ST JOHN'S NEWSLETTER INSPIRING
STUDENTS FOR LIFE
TERM 2 WEEK 2

From the leadership team

Welcome back to Term 2! We hope that all of our students have had a restful break and are ready to engage with a very busy term. At St John’s, we love involving school families and their friends in school community events. This term, we are delighted to have significant events coming up such as the Mother’s Day Chapel, the Athletics Carnival and our inaugural Bush Dance.

Last week you would have received an invitation to our annual Mother’s Day Chapel and Morning Tea, which is being held on Friday 10th May.  A huge thank you goes to parent volunteers, Laura Pallet and Hannah Merkel, for their time in setting up and assisting students select their gifts at the Mother’s Day stall today.

On Monday 29th April, some of our teaching and learning team were able to engage in professional development with Kim Powell, a consultant from Lutheran Education VIC, NSW & TAS (LEVNT). Kim guided them through a refresher on Project Based Learning (PBL), and it was clear to see high levels of engagement and enthusiasm for this term’s PBL units as they came up with new ideas and new ways to create student buy-in.

The aim of PBL is to help students apply their knowledge and skills to real life contexts in ways that serve others. Please see the diagram below which demonstrates the link between student motivation and service learning which has a positive impact on the world around them.  

Student Led Clubs

At the beginning of each term we seek student feedback and make changes to student led clubs. We encourage you to talk to your child about the clubs that they may have been involved in, and help them come up with new ideas for what they could explore!

We are seeking volunteers!

Our Kinder, Year 1 and Year 2 students have been working very hard in their InitiaLit lessons and are keen to read aloud to some adults! We want to provide our students with as many opportunities to read as possible, as this builds confidence and allows them to use the skills being taught. If you (or a grandparent etc.) would be interested in coming in once a week and helping out in the Kinder, Year 1 or Year 2 classrooms with 1 on 1 reading with students, we would love to have you come in! We do require that all volunteers have a current Working With Children Check (WWCC), which can be applied for here. There is no cost associated with this check, as it is a volunteer check that is being sought. Please make contact with your child’s class teacher/s if you, or someone you know, would be interested in listening to students read.

Alison Jafari, Anna-Marie Bothe and Brad Moss

STUDENT INFORMATION
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CLASS

THEIRCARE
BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL CARE

15/04/24 – 29/04/24

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.

Another holiday program done and dusted for 2024! I’m sure a lot of families and children can relate, but wow did these two weeks fly by! Must have been because of all the fun we were having. The theme for HP was art attack and revolved heavily around crafting and creating which was a hit for most students! Week 1 we got creative decorating our own pencil cases with marble art and week 2 was ‘culinary canvas’! Each child had the opportunity to design their own pizza base to look like a face using different ingredients. They may not have resembled anyone, but they certainly were delicious! Laser tag, a trip to the movies, mini golf and Mama Museum were highlights of the holiday program.  

Summer Harris

Last Week: We welcomed term 2 this week after returning from school holidays in a fun and relaxed way. To ease back into things, the program was very light. We enjoyed different craft activities, including marble art which got a bit messy but was totally worth it, as the finished products were great! There were colourings competitions, 3 marker challenges and of course many uno games were had. We got back into baking on Wednesday and to start the term off strong, we made something that we’ve given a go many times here before but, this time we really hit the nail on the head! The classic scone recipe had all the children lining up for seconds. We whipped up our own fresh cream to pair with jam and butter, doesn’t get better than that! The popular game of choice has been golden child! The teamwork and support, especially in guiding and helping our kinders is beautiful to see, keep up the great work guys! 😊

This week:  It is a bit mixed matched, but it won’t be a bad thing! The theme we will incorporate is Safari, and there are lots of cool activities lined up on the program to go along with this. We will get the paper cups, bowls, and plates out to make animal faces, binoculars, and safari hats, really getting ourselves into character. We will make beautiful silhouette safari sunsets and create some cool African animal pom poms using wool and cardboard. We will also incorporate special Mother’s Day activities so the children can express their love towards the beautiful women in their lives. On Wednesday the bake club will continue, this time we take a more savoury turn as we cook up some enchiladas! The recipe we will be using was borrowed from Jindera Public school ThierCare as it was a huge success for them!  

Summer Harris