Filter Content
- Recent Calendar Updates
- School Focus and Positive Behaviour
- Principal's Corner
- Teaching, Learning and Inclusion
- Catholic Life and Reflection
- Happy Birthday
- School Photos - Tuesday 26 March
- Book Club
- The Uniform Shop
- Hot Cross Bun Breakfast
- Easter Egg Guessing Competition
- Happy Families
- Community Notices
Please go to our school calendar on the website or COMPASS for more details.
Please note that Term 2 Monday 29 April is a pupil free day. The first day of Term 3 and the last day of Term 4 (22 July, and 17 December) are also pupil free days for professional learning for staff. Students do not attend school on these days. OSHClub will be available.
Term 1 Weeks 9-11
- Hot Cross Bun Breakfast (week 9)
- School Photo Day (week 9)
- Regional Swimming Carnival (week 9)
- Easter Liturgies (week 9)
- SFX Principal Enrolment Talk Yrs 5-6 (week 9)
- Community Council Meeting (week 10)
- K-2 Parent Reading Night (week 10)
- End of Term Award Ceremony (week 11)
- Cross Country (week 11)
The school positive behaviour focus this week was:
Use manners.
Ngunnawal word of the week:
Ngulla (means 'tree')
Dear St John's families,
This week is Harmony Week and our classes have spent a little time learning about the various cultures that are an important part of each person's story.
Nearly 25% of our students have a Language Background Other Than English (LBOTE). This means that either they or their parents speak another langauge as their first language. There are even more students who have a parent that comes from an English speaking culture elsewhere in the world.
All of these families bring a great deal of insight to enrich our community. Their stories, their faith backgrounds, their lived experiences are all welcome.
Being a Catholic school, founded on the msc charism 'Be on earth the heart of God', we need to know God's love before we can be God's love. That means listening to all of the ways that people experience life in our world. If our Catholic tradition recognises that we are all 'made in the image and likeness of God' then we can understand God's love by listening to, learning from and celebrating the backgrounds and experiences of everyone in our community.
Finance Officer Update
Thank you for your patience as we try again to recruit a suitable person for our Finance Officer position. Our recruitment round closes this week and we hope to make an appointment to the position very soon, with the successful applicant starting as soon as they are able.
Holy Week
Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the most significant and important week in the Catholic Church calendar. This Sunday, known as Passion or Palm Sunday, we commemorate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, on Holy Thursday we celebrate the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciples and on Good Friday we reflect profoundly on Jesus’ death by crucifixion. The week can serve as a spiritual pilgrimage that deepens our faith, as we anticipate the joyous hope of Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Our parish holds beautiful liturgies and celebrations for each of these special days. Please look at the Parish Compact below for the dates and times.
Thank you for working together to support your child's learning.
Matthew Garton
Principal
K-2 Reading Night (Tuesday 2 April)
On Tuesday 2 April (Week 10), the Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers will run a Parent Reading Session from 4-5pm.
During this session, we will discuss the main assessment we use to assess your child’s reading development. This assessment is called DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). We will discuss how DIBELS helps us to identify skills that need to be developed for a child to successfully read. For those parents who come to the session we will provide their child’s results in a parent report. We will discuss the report in detail and give you strategies to easily and quickly support your child in these areas at home. Unfortunately, if you do not attend we will be unable to give you this report as it requires explanation. This session will take place in the hall with all parents/carers that attend from Kindergarten to Year 2.
For the second part of the session, each parent/carer will move to their child’s classroom. During this session, the year level teachers will discuss specific reading strategies for their year level. There will also be an opportunity for you to practise these strategies with your child and gain support from your child’s classroom teacher.
Please bring your child with you. For the first part of the session, we will look after the students in their classrooms. You will then meet them for the second session in their classroom.
We highly recommend that parents/carers attend this session. Your child’s reading success in the lower primary years are instrumental to their ongoing success as they grow older. Classroom teachers will also individually call parents to request they attend this session if they think it will be especially beneficial to your child.
We know that a number of parents have already attended this session last year. However, the skills that your child’s current teachers will work with you and your child on are different from last year and are age appropriate.
Please RSVP using this form: https://stjohnflorey.schoolzineplus.com/form/77
We look forward to seeing you there.
Protocols for excellent parenting and improving relationships of all kinds
Our School Counsellor, Cameron Day wanted to share the below podcast. He believes it is invaluable to parents.
In this episode, Dr. Andrew Huberman's guest is Dr. Becky Kennedy, PhD, a clinical psychologist, bestselling author, and founder of Good Inside, an education platform for parents and parents-to-be. They discuss actionable protocols for raising resilient, emotionally healthy kids and effective alternatives to typical forms of reward and punishment that instead teach children valuable skills and strengthen the parent-child bond. These protocols are also applicable to other types of relationships: professional, romantic, friendships, siblings, etc.
They explain how to respond to emotional outbursts, rudeness, entitlement, and how to repair fractured relationships, build self-confidence, and improve interpersonal connections with empathy, while also maintaining healthy boundaries.
They also discuss how to effectively communicate with children and/or adults with ADHD, anxiety, learning challenges, or with “deeply feeling” individuals.
The conversation is broadly applicable to all types of social interactions and bonds. By the end of the episode, you will have learned simple yet powerful tools to build healthy relationships with kids, teens, adults and oneself.
Cross Country
Our Cross Country carnival will take place on the last day of term from 11.25am-1.25pm (Friday, 12 April). Please see below the course and also the distance each year group will run on the day. If you are able to help on the day, please email me at rebekah.brown@cg.catholic.edu.au
- Kindergarten (1 x inner loop 500m)
- Turning 7 in 2024(Year 1 and 7yrs from Yr 2– 1 inner loop 500m)
- Turning 8 in 2024 (Year 2) (1km – 1 outer loop)
- Turning 9 in 2024 (Year 3) (1.5km – 1 inner loop and 1 outer loop)
- Turning 10 in 2024 (Year 4) (2km – 2 outer loop)
- Turning 11 in 2024 (Year 5) (3km – 3 outer loop)
- Turning 12 in 2024 (Year 6) (3km – 3 outer loop)
Rebekah Brown
Assistant Principal and Inclusion Coordinator
What Students are Learning About
In Year 6 our focus for this year is service. A group of enterprising and extremely creative students organised a crochet stall at the fete. They made $90 which they decided to donate to Save the Childrens Appeal for Children in Gaza.
Olivia, Liliana, Maggie, Rachel, Sophia and Ziva were the organisers.
If you would like to follow their example you can donate here.
https://www.savethechildren.org.au/donate/appeals/gaza-emergency-appeal
Catholic Life and Reflection
Catholic Life and Reflection
I am finding myself listening to this song a lot lately.
I think it helps to remind me that I have to trust in God’s love for us. Marian England mentioned this quote at the Confirmation formation evening on Tuesday. I think it is relevant. :)
God bless.
Stephanie Stewart
Notices from the Parish
Happy Birthday to Rose Holding, William Broadhurst, and Beau Carr who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.
School photography day is on Tuesday 26 March. Group and portrait photographs can be purchased by following the link below or by returning the order envelope with your payment to our photographer on school photo day.
2 easy ways to purchase:
- Visa, MasterCard or PayPal
- Cash – complete the envelope supplied and return it to our photographer on photo day
Or visit: www.advancedlife.com.au
And enter online order code: 21X CFH 6YT
School photography information:
- Online orders - do not require an envelope returned to your school
- Sibling Photos - Don’t forget to pre-order your sibling photos online up to 24 hours before photo day. We provide your school with a list of sibling orders right up to the day of photography, so no one misses out. If you miss the online order deadline, you can submit a completed sibling order envelope first thing in the morning of the day of photography, so your school is aware you want the photo taken and can bring your children together in time for it. Sibling photographs only apply to children enrolled at your school. Please note not all schools offer sibling photos
- Late fees - a late fee will be applied to each package purchased after photo day due to the additional cost of producing these packages separately
- Package delivery - School photographs will be returned approximately 6 weeks after the day of photography. Please note this delivery timeframe is dependent on proofing and additional photography days at your school.
- Previous Years’ photos - Past years’ photographs including sports, co-curricular and representative groups are also available to order under the “previous years or group photo” tabs at your school’s advancedorder site when you click on the “Order School Photos Here” button above. You can also order past packages, portrait images and gifts from your child’s unique, individual and secure advancedyou image archive site using the unique 9 digit image code found on packages you have ordered in the past
All students are required to wear their full summer school uniform on the day.
advancedlife would like to express our appreciation to St John The Apostle Primary School for placing your trust in us. Please remember we offer a 100% money back guarantee on our products to ensure your peace of mind. We would also love to receive your feedback or resolve any issues you may experience as fast as possible, to ensure your satisfaction. If you have any questions, comments or feedback relating to your advancedlife experience please contact us at: www.advancedlife.com.au/contact
If you have indicated on your child’s enrolment form that permission has not been granted for ‘photos/videos published online or in-print’ or ‘release of information for school photos’ please contact the school if you DO NOT want your child to participate on photo day.
Scholastic Book Club orders are due on Monday 25 March. Please order and pay online using LOOP.
Opening Hours
The Uniform Shop will be CLOSED on Good Friday.
The next opening time will be:
Friday 5 April - 8.30am-9.30am
If you have any questions or concerns please email the uniform shop on stjohnsclothingpool@gmail.com
There is a jar filled with eggs for students to guess the number of eggs contained in the jar. The jar will be displayed in the Office should parents wish to help their child estimate a realistic guess. Year 6 students will also receive guesses during break times.
Each guess will cost 50 cents. Multiple guesses are welcome. The competition will be run during allocated recess and lunch breaks.
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 2 April.
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, writes that,
Goals are for people who care about winning once. Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.
We rise or fall according to the level of our systems. But family systems often don’t exist. Chaos, rush, and stress dominate. Spontaneity works on some days. Exhaustion wins on others.
If systems and habits are at the core of our successes, developing effective, usable systems becomes a skill that matters.
Can you write out your morning system? Your weekly meal system? Your exercise routine or system?
What’s the system for strengthening your relationship with your spouse or partner? Your kids?
Here are three practical systems I recommend:
Mornings
- Prep everything from uniforms, shoes, and schoolbags to breakfast choices and lunch decisions the night before.
- Get enough sleep (that’s children and parents).
- Wake up early enough to be ready before the kids need to get started.
- Wake your children up with at least a 15-minute margin in case of challenges.
- Reduce correction and direction and build connection by asking how you can help.
Develop your morning system along these guidelines and watch your family’s effectiveness and connection shift.
Getting on the Same Page
- Have a weekly couples meeting and a weekly family meeting (with treats if necessary).
- Ask, “What’s working this week?”, “What’s not?”, and “What will we work on next week?”
- Make a plan and ensure kids and partner buy-in.
- Integrate accountability processes each morning or evening.
Building a Better Relationship
- Touch each other when you pass in the corridor, sit in the car together, or anytime you can.
- Answer the phone with delight rather than “Yep?” or “What’s up?”.
- Schedule a regular date (that doesn’t include watching a screen).
- Share long kisses when you leave the house and when you return.
- Remember to say “Hi” and “Bye”.
- Say, “I love you”, and use their name.
- Have sex that focuses on female pleasure. (As the famous book is titled, She Comes First). Prioritise sexy time so it isn’t 10p.m. exhausted “get it over with” sex.
- Have a night away together once every quarter/term.
These are idea starters, not gospel. Creating positive habits together with small and consistent daily actions aligned with your system moves the needle.
It’s not just about what you do today, but about what you do every day. Your family’s happiness and your parenting effectiveness will reflect the habits you establish over time.
