Dear St John's families,

This morning we celebrated our mums and those who play that very important role in our lives. Thank you to our K, 1 and 2 teachers who provided a beautiful breakfast including tea, coffee and muffins for families. It was a very energised community event.

Thank you again to our parents who prepared the many Mothers Day gifts for students to purchase to give to their mums. These were distribute to classes today.

Teaching Child Safety

Following from last week's newsletter, I wanted to tell you a little about the Protective Behaviours program we teach to students across our school. This program began in the 1980s in Australia as a response to the increasing number of children disclosing experiences of abuse. The intention was to give children the understandings and skills to be proactive in both protecting themselves and seeking help from trusted people.

I first began teaching Protective Behaviours in South Australia in the 1990's and it has continued to remain largely the same, with some changes to suit new contexts such as culture, age, identity and technology.

There are two main themes that are repeatedly talked about throughout the Protective Behaviours program:

This week I would like to explain a little about the first theme:

We all have the right to feel safe all the time

From Kindergarten to Year 6 we remind students that they have the fundamental  right to feel safe at all times of the day, wherever they are (including online), with everyone - family, friends, teachers, grandparents, carers, shop assistants, etc.

One important concept for them to understand is that feeling 'unsafe' is not always

something to avoid. There are not two states of being: safe or unsafe. In fact, nervousness and taking a risk is okay in fun situations where we have some choice and control, such as going on a ride at the fete, your first day at school or watching a scary movie. We all have a right to choose when we accept feeling a little scared or take a little risk.

We also teach about Early Warning Signs. These are the sensations we experience in our bodies that tell us we are feeling unsafe, such as 'butterflies', clammy hands, wobbly knees, etc. Remembering again that anxiety and nervousness are normal human experiences we listen to our early warning signs to help us know to stop, take note of what is happening and to take some action if needed. With anxiety and nervousness we say 'let's get our butterflies in formation'. With genuine lack of safety we teach students to take action to get safe or seek support (I'll write about this next week).

You will have heard about children and families being 'groomed' for quite some time prior to and following a perpetrator committing abusive acts. One particularly well-known grooming behaviour is that of asking a child to keep a secret about what has happened and to threaten unfavourable consequences if they tell.

We teach children about safe and unsafe 'secrets'. Safe secrets (or 'surprises') are when we ask children to not tell mum what we are organising for Mothers Day, or getting ready for a surprise party. These are secrets that other adults and others know about, no one will get hurt and usually have a 'due date'. Unsafe secrets are those that make us feel uncomfortable, where someone is getting hurt and have no real end date. We teach children that if someone is making them keep an unsafe secret then they need to ask for help.

Next week I will continue to write about what we teach in Protective Behaviours. If you want to know more of how you can help your child understand how to stay safe  I encourage you to read the ACT Government's Protecting Your Kids: Personal Safety Education for Parents. 

Enrolment Period

The 2025 Enrolment Period has begun. If you have a child ready for Kindergarten next year now is the time to submit an enrolment form. If your child is heading to Year 7 next year then please submit your enrolment form for SFX within the enrolment window to ensure your child will have a place there.

Parents are a great support for maintaining enrolments in a schools. If you know of any families that are curious about enrolling in our school please do encourage them to visit during one of our tour times this term. They are also very welcome to talk to me about how we can assist their child in their schooling journey.

Thank you for your ongoing support for your child and our school. I hope everyone has a lovely day on Sunday celebrating the mums they have or fondly remembering the mums they miss.

Matthew Garton

Principal

Pokemon Cards

We have had a number of issues with trading of Pokemon cards since the term has commenced. Instead of banning them, Matthew and I want to provide an environment where they can do this in a positive way.

We will be running a Pokemon Club on Tuesday and Thursday in the library at lunch time. Students are only allowed to have their Pokemon Cards out during these times. If we see the students with the Pokemon cards outside of this time, teachers may confiscate them and then give them back to the students at the end of the day. It would be great if all parents and families could support us in making this a successful experience. 

Kidsafe ACT Youth Action Committee

Kidsafe ACT will be launching a Youth Action Committee. Students from the ages of 10 to 17 can apply. Details of the program and how to submit an Expression of Interest can be found here: https://forms.gle/tk8TFBN4H7TvF6zz6                                                                                                                                                     Being on the Kidsafe Youth Action Committee would be a wonderful leadership and service opportunity for a young person and a great chance to contribute to an important community mission

Awards

Congratulations to all of our Brag Tag Award Recipients who recieved awards today. 

We will be handing out Rocket Maths and Spelling Mastery Awards during Friday morning assembly next week.

ACT Championships 

A big congratulations to Rachel Nguyen who competed in three races at the ACT School Sport Swimming Championships. The races she competed in were:

• 50m Freestyle
• 100m Freestyle
• 100m Backstroke

Well done Rachel for representing our school and the Belconnen Region. 

Rebekah Brown

It finally happened! I had a child ask me who my third favourite reptile is. It wasn't at school but in line at Aldi. A lovely mum with two very busy little boys were chatting about their upcoming trip to the Reptile Zoo. They were so excited. The youngest grabbed at my leg thinking I was mum. I crouched down and asked them to tell me all all bout it. Their little faces lit up as they could tell I was really interested. 

When people ask me why I am teacher it is really hard to answer because there are so many reasons but these interactions with small humans is the main one. Their joy in God's creation, their joy in the discovery of God's wonderous variety never gets old.

Psalm 139:13-14 (NRSV)

For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

If you are wondering my third favourite reptile is a chameleon!

God bless,

Stephanie Stewart

Religious Education Coordinator

(P.S. If you are wondering, my third favourite reptile is a chameleon!)

Notices from the Parish

Sacraments of Confirmation and The Eucharist

The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celerated on Friday in our parish next
17 May 2024. The Sacrament of First Eucharist will be celebrated on 1 & 2 June 2024
respectively. Most of those celebrating these sacraments are from our school.

Please hold all of the children preparing for these sacraments in your prayers.

Happy Birthday to Thomas Anderson, Adaline and Aviana Jozwiak, Troy Khalu-Reindl, Caleb Quinn, Liliana Givens, Amelia Peisker, Jayden Amrado and Bevan Hilhorst 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. 

Spelling Mastery Awards - presented on Friday 17th April, 8.50am 

Maths Mastery Awards - presented on Friday 17th April, 8.50am 

Winter Uniform

We'd like to remind everyone that in Term 2 we change to our Winter Uniform. You can find a complete list of the Winter Uniform on our school website. Please see below The Uniform Shop opening times.

Opening Hours

Family Goal Setting

When I look at people who achieve the most in life, they often have goals.

Why?

Goals energise. Goals create clarity and focus. Goals offer opportunity; things happen to enable success when you set a goal.

But there are some problems with goals.

The first problem is that they won’t necessarily make you happy. Chasing the wrong kids of goals (extrinsic) versus the right kinds of goals (intrinsic) is a sure-fire way to decrease your happiness, even while achieving the amazing.

The second problem is that goals often feel controlling. Rigid. And when we fail, we feel incompetent, and the self-castigation commences.

The third problem is that many of our goals involve other people. If they’re not ‘buying’ the vision—if they’re not all-in on the goal—not only is the goal unachievable, but relationships rupture.

The fourth problem—and perhaps the most challenging—is that many goals don’t lend themselves to actually being goals. Having a happy family is hard to nail down into the SMART goal formula.

• How do you get specific on what happy means?
• How do you measure happiness in your family? And when?
• Is happiness all the time even achievable? Realistic?
• And what about the time element? Happiness today isn’t happiness forever.

There is no doubt that goals help us achieve. Evidence overwhelmingly supports this. But success with goal-setting, especially in family life, is more about a combination of knowing what you want and then building the system to underpin it.

Three things will sustain success in family goal setting and system building:

1. Start from the bottom up

Facilitate this through regular family meetings and asking questions like, “What’s going well? What needs improvement? What should be our focus?” By asking these questions, we empower children to contribute to family goal-setting.

2. Build a plan together

Two steps here. First, if you know you want more kindness (or better/more regular holidays), ask “how” and make the plan as simple as you can.

Next, track progress. This must be non-punitive. It’s not a reward system. Rewards feel controlling. Instead, make the accountability easy and fun with regular check-ins. In our family, we have a weekly 15-minute family meeting to discuss progress, reassess plans, and stay aligned.

3. Focus on being together

To a child, LOVE is spelled T-I-M-E. Systems will be followed and goals achieved when children feel involved, connected, and engaged with you as you follow the plan or system. If the goal is to climb a mountain, training together will be more effective than training alone. If the goal is more fun as a family, time on bikes or playing board games will be more effective than time spent in bedrooms.

When children actively participate in goal setting and experience autonomy, involvement with you, and moments of success and achievement, motivation is high, systems succeed, and your family is more likely to achieve.

AUTHOR

Dr Justin Coulson

Dr Justin Coulson is a dad to 6 daughters and grandfather to 1 granddaughter. He is the parenting expert and co-host of Channel 9’s Parental Guidance, and he and his wife host Australia’s #1 podcast for parents and family: The Happy Families podcast. He has written 9 books about families and parenting. For further details visit www.happyfamilies.com.au.

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Thank you for your continued support,  SJAPS Community Council