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Please go to our school calendar on the website or COMPASS for more details.
Please note that 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 2 Week 6-10
- Friday Fitness (weeks 6-9)
- 6B SFX STEM (week 6)
- Yr 5 Basketball Clinic (weeks 6-10)
- Kinder, Yrs 1 & 2 Tennis Clinic (weeks 6-9)
- Feast of the Sacred Heart Day (week 6)
- Maths Games Contest 2 (week 7)
- Parent-Teacher Interviews (week 9)
- Semester 1 Reports distributed (week 10)
- Archbishop visit (week 10)
The school positive behaviour focus this week was:
Follow instructions of staff.
Ngunnawal word of the week:
Ngaralda (means 'sorry')
Dear St John's families,
Today we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Thank you Fr Chung for celebrating Mass with us today. We appreciate your presence and care every week for classroom visits, class liturgies or whole school masses.
Have you ever wondered why we celebrate this day as our Feast Day and not the Feast Day of St John the Apostle?
Firstly, there's a very practical reason. The Feast Day for St John the Apostle is December the 27th. Of course, we're well and truly on holidays at that time. It makes sense to look to another important feast day to celebrate our parish and school identity.
Secondly, our parish has been very blessed over many, many years to be pastored, shaped and nurtured by priests from the order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (msc's). We are the only parish in the ACT that is looked after by this international order of priests. They are an order of priests founded by Jules Chevalier 170 years ago. Their own vision is "that the sacred heart of Jesus be everywhere loved" (hence we say this it the end of every school/class/meeting prayer) and their mission is 'to be on Earth the Heart of God'. Our parish identity, and therefore our school identity, has been imbued with the spirit and mission of the msc's. As a result we share in their Feast Day celebration each year: The Feast of the Sacred Heart.
What does it mean 'to be on Earth the Heart of God?' Over the next few weeks I would like to reflect briefly each week on an aspect of this, to help us all share an understanding of our community identity. Each week I will share my own answer to a question that is raised by this charism statement, such as:
- What is the 'Heart of God'? How do we know what the 'Heart of God' is?
- When we say 'on Earth' who and what does that include?
- How do we be the 'Heart of God'? Do I need to be perfect?
I look forward to beginning this next week. What are your thoughts to the questions above?
I hope you all enjoy a lovely long weekend and look forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday.
Matthew Garton
Principal
Nationally Consistent Collection od Data of School Students with Disability (NCCD)
In the Week Four Newsletter, I presented information about the NCCD process, what it is, what it means for students with a disability and what data is collected.
We have been provided with a number of easy to read guides for parents and carers. Please see below:
Carpark Pickup
Thank you to all of the parents and carers who have been displaying the last name signs for pick up. We have noticed carpark pickup has become a lot safer and easy to monitor over the last week.
We have found that sometimes when the last name sign is on the car dashboard, we might not be able to see it well. A suggestion is to put it underneath the passenger side viser or up against the passenger side window.
Thank you also to the parents who have ensured their children are in close proximity to them during carpark pickup. We appreciate your support in making this time of the day easier to monitor for teachers and safer for our students.
ACT Cross Country Championships
A big congratulations to Alex Richardson who has qualified to represent the Belconnen Region in the ACT Cross Country Championships.
Child Safety
Did you know that Catholic Education and our school has a Child Safe Policy which outlines our approach to child safety. This can be accessed on the Catholic Education Safeguarding Page. We encourage you to visit this page and review our policy. As part of our approach to child safety I am also our schools Child Safe Advocate who works closely with our school regarding our approach and response to child safety matters. This approach involves pro active strategies to safeguard our students as well as responding to areas of concerns. The area of child safety includes many parts of a schools operation such as day to day activities, school events and school camps. We encourage you to contact us should you like to discuss this further.
Rebekah Brown
Assistant Principal and Inclusion Coordinator
What Students are Learning About
This week and next we will be focussing on fundraising for St George’s Academy in Kenya. We have been supporting St George's for many years and in the past our fundraising has provided essential amenities such as clean water, bathrooms and furniture.
This year the school requires a new front gate and fence as the government has decided to widen the road and have knock down the old fence. For each dollar brought in this will provide one brick. It is a large amount that is needed this year $2500.
I encourage you to speak to your children about why we support the poor. I am sure that every government school also fundraises for those less fortunate, but our reasons is very clear and purposeful. We are called to be on the earth the heart of God and to spread the love of Jesus. One way we do that is by helping the poor, in His name. Not for our own glory but for His.
Please donate as much as you can. Each time a dollar is brought in we will color a brick with chalk. We hope to have the canteen surrounded by colourful bricks!
https://www.globalschoolpartners.org.au/st-georges-academy
Saint of the Week by Magdelena Jubilee Gabriel Johnson
For Archangel Gabriel, there aren’t any dates for birth, beatification, canonisation or death. Hence the angel part. Gabriel came to a town called Nazareth, Galilee, and he was meeting with an engaged couple, Mary and Joseph. Archangel Gabriel came to Mary in a dream and said “Greeting favoured one! The Lord is with you, do not be afraid Mary, for you have found your favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.” The feast day for Gabriel is 29th of September and Gabriel is the patron saint of telecommunication workers.
I chose archangel Gabriel as my Confirmation saint, because by telling Mary that she had conceived Jesus, was like spreading the word of God, and that's how I aspire to be.
What Staff (and students) are Learning About
This week all staff began saying a short prayer with the students before Spelling Mastery. Why? Because we are really focussing on all things coming from God. St John the Apostle is the patron saint of authors so why not ask him for a little divine intervention when we are learning how to spell!
Catholic Life and Reflection
Even on a cold day the beach is a blessing! I was able to spend the long weekend in Tuross Heads, truly beautiful piece of God’s creation. We took four, yes four, dogs to the beach and they bounded and splashed about. My 14 year old threw the ball endlessly and I’m not sure who loved it more.
I did have a few moments when I was able to look towards the open ocean and breathe in the salty air; the breath of God so to speak. I breathed deeply and closed my eyes to really absorb Him. It was fleeting but I felt renewed.
God bless,
Stephanie Stewart, Religious Education Coordinator
Happy Birthday to Evelyn Wijnberg, Rigzang Tshewang, Thomasina Neilsen, Arlen Cole, Jennifer Nguyen, Emma Wooden, Penelope Osborne-Goldsbrough and Angel Bujune who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.
This year we will be presenting a number of awards to students. Please see below the scedule for this term. Most awards will be handed out on a Friday 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.
|
Week |
Award |
|
Week Six |
Spelling Mastery Awards and Maths Mastery presented Brag Tag Awards presented |
|
Week Seven |
Next week award recipients in Newsletter |
|
Week Eight |
Rocket Maths Awards presented Spelling Mastery Awards presented Brag Tag Awards Notify end of term award families. |
|
Week Nine |
Next week award recipients in Newsletter |
|
Week Ten |
Spelling Mastery Awards presented Brag Tag Awards presented Rocket Maths Awards presented |
Brag Tag Awards - presented on Friday 7th June, 8.50am (Week 6)
| Austin Matthews | Joseph Garang |
| Naveliangel Sachdeva | Roscoe Moulds |
| Liam Zaretzky | Cameron Broadhurst |
| Jacob Hall | Alisha Sehgal |
| Bettina Morris | Rihaan Salhotra |
| Olive Glowrey | Charlotte Pieterse |
| Logan McNamara | Hunter Campbell |
| Sophie Peisker | Hugo Mullins |
| Archie Amsteins | Solomon Azzam |
| Alessia McDonald | Valentina Saldias Gomez |
| Jacob Harris | Roman Dulgerov |
| Pia Gallana | Sophie Jopling |
| Vanessa Onyekaike | Theo Cockburn |
| Penelope Ayton | Brenda Gao |
| Rylee Terron | Kaylie Cox |
| Henry Bradbury | Jack Huskisson |
| Tessa Vera | Te-Aroha Baxter |
| Grace Riley | Lorenzo Scarano |
| Max Wheatley | Charlie Jopling |
| Kelsey Nyinwah | Keijo Karhu |
| Liliana Givens | Rachael Nguyen |
| Jack Robertson | Alexa Chilley |
| Bronson Dahler | Aarzah Singh |
| Bevan Hilhorst | Allegra Cockburn |
| Alexandra Lowther | Rita Tran |
| Samuel O'Donnell | Ziva Ziare |
| Charlotte Stanton | Tia McNamara |
| Kudrat Kaur | Ekluvya Gupta |
| Liam Downey | Beau Hill |
| Xander Stephenson | Jordan wills |
Spelling Mastery Awards Awards - presented on Friday 7th June, 8.50am (Week 6)
Year 2
Aarzah SINGH
Allegra Cockburn
Alexander Richardson
Jacob O’Donnell
Emma Wooden
Alexandra Bradbury
Patrick Glenn-Downey
Grace Guidolin
Year 3
Mackenzie Knight
Kaylee Bruning
Jeremiah French
Jigme Wangmo
Daniel Koroma
Lachlan Frankcom
Kyler Asence
Simon Tran
Yeetsho Drolma
Year 4
Henry Pieterse
Fiesta Maka
Steven Pham
William Le
Viliami Maka
Jessica Gao
Matthew Hall
Jigme Dorji
Year 5
Jonah Terron
Year 6
Michael Howes
Pema Tenzin
Angus Gallagher
Charlotte Stanton
Kelsey Nyinwah
Maths Mastery Awards Awards - presented on Friday 7th June, 8.50am (Week 6)
Year 1
Jack Blewitt
Henry Bradbury
Edie Brennan
Ella Butler
Ali Kayvanshokoohi
Ava Kraljevic
William Mullins
Jennifer Nguyen
Kingsley Onyekaike
Emily Sheppard
Harry Stone
Ajak Ajang
Naz Habeb
Jiva Jiva
Troy Khalue-Reindl
Tia McNamara
William Miles
Daniel Quinn
Arzoi Sehgal
Year 3
Tymon Amrado
Kyler Asence
Jeremiah French
Chloe Han
Year 4
Jayden Amrado
Leo Bronar
Eli Bronar
Henry Jopling
William Le
Viliami Maka
Logan McNamara
Samuel O’Donnell
Sophie Peisker
Riley Stokman
Elspeth Stone
Rigzang Tshewang
Aluel Ajang
Angel Bujune
Jenson Chilley
Ashley Clifford
Theodore Cockburn
Matthew Hall
Hiba Irfan
Harvey Irvine
Saba Khoram
Marian Le
Fiesta Maka
Asher Mutinhima
Raksha Nair
Steven Pham
Lilijana Tundulin
Year 6
Felicity Baulch
William Broadhurst
Alexa Chilley
Emma Duke
Rose Holding
Michael Howes
Ky McNamara
Vanessa Onyekaike
Jack Robertson
Nate Sawyer
Anabelle-Louise Trevaskis
Denzil Whimpress
Olivia Ayton
Ethan Campbell
Angus Gallagher
Oz Haureliuk
Leo Jackson
Kelvin Nguyen
Kelsey Nyinwah
Charlotte Pieterse
Zara Thorpe
Sophia Youssef
Ziva Zaire
Second Hand Uniform Donations
The Uniform Shop would love to receive second hand uniform donations. If you have school uniforms at home that you no longer need please send them into school. Thank you.
Opening Hours
The Uniform Shop will be open during the following:
Friday 7 June - 8.30am-9.30am
If you have any questions or concerns please email the uniform shop on stjohnsclothingpool@gmail.com
There’s a relationship between how much your child attends school and their overall academic achievement. Regular school attendance is strongly correlated with academic success, and chronic absenteeism, or prolonged periods of school absence, can have a negative impact on a child’s educational attainment.
There is also a relationship between attending school and social and emotional outcomes. On average, we see that regular interaction with peers and teachers fosters social skills, emotional intelligence, and a sense of belonging. Children who consistently miss school may experience feelings of isolation, struggle with forming positive relationships, and face challenges in developing essential life skills. School is often a place where students receive emotional support from educators and peers.
Additionally, completing education is often associated with better employment prospects, higher earning potential, and an improved overall quality of life. Children who miss substantial amounts of school may face difficulties transitioning to higher education or entering the workforce. This can limit their options and hinder their ability to pursue fulfilling and rewarding careers.
Based on research from around the country and the world, most Australian states have a mantra (and a marketing message) that every day counts. QLD Education, for example, states on their website that:
Every Day Counts is a state-wide initiative that aims to assist in improving student attendance at school through a shared commitment by students, parents, caregivers, schools, and the community.
Multiple days of absence from school, especially consecutive days, can be problematic for students. But a day here or there is less about impacting learning outcomes for kids and more about:
- Making life harder for teachers who have to continually repeat work and try to help students catch up on missed content.
- Helping students with consistency.
- Allowing parents to complete their responsibilities, which can often be completed only when kids are at school.
So, when the kids are asking for days off, what’s the best way forward?
Understand Root Causes
If kids are pulling a “sickie,” understanding what’s really going on is vital. It’s obvious, but often we miss the mark on this. Sometimes kids choose not to tell us what’s really going on. This is where we get curious, not furious.
Do they need your attention because things aren’t good at home? Do they need your attention because things aren’t good at school? Are they saying they’re “sick,” but they’re struggling with a teacher, a peer, or a bully? Are they complaining about school, but they’re on their period and feel nervous about being at school at a sensitive time?
Pausing to really explore and understand is key.
Explore, Explain, Empower
When faced with the dilemma of kids wanting a day off, explore, explain, and empower. Discerning the underlying reasons, communicating a clear rationale for what you’re asking, and developing solutions together will usually be the best way forward. And if it’s something deeper (that could lead to school refusal), this process will generally help you discover that issue faster.
In doing these things we gain perspective, and we open a dialogue with our child that is more likely to lead to productive conversation and resolution.
