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Dear St John the Apostle families,
Our first week back at school has been very successful and I would like to thank all of our staff, students and parents for their flexibility and commitment to the COVID safe measures in place.
Classes have worked well in cohorts and the staggered play times have kept everyone separated despite the juggle. We hope that some of these measures will only be required for a short time. Thank you to all of our families for supporting children through the altered pick up and drop off arrangements. Each day these have continued to become more efficient and simple. Our staggered pick up in the afternoons have been limited to 25 minutes in total.
We look forward to our Years 3, 4 and 5 students returning next week. We have missed their presence in the school.
With the new updated ACT Roadmap released this week we have a little more clarity around what the end of year will look like. Next week we will release some dates for end of year functions.
Staffing news
We would like to welcome Kellie in our Canteen for the immediate future. Kellie began this week while Maria is currently unavailable. Kellie is a colleague of Maria's from SFX and will maintain 'business as usual' in the Canteen until Maria returns.
At the end of last term we undertook a recruitment process to complete our staffing for 2022. Thank you to Ms Katie Matthews, Community Council Chairperson, for assisting on the interview panel. It's with pleasure that I let our community know of the following teaching appointments for 2022.
Mr Brett Seaman will return to St John the Apostle. We are also expecting the return of Mrs Kate Macdonald whose artistic input in the school has always been appreciated.
We are pleased to continue to have with us Ms Tabitha Wormald, Ms Lily Kennelly and Mr Sean O'Neill throughout 2022. Their contributions to our staff and the success of their students has been quite exemplary. Mrs Lauren Hudson will also continue with us as a classroom teacher and we thank her for her fantastic role as Teacher-Librarian this year.
We welcome two new teachers to our staff team. Firstly, Mr James Doepel, an experienced teacher in other Catholic schools who has taught in junior, middle and senior year levels. Secondly, Ms Emma Alcock, an experienced Teacher-Librarian who will continue to build the already wonderful library we are fortunate to have within the hub of our school. They will visit our school later this term to meet staff and students.
We will farewell a few teachers at the end of this year. Firstly, Ms Tamika Norris who will teach at St Matthew's, Page in 2022. Ms Norris is much loved by her students and has a long history as both a student and teacher at St John the Apostle. We will farewell Mrs Lizette French who graciously stepped in to teach Performing Arts in Kate Macdonald's absence and we thank her for her willingness to provide fabulous opportunities for our students in the Arts. We will also farewell Ms Elizabeth Jones who has been teaching Sustainability to Year 3-6 students since the beginning of lockdown and Ms Rachel Pearson who has been an associate teacher in a number of classes this year.
We are in the process of filling our Inclusion Assistant roles for 2022. We congratulate and farewell Mr Ben Fely, who was recently appointed as a boundary umpire to the AFL based out of Sydney. Mr Fely has been a calm and conscientious Inclusion Assistant for the past two years and worked with many of our students. We wish him all the best and look forward to seeing him in action.
Lastly, we wish to congratulate Mrs Bree Dess, and her husband Drew, who are due to have a baby early next year. We wish them the very, very best during this exciting and joyful time.
World Teachers Day
Today is World Teachers Day. It is a day to acknowledge the work our teachers do for
their students, whether through remote learning or face to face teaching.
The following video is just a small sample of students sharing their thoughts about our teachers and the work they do in our school.
Thank you to the Community Council who provided coffee and cake from Bean Origin for all of our staff today on behalf of the community. It was very much appreciated.
Every day I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work in such and engaged and supportive school community.
I hope you all continue to enjoy this beautiful Spring time.
God Bless
Back to School
It has been so wonderful to have the K, 1, 2 and 6 students back onsite. They all transitioned back to onsite learning successfully. Even though everyone is pretty tired today, each child and staff member have had a fantastic week. We can't wait to have all of the students return next week. Below are some photos of the students at school who are all very engaged in their learning.
Community Council Hamper Raffle
Last Term, I wrote about a Hamper Raffle that the Community Council are running. Thank you so much to everyone who donated to these Hampers. We were going to draw the raffles during Learning Journey’s. However, due to the COVID restrictions, we were unable to do this.
We have decided that we will draw the Hamper on Thursday 9th December (Week 10).
All tickets can be purchased on the Qkr app under Community Council Events/Fundraising.
It has been a little tricky to fundraise for the Community Council, so if you are able to, it would be fantastic if you could support this fundraising activity.
If you can't make a decision on which hamper to choose, then the "All Hampers" ticket is the one for you. Purchase one ticket for $10 and you will get one ticket in each hamper.
The price of tickets are as follows:
1 ticket = $2
3 tickets = $5
5 tickets = $7
Rebekah Brown
Assistant Principal and Inclusion Coordinator
Catholic Life and Reflection
What students are learning about
This week most classes in the school have continued to focus on Mary. She has many lessons to teach us about patience, love and acceptance.
For their last remote learning task Year 4 had to read out the Hail Mary and record themselves. Xavier did an excellent job! You can see he set up the prayer space carefully too.
https://watch.screencastify.com/v/8rCJc2meoXOX9wI79dKZ
Year One coloured have added their own creativity to pictures of Mary. Maddie, Edith and Rylan well done!
2 Blue learning about Hail Mary and Mary symbols.
Catholic Life and Reflection
So we finally bit the bullet and got a dog! Long story short, someone we knew was unable to keep their 2 year old chocolate lab. They were really happy to give him to a family. That is where we fit in.
It is very new and he is finding his feet, missing his other humans, I suspect. After all that has happened in the last year there is a healing energy that has come with him. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it is lovely to focus on something new and long awaited.
Pope Franics, in the opening passage of Laudato Si, uses the words of St Francis to start his encyclical on care for our common home. Reminding us that all of God’s creatures and creation are ours to protect and celebrate.
- “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.[1]
P.S. Quick question…will my floors ever be clean again?
God bless
Stephanie Stewart
Happy birthday to Henry K, Xavier T, Phoebe S, Jansen V, Martin H, Marley A and Maxwell S who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.
Please note that we ask students to not bring home made cupcakes to share with the class for their birthdays. This is a precautionary measure for health and hygiene. The Canteen offers a number of options to share with the class. Purchases can be made through the QKR app.
Congratulations to the following students who will receive an award for the fortnightly Positive Behaviour Focus.
| Class | ||
| KB | Ebuka I | Logan C |
| KM | Annika N | Tymon A |
| 1B | Ernest E | Fiesita M |
| 1M | April M | Isabella S |
| 2B | Evelina N | James K |
| 2M | Amelia N | Evie M |
| 3B |
Alexandra L |
Emilio V |
| 3M | Christopher C | Charlotte S |
| 4B | Destinee T | Joshua W |
| 4M | Xavier T | Sophie R |
| 5B | Gabriela V | Ella W |
| 5M | James H | Lily H |
| 6B | Ronan H | Star H |
| 6M | Jasmine K | Athuai A |
| Sustainability (K-2) | Austin (KB) | Andrew (KM) |
| Library | Bianca L (4B) | Lewis B (1B) |
School fees
Fees were emailed out 14th October. If you have not received your fee statement please contact our finance officer, Debbie Milne via email, finance.sjaps@cg.catholic.edu.au or phone: 6258 3592. Debbie is available Monday – Thursday 8am – 3:30pm.
We ask that fees are paid by Friday 5th November, unless you are paying by direct debit. Please check your direct debit to ensure your fees are paid in full by the end of the school year.
Year 4 Technology
A reminder to all year 4 families that your quarterly payment is due by week 5 of term - Friday 5th November. If you have paid ahead and paid for the year, thank you for your payment.
COVID fee relief – for details please refer to last week’s newsletter or to the email sent out to families on Friday 22nd October.
The Uniform Shop is now able to have customers attend in person. Please make sure you check-in using the CBR Check-in QR code, wear a face-mask and abide by all social distancing requirements set by ACT Health.
Uniform orders can still be placed for ‘Order for delivery’ which will be sent to your child's classroom.
The Uniform Shop is open below during the following times:
- Monday 1 November: 9am-10am
- Wednesday 3 November: 9 -10am (during Kindergarten orientation)
- Friday 5 November: 9-10am
If you have any questions or concerns, please email the uniform shop on stjohnsclothingpool@gmail.com.
Michael Grose
Michael Grose, founder of Parenting Ideas, is one of Australia’s leading parenting educators. He’s an award-winning speaker and the author of 12 books for parents including Spoonfed Generation, and the bestselling Why First Borns Rule the World and Last Borns Want to Change It. Michael is a former teacher with 15 years experience, and has 30 years experience in parenting education. He also holds a Master of Educational Studies from Monash University specialising in parenting education.