Dear St John's families,

Today our Year 2 students led us all through a Remembrance Day Service. Congratulations to our Year 2 students who modelled great respect and dignity during this liturgy. Thank you to the visiting family members for joining us, particularly those who have served in the armed forces. Thank you, so very much, to the Year 2 teachers who have both prepared the Year 2 students for this role while also experiencing their own sickness over the last two weeks. They have been a reminder of how hard our teachers work to give such opportunities to their students and to not let anyone down. Thank you.

Class Allocations for 2024 and Transitions

Thank you to the parents who have sent me an email asking to keep particular educational considerations in mind when allocating classes for 2024. I have collated these and will refer to them during the process of creating our class lists.

During the last week of school, students will be told their class and teacher for 2024. They will then have an afternoon together in something we call 'One Up Day'. After lunch on that day students gather in their new class groups, in the classroom they will be located and with the teacher they will have.

Those students who need additional transition support will be provided with opportunities to get to know their teacher more in the lead up to this time. Teachers will also participate in transition handover meetings where they can learn about the needs of each student and how best to support them in their learning next year.

School Fees 

Thank you for your patience regarding the new system for distributing school fee invoices. This has become a centralised process throughout Catholic Education and each month there appears to be a small teething issue regarding what appears on invoices. We do appreciate parents making contact with us when they notice an unusual or unexpected charge. Where there appears to be an issue with more than one family we do pass that feedback on to Catholic Education to rectify as soon as possible. I always appreciate the timely action our Finance Officer, Debbie Milne, to help families make the payment of school fees as easy as possible.

As part of the introduction to new finance processes across our system Catholic Education have reviewed the school fee structures for every school with a view to developing a consistent structure between schools. As a result there will be some changes to the way our fees are structured in 2024 and how this will appear on invoices. We expect to distribute more information, including the 2024 school fees themselves, from Catholic Education in the coming weeks.

We're halfway through the final term of 2023. So much has already happened and there is still a lot to go. We're currently conducting many of our end of year assessments and seeing a lot of growth in students since the beginning of the year. We're working hard to finish strong for every student and teacher! Thank you for working with us.

Matthew Garton

Principal