ST JOHN'S NEWSLETTER INSPIRING
STUDENTS FOR LIFE
WEEK 10

WEEK 2

WEEK 4

WEEK 6

WEEK 8

previous newsletters

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Easter

Easter is an important time for us at St John's. At its core, Easter focuses on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, affirming the belief in his victory over death and sin. This event symbolises hope, redemption and renewal, serving as a testament to God's immense love and mercy towards us.

Easter is not merely a historical event but a living reality that continues to shape us. It's a time of joyous celebration and it's the ultimate reminder that, no matter how dark things may seem, there's always a glimmer of hope waiting to shine through.

This song by Phil Wickham is a beautiful narrative of the importance of the Easter weekend!

Yours in Christian service,

Brad Moss
Principal

Phil Wickham - Sunday Is Coming

From the Deputy Desk

Easter

We hope you all had a blessed Easter, celebrating Christ’s victory over death and his free gift of forgiveness and eternal life!

Cross Country

What a wonderful day we had for our whole school Cross Country last Thursday! We have quite a few special ‘thank yous’ to:

Students who have qualified for RAS Cross Country (interschool competition) will be notified in the near future.

Partnership Meetings

Thank you for booking a time for you and your child to meet with their teacher this week. Partnership meetings are a fantastic opportunity for teachers, parents and students to come together. Students showcase their classrooms and discuss their learning and school life with you – we encourage them to actively participate in these discussions.

Community Fun Day – Friday 5th April

Students are allowed to wear casual clothes for this traditional fun day this Friday. Our Leadership Team will provide activities relating to Harmony Day so that our teachers have more time to prepare for Term 2. Our committed teachers spend an enormous amount of time outside of school hours on their planning and assessment and this is our way of supporting their wellbeing and saying a big THANKS! The day will involve engaging collaborative activities.

School Holidays

It’s hard to believe that we’re almost at the end of Term 1. What an action-packed term we’ve had! Our last day of Term 1 is Friday 12th April and our first day of Term 2 is Tuesday 30th April.

We hope you all have a safe holiday break, full of special family time.

Alison Jafari and Anna-Marie Bothe

all parents and relatives who helped on the day and cheered our students on.
Paul Kinning, St John’s parent and School Board member, as well as teacher at Victory Lutheran College, who brought some of his Year 10 students to assist.
our PE teacher, Felicity Habermann, for organising the event and all of our staff who helped her make it such a great day.

FROM THE CHAPLAIN

Life Groups
We’re starting weekly groups for adults to get together to talk about life and faith. ‘Christianity in Context’ looks at today’s social issues through a Biblical lens to understand the many different positions Christians come to on any given topic. ‘The Story of the Bible’ looks in depth at what was happening during Bible times to understand what message the entire Bible is telling.

Life groups can be run in person or online and are open to anyone. If you are interested in either of these groups, please contact Peter – peter.reed@stjls.nsw.edu.au

Newsletter
St John’s Chapel now has a regular newsletter

Peter Reed, Chaplain

Click here to sign up and keep up to date on church events

STUDENT LEADERSHIP

The Year 6 Leadership group Aussie Lads led by Hudson Piltz, Beau McWaters, Daigan Whelan, Ryder Reid, Will Frohling and Matthew Kalina held a bike skills session in conjunction with Ride Your Bike 2 School Day. Each class attended a skills session in the hall before being led around a set course outside that included some optional jumps. There were some impressive skills on display and lots of encouraging words from our Aussie Lads.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Ivy Tervet represented St John's at the NSWCIS Primary Swimming Championship in Sydney, competing in the 50m butterfly at the Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. Ivy was part of the Riverina Associated Schools (RAS) team alongside children from schools in Albury and Wagga.

Ivy took nearly 10 seconds off her personal best and was the fourth-placed nine-year-old in the butterfly event. She was incrediby proud to represent our school in a competition full of Sydney kids and others from all over the state.

Ivy also trains with and competes for Wodonga Amateur Swimming Club and earlier this month travelled to Melbourne for the Vic Country All Juniors finals. Ivy's family would like to thank the St John's community for all the encouragement she has received from friends and staff members throughout her swimming season this summer.

STUDENT INFORMATION
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CLASS

KINDERGARTEN

PBL - Collaboration

In PBL, we learnt about the Student Learner Profile, which we have in every classroom at the school. We focused on being collaborative and what it looks like to be a team. We then played lots of games to practise showing collaboration. The students said they showed collaboration by: "‘Sharing half and half"

’‘Taking turns"

’‘Saying nice words"

"Saying “it’s okay” if someone is upset"

"Letting our friends join in"

Library Time

YEAR 1

PBL

The students really enjoyed the hands-on experiments with water during PBL. They learnt what shapes and materials would hold water and even learnt what type of soil could be used to form dams to store rainwater.

Bounce Back

During one of our Bounce Back lessons, we read a book called 'Kindness is Cooler Mrs Ruler' by Margery Cuyler. In the book, Mrs Ruler challenges her students to create acts of kindness, with her golden rule being – Kindness is Cool!

The message from this book is a powerful lesson that one small act can have a great impact. Year One decided that we could also adopt this idea into our classroom, and we created our Kindness Door.

Students are encouraged to let teachers know when an act of kindness or service has occurred, and we add it to our door using post-it-notes. Our class has loved sharing the acts of kindness and seeing their friends be recognised.

We are seeing the effect this is having at school and the beginning of the ripple effect onto the people around us. We can’t wait to see our door full of kindness notes.

YEAR 2

Showcase

In Week 11, we will be having our PBL Showcase. This will be a little bit different as it will be run during recess and lunchtime. Students are rostered on throughout the week to do their activity and have invited anyone who wishes to join in. Please see the timetable below and you are more than welcome to come and watch or even join in for some fun and fitness.

After your child's event, you are most welcome to come back to the classroom where there will be a PowerPoint showing their learning, plus come and see their bookwork and posters too. The photos are a small snippet of what you will see. We cannot wait.

Cross Country and Welcome Mr Miles

On Thursday we were so proud of our Year 2scompeting in warm conditions in the Cross Country. All students showed grit and perseverance and gave it their all.

We welcome Mr Anthony Miles to our Year Two Team. He is in the process of completing his Teaching Degree. What a blessing he has been in supporting and teaching our Year 2s. We look forward to the next two and a half weeks where he will continue to teach, support and be a part of our Amazing Year 2 Class, plus use his giftings in assisting coaching the 5/6 team AFL teams at the Paul Kelly Cup.

Farewell Message from Mrs Kellie

It was the hardest goodbye, not only to the students but to all the staff. What an amazing supportive team we have at St John's. I have enjoyed every minute of it. As for the students, it has been very emotional saying good-bye. After being with the same group for 2 and a half years, saying goodbye was very hard. Each and everyone of them are very special and can achieve anything which they have already proved in many ways.

Thanks to everyone at St Johns, goodbye for now.

YEAR 3/4 PV

FUN IN THE PLAYGROUND

Students have published their persuasive pieces of writing on the topic ‘Everyone Needs to Learn How to Cook’. It has been a process of planning, writing, editing, reading to a partner, typing out and finally conferencing with a teacher. Once completed, the students enjoyed sharing with the class.

MATHS

The Year 4 students are working with our colourful brand-new geoboards to create 2D shapes in Maths. Shapes were then split into other shapes using smaller elastic bands. Students said they had fun!

Outside the Classroom

There’s nothing better than finding a quiet spot in the school to work outside - the Yarning Circle was ideal.

PBL

During PBL, students are creating posters using Canva to promote their celebrations. It’s wonderful when the Year 4 students can teach the Year 3s how to use some of the features of Canva, as they are familiar with it from last year.

Ride Your Bike 2 School Day

What a great day, seeing the school children bring their bikes to school on ‘Ride Your Bike 2 School Day’!

A special thanks to the Year 6 leadership group 'Aussie Lads' for organising the classes to go out and use the track during the day.

YEAR 3/4 LK

PBL

Students have been working in their PBL groups to plan their event to celebrate when we move into our new classroom (next term). They are developing their collaborative skills of listening to others, contributing ideas and encouraging each other.

YEAR 5/6

Term 1 PBL

On Wednesday, we finally hit the pinnacle of our Term 1 PBL task and what a journey it has been for Year 5 and 6!

The students were tasked with the driving question: "How can we, as engineers, educate our peers about the different forces?" Each group had to design and create an activity that incorporates at least three of the forces we've explored this term. They also had to create a poster that explains the rules and the design of their activity and an interactive element that explicitly educates others about all the forces. We had the other challenge of the fact that their design had to be durable enough to withstand the amount of people coming through and using it.

The class came up with some extraordinary and creative designs to address our driving question and they should all be extremely proud. Well done!

WELLBEING

Mood metre

In our last newsletter we introduced a Wellbeing section for parents to refer to for resources you may find useful at home with your children. In this newsletter, we have included the Mood Metre. This is a tool we use at school to help students name their feelings – the sliding scales of ‘Pleasantness’ and ‘Energy’ are very useful in helping children identify feelings on the metre. Sometimes helping a child to simply name their feeling is all it takes to help them regulate their emotions. We hope you find it useful at home.

PRAYING FOR YOU

At St John's, we pray for our students and their families and staff members.
This week, we are praying for:

Week 10

Archer Walker

Xavier, Audrey & Edward Sarroff

William Scolyer

Jacob Rudd

Evelyn, Florence & Piper Tyrrell

Emily Sarroff

Week 11

Ziggy Saggers

Lily & Gracy Ross

Meggie & Thea Kinning

Noah & Clea Merrett

Olive Hueske & Bastian Triffett

James Morey

MERIT AWARDS

Kinder
Christopher Cummins
Year 1
Amelia Pallett & Molly Barclay
Year 2
Ivy Lawrence & Xander Grimmett

Year 3/4 LK
Eli Johnston & Jack Mighalls

Year 3/4 PV

Jasmine Piltz & Archie Mahon

Year 5/6 GC
Jett Smith & Darcy Wright

Year 5/6 DB

Xavior Sarroff, Frankie Tuohey

THEIRCARE
BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL CARE

18/03/24 – 28/03/24

Reminder

Strict 'no hat no play' rules apply at here at ThierCare, so remember to bring one along just in case and we can enjoy the sunshine together outside.

Harmony Week: It was all about harmony and inclusivity and in honour of harmony day, we continued with this theme throughout the week. We worked on a beautiful group project that is now displayed in the room. The task was to design and decorate your own outlined hand for us to then chop out and glue to a poster, this is a perfect showcase of the creativity and uniqueness of each child. On Wednesday we stuck to the savoury theme once again and decided on ham and zucchini fritters; we had great helping hands from our chefs Molly and Noah. Each child tried one, and surprisingly they were a hit! I think it helped that the zucchini was flavourless 😊. Thursday was a special one - it was based around Earth hour that is on Saturday the 23rd of March. It was called ‘Picnic party for the planet’, and saw us enjoy party food, make lanterns, work through an escape room, and enjoy an earth related bingo!

Last Week: It was all about Easter celebrations! It didn’t take much at all for the eager children to get crafting and creating, because, like Christmas, this annual event is a bit extra special! It was fun to hear about everyone’s long weekend adventures, lots of camping and holidaying by the looks of things. Everyone was sharing their plans, and it was clear there was a lot of excitement buzzing about. If you look at the ThierCare classroom, it will be obvious what we got up to this week, as the beautiful craft is now displayed. We did lots of colouring, made paper plate bunny rabbits, paper carrots and cute craft using paper doilies, some origami rabbits and easter egg decorating. It was super fun! On Wednesday, we made something very sweet, but it was only fitting seeing as chocolate and Easter go very well together! The yummy rocky road had all the kids excited; I think it went down a bit easier than the greens we have been incorporating on previous Wednesdays! Also, a big shout out to the Hartley family! Glen had the lucky guess of 71 easter eggs in the jar, and that was spot on! Well done, Glen. I’m sure Eloise and Isaac are very happy about that 😊!

Next week: It will be only short week, but we will pack as much craft, creating and games in that we can! The theme is Outer Space, and there is lots of fun lined up. We will attempt our own flying rockets, using string and coloured paper, make cute paddle pop stick planets, alien flying saucers and design our own Martians that will live among the kids here in the TheirCare classroom. Wednesday will see us back in the kitchen cooking up a storm; it is another savoury option this time, but I don’t think we will hear many complaints about this one, because it is pizza scrolls next up on the menu! This was a hit last year, so we will bring it back again in 2024. Along with the cooking and crafting, we will of course enjoy our group games in the hall, both morning and afternoon, to run out all the energy we seem to have so much of! 😊

Summer Harris

EVENTS

Premier's Reading Challenge

What is the Premier's Reading Challenge?
The NSW Premier's Reading Challenge is on again! It is not a competition but a challenge for each student to read, to read more and to read more widely. Its aim is to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure and to enable them to experience quality literature. The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is open to all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 10, and many students have rushed to express their interest in participating this year.

The PRC involves students reading books from predetermined lists, logging them online and at the end of the Challenge, receiving a certificate of completion. Any books on the Premier’s Reading Challenge booklist that your child has read or you have read to your child during the summer holidays can be counted towards this year’s challenge, just note the title and the author. The PRC Booklist can be found here PRC Booklist

How do students participate in the Premier's Reading Challenge?
To complete the Challenge, students are required to read the following number of books:

Challenge level	Number of books you must read	Minimum number of PRC books	Maximum number of Personal Choice books	PRC booklists you can read from
K-2	30	20	10	K-2, 3-4, 5-6
3-4	20	10	10	3-4, 5-6, 7-9
5-6	20	10	10	5-6, 7-9
7-10	20	10	10	5-6, 7-9, 9plus
3-10 (refer to rules on PRC site)	20	10	10	All booklists

Here are the dates for 2024 Premier’s Reading Challenge
Monday 26 February 2024 - challenge opens
Friday 23 August 2024 - challenge closes

To log in
Use this link: NSW Premier's Reading Challenge
Go to ‘Logon’ on the left pull down box. Then enter your child’s username and password (sent home this week by their class teacher)

This is the link to find books to read......Home Page: NSW Premier's Reading Challenge (det.nsw.edu.au)

If you have any queries regarding the Premier’s Reading Challenge visit the PRC website NSW Premier's Reading Challenge or send me through an email with your concerns and I will endeavour to answer your questions therese.schmidt@stjls.nsw.edu.au.
Your school’s PRC coordinator is Mrs Therese Schmidt...'Mrs T'.

Library Borrowing
Please don’t forget that the library is open each lunch time for quiet reading and the opportunity to borrow books. Class time is also allocated for weekly borrowing. Students will require a library bag for the safe transportation of library books between home and school.

ST JOHN'S NEWSLETTER INSPIRINGSTUDENTS FOR LIFEWEEK 10