Dear Families,

I always love the start of the school year, this year especially as I am feeling blessed to have joined this wonderful community. The energy and enthusiasm were evident as we welcomed everyone back on Tuesday, refreshed and ready for all this year will bring. The staff have been here for nearly two weeks now, working hard to ensure every student has many great learning experiences.

I offer a warm welcome to all our new staff, students and families. It’s great to have you as a member of our St John’s family. I hope your time with us is rewarding and enjoyable.

Whether you are a student or parent, guardian or grandparent, a new family or returning one, I look forward to the contribution you will each make this year. I also offer you my full support and invite you to contact me should you wish to discuss any matter.

Annual Improvement Plan

Our Vision 

We are on earth the heart of God.

Our Mission 

To be united in love, truth and courage

You may be interested in our strategic priorities for 2025. Staff will continue to work hard in all areas, however, we will especially focus on three priorities this year.

Key Improvement Goals

1. Student growth and development is driven by faith filled deep care for and an inclusive understanding for each student’s needs.
2. Our teaching and learning model are informed by the Science of Learning, aligned with robust data collection and analysis that identifies student achievement and need.
3. Students gain deep and powerful understandings and skills through engagement in a coherent, rich and sequenced curriculum leading to mastery, creative thinking and collaboration.

 Staff Are Learners Too…

I would like to acknowledge the dedication of all staff during the last couple of weeks. There have been endless hours of planning programs, updating information and preparing classrooms to ensure that your children have a smooth start to the 2025 school year. Staff have also been involved in professional learning, reflection and dialogue, and we are looking forward to implementing some great new initiatives.

2025 Staff

A special welcome to colleagues joining us this year:

• Caroline Stewart joins our staff as a full-time teacher in One Blue
• Julia Dunstan joins our staff as a full-time teacher in Year One Maroon
• Cara Clarke joins our staff on Six Blue for four days a week
• Lilly Eastman will be teaching in Two Maroon on Wednesday and in Four Maroon Monday and Tuesday.
• Clem Van Vuuren will be teaching Spanish on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and relief teaching on Thursday and Friday.
• Sharon Hardy joins our staff as a relief teacher, working four days.

We are also blessed to be serving alongside Fr Chung and Fr Tru and supporting the School Parish. Fr Tru will join us for our Opening School Mass held at St John the Apostle Church in Kippax. I have assured Fr Chung and Fr Tru that we will continue to support them in their role as Spiritual Leaders of our Parish Community.

Parent Information Night and Meet and Greet – For all families

All families are encouraged to join us next Tuesday 11^th February. Our format this year will be the same as the last couple of years.

5.00pm - Welcome Address – Principal Jo Reed

5.30pm - Session 1 in classrooms – Classroom Teachers

6.00pm - Session 2 – Repeated Session in classrooms – Classroom Teachers

6.30pm - We will provide a BBQ sausage. Drinks and zooper doopers will be sold on the evening from the Canteen.

7.00pm - Pack-up and conclude

The students are not to play inside the school during this time as it may disturb the presentations in the classroom. The students may play outside or be with their parents during the information sessions.

This is a great way to meet your child’s teacher and get to know other families. All welcome.

If any parents can assist with cooking sausages and selling drinks, it would be greatly appreciated; please contact the Front Office on 62583592.

Newsletter every Friday!

The newsletter will come through via the COMPASS app each Friday. I encourage all families to install the COMPASS app on your smart phone and/or Tablet.

Please update your preferences to ensure you receive messages for the correct class and year level. This is done by opening the COMPASS app, going to the settings tab, and sliding on the appropriate buttons.

School Community Council AGM Wednesday 19^th February at 6.00pm

We invite all parents to come along to our first School Council (SCA SC) meeting for the year. The Community Council provides an important leadership role in our school by undertaking an advisory role in policy and finance matters, and a hands-on role in community building and school promotion.

We are seeking a new member for the executive (Chair) and non-executives (parent representative) capacity. If you would like to be involved in your child’s school, and you can meet twice a term (at 6pm on Wednesdays in Weeks 3 and 8 of each Term) please consider nominating yourself and joining us in the staffroom on Wednesday 19^th February.

Terms of office are usually set at 2 years, so no one should feel they are committing themselves for life! Please see the nomination form further in the newsletter.

Facebook

We are on Facebook. Search St John the Apostle Primary School, Florey on Facebook.

Safety Plans

Our school’s safety plans rely on us having correct and up to date contact and medical details for every child. Please ensure you inform the school of any updated personal information as a matter of priority.

School Fees and Remissions

School fee invoices will be sent home shortly. Parents facing real difficulties paying are encouraged to apply for fee remissions. Any applications for fee relief must be made annually. Forms are available from the front office.

Student Safety

The start of the school year is a particularly busy time in our school carparks and surrounding streets. To help keep students safe when making their way to and from school, please ensure you drive and park safely and legally, at and around, school grounds. We all have an important role to play in supporting road safety. Access Canberra has notified us that mobile speed and parking vans will be in operation to support our students’ safety. These enforcement teams play a critical role in supporting our students getting to and from school safely and we thank them for their ongoing support. In addition to sticking to the speed limit, please remember to park safely – including not parking across pedestrian crossings, in no stopping zones, on corners, verges and double parking. Unsafe and illegal parking can reduce visibility of our students and motorists to see each other, creating a significant hazard when students cross the road. Let’s work together to keep our kids safe.

Finally, I thank you for your efforts in preparing your children so well for what has been a smooth start to the year. Our theme for 2025 is “Pilgrams of Hope”, and we will reflect more on this in coming newsletters. With this in mind, we look forward to the year ahead and I wholeheartedly offer my support to you as we walk together in the education of your sons and daughters. 

Blessings to you and your family.

Jo Reed

Principal

Dear St John’s Families,

Welcome to 2025! It has been lovely to see all the students settle back into the school year.

Thank You

Over the holidays, we had interactive panels installed in every classroom across the school. These panels are recognised as some of the most advanced in the world. St John’s staff received training on the panels during one of our professional learning days, and they all agreed that the panels would enhance student learning wonderfully.

I would like to thank the Community Council for their contribution towards the panels and the Autex installation around each panel.

Catalyst System Day

As part of our professional learning, teachers participated in Catalyst System Day alongside all other teachers across the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.

We had two keynote speakers:

Natalie Wexler – The Knowledge Gap: What It Is and How to Narrow It

Natalie Wexler, an education writer and advocate, is known for her book The Knowledge Gap, which explores why many children struggle with reading comprehension despite years of instruction.

During our professional learning session, she explained that traditional reading strategies—such as finding the main idea or making predictions—are not enough without a strong foundation of background knowledge. Drawing on cognitive science and classroom research, Wexler emphasized how a content-rich curriculum in subjects like history, science, and the arts helps children develop the knowledge and vocabulary needed for true reading comprehension.

Her presentation sparked important conversations about how we can better support all learners by integrating structured, knowledge-based instruction into our history, geography, and science lessons.

Prof. Daniel Willingham – Developing Independent Learners

Daniel Willingham, a cognitive scientist and education expert, believes that children learn best when they develop strong thinking habits and background knowledge. In his research, he explains that both knowledge and critical thinking skills are essential for students to become independent learners. When children have a solid base of facts and information in their memory, they can think more deeply, solve problems, and make connections—without always relying on a teacher.

Willingham also discussed the impact of distractions on student learning, particularly how technology can divert students’ attention and affect their ability to become independent learners. Many of the strategies he shared for helping students manage distractions also resonated with teachers, highlighting the importance of focus and time management in our own professional practice and personal lives.

If you are interested about Catalsyt, Catholic Education has a website - https://catalyst.cg.catholic.edu.au/ 

Fete – Friday, 14th March (4:00–7:00 PM)

On Wednesday, we sent out important information about our upcoming Fete. Please see some key details below under the Fete heading.

The success of our Fete relies on volunteers. We encourage you to sign up for a 30-minute shift at one of our stalls. Your help makes a huge difference! Sign up below.

Have a wonderful weekend!

What Students are Learning About

Across the school students are starting the year learning about what it means to belong to St John the Apostle Primary School.  We focus on our school crest and its meaning. Also we reflect on our three school rules, Respect Self, Respect Others and Respect the Environment. 

What Teachers are Learning About

Teachers spent the first day of our professional development reflecting on the theme of Pilgrims of Hope. Pope Francis has declared this year a Jubilee year and the theme is 'Hope'.  We looked at what hope means to us as Catholics, more than a wish but a true understanding that our hope is actually “confident expectation”. 

We focussed on Paul’s letters to the Romans and Corinthians.

Hope does not disappoint.

Father Tru came and shared Mass with us to end our day. 

We will be sharing more about Pilgrims of Hope as the year progresses. This is the Pilgrams of Hope symbol, you will see this displayed through the year in our school.

This is the Pilgrams of Hope symbol, you will see this displayed through the year in our school.

Stephanie Stewart

Religious Education Coordinator

FETE PRE ORDERS 2025

You can pre-order the below items on the Qkr! App. We are also taking cash (not eftpos) payments in the Front Office this week. Pre-orders will close on Thursday 13^th March at 3pm.

Volunteers

We are looking for volunteers. We rely on volunteers to ensure the success of our school Fete. Unfortunately, last year we did not have enough volunteers to successfully run all of our stalls. If every family offered half an hour of their time, we would be very grateful. Please also make sure you look at all of the tabs across the top of the Sign Up Website.

Please sign up to volunteer at the below link:

www.signupgenius.com/tabs/13572DC02A2C2ECC4A18-fete2

Sponsorship

If you have a business, please consider sponsoring our Fete. Contact Rebekah Brown for further details.

Donations

We rely on our community to donate a couple of items per child to help with the success of our school Fete. Please see below 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 so much in advance for your donations and support. 

Tombola

For the 2025 Fete, we are going to be 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 convener 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 tombola 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. Please see below images of past hampers. Kindergarten students are more than welcome to contribute to any of the below hampers. All items can be dropped off to the Front Office.

• Year One 2025 – Baby hamper (e.g. wraps, clothes, nappies, rattles, baby toys, wipes etc.)
• Year Two 2025 - Pet Hamper (eg. pet toys, treats, feeders, bowls etc.)
• Year Three 2025 – Kids Toy hamper (e.g. puzzles, fidget toys, board games, balls etc.)
• Year Four 2025 – Pamper hamper (eg. bath salts, candles, body products etc.)
• Year Five 2025 – Parents hamper (eg. wine, beer, chocolates, nuts etc.)
• Year Six 2025 - Home hamper (eg. tools, cleaning products, Bunnings gift card

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 2025 Fete. An esky is filled with alcohol 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:

• Alcohol - Wine, beer etc. ( Please drop these at the front office)
• 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. 

Raffle Tickets

Each family received one Raffle Ticket Booklet. Raffle Tickets are $2 each or $30 a book. All Raffle Ticket books (sold or not sold) need to be returned to the Front Office by this Thursday 13th March.

Prizes:

• First Prize: $1000
• Second Prize: $500
• Third Prize: $250

• Starting time is 8:50am sharp. Students arriving late will need to be signed in at the Front Office.

• Supervision commences at 8:20am and no student should be at school before 8.20am (unless at OSHC). Students arriving before 8.20am are unsupervised. Please use before school care if necessary.

• A student’s hair should be cut off their face and, if longer than shoulder length, it must be tied back in an appropriate school coloured band.

• No jewellery should be worn to school and only plain studs, small sleepers and watches are acceptable. No bracelets, bangles, sparkly ear rings, nail polish, make up, etc are allowed.

• Black ‘jogger’ or canvas type school shoes are not part of the school uniform. The only school shoes allowed at St John the Apostle are the traditional or formal black leather school shoes.

Each week we will spotlight in the newsletter one of our staff members. 

This will give you, the school community, a peak into what makes our staff such special people.

This week we will focus on Mrs Stephanie Stewart. Mrs Stewart teaches Year 4M, with the assistance of Miss Eastman. Mrs Stewart is also the Religious Education Coordinator for St John's Primary School.

Summer was very restful. I was able to spend time with family which is always great. We went to the beach, played lots of board games and I had time to be creative.  I finished a cross stitch I have been working on for two years. 

What I did mostly was reconnect with myself. My mantra for the end of 2024 was patience and courage.  I kept repeating to myself, so I knew that I was going to be ok and I am. Faith held me.

Proverbs 3:5-6

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own insight.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.

Happy Birthday to Paul Kamara, Camille McDonald, Alessia McDonald, Jordan Wills, Atem Deng, Tanish Tiwari, Piper Abbott, Washington Morris, Isobel Bradbury, Kingsley Onyekaike, Ebuka Iloelunachi Hana Nguyen, Rudhra Nair, Raksha Nair, Benjamin Cassar, Nate Purcell, Henry Wroe, Roman Dulgerov, Ava Fox, Ivan Shakya, Sophie Khadka, Milani Fangaiuiha, Mehar Sehgal, Ivy Suthern, Ethellyna Balthazar, Ethan Zaretzky, Aidan Rozario, Rigdzin Tobgay, Kanika Sharma, Jigme Dorji, Aavin Hassan, David Ebin, Grace Guidolin, Ashley Clifford, Jack Huskisson, and Noah Munro who all celebrate a Birthday in January.

St John the Apostle Primary School Community Council

Nomination Form

Please return form to the Front Office or email to jo.reed@cg.catholic.edu.au  

I wish to nominate myself as a member of the SJA Community Council.

Name: ………………………................………….       

Email: ………….........................………..

Child/ren and Class: ……………………………………………………………………..

All nominations are for parent representative. However, I would also consider serving in an executive role as Chairperson. (Please circle if you would be willing to serve in one, or more, of these roles.)

Signed: ……………………………………………                        Date: ………………………………..

Opening Hours

A reminder that the Merchant's Feast who provide our school canteen services will no longer operate on Wednesdays. Canteen lunches will be provided on Thursdays and Fridays only. 

The Competitions for the 2025 Royal Canberra Show are now open for entries! This year, we are particularly excited to bring back our Art and Photography competition, and we’d love to see your school community represented.

Please spread the word amongst your talented teachers and students. Whether it’s art, photography, horticulture, produce, cooking, cake decorating, or crafts, there’s something for everyone to showcase their creativity and skills.

Here are the links with all the information you need to get started:

· Horticulture and Produce Competition (including Cooking and Cake Decorating): https://www.rncas.org.au/horticulture-produce.html

· Art and Photography Competition: https://www.rncas.org.au/art-and-photography.html

· Craft Expo: https://www.rncas.org.au/craft.html

We encourage you to explore these opportunities and inspire your students to participate. The Royal Canberra Show is a fantastic platform for young creatives to share their talents with a broader audience and celebrate their achievements.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We can’t wait to see the incredible entries from your school!

A friendly reminder that St Johns is a nut free school. Thank you.