Dear St John's families,

We've had a lovely week at school.

Each morning we gather as a school on class lines. We greet each other, pray together, celebrate birthdays, give any messages and remind ourselves of the focus for the week for making St John's a safe and happy place to learn.

This morning's brief assembly was a beautiful start to the day. Everyone was engaged and listened so attentively. At the end, each line of students moved off silently to their class, ready to learn.

Our morning assembly is one of the many ways we create structure, routine and positive expectations for our community, aligned to our school rules 'Respect Others, Respect Self & Respect the Environment'. No matter how their morning has been, every students goes into class settled, relaxed and tuned into learning.

Supporting Positive Behaviour

This coming week we will welcome back Ian Luscombe from Behaveability, a behaviour consultant whose wisdom and experience we draw upon several times each year to fine tune our approach in supporting positive behaviour with students and to keep us accountable for what we do.

Ian is for us like Gordon Ramsey is for Kitchen Nightmares (except with more respectful language). When Ian is with us he follows us around and sits in classrooms to observe all staff in how they support positive behaviour with students. He asks questions, provides advice and models approaches. It is quite a vulnerable experience for all staff and because of their commitment to building a positive school culture our staff embrace the opportunity to learn from Ian. We value his input enormously and the result with students is very positive.

The Community Council is hosting a wine, cheese, tea & coffee evening with Ian Luscombe this Wednesday at 6.00pm in the school library. It is an opportunity for parents to come along and learn from Ian's expertise. He will talk through the approach we use at school but more particularly how similar approaches can be used at home. I highly encourage parents to attend.

We have had great interest already and if you would like to attend please follow this link to RSVP. This will help us with your planning.

Playground update

Work to begin removal of the old playgrounds will begin in the next two weeks. We have determined the best way to do this amidst the rain and soggy ground. Installation is still planned for the end of October or beginning of November.

Last day of term

In the letter at the following link the Director of Catholic Education for Canberra and Goulburn, Mr Ross Fox, has written to school communities to advise about a pupil free day on the last day of term. Please follow the link to understand why this has been determined.

Letter to School Communities from the Director

Following this communication, on Friday 16 December there will be a pupil free, staff development day. This day will allow our staff to be involved in finalising all administrative requirements for their current class and to prepare for new curriculum initiatives beginning in 2023 that will benefit all the students at our school.

The last day of term for students is Thursday 15 December.

Have a lovely weekend.

Matthew Garton

Principal

Scarborough's Reading Rope

On Tuesday, the Executive Team met to plan for Teaching and Learning in our school. We spent a large proportion of our time discussing Scarborough's Reading Rope and how we can continue to effectively implement all of the strands of the Reading Rope across our school. 

Dr. Hollis Scarborough invented the concept of the Reading Rope in the early 1990s. She used it to help parents understand the various skills their children needed to master to become proficient readers. Teachers immediately saw how useful the Rope was, and it has become an essential model when teaching reading.

Scarborough’s Rope contains two main sections: Word Recognition and Language Comprehension. Each of these comprises several smaller strands. Woven together, these strands become the rope that represents complete skilled reading. All the components are interconnected and interdependent. If just one strand is weak, it affects the rope (and the reader) as a whole.

The following video describes each of the strands of the reading rope and gives great examples of how parents can support their children at home in each of the strands. 

Transition Survey 2022-2023

Thank you so much to the parents and carers who have already completed the Transition Survey. We would love as many parents as possible to complete this survey before the end of the year.

Included in the survey are three questions to get to know your child's strengths, interests and learning habits and one question for you to express your wishes for your child's education next year. 

Please find the transition survey as a Google Form at the following link:

Christmas Raffle

We have already had 25 raffle ticket booklets returned and many families who have requested more booklets to sell. Thank you so much for your support so far. 

Each ticket for the Christmas Raffle costs $2. Tickets can be paid with either cash or on the QKR app. If the raffle tickets are purchased on QKR, please ensure that you enter the child's name and the numbers on the raffle ticket booklet. At the end of the year all raffle tickets must be returned to the school so we can account for them. The prizes are below:

1st Prize: $1,000

2nd Prize: $500

3rd Prize: $250 

All funds that we raise will go directly to the upgrade of our outdoor learning space. 

The raffle will be drawn at our end of year Christmas Carols and Picnic on Tuesday 6th December. 

All raffle ticket booklets (sold or not) need to be returned to the Front Office by Friday 2nd December (Week 8). 

If at any time you would like more raffle tickets to sell, please either email me or come to the front office to collect more. 

Thank you in advance for your continued support. 

2023 Fete - Donations

As our Fete is in Week 2 of Term 1 2023, we need to start collecting some donations now. The Community Council would appreciate your support in donating the following:

• Blocks of chocolate for the Chocolate Toss
• Bottles of wine or beer
• Clean plastic or glass jars for the Tombola Store
• Old keys 
• Second hand books for the book store

The above are the only donations that we will ask of our school community for the 2023 Fete. If you are happy to donate any of the above, please feel free to drop them into the Front Office at any time.

Happy birthday to Bhoomika P, Star H, Henry T, Grace W, Duke M, Chloe H and Madeline O 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.

Fees

Fees were emailed out on Thursday 13^th October. Fees are due Friday 11^th November unless paying by direct debit.

If you are paying by direct debit please ensure that your fees are paid in full by the end of the school year.

If you are experiencing financial hardship and  you need to discuss your fees please contact Debbie Milne either by email finance.sjaps@cg.catholic.edu.au or phone the school.

If you are leaving St John’s at the end of the year please ensure your fees are paid in full.

The signature/s that appears on the enrolment form is the person who is legally responsible for the payment of fees. This is the person/s that we will be seeking payment from.

If the student is leaving the school and the fees are not paid in full, we request that you contact our finance officer to discuss an arrangement for payment of fees.

 Compass Pay

Please request do not use COMPASS PAY to pay anything that is related to school expenses. It has very expensive administration charges and the school cannot sustain these. There may come a time when we will need to pass these extra costs onto families and this is something we would like to avoid. There are many other options for paying for school expenses. We have QKR, Direct debit, BPAY, cash and over the phone payments.

Thank you for your consideration in taking this on board.

Kinder Health checks were conducted at school earlier in the year. Canberra Health Services offer catch-up clinics for those children whose parents consented for them to have the kindy health check but were absent on the day/s they attended the school. Parents would have received an ‘absent’ letter from us, informing them of their child’s absence and inviting them to phone Central Health Intake to make a Kindergarten Catch Up appointment.

Appointments are held in the City Health Centre, Level 2, 1 Moore Street, Canberra City, and are available from Friday 9^th December until Friday December 16^th.

Parents can call Central Health Intake on 5124 9977 to make this appointment. When there is a queue, they offer a call back service. Parents may choose this option to retain their spot in the queue and receive a call back in turn.

Book club orders are due back by Tuesday 25^th October. Please order and pay online using the loop system.  

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

Friday 28 October 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.

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