From the Principal
Dear St John the Apostle Community,
We've had a lovely day today at the Charnwood Athletics Oval for our own K-6 Athletics Carnival. Congratulations to all of our students for their wonderful participation. Thank you to the Year 5 and 6 teaching team who organised the event, particularly to Mr Jack Gibson who lead the team in this process. Thank you also to the parents who came to help the day run smoothly, we couldn't do this without you.
Review of Student Counselling and Wellbeing Services and Practice in CECG Schools
In the interests of ensuring our students have access to high quality programs and systems to support their wellbeing, Catholic Education is conducting a review of the wellbeing services and programs that are currently available in our schools.
Parents are invited to provide input into this process of review by completing a brief online survey that may be accessed by following the hyperlink:
https://forms.gle/tV3PRYh4VVVprMyQ9
At the conclusion of the process we will report to you on our findings and related plans for the future to ensure that the services available to our students are of the highest quality.
UR Fab...What's next?
The entire teaching staff have undertaken four and half hours of professional
learning with the UR Fab Team this term, learning about the functions of student behaviour, typical emotional regulation for children, the specific needs of students who experience diagnoses such as generalised anxiety or ODD and strategies to help all students to learn to regulate their emotions.
Year 2 and 3 parents and teachers were provided with a questionnaire to help identify students and families who might benefit from being part of the UR Fab small group program next term. The Action Team met this week to shortlist these students and families and some parents will receive a phone call very soon to invite them to be part of the program. Priority will be given to those students where both teacher and parent perceived that they would benefit from participation in the program.
Student Wellbeing Highlight: Next-Step Child Under 12 Program
Next Step offers an intensive counselling service for children under the age of 12 
who are finding it hard to manage their day to day activities due to anxiety or depression.
The service is delivered by mental health professionals who are trained in working with younger children. Next Step provides:
- mental health assessment and intervention
- up to 16 sessions of individual, family or group programs
- a supportive and practical approach to assist parents and carers to identify and address the child's needs
The service is available at no charge to people who meet the eligibility criteria. Next Step program staff work together with the child and family to achieve the best outcomes for the child.
Catholic Care are the providers of the Next Step service in the ACT and more information is available at the Front Office or at https://www.chnact.org.au/next-step.
Have a lovely weekend.
Matthew Garton (Principal)
