Dear St John the Apostle community,

Welcome back to school everyone. It's been a very calm and positive first week back. Welcome to all of our new families in Kindergarten and across the school. Thank you for choosing St John the Apostle to be a part of your family story and we look forward to your family being a part of our school story. It is a privilege.

I'd like to thank our fantastic staff for their hard work over several weeks to prepare for the return of our students. Even before the first day of school they met with parents, opened their doors for classroom visits, spent many hours preparing their teaching programs and rooms, making sure that everything was ready. Their work has enabled the first week to go very smoothly for all.

Congratulations Mr Doepel

Congratulations to Mr Doepel and his wife Ellie who welcomed a new baby boy earlier this week. His class has been very excited to receive the news and are looking forward to celebrating with him when he returns to school. We wish them the very best in this exciting time to come.

School Fete

Next Friday is our School Fete. You can find out more about it in sections below. I would like to thank Katie Matthews (our Community Council Chair) for all of her work in coordinating the fete this year. Thank you also to Rebekah Brown, Assistant Principal, for assisting Katie in the preparation. 

Our School Fete is a wonderful way to start the school year, bringing families together to catch up in a relaxed way. We're looking forward to seeing everyone. 

Community Council 2023

Are you interested in being part of our Community Council in 2023? On Wednesday 15 February at 6.30pm we will hold our Community Council AGM in the school library. It is an open meeting and all community members and friends are welcome to attend. The executive positions will be open for re-election.

The Community Council is an excellent way to be involved and connected to what is happening in the school. We meet on a Wednesday evening twice each term. If you are interested and would like to know more you can read about our Community Council on our school website or talk to one of the Community Council members listed there. You are also welcome to reach out to me and I will happily answer any questions or connect you with a current Community Council member to speak with.

To help us plan for the meeting could you please complete the following brief on-line form to register your attendance and interest. The form does not commit anyone to a role on the Community Council. It is an expression of interest and I will be in contact with those registering to answer any questions.

Travelling in 2023?

In these post pandemic times we've seen many families take the opportunity to travel again, particularly to visit family overseas that they have not seen for quite some time. It's wonderful to have that opportunity again.

If you find yourself planning a longer than usual trip in 2023 and your children will miss more than 25 days of school (including part days), but less than 12 months, then please complete the form below and drop it into the Front Office as soon as your arrangements have been finalised.

I'm looking forward to an exciting year ahead for everyone and watching all of our students learn and grow to become the very best they can.

Matthew Garton

Principal

Welcome back to all of our wonderful students and families! It has been so lovely to see how excited and happy our students have been to return to school. I hope everyone had a restful and joyous holiday.

Spelling Mastery

This week we started Spelling Mastery across our school from Year 1 to Year 6. We introduced Spelling Mastery to Years 3-6 last year and had such wonderful results, we decided to extend the program to Year 1 and Year 2. Kindergarten will start the first semester learning intial sounds through the Sounds~Write Program and will then transition to Level A Spelling Mastery in Semester 2. Alongside Spelling Mastery, K-2 will also learn the Let's Decode Program (phonological awareness and decoding) from Week 5 of this term. 

Spelling Mastery builds dependable spelling skills for students in Years 1-6 through a highly structured method that blends the following approaches:

• Phonemic approach - helps beginning spellers learn the relationships between spoken sounds and written letters and then apply them to spelling
• Morphemic approach - exposes advanced spellers to prefixes, bases, and suffixes
• Whole-word approach - gives spellers at all levels the meaning and root of a word and shows how the word's spelling is influenced

Targeted Intervention & Support

This year we will provide targeted literacy intervention to a number of students across the school. Mrs Rebecca Neiberding (Inclusion Teacher) and Mrs Tiffeney Ronneberg (Inclusion Assistant) will be running small group intervention in Year 1 and 2 called MiniLit. Mrs Rebecca Neiberding (Inclusion Teacher) and Mr Jack Biilmann will be running small group intervention across Years 3-6 called Macqlit. The other members of our Inclusion Team will be running 1:1 intervention across Years 1-6 based on the MiniLit and MacqLit Programs. We are currently doing assessment on students across the school to ensure the intervention is tailored to the needs of each individual student. If your child has been identified to receive intervention, Mrs Rebecca Neiberding will contact you in the next few weeks. 

MiniLit is an evidence-based, explicit and effective early literacy intervention program for teaching reading skills to children who are in the bottom 25% of the expected range for their age group in Year 1 or 2.

MacqLit is an explicit and systematic reading intervention program for small groups of older low-progress readers. It provides teachers with a comprehensive sequence of lessons that includes all the key components necessary for effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Rebekah Brown

What teachers are learning about

Last week, we began our professional development with a spirituality morning. We reflected on the Archdiocesan theme “Walking Together”.  The Archbishop has decided that this year we need to focus on unity. 

The scripture we are using is from Luke. Luke 24:13-35 The Emmaus story.  There are many ways to reflect on this scripture. A wonderful way to reflect is to listen to music. We started off with this song https://sovereigngracemusic.bandcamp.com/track/show-us-christ

I will share more in the coming weeks about staff spirituality.

What students are learning about

Many students are learning about school and the meanings behind the crest of St John the Apostle.

The book and feather represent his writing. If you see a statue, painting or other image of a saint, you will know it is him if he has a book and a feather.

The eagle represents his writing and how it “soared to the heavens”. Again, St John is often depicted with an eagle.

Finally the last section represents two things. After Jesus went to heaven the Romans were very scared of the disciples.  They tried to kill St John twice! The first time they tried to boil in him hot oil. You can see a big urn in the crest. The second time they put poison in his cup of wine. Both times he prayed very hard and he survived! In the end the Romans banished him and he lived the rest of his life on Patmos, a small Greek island.

St John was the very youngest apostle about 14 or 15.  He was so young that at the Last Supper he fell asleep on Jesus because it was such a late night. Have you ever fallen asleep on someone and been able to feel or hear their heartbeart?  Our priests Fr Kimi and Fr Gerard and Fr Michael all belong to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.  St John heard the Sacred Heart of Jesus beating that night at the last supper. That is why we are called St John the Apostle school.

Catholic Life and Reflection

This parenthood gig is a tough one, isn’t it? You think you have it all sorted and then something shifts and you have to re-evaluate.  For me, I have turned to prayer. I am making a big effort to pray for my children, my husband and myself; mainly for strength:

• Strength to let my children make mistakes and not rescue them, knowing that we have created a village of support around them.
• Strength to do things I know need doing and not leave them until tomorrow.
• Strength to let go of what I can’t control and enjoy the journey that God has planned.

It has been a beautiful week of new students, old friends and endless possibilities. I hope that your children have enjoyed their first week of school and rest well over the weekend.

I look forward to seeing you all face to face at the Fete.

God bless,

Stephanie Stewart

Religous Education Coordinator

Thank you from Vinnies

Our conference had a wonderful response to our Christmas appeal and we were able to deliver 55 hampers to families and gifts to 64 children in the community.

We are always grateful for the food donations St Johns Primary School generously provides towards the parish hampers each year.

Once again please pass on our thanks to the students and staff of St Johns Primary for all their support. We know for a fact that those 55 families are all very grateful for this little extra joy and happiness that the wider community shows to them at this time of the year.

Notices from the Parish

Latest Parish Compact - 29 January

Happy birthday to Paul K, Camille M, Alessia M, Vanessa O, Piper A,Aravindya P, Celine M, Kingsley O, Morgan O, Ebuka I, Hana N, Beau H, Jacob N, Raksha N, Rudhra N, Nate P, Roman D, Taylor M, Iylah B, Sophie K, Denzil W, Joshua W, Mehar S, Ivy S, Amolika T, Aliya S, Ethellyna B, Ethan Z, Vincent B, Grace G, Felicit B, Ashley C, Jack H, Noah M, and Angus G who all celebrated a birthday in the month of January.

If you have children attending another CE systemic secondary school, please complete the sibling discount form so the correct discount may be applied to your school fees account in 2023. Please ensure that you complete the form below and return it by close of business Monday 6 February to receive your discount.

Failure to complete and return will mean families will miss out on the discount.

 If you have any queries regarding your school fees account please contact our finance officer, Debbie Milne via email finance.sjaps@cg.catholic.edu.au

Fete 2023 - Friday 10 February 4pm-8pm

Cake stall donations

The cake stall is one of our fete icons, thanks to the delicious donations from you - our family and friends.

We are calling on our home bakers and treat makers to help us by donating baked goods and treats for this year’s fete.

This week, we sent home a plate and ingredient card with the eldest child of each family.

If you would like to donate please:

• make an item to sell at the cake stall
• list all the item’s ingredients on the ingredients card
• put the item on the plate provided and wrap in clear plastic
• drop your item off at the school on the morning of Friday 10 February 2023.

Unfortunately, we cannot accept items that:

• need to go into the fridge (for example goods with fresh cream and cheese cakes).
• do not have an ingredients list.
• contain nuts.

Here are some suggestions to get you thinking:

Cakes, cupcakes, slices, toffees, fudge, biscuits, scones, pies, chocolate crackles, honey joys, coconut ice, muffins, brownies, blondies, pikelets.

Thanks for your support and we are looking forward to seeing you at the fete.

Volunteer Sign Up

Our School Fete is taking place on Friday 10th February (Week 2, Term 1). Thank you so much to the families who have already donated items to the Fete. We are now asking for community members to volunteer their time on the day of the Fete. There are 12 stalls that we need volunteer support for on the day. They are as follows:

• Cake stall
• Tombola
• BBQ
• Chocolate Toss
• Curries and Pastas
• Drinks
• Fairy Floss and Popcorn
• Pizza
• Wine Fridge
• Second Hand Book Stall
• Gelato
• Show bags

There are also time slots to help with set up and pack up. All we ask is if you could volunteer one hour of your time on a stall through out the evening! Please click the below link to sign up:

Fete Volunteer Sign Up

Donations via QKR

We understand that it is a busy time of year for everyone. We have now set up an option for families who wish to make a donation to the Fete via QKR instead of going out and purchasing the suggested items. The Fete Committee will use the money to purchase items such as chocolate blocks for the Chocolate Toss. You can find this option in QKR under the heading School Fete. 

Pre-Orders 2023

All pre-orders are now avaiable on QKR!

Fete Four – Your child can get a sausage sandwich, drink, zooper dooper and coloured hairspray without having to carry around any money!

Ride Wristband – Enjoy unlimited rides on the Storm   Ride, Teacups, Giant Slide and beat your friends at Mini Golf or Soccer Shoot Out! 

________________________________________________________________

Orders must be placed via Qkr by WEDNESDAY 8 FEBRUARY

• Orders may be placed for students, adults, family, and friends.
• If you wish to pay in cash, volunteers will be selling pre-order items before school in the week leading up to the fete.
• Prepaid fete fours will be collected at the information stall from 4pm on the fete day.
• Prepaid ride wrist bands may be collected from the ride operators on the oval on fete day.
• Ride wristbands purchased on the day will be $30 each or $6 per ride.

Fete Performances

At the Fete (next Friday 4-8pm), students from across our school will have an opportunity to perform. Please see below the time each year level and Choir will be performing and the costume they can wear for their performance. We will call up each year level prior to their performance on the day. 

Belle Trevaskis will be participating in the Melanoma March on 5 March 2023 to raise money for the Melanoma Institute Australia, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the goal of zero deaths from melanoma. The Melanoma March is a 5km walk and she will be completing the walk with her grandfather, that she affectionately calls Fafa. Belles Fafa is currently receiving palliative care for metastatic melanoma. Belle has a goal to raise enough money so that other kids don't need to worry about their grandparents the way she worries about her Fafa. Please feel free to donate via this link https://canberra.melanomamarch.org.au/page/BelleTrevaskis.

All the best for your 5km walk Anabelle.