The school holidays are yet again fast approaching. Please click on the link below to view the latest June/July Vacation Care Program.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact OSHC on 0409 759 831.

St John’s OSHC & Vacation Care Program June July 22

Lost Property – We currently have a large amount of lost property items in the office. The following items are currently waiting to be collected by their owner. If you recognise anything please visit the office to collect.

School Disco and BBQ

Our upcoming School Disco and BBQ will be held on Friday 10 June from 5.30pm – 7.30pm. 

The Disco Flyer and BBQ Order Form were sent home to all families this afternoon.

We encourage our St John’s families to come along for a night of fun.

Senior Athletics Carnival – Parent Helpers Needed

We are continuing to seek assistance from parents to help at our upcoming Senior Athletics Days on 16 and 17 June, 2022.

Please do not hesitate to contact the school office is you are able to assist in any way big or small. Your assistance is always greatly appreciated.

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.

P&F Association Membership

The Parents and Friends’ (P&F) Association at St John’s is all about friend-raising and fundraising.  It is our main parent body who provides a proactive voice within our St John’s community. We are also valuable liaison between the wider parent body and the school.

We would like to see more parents and friends be apart of the St John’s P&F. We aim to meet for general meeting twice a term where you may come along and be apart of discussions, bring forward ideas and ask questions.  For more information, please contact the school office.

Kind Regards

P&F Executive Committee

Scholastic Book Club

Booklets were sent home this week through the class boxes. Please remember that all orders are to be made online through the Scholastic’s LOOP. Unfortunately cash orders can not be accepted at school. All online orders must be completed by Friday 10 June, 2022.

Overdue Library Books

At present our library system is showing that a number of children have overdue library books. Letters have been sent home over the last few weeks stating that these books need to be returned as soon as possible.

If the books are not returned to school by next week, they will need to be replaced. Should the item/s need replacing, the cost is noted on the slip attached to the letter and can be paid through the school banking facility or alternatively through the office.

If you have any concerns regarding the overdue books, please contact me through the office. Thank you for attending to this promptly and kind regards,

Mrs Billie-Jean Anderson

TEACHER LIBRARIAN

Student Awards

COMPASSION – SPONSOR CHILD

Hello, My name is Brayan.

A little bit more about Brayan … Who is Brayan and where does he live?

Brayan is our Compassion sponsor child and was born on 6 May 2010. He lives in Bolivia with his mother, who is sometimes employed. Brayan has responsibilities at home, which include cleaning, making the beds and running errands. His favourite activities include bicycling, playing marbles, singing and attending Sunday School/Church. In addition, his favourite subject is Art. It is through this sponsorship – in the form of your family’s weekly offerings at our School Chapel Service, that Brayan is able to attend school and is currently in the school age equivalent to Year 6.

It is through your support, that Brayan is provided with education, healthcare, and encouragement needed to be socially confident to plan for his future. Could I please implore you to continue to consider your offerings every Friday in support of Brayan? These much-needed funds make a significant difference to his life.

MORE ABOUT COMPASSION

Every child is special, uniquely made from God. Compassion is a Christian international holistic child development organisation. Through the Child Sponsorship Program, more than two million children are currently being released from poverty in Jesus’ name. With over six decades of experience, Compassion’s unique approach to solving poverty works: research proves it. How does it work? Please follow the link below to hear more about Compassion.

Introducing Compassion | Compassion Australia – YouTube

Please visit Compassion Australia – Child Sponsorship | Christian Charity to donate or if you would like to know more about Compassion.

SMART WATCH FUNCTIONALITY

We recognise that Parents/Carers provide their children with phones and smart watches for a variety of reasons including that of safety. It has been brought to our attention that a number of students are wearing smart watches to school. Can we please ask that the smart watch functionality of making and receiving calls be SWITCHED OFF during the school day? Students must not call or text their family members during the school day. As per our usual policy, If students need to reach a member of their family, a call can be made through our school office. Please feel free to contact our school should you like to discuss this matter further. We thank you in anticipation of your support in this matter.

PRACTISING GRATITUDE

Liam Casson, The Director of Wynne Centre for Boys Health and Wellbeing at Christ Church Grammar School suggests “Gratitude is not just something that will happen. Sometimes it requires a genuine effort on our behalf, particularly when life presents inevitable challenges. Purposely being grateful also needs to be cultivated consistently. He writes, “I personally write down three things I am grateful for every night to reflect and honour the positive things in my life.” I also consistently reflect on the questions – What am I Grateful for with my family? Which promotes the question – What are you grateful for?

Casson proposes that a positive mindset allows us the opportunity for greater physical and emotional success and encourages finding the moments of gratitude and grace as much as you can.

NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK

The dates for NRW remain the same each year; 27 May to 3 June. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.

Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

We all have a role to play when it comes to reconciliation, and in playing our part we collectively build relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories, cultures, and futures.

Learn more about the history of National Reconciliation Week.

Grace and Peace

Tamara Carroll

DIRECTOR OF PASTORAL CARE AND WELLBEING

NAPLAN

NAPLAN has been finalised for our school. Thank you firstly to our students for their participation and/or support of their peers. Our school community was able to execute the NAPLAN online procedure and testing sessions seamlessly. It certainly was a team effort! I would like to acknowledge in particular, our Year 3 and Year 5 students, Mrs. Kadel, Mrs. van Rooyan, Mr. Bakker and Mr. Higgins for their involvement leading up to and during the implementation of NAPLAN. I would also like to thank Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Carroll for support in covering classes and supervision of students. It takes a village, and I am so thankful for our St John’s village.

The NEW Australian Curriculum v9.0

You may be aware that the Education Ministers on Friday, 1^st April 2022, endorsed Version 9.0 of the Prep – Year 10 Australian Curriculum.

The new Australian Curriculum website, hosting the updated and approved Australian Curriculum, Version 9.0, has been launched at https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/. As a staff we have looked at some changes that are evident with the new curriculum and will continue work towards a planned and purposeful transition for our school community.

The rollout of this curriculum for schools is still to be advised in Queensland and we will communicate this as the time arises. For now, our Learning and Teaching staff will keep doing what we do best – educating our young people.

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.

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

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

Grace and Peace

Jocelyn Bakker

DIRECTOR OF LEARNING AND TEACHING

The 6Rs

I have spoken at recent assemblies 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 3 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. At St John’s, our ‘code-of-conduct’ is based on the notion of ‘respect’ for each other and our relationships.

As this term continues to unfold, I commend to our students the following:

• Respect and care for your learning
• Respect and care for your school environment
• Respect and care for others
• Respect and care for yourself

Our teachers regularly teach our children the values and behaviours expected at this school.

Recently I focussed particularly on 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 back’ 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 suggest 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 a child’s life is huge
• Stuff – Kids experiences of every day ‘upsets’ help them deal with major challenges that inevitably happen.

For more information check out Michael Grose’s website – www.parentingideas.com.au.

Cyber Safety and Social Media

The Internet is the greatest information hub in the world, but it’s also an untamed ‘wild west’ with areas online that put your kids’ safety and online privacy at risk. It’s becoming more and more important and relevant for parents to be aware of their children’s online activities and to monitor their safety and security online, just as much as you would, offline. At school, we have measures in place to monitor and oversee online activity so as to maximize learning and minimize ‘potential harm and disruption’. This, however, becomes much more difficult for us to manage outside the school realm.

The statistics regarding the online security and safety of kids is revealing of just how important it is to be vigilant online.

Did you know?

• 63% of teenagers know ALL of their social media connections personally.
• 56% of teenagers do not make all their social media profiles private.
• 65% of students have shared a password with someone else.
• 65% of children have accepted WhatsApp requests or other IM messages from people they do not know personally.
• 23% of teens have been asked to send pictures and/or personal information to someone they met online.
• 23% of children have agreed to meet someone face to face that they met online.
• 37% of teenagers have come across something worrying or upsetting online.

* onlinesense.org

I acknowledge that some of these statistics are referenced for slightly older children. Working together to foster the benefits of technology is one of our drivers at St John’s. Technology is a great tool when used appropriately and for its intended purpose.

My plea: Let’s keep our kids safe and in control of their time on their device!

Grace and Peace

Chris Mallett

PRINCIPAL