Dear St John the Apostle families, 

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week. 

As Matthew wrote in the Newsletter last week, he will be on leave for the remainder of the term. I will be Acting Principal, Stephanie Stewart will be Acting Assistant Principal, Rebecca Stevenson will be Acting REC and Bree Dess will maintain her position as Coordinator.  

Father’s Day

As we celebrate Father's Day on Sunday, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate all the fathers, grandfathers, and father figures in our community. Your love, guidance, and support play an invaluable role in shaping the lives of our students. Today at our Father’s Day breakfast, we honoured your commitment and the positive impact you make every day. Thank you to the teachers from Years 3-6 for organising the Father’s Day Breakfast. 

Aura Parker

Thank you to Mrs Emma Alcock for organising a visit on Wednesday by the author, Aura Parker. 

Aura Parker is a celebrated Australian author and illustrator known for her charming and imaginative children’s books. Her work is characterised by vibrant illustrations and engaging stories that captivate young readers. Parker's books, such as Twig and Cocoon, often explore themes of friendship, creativity, and resilience. 

Pokemon Club

As you may be aware, we run a Pokemon Club in the Library every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch time. For most of the time this is a positive and fun club that many students across the school enjoy. In the last couple of weeks, we have had a number of issues around trading Pokemon cards. We have reiterated with the students that this club is not for trading Pokemon cards. It is a chance for students to show each other their cards and have battles if they would like to. If your child attends Pokemon Club, it would be wonderful if you could please remind them of these expectations.

Awards 

Congratulations to the students who recevied awards today!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and all Fathers and Father figures feel celebrated this weekend. 

Rebekah Brown

Principal (Acting)

My first taste of the Catalyst Project was Spelling Mastery.  I was a bit precious about changing the way I taught spelling, but I trust my leaders and the research behind the decision and gave it a red hot go all the while hoping I was right and they were well… off track!

But alas, they were so right!! Spelling Mastery works, the data does not lie.  Two years on and I would never go back to how I did it before. But why does it work? As parents it helps to understand not only the content of the curriculum but also the pedagogy, behind our teaching. “Pedagogy is often described as the act of teaching. The pedagogy adopted by teachers shapes their actions, judgments, and teaching strategies by taking into consideration theories of learning, understandings of students and their needs, and the backgrounds and interests of individual students.”

A vitally important piece of pedagogy that underlies Spelling Mastery are Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction.

These include

1. Daily Review
2. Present new material using small steps.
3. Ask questions.
4. Provide models.
5. Guide student practise.
6. Check for student understanding.
7. Obtain a high success rate.
8. Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks.
9. Independent practise.
10. Weekly and monthly review.

Over the next few weeks, I will give specific examples of how each one is used in Spelling Mastery and other curriculum areas. For some background, this clip is an excellent overview of what Spelling Mastery is.  The only difference in our school is that it runs for K-6 and we have lessons 4 times a week.

1. Daily Review – can strengthen previous learning and can lead to fluent recall.

Not to be confused with rote learning, Daily Review is more sophisticated.

• It is quick – 10 – 15 mins
• It is fast – the teacher quickly asks for responses.
• Students either verbally respond or write on whiteboards.
• Concepts are “interleaved” – some recently taught and some from a few weeks or months ago.
• The content of each review shifts slightly each day.

This is an example of a Year 4 Maths Review. You can see the instructions at the top and the correct answers in blue.

What are the students learning about?

Year 4 have been learning about different types of prayer. They have learnt to write their own ‘Prayers of Intercession’, more commonly known as ‘Prayers of the Faithful'.  Yesterday, selected students were invited to share their prayers at class mass with Fr Chung. The theme was ‘Be filled with the Spirit’’

Hugo:

Let us pray for the Church. That every member of the church always stays safe and God always guides them and for them to be welcomed everywhere they go 

We pray to the Lord. 

All: Lord, hear our prayer.

Jigme:

Let us pray for the world as it is the creation of God and that we are grateful for all that we have

We pray to the Lord

All: Lord, hear our prayer.

Raksha:

Let us pray for those in need,  wherever they may be. That they are happy and joyful at all times.

We pray to the Lord

All: Lord, hear our prayer.

Aluel:

Let us pray for the St John the Apostle community. That we all work together to achieve our goals

We pray to the Lord. 

All: Lord, hear our prayer.

Well done Yer 4 and Mrs Love!

What are the teachers learning about?

Mrs Louise Osborne-Goldsbrough, Mrs Stephanie Stewart and myself are excited to be participating in ‘Communities of Collaboration in Religious Education 2024-22025’.  This is targeted professional learning to develop understanding, knowledge and skills in teaching Religious Education. 

The Communities of Collaboration in Religious Education: 2024-2025: 

is 8 sessions, across two years (2024-2025). 1 session per term, 2 hours per session.

• occurs in online breakout rooms within each session.

• uses the CECG Religion Sample Scope and Sequence to build an understanding of the RE Curriculum and utilisation of HITP (High Impact Teaching Practices) when developing teaching and learning programs in RE. 

• is aimed at supporting schools who are adopting the CECG Religion Sample Scope and Sequence.

• is clustered in individual year levels (K-10), with mixed groupings of schools (ACT and NSW). 

• is facilitated through the online environment (TEAMs) by a member of the CECG Catholic Identity Team. 
  

In fewer words, it’s an amazing opportunity for teachers who love programming and teaching Religious Education to meet online with other teachers in our diocese with the same passion, teaching the same year level, to plan teaching and learning activities using HITP based on the new  CECG Religion Sample Scope and Sequence.  Louise, Stephanie and myself are excited to be a part of this process.

Catholic Life and Reflection

I feel blessed and privileged to be Acting REC.  I can’t write as naturally and spiritually as Stephanie but I hope to … one day. 

Some people know that I participated in a teacher exchange program in 2016 (I talk about it … sometimes ?).  I moved my family of four to Calgary, Alberta.  I taught Year 2 at St Catherine’s of Siena.  The St Catherine School community (my exchange family, principal, staff, parents) are  still all very close to my heart. The effort they went to welcoming my family and sharing ‘everything Canadian’ with us was unbelievable!  

The more I read about the school’s patron saint, St Catherine of Siena, the more my faith is  inspired by her.  I love this quote at the moment, it is resonating within me whilst I am feeling both excited and challenged  … “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”  

Thursday morning, I was not ‘on fire’, I ended up running late, even after doing my homework, packing my school bag the night before and getting up early.  My family is sick and a little needy at the moment.   I’m bothered that after recess,  I didn't manage to get back to finishing a conversation with a student as promised (I will tomorrow!)  My day improved …but tomorrow, I plan to do better. I will give

 my best.  The only way I imagine achieving this is to put aside any feelings of self doubt, have faith in God and be who God meant me to be and set the world on fire.  There is only one of each and every one of us!! 

Rebecca Stevenson

Religious Education Coordinator

Notices from the Parish

Happy Birthday to Ekluvya Gupta, Pema Tenzin, Jamyang Gaytsho, Abmer Kaur, Cassius Gorringe, Simon Watman, Cassidy Sowden and Ethan Balthazar who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.

Opening Hours

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