Jubilee Year 2025 – Pilgrims of Hope

The Jubilee Prayer

Father in heaven,
may the faith you have given us
in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother,
and the flame of charity enkindled
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us the blessed hope
for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us
into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos
in the sure expectation
of a new heaven and a new earth,
when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,
your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee
reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread
the joy and peace of our Redeemer
throughout the earth.
To you our God, eternally blessed,
be glory and praise for ever. Amen.

Dear SJA Families,

It was wonderful to finally gather as a community to celebrate our Opening School Mass and Leaders Induction on Friday 14^th February. Pope Francis has declared 2025 a Jubilee Year for our Church, themed “Pilgrims of Hope”, a year of hope for a world suffering the impacts of war, the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the climate crisis. It is integral to our Catholic identity that we celebrate the Eucharist together as one in the presence of God. We prayed for a blessed 2025 for our school community and for the global community as we ‘journey together’ in Faith and in Learning. It is a great gift to and we are blessed as teachers to give Hope to the lives of our students. That is how we make the world a better place for all. Fr Tru spoke wonderfully about the importance of family and education helping us grow into the best people we can be.

We are extremely proud of our Student Leaders in Year 6 who received their badges. Our Year 6 students have been supporting our Kindergarten students on the playground, helping around the school and with the Fete and keeping a general eye out for all students. We look forward to seeing many examples of leadership in our community as the year progresses.

Thank you to Fr Tru, Mrs Stephanie Stewart (REC), Mr Brett Seaman, Mrs Cara Clarke and Ms Emma Alcock for all their efforts to prepare the Opening Mass and Leadership Ceremony. 

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.

Yours in Faith

Jo Reed

Principal

Swimming Trials

A big congratulations to the students who participated in the St John's Swimming Trials on Wednesday at CISAC.

The following students attended and demonstrated a willingness to do their best and show wonderful sportsmanship.

• Tia M
• Sophie C
• Allegra C
• Marian L
• April M
• Grace P
• Elspeth S
• Lilijana T
• Allira R
• Edith B
• Charlotte M
• Alex B
• Carter M
• Henry L
• Alexander R
• Liam Z
• Zayn S
• Oskar E
• William L
• Andreas M
• Rylan R
• Theo C
• Logan M
• Mateo V
• Clyde L
• Victor L
• Steven P
• Henry T

We would also like to provide the opportunity for all students in our community to experience a water fun day. We are in the process of booking a location for a day at the end of the year. During this day, students can participate in 25m races and other fun novelty events. 

Mufti Day

We will be having a Mufti Day on Tuesday, 4 March. This is on Shrove Tuesday, so students can wear something purple to signify the start of Lent for a gold coin donation. This money will be used to go toward the school Fete.

What Students are Learning About

Starting school at St John the Apostle means being welcomed into the family of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. Kinder have been learning about Being on earth the heart of God and how to make the sign of the cross. May the Sacred heart of Jesus be everywhere loved...forever!

Catholic Life and Reflection

Last Sunday's gospel was Luke's Sermon on the Plain, (Luke 6:17-26). Matthew's version is often more well known but Luke has a different take. 

If you were to go down the rabbit hole of the internet and look for comparsions you would be amazed!  In the end regardless of if he went up a mountain or sat on a plain the message was the same.  

Blessings and Woes

²⁰ Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹ “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
    for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.

²² “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you^[a] on account of the Son of Man. ²³ Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have received your consolation.
²⁵ “Woe to you who are full now,
    for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
    for you will mourn and weep.

²⁶ “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

"This scripture emphasizies humility, forgiveness, and generous care for our neighbors, Jesus encourages people to choose God’s way of love, which will eventually renew all of creation. He calls this restored world God’s Kingdom. This is a realm in which Heaven and Earth are inseparably combined, a place where life flourishes that’s free from injustice, suffering, and death."https://bibleproject.com/articles/what-is-the-sermon-on-the-mount/ 

Hmmm....generous care, what a wonderful way to live a life.  Jesus knew what we would need for millennia to come. 

God bless, may you receive generous care in the coming week.

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

Parking in these spaces is reserved for people who have priority parking cards.

If you do not have a disability parking sticker please do not use these spots

Thank you for your support in this matter.

A reminder to all families that students are not to be at school before 8:20am in the morning. There is no supervision before this time. If you need to drop your child off before this time please register them with before school care.

School times for:

Drop off in the morning 8:20am

Pick up in the afternoon 3:00pm

Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

St John the Apostle takes pride in our School

You may have noticed that there has been significant amount of garden, grounds and facilities work in and around our school. The oval is super green and soft, and gardens have been pruned and tidied.  From an upgrade of facilities, we are looking forward to a fresh ‘lick’ of paint, some new round gutters that the leaves won’t get caught in and the pavers fixed at the front of our school. You may have also noticed some new furniture in our Front Office and the stage doors are being fixed and replaced. The big news is that the junior toilets are going to receive an overhaul!

A big thank you to John Polkinghorne, our Janitor who had worked tirelessly to keep our grounds looking fabulous. In John’s spare time, he enjoys the Belconnen Man Shed.  They continue to fix things and provided us with beautiful tables, benches and now an Altar for the Chapel. 

Happy Birthday to  Avlyn, Chukwubuikem, Thayoee, Kiranjot, Charles, Mariam, Amara Noelle, Rylan, George, Euphel, Leo, Eli, Jacob, Rihaan, Gursirat, Carter, Jack, Addison, Desmond, Grace, Timothy, Zachary, Samuel and Julia who all celebrate a Birthday in February.

St John the Apostle Primary School Library plays a significant role in the life of students. Amongst the comfortable couches, reading pods and soft carpets, students of all ages can be found with their eyeballs glued to the pages of the various novels that fill the bookshelves around them. It gives them the unique opportunity of being transported to another world, one filled with magic and imagination, one that doesn’t involve the blue light of a screen.

However, in the age of digital media, sometimes this enrichment ends outside of school time hours. Many children have become physically attached to their tablet, laptop, or home television from the moment they leave the school yards. We are committed to ensuring our students do not fall into the trap of the increasingly enticing and under stimulating content that may regress both their education and emotional sensitivity.

International studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have concluded that children who spent two hours on non-educational screen time scored significantly lower in both language and thinking tests. Contrastingly, those who spent the same time reading, scored astoundingly higher in cognitive development, social and cultural perception, and growth of empathetic and emotional aptitude.

Our library offers a safe and comfortable space for students to develop these lifelong skills. Outside of the teaching staff, parents too are in a great position to encourage reading habits in their children. For our younger students, stories read at bedtime by parents may include ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’, ‘Just So Stories’, ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’, and ‘The Giving Tree’ – all of which are wonderfully sweet stories that include values such as friendship and kindness. For our older students, authors such as Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, C. S. Lewis, and Jeff Kinney are highly recommended for their exciting imagery and inventiveness that will take our children on an immersive and enchanting adventure. Emma Alcock, our wonderful Librarian is always available to help your sons and daughters pick quality texts in which they can be transported to another time, place and world.

There are many wonderful sources of education that can be found online and on television and children, like us, sometimes need to switch off for a bit and have some downtime. Outside of this time, St John the Apostle encourages us all to continue our lifelong learning through the wondrous joys of reading. To support this, we have recently purchased over ten thousand dollars in novels for students in Years 3 to 6 which aligns with the Curriculum. Each student will be involved in novel study each term and have their own novel to read and physically hold in their hands.   A big thankyou to everyone who has helped in the space of accessioning, covering and preparing these resources for our students and teachers to use immediately.

Opening Hours

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

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. 

• 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.