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Yours in Christian service,


Brad Moss
Principal

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Brad navy

Welcome back to a brand-new year filled with exciting adventures! We hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable break, ready to embrace the wonder of what is possible in 2024!

As we kick off the new school year, we want to extend a warm welcome to both new and returning students, families, and staff members. It has been fantastic to have our students back on site and bring energy back into the grounds!

Staff are excited about 2024 and we have all been working collectively to ensure we are organised, planned and ready for learning and a strong start to the year.

We have so much to share with our school community this year.

We are confident that 2024 will be filled with learning, growth, and memorable experiences. I look forward to continuing to work together to build on the positive and supportive environment we have at St John's where every student can thrive.

Thank you for being a part of the St John's family. Here's to a successful and rewarding year ahead!

Welcome to the 2024 School Year

Building Updates
After a very long wait... we have kicked off our building refurbishment project.
I will use our newsletter to keep families informed of our progress.
Some updates so far:

  • Our current Year 5/6 room has been completed. New gyprock, lights, air conditioner and carpet. This room will become the new Library when the new 5/6 room is complete
  • Our demountable buildings have been relocated to the side block. They will become a new learning space dedicated to eco-science and an Indigenous Culture HUB. The space where they were located will become the new Junior Oval
  • Year 3/4 PV classroom refurbishment is underway. We have replaced the windows with sliding doors, removed the interior wall between classrooms, built new storage, new learning spaces are currently under development. We have all of our new furniture ready to install once the room is ready our students to return.
  • To limit disruption to learning, each class is being relocated to the design lab while their classroom is being renovated.

I can’t wait to unveil each stage as we go. It is going to be a very productive and exciting year at St John’s!

From the Deputy Desk

Welcome to Term 1, 2024! As we walk around the school and visit classrooms, there is such a positive vibe amongst staff and students. People often comment on how much our St John’s community feels like a family – we aim for everyone to have a strong sense of belonging and value at our school.

Start of year class letters were emailed to all families last week. Please refer to yours for information regarding your child’s classroom educators, this term’s learning programs, weekly timetable and upcoming term events. We have such enthusiastic and creative teachers and learning coaches and it is a pleasure to see how well they are working together to make this a term of engaging learning for your children.

Carpark Safety: To ensure that we keep our student safe, we ask that you please park along Adams St to drop off and pick up and that students walk on our school footpath, not through our carpark.

Arrival Time at school: Students are to arrive at school no earlier than 8:55am, as that is when our staff go out on duty. If they arrive slightly earlier than that, they are to sit outside their classroom until the play bell goes at 8:55am.

Chinese New Year: At St John’s, we love celebrating diversity and the fascinating cultures around the world that we can learn about. This week is Chinese New Year! We have a few families in our St John’s community with Chinese heritage – thanks to Mary Wang, one of our Year 5/6 learning coaches, for creating a beautiful display for this cultural event in our school office. Please come and have a look!

Student Voice: Our staff have begun collaborating on ways to enhance the ways our students feel empowered to take ownership of their learning and their contributions to our school culture. One initiative we already have in place is Lunchtime Clubs. These clubs run for the term and are led by students who want to share their interests and passions with others. Students have been pitching their ideas for Lunchtime Clubs to us; the clubs will be finalised this week and begin next week. We can’t wait to share with you what they will be!

Please stop to have a chat with us if you see us at school! We hope you’re having a fantastic start to the school year.

Alison Jafari and Anna-Marie Bothe

FROM THE CHAPLAIN

To all families who are just starting their journey with St John’s, welcome to our community! I hope you feel supported and cared for here. Welcome back to all our returning families! I hope you have another fantastic year at St John’s.

My name is Peter Reed, and I’m the Chaplain at St John’s. You may see me around before and after school at the school gate, or at school assemblies and Chapels. Feel free to have a chat with me at any time!

My role involves supporting the students and families of St John’s socially, emotionally, and spiritually. If you ever have a concern about your child, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Another part of my role involves running our St John’s Friday night church services. We started the church last year to cater to our St John’s families. Our Kid’s Church services are run for primary school aged children with an interactive message the whole family can get involved in. Our Café Church services are a laid back discussion over a meal and a hot drink.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at: peter.reed@stjls.nsw.edu.au

FRIDAY NIGHT CHAPEL

St John’s Friday Night Chapel is back!

This year we’re kicking off with a splash! Our first Kids Church service is the evening after the swimming carnival, so we’re making it water themed! Get ready for some wet experiments as we look at the meaning of water in the bible!

This term we are also planning to start life groups. Life groups are a way to get together regularly with other people and talk about faith and life. They can be run at someone’s house, at a café, or online. We’ll put more information in the next Chapel newsletter.

Everyone is welcome to join both our services and life groups, whether they have students at St John’s or not!

To find out more:
Follow us @stjohnschapeljindera on Facebook or Instagram
Click here to subscribe to the chapel newsletter

LOOP BOOK

STUDENT INFORMATION
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CLASS

KINDERGARTEN

The Kinders have had a fantastic start to school! They have loved spending time getting to know each other. They have enjoyed exploring the school, getting use to the routines of the day, and meeting lots of new people!

YEAR 1

What an amazing start to the new year! The Year One students have loved their new classroom and have settled in well. We have read many books this week focusing on how we can “fill people’s buckets”. They have enjoyed sharing ideas of how to make others feel happy and have been putting these into practise.

YEAR 2

Mr Morey came into the Year Two class and taught us how to set up our laptops for the year ahead. The students set up OneNote and practiced their typing skills using typing club. Thank you Mr Morey, for your expertise. This week in InitiaLit we read the book “Willy the Wimp’ by Anthony Brown.  The Year two’s enjoyed drawing Willy and writing words to describe how Willy was feeling after he bulked up, grew stronger and taller.

YEAR 3/4 PV

Welcome back everyone! We've had a great start to the year, even in our temporary classroom. We are all looking forward to our newly renovated room as we are watching it progress. Thank you to all parents for returning books that are beautifully covered.

YEAR 3/4 LK

What a wonderful start to the year the class has had. The students have spent lots of time getting to know each other and the interests of their peers. Creative games like This or That, Would you rather? and Two truths and a Lie have been a fun way to learn about each other. Students have quickly picked up the new routines of our classroom and are already producing some great work like their 3D paper self-portrait sculptures.

YEAR 5/6

We have had a fantastic week getting to know each other, and developing our routine and expectations in the year 5/6 classroom. We have done plenty of collaborative and relationship building activities to help us better understand each other. We are looking forward to the year ahead!

THEIRCARE
BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL CARE

30/01/24 – 02/02/24

This Week:
We took it day by day this week at St John’s TheirCare, easing into 2024. The children had a big say in what they would like to see us do this week, some of their ideas included painting, colouring, running around in the hall, games, and puzzles, and of course to get back to cooking ASAP! So that’s what we did. We got back into the swing of our baking Wednesdays and started off strong with a classic that we all know and love, scones. I must say I think they turned out to be the best batch we’ve made so far! Molly and Noah got busy using some elbow grease to whip some cream and it was delicious paired with jam and our fresh scones. We’ve chatted a lot all week about what we got up to over the holidays, it has been great to hear about all the adventures that took place over Christmas. There were lots of smiles on return to school which was awesome to see!

Next week:
Week 2 will be heavily influenced by the children once again. I love hearing ideas and implementing them into our programs. We are going to be making and eating some rice paper rolls on Tuesday afternoon, these have been a hit in the past and children love to experiment with new flavours and combinations. Wednesday will see us cook up a storm once again! Klinker slice is up on the menu next, and I don’t think there will be many complaints about this one! As for other crafts and activities we will be busy making and creating all sorts of different things that will hopefully be displayed around the room shortly! It is about time we add our touch to the ThierCare room for 2024! We will make DIY suncatchers, paper cactus hands, playdough, and DIY paper squishies, which will be lots of fun!

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.

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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 1
Maddison & Angel Baker
Tom & Alex Chambers
Chloe Oates
Judd Miles
Penny Baker

Week 2
Jackson & Evie Pendergast
Isaac & Eloise Hartley
Xander Grimmett
Christopher Cummins
Gabby Cotter

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