Dear St John the Apostle Primary School Community,

What an amazing term!

Over many years, I have been asked what I love the most about teaching and education. What I have come to realise is that I love 'growth'. I love helping staff grow, I love helping and seeing children grow, I love increasing the potential for our school to have a positive impact on every child and family that walks through the door.

This week has been a fantastic celebration of learning and growth...and of course, I love it! Students have received their reports. Parent-Teacher Interviews were opportunities to celebrate their successes and achievements. Congratulations also to our students who received End of Term Awards for having achieved excellent academic results, or consistently worked hard or were true examples of discipleship in our community. Today was also a celebration of 100 days of school for Kindergarten (see the pictures later in the Newsletter).

Yesterday we held our End of Term Brag Tag Celebration where every student who received 20 or more Brag Tag stickers this term came together to play board games with staff and each other. I thanked them for their wonderful contributions to the school and their learning and we told stories about the ways we had each respected others, respected ourselves or respected the environment. It was positive, affirming and fun.

More technology to support learning

Yesterday afternoon Year 6 presented their learning about the history of migration to Australia. They used the coding program Scratch to bring together Makey-Makey devices and their Chromebook computers to create interactive posters. These posters shared recordings of their understandings accompanied by beautiful artistic representations that told a story.

This was possible because of the new school owned Chromebooks that Year 6 were provided with this year and devices on loan from CSER (Adelaide University). We are also trialling other devices from CSER at present before purchasing our own, including Spheros and Ozobots. Our K-2 children will begin using our own WeDo.2 Lego robotics kits next term.

Earlier this year we had informed parents of Year 4 that we would begin a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program at this year level. After visiting a number of other schools who have undertaken this program, examining the benefits and limits of a variety of options, and after consultation with our Community Council we have decided to not pursue a BYOD program at this time. We would like to retain the capacity to determine, build and maintain a larger and accessable bank of digital technologies for use by every child in every classroom over time and at present this is best done through an ongoing school purchase and update program.

Instead, we have purchased another set of school owned Chromebooks that will enable the students in Year 4 to experience one between two. The advice from other Catholic schools leading in this area is that this is easily sufficient to achieve the learning outcomes for these students.

This increases the capacity of Year 3 to use a larger group of ipads. Year 5 continue to use the bank of school laptops and Year 6 use new Chromebooks. Years K-2 share a large bank of ipads that are used on a daily basis in each classroom to support learning in literacy and other curriculum areas.

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I hope everyone has a lovely holiday break and is able to find some warm rest together in the cold.

Kind regards,

Matthew Garton (Principal)

Happy birthday to Paige W, Dihini S and Ava N who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.

Congratulations to the following students who received the End of Term Awards at the assembly on Monday afternoon.

Congratulations to the following students who earnt 20 or more brag tag stickers during Term 2. This enabled their photo to be featured on the Brag Tag Wall of Fame.  The students enjoyed a Games Morning and Special Morning Tea for their positive behaviour efforts. 

Below are some images from the recent Year 6 'A Whole New World) exhibitions. During this task, students were required to choose a migration group and explain a perspective by creating a sketch individually. They supported this with an annotation. Students then used ‘Makey Makey’s’ and Scratch to create an interactive poster. The poster was interactive through using scratch and the makey makey to play a recording (which was their annotation) to various audiences.

Earlier this term, many students from Year 5 and 6 participated in the ACT Rostrum. This is a public speaking competition. From this, two students from each class were chosen to represent their class in front of Years 3-6. These students were:
· Antara Dissanyake (5M)
· Mikayla Scanlan (5M)
· Newman Ma (5B)
· Darcy Menzel (5B)
· Anotida Zanga (6B)
· Oliver Cusch (6B)
· Ava Nowlan (6M)
· Bryce Cover (6M)

Thanks also to the many students on the day who helped assisting in some way.
From this, Bryce Cover (6M) was chosen to represent St John’s at Turner Primary. Bryce spoke so well and represented our school with great pride. Well done to Bryce and all those involved!

Students from Year 6 are currently participating in the Canberra and Belconnen Netball competition. SJA Maroon currently sit first on the ladder in Division 2. During the bye rounds, the Cougars and SJA Maroon had a trial game. It was great for children from different schools and our own school to showcase their netball talents. Great work boys and girls.

Technology holiday guide for parents

by Martine Oglethorpe

Technology holiday guide for parents

As holidays approach, the role that screens and devices will play becomes an increasing concern for parents. Days when kids are usually tied up with school and activities make way for many an idle hour and, as such, parents fear those hours will be spent largely engaged with a screen or gaming console. While there is certainly no harm in some well-balanced screen time and developmentally appropriate online activities, we must remember that, as parents, we have an important role in helping our kids manage and balance that screen time. Here are a few things we can do:

Understand the battle
It is important parents know the beast they are dealing with. It is easy to shout from another room to get off a screen or whinge to our friends that ‘kids of today’ are all addicted to their phones, but we need to recognise the pull that many of these devices have. The social networks are designed to keep us liking, commenting and sharing. The games cajole us into having ‘just one more’ turn at being the last man standing. These technologies tempt us to reach just one more level, or to scroll for just a few minutes more. Our brains experience a dopamine release and a sense of insufficiency when we use a device. There is always something else to do or something else to scroll through, or one more YouTube video to watch. So our kids are up against it when trying to control their time on a device. We need to help them with that.

Get outside
We can complain that kids never go outside and play anymore, but sometimes we have to physically get out there with them or offer opportunities in which being outside and active play are appealing. We have to work a little harder at this today because we are competing with a device that answers many of our kids' perceived needs. We need them to know that their needs are greater and more varied than what their screens can offer.

Have some rules
Despite their apparent dislike of rules around technology, kids will (one day) appreciate having boundaries to help them manage their screen time. Rules can be established regarding time limits, devices in bedrooms, device-free meal times, etc. Whatever you decide is important, be sure that you have those discussions with your kids. And any discussion around rules or consequences should happen away from the screens so they are clear on the expectations. (Talking about their screen-time habits while they are just about to be the last man standing on Fortnite is probably not going to make for engaging conversation.)

One console on one television...outside the bedroom
Having only one television that is connected to a gaming console or to Netflix is a good way of ensuring that the device gets shared and one child doesn’t monopolise the screen. And leave consoles out of bedrooms where the appeal of just one more quick game can very quickly rob them of important sleep time.

Role model
Make sure you are showing your kids how you want them to be. Have times when the devices are put away and you give full attention to the people around you. Don’t answer calls or emails at the dinner table. Don’t fall asleep with a device landing on your forehead. Take time to get outside and do things active and in nature. Don’t ever use a phone while driving. Use the Screen Time feature on iOS products to monitor just how you are using your technology and whether you could be making some changes. Kids learn more from what we do than what we say.

We know the technology isn’t going anywhere, and we know there are many wonderful benefits that screens provide. But ensure that holidays and downtime hours can be filled with many different experiences and in ways that leave your kids in control, even if you have to work a little harder to give them that.