Jubilee Year 2025 – Pilgrims of Hope

Place a pilgrims of Hope photo/logo here please

The Jubilee Prayer

Father in heaven,
may the faith you have given us
in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother,
and the flame of charity enkindled
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us the blessed hope
for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us
into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos
in the sure expectation
of a new heaven and a new earth,
when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,
your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee
reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread
the joy and peace of our Redeemer
throughout the earth.
To you our God, eternally blessed,
be glory and praise for ever. Amen.

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been wonderful to see so many of you dropping off and picking up your sons and daughters. We have had a very settled and positive start to the year, welcoming many new students and families into Kinder and across the other grades. The smiles on their faces and the eagerness to begin school has been beautiful. Students also spoke this week of how wonderful it has been to reunite with friends and develop new relationships. Our playground has been filled with many happy students playing a variety of games and enjoying the new play equipment. Our school enrolment is currently sitting just above 370 students, and we are still waiting the arrival of some new families.

Our Information Evenings are a wonderful opportunity for parents to gain insights into school wide procedures, class-specific details and daily routines. It’s also a chance to explore their child’s classroom and connect with our dedicated teaching staff.  We appreciated everyone who joined us this week and thank you to our teaching team for their time and effort in preparing and presenting after a full day in the classroom. It was also a pleasure to have Fr Tru invite us all to the Parish for Mass and Ian Luscombe share with us about his work in Positive Behaviours.

This week you would have seen the IT Consent Agreement come via Compass in Insights, can you please have a discussion with your sons and daughters as you read over this information.

Why should we believe what we read on the Internet?

A question I often ask our students when I get the opportunity to spend time in classrooms is, Why should we believe what we read on the Internet? I think back to my own formative years of schooling and the internet didn’t exist, or at least not in its current form. Whenever we wanted to find something out, irrespective of whether it was for school or just out of personal interest we tended to use one of a very limited number of sources:

1. Mum or Dad. Generally speaking they tended to be experts on most things, either through having studied themselves or through life experience.
2. My Teacher. I think there was a general belief that they were the font of all knowledge and were to be respected for their opinion.
3. Encyclopaedia’s. Whether it was Encyclopaedia Britannica or the World Book. There were 24 volumes full of everything you would ever need to know about anything.
4. The Library. In my case this was the National Library of Australia. I would visit here when all else failed. You were not allowed to speak and for many of the books you had to wear white gloves to protect them.
5. Television or Radio. I still recall when colour television came into existence. Television and radio presented a window to the world. However, I seem to recall that there was a greater focus on good news stories, rather than the constant stream of negativity we get today.

Then along came the internet. A world wide web which enabled us to connect to others around the world and to seek the truth about things which were not covered in books. It was believed that just as machines would lead us towards a better lifestyle and a shorter working week, that the internet would open us up to a great deal more. Today’s students have access to information at a greater speed, volume and variety than ever before. We have search engines which enable us to refine our search so that we can find the truth about just about anything.

However, the greatest challenge for today’s students and in fact for all of us is to be able to sift through the vast amount of information, which is represented as both facts and opinions, presented via the internet and be able to identify what is fact and what is fiction. Whether it be our Year 2 students researching family trees, Year 3 exploring other cultures and belief systems, Year 4 comparing and contrasting the Indigenous or European view of Australian colonisation, Year 5 looking at the role of a significant individual or group, including First Nations Australians and those who migrated to Australia or Year 6 identifying roles of significant people, events and ideas that led to Australian Federation, there is a significant need for researching and verifying information.

We teach students not to believe everything they read, and we expect that they check their information using a variety of credible sources. We present them with websites that we know are correct, however, we also let them explore further and it often amuses them when they find information which is different to the facts. Especially when it is written in an extremely convincing way. When I went to school, if I wanted to find something out about someone or something, I would write them a letter or visit a particular venue. Today, we can click a button and there in front of us is the answer to our questions.

Our students understand that Google is just one tool and that it prioritises many of its searches based upon the number of people who have accessed particular sites and the link to the key words they have typed in. What they do however find surprising is that there are companies who employ people to spend their day typing the title of their business into Google so that it looks like everyone is accessing it and it tops the search list.

Returning to a point previously made, we try to teach them to not believe everything they are told, see or read. It may be true; however, it is important that they dedicate time to speak to people who are informed, visit places linked to their search or verify the information by using a variety of tools to access the information they require. The internet is an amazing tool which connects the world in so many different ways. However, our greatest challenge as teachers and parents is to give our children the skills to be able to filter, verify and differentiate between fact and fiction.

School Community Council AGM Wednesday 19^th February at 6.00pm

We invite all parents to come along to our first School Council (SCA SC) meeting for the year. The Community Council provides an important leadership role in our school by undertaking an advisory role in policy and finance matters, and a hands-on role in community building and school promotion.

We are seeking a new member for the executive (Chair) and non-executives (parent representative) capacity. If you would like to be involved in your child’s school, and you can meet twice a term (at 6pm on Wednesdays in Weeks 3 and 8 of each Term) please consider nominating yourself and joining us in the staffroom on Wednesday 19^th February.

Terms of office are usually set at 2 years, so no one should feel they are committing themselves for life! Please see the nomination form further in the newsletter.

Facebook

We are on Facebook. Search St John the Apostle Primary School, Florey on Facebook.

Safety Plans

Our school’s safety plans rely on us having correct and up to date contact and medical details for every child. Please ensure you inform the school of any updated personal information as a matter of priority.

School Fees and Remissions

School fee invoices will be sent home shortly. Parents facing real difficulties paying are encouraged to apply for fee remissions. Any applications for fee relief must be made annually. Forms are available from the front office.

Student Safety

The start of the school year is a particularly busy time in our school carparks and surrounding streets. To help keep students safe when making their way to and from school, please ensure you drive and park safely and legally, at and around, school grounds. We all have an important role to play in supporting road safety. Access Canberra has notified us that mobile speed and parking vans will be in operation to support our students’ safety. These enforcement teams play a critical role in supporting our students getting to and from school safely and we thank them for their ongoing support. In addition to sticking to the speed limit, please remember to park safely – including not parking across pedestrian crossings, in no stopping zones, on corners, verges and double parking. Unsafe and illegal parking can reduce visibility of our students and motorists to see each other, creating a significant hazard when students cross the road. Let’s work together to keep our kids safe.

I hope your week ahead is filled with joy and I look forward to presenting the Leadership Badges to the students in Year 6 today at 12pm.

Kind regards

Jo Reed

Principal