Dear St John's families,

We've had a lovely week at school.

Each morning we gather as a school on class lines. We greet each other, pray together, celebrate birthdays, give any messages and remind ourselves of the focus for the week for making St John's a safe and happy place to learn.

This morning's brief assembly was a beautiful start to the day. Everyone was engaged and listened so attentively. At the end, each line of students moved off silently to their class, ready to learn.

Our morning assembly is one of the many ways we create structure, routine and positive expectations for our community, aligned to our school rules 'Respect Others, Respect Self & Respect the Environment'. No matter how their morning has been, every students goes into class settled, relaxed and tuned into learning.

Supporting Positive Behaviour

This coming week we will welcome back Ian Luscombe from Behaveability, a behaviour consultant whose wisdom and experience we draw upon several times each year to fine tune our approach in supporting positive behaviour with students and to keep us accountable for what we do.

Ian is for us like Gordon Ramsey is for Kitchen Nightmares (except with more respectful language). When Ian is with us he follows us around and sits in classrooms to observe all staff in how they support positive behaviour with students. He asks questions, provides advice and models approaches. It is quite a vulnerable experience for all staff and because of their commitment to building a positive school culture our staff embrace the opportunity to learn from Ian. We value his input enormously and the result with students is very positive.

The Community Council is hosting a wine, cheese, tea & coffee evening with Ian Luscombe this Wednesday at 6.00pm in the school library. It is an opportunity for parents to come along and learn from Ian's expertise. He will talk through the approach we use at school but more particularly how similar approaches can be used at home. I highly encourage parents to attend.

We have had great interest already and if you would like to attend please follow this link to RSVP. This will help us with your planning.

Playground update

Work to begin removal of the old playgrounds will begin in the next two weeks. We have determined the best way to do this amidst the rain and soggy ground. Installation is still planned for the end of October or beginning of November.

Last day of term

In the letter at the following link the Director of Catholic Education for Canberra and Goulburn, Mr Ross Fox, has written to school communities to advise about a pupil free day on the last day of term. Please follow the link to understand why this has been determined.

Letter to School Communities from the Director

Following this communication, on Friday 16 December there will be a pupil free, staff development day. This day will allow our staff to be involved in finalising all administrative requirements for their current class and to prepare for new curriculum initiatives beginning in 2023 that will benefit all the students at our school.

The last day of term for students is Thursday 15 December.

Have a lovely weekend.

Matthew Garton

Principal