School photos are almost upon us again!

The school has engaged MSP Photography to create our school records this year and you are invited to purchase prints of your child.
On photo day, every student will be photographed regardless of whether you are purchasing or not.
Your child would have already brought home a personalised order envelope from the photographers. Please take care to read and follow all the instructions carefully. This will ensure your order is processed smoothly and efficiently and will help you to avoid any late fees.
You will have the option to order online or with cash in your child’s envelope.
Additional order envelopes are available from the school office for separated parents, blended families and grandparents. You will need to collect these on or before photo day and give it to the photographer on photo day. Please be sure to write “Mum’s order” or “Dad’s order” on top of your envelope.

COVID 19 NOTICE
Due to the current social distancing health directive proscribed by law, school photographers are obligated to social distance from all students, school staff and parents whilst visiting your school. This is a hard and fast rule that we cannot break or bend. As a result of this requirement, it means that we have had to remove any traditional group photos (including sibling photos) from our offerings until such time as social distancing requirements are lifted.
We are truly sorry for any disappointment that this causes and appreciate your understanding that these circumstances are outside of our control.

As school staff are unable to help with photography enquiries or payments, please direct your questions and comments directly to MSP Photography by phoning 4921 3355 or to schoolphotos.cq@msp.com.au

Thank you for working with us through these unusual times and we look forward to a great photo day. Keep smiling!

MSP Photography Team

Dear Parents and Caregivers

The best gift any parent can give a child is the love of books and the joy and benefits of independent reading for fun. Children who read at home, or are read to, have a head start on reading success in school.

You’ll find award-winning books and bestsellers, as well as old and new favourites. I recommend them because the books span a wide range of children’s reading levels and interests and because they are inexpensive (some books cost as little as $2).

Issue 5 is now available for viewing at https://www.scholastic.com.au/media/5642/bc_520.pdf 

Kids are just like adults–they have to find just the right book to grab their interest. Issue 5 is packed with great books – Ninja Giants!, Excuse Me!, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Goosebumps Monster Collection and more. There are fun activities with LEGO Gear Bots, 4 in 1 Robot and Colour Your Own Super-Cute Cupcake Squishy – just to name a few!

For the lovers of graphix novels we have–Odd 1s Out and Grand Trial Showdown, and for our nonfiction lovers we have snakes, dinosaurs, horses, cats, rocks, and even how to become a youtuber! Issue 5 has so many great titles, with something for every budget and reading appetite, so keep an eye out for the catalogue coming home in your child’s schoolbag!

Closing date for Issue 5 is Monday 3 August, 2020.

It is easy to order. The Book Club LOOP platform for parents allows you to pay by credit card. You can place your child’s order at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. (Please be advised that at this time, we are unable to accept any orders at school).

Owning your own books is something special! I hope that you will encourage your child to order books this year. Each order helps earn free books and teaching materials for our classroom; however, there is never any obligation to order. I know of no better way to encourage reading than to allow children to choose the books they want to read.

Sincerely,

Mrs Anderson

Closure of Sprouts Kids Club

It is with sadness that we advise that Sprouts Kids Club will no longer be running due to a lack of adult leaders & helpers.
Sprouts has been running since about 2013 and we have had an amazing time getting to know your children, hearing God’s Word together and playing games & doing craft together – we will miss them.

Mrs Bowes and The Sprouts Team

Bundaberg Lutheran Parish

Lead/School Pastor: Pastor Greg Graham
Parish Pastor: Pastor Ryan Norris

Phone: 4152 5900
Email: office@stjohnsbundaberg.org.au
www.stjohnsbundy.org.au

St John’s: 30 George Street | Service Times: 8.30am & 10.00am
Faith: Larson Street | Service Time: 7.30am
Redeemer: Tirroan Road, Gin Gin | Service Time: 8.00am
Rosedale: 10.30am | 1st/3rd Sunday of the month
Gracehaven Chapel: Dr May’s Road | Service Time: 10.30am

Prep enrolments for 2021 are filling fast! Please contact our school office on 4132 6888 for details.

If you know anyone interested in Prep for 2021, please recommend our beautiful school.

*Please note limited vacancies exist in some other year levels.

Did you know that you can now let us know of your child’s absence through Parent Lounge?

Our Parent Lounge not only enables parents to see what is happening but is also a quick and easy way to update important information including if your child is going to be absent or late to school.

Should you have any issues accessing Parent Lounge, please phone the school on  4132 6888 or email school@stjohnsbundaberg.qld.edu.au during office hours for assistance.

Uniform Shop – Changes to Opening Hours

The Uniform Shop will be closed until further notice. If you need to purchase items please complete an order form/s below and email to school@stjohnsbundaberg.qld.edu.au

We shall contact you once the order has been filled for payment and collection.

2020 Prep Order Form

2020 Order Form Yr1-6

New Hair Accessories have Arrived!

We are delighted to advise that new hair accessories have just arrived and are available for purchase. Should you wish to view the different styles, please do not hesitate to contact the office to arrange an appointment time.

Student Awards

THE MS READATHON

Embark on an epic adventure this August! The MS Readathon inspires kids to read as much as they can, all for an incredible cause. The rules are simple. Read whatever you like, as much as you can, in August. This year’s MS Readathon will be a magical quest, and the adventure kicks off on August 1 and wraps up on August 31. Best of all, by joining the quest, you will be helping kids who have a parent with multiple sclerosis.

This year the MS Readathon has a many new features. You will find a brand-new interactive website and children can now write book reviews and rate their favourite reads.

St John’s students can register individually, with the help of their parents. If you would like to find out more, or register, you can visit the MS Readathon website: https://www.msreadathon.org.au/

ICAS – A Reminder

Online payments close on Sunday 26 July for those families who have a child from Year 2 – Year 6 who would like to participate in ICAS this year. If you require the information re-sent to you, please contact the front office. If you have any questions regarding your child’s participation, please contact me and I will be happy to assist you.

Jocelyn Bakker

Director of Learning and Teaching

Welcome back to a new term! Semester 2 will present many wonderful opportunities for our students to strive for their personal best in a variety of pursuits. We ask that you continue to work with us as educators, so that together we can encourage our children to always give their best. 

New Pathways Format

Welcome to the first edition of the new ‘Pathways’ format which is a newsletter publication completely online. I hope and pray you find this format and style easy to navigate. I would like to thank Bernadette Latimer and Gillian Croft for coordinating the renewed format.

Honest Abe

Abraham Lincoln, the much-celebrated American President, was one of the great men in History.

Before he became president, Lincoln spent twenty years as an unsuccessful Illinois lawyer – at least he was unsuccessful in financial terms. But when you measure the ‘good’ he did, he was very rich indeed. Legends are often untrue, but Lincoln was the real thing. During his years as a lawyer, there were hundreds of documented examples of his honesty and decency.

For example, Lincoln didn’t like to charge people much who were as poor as he was. Once a man sent him twenty-five dollars, but Lincoln sent him back ten of it, saying he was being too generous.

He and his associate once prevented a con man from gaining possession of a tract of land owned by a mentally ill girl. The case took fifteen minutes. Lincoln’s associate came to divide up their fee, but Lincoln reprimanded him. His associate argued that the girl’s brother had agreed on the fee ahead of time, and he was completely satisfied.

“That may be,” said Lincoln, “but I am not satisfied. That money comes out of the pocket of a poor, girl; and I would rather starve than swindle her in this manner. You return half the money at least, or I’ll not take a cent of it as my share.” He was a fool, perhaps, by certain standards. But he was a good human being by anyone’s standards.

Of course as human beings we can be prone to the evils of dishonesty, untruths, misguided comments, even gossip! The unfortunate result of these can be demeaning, degrading, and hurtful. Not based on facts, but misinformation, interpretations and perceptions. Unless one actually witnesses an event, here-say doesn’t make it the truth. Fortunately, we have a school whose principles, beliefs and ethos are based, among other things, on the notions of trust and honesty.

Honesty makes us feel good about ourselves and creates trust in others. It even improves our relationships. It seems not much in fashion these days to talk about the benefits of such but the benefits are undeniably there and they are valuable and worth the trouble. I see it daily in our students, teachers and parents!

Honesty. It may be corny, but it’s the finest force for good in the world, and it always will be! It worked for Abraham Lincoln.

Failing Forward

As is often the case, when teachers get together we can’t help but talk ‘shop’. I’m sure this is probably true for many other professions, also. However, while I was in a ‘zoom’ Principal’s meeting recently, a colleague and I succumb to a moment of shop-talking weakness. We were chatting about the notion of failing and failure. What does it mean to fail? Why are we so afraid of failing? Too often, we all become afraid of the ‘F’ word – Failure. Let me tell you, I can speak from great experience!

However, it is with age, time and life experience that we begin to realise that failure, when reflected and acted upon positively, can actually be very easily turned in to success. You see, it is through mistakes, mishaps and failings that we have the best opportunity to learn. Turn your mistakes and ‘failures’ into positive life-learning experiences. Turn them in to success! 

“Don’t’ be afraid to fail because only through failure do you learn to succeed.” – Unknown

Date Changes

There have been some changes and amendments to dates for owing to continued Covid-19 restrictions. The most notable are:

• Book Week has been postponed from Term 3 to Term 4 (October 17 – 23) (TBC)
• Grandparents’ and Special Friends’ Day has been postponed from Term 3. We are unsure as to whether or not this event will take place. We will advise accordingly.
• School Concert/Musical has been cancelled for 2020 owing to matters beyond our control. We will aim for this event to take place in 2021.
• Year 6 Canberra Trip – The School Response Team are meeting regularly to analyse Government advice and updates. Parents will be advised of the final decision as soon as possible.

On behalf of our school community, I thank you for your ongoing support. We appreciate your understanding relating to the changes in operations owing to Covid-19.  As and when we receive updates, we will endeavour to keep you informed.

21 Bell Street

Many of you will have noticed that the house on 21 Bell Street has now been removed from site. Please find attached a series of photos from the process. We are now working to ‘prepare’ the site for turf and seed in order to have our children us it for play space.

Thank you for working in partnership with us.

Grace and Peace

Chris Mallett

PRINCIPAL