Imagine astronauts reading stories from space to school children & families that combines literature with science!

St John’s has registered to participate for an intergalactic experience with the National Simultaneous Storytime 2021.

At 11:15am today, Wednesday 19 May 2021, VIP guest reader astronaut Dr Shannon Walker from the International Space Station read ‘Give Me Some Space’ written and illustrated by Philip Bunting. Dr Walker simultaneously read to us here at St John’s and to other students across Australia, New Zealand and the world.

Philip Bunting is an author and illustrator, with a soft spot for creating picture books for sleep-deprived, time-poor, raisin-encrusted parents (and their children).

Philip’s work deliberately encourages playful interaction between the reader and child, allowing his books to create a platform for genuine intergenerational engagement and fun.

He believes that the more fun the child has during their early reading experiences, the more likely they will be to return to books, improve their emergent literacy skills, and later find joy in reading and learning.

Philip’s books have been translated into multiple languages and published in over 25 countries around the world. Since his first book was published in 2017, Philip has received multiple accolades, including Honours from the Children’s Book Council of Australia, and making the list for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2018.

St John’s is excited to take part in the Wonder Bread Recycling Program.

Please find below information of how you can become involved in this wonderful recycling program and turn ‘Bread Bags into School Play Equipment’.

Wonder Bread Recycling Program Information

Recycling Tips

Junior Sports Day

A friendly reminder that our St John’s Junior Sports Day will take place this Friday 21st May. Students in the 5 to 8 Years Age Groups (born 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013) will have the opportunity to participate in the non-competitive events held on this day.

The fun events will be hosted at our Flint Street Oval (leased land next to the basketball courts), with students participating in activities from 9:00am – 11:30am.

We are excited to welcome parents to join us this Friday but continue to ask for your assistance with maintaining appropriate COVID safe practices.

Should parents wish to take photos on the day,  please ensure that other students are not included in these photos without the consent from their parents or caregiver. Due to publicity permission, we respectfully request that photos with other students in the background should not be posted on social media.

We thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Classroom Music 

Every week the students look forward to their classroom music lesson.

Prep have been learning to keep the beat and respond to fast and slow, loud and soft and high and low. They are learning to use the percussion instruments.

Year One have been learning to clap, move and play to different rhythm patterns. They are playing percussion instruments together.

Year Two and Three have learnt new rhythm patterns and written their own rhythms to play. They are learning to play the glockenspiel.

Year Four and Five have  learnt about different feels (styles)of music and their distinct rhythms and sounds. They are learning to compose, sing and play music together.

Year Six are learning to sing and play the ukulele with Mrs Mac our Instrumental Music Teacher.

Music is an important part of every student’s education. Learning and enjoying music has many benefits and it’s fun!

Jenny Linderberg

Classroom Music Teacher

On Monday 10 May, Year 1 Blue were very blessed to receive a visit from one of our Dads, Mr Fyfe.

Mr Fyfe came into class to share his knowledge about native and honey bees. He showed us pictures, honeycomb and one of his native beehives.

Thank you Mr Fyfe for providing us with a great learning experience.

On Friday 14 May, the Prep classes were excited to visit Splitters Farm. The excursion was to complement our inquiry unit “Why are Farms Important?” We have been exploring living and non-living things, the needs of animals and plants, natural and built features of places and how plants and animals are grown for clothing, shelter and food.

The Preps were excited as we rode on the bus (some of us for the first time) and travelled out to Splitters Farm. Farmer Tennille took us on a guided tour of the farm and introduced us to all of the animals. Splitters Farm is a working cattle farm, but they also provide new homes to a variety of rescued farm animals.

After our tour, we broke into small groups and revisited the animals at a leisurely pace. We were able to handle, pat and hand feed the animals. This was very exciting. We saw lots of different animals including cows, horses, alpacas, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, a turkey, the farm dogs and guinea pigs. We were fortunate to be able to cuddle and play with the baby goats.

During the day we had picnics on the grassy area and we played on the adventure playground. A big thank you to our parent helpers on the day.

We had a fantastic day with lots of learning and fun.

Mrs Burt and Mrs Higgins

Prep Blue & Prep Red Teachers

Student Awards

Washpool Creek Naturalisation Project

This week our Year 6 students were fortunate to be invited to work with council on the upcoming Washpool Creek Naturalisation Project. Timothy Fischera (senior engineer) spent time with the students explaining the aim of the project and how they can be involved in the community consultation process. We then walked the drain, and the students had the opportunity to ask clarifying questions about the drain, the ecosystem and how these interrelate.

Back at school the students took part in three activities which encouraged them to suggest ideas for the upcoming project. The focus of the project is the naturalization of the existing stormwater channel system whilst improving water quality that exits the drain at Bundaberg Creek and Baldwin Swamp.

This was a wonderful opportunity for our students to be involved with experts from council and to contribute in a real-life way to our local infrastructures and improvements. Tim suggested we may just have some up and coming engineers in our Year 6 class and was impressed with the suggestions that came from our student group.

Tim and his team have committed to coming back to St John’s later this year to share the design with students so they can see some of their ideas and initiatives in action.

Jocelyn Bakker

Director of Learning and Teaching

The 6 Rs

I have spoken at recent gatherings about the 6 Rs – Respect, Responsibility, Resilience, Random-Acts-of-Kindness, Rigour and Relationships. That doesn’t mean to suggest for one minute that the 6 Rs of old; Reading Writing and Arithmetic, don’t hold weight or importance in our school. However, in a world where we are becoming increasingly more reliant upon interfacing with a computer over another human being, I believe it vitally important to teach our children accepted social, moral and attitudinal norms. Our teachers regularly teach our children the code of conduct and the values and behaviours that surround it.

I have recently spoken with our students particularly about the notion of resilience. Life being as it is, is never always smooth sailing. We endure the ebb and flow of the tides and the waves that pitch high and low depending on the ‘conditions’. Being resilient enough to navigate such life conditions will only hold young people in good stead in the long run. Resilience is the ability to ‘bounce forward’ from life challenges. It results in individuals having the skills to steer the ship in a different direction if the waters are treacherous.

Amanda Ripley, author of the book ‘The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way’, writes, “The trick is that teaching kids to fail and then recover is easier when they are 10 than when they are 30. So, if we don’t teach them about resilience when they are younger we are not really helping them.”

Michael Grose is one of Australia’s foremost experts in relation to childhood development. He suggests that the keys to building resilient children lies in the following:

• Spirit – Temperament and in-born characteristics count!
• Self-esteem – Telflon kids against rejection
• Skills – The Big 4 – independence, problem solving, social skills and optimism
• Support – The Power of ONE resilient adult in children’s lives is huge
• Stuff – Kids experiences of every day ‘upsets’ help them deal with major challenges that inevitably happen.

Parenting for Emotionally Healthy Children

Most people steer clear from using destructive, toxic parenting strategies for fear of raising dysfunctional, emotionally unhealthy adults. Living vicariously through our kids is a strategy most parents avoid. So, what behaviours can we as parents practise that will help our kids function well, relate well to others and reach emotional maturity in adulthood? These behaviours will help you lay the foundation for your child to become an emotionally healthy adult.

Helping kids tolerate discomfort – While you don’t need to expose kids to pain just for the purpose of toughening them up, you don’t need to shield them from discomfort. Missing being picked for a team, a friend moving away or sitting a test that makes them nervous are the types of situations that reflect real adult-life. Providing children and young people with exposure to such experiences and giving them coping strategies such as positive distraction builds their resilience, which is essential for success and good mental acuity.

Validating their feelings – Telling kids to stop worrying or stop crying sends a message that emotions are bad. It teaches them to hide their emotions or fight their feelings. Similarly applying the terms ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to emotions sends a message that some emotions are not acceptable. The use of terms ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’ when discussing emotions is non-judgemental and shows your acceptance of all feelings. Let kids know through your language and behaviour that all emotions are a natural part of life, and that they provide important information to help them navigate their world. ‘Ahh! I see you feel upset about this’ is the type of statement kids want to hear particularly when feelings are negative.

Letting kids live their own life – Parents have unrealised dreams as well as unhealed emotional scars. It can be tempting to put your own emotions onto your child or steer them away from areas of life that caused you pain. This practice places enormous pressure on children and restricts them from developing their own sense of self that comes from making life choices and living with the consequences. Kids require a certain amount of emotional space to develop their own interests and strengths that may be at odds with your expectations, which can be challenging when parenting.

Being emotionally available – One of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of parenting is sharing a child or young person’s emotional burdens. Supporting a child who is sad, or helping a young person manage disappointment is draining emotional labour, requiring your full attention. Supporting, coaching and coaxing kids when they are down is when parents do some of their most important work.

Raising children and young people to reach emotional maturity is an often (unintentionally) neglected part of parenting. By paying attention to their emotions and responding positively rather than shutting them down when their emotions get the better of them you will help lay the foundation to live healthy, balanced lives.

Michael Grose, founder of Parenting Ideas, is one of Australia’s leading parenting educators. He’s an award-winning speaker and the author of 12 books for parents including Spoonfed Generation, and the bestselling Why First Borns Rule the World and Last Borns Want to Change It. Michael is a former teacher with 15 years’ experience and has 30 years’ experience in parenting education. He also holds a Master of Educational Studies from Monash University specialising in parenting education.

Australia Early Development Census – In the next few weeks, our school, along with thousands of others across the country will begin preparations for the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). This is a questionnaire completed by our Prep teachers on behalf of the students in their first year of formal education. The AEDC provides a picture of the development, health and wellbeing of children in their first year of full-time school. Since 2009, the census results have helped communities, schools and governments plan services and develop better policies to target support for children and families. Children won’t miss any class time, and parents/carers don’t need to supply schools with any new information for the census. The AEDC gives us data at a school and community level.

 Please note: it isn’t an assessment of individual children.

Junior School Sports Day – This Friday, 21 May, is our Junior School Sports Day which will be held at our Flint Street Oval (adjacent to the Bundaberg Basketball Courts). On the day, we’ll be welcoming Hope Adventist School as they join in our fun rotations. In advance I especially thank Mr. Higgins for his organisation of the day. Unfortunately, Mrs Bakker and I will be away at meetings. We wish everyone a terrific day!

NAPLAN – Our students are now through the week of NAPLAN testing and have coped well. They have persevered each day with the different areas of focus and seem to have taken the actual testing process in their stride. It is a credit to the teachers and parents for framing this set of testing as just one of the areas that is completed at school rather than over emphasising its importance in the life of the school.

NAPLAN provides a degree of measurement. That said, it measures only a slither of education. NAPLAN is not the measure of the total education of a child, and certainly not a St John’s education. If society starts to believe that NAPLAN is the ‘be-all-and-end-all’, then schools become beholden to ‘teaching to the test’ rather than bringing about improvement, curiosity, questioning, creativity and the development of deep knowledge, empathy, care and compassion.

At St John’s, we want to improve each child’s opportunity to discover interests and talents; and we want to improve their outcomes, both in those things which are easily measured, and those for which measuring is more challenging – their sense of self; their well-being; and their values, skills and attitudes (such as creative thinking, collaboration, teamwork, emotional intelligence, leadership, service) that are essential for children and young people to become happy and successful adults in the 21st Century.

NAPLAN has its place, but we must be mindful of what it is we actually want from our children’s education. Results on tests are of use, but on their own they are no measure of the richness and lifelong impact of a full and whole education.

School Musical ‘When I Grow Up’ – Last week we sent home a letter to all families advertising our 2021 school production of ‘When I Grow Up’. We are very excited about this opportunity for our students. Whilst lead and supporting roles will be filled by our Year 5 and 6 students, please note that every child in every year level will be involved in the production. We are very much looking forward to regular rehearsals in preparation for the big night (Thursday 16, September 2021).

Some elements cited throughout various sources.