Dear St John the Apostle families,

With an easing of restrictions this weekend, it's exciting to see we are much closer to a return to pre-Covid practices.

There are no easing of restrictions for schools. We will continue to maintain excellent hygiene practices, cohort our students, restrict visitor access and have all adults wear masks. These actions will help us maintain a safe environment while students continue to participate in the ACT vaccination program.

Week 5 Reports

On Wednesday we will send home Week 5 Interim Reports. COMPASS Parent Portal does not yet have the capacity to distribute these and so you will receive them in the traditional manner, as a printed document sent home with your child.

These reports are an indication of how your child has settled into the school year. They list a number of class engagement behaviours on which both teacher and student reflect. It's always interesting to see how hard some students can assess themselves and it helps us to know when students may have admirably high, yet unrealistic expectations of themselves. We then like to sit and chat with them and let them know how fantastically they are doing.

The reports will form the basis for the optional Parent-Teacher interviews being offered the following week. Rebekah Brown, Assistant Principal, outlines more about these in her section below.

Welcome back Ian Luscombe

From Tuesday to Thursday next week we welcome back Mr Ian Luscombe from Behaveability. Last year Ian assisted us in refining our Positive Behaviour for Learning Program. He walked alongside staff as they supported students to remain engaged in their learning, respect everyone and also celebrate their success.

Ian has outstanding expertise and experience in helping schools to be safe, happy and respectful places for all. His last visit was very encouraging as he identified the many ways we already experience this at St John the Apostle. We look forward to building upon this again.

RATs

As you would be aware, the requirement to use RATs twice a week with students has been extended for four more weeks. More RATs were sent home with your child today. These will be sufficient for the next two weeks. 

Opening Liturgy and Student Leaders Presentation

On Monday at 12.00pm we will sit in our classrooms and participate in an online liturgy for the opening of the school year. We will also present our Year 6 students with their leadership badges. We're learning how to run this as a live event and hoping that this will be possible so that parents can join us. Regardless of how it occurs we will also record it and make the recording available for families as well.

Have a lovely last weekend of Summer. It looks to be a busy one for many.

Kind regards,

Matthew Garton