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Dear St John the Apostle Families and Friends,
Yesterday I was reminded of how much I love St John the Apostle Primary School and the families, staff and students of our community. While I will always love our school, yesterday it was much more conscious to me because:
- Every morning I get a big hug from some of our Kindergarten students (even though we try to encourage a social distancing alternative, I still enjoy it).
- I was able to hand out 35 brag tag stickers to various students that I just happened to see or walk past and were doing a beautiful job of our school focus for the week to 'look after our equipment and belongings' without being asked.
- A parent of a younger child rang this morning to tell us how one of our Year 6 students helped their daughter walk into school this morning given that they needed to drop them at the gate. The Year 6 student was just so helpful and caring.
- I took a prospective Kindergarten family around for an out of hours tour and it was so very, very easy to say wonderful things about our school and the learning that happens for every student throughout the day.
- I watched Year 4 excitedly conduct tests for their Science experiments about building a sturdy chair out of just paper. It had to hold up a teddy for a minimum amount of time! They were so proud and encouraging of each other.
- I learnt about how one of our students had experienced an extremely traumatic event and watched how staff knew how and deeply wanted to help them and their family. The care and professionalism was amazing.
- I witnessed children in Year 6 work through two hours of Daily 5 literacy practices completely focused, engaged and productively reading and writing. Students were supporting each other, working independently, engaged in a conference with a teacher or working individually with an Inclusion Assistant.
- I saw parents, in the midst of our currently busy pick up regime be patient with each other, smile and help each other stay safe.
The list could keep going on.
It is for these reasons that I come to school each day. This is how we can all 'be on earth the heart of God' for each other. I am thankful each day for these and many other experiences that help us grow and we can celebrate.
Changes to End of Semester Reports
The time of remote learning brought an opportunity to learn many new technological and independent learning skills we are all looking forward to continuing to develop. It also brought some challenges, including in the area of reporting on student achievement for Semester 1.
Some of the implications include that:
- not every student had the same opportunity and resources to fully engage in the remote learning programme equally, hence it is difficult to use many of the tasks from the program for assessment;
- not all of the intended curriculum for the end of Term 1 and beginning of Term 2 could be quickly translated into an online environment, hence the curriculum plan that was initially intended for the Semester needed to be changed and so not all curriculum areas will be covered enough to assess;
So Catholic Education have changed their systemic approach for reporting on student progress this Semester. To reflect the learning that has taken place this Semester you can expect the following.
- The Semester report will still look the same as previous years (this is a system decision and not a school based one). Each curriculum area will be on the report as per usual.
- English, Mathematics and RE will all be reported on. Reporting on the remaining curriculum areas will be based on the curriculum covered in the inquiry units taught during face-to-face teaching weeks. This will impact on Health, Science, History, Geography, Physical Education, etc. Teachers will only assess in these areas when sufficient content has been taught to assess students' understandings and skills.
- There will be no large general comment. This will mean that teachers will not have to provide drafts of their reports to the Executive Team as early as usual and can spend more time face-to-face teaching and then assessing.
- All students who have Personal Plans will receive an additional Personal Plan report to comment about their achievement against their Personal Plan goals (did you know we have 96 students on Personal Plans in our school? We have an amazing team that supports their learning).
These reports will be sent home in the last week of school this term. An opportunity to have a Parent-Teacher interview and Learning Journey with your child will happen early in Term 3.
The next two weekends are well deserved long weekends for everyone. I hope you have a lot of rest and recuperation time with your families.
Thank you for always working together to achieve as much as we do.
Matthew Garton, Principal
It's enrolment time!
Just a reminder that it is enrolment time for 2021! We already have a number of enrolments with a few new families looking to join the St John the Apostle Community. Just a reminder if you have a child looking to start Kindergarten in 2021 to jump on our website and complete an enrolment form.
Please spread the good news about our school. The best marketing a school can do is through their current families. Word of mouth is very powerful when it comes to families choosing a school for their child. Please recommend us and basically, talk us up please. I will be starting to do personal zoom meetings with new families, taking them for a virtual tour and answering any questions they have. I am happy to do this for any new families’ wanting to know more about St John's. I can't talk enough about how great our school is. It's very easy for me to sell the school in the best light possible.
A great way to share about us would be through our social media sites. Please click on the following to visit them.
I came across this in my searching for remote learning activities. I was struck by its simplicity and its connection to the scriptures we are looking at this year. There have been many occasions when “I AM” has jumped out at me from scripture or other places. It’s quite an empowering statement.
In this reflection, the focus is a little different and I love God’s response. Very simple, very clear, God is everything and we are His. We don’t have to be everything (a timely reminder perhaps?), we just need to love God and remember his commandant. "Love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12
Religious Life at St John the Apostle
As we restart our time together Clare, our Youth Minister, will be visiting each class. She will reconnect our children to their class "I Am" statement. Clare will use songs and fun activities. She will begin with Kinder to Year Two on Thursday and Friday next week.
What are we learning about?
May is a traditional month to celebrate all we know and love about the Mother of our Lord. Year 4 have been learning about the important role of Mary. The learning goal was to know and undertand the role of Mary in the Christmas Story, which of course begins a long time before the birth of our Lord on the Feast of the Annunciation. They have created beautiful portraits of Mary which you can see below. Well done Year 4!
Steph Stewart
Religious Education Coordinator
Happy birthday to Luca V, Alek A, Thomasina N, Jaxon R and Lovette E who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.
It’s been a busy week in the Library and we thank you for your help in returning the massive amount of books (over 2,000) that were loaned out to students prior to the remote learning period. As books are being returned to the Library, they are being placed into quarantine to ensure the safety of students and staff.
It has been wonderful seeing the students excited about reading again and borrowing books during their scheduled Library lessons.
This week we took part in National Simultaneous Storytime. This is an event hosted by the Australian Library and Information Service, featuring an Australian Author with the aim to read it simultaneously in schools, libraries, homes and book shops across the country. This year the book was Chicken Divas, by Lucinda Gifford.
This week we took part in National Simultaneous Storytime. This is an event hosted by the Australian Library and Information Service, featuring an Australian Author with the aim to read it simultaneously in schools, libraries, homes and book shops across the country. This year the book was Chicken Divas, by Lucinda Gifford.
Looking for a great book?
Check out these great reads!
You may also wish to have a look at the first few chapters of J K Rowlings new story, the Ickabog. https://www.theickabog.com/home/
Happy reading!
Mrs Georgina Jaram (Teacher/Librarian) and Mrs Vanessa Hallaj (Library Assistant)
Successfully transitioning students back to school
School undoubtedly will be a different experience for students post COVID-19. For a start they’ve just experienced a prolonged period of remote learning and an absence from their friends, which will take time to process when they return to school.
With organised extra-curricular activities put on hold most children have had a great deal of free time, which has placed the locus of control firmly in their hands. I suspect many kids will grieve their lack of freedom, as they’ve had a glorious glimpse of what an unstructured life is like. It may take some time for them to get back into the swing of school life.
With the return to school imminent here are some sensible strategies to make adjustment easier for students.
Get ready for a return
Worriers and anxious types in particular like to know what’s ahead so your approach will make a difference. Prepare your child for a return by discussing the safety procedures the school will be implementing. Let young children know that an adult won’t be accompanying them past the school gate. Ask your child what they are looking forward to and check in with how they are feeling about a return. Validate any fears and apprehensions and correct any misconceptions.
Go slowly
This period will mirror the start of the school year when your child had to adjust to new teachers, different classmates and a new year level. Adjusting to change takes a great deal of personal energy, so you child or young person may become tired, grumpy, even moody at home. Make allowances for these personal changes and make sure they have plenty of free time to unwind after school.
Focus on reconnection
Make reconnection the theme for your child’s return to school. He or she will have to reconnect with friends, teachers and learning, which takes time. In all likelihood, your child’s teachers will use many strategies to help your child connect with their friends, reflect on their time at home and move them back into full-time learning mode. Support these activities and keep your learning expectations for your child in check.
It may take the rest of the term for some children to adjust to their life back at school.
Stay calm
Anxiety is very contagious, so it’s easy for us as parents to take on our children’s worries and fears. The reverse is true, and kids can pick up our worries, taking them on as their own. As a buffer against anxiety ensure you do something each day that brings you some joy, whether it’s listening to music, going for a walk or having a coffee with a friend.
Look after yourself
In recent months parents and teachers have been doing significant emotional labour. The learning and adjustment curves have been massive, with little time to relax and take a break. Consider your own emotional resources and make your wellbeing a priority, which will make it easier for you to stay calm if your child experiences difficulties.
Communicate confidence
It’s a fine line that many parents walk between being flippant (‘you’ll be right’) and showing confidence (‘you’ll do okay’) when kids struggle to adjust to change. My research into childhood anxiety reveals that children and young people want parents and teachers to understand their fears and anxieties, and to coach them to negotiate difficulties including adjusting to change. You can support your child through sharing stories of resilience, focusing on the positives and letting them know that will eventually adjust.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up many difficulties requiring us all to quickly adapt to new situations. Flexibility is a prime characteristic of resilient people, so if nothing else, getting through these challenging times will make us all more resilient.
