Dear St John the Apostle families,

Welcome back to school. We've had an excellent first week. It's the little things that have made it so great.

It was refreshing to have parents present at our morning assembly on Monday. We've missed their presence at community gatherings and look forward to more opportunities.

Our new school captains, Samson and Hudson, began leading morning assemblies almost immediately. I am always impressed by the capacity of our student leaders and optimistic about the impact our current Year 6 cohort will have on our school.

Kindergarten have been very settled and engaged.They independently line up outside, greet everyone politely, ask lots of questions. They are keen learners! Thank you to the team of Mrs Collins and Ms Watson and the support of the Inclusion Assistants who have helped them to start school so successfully.

Teachers get ready for school too!

While many of our teachers have been coming to school for weeks to set up classrooms and plan together, last week our whole staff were engaged in three days of preparation for the year ahead that included:

• reflection and prayer around our school focus 'God in all things.'
• refreshing our understanding of Daily 5 (literacy block) and an introduction to Daily 3 (numeracy block)
• learning about and planning for more engaging physical education lessons
• raising our awareness and understanding of sustainability across the curriculum and teach our students to be stewards of creation
• learning how Spanish will be introduced to our Years 3-6 students

We also participated in a system wide day that launches a three year professional learning program for all staff called Catalyst. Catalyst has two goals:

• Every student is a competent reader.
• High impact teaching practices are evident in every classroom.

There are four important strategies that Catholic Education are supporting schools in to achieve these goals:

• Implementation of an evidence-based phonics program as part of a balanced literacy program in Kindergarten to Year 2 (e.g. Sounds-Write).
• Development of strong curriculum resources for the effective teaching of Mathematics (we have begun this).
• Professional learning and coaching in the implementation of 'High impact Teaching Practices' across the curriculum.
• Building the capacity of all leaders and aspiring leaders in schools to positively impact on effective teaching and learning.

We listened to presenters in the Science of Learning and talked about how we can use their excellent research to have a positive impact on student learning at school. 

Communication makes the world work

We know that communication is the life-blood of any organisation. We're always looking to improve the effectiveness of our communication.

Our Newsletter is being re-modelled to be a broad, weekly one-stop place of information for families. We have added in a few new sections to help parents get more out of the Newsletter. Assistant Principal, Ms Rebekah Brown, will write each week about an aspect of the teaching & learning that occurs at St John the Apostle. All updates to our school calendar will be featured so that parents know when important information has gone up they need to be aware of. Our school positive behaviour focus will be named so parents can see what we are focusing on with students.

Licenses for Seesaw have been purchased for all K-3 students to help teachers and families stay in touch regularly and assist teachers to share what is happening in the classroom.

SZapp will continue to be a very important feature of our communication. We will limit any messages and alerts to 9.15am and 3.00pm each day unless they are of a very high priority.

Parent Information Night

Parent Information Nights next week are operating a little differently this year to comply with social distancing requirements and still provide important face-to-face contact.

Please book in to the relevant sessions for each year level so that we can ensure every child has a representative present and you can hear directly from the teachers about your child's learning journey for 2021.

Uniform changes

You will notice that some students are beginning to wear some different uniforms than our usual. Yes, there are uniform changes coming. Our plan was to implement these over the next two years but due to stock shortages some of the items are being implemented a little earlier. Please don't worry. You're child is not in the wrong uniform if they are wearing the usual uniform. More information will come out next week.

Lastly, thank you parents and families for preparing your child for school again this year. Everyone has settled quickly and easily into school and we look forward to a wonderful year ahead.

God Bless,