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Please go to our school calendar on the website or COMPASS for more details.
Please note that Term 2 Monday 29 April is a pupil free day. The first day of Term 3 and the last day of Term 4 (22 July, and 17 December) are also pupil free days for professional learning for staff. Students do not attend school on these days. OSHClub will be available.
Term 1 Weeks 9-11
- Community Council Meeting (week 10)
- K-2 Parent Reading Night (week 10)
- End of Term Award Ceremony (week 11)
- Cross Country (week 11)
- Friday 12 April - Last day of Term 1
The school positive behaviour focus this week was:
Follow staff instructions.
Ngunnawal word of the week:
Wiinyu (means 'sun')
Dear St John's families,
Thank you to our wonderful Community Council for providing the Hot Cross Buns Breakfast this morning. It was a lovely community event and great to see so many people present. I enjoyed chatting to people to find out about their plans for the Easter break. Lots are just keeping it simple. Sounds perfect!
Are you feeling connected with the school?
We've already had so many opportunities this term for families to connect with the school. Our recent fete was very well attended by our own families and the local community. Our recent Parent-Teacher Interviews were also an excellent opportunity to connect with teachers. There were a lot of family members at the Kindergarten Teddy Bears Picnic. It has all been fantastic.
One of the goals of our Community Council this year is help build connections between families through school events, just like this morning's Hot Cross Bun Breakfast.
Did you know that our very successful fete couldn't have happened at all without the assistance of the 50 SFX students that helped on stalls alongside the parents who volunteered. Without them, we just wouldn't have had enough parent volunteers to run the fete at all. In fact, three of my children (19, 21 and 24) who came to just visit the fete because they used to go to St John's, ended up jumping on stalls because there weren't enough parent volunteers. Two of them stayed until the end of pack up at 10.00pm alongside a small handful of tired but committed parents. My children were happy to help, even though it was no longer their responsibility.
I was so appreciative of every parent who volunteered, for any amount of time at the fete. I was also very, very appreciative of the SFX students and my own children who no longer attend the school but generously helped because they felt a deep sense of connection and appreciation to the school.
It did make me wonder....where have all our parents gone? I wonder why so few parents volunteered to help at the fete? I know they love being part of the school. I know they appreciate how hard the staff work. I wonder why we didn't have as many parent volunteers as we needed?
I have been Principal of St John the Apostle since 2017. One observation I would make is that prior to Covid, we would always get enough volunteers for events such as working bees, fetes, barbecues, etc. Since Covid, following all of that time being isolated and also not being able to gather or have parents in the school, we've had far less volunteers for events. I wonder whether we got into a habit of going to community events and forgetting that they actually need people like me to help a little so we can all enjoy them. I think I was a little guilty of that, I got a little comfortable in not helping until I realised we're all in this together.
What do you think? I'm really happy to hear your thoughts.
Schools are not just education providers. They are communities where students, staff and families belong. Creating a place for everyone to belong helps to ensure that it is a safe, happy and engaging place to learn. In fact,
There is consistent evidence that parents’ encouragement, activities, interest at home, and participation at school affect their children’s achievement, even after students’ ability and family socio-economic status are taken into account. (Australian Parents Council, 2009, p. 13).
Of course, interest and engagement in children's learning at school is the first and most impactful role a parent can have. It's what we would always prefer people to do before anything else. It's great to see so many people coming to the Parent Reading Session next Tuesday evening (see more information later in this newsletter).
Children who also watch their families be involved in small ways at community events also learn to value the school they go to every day and how, in simple ways, one can help their community.
Volunteering and helping also has so many personal positive impacts as well. The more we give, the happier we feel. Volunteering increases self-confidence. You are doing good for others and the community, which provides a natural sense of accomplishment. Your role as a volunteer can also give you a sense of pride and identity.
I know we have a whole lot of families in our community that have a variety of skills and talents that, if asked, they would happily share. I know we have a variety of parents and family members who would love to help but perhaps feel that they don't have much to offer. I know that there are parents who who love to help but have little ones and that can be challenging. I've been there. So has everyone else. We're all in the same boat.
So, as part of building connections between families this year, you'll start to see a few announcements coming out next week about ways you can help with our community. Please consider them. We'd love to have lots of family involvement in our community events and in our school. We'll always be thankful.
Janitor/Groundsperson Job
Mr Sneesby, our long serving Janitor/Groundsperson, is retiring at the end of this term and we have advertised to recruit a new person to the role. If you know anyone that might be interested then please direct them to the following job advert. Applications close on 6 April. If anyone has any questions about the role they are welcome to contact me or catch me before then.
I hope you all have a wonderful Easter break and I look forward to seeing you again on Tuesday!
Matthew Garton
Principal
K-2 Reading Night (Tuesday 2 April)
Thank you to the families who have already RSVP'd.
Please RSVP using this form: https://stjohnflorey.schoolzineplus.com/form/77
On Tuesday 2 April (Week 10), the Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers will run a Parent Reading Session from 4-5pm.
During this session, we will discuss the main assessment we use to assess your child’s reading development. This assessment is called DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). We will discuss how DIBELS helps us to identify skills that need to be developed for a child to successfully read. For those parents who come to the session we will provide their child’s results in a parent report. We will discuss the report in detail and give you strategies to easily and quickly support your child in these areas at home. Unfortunately, if you do not attend we will be unable to give you this report as it requires explanation. This session will take place in the hall with all parents/carers that attend from Kindergarten to Year 2.
For the second part of the session, each parent/carer will move to their child’s classroom. During this session, the year level teachers will discuss specific reading strategies for their year level. There will also be an opportunity for you to practise these strategies with your child and gain support from your child’s classroom teacher.
Please bring your child with you. For the first part of the session, we will look after the students in their classrooms. You will then meet them for the second session in their classroom.
We highly recommend that parents/carers attend this session. Your child’s reading success in the lower primary years are instrumental to their ongoing success as they grow older. Classroom teachers will also individually call parents to request they attend this session if they think it will be especially beneficial to your child.
We know that a number of parents have already attended this session last year. However, the skills that your child’s current teachers will work with you and your child on are different from last year and are age appropriate.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Cross Country
Our Cross Country carnival will take place on the last day of term from 11.25am-1.25pm (Friday, 12 April). Please see below the course and also the distance each year group will run on the day. If you are able to help on the day, please email me at rebekah.brown@cg.catholic.edu.au
- Kindergarten (1 x inner loop 500m)
- Turning 7 in 2024(Year 1 and 7yrs from Yr 2– 1 inner loop 500m)
- Turning 8 in 2024 (Year 2) (1km – 1 outer loop)
- Turning 9 in 2024 (Year 3) (1.5km – 1 inner loop and 1 outer loop)
- Turning 10 in 2024 (Year 4) (2km – 2 outer loop)
- Turning 11 in 2024 (Year 5) (3km – 3 outer loop)
- Turning 12 in 2024 (Year 6) (3km – 3 outer loop)
Rebekah Brown
Assistant Principal and Inclusion Coordinator
What Students are Learning About
It is a treat that Easter falls in the term. All grades are working on Holy Week and Resurrection artworks and activities. Next week I will share photos of each year level's completed Easter artworks.
Another Easter has arrived. I always enjoy Good Friday, such a quiet day. I usually attend the Stations of the Cross at St John's Kippax or I have also walked the stations from St Francis Xavier in Hall down the hill. Each time I do this I am struck by how hard it must have been for the people around Jesus, those who truly knew and loved Him to watch.
The sufferring, the anguish, the pain all etched on His face and body but nothing can be done to help.
At those times in our lives when we walk with people who are suffering it is so hard to know what to do. My instinct is to protect them at all costs and not let them suffer, of course this ends up making things worse in the long run.
I am trying to learn that difficulties bring growth, hope and new life; that developing as a human comes from being supported and loved through the trials that come our way.
What better example to have but a Nazarean peasant who died on a cross for the sins of all.
God bless, Happy Easter.
Stephanie Stewart
Notices from the Parish
Happy Birthday to Casper Nolan, Reedhee Pandey and Joshua Ho who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.
This year we will present a number of awards to students. Please see below the schedule for this term. Most awards will be handed out on a Thursday morning.
At St John the Apostle 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 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.
This year we will also be presenting Brag Tag Awards. These will be handed out each time a student receives 20 brag tags.
Award Schedule
|
Week |
Award |
|
Week 10 |
Spelling Mastery Awards presented Brag Tag Awards presented Rocket Maths Awards presented |
|
Week 11 |
End of term awards |
Brag Tag Awards - presented this Thursday 4th April, 8:50am (Week 10)
Spelling Mastery Awards - presented on Thursday 4th April, 8.50am (Week 10)
|
Kindergarten |
Year One Edie BRENNAN Daniel QUINN Rita TRAN Jennifer NGUYEN Amalie HANNA Tia MCNAMARA Zoi SEHGAL |
|
Year Two Lillah JOHNSON Bettina MORRIS Alexander RICHARDSON Jacob O'DONNELL Rihaan SALHOTRA Emma WOODEN Alexandra BRADBURY Patrick GLENN-DOWNEY Grace GUIDOLIN Audrey Oetomo |
Year Three Nathaniel GARANG Oskar EL-GEDDES Rubi SHEAN Sophia WOODS Thomas DA SILVA Kudrat Kaur Jeremiah FRENCH Lachlan FRANKCOM Mariam HAMEED Kyler ASENCE Chloe HAN Spencer CANTWELL Sonem DROLMA Simon TRAN Charlotte McCabe Victor Lomax Nicolas Lester |
|
Year Four Samuel O'DONNELL Sophie PEISKER Dhodrul Dolma Henry JOPLING Madison STANTON Viliami MAKA Riley STOKMAN Ava KING Rudhra NAIR |
Year Five Jonah TERRON Campbell GREEN Ethan ZARETSKY Sophia CLARK Thomasina NEILSON Jamyang Gatsho Jampel DAWA Aradhana ARAVINDA Amelia NGUYEN Evie MATTHEWS Illeana ROZARIO Henry TON-THAT |
|
Year Six Angus GALLAGHER Michael HOWES Pema TENZIN Te-Aroha BAXTER Zara THORPE Beau Hill Charlotte STANTON Emma DUKE Kelsey NYINWAH Liam DOWNEY Alexa CHILLEY Bailee KISGEORGE Tessa VERA Benjamin BEVAN Olivia AYTON Leo JACKSON |
Maths Mastery Awards - presented on Thursday 4th April, 8.50am (Week 10)
|
Kindergarten ANTHONY, Noah BRABEC, Jordan DIXON, Cooper DULGEROV, Mila FEARNE, Zara GARANG, Grace GORRINGE, Cassius HUSKISSON, William JOZWIAK, Adaline JOZWIAK, Aviana JUSKEVICS, Ivy LESTER, Liam LORICCHIELLA, Brody MASTERMAN, Timothy MCCABE, Joseph MILES, Frederick MUTINHIMA, Alisher NILSSON, Klara PRADHANANGA, Jayden WILLIAMS, Zachary WOOD, Aria WOODEN, Jacob WEERARATHNA, Diyana BARRETT, Kate CASSAR, Benjamin COLE, Arlen DA SILVA, Bailey GREBOWSKI, Ariella GUIDOLIN, Zane HAMEED, Aliya HARRIS, Jacob HEDGES, Samuel KAUR, Amber LOMAX, Wells MULLER, Ruby NIELFI, Clelia OLLEVOU, Harper OSBORNE-GOLDSBROUGH, Penelope PARDY, Oscar PAZ, Enrique RIXE, Amelia SARTOR, Grace TAKEDA, Pearce TSHEWANG, Drakzin WHITE, Hannah WIJNBERG, Evelyn WILLS, Jordan |
Year One Jack Blewitt Henry Bradbury Edie Brennan Ali Kayvanshokoohi Ava Kraljevic Sian Kim Jennifer Nguyen Kingsley Onyekaike Grace Riley James Stephensen AJANG, Ajak KHALUE-REINDL, Troy |
|
Year Two GLENN-DOWNEY, Patrick HEDGES, Joseph HILHORST, Bevan JOHNSON, Lillah JOPLING, Charlie LORICCHIELLA, Jackson MCDONALD, Alessia MORRIS, Bettina OETOMO, Audrey RICHARDSON, Alex SINGH, Aarzah TOBGAY, Rigdzin WATMAN, Simon WHEATLEY, Maxwell WHITE, Abel BROADHURST, Cameron COLE, Tommy DIXON, Ryan GUIDOLIN, Grace HO, Sky IRVINE, Addison LARKIN, Henry MCDONALD, Camille PURCELL, Nate SALHOTRA, Rihaan TERRON, Rylee TRAN, Julia WEDD, Evelyn WHITFIELD, Grace WOOD, Ayla WOODEN, Emma ZARETZKY, Liam |
Year Three ANDERSON, Thomas CANDY, Lewys DROLMA, Sonam FRANKCOM, Lachlan GALLANA, Pia HAMEED, Mariam HOWES, Martin KHATTRI, Rohanika KNIGHT, Mackenzie KOROMA, Daniel LEIVA LAINEZ, Erick LESTER, Nicolas MCCABE, Charlotte PANDEY, Reedhee SUTHERLAND, Zakary TILIJA, Anna TIWARI, Tanish WANGMO, Jigme AMRADO, Tymon ASENCE, Kyler BRUNING, Kaylee EL-GEDDES, Oskar FRENCH, Jeremiah HAN, Chloe MATTHEWS, Austin |
|
Year Four AMRADO, Jayden AYTON, Penelope GAO, Jessica HUSKISSON, Jack JOPLING, Henry LARKINGS, Chloe LE, William MAKA, Viliami MCNAMARA, Logan MULLINS, Hugo NAIR, Rudhra O'DONNELL, Samuel PEISKER, Sophie QUINN, Caleb STEPHENS, Lachlan STOKMAN, Riley TSHOGYAL, Euphel Neiberding, Katie AJANG, Aluel BUJUNE, Angel CLIFFORD, Ashley DOLMA, Dhodrul DORJI, Jigme GABELLONE, Hugo HALL, Matthew IRFAN, Hiba LE, Marian MAKA, Fiesta MOULDS, Jackson MUTINHIMA, Asher NAIR, Raksha PHAM, Steven PIETERSE, Henry SANDRAI, Alex SPEECHLEY, Isabella TUNDULIN, Lilijana |
Year Five ACKERMAN, George ARAVIND, Aradhana BADENHORST, Chealsea BONNY, Xavier DAWA, Jampel DEL GUZZO, Darci DIXON, Noah DWIVEDI, Gauri ELSTON, Alexander KHADKA, Sophie MADDOX, James MILLER, Jordi PANNILA, Aravindya PAYNE, Grace REBECCA, Grace THURBON, James WATMAN, William |
|
Year Six BAULCH, Felicity BROADHURST, William DUKE, Emma HALL, Jacob HOWES, Michael MCNAMARA, Ky NOTT, Sophia ONYEKAIKE, Vanessa ROBERTSON, Jack SACHDEVA, Naveliangel SAWYER, Nate SCARANO, Lorenzo SEHGAL, Alisha THEXTON, Emily TREVASKIS, Anabelle-Louise VA, Lilly WAILES, Abbey WHIMPRESS, Denzil AYTON, Olivia BALTHAZAR, Ethan CAMPBELL, Ethan DOWNEY, Liam GALLAGHER, Angus HAURELIUK, Oz HILL, Beau JACKSON, Leo KISGEORGE, Bailee NGUYEN, Kelvin NGUYEN, Rachael NYINWAH, Kelsey PIETERSE, Charlotte RICHARDSON, Abbey STANTON, Charlotte THORPE, Zara VINOLES, Emilio WEST, Blake YOUSSEF, Sophia ZAIRE, Ziva |
Opening Hours
The Uniform Shop will be CLOSED on Good Friday.
The next opening time will be:
Friday 5 April - 8.30am-9.30am
If you have any questions or concerns please email the uniform shop on stjohnsclothingpool@gmail.com
There is a jar filled with eggs for students to guess the number of eggs contained in the jar. The jar will be displayed in the Office should parents wish to help their child estimate a realistic guess. Year 6 students will also receive guesses during break times.
Each guess will cost 50 cents. Multiple guesses are welcome. The competition will be run during allocated recess and lunch breaks.
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 2 April.
One of the most common complaints I hear from parents about their children is that, “The kids just won’t listen.” But guess what. They are listening. They’re just not complying! You’ll typically find that a handful of standard answers permeate the Internet and parenting advice books when it comes to this topic. Let’s acknowledge them first, because they can be helpful.
1. Keep it simple
Short sentences are easier to process than long lectures. Keep your statements and requests simple, clear, and direct.
2. Get on your child’s level
Making eye contact, smiling, and ensuring your child has heard you always improves the likelihood that your child will act.
3. Repeat it back
Ask your child to tell you what you told them. If you ask them to pick up the wet towels from the bathroom floor and they’re not responsive, ask them, “What did I say just then?” and wait for them to tell you.
4. Speak more quietly
Speaking louder (yelling) won’t draw them to you and it’s unlikely to encourage them to want to listen to you. Try speaking softly. They’ll open their ears, lean in, and listen carefully.
5. Gentle touch
A soft touch on the arm, a squeeze or a hug, or an arm across the shoulder… These gentle touches can be enough to act as a circuit-breaker so your child can pay attention to what you’re asking and help move things along.
6. Drop the don’t
Say what you want. If you tell your child what not to do (such as “don’t hit the stick against the wall) It requires more effort on the part of your child to redirect their energies. Now they have to stop doing the thing that’s bothering you and think of something to do instead.
7. Find a way to say “yes”
When you have to say “no”, spin it into a “yes”. If you’re asked, “Can we stay at the park longer?” you can say, “You bet. We’ll have a longer stay at the park on the weekend when we come back with your friends.” If they plead, “Can we please have ice-cream”, respond with “You sure love ice-cream. We’ll have ice-cream on Friday night with our movie like always.” Your yes is usually going to be a “not now,” but if you phrase it right, it goes down a treat.
If we want to be even better parents, the five suggestions in this next section will help us take it to a whole new level:
The fancier answers
1. Keep it simple
When you ask your child to do something, consider the connection. Connection means feeling seen, heard, and valued. Do your children feel like you see them as more than a convenient way to get something done? Trying to command without connection – like yelling between rooms – is a lousy way to have your kids pay attention and usually won’t lead to anything resembling compliance. (It’s not realistic to expect that you’ll “connect” every time something needs doing. But maybe we can connect more than we currently are)?
2. Timing
If your child is in the middle of something their listening and compliance will be way down. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask our children to be involved in helping when they’re doing something. That’s not realistic. But when we’re sensitive to their priorities, things go better. Consider statements like, “When that episode is done, please turn off the tv.”
3. Capability
We expect too little of our children physically and we expect too much of our children emotionally. Demanding they “calm down” or “stop it” might be more than they can manage. But asking them to clear the table will typically not be too much. Consider their developmental capability, emotionally and physically, before issuing edicts.
4. Context
Your child might be perfectly capable of going to bed on time most nights, but on a sleepover night (or some other major event), the context changes. Demanding perfect behaviour at a funeral might make sense and be a sign of respect, but if they’re grieving and confused, or if all of their cousins are there and they’re excited, we might need to adjust our expectations. Requiring our children to listen to us the same way in every context is to expect our children to act like robots. Be mindful of context.
5. Gentle reminders
Call your child by name. Look at them and quietly remind them of the issue that’s requiring focus. The fewer words you use the better. Two is ideal. For example, “Your bedroom,” “Your stinky socks,” “The dishes,” and so on. Say please, and smile kindly.
The advanced answers
There are even better answers, but space won’t allow me to describe them here. You can find the entire list in my brand new book, The Parenting Revolution. As a sneak peek, remember to be involved with your children when they have something to do. Be patient and give them a chance to act before cajoling them again, make it fun, and consider how much connection is happening compared to correction and direction. Lastly, remember it’s totally reasonable and acceptable for parents to expect their kids to help out around the house. These ideas (and the extras in my book) will help change the game.
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The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia have recently unveiled their Autumn film program, which iincludes a selection of well-loved 1980s/90s family classics.
The program includes screenings of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Space Jam and The Sound of Music which fall within the upcoming ACT school holidays.
Hercules + Kids’ Easter Egg Hunt | 1.45pm, Sun 31 Mar **selling fast**
With an epic storyline, heroic characters, plenty of laughs, and an inspiring soundtrack, Hercules is great fun for the whole family. A pre-screening chocolate egg hunt for kids will take place in the NFSA Courtyard at 1.45pm. All children will also receive a complimentary activity sheet to spot the ‘Easter eggs’ (hidden clues) during the film.
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial | 1pm, Thu 18 Apr
Young Elliott discovers and befriends a stranded alien, hiding ‘E.T.’ in his suburban California house with the help of his siblings. One of the most enduring and beloved family films of the 20th century, E.T. has captured hearts for decades.
Space Jam | 1pm, Fri 19 Apr
Michael Jordan plays himself in this iconic ‘90s sports comedy, leading a team of Looney Tunes characters in a basketball game against alien invaders. The green screen mash-up of live action and animation is sure to bring joy.
The Sound of Music (35mm) | 1pm, Sun 28 Apr
This cherished family classic stars Julie Andrews as Maria, a nun who becomes governess to the Von Trapp children. Maria brings joy and music to the household, winning over the children – and audiences throughout the decades.
Matilda (35mm) | 1pm, Sat 25 May
Neglected by her parents, the quick-witted and inquisitive Matilda discovers she has psychic powers. Can she use her gifts to escape the cruelty of ornery principal Trunchbull and save her fellow students and the kind-hearted Miss Honey?
