Dear St John's families,

It is with sadness that I inform the school community of the death of Mrs Amber Anderson, wife of Jamie and mother of Tom (1 Blue) and Emily (6 Maroon).

Amber, an extraordinarily generous and kind person, battled cancer for quite some time before it finally took her from family and friends.

We ask you please to keep Amber's family in your thoughts and prayers as they journey through this very sad time.

Book Week

We've had a lovely week with the celebration of Book Week. Thank you to our colourful Teacher Librarian, Mrs Alcock, for all of her work in celebrating with our students.

Today we enjoyed our fun-filled dress up parade. It was really wonderful to welcome parents and family members back onto the school site to have fun with us. Thank you to all our parents and grandparents for helping the children come to school dressed up. It can be a little stressful to come up with a costume idea and I really appreciate the effort everyone made.

Schools as Gender Inclusive Communities

Today I attended the annual meeting of all Principals, Priests and Religious Education Coordinators in our Archdiocese. The focus of the meeting was on a recently drafted Australian Catholic Bishops framework statement on gender and sexuality, titled Created and Loved, and the resulting guidelines about gender inclusion for all schools. Throughout the meeting we were reminded that Catholic Schools continue to be places of love, inclusion and compassion. I look forward to sharing more with you as these documents are finalised.

Fathers Day Breakfast

We're pleased to invite our families to a Fathers Day Breakfast from 7.30am on Wednesday 31 August. We have the Shot Clock Espresso Coffee Van coming and our wonderful Merchant's Feast partners will be providing fresh donuts. To help us ensure we have enough food we ask you to RSVP at the link below:

School Board and Community Council Review

The Catholic Education Commission established a Working Group to review various aspects of Archdiocesan School Board and Community Council models.
 
The Working Group has engaged in targeted consultation with internal stakeholders and has had some preliminary discussions with a narrow group of external stakeholders, including representatives from the Catholic School Parents Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn.
 
They are now now seeking to draw on the experiences, expertise and perspectives of parents and carers, school staff and members of school communities through a process of general consultation. An Issues Paper has been drafted outlining the key issues that the Working Group has identified to date and posing a number of discussion questions that the Working Group is seeking responses to.
 
The following link will outline further information from Mr Ross Fox, Director of Catholic Education.   https://cg.catholic.edu.au/school-board-and-community-council-review/foreword/ 

The closing date for submissions is 2 September 2022.

Thank you for a great week everyone. We look forward to another week of learning and growing.

Matthew Garton

Walkathon

Please save the date for this year's Walkathon which will be held on Friday 16th September 2022 (Week 9 Term 3). The Walkathon is a great opportunity to support the school by raising money to improve school facilities.  Relations, friends, neighbours or businesses are all great sources of sponsorship!  

Proceeds of past Walkathons have seen major improvements to our school (eg. air conditioning, readers, Maths resources etc.) and all of these have been of direct benefit to the students at St John’s. This year all of the proceeds will contribute to purchasing the below modular playgrounds. The playgrounds are being installed this year!!!

We will be offering three prizes for the following:

• Student who raises the most money will receive a Nintendo Switch Lite
• For every $10 that each child raises, they will get a ticket in a draw to win a Nintendo Switch Lite
• The class that raises the most money will have a Pizza and Movie afternoon In Week 10

The more money we raise, the better facilities for the school.  When children are requesting their sponsorships pledges we are not asking them to wander around the streets unsupervised or to talk to strangers, but they should ask family members, relatives, friends, friendly neighbours etc.

 Donations can be:

• sent as cash to the office each week. All money should be returned in a plastic zip lock bag, clearly labelled with your child’s name and class. 
• sent as a Qkr payment. Individual sponsorships can be made via Qkr. Families can also collect cash and make the equivalent payment via Qkr. The total amount must match the record on the sponsorship card. 

We would like the money to be returned before the Walkathon as this allows us to tally final amounts and to present prizes at an afternoon assembly as close to the Walkathon date as possible.  It also enables us to promote the Walkathon more successfully as the sponsorship tally rises each day.

Please see below a map of the course and the number of laps covered by each age level. 

One lap is 1km on the outer course and 500m on the inner course.  Below is the amount of laps to be completed by each class and the expected start time. 

At the end of the walk the students will  receive a free sausage sizzle donated by the Community Council. 

• Kinder (with Year 5 buddies): 4 laps (inner course) (2km)
• Year 1 (with Year 6 buddies) and Year 2: 3 laps (outercourse) (3km)
• Year 3 and 4: 4 laps (outercourse) (4km)
• Year 5: 4 laps (inner course with buddues) + 3km (outercourse without buddies) (5km) 
• Year 6: 3 laps (outercourse with buddies) + 2km (outercourse without buddies) (5km)

• Kindergarten and Year 5: Start at 11:35am. Year 5 to start with Kindergarten doing 4 inner laps and completing 3 outer laps without buddies. 
• Year 1 and Year 6: Start at 11:50. Year 6 to complete 3 laps of the outercourse with Year 1 and then complete 2 outer laps without buddies.
• Year 4: Start at 12:00pm
• Year 3: Start at 12:10pm
• Year 2: Start at 12:20pm

Please email Rebekah Brown (rebekah.brown@cg.catholic.edu.au) if you are available to help on the day. 

Thank you for your support in our fundraising efforts.

The survey for young people on racism in the ACT 

The ACT Children and Young People Commissioner is talking to children and young people about racism in the ACT. If you are between 5 and 24 years old, you can have your say. To answer the survey online, scan the QR code below. You can also contact them in the following ways:

Fundraising

Over the next 6 months, St John's will be holding a number of fundraising and community events. These include the Walkathon, a raffle and the St John the Apostle Multicultural Fete. If there are any families in our community who own local businesses and would like to support the above fundraising events, we would appreciate any donations including products, gift cards and vouchers.

Our school would be extremely grateful for your support and in return we would list and regularly mention our generous contributors in the school newsletter, in our social media platforms and on our school website https://www.sjaps.act.edu.au/.

Happy birthday to Joseph G, Ekluvya G and James H who both 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. 

Please note that The Uniform Shop will be open on the following day:

Friday 2 September 8:30am-9:30am

Hats can be purchased at the Front Office but must be paid for via QKR or by cash only.

Parents are able to attend in person. 

If you have any questions or concerns please email the uniform shop on stjohnsclothingpool@gmail.com.

When ordering food for your child through QKR which requires a fork or spoon please remember to click on the 'spork & serviette' option for an additional 15 cents. Alternatively send in a fork or spoon with your child. St Johns aims to be environmentally friendly and therefore we do not supply these items. Thank you.

Book Club orders are due back by Tuesday 6 September. Please order and pay online using the loop system.