Dear St John's families,

Thank you to our Assistant Principal, Rebekah Brown, for organising our Colour Run today. What a fun afternoon we had!

Thank you to our students for the way they embraced the activity. Thank you to our Community Council members who helped prepare the special lunch. Thank you to all families and students who helped raise funds, supporting the development of our kitchen garden and to support the important work of Catholic Mission.

Kindergarten & New Students Orientation

This week we held the second of our Kindergarten 2024 orientations. Our 53 new students were absolutely amazing and our staff were commenting on how  we 'fall in love' with a new groups of students each year. They were settled, excited about new beginnings and they engaged with every activity their teachers organised. They also met the Year 4 classes who will be their Year 5 Buddies next year and they were very comfortable to talk, laugh and eat together.

Yesterday we held an orientation day for new students in Years 1-6 in 2024. We had visiting students in nearly every year level. When I introduced three new students to Kindergarten (for Year 1 next year) the children immediately clapped and exclaimed 'Yay!' That same spirit of welcome was given to every new students that visited. I was very proud of our students.

Literacy Assessments

This week we have been finalising our DIBELS literacy assessments for all students across Kindergarten to Year 6. These assessments are conducted at the beginning, middle and end of the year. They help us track the growth of each student's fundamental literacy knowledge and skills. We also use this data to identify when a student needs some additional support in literacy and what in particular they need support with.

So far the data is looking very good and we're really pleased with the growth of our students. Later this term teachers will offer Parent-Teacher Interviews with families and this would be a great opportunity to see how your child has progressed this year.

There are 4 weeks left for the 2023 school year. There is a lot for us to accomplish in that time. We're also conscious that everyone, families included, are tired at this time of year. Let's help each other finish strong with positivity, celebration and excitement about the next chapter in our school story.

Matthew Garton

Principal

Colour Run

Spelling Mastery and Maths Mastery Awards

Congratulations to the students who received Spelling Mastery and Maths Mastery Awards this morning. 

Inclusion Showcase

On Wednesday, I attended the Classroom Support Teacher Network Day run by Catholic Education. In the afternoon, we had a showcase of a number of organisations who support people with disabilities. Some of the organisations that would be helpful for families are below. Please let me know if you would like any further information about any of the below organisations and the support they provide. 

• Positive Partnerships - Working together with parents, carers and educators of school-aged children on the autism spectrum to provide current, relevant and evidence informed information through workshops and online resources.
• Beyond Blue - Mental health support. 
• Living on the Spectrum - Free national autism and spectrum directory. Latest news, products and services in one location. For kids, adults, carers , friends and businesses.
• ACT Child Development Services - The Child Development Service helps Canberra families by providing free:
  • child development checks for children from birth to 6 years
  • autism assessments for children up to 12 years
  • therapy for children aged 24 to 36 months who may not be meeting developmental milestones and are not eligible for the NDIS.
• Amaze Autism Connect - Autism Connect is a free, national autism helpline, providing independent and expert information over phone, email and webchat.
• Imagine More - We want people with disability to enjoy the good things of life. So the work we do is focused on building the capacity of people with disability, their families and supporters.
• Text Help - We create technology to help people communicate with accuracy and fluency. We’re unlocking potential across all stages of life.
• I Can - I CAN Network is Australia’s largest provider of Autistic-led group mentoring programs, training and consultancy. Our school and online mentoring programs empower 8-22-year-old young people with an ‘I CAN’ attitude.

Ican_network.pdf

Ican_network _pdf 102.75 KB

Rebekah Brown

Catholic Life and Reflection

When I began my journey as REC my faith was not where it is today. I have been blessed by many experiences and a great deal of learning, however, the biggest impact on my faith has been the charism of the MSC’s.

In my time, I have had the privilege of working with Father Gerard, Father Kimi, Father Michael and Father Chung. Each in their own way have guided me and grown my faith. Although four very different men they have shared a common factor, their MSC charism, to be on earth the heart of God, in practical and honest ways.

At the moment, it is Father Chung who comes to visit a different classroom each week. Sometimes he does Maths with the students, sometimes he chats about what they have been learning in Religious Education but really, he just wants to build relationships. He wants to be present.

Yesterday, he came at Recess. He learnt how to play handball with Year 4. He went down the new slippery dip, much to the delight of Year 3 and he played soccer with Year 5. The kids were thrilled! Even though he didn’t realise, there was more than one soccer game going on and accidentally ended up joining another game.

What we want for our students is to see what it means to 'be on earth the heart of God'. What I see when Father Chung is interacting with the students like this is that he is meeting them where they are at. Play is extremely important to children. It is where they find their joy and sometimes their sadness but just being present and joining in means we value it.

In turn I hope they understand how having faith is part of who we are, even if we love soccer, handball or slippery dips. God is with us in all we do.

God bless,

Stephanie Stewart
Religious Education Coordinator

Happy birthday to Roger P, Penelope P, Aluel A, Amelia N, Pia G and Daniel K, who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.

Year 6 Families

As the end of the year approaches and your days at St John the Apostle are coming to a close, would you please ensure your school fees are all up to date by the end of the school year.

Year 6 Chromebook payments are invoiced on your fee statement for this term as QKR is longer available.

 Building Fund on Statement

For the families who responded to the email from Catholic Education Office re payment of the Building Fund, the new fee statement, sent out in the last week or so, may have had two amounts for Building Fund on it. If you paid your fees in full at the end of term 3 and this included the Building Fund, please just pay the one amount of Building Fund on your statement. The office will reverse the second amount in due course.

The Uniform Shop Opening Hours

Friday 24 November - 8.30-9.30am

Students have finished borrowing for the year so that we can do a stocktake. Stocktaking the library helps us to find missing or damaged books, evaluate the collection, and plan for future purchasing decisions. I will be sending out overdue notes to students during their library lessons. Please let me know if you think the books may have been lost, damaged or returned. 

To keep reading,  ACEN (Australian Catholic Education Network) Sora eBook and audiobook service is available, at no charge, for access by students, staff and parents 24/7 from school, home or any location.  The CE pays the annual subscription to Sora for all schools. 

Sora includes a large collection of eBooks and audio-books for students of all year levels, as well as adults.  The collection includes fiction, as well as non-fiction titles related to Australian curriculum topics. The current collection includes over 10,000 eBooks and audiobooks, including ‘Read-a-long’ books.

Sora may be accessed from any tablet, laptop, mobile phone, desktop computer, or loaded onto eReaders for offline reading.   

Sora APP for iPads  - ACEN library Login Procedures

1. Search and install the Sora APP from the Apple Store or Google Play.
2. You are directed to a screen that will read “Find my School.”
3. Choose “ACEN Member Collection.”
4. Sign into the ACEN Member Collection using the student Network Login details and Password (the Diocese from the dropdown menu will be “Canberra-Goulburn”).
5. The Sora home screen appears with the borrower logged in.  A borrower's Account button is at the top of the screen to see current loans and open books that have been borrowed.

Sora ACEN Website

The ACEN Sora website is located at
https://soraapp.com/welcome/login/202541. You will login using the above steps. 

Site Features

• Favorite titles will be displayed.  Click on a title to borrow it, or use the Search window to find a particular title or author’s books.
• Borrower’s title checkout limits and holds are displayed in your account. Titles are borrowed for 14 days and may be renewed.  Titles disappear following the borrowing period.
• Holds may be put on titles that are currently on loan to other borrowers.
• Titles may be read in the browser, or returned by clicking the Return button.
• After the title is opened on the screen, click at the bottom of the screen near the
• Other Advanced features are available for searching titles/groups of titles.  

Title Access Year Levels

Titles in the Sora collection have been given access year level ratings, so students will only be able to borrow titles rated for their level or below.  Students will see all available titles in Overdrive, but titles not able to be borrowed will be greyed out. Eg.  Year 3 students will not be able to borrow Adult level titles. Title are Juvenile (K-4), Young Adult (years 5-8) and Adult (Year 9 – Adult).

Parental Access to Sora

Parents may access Sora using their child’s computer network login details.  The child’s borrowing limit of 3 titles still applies.

Unfortunately, parents will not be able to borrow titles that are above their child’s access level.  Eg. If the child is a Year 6 student, parents will not be able to borrow Adult level books, only Young Adult or Juvenile level books.

Emma Alcock

Teacher Librarian 

NOTE: All donations can start to be dropped off in the Front Office from now until the Fete.

Our school Fete will be on Friday 15 March 2024 from 4-8pm (Term 1, Week 7). We are already well on our way with preparations. Please see information below about requesting volunteers in the lead up to the Fete and requests for donations. We really rely on our school community working together to ensure the success of our school Fete. 

Store Conveners 

Thank you to all of the parents who have contacted me to help out as store conveners. Please contact Rebekah Brown rebekah.brown@cg.catholic.edu.au if you would like to take on one of these roles or if you have any questions. 

At times, we may need to ask the store convenor to purchase some of the items required for the store. However, this money will be reimbursed as quickly as possible. 

Donations 

The Fete Committee has decided to send out all of the requests for donations for the 2024 Fete at one time so that families don't feel like there are requests every week or two. We rely on our community to donate a couple of items per child. Please see below a list of the items we are requesting. All of these items can be sent to school with your child or delivered to the front office. Thank you in advance for your donations and support. 

Tombola

For the 2024 Fete, we are doing Tombola a little differently. We are asking that a full jar is donated. In the past, we have asked for empty jars and the Store Convenor has filled the jars. The items also don’t need to be in a jar. They could be in a zip lock bag, a plastic container or anything that is enclosed and we can stick a raffle ticket on. 

Items that can be put in the tombolar jars/containers:

• Lollies and chocolates 
• Jar of trinkets - small toys, erasers, stickers, hair accessories, craft supplies, stationary etc.

Hampers

We are asking that each child in each year group, donates one or more items for the below hampers. Each year level has been allocated a theme. Year 6 has not been allocated a theme, as they will no longer be at St John’s in 2024. If Year 6 students would like to donate an item, they can choose any theme. Please see below images of past hampers. 

Kindergarten - Baby hamper (e.g. wraps, clothes, nappies, rattles, baby toys, wipes etc.)

Year 1 - Pet Hamper (eg. pet toys, treats, feeders, bowls etc.)

Year 2 - Kids Toy hamper (e.g. puzzles, fidget toys, board games, balls etc.)

Year 3 - Pamper hamper (eg. bath salts, candles, body products etc.)

Year 4 - Parents hamper (eg. wine, beer, chocolates, nuts etc.)

Year 5 - Home hamper (eg. tools, cleaning products, Bunnings gift card etc.)

Books

We will be having a book stall. We would love donations of books to sell at the Fete. These can be picture books, children and adult novels, recipe books etc.

Lucky Lock

We will be having a Lucky Lock competition again for the 2024 Fete. An esky is filled with wine and beer and locked with a padlock. We sell keys and one key opens the lock. This lucky person wins the esky and its contents. To run this competition, we would love donations of the following:

• Wine, beer etc.
• Old keys that are no longer useful 

Pre-loved Soft Toys

We are asking for clean and in good condition pre-loved soft toys to be donated. 

Thank you so much for all of your support in making out 2024 Fete a success.

Kind regards,

Fete Committee

Miss Amelia Hewitt is delighted to announce that she will be offering private one-to-one piano lessons in the coming year of 2024. Miss Hewitt has been the piano teacher at St John The Apostle Primary School for over a year now and holds many musical and teaching qualifications such as Practice of Music Certificate of Completion, Australian Music Examination Board Diploma both in Associate Teacher and Classical Performer, Classical Pianofort, ANZCA and AMEB, Australian Music Examination Board Certificate in Theory of music 5th Grade (prerequisite for the Amus Australia).

Miss Hewitt thoroughly enjoys teaching all her current students at St John the Apostle Primary School and would like to invite any new students who would like to enroll and learn the piano to contact her directly either by phone 0424102126 or email at amelia.hewitt676@gmail.com

We have run out of boys and girls spare underwear. We would appreciate donations of unused small size underwear to provide to students when accidents occur. Thank you.