reception have been learning to use and understand positional language to describe the location of themselves and objects in and around their environment.  Students have followed verbal and visual instructions on ‘Art-Hub for Kids’ Tutorials to draw giraffes and elephants.  They have also designed a map of their classroom environment, showing prominent features and their proximity inside the room.  Students have used Art as a way of showing their growing understanding of position.  They have used terminology such as middle/centre, inside, outside, around, left and right to position their art.

RMJ
Prayer
In RMJ we enjoy setting up our prayer space by using symbols and colours that remind us of Gods love.

Art
We have completed an Artist study on a Japanese Artist called Yayoi Kusama, she used polka dots as her main form of expression, and she also loved pumpkins. We made our own art work which was inspired by this amazing woman.

Numeracy
We have been focusing on addition and subtraction, making number sentences to 10 and beyond, see our subtraction penguins.

NAIDOC Week
We learnt the song head (mukarta), shoulder (kartaka), knees(mampa) and toes (tidna) in Kaurna language and labelled these on our artwork.

RBS
Over the past two weeks in RBS, students have been exploring the concept of identity through self-portrait art. Each child created a self-portrait that reflects who they are and how they see themselves. This activity encouraged students to think about what makes them unique and how we all contribute to a diverse and inclusive classroom community.

In our second art session, we combined Art and Maths with a fun directed drawing of an elephant from Art Hub. As we followed the steps, students used positional language—a key focus in our current maths unit—to describe where each feature belonged, such as “in the centre,” “to the left,” “to the right,” and “below.”

It’s been fantastic to see students applying their learning across different subjects while expressing themselves creatively and confidently.

The Regulated Classroom – Shared Practices at OLV

As part of our ongoing commitment to high-quality teaching and learning, our staff have engaged in a number of professional development sessions that have focussed on…

• developing a shared understanding of how sensory processing influences learning needs for all students.developing a shared understanding of what emotional regulation is and how it impacts learning.
• implementing whole school shared practices and strategies to support regulation with our students.
• the need to explicitly teach strategies and the rules around strategies
• explicitly teaching that we all have different brains and bodies and learning can look different to different students

In line with our focus on creating optimal learning environments, we are supporting students in developing emotional regulation skills—the ability to understand and manage their emotions in healthy ways.

This has led us to introduce some shared school language and practices, that support consistency across the school.

Some of our initiatives have included…

FIDGETS…

Explicitly teaching students about:

What is a fidget tool and how can it be accessed?

When can it be used?

• When a student is having a challenging time trying to focus

• When a student’s brain or body feels like it needs to power up or down

• When a student needs to touch or hold something

• When it makes a student feel safe and comfortable

How to know if fidget is the right tool?

• It helps the student to focus on or participate in an activity.

• It shifts the students’ energy in a helpful way.

• It helps the student process information / understand.

• It helps the student pay attention.

• It helps the student to complete work/activity.

Each classroom (including specialist teaching areas such as STEM, Music, Italian) have a fidget box, which teachers can direct students to at a time their body may indicating that something is needed, with rules that are consistent across the school.  

SENSORY TOOLS AND CALM ZONES…

When more is needed to support individual sensory needs and emotional regulation, students have teacher directed access to…

BRAIN BREAK…

This has been implemented at both a whole class and individual level, with a move away from screen activities…

• Yoga dice
• Breathing and Stretching
• Colouring and meditative music
• Singing
• Whole body movements
• Listening to music
• Outside activities such as a lap or walk
• Games like Beans Game, Simon Says
• And many, many more!

SENSORY FRIENDLY CLASSROOM – TREASURE CHEST…

At times students can be overloaded with sensory stimuli and distractions. Each
classroom learning space now has a TREASURE CHEST where items brought from
home can be placed. This enables us to acknowledge what a student values and is
important to them, but also develops a routine for a place within the classroom
environment. Some classes have begun implementation over the last few weeks
and all classrooms will use this routine from the beginning of Term 3.

This is just a snapshot of what is happening in this area across our school. As a staff we are committed to further developing our knowledge, understandings and practices in this area.

Sandra Naismith and Jess Cowan
Inclusive Education Coordinators