Dear St John the Apostle Community,

We have had a great first week of the Enrolment Period. Our Year 6 students have been wonderful ambassadors for the school and taken great pride in presenting our school community to visitors. It is always a moment of pride to watch them take tours around the school.

We're looking forward to more tours next Wednesday morning.

Earn & Learn for Digital Technologies

We are saving up the Earn & Learn points to purchase more digital technologies equipment. Our Year 6 students have enjoyed using the Spheros borrowed from CSER (Computer Science Education Research Group from Adelaide University). We're looking forward to having our own.

Please bring in as many Earn & Learn stickers as you can or put them in the St John the Apostle boxes found at Woolworths Belconnen, Kippax and Charnwood.

Happy Mother's Day

We hope all of the mothers, and those who play a significant mother role for someone they love, have a wonderful day of recognition and appreciation this Sunday. Parenting is demanding and our students are blessed to have so many women as role models in their lives. Thank you for the ways you love and care for the children we teach and the privilege of sharing them with us.

We thoroughly enjoyed providing a beautiful breakfast for families this morning. Thank you to all of the staff for their early morning commitment to its success.

Congratulations to the following students who received an award for the fortnightly Positive Behaviour Focus 'Walk quietly through the school' or another great achievement. The awards will be presented at the School Assembly (presented by Year 3) on Tuesday 20 May at 2:15pm.

Happy birthday to Callum S, Liliana G, Travis S, Isabella H, Tyler N, Agnes K, Ajang D and Mia G who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week in the Library we have celebrated the 50^th Anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, looked at Aboriginal Culture, Buildings around the world and Sustainability.

Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge 2019

Just a reminder that the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge is on again this year. The challenge is to read 30 books (whether it be a picture book, fiction, chapter books, graphic novels or e-Books) before Friday 6 September 2019. Some of these books will be read in class, however students may wish to complete this at home. A link to an Individual Student Reading Record is below; https://www.education.act.gov.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0018/1342053/2019-CMRC-Individual-Student-Reading-Record-Primary.docx

Holiday Reading Bingo

Congratulations to the following winners of our Holiday Reading Bingo competition;

Family Borrowing for Term 2

The Library will be open for family borrowing on Wednesdays in Term 2 (instead of Monday). We will be open from 2.45pm until 4.00pm and would love to see you. Please ensure students are accompanied by a parent/carer.

Scholastic Book Club

Book Club orders will need to be in no later than 26 May 2019.

Happy reading!

Mrs Georgina Jaram (Teacher/Librarian)

Mrs Vanessa Hallaj (Library Assistant)

It is back! Earn and Learn for schools.

Last year we collected nearly 30,000 stickers as a community, which meant we were able to get many resources for our school.
Starting Wednesday 1 May, anyone can collect stickers to support our school when they shop at Woolworths, whether they’re staff, parents or friends.
 
Stick together and collect more
With every $10 spent* at Woolworths, one sticker is collected. These can be placed onto the Earn & Learn sticker sheets and dropped into the collection box at St John The Apostle Primary School. You can also bring the stickers in and we will add them to sheets at school.

Earn great equipment from MTA
Woolworths will be partnering with Modern Teaching Aids, Australia’s largest supplier of educational equipment. This means we will be able to choose equipment for our schools own learning needs across Arts & Craft, Digital Technologies, Maths, English, Science, Outdoor and Indoor Play and more.

Get bonus stickers with Fresh Food Kids Discovery Tours
This year if you book and attend a Fresh Food Kids Discovery Tour between 18 March and 25 June 2019, you’ll receive up to 1000 bonus stickers! Book at woolworths.com.au/discoverytours.

Thanks for your support in collecting the Earn and Learn stickers for our school.

As notified earlier this week, the Athletics Carnival has moved dates. The new date for the carnival is Friday June 14.  If you have already submitted a lunch order through QKR for the original date you do not need to reorder.

Mum’s the work

by Michael Grose

Watching my own children become parents is an unexpected parenting joy.

Not in the light-hearted ‘your-turn-has-come’ way where older generations delight in watching their own children endure the same sleepless nights, naughty toddler behaviour and teenage rebelliousness that they experienced as parents.

The joy for me lies in watching my adult kids protect, teach, nurture and support their children, in the time-honored way that parents have done for generations. This work, also known as generative parenting, was outlined by American psychologists and researchers Dollahite, Hawkins and Brotherson in the 1990’s.

Also known as mother work (and father work), generative parenting refers to the instinctive activities of parents that enable the next generation to survive and thrive. These activities range from providing kids with food and shelter and other basic needs through to developing more complex skills in their kids such as working with others, adapting to change and developing the resourcefulness needed for full independence.

Like most parents my daughters want to be the best parents they can be so they both devour parenting books, attend courses when they can and join online chat groups for support and ideas.

But it’s their mother work, their instinctive work, that’s their most potent parenting force. Here’s why.

Mother work is protective
When my eldest daughter visits our house she does a quick reconnaissance trip through each room, lifting errant blind cords and removing heavy objects, to make our house safe for her two boys to move around. The protective side is strong.

Mother work is educative
When my youngest daughter patiently explains to her exuberant young three year old that she needs to allow other children to share her toys, she is doing important teaching work. That requires super patience.

Mother work is nurturant
The safety my daughters provide when they wrap their arms around their children when they’ve fallen and hurt themselves comes naturally to them.

Mother work is supportive
The emotional support these young women provide to their children when they’ve been upset by the thoughtless or rough behaviours of siblings and friends is often hard work. But they are up to the task.

My daughters' mother work will continue well into their children’s teen years and beyond. The nature of the work will change with each developmental stage but the intent of the work –to nurture, protect, teach and support - will stay the same.

Men can do this work too, but they do it differently. When a mother instinctively protects she generally draws her child closer before searching out the source of fear. There’ll be lots of cuddles before she puts a nightlight on to ease a child’s fear of the dark.

When a father instinctively protects he’s more likely to eliminate the source of fear, and skill his child up to fend for themselves. He’ll prove there’s nothing to be scared of when the light goes out, and show his child how to turn on the light when needed. Both are valid approaches, and are indicative of the gender differences in child-rearing.

This Mother’s Day, it’s my daughters' instinctive mother work that I’ll celebrate, as that is real magic of parenting.

Happy Mother’s Day.

For Sale

Beautiful rose brown colour, upright piano with seat, both in excellent condition, 88 keys, brand name Horugel. This piano has a lovely mellow tone and has been well looked after. It is 40 years old and needs tuning.  We are asking $200 ono, as long as it goes to a caring home.

Please contact Josie on ph 0447377340