Principal’s Message Week 10 2025
Principal’s Installation Service
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all who attended my Installation Chapel on Friday 27 June. It was very special to have Lisa Schmidt (Executive Director of Lutheran Education), Colin Minke (Executive Director of Lutheran Education Victoria NSW and Tasmania), Pastor Richard Schwedes (Bishop of the Lutheran Church of NSW and NZ), local Lutheran principals and my family attend. Above all, it was a celebration of our school and the immense gratitude I have for the opportunity to serve you all.
Community Fun Day
We will end this term with Community Fun Day. All students will participate in a rotation of fun activities so that their teachers are provided with a day of release to prepare for Term 3. Student will wear school uniform and have an absolute ball!
Please note the notice in this week’s newsletter about Jindera’s Lantern Festival. As part of Community Fun Day, each student will paint a glass jar to take home to use as a lantern for the festival if they attend with their family. I suggest families purchase an LED tea lights or fairy lights to place inside. Please consider attending this special Jindera community event that connects St John’s to our local German Lutheran heritage.
School Value Awards
In addition to our end of term Good Samaritan Awards, students can now be given a School Values Award. This week, two students from each class received either of these awards – this term our School Value for this award was ‘We are Adventurous’. What a joy it was to present these awards as I read out the incredible examples of compassion, empathy, friendship and determination that our teachers wrote for each recipient. At St John’s, we celebrate the way our students share God’s love with each other.
Anna-Marie Bothe
Principal
Uniforms
As the weather continues to get colder, we want to ensure all students stay warm and comfortable while maintaining our school’s uniform standards. With this in mind, we’d like to remind families that parka / puffer jackets may be worn outdoors only. Once students are inside, parkas should be removed. A reminder also that students should wear approved uniform items, all of which have our school emblem or STJLS stitched on. These are available from the Albury Uniform Shop. Students also should wear WHITE socks with their runners.
ICAS
St John’s is again participating in the ICAS suite of assessments this year. This is an optional activity that gives students in Year 2-6 the opportunity to compete in academic assessments with students from across Australia and even other countries around the world! If you are interested, please click on the link below.
Download: ICAS letter to parents 2025.pdf
NCCD and supporting students with disability
The NCCD is an annual collection of information about Australian school students with disability. The NCCD enables schools, education authorities and governments to better understand the needs of students with disability and how they can be best supported at school.
Download: nccd_parent_fact_sheet_english_0.pdf
Advanced warning
In week 5 of next term, we will host our annual Book Week Parade. This year’s theme is “Book An Adventure”, which fits so well with our current school value focus. I am sure that our students will outdo themselves (and parents in helping to create the costumes and creations!) again this year. Held in our school hall on Thursday 21st August at 9:30am, prepare to be amazed by the variety of characters on display. This is an event not to be missed!
Reminder: Toys from Home Not Allowed
We kindly ask that students do not bring toys from home to school. We understand that some students require a support item from home, and this occurs in negotiation with the classroom teacher. Personal toys can easily become lost, broken, or cause distractions in the classroom. We provide plenty of fun and engaging materials for all students to enjoy during playtime. Thank you for helping us maintain a focused and inclusive learning environment!
NAPLAN Update
Parents of Year 3 and 5 students may be wondering what is happening with the NAPLAN assessments that were completed in March this year. Early next term, parents will receive a letter from our Principal, Mrs Bothe, along with their child’s NAPLAN results. These results provide a snapshot of your child’s skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy. NAPLAN is designed to measure how well students are developing the foundational skills that are essential for future learning. It is important to remember that NAPLAN is just one part of the overall assessment picture, and should be viewed alongside school-based assessments and teacher feedback.
Alison Jafari
Deputy Principal
FRIDAY NIGHT CHAPEL
It has been fantastic to meet so many new families at Friday Night Chapel this term! We are especially thankful for our new year 5 bands leading us in worship, and our Youth Group running a service for the first time this term.Friday night Chapel is church run for young families. It’s full of games, craft, music, and fun. We’d love to see you there!
Contact Chappy Pete for more information – [email protected]
Riverina LCA Youth Group
If you have children in high school, they might like to join our new Youth Group! The group is run by teenagers for teenagers! Food, games, discussions and more. You’ll find us at St John’s School Hall every second Friday.
Click here to register
Click here to register.
Click here to subscribe to our Church Newsletter
We believe in exploring the world God made, with excitement and wonder, bravely venturing through the unknown.
Adventure is the sense of excitement, curiosity and courage in which we approach our learning.
Adventure is play, creativity, taking thoughtful risks and seeing challenges as opportunities for growth.
Adventure is how we understand the world around us and our place within it. There are limitless possibilities that spark motivation and drive our learning.
STUDENT PROFILE:
STAFF PROFILE:
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR 2025 ATHLETICS CHAMPIONS!
AND CHAMPION HOUSE
LUTHER
Fletcher Barber and Angel Baker represented RAS (Riverina Association of Schools) and St John's at the NSW CIS Cross Country Event in Sydney on Thursday 12 June. Both Fletcher and Angel ran their race putting in their all! Fletcher placed 19th out of 104 and Angel 55 out of 107.
Absolutely amazing results!
Not only did Angel represent in RAS, she was also part of the recent Moana production held at the Albury Entertainment Centre on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 June. The show was a great success with sold out shows. Angel showed great commitment, stamina and bravery and her mum and dad were super proud. Rehearsals ran from March until June. She loved the experience, had fun and made some new friends.
Well done Angel!
Emma Sumbler participated in a Karate Tournament in Melbourne this past weekend and won! We asked Emma some questions about Karate and her experience in Melbourne.
How long have you been practising karate? Since end of last year so just over 6 months
Over how many days was it held? Just one on Sunday
How many competitors did you compete against? 11!
How did you feel when you found out you won? Really good and pretty shocked.
What's the best thing about Karate? You get to spar against lots of other people you don't know.
We know our students at St John's are amazing and now we want the rest of the community to know so if your child is doing amazing things outside of school, please reach out to Mrs Dunlop in the front office so we can include their achievements in future newsletters. Sports, arts, crafts, hobbies we want to hear about it!
Our preschoolers embarked on an adventurous journey through space and nature. Through creative play, art, and hands-on experiments, they explored new ideas and embraced curiosity with excitement. From building rockets to outdoor discoveries, their adventurous spirit made for a week full of fun, learning, and connection.
Kinder has been busy reading and writing!! We have learnt most our initial sounds now and are using these to sound out and blend together to read and write simple consonant, vowel, consonant words. We have been doing this in our on the mat sessions together and through independent hands-on learning. The white boards are a great tool we use for sounding out words and writing sentences.
In Maths, we have been creating various shapes using paddle pop sticks, exploring both regular and irregular shapes. We’ve also been investigating the concept of area through hands-on activities with connector blocks, which has helped deepen their understanding in a fun and engaging way.
The students have been getting into their researching of their vegetable plant for our PBL lessons. We have even learned how to use Canva and create pamphlets with lots of information on them and even a recipe! This has been such a fun way for the students to explore how to care for their plant.
The first half of the term has gone by so quickly with all the work the students have been doing. We have been making the most of our new outdoor learning spaces which have lots of uses across many subjects. The students have worked on their fluency during reading and are loving our class novel “Kensuke’s Kingdom”. The students are loving having whiteboard desks to use during sentence level writing and grammar activities. We have also made the most of having our bush block next door for PBL but there are too many great photos for this Newsletter.
In PBL this term, students have been learning about Australia and colonisation. They have begun researching their chosen topic in preparation to teach their buddies about our Nation’s history. In line with learning about the First Fleet, students had a go at drawing and designing their own ship. They turned out fantastic! In Christian Studies, they have been learning about prayer and worship which has helped them plan their own devotion to share with the class next Semester. We would like to wish Miss Rachel all the best as she starts her new adventure, although we will miss her, we are thankful for the time we had!
TEAM Year 5/6
Our driving question for PBL is about sharing diverse experiences of migrants to build understanding in our community. A perfect way is to create picture books using our knowledge of migration and the reasons people have migrated to Australia over time. To start, students did a ‘deep dive’ into picture books. Using sticky notes, they examined the literary devices authors can use to enhance meaning.
Students have created ‘culture jars’ for art. The jars have to tell a story about themselves. Through discussions about our identity, students added visual depictions of their culture.
So far St John's students have read 2274 books with Year 2 have taken over the lead!
Challenge closes on Friday 22 August 2025
What is the Premier's Reading Challenge?
The NSW Premier's Reading Challenge is on again! It is not a competition but a challenge to 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 Premier’s Reading Challenge (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
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 - [email protected]
Your school’s PRC coordinator is Mrs Therese Schmidt ..Mrs T.
At St John's, we pray for our students and their families and staff members.
We are praying for:
Week 6
Leo & William Jensen
Lachlan Kalina
Thomas Hancock
Octavia Chettleburgh
Edward Carey
Peter Reed
Week 7
Ivy Tervet
Jett & Cruz Smith
Finnley & Grayson Cox
Willow Cox, Lili – Anne & Poppy Mae Pumpa
Tiffany Walker
Week 8
Tennyson, Ashlynn & Brantley Deegan
Christopher & Oliver Cummins
Sophie Chang
Matthew Chang & Mia Williams
Amy Sonter
Week 9 - Principal Installation Service
Week 10
Jethro & Ezra Harper
Xander & Jasper Grimmett
Lola Delphin -Lee
Claire Schwarz
Kath Dunlop
Has anyone lost an adults Nike puffer jacket? It was left at the Athletics Carnival on a bench.
If it's yours drop into the office to collect.
WEEK 6
Kinder
Brantley Deegan and Madelyn Swift and Poppy Wills
Year 1
Delilah Harringon and Arthur Lieschke
Year 2
William Scolyer and Lola Armstrong
Year 3/4 LK
Aurora O'Grady Moll and Holly Wenke and Brooklyn Severin
Year 3/4 GC
Grace Ross and Nathaniel Pallett
Year 5/6 PV
Henry Edwards and Jett Smith
Year 5/6 DB
Kaithlyn Holmes and Toby Paech
WEEK 7 - ATHLETICS CARNIVAL AWARDS
WEEK 8
Kinder
Riley Lewis and Lance Taylor
Year 1
Soraya Valente and Christopher Cummins
Year 2
Morgan Mason and Eloise Sutcliffe and Lilly Bales
Year 3/4 LK
Mia Lieschke and Rory Davis
Year 3/4 GC
Absent
Year 5/6 PV
Emma Sumbler and Alex Chambers
Year 5/6 DB
Noah Merrett and Ivy Tervet
WEEK 9
Kinder
Joy Wang and Beau Armstrong
Year 1
Ezra Harper and Audrey Vitullo
Year 2
Piper Barber and Leon Bradbury
Year 3/4 LK
Lachlan Kalina and Max Ley
Year 3/4 GC
Tyler Perdon and Charlotte Phelps
Year 5/6 PV
Joel James and Isaac Hatley
Year 5/6 DB
Eloise Schilg and Billie Groenewald
WEEK 10
GOOD SAMARITAN AND VALUE AWARDS
Kinder
Jasper Grimmett and Piper Tyrrell
Year 1
Indigo Sutcliffe and Ziggy Saggers
Year 2
Lola Armstrong and Alexander Hoek
Year 3/4 LK
Chad McPherson and Betty Blackman
Year 3/4 GC
Eloise Hartley and Gloria Wang
Year 5/6 PV
Jack Mighalls and Ian Wang
Year 5/6 DB
Jackson Pendergast and Kaylea Davis
Use the footpath to enter school
Walk
Use dedicated parking bays
DO NOT walk/ride/scooter through the carpark
DO NOT park in driveways
Be like George!
Label your hat
Keep your hat in your bag
Wear your hat if the UV is 3 or higher
Look after your hat
ATTENDANCE
A reminder;