Dear St John the Apostle Community,

What a beautiful year we have shared. Thank you to all of the parents and families for their generous support for our school and most importantly for supporting their children as they learn and grow. Thank you to our staff for their continued willingness to work hard, be creative and always find a way to ensure their students are learning. Thank you to our students for their kindness to each other, including each other and for when they have challenged themselves to learn and grow in new situations.

Endings…

At our candle ceremony yesterday we farewelled our Year 6 students. It was a beautiful moment to see them pass the light of student leadership onto the Year 5 students. We lok forward to our Year 5 students becoming great exmaples for our school.

On Tuesday afternoon we also farewelled staff who are leaving. We farewell Katherine Stella and Samantha Slocomb as they take up teaching positions at St Clare of Assisi School in Conder. We thank them for their enthusiasm and care for their classes at each end of the school. Farewell also to Melissa Nisbet who will take up a position at Rosary Primary School in Watson and Kristina Hudina. They have been wonderful members of staff through Term 4. We also farewell Luke Folkard and Jessica Figura. They have been longtime members of our community and will be missed. Lastly we farewell Rheannan Vergano, one of our highly valued Classroom Support Assistants. She has made a big difference to many of our students every single day through her work with them this year. She will be missed. We wish her the very best in her exciting year ahead.

…and beginnings

At our One-Up afternoon yesterday (and via Facetime on Wednesday afternoon) our students were able to meet a number of new staff. Classes had the opportunity to meet Mr Brett Seaman, Mrs Allsion Lock, Mrs Alison Ewyk and Miss Bree McEnaney. Miss Sarah Collins will join us in Kindergarten in 2019.

Christmas Concert Photos

Thank you to Eliza Swiderski (mother of Lidia and Klaudia) who ensured our Christmas Concert was well photographed, creating a lovely record of memories. You can find many of the photos in the gallery below. What a fabulous talent!

Schoolzine app

In January we will cease using Skoolbag and begin using Schoolzine to communicate with families. A flyer was placed on the seats at the Christmas Concert about the new communication app we will use. Please download the app and register on it to begin receiving communication from St John the Apostle from January onwards.

School resumes for 2019 on Monday 4^th February. The Front Office will be open from Wednesday 30 January. Office staff will be involved in Professional Learning during some of this time and so will be available to help families on the Wednesday afternoon after 12.00pm and from 9.00am to 3.00pm on the Thursday and Friday.

I wish everyone a restful and peaceful Christmas and holiday break and look forward to seeing all of our families and students in the new year!

Have a lovely weekend.

Matthew Garton (Principal)