Dear St John the Apostle community, 

Congratulations to our Kindergarten students who celebrated their first 100 days of school this week.

It's become quite a tradition among Canberra schools to celebrate the first 100 days. Governments know how important the first 100 days of office are. They attempt to achieve their most important policy directions in the first 100 days because after that they're thinking about the next election.

The first 100 days of Kindergarten are also important. Our Kindergarten parents can see just how much children learn in that time. How much they learn to read and write but also to sit and focus, to make and keep friends, to be independent, to be successful at school. 

Well done to our Kindergarten students, teachers and families on a successful beginning to the school journey.

Welcome

We will be welcoming several new inclusion assistants this term who will work closely with individuals and groups of student. They will run daily intervention programs in reading as well supporting students in classrooms. We welcome Mr Monaghan to the team who began this week. 

Relational Aggression Parent Forum

Thank you to the Community Council for hosting a parent forum on Wednesday evening on the topic of relational aggression. It was well attended by curious parents keen to understand this form of bullying and how to support their child should they be experiencing it.

The Community Council is committed to supporting our parent community, offering opportunities for parents to come together and learn about topics important to them. Thank you to our school counsellor, Nik-nur Shuhaimi for helping to lead this session.

The slides used will be made available in next week's newsletter.

Hats On

Its time to put hats back on during recess, lunch and PE lessons. Cancer Council ACT recommend hats off in June and July to support children's health. As it's August we're asking students and staff to wear their hats from this Monday. Students will play under a verandah if they forget their hat.

COVID-19 Cases

We're currently experiencing an increase in COVID-19 case across the school at the moment. We won't be notifying families about COVID-19 cases in the school unless under exceptional circumstances or on the advice of ACT Health.

Parents must tell the school if their child is diagnosed with COVID-19. This assists us to follow procedures for managing infectious diseases. Telling us when your child has COVID-19 will also help us track if there is an increase in COVID-19 transmission at the school and manage any high-risk exposures for more vulnerable school community members.

Students with COVID-19 symptoms should get tested and must not attend school while they are unwell. We have RATs available at the school and can provide families with these on request.

We strongly recommend parents and carers keep their child home for at least five days if they have COVID-19.

Parents and carers are strongly encouraged to report a positive RAT to ACT Health and follow their advice about isolation arrangements.

Thank you for helping to keep our school and healthy place to learn each day.

Have a safe and restful weekend.

Matthew Garton

Principal

Reading Interventions

Next week, we are introducing new reading interventions across the school. Selected students from K-2 will be participating in Early Interventions for Reading and selected students from Years 3-6 will be participating in Corrective Reading - Deocding. 

Some key aspects of the Early Interventions in Reading program:

• Phonemic Awareness: Students will learn to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words, which is crucial for developing phonics and reading fluency.
• Phonics: Your child will receive systematic instruction in letter-sound relationships, enabling them to decode and read words with confidence.
• Fluency: Through regular practice and guided reading, students will improve their reading speed, accuracy, and expression.
• Vocabulary: The program will expand your child's vocabulary through exposure to new words and context-rich reading materials.
• Comprehension: Students will develop strategies to understand and interpret the meaning of texts, enhancing their overall comprehension skills.

Some key aspects of the Corrective Reading - Decoding program:

• Systematic Instruction: The program provides systematic and explicit instruction in phonics, word analysis, and decoding strategies. Students will learn to break down unfamiliar words into manageable parts, enabling them to read with more accuracy and confidence.
• Direct Inclusion Assistant Support: Our highly skilled and dedicated Inclusion Assistants will work closely with your child in small group settings, providing individualised support to address their specific learning needs.
• Engaging Materials: The program incorporates engaging reading materials that are age-appropriate and relevant to the interests of older students. This approach fosters a positive and enjoyable learning experience.
• Progress Monitoring: Regular assessments will be conducted to track your child's progress and ensure that they are making significant strides in their reading development.
• Building Confidence: As students develop their decoding skills and see improvements in their reading, their confidence and self-esteem are likely to grow, positively impacting their overall academic performance.

Year One Phonics Check

In August, students across Year One will participate in the Year One Phonics Screening Check. 

What is phonics? 

Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds and is vital in learning to read. Some children struggle with learning to read so it is important these children are identified quickly so teachers can plan for any specific support they may need. 

What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check? 

The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is a short assessment that tells teachers how your child is progressing in phonics. Your child will sit with the class teacher and will be asked to read 40 words aloud. These words include 20 real words and 20 nonsense words. The test normally takes a few minutes. If your child is struggling the teacher will stop the check. The check is carefully designed not to be stressful for your child. 

Why use nonsense words? 

The assessment includes pseudo or nonsense words to see if the student is able to use their knowledge of blending to read a word rather than their memory of having seen that word before. 

More information  

If you have any further questions, please talk to your child’s class teacher. 

Rebekah Brown

What Students are Learning About

Father Chung visited Year One on Thursday. They talked about prayer. Year One loved having a special visit from Father Chung.

Catholic Life and Reflection

There are times when I can really relate to the story of Jesus calming the storm. Essentially, the disciples are freaking out. Jesus is asleep at the wheel, so to speak. When he wakes, He tells the storm to settle. “Be Still!”. 

Mark 4:35-41

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

Jesus Stills a Storm

³⁹ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

When life is a little crazy, I cling to this story.  I desperately try to follow the instruction “Be Still!” Between, full time work, cooking dinners, piano lessons, washing, taking care of kids and try to get a good night’s sleep there seems very little time for stillness…I am committing to finding some stillness this week.  I hope you do too.

Maybe a few moments in the car with no radio on, a cup of tea on the back verandah, or a quiet prayer before I get out of bed. 

This song is titled Stillness.  I used it with staff last year when we were reflecting on stillness and connection to country.

God bless,

Stephanie Stewart

Happy birthday to Theodore C and Emily T who both celebrated a birthday over the last week.

At St John's we teach a number of programs that focus on mastering particular knowledge and skills in literacy and numeracy. Students are taught based on their individual, current level of mastery. Two of the programs we teach are Spelling Mastery and Rocket Maths. We regularly collect data from students in both of these programs so we can track that they are having continous progress. Students work hard to achieve mastery in these programs, so we have decided to celebrate the students who show mastery in these programs by giving them awards.

Students will receive Spelling Mastery Awards once they reach mastery three times at their Spelling Mastery level. For some students this is 10/10 and for others it is 25/25. For Kindergarten students will receive Spelling Mastery Awards when they receive 10/10 for each unit they complete in Sounds~Write.

Students will receive Maths Mastery Awards each time they beat their Rocket Math Two Minute Goal.

Week 4 Spelling Mastery Awards

During Friday morning assembly in Week 4 (11 August), the following students will receive Spelling Mastery Awards:

Week 4 Maths Mastery Awards

During Friday morning assembly in Week 4 (11 June), the following students will receive Maths Mastery Awards:

Year 5 Camp:

Year 5 camp has been invoiced to your current fee statement, unless you had previously paid. Cost of the camp is $230.00

Year 6 Chromebook:

Year 6 Chromebook payment has been invoiced to your school fees for this term. Cost of the term is $53.00

With the upcoming migration to a new finance system we are unable to offer QKR as a form of payment for any items connected with school invoicing. All tabs have been closed down. Hence why we have invoiced Year 6 Chromebooks and Year 5 camp to the school fees. QKR will still be available for clothing pool, canteen and community council functions, just not the school.

The Uniform Shop Opening Hours

Friday 11 August - 8.30-9.30

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