ST JOHN'S NEWSLETTER INSPIRING
STUDENTS FOR LIFE
TERM 2 WEEK 6

previous newsletters

A MESSAGE FROM THE

PRINCIPAL

Principal’s Message Week 6 2025

We are very excited at St John’s to be moving to indoor - outdoor learning. Years 2-4 already have their beautiful outdoor learning areas, Year 1’s will soon be completed and then we will move onto creating them for Kinder and Year 5/6. In 2023, Nature Play WA engaged in a literary review of outdoor learning and outdoor play in the school environment. Our staff used this review as a jumping off point into learning about the benefits of outdoor learning – and we found that there were not just educational benefits! While learning in the outdoors has improved student literacy and numeracy skills (Kweon, Ellis, Lee & Jacobs, 2017), it also has measurable socio-emotional, health and well-being benefits for children (Kemple, Oh, Kenny, Smith-Bonahue, 2016).

Outdoor learning can also increase student engagement and ownership of their learning and assists in the development of an appreciation of the environment and inspires lifelong connections to nature (Gray and Martin, 2012). Our teachers are considering how our outdoor spaces can be used in their lesson planning. There’s a sense of unity, vibrancy and togetherness when we look out on our beautiful school grounds and see classes learning in their outdoor spaces. We thank Backyard Piltz for the work they did in creating them for us. We are blessed to have these spaces so that we can more fully appreciate God’s creation around us.  

Anna-Marie Bothe

Principal

IMPORTANT DATES

The FULL school calendar can be found via Parent Orbit or our website

Calendar

From the deputy desk
School Happenings!

National Simultaneous Storytime

In Week 4 there was a special event that all classes participated in. National Simultaneous Storytime has been running for 25 years annually across Australia, where a picture book (written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator) is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, preschools and many other places! By all of our classes participating in this event we aim to promote the value of reading and literacy to all of our children and families.

Reconciliation Week

Students from across the school have been participating in Reconciliation Week activities.

🗓 What is National Reconciliation Week?

National Reconciliation Week (May 27 – June 3) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements — and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

These dates commemorate two significant milestones:

🔹 May 27, 1967 – The referendum to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Census.

🔹 June 3, 1992 – The Mabo decision, which recognized native title and overturned the doctrine of terra nullius.

Lunch Orders

As part of our ongoing effort to ensure a smooth and successful Flexischool program with the Fox and Brew, we’d like to remind all families of some important information regarding school lunch orders:

**All lunch orders must be placed by parents or guardians—**not by students.

While we understand that many of our students are eager to be independent, placing lunch orders involves selecting from a variety of meal options, adhering to deadlines, and confirming payment—tasks that are best handled by adults. When children place their own orders, we’ve seen an increase in:

  • Incomplete or incorrect orders
  • Missed deadlines
  • Duplicate or unpaid submissions

These issues can lead to confusion at lunchtime and, most importantly, children not receiving the order they were expecting.

We truly appreciate your cooperation and attention to this matter. If you need assistance with the ordering platform or have questions about the lunch program, please don’t hesitate to contact our office.

Uniforms

As the weather turns 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. If you’re unsure whether a particular item is uniform-approved, feel free to contact the school office.

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.

ICAS letter to parents 2025

Alison Jafari

Deputy Principal

FROM THE CHAPLAIN

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

FROM THE LIBRARY

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.

TERM 2 VALUE

 

ADVENTUROUS

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:

  • We embrace change as an opportunity to strive for growth in all we do.
  • We are solution-focused and look for opportunities amidst challenges.
  • We are innovative and demonstrate current best practice.

STAFF PROFILE:

  • I can ask deep questions to challenge my thinking and learning.
  • I can make meaningful connections between my learning and the real world.
  • I can take initiative to wonder, explore and investigate.
  • I can view mistakes as learning opportunities to grow and move closer to my goal.

SAVE THE DATE

RSVP for catering purposes

ATHELTICS CARNIVAL

With excitement in the air and anticipation all around, we gathered at the Les O’Brien Athletics Precinct in Albury for our annual St John's Athletics Carnival. It was a beautiful crisp morning and a wonderful opportunity for students to demonstrate their good sportsmanship, skills, effort, persistence, courage and ‘have a go’ qualities and we saw these in spades! Our winning house and age champions will be announced at a special assembly on Tuesday 10 June at 2:45pm. Enjoy some snaps of the day!

A special thank you to Mrs Emily Sarroff our super PE teacher, Lola's Coffee (Amanda Lieschke - Arthur in Year 1), and our St John's parent volunteers. We couldn't have done it without you!

Student ACHIEVeMENTS

Indi Knight represented St John's at the NSW CIS Netball Championships in Sydney on Thursday 29 May along with other representatives in the RAS team. Indi also had the chance to meet fellow netballer and NSW Swifts player Helen Housby, what a legend! Indi put in a strong performance along with her team who won 6 games and lost 3. Indi plays locally for Brock/Burrum Saints.

We asked Indi a few questions after her try out.

How did you feel at the start of the day? Nervous but happy to meet new people.

What do you love most about netball? I love everything about netball!!!

How did you feel at the end of the day? Upset but proud.

What position or positions did you play? C, WA and WD.

What is your favourite position? C because I get to run around a lot.

What is your proudest moment in netball so far? Trying out for state level and my intercepts.

What do you hope to achieve in the future? Make the Vixens netball team!

An amazing effort Indi! You represented our region with fantastic sportsmanship and giving it your all!

 

Sophie and Holly Wenke are some super stars on the dance floor and they recently competed in
the Wangaratta Eisteddfod that was held over two weekends. They come 2nd in their Hip Hop Duo routine and 3rd in the group dance. We also heard they were competing in an age level above what they could be, U12's instead of U8's.

 

We asked the girls a couple of questions about the day.

What was the highlight of the dance comp? When we got medals. (Holly). Having fun and dancing. (Sophie)

How many dances did you do on the day? Group dance first and then the duo.

What is your favourite dance style? Hip hop and hip hop 😀

What's the best thing about dancing? HAVING FUN! I love dancing with my sister in the duo rather than on my own (Sophie).

What age did you start dancing? 5.

Well done Sophie and Holly! Mrs Knight and Mrs Dunlop were lucky enough to get their own performance in the front office.

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!

[email protected]

STUDENT INFORMATION
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CLASS

LITTLE SAINTS

What a fun-filled week at Little Saints! Our young learners turned the grassy hill into a surf zone with homemade boards, decorated our front tree with colourful wool, and dove into messy, creative art provocations. They engineered marble runs, explored textures, and showed great care for our stick insects. It’s been a joyful week of curiosity, creativity, and connection!

KINDERGARTEN

On 21 May, Kinder joined the rest of Australia in National Simultaneous Story Time. The book was The Truck Cat by Deborah Frenkel.

The Truck Cat is a story about cats and humans, immigration and identity and homes lost and found. With illustrations by multi-award-winning artist Danny Snell and words by award-winning new voice Deborah Frenkel, The Truck Cat is the perfect book to inspire kindness and compassion in young children everywhere.

Some cats are house cats. Some are apartment cats.

But Tinka is a truck cat. Tinka lives everywhere.

Along with his human, Yacoub, Tinka travels roads wide and narrow, near and distant. But no matter how much they travel, home feels very far away – for both of them.Yacoub drives his truck to make a living, learning the landscape of a new country along the way and longing for connection. When Tinka and Yacoub are unexpectedly separated, they are determined to find their way back to each other – and, in doing so, might find more than they expected…                                                                                                                                             Publisher's synopsis

Kinder loved listening to the author read the story to them. We discussed the homes Tinka and the cat had. The students were then encouraged to think about their homes. Who lives there, and what do they look like? They were given a variety of materials to make their homes. The students put a lot of thought and creativity into building or drawing their houses. They had a great time.

YEAR 1

In Math, we have been learning about place value and number lines. We worked collaboratively to create our own number lines.

During library we have been adventurous by borrowing and reading different text types. The students love library time and exploring all the great books in our library.

YEAR 2

This term in our PBL lessons, we have been learning about what plants need in order to grow strong and healthy. We have also had the experience of planting our own plants and being able to look after and care for them. We look forward to watching them grow over the next few week!

YEAR 3/4 LK

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.

YEAR 3/4 GC

We have had a great start to the second term! It was fantastic to see our year 4 students represent the school in sporting carnivals this term, especially those who pushed themselves outside their comfort zone trying something new. For PBL, students have been enjoying collaborating with the other class as they explore the bush block and create huts to imagine what it was like for the first explorers. They have shown great communication and negotiation skills during these sessions.

YEAR 5/6

EUREKA! Year 5/6 Camp highlights

Ari - I was amazed by how withered the old Eureka flag was. There were many pieces cut out and sold for money.

Ivy T- I really liked going to Sovereign Hill, hearing about what it was like back then. I loved the game we played when he mimed with bankers and troopers. We learnt about corruption on the goldfields.

Harry - The Aura Sound and Light show was amazing. The lights and projections were really fun.

Noah- The food and activities were awesome! Loved camp!

Jack - Going gold panning and going 61 metres underground and seeing gold in quartz.

Ben - I really like how educational Sovereign Hill was, yet fun and interactive. I especially liked the gold rush reenactment and how hands on it was. Even though I was the banker with Jack, we had a really fun time scamming the miners.

2025 NSW Premier's Reading Challenge

So far St John's students have read 2008 books with Year 5 leading the way!

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.

PRAYING FOR YOU

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

Isaac & Eloise Hartley

Amelia & Nathaniel Pallett

Evie Wright

Grace Gadd & Indianna Van Werkhoven

Kaylene Severin

Week 10

Jethro & Ezra Harper  

Xander & Jasper Grimmett

Lola Delphin -Lee

Claire Schwarz

Kath Dunlop

St John's Athletics Carnival

Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

MERIT AWARDS

WEEK 2

 

Kinder

Brantley Deegan and Poppy Wills  
Year 1

Audrey Vitullo and Beatrix Phelps  
Year 2

Molly Barclay and Lachlan Paris    

 

Year 3/4 LK

Ashlynn Deegan and Angel Baker  

Year 3/4 GC

Charlotte Phelps and Eloise Hartley  

Year 5/6 PV

Pippa Groenewald and Archie Mahon Year 5/6 DB

Kaylea Davis and Eden Lawrence

WEEK 3

 

Kinder

Bethany Gorton and Jasper Grimmett
Year 1

Lola Delphin -Lee and Pippa Harris  
Year 2

Anthony Yong and Piper O'Grady Moll  

 

Year 3/4 LK

Benji Keen and Jack McGrath  

Year 3/4 GC

Xander Grimmett and Ruby McWaters

Year 5/6 PV

Louise Jarick and Leo Jensen  

Year 5/6 DB

Luke Schulz and Jackson Pendergast

WEEK 4

 

Kinder

Isaac White and Blair Thomson
Year 1

Finn Cox and Cleo Davis
Year 2

Zoe Bergmeier and Andy Tuohey  

 

Year 3/4 LK

Mia Lieschke and Rory Davis

Year 3/4 GC

Chloe Oates and Grayson Cox  

Year 5/6 PV

Emma Sumbler and Alex Chambers

Year 5/6 DB

Ivy Tervet and Elsie Merkel

WEEK 5

 

Kinder

Riley Lewis and Bryce Knobel
Year 1

Evelyn Ryder and Piper Jones
Year 2

Lewis Schilg and Milly Baird

 

Year 3/4 LK

Adelaide Ryder and Beau Pitman      

Year 3/4 GC

Evie Wright and Jasmine Piltz  

Year 5/6 PV

Ari Severin and Ben Baird

Year 5/6 DB

Cruz Smith and Kade Anderson  

CARPARK - SAFETY IS EVERYONES RESPONSIBILTY! 

             Use the footpath to enter school

             Walk

             Use dedicated parking bays  

 

             DO NOT walk/ride/scooter through the carpark

             DO NOT park in driveways

Hats 

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

THEIRCARE
BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL CARE

UPCOMING COMMUNITY EVENTS