Dear St John the Apostle Primary School Community,

Wow! What a term!

We hit the ground running this term and it stayed at a cracking pace the whole way. It's nice to finish strong.

The last two days have been a lovely way to end the term. I spent time yesterday with over 100 students at a games morning as part of our Brag Tag celebrations. There was a lot of laughing, a lot of fun, not a single piece of technology, just good old fashioned board and card games. We finished with a great big game of cat and mouse together on the oval and a special treat to add to their morning tea.

This was followed by our Year 3 to 6 Talent Show. Wow! What amazing talent we have across our school. Thank you to our Year 6 students who organised the entire event.

Today we gave away the prizes for the Walkathon. There are some very happy children going home on the last day of term. Thank you everyone for rallying to raise money to help develop our playground spaces. We really appreciate every effort to contribute in this way. Thank you for allowing your children to talk to relatives and friends to ask for their assistance.

This morning I went with our choir to their performance at Floriade. Thank you to Ms Kate Macdonald, Mr Ryan Spencer and Mr Patrick Corr for preparing them so well. Thank you also to all of the parents and grandparents who came out to see them! Your support was wonderful.

Playground Update

You'll be pleased to know that the the cogs are moving fast now on our playground update. We have been working with a few companies to obtain quotes for courts and other new and fun markings on the black top. We are also looking at other concrete areas around the school as well. In the process we have been sourcing solutions for some of the issues on these surfaces. It's very exciting...not far away now!

Working Bee

We would like to hold a short working bee at the end of the first week of next term to keep up with spring growth, focusing on the back of the school, particularly the Kitchen Garden. We'd love your assistance. Please see the notice below for more details.

Grand final winners

Congratulations to our SJA Maroon netball team for their grand final win last weekend. Well done again to everyone involved in the tremendous effort. It was fabulous.

40th Anniversary Celebration

We're looking forward to our 40th Anniversary Mass on Sunday the 27th October and being able to celebrate the story of St John the Apostle Primary School. We would love you all to join us at the school for Mass at 11.00am followed by a sausage sizzle and open house. Visitors will be welcome to come and relive their own memories as well as have a family picnic together.

Kind regards,

Matthew Garton (Principal)

Happy birthday to Dean J, Harry M, Briony F, Mercy L, Hawa M and Yusha A 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 3. 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. 

Netball Gala day

On Tuesday, two teams from St John’s competed in the ACT Netball Gala day at Lyneham Netball courts. All teams finished first in their respective divisions (mixed and girls). A special thanks to Maddison Bailey, Samantha Dillon (previous students) who helped to support on the day and also to Folau Tuipeatau (Eseta 5B) who coached the girls side.

The Girls and Boys will now compete in the finals day to be held in early term four. Well done!

Sasha and Samsara Rauraa (Athletics)

Sasha (6B) and Samsara (4M) competed in the recent School Sport Australia National Championships. The girls represented the school and state proudly. Sasha came 12th out of 14 in a competitive field of Shot Put athletes. She was proud and really happy to achieve a nice PB (personal best). Sasha’s 4x800m Medley team came 7th.

Samsara was an Australian Finalist for Discus and placed 7th out of 16 athletes and just missed out on a 2nd Finalist for Shot Put and came 9th out of 16. After a very close 4x100m race Samsara’s team just missed Bronze medal and came 4th.

From all of us here at St John’s, we are really proud of you girls!

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.