Volleyball Australia Regional Camp

The next Volleyball Australia Emerging Talent Program Regional Camp in the Wide Bay region is being held on the weekend on 14 – 15 May 2022 at Aldridge State High School (Maryborough).

The weekend camp will provide male and female athletes in the Wide Bay and Burnett region (and beyond) an opportunity to advance their skills under the guidance of the high-performance Volleyball Australia national junior program coaches and athletes. Athletes will enjoy a total of 9 hours of on-court coaching over the weekend and learn the skill concepts and training/playing styles employed by the Australian junior and senior national teams.

For more information, please click on the attached flyer – Wide Bay Emerging Talent Camp Flyer – May 2022

Mothers’ Day Stall

Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers who assisted with our Mothers’ Day Stall last week. The Stall was certainly a success and students were excited to visit and do their own shopping.

We hope that all of our St John’s Community Mums had a wonderful day last Sunday.

(We will be looking for Fathers’ Day volunteers in Term 3, more information to come closer to the date).

MSP Photography – Photo Day

Our recent photo day was a big success and all students looked very smart in their school uniforms! MSP have advised that school photos should be ready early Term 3. School photos will be sent home in the class boxes when they arrive at school. We will keep you posted if there are any changes.

Ready Set Prep Open Day – Saturday 14 May 2022 

If you or anyone you know is looking to enrol your child in Prep in 2024 or beyond, our annual Ready Set Prep Open Day is a great opportunity for your family to experience why we’re the school and kindergarten of choice for young children in Bundaberg.

Bring your child on Saturday 14 May from 9am – 11am. Meet our Senior Staff – Talk to Teachers – Tour our School – Let them Play – Enjoy morning tea. We can’t wait to show you why we’re the school of choice in Bundaberg and the place where students can start small and dream big!

Bring your child along and benefit from:

• Meeting our Senior Staff
• General enrolment information for St John’s
• Meeting teachers and student leaders
• Face painting
• Indoor and outdoor play
• Morning tea

Please RSVP via our website – Ready Set Prep Open Day Registration Form

At St John’s we believe every child is an individual and we encourage them to realise their potential through a balance of Christian values, innovative curriculum, fun and challenging co-curricular activities. Come and experience why the St John’s community is a special place for students, teachers and families.

Lunch Playtime Music – Choir and Band

Sing Along Choir – All year levels are welcome to join. Sing along to Chapel songs for Friday and kids movie songs. Choir is held on Monday during lunch playtime.

Junior Band –  Beginner band students playing their new band songs. Junior Band is held on Tuesday during lunch playtime.

Senior Band – students playing their new songs. Senior Band is held on Wednesday during lunch playtime.

Senior Choir – Years 3 to 6 students only. Learning choir skills and harmony singing. Senior Choir is held on Thursday during lunch playtime.

Children’s Day, or Kodomo No Hi (こどもの日)

Last week the Prep classes learnt about Children’s Day and made koi kites in honour of the Japanese celebration.

Children’s Day, or Kodomo No Hi (こどもの日), is a Japanese celebration which takes place every year on the 5 May. It is the final celebration in Golden Week, and it was created as an opportunity to respect children’s personalities and to celebrate their happiness and good fortune.

It has been a day of celebration in Japan since ancient times. In 1948, it was designated a public holiday by the Japanese government.

Kodomo No Hi is especially well known as there are several unique traditions and decorations that are associated with the celebration of the holiday. There are many wonderful traditions associated with the celebration of Kodomo No Hi.

The most well known are the carp-shaped windsocks or kites, known as Koinobori (こいのぼり), which are raised to celebrate each member of a family.

The black carp, which is the largest one on the Koinobori flag, represents the father and is known as the magoi (まごい). The red or pink carp, or higoi (ひごい), represents the mother, and the last carp, which is often blue, represents the child (traditionally the son). An additional carp fish, which is usually green or orange, is added for each younger sibling.

These streamers are flown on poles outside of houses and public buildings to bring luck, health and good fortune to the children inside.

Japanese families have a strong desire for their children to be a human representation of the carp fish, so it was chosen to represent Children’s Day as it symbolises strength and success. According to a Japanese legend, a carp fish swam upstream to become a dragon. In the wild, carp are also known to have the ability to fight upstream against strong currents and overcome obstacles.

Jenny Linderberg

Japanese Teacher

2022 Uniform Orders: – Cooler Weather 

As the mornings are now becoming cooler, we are reminding parents that winter uniforms (jumpers, track pants and jackets) are now available.

If you need to purchase items, order forms can be found on our website or through Parent Lounge 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.  As you can imagine, we have a quite a lot of orders still waiting to be collected. Prompt payment and collection is great appreciated.

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.

Please note: Sports jacket is to be worn with sports uniforms only. The formal knit jumper is to be worn with the formal day uniform please.

Kind regards,

Uniform Shop Committee

The Language of Love – quality time

In their book The Five Love Languages of Children, Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell suggest that people – children and adults – express their love and receive expressions of love from others in five distinct ways: through words, gifts, service, time and touch.

Quality time is a parent’s (or grandparents) gift to a child, saying, ‘You are important. I like being with you.’ The most important factor in quality time is not so much what you do but your focused attention.

Paul Tournier, often considered one of the twentieth century’s most famous Christian physicians, wrote; ‘To love is to give one’s time. We never give the impression that we care when we hurry.’

Spending time with our children and with our families, will help them to feel loved, secure, and safe, and creates many memories that will last a lifetime.

MOTHER’S DAY

Last Sunday, we marked the occasion of ‘Mother’s Day’ – A day where we acknowledged our mother, were acknowledged as a mother, or perhaps reflected or remembered a strong woman in our lives who influenced us in some way. We pray that all of the wonderful ladies in our life had a joyous day and absorbed the time, connections and love offered to them with and by family.

Coffee and Connect Morning

You may be aware that each Friday from 8:00am, an opportunity for our school family to gather over a warm cup of tea/coffee prior to, and at the conclusion of our weekly Chapel Service and combined School Assembly exists. We would like to encourage our parents and friends to join us for a chat; whether staying for assembly, or simply commencing the morning routine drop-off. What a wonderful opportunity to enjoy coffee and connect with others from our school community over a warm drink. Please feel free to contact our friendly office staff, should you like to know more. We welcome you and look forward to seeing you there!

Pastor Pfeffer

You may be aware, our school has been blessed with another Pastor to join our school team in ministry. We welcomed Pastor Graham Pfeffer last week at our Chapel Service and Assembly at St John’s Lutheran Primary School. Please join us, this coming week, where Pastor Pfeffer, will be leading our Chapel Service. We pray for and look forward to continuing to work with Pastor Greg and Pastor Graham as they minister to the children of St John’s and are involved in our school community in many ways. Welcome Pastor Pfeffer!

Uniform Expectations and Reminders

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:65

As per our uniform expectations, “the students are to view themselves as ambassadors of the school in that the uniform is worn correctly.” If you have any questions regarding uniform wear, suitability of footwear and student grooming; please do not hesitate to arrange a time to discuss such with me or contact the administration office for a copy of the Uniform Expectations for our school. Please ensure that for interschool sports, students are wearing their black leather school shoes to school and any alternate footwear required, is brought in their kit bag. This ensures students are looking their best in the representation of our school. We would like to continue to uphold our very high expectations regarding our standards of dress, whether it be formal or sports uniform attire. Should you need to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact the school. 

SSRC Update

SSRC Meetings will take place every third Thursday at morning tea time in the library courtyard. We look forward to sharing with you, the service opportunities generated by our Student Services Representative Council.

Dates for the remaining SSRC Meetings for Term 2 will be:

Week 4 – Friday 13/05 (Due to NAPLAN and Year 2 Excursion)

Week 7 – Thursday 2/06

Week 10 – Thursday 23/06

Family Fun Night

Are you looking for some family fun on a Friday Night? Well look no further … St John’s Lutheran Church will be holding a Family Fun Night, this Friday 13 May from 6:30pm-9:00pm We would love to see our school families join us for a night of intergenerational Fun, Fellowship and Faith. Please see flyer below for further details. RSVP on family.friday@stjohnsbundy.org.au

Tamara Carroll

DIRECTOR OF PASTORAL CARE AND WELLBEING

NAPLAN

NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents and carers to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgement about student progress.

NAPLAN tests are constructed to give students an opportunity to demonstrate skills they have learnt over time through the school curriculum, and NAPLAN test days should be treated as just another routine event on the school calendar. The best way you can help your child prepare for NAPLAN is to reassure them that NAPLAN tests are just one part of their school program, and to advise them to simply do the best they can on the day.

NAP – Parent/carer support. (2022). Retrieved 9 May 2022, from https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/parent-carer-support

NAPLAN – YEAR 3 and YEAR 5 students

NAPLAN 2022 is this week for Year 3 and Year 5 students on Tuesday 10 May, Wednesday 11 May and Thursday 12 May. Please be vigilant in ensuring you arrive to school on time and that you do not book appointments for your child on these days.

MS READATHON – REGISTER NOW FOR AUGUST

Reading can take kids on incredible journeys of discovery, awakens their imagination, and builds their confidence. It is never too early or too late to help them find inspiration and motivation to pick up a book.

The MS Readathon has been inspiring kids to read more for 44 years, and this August, it will be more fun than ever before. We have authors and ambassadors who can share their stories, incentives, and prizes to motivate kids. Register your interest today.

If that is not enough, all the money raised will help support the thousands of families living with MS in Australia. We have stories to share about the people we care for that will warm your heart. Watch Karla read the beautiful letter she has written about her mum, who lives with MS.

To make it fun and keep kids interested, we will be offering children who register a FREE T-shirt. By wearing their t-shirt, they will help raise awareness and be proud that they are helping others.

We have competitions to win prizes, last year we gave away holiday vouchers for Big 4 holiday parks. We developed activity sheets, colouring sheets, forms, and bookmarks to get even the most reluctant readers involved.

To make it easy for parents, we have created emails and social posts so you can let friends and family know how they can support your little readers through sponsorship and words of encouragement.

Check out the resources they include fundraising resources and tips, activity sheets, sponsorship forms, social posts, posters and a reading tally.

Whilst you will need to register from home, please let me know once you do. If you would like some help finding books to read, please see Mrs. Anderson in the library.

MS Readathon. (2022). Retrieved 9 May 2022, from https://www.msreadathon.org.au/

Jocelyn Bakker

DIRECTOR OF LEARNING AND TEACHING

Whose hands?

A football in my hands is worth about $20.
A football in Jonathan Thurston’s hands is worth about $1 million.
It depends on whose hands it’s in.

A basketball in my hands is worth about $25.
A basketball in Shaquille O’Neal’s hands is worth about $30 million.
It depends on whose hands it’s in.

A tennis racket is useless in my hands.
A tennis racket in Venus Williams’ hands is a championship winning racket.
It depends on whose hands it’s in.

A rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal.
A rod in Moses’ hands will part the mighty sea.
It depends on whose hands it’s in.

A sling shot in my hands is just a kid’s toy.
A sling shot in David’s hand was a mighty weapon.
It depends on whose hands it’s in.

Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in God’s hands will feed thousands.
It depends on whose hands it’s in.

Nails in my hands might produce a birdhouse.
Nails in Jesus Christ’s hands will produce salvation for the entire world.
It depends on whose hands it’s in.

As you see now… it depends on whose hands it’s in.

So, put your concerns, your worries, your fears, your hopes, your dreams, your families and your relationships in God’s hands. Because… It depends on whose hands it’s in.

This message is now in your hands. What will you do with it?

We have much for which to be thankful

At St John’s we are very fortunate to have teachers with such a passion for teaching. They believe, as do I, that they make a difference in lives of young people and in the community. I often talk with parents, teachers and students about the importance of positive relationships. In any organisation the strength of that organisation relies heavily on the relationship status that exists. For us at St John’s we are fortunate to have a school that is based on positive relationships. The people in our community have, over the years, established a wonderful environment of trust, co-operation and respect. Every day within our student body I see wonderful examples of positive living and positive relationships. Students, teachers and parents are always working together to create the best possible outcomes in whatever they are doing.

A timeless reminder

Some time ago I came across an article from an English newspaper praising the virtues of old-fashioned self-discipline and manners and reflected upon the importance of such.

Teachers at the Harris Foundation, London, found that insisting on smart uniform, good manners and mutual respect, improved behaviour and boosted grades. While this seems like common sense to us, some schools and families do not place the same importance on such aspects of educating children.

At St John’s, we have always focused on the importance of respect, good manners, courtesies, behaviour and safety. When children are focused on their work rather than disrupting their classmates, they learn more effectively. When students wear their uniform well, they develop pride and self-discipline. When students are able to develop mutually respectful relationships with their peers and teachers, the learning environment is more pleasant, positive and productive.

When parents and teachers are able to support each other in the important role of educating children, everyone benefits. How fortunate we are to be able to achieve a great balance between fun and humour and ‘just being human’ with following rules, applying self-discipline, good manners and mutual respect – a natural part of our school. I encourage our parents to maintain regular communication with your child’s teacher.

We value and respect positive home and school partnerships, after all, we’re in this together!

Grace and Peace

Chris Mallett

PRINCIPAL