We share and take turns.

Dear St John the Apostle community,

Today was a day of celebration.

This morning we began with a Hot Cross Bun Community Breakfast. Thank you to our wonderful Community Council for providing this opportunity for families. One of the focuses for the work of the Community Council this year is to bring families together more often on site and help them to reconnect again. If any other families are happy to support the Community Council in tcreating community events then please contact me directly and I will pass on your contact details to the relevant Community Council member.

Our breakfast was followed with the presentation of our End of Term Awards. Each term we present three types of awards to two people in each class. You can see the names of the recipients of the awards further along in this Newsletter. The categories for the awards are:

• Academic Achievement: students who have achieved high results in specific areas of their learning.
• Consistent Effort: students who have continuously applied themselves to their school work every day.
• Discipleship: students who have displayed the expectations of 'respect self, respect others, respect the environment' each day.

It was a pleasure to present these awards to our students.

Next Thursday we will hold our Brag Tag Celebration. Each term we hold a small celebration for students who have collected 20 brag tag stickers during the term. Students are provided with a small sticker for their Brag Tag when they display specific examples of positive behaviour. Once they have collected twenty of them they submit them to the Front Office, have their photos placed on the Brag Tag Wall of Fame and receive an invitation to the end of term Brag Tag Celebration.

I'm looking forward to celebrating this with the students.

Staffing Update

Religious Education Coordinator, Mrs Stephanie Stewart, will be on leave next week and for the first five weeks of next term. We are in the process of appointing an Acting REC during this time and this will be announced next week. The Acting REC will support students, families and Parish during the preparation for the Sacraments. We wish Mrs Stewart well and look forward to her return in the middle of Term 2.

Enrolment Period

Early next term is the Enrolment Period for 2024. During this time we hold our Information Evening and School Tours for those interested in enrolling their child in our school. The details for these events are on the school website.

If you know any families interested in enrolling their child at St John the Apostle please refer them to our website for how to enrol. If you have a child who is due to start in Kindergarten in 2024 we will accept enrolments from the beginning of Term 2.

As we near the end of the term it is lovely to finish on such a positive note with community gatherings and award presentations. We look forward to another positive week next week.

Matthew Garton

Principal

World Autism Awareness Day

The United Nations General Assembly unanimously declared 2 April as World Autism Awareness Day.

This year, Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) asked the community what they would like people to know if they find out that a person has Autism. The most important message is that no two people with Autism are the same and that Autism may not be what you think it is. It’s not a one-size-fits all approach and there is so much misunderstanding out in the public. The environment and people’s attitudes can often be more of a barrier for people with Autism.

Autism Spectrum Australia has some great resources for students in developing their understanding of Autism. 

Rebekah Brown

Catholic Life and Reflection

Being a teacher is incredibly rewarding. Working with students on learning something new, especially something complex like writing, brings great joy when it finally falls into place for them. After many, many years of teaching I still get so excited when this occurs.

Year 4 are working on persuasive texts.  They are notoriously difficult to write. We have been using High Impact Teaching Practices, like explicit instruction lessons to implement our carefully designed and targeted program. It is having very positive results.

Last week I was able to send a student to Mr Garton to show him her persuasive writing work. She was so excited! Excited to show Matthew but she was super proud of her achievement. I love that.

The joy of teaching is vast. It does come from seeing the learning but also from being part of a community. As a community we share as teachers, parents and students.

When people ask me why I belong to the Catholic Church, an ancient and at times archaic institution, one of my responses is that Jesus didn’t come to create a church, he came to create a community. It is in community that we find each other and Him. 

Matthew 18:20

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

²⁰ For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

God bless you all,

Stephanie Stewart

Religous Education Coordinator

Happy birthday to Reedhee P, Logan C, Gurnoor K and Faith L who celebrated a birthday over the last week.

The Uniform Shop is open each Friday 8.30 - 9.30. They are fully stocked, so get in now to prepare for winter. 

New Hat Size:

Due to demand we now have a larger hat size available for purchase. L/XL: 59 -61cm. It is now available via QKR. 

PLEASE NOTE: 

This is a friendly reminder that if you are wanting items to be delivered to a child’s class, you must select the ‘Order for Delivery’ option. Notification will then be sent to the Uniform Shop notifying of the order. You must only select the ‘In-store Purchase’ option if you are physically in store. Please note that orders are filled each Friday morning, if you are wanting them to be delivered the same week, you must allow 48 hours for the order to be received. If it is outside the 48 hours, it will be packaged the following week.

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

Congratulations to the following students who received the End of Term Awards.