In this issue

Please find attached the latest news from our St John’s Lutheran Community Kindergarten.

St John’s Lutheran Community Kindergarten Advertising Pamphlet

Scholastic Book Club

Book Club brochures will be sent home today. All orders can only be ordered online using Book Club Loop.

To order…

1. To order use the Book Club LOOP Scholastic Book Club LOOP or you can download the app. When you order and pay by LOOP, do not fill in the order form or return anything to school. Follow the steps to set up an account and add your children, then you will be ready to order. Your order will be electronically linked to St John’s when you order and pay online.
2. Orders will need to be delivered to your home address. You will need to pay a fee of $7.50 for delivery. Orders will not be delivered to school.

Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Anderson in the library.

2021 Uniform Shop Reminder: Changes to Opening Hours

The Uniform Shop will be closed until further notice however orders are still being accepted.

If you need to purchase items, order forms can be found on our website and can be emailed to school@stjohnsbundaberg.qld.edu.au

Alternatively, your completed order form can be sent in with your child and can be placed in the class box.

Parents will receive a text message when their order is ready for collection, or if paid over the phone, can be sent home with your child.

Should your child need to try on uniforms, please contact the office to schedule an appointment time.

The office can become quite busy in the mornings with students and telephone calls, therefore unfortunately we are unable to fill orders at this time. We will however endeavour to fill your order during the day which can then be sent home with your child.

IMPORTANT – Parent Lounge Annual Information Update 

We kindly ask that families verify that all medical and contact details for your child/ren are up to date in Parent Lounge. This is extremely important to ensure that we are able to contact you in the event of an emergency.

When you first log in to Parent Lounge, you will be asked to verify medical details for your child/ren. Once you have completed this section of the verification process, we ask that you scroll to the Tours & Excursions section on your home page and complete the required items within the 2021 Annual Information Update. In order for your child/ren to be able to participate in excursions, this information must be accepted.

Regardless of whether information has changed from 2020, we require that parents complete the acknowledgement for each child enrolled at the school in 2021.

Parent Lounge will alleviate the need for paper copies of the Emergency Contact Form, General Permission Form & Publicity Permission Form, as you would have received in past years.

Parents are also asked to use Parent Lounge to advise of student absence, late arrivals or early departures. This is a quick and easy way to advise the school and gives our staff the opportunity to swiftly account for all children – which is a legal requirement. Please take the time to update all medical and address details for your family via the Parent Lounge facility. This enables us to contact you in cases of emergency. Parents have previously been advised of access details and information regarding Parent Lounge.

Please also take a moment to check that your parent occupation is correct, as your occupation information will have originally been filled out when you enrolled your child at St John’s Lutheran Primary School. For some of you this may have been many years ago and your working situation and employment may have changed. If your working situation/employment/occupation has changed, please email the school administration office at school@stjohnsbundaberg.qld.edu.au to advise, so that we can update our records.

If you have any issues accessing Parent Lounge, or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our school administration office for assistance.

We thank you for working in partnership with us.

Nut and Egg Allergy – Health Reminder

The health and safety of our children is of very high importance. As such, we remain to have in place the following safety guidelines so as to maximise the safety of all children. I appreciate your assistance in attending to this important health-related matter.

• Our school is an all nuts and egg free eating zone.
• Please do not send any nuts, peanut butter or foods containing nuts or peanut butter in your child’s lunch box. Please check labels if unsure.
• If you would like to send in birthday treats for your child’s class, please chat with your child’s teacher prior to bringing items in. Birthday treats must be individually packaged and store bought only (e.g. mini cadbury rolls, mini mars bars, individual popcorn, zooper doopers etc). Please be careful about the ingredients to ensure that they do not contain nuts or nut products. Any food-allergic child will be providing their own treats, but we still need to be careful.
• Please do not send any whole eggs, egg sandwiches, quiche, etc. in your child’s lunchbox. Eggs baked in cakes are usually fine.
• Please ensure that if your child has had peanut butter or eggs for breakfast that they thoroughly wash their hands and face with soap and water before coming to school. Water alone is not sufficient to remove the food traces.
• We will not be doing any classroom activities that involve nuts – cooking/craft. Please do not send in any boxes for craft that may have contained nuts and eggs.

Instrumental Music with Mrs Mac

Would you like to play trumpet or clarinet?

We are in need trumpet and clarinet beginners this year. If you are in Year 3 or above and would like to play music at school, please contact the office for more details.

Instrumental music lessons start in Week 2.

Tuesday: Junior Band

Wednesday: Senior Band

Thursday: Sing Along Choir (All year levels are welcome to join).

Senior Choir: Years 3 to 6. TBA

Why learn Japanese?

I am very excited to be teaching Japanese this year. Every week each class will have a 50 minute Japanese lesson. Japanese is just one of the many languages that are included in the Australian Curriculum. Japanese has been taught in Australia for more than 100 years and is widely taught as a second language in Australian schools. Across the world most students speak more than one language both at home and at school. Students benefit in many ways both academically and socially from learning different languages and from learning about a variety of cultures.

Japanese is the official language of Japan, Australia’s northern neighbour in the Asia region. It is also widely used by communities of speakers in Hawaii, Peru and Brazil, and learnt as an additional language by large numbers of students in the Republic of Korea, China, Indonesia and Australia.

Australia has a significant number of Japanese national residents, particularly in the major cities on the eastern seaboard. Japanese culture influences many areas of contemporary Australian society, including the arts, design, technology, fashion, popular culture and cuisine. Japan has been a close strategic and economic partner of Australia’s for more than 50 years, and there is ongoing exchange between the two countries in the areas of education, trade, diplomacy and tourism. Japan is an important nation within Asia and a significant contributor to economic, political and diplomatic relations in the region.

Students at St John’s from Kindergarten to Year 6, will be exposed to the Japanese culture and language throughout the year and will develop skills and attitudes that will allow them to be effective members of our global community.

I look forward to sharing our language learnings with you over the year.

Linderberg sensei.

Classroom Music

What a privilege it is to be teaching classroom music this year.  Every week I will visit each classroom from Kindergarten to Year 6, for a 50 minute classroom music lesson. Music is one of the five subjects included under The Arts umbrella of the Australian Curriculum – Music, Dance, Drama, Visual Arts and Media Arts. I will be working closely with our very experienced Instrumental Music Tutor Mrs Diane MacDonald, to plan and implement the classroom Music program for St John’s.

The Music curriculum aims to develop music knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure that, individually and collaboratively, students develop:

• the confidence to be creative, innovative, thoughtful, skilful and informed musicians
• skills to compose, perform, improvise, respond and listen with intent and purpose
• aesthetic knowledge and respect for music and music practices across global communities, cultures and musical traditions
• an understanding of music as an aural art form as they acquire skills to become independent music learners.

The benefits of learning music for all students are enormous and widely documented. Music contributes to development across the board – academically, physically, socially and spiritually.

I look forward to sharing our adventures into Music learning with you, throughout the year.

Ms Jenny Linderberg

1 Corinthians 14:40

But all things should be done decently and in order.

Being organised can be difficult for all of us. By teaching our children to be organised we are assisting them not just with school, but for life. At St John’s we call the skill of organisation “self-management”.

Self-management and organisation is about making wise and well thought out decisions that contribute to our learning and being and doing our best. We are resilient, responsible and reflective.

In general children do not have the skills to become self-managers without support and guidance from adults around them.

I have included some basic ideas which you may like to discuss at home and reflect around if they may be helpful for your child as they learn to be organised and self-manage.

• For younger children these may be pictures at first and then progress to using words.
• Prepare ahead of time. Talk about the next day over dinner at night. This allows for children to know what to expect ahead of time and generally helps them to feel ready for the day ahead. You may like to pack school bags, make lunches and lay school clothes out the night before.
• Set aside a homework space. Create a calm space with all the necessary equipment for homework time. You could include; pencils, sharpener, rulers, glue and scissors in this space so they are ready for homework time.
• Daily schedules. You can create these for the morning or the afternoon/evening. They can include getting dressed, packing bags, having breakfast/afternoon tea/dinner, homework time, reading time, play time and any other routines your family decides.

Most importantly, set a good example and do your best to maintain a sense of calm as your child learns the skills of organisation and self-management.

In the words of Benjamin Franklin

I wish you all a blessed and successful 2021 however that looks for you and your family. If I can be of service in any capacity, I welcome you to come and see me.

Jocelyn Bakker

Director of Learning and Teaching

Flourishing

Traditionally, on the first week back, as a staff we usually do something to set the tone for the year – a bit of professional development and maybe a team bonding experience. One of these experiences, which actually happened at the beginning of last year, was coming together under the guidance of an artist in order to paint individual paintings which together formed two whole, but separate, paintings. Suffice to say it was a lot of fun and challenging at the same time. Each member of each team was able to contribute to the outcome of the challenge and were it not for each individual the paintings would not have been able to be completed.

It’s an obvious metaphor for how we work in schools. Each of us plays a vital role, each of us leads in our own capacity and each of us is an important link in the chain to the matter before us – the education of the children in our care. Of course, this extends to the relationship between home and school as well. The success that our children experience at school is connected closely to the proper function of this relationship. When we get it right, our students flourish. Having said that it is hard to balance a tray on a 2-legged stool. Our firm foundation is assured when the third leg of the stool is firmly attached. In Lutheran Schools, we acknowledge a gracious God as an important part of what goes on in our world. A Loving Father providing for us, a Gracious Brother winning us back and a Gentle Spirit enlightening and encouraging us.

Philippians 1:9 says, ‘This is my prayer, that your love will flourish, that you will not only love much, but love well.’

Our team have picked up on this verse (among others) this year as an encouragement towards positive relationships with their students and each other and, of course, towards positive relationships between home and school. When we get community right, learning flourishes. Everyone flourishes.

Choosing Respect and Kindness

In our school, two of our 6Rs as part of our ‘Code-of-Conduct’ are ‘Respect’ and ‘Random-Acts-of-Kindness’. I shared with our students at our Assembly/Worship last Friday about watching the movie ‘Wonder’ with our eldest daughter, Bella. Below, is an extract from R. J. Palacio’s award-winning book, Wonder.

Whether you’re the littlest of kids or the biggest of adults, choosing to be kind is always a choice.

It’s an unkind action that someone has decided to make; usually, a physical one (like hitting someone) or a verbal one (like calling someone a mean name or writing something nasty about someone else on social media). Not one person out there has an excuse for not showing respect for others. Respect is something we all expect (and deserve); but it works two ways – we have to show respect to others, in return.

In R. J. Palacio’s award-winning book Wonder, readers will learn a lot about respect and kindness by walking in the shoes of the story’s main character – ten-year-old August Pullman (or ‘Auggie’ for short) who lives in New York City in America with his mum, dad, sister Via and their dog Daisy.

In Wonder, we immediately learn that Auggie was born with a medical condition that left him with a facial abnormality, which means that he looks different from a lot of other people in the world. He has been home-schooled by his parents his entire life, in an attempt to protect him from lots of harsh things in this world – like those who don’t always give people like Auggie a chance. When Auggie reaches the age of 10, his parents choose to send him to a school and all Auggie wants to do is convince his new classmates that he’s just like them… underneath it all. He’s so much more than just how his face looks – in fact, doesn’t that go for all of us?

Auggie learns to adapt to regular school life, but as you can imagine, that comes with a fair few ups and downs; the downs often involving different forms of nastiness.

Out of Auggie’s struggles and accomplishments, themes of strength, acceptance, resilience, kindness and respect leap out of the pages of Wonder, making it an impactful read for all children.

Here are a few lessons that we can all learn (no matter how big, small, young or old we are!) by getting to know Auggie in the truly wonderful pages of Wonder.

1. Don’t be afraid of difference

Someone will often start ‘teasing’ or being nasty to someone else because they see that person as different from themselves in some way. In Wonder, Auggie is seen as different because he was born with a condition that left him with a facial abnormality, making his face look different from many other faces. Sadly, both in real life and in the world of books, a lot of people are scared by difference, because they often don’t understand it. Auggie’s friend Jack comments that Auggie’s face scared him when he first saw him. But as Auggie stresses while telling his story, although he may look different on the outside, he’s very much an ordinary boy on the inside. Throughout the course of the book, a lot of characters learn this lesson (some quicker than others) and start seeing Auggie’s similarities shine through.

The lesson: But remember this, too: our differences are what make us all unique and special.

2. Don’t follow the crowd: Be like Summer!

A lot of ‘bullies’ find their strength in the ‘support’ around them. If someone else is laughing at their jokes or backing them up in some way, that person is actually helping that person do their job. Remember: bullies love an audience. Two of the characters in the book, Jack and Julian, show us this in Wonder. For those who haven’t read the book, there is a scene where two boys comment nastily about Auggie just as he walks into the classroom. So, be a Summer instead! She’s one of our all-time favourite characters in Wonder. Summer makes a decision to stand up for Auggie and decides, against popular opinion, to make it a daily ritual to sit with Auggie at morning tea and lunch.

The lesson: Make decisions that feel good, that you want to make. If you like someone, go and be their friend – it shouldn’t matter what other people think. If following the crowd doesn’t feel right, find your own path, as Summer does in Wonder. Make the friends you want to have, not the friends you think you should have.

3. Our words are powerful: they can make someone feel wonderful and awful

We are all responsible for the words we say and type, especially when they are about other people because words have the potential to hurt; just as much as a punch or a kick. Auggie was devastated when he overheard some of the boys at his school calling him mean names. Those boys might not have known that Auggie could hear them, but their words were still powerful and hurtful – and they didn’t think about the consequences of that.

The lesson: Show respect and be kind with your words and then it won’t matter who hears or reads them. Why not make an effort to use your words to show respect and kindness to someone this week – someone you perhaps don’t speak to very often – and watch what happens.

4. Don’t judge a book by its cover

Because you’ll never get the full story! Lots of the characters that we meet in Wonder immediately judge Auggie because of how his face looks; as a result, they’re often mean to him or they just avoid him because they’ve already made up their minds about him. This is how a lot of bullying starts in life; when someone doesn’t bother getting to know someone for who they are, and instead, just makes a speedy, often incorrect judgment about them. It’s not very respectful and it’s certainly not kind. We should never judge anyone in life without taking the time to get to know who they are; before reading the whole story, so to speak.

The lesson: Respect someone enough to learn their story.

5. Be kind to you, as well as others

While it’s very important to show kindness and respect to others in life, we also need to remember to show kindness and respect to ourselves, too. We all deserve to be happy and healthy, so, if something is upsetting us, we owe it to ourselves to seek out help. Be kind to yourself and ask for help – no one is going to judge you for doing that. There is more help and love around you than you know. In Wonder, Auggie cuts off his Padawan braid (he’s a big Star Wars fan!) after some other children make fun of him for it. You should never feel the need to change any part of yourself because of someone being nasty; by doing that, you’re letting them win.

The lesson: Respect and be kind to yourself by telling someone you trust right away.

6. Showing respect can mean saying you’re sorry

If you read a book like Wonder and start to feel guilty because perhaps you’ve been in the shoes of Jack or Julian (two boys that upset Auggie in different ways throughout the book), know that it’s never too late to start showing respect and kindness to someone. Sometimes that can start with two simple words: “I’m sorry.” Lots of lessons are learned throughout Wonder and different characters learn to change their behaviour because they realise it’s not right and it’s hurting someone.

The lesson: No-one is perfect and we all make mistakes, so if you feel like your actions have hurt someone else, start with an apology and go from there.

REMINDER: School Start and Finish Times (8.30 am – 3.00 pm)

It is an expectation that children arrive at school between 8.00 am and 8.25 am at which time teachers collect and take children to class in readiness for roll marking. To that end, the roll will be marked at 8.35 am sharp, each day. Students arriving at school after 8.35 am of a morning are to proceed to the office to collect a late pass.

Please note: Staff do not commence duties for the day until 8.00 am. As a matter of safety for all children, we respectfully ask that children are not left unsupervised outside of school entry points prior to 8.00 am.

Start of the school year

I would like to commend our students, parents and staff for the very positive start to our school year. It is a joy to walk this educational journey with you each day!

Thank you for working in partnership with us.

Grace and Peace.

Chris Mallett

PRINCIPAL