Dear St John the Apostle Community,

What a beautiful year we have shared. Thank you to all of the parents and families for their generous support for our school and most importantly for supporting their children as they learn and grow. Thank you to our staff for their continued willingness to work hard, be creative and always find a way to ensure their students are learning. Thank you to our students for their kindness to each other, including each other and for when they have challenged themselves to learn and grow in new situations.

Endings…

At our candle ceremony yesterday we farewelled our Year 6 students. It was a beautiful moment to see them pass the light of student leadership onto the Year 5 students. We lok forward to our Year 5 students becoming great exmaples for our school.

On Tuesday afternoon we also farewelled staff who are leaving. We farewell Katherine Stella and Samantha Slocomb as they take up teaching positions at St Clare of Assisi School in Conder. We thank them for their enthusiasm and care for their classes at each end of the school. Farewell also to Melissa Nisbet who will take up a position at Rosary Primary School in Watson and Kristina Hudina. They have been wonderful members of staff through Term 4. We also farewell Luke Folkard and Jessica Figura. They have been longtime members of our community and will be missed. Lastly we farewell Rheannan Vergano, one of our highly valued Classroom Support Assistants. She has made a big difference to many of our students every single day through her work with them this year. She will be missed. We wish her the very best in her exciting year ahead.

…and beginnings

At our One-Up afternoon yesterday (and via Facetime on Wednesday afternoon) our students were able to meet a number of new staff. Classes had the opportunity to meet Mr Brett Seaman, Mrs Allsion Lock, Mrs Alison Ewyk and Miss Bree McEnaney. Miss Sarah Collins will join us in Kindergarten in 2019.

Christmas Concert Photos

Thank you to Eliza Swiderski (mother of Lidia and Klaudia) who ensured our Christmas Concert was well photographed, creating a lovely record of memories. You can find many of the photos in the gallery below. What a fabulous talent!

Schoolzine app

In January we will cease using Skoolbag and begin using Schoolzine to communicate with families. A flyer was placed on the seats at the Christmas Concert about the new communication app we will use. Please download the app and register on it to begin receiving communication from St John the Apostle from January onwards.

School resumes for 2019 on Monday 4^th February. The Front Office will be open from Wednesday 30 January. Office staff will be involved in Professional Learning during some of this time and so will be available to help families on the Wednesday afternoon after 12.00pm and from 9.00am to 3.00pm on the Thursday and Friday.

I wish everyone a restful and peaceful Christmas and holiday break and look forward to seeing all of our families and students in the new year!

Have a lovely weekend.

Matthew Garton (Principal)

I am a child of the 80’s. Amy Grant's “Straight Ahead“ was one of my first albums (yes, on record!) I always loved the sentiment of the song Thy Word; that there is a path, a guide, a light in the darkness. The light, spread by the birth of a small child 2000 years ago continues to guide us today. We are not alone even when it seems that things are overwhelming.

In this Christmas season may the song and the psalm be a gentle reminder.

Psalm 119:105 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

May God bless you all and keep you safe this Christmas season.

Stephanie Stewart (Religious Education Coordinator)

Parish News

Happy Birthday to Charlotte H, Evelina T, Jasmine M, Sana A, Mark G, and Dylan W who all celebrated a birthday during the last week. Happy birthday to Amelia M, Hanna S, Brianna S, Oscar P, Isla B, Bronson D, Lily H, Natalia G, Raphael I, Anna G, Mason F, Cameron F, Alexis M, Lachlan R and Duot A who will celeberate their birthdays during the Christmas holidays.

Congratulations to the following students who received the End of Term Awards at the assembly on Monday afternoon.

Dear Parents/Carers,

What a fantastic year it has been in the Library. Thank you to our fantastic parent volunteers who have supported our Library by donating books or assisting with Library jobs and activities throughout the year.  Your help has been much appreciated.

Special thanks to our Year 6 Library Monitors and Volunteers for 2018

Our Library also had a wonderful team of Year 6 students who assisted with shelving, tidying and other activities. The Library Monitors gave up their lunchtime once a week to serve the school community and we give a huge thank you to them for their enthusiasm and hard work.  We couldn’t have done it without you!

Holiday Reading

It is vital that we continue to encourage our children to read widely and often whilst they are on holidays. Research shows that when students return to school after a long break, their reading ability can also have dropped. So keep it fun, read together, give books as gifts, whatever it takes to keep them interested! 

Overdue Books

Thank you to all the families who have brought their library books back. There are still however around 108 books overdue. Notices have been emailed this week and hard copies were given to students. Please have a search for them over the holidays.

If a book has been damaged or lost, we would appreciate the replacement of the book or a contribution of $8.00. This can be paid on Qkr!.

Have a wonderful Christmas Break and remember to keep reading!

Mrs Georgina Jaram (Teacher/Librarian)

Mrs Vanessa Hallaj (Library Assistant)

Managing Christmas Chaos as a Sole Parent

by Penny Webb

Did anyone else blink and miss 2017? December is hard to navigate at the best of times, but when you’re a single parent it can be particularly challenging logistically, physically, emotionally and mentally.

The end-of-year school concerts, presentation ceremonies, work parties, school parties, social catch-ups, Christmas shopping, decorating, more parties ... anyone else exhausted just reading this?

Nevertheless, here we are just weeks away from the busiest time of year, so it’s time to get proactive about managing the chaos that comes with Christmas.

1. Get technical
Technology has been my saviour in recent years. If it isn’t in my smartphone, it doesn’t happen! As soon as you receive an invitation or notification of an event, enter it into the calendar on your phone. This will minimise the risk of double bookings or at least get you on top of logistics early. For each event I set a reminder for a week ahead, a day ahead and an hour ahead.

Cozi (www.cozi.com) is a scheduling app that can link multiple users within a family. If you and your ex-partner are on Cozi, you can both see important dates that have been scheduled, such as school concerts and end-of-year presentations. Cozi is particularly useful for families that have shared care of the kids, helping everyone to stay across important dates with much less risk of something getting missed.

There is also the Parachuute app (www.parachuute.com) to help with the logistics of getting multiple children to multiple locations. Created by two Melbourne mums, Parachuute is a carpooling app that allows you to tap into your trusted network for help with transporting the kids to their various events.

2. Ask for help
There is a reason the saying “It takes a village...” is so popular. It absolutely DOES take a village to raise a child, especially if you are doing it solo. You physically cannot be in two (or more!) places at once, so reach out and ask family, friends and neighbours you trust for help.

When I moved two hours away from our family home in Sydney, I didn’t know anyone. But less than a year later, I have a lovely bunch of friends – mostly parents of my sons’ friends – whom I feel confident I can turn to when I need extra help. It may feel uncomfortable, but asking for help is one of the simplest things you can do to manage the busyness of Christmas.

3. Lower the high expectations you've set for yourself
This was a big one for me. Once I realised that aiming for perfection was only going to lead to disappointment – let’s face it, nobody is perfect! – I relaxed the ridiculously high standards I had set for myself. These standards were borne of parent guilt, divorce guilt, any sort of guilt you can think of. I did the emotional and mental work necessary to loosen up and lower those expectations.

Why spend hours handmaking individual gifts for teachers, coaches and dance instructors when a handwritten and heartfelt note of thanks will make just as much, if not more, of an impact?

4. Parenting down
My wonderful therapist shared this concept with me. It’s for those tough days – those times when everyone is a little exhausted, ratty and emotional. You don’t have to serve up a fresh, homemade meal with the perfect ratio of the five food groups. No way! If it’s been a tough day, parent down. That’s what 2-minute noodles or Weet-Bix for dinner is for. Give yourself a night off from your own expectations.

5. The gift of presence
Your financial situation changes when you separate, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. If money is a little tight, the kids won’t mind if there are less toys under the tree. Give the gift of your presence. Make a list of fun, low or no-cost experiences you can share together. Bushwalks, trips to the beach, even an afternoon running around under the sprinkler in the backyard. These are what memories are made of and memories last much longer than the latest Pokemon.

I also use this little ditty to keep a lid on gifts: “Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read.” Add some fun family experiences into the gift-giving mix and you’ll have happy kids.

Christmas can be a tough time of year for single parents. Getting on the front foot from an organisational point of view will stand you in good stead for managing the physical, logistical and emotional demands December brings.

Just keep swimming. You got this.