Remembrance Day

Yesterday we all participated in a whole school Remembrance day service while being in separate classrooms. Thank you to Mrs Stewart and several Year 6 students for leading us through the day.

Mrs Stewart has written about the service and activities below. 

Our Year 6 students were catching up on some of their student leadership actions missed in lockdown and organised a fundraising activity to support the valuable work of Catholic Mission with disadvantaged communities. In their enthusiasm it was organised for yesterday as well. It was very successful, however, we recognise that this could easily have become the focus today, instead of Remembrance Day. We apologise for organising these to occur on the same day, potentially distracting students from the importance of Remembrance Day. This was an oversight on our behalf and won't occur next year.

We can assure you that teachers have been preparing students all week for Remembrance Day through stories, art and prayer and it was the only whole school focus yesterday.

Increasing COVID cases in schools

As the restrictions ease across the ACT we are all enjoying more freedom. At the same time there has been an increase in the number of cases occurring in schools.

I would just like to assure everyone that the COVID safe practices we have in place are not easing. We understand that we hold in our school a large population of unvaccinated children, who are our own family and community members.

We will continue to maintain all of our health and hygiene practices including cleaning, hand washing and sanitiser use. We will continue to have students separated into cohorts with dedicated entry points to the school, classroom and play spaces as well as dedicated times to go outside to play. We will continue to limit non-essential visits from those not part of our community or essential to supporting students.

What we know from other schools' experiences that should a case occur, it's these practices that ensure a school remains open with minimal impact to all. ACT Health and Catholic Education have worked very effectively with each other, supporting schools to take quick and clear action to contain any case and minimise any further risks.

I would like to say a big thank you to SFX and the Canteen Staff and volunteers who have been so supportive in adapting to the temporary, staggered eating and play timetables. They have been outstanding.

Thank you for your ongoing support. Together, we will continue to keep St John the Apostle a healthy place for all.

Kindergarten Orientation

We were very fortunate to have the first of two scheduled Kindergarten Orientation mornings recently. It was wonderful to meet all of our future students and have fun with them. With the increasing number of schools that are experiencing COVID-19 cases we have decided to cancel the second Kindergarten Orientation session next week. We know that bringing together a group of young students from many different pre-school and day care centres creates higher risk.

We have emailed all of our Kindergarten 2022 families information on the alternative Drop In sessions that have been organised. Thank you to our wonderful staff and families for being flexible at this time.

Class placements for 2022

At this time of the year I welcome parent communication regarding any specific needs they would like considered when placing their child in a class group next year. Parents wishing to communicate this are asked to email me directly (not the classroom teacher) with the considerations they would like kept in mind as part of the class creation process. These will be treated confidentially and viewed only by me. Specific teacher requests will not be considered. The cut off for communicating these considerations will be Friday 19 November.

Thank you all for being such a fantastic community to belong to.

God Bless