May 27th, 2024: Newsletter #15

Acknowledgement of Country

St. John’s school community respect and honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on this land and commit to building a brighter future together, working together towards a reconciled Australia. 

150th Anniversary Celebrations

Week 7 Prayer

2025 Foundation Information Sessions

From the Principal

Welcome everyone to the new week.

3 Way Conversations: In term 2 we offer our formal conversation opportunities for staff to meet with parents and students, these sessions will take place on Monday May 27th and Monday June 3rd. Bookings for these Conversations opened last Tuesday.

To make a booking, please log into your PAM account, select the appropriate teacher and the appointment time. If you have any issues making your booking, please contact the office.

These conversations are important in building the relationship between home and school and assisting your child with their learning. Where possible, we encourage both parents (where appropriate) to attend these interviews as well as the child who will spend the session talking through their celerbations and future focusses. 

To ensure that the 3 Way Conversation process runs smoothly, can I ask that parents take note of the following;

• If you have mutliple children, please do not schedule back to back appointments, if you arrive late at your appointment, the time does not start from when you arrive but when your appointed time started. 
• Each appointment is scheduled for a 15 minute window, and the teacher will start to wind it up at around the 12 minute mark.
• The 3 Way Conversations are an important opportunity for the student to share and celebrate their learning with their teacher and parents. If you feel there are items that you wish to dicsuss with just the teacher then I encourage you to make an alternate time tio meet with that child's teacher. 

I appreciate that the timing of these interviews do not suit every family but we are working within the limitations of the new 2022 CEMEA which our staff operate under and the Time in Lieu implications associated with working outside of normal working hours.

Welcome: Today Sarah Burchell commenced her new role as Finance Officer. We warmly welcome her to our staff group. Sarah will work in the front office from Monday to Thursday.

We look forward to the week ahead, Ben.

Fire Carrier Walk-a Thon

As part of our FIRE carrier covenant, we are holding a walk-a thon after Mass on the last Monday of the term (24th June). You are invited to donate a gold coin and all proceeds go to the Opening the Doors Foundation. This activity is also part of NAIDOC week which falls in the school holidays. On this day, the children will wear their sports uniform. They will be walking back from St. Pius X Church after our school Mass to celebrate our Feast Day.

Before leaving the church the children will have a fruit break and water.

Parents/grandparents and carers are invited to walk with us and there will be a google form for this in the following weeks sent out so that we can add you to our list to come to St. Pius X on the bus so you don't need to leave your car there.

If you would prefer to come back to school to help cook a BBQ we would really appreciate that as well. The children should get back to school around 12.15pm and then they will have the BBQ and anything else from their lunch box. 

What is NAIDOC week? -  Click here

Opening the doors foundation - Click here

Hands on Learning

Warrnambool Speech and Drama Eisteddfod

St. John’s has been a long time supporter of the Warrnambool Eisteddfod over the last 25 years.  This year 25 students in Grades 3,4,5 and 6 braved the stage to present to an audience from other schools, parents, grandparents, volunteers and an adjudicator.   

Poems with a partner, poems on their own, pre-prepared speech, effective reading from Roald Dahl, story telling, monologues and recitals in costume were the sections competed against other Warrnambool and District schools.  

The children gave up many of their lunch times to rehearse and to be coached making the whole process a credit to their efforts. And those efforts were celebrated. We won the MOST awards in our Eisteddfod history. Of the 25 students, 17 won medals or ribbons. 

Stand out performances were from Max H with two first places, Mila N, Isabelle C and Gracie S also with first places. Other placings and participation awards went to: Indy V, Mila B, Mailee I ,Sienna C, Tilda C, Dusty B, Alexander M, Leo R, Charlie F, Stella C,, Jasper F, Pippa C, Scout V, Kyla P ,Harry M, Jove F, Bronte T, Savanna M, Kiara D, Maggie O and Marlie H.

A special thank you to Meleiah Mugavin for her unwavering support and coaching and to Eden Anderton for her support at each competition.

Damien Webster.

Spotlight on Specialists

Visual Arts

In Art this term, the whole school has been starting each lesson practicing their quilling skills. Mrs Hiscock and I have been glueing these awesome spirals onto cardboard to make a large display. Every student has contributed multiple spirals and their skills are getting better and better each week. 

The junior school has been experimenting with mixed media working on projects across a couple of weeks and incorporating different artistic mediums. Most recently, the students created their own line monsters using a mixture of oil pastels, water colours and fineliners. 

The middle and senior students have been completing a project named "What's in your head?". Students have used their own creativity to express their thoughts on what makes them who they are. They have highlighted this concept by isolating their artwork with watercolours and fineliners. 

Genevieve O'Connor.

Wellbeing

School TV-Friendship and Belonging

It is not always easy for children to know how to manage friendships. Learning how to make new friends and keep them involves a number of skills. School TV has many great resources on this topic:

School tv link

Student News

Rosa D has been riding motorbikes for a few years now with her big sister Alice, but on the weekend she competed at her very first race meeting at Lake Gillear! Rosa did an excellent job and loved every second. How cool Rosa, what a super effort!!

Singing Lessons at St. John's

Around our School- Week 6

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 24

Next

Student Awards

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Thomas N and Harley J who celebrate their birthday this week. We hope you have a fantastic fun filled day!

Parents & Friend's Social Group

Thank you to everyone that supported our movie fundraiser “IF” we were able to raise $1,342.58. A big thanks to Hayley B & Sarah H for helping put together another successful movie and thank you to our helpers on the day.

Our Bunnings BBQ also made over $1,000. We appreciate all the help from our volunteers on the day and thank you to Narelle for organising the day.

Our next general meeting will be held Wednesday 19th June at 7.00pm in the Gathering Space. We welcome all current and new members.

Dennington's Day Out

Join us THIS Wednesday 29th May at 7:15pm in the Gathering Space for our next meeting.

There is still time to sponsor, If you or know someone that might be interested please email ddo@sjdennington.catholic.edu.au to enquire about the packages or check out the DDO facebook page.

Disco

Plans are well underway for this year's school disco. Please keep Friday 14th June free. More details to follow.

Wednesday Treats

Roster for this week:

• Tuesday 28th May 9.00am - Emily, Theresa G, Laura M, Rebecca W & Shelley F 
• Wednesday 29th May 12.00pm - Julia T, Adela S & Emily S

Hot Dog order forms for next week will be going home tomorrow. All orders need to be in by 3.00pm on a Monday. No late orders will be accepted. If you are paying via EFT please make sure that’s processed by 3.00pm on Monday with your child's name and class as reference. If you are paying via EFT please make sure you're making the payment before sending the form back in. We have had a few people forget and it's always awkward to have to chase up the payments so we appreciate your payment on time.  

Should you have any questions please feel free to contact Taliah Gleeson or Emily McGennan.

Cake Raffle

Each week on a Monday, families are rostered on to bring in a cake which will then be raffled and drawn out at assembly. All funds raised throughout the year will be donated to the Good Friday Appeal the following year.

All students will have the opportunity to buy a raffle ticket for 20c each Monday with a limit of five tickets per student. The Johnnies will make a P.A announcement at first lunch, calling all students who wish to purchase a ticket, to the Library.

The following families are rostered on next week, Monday 20th May:

Greene (Sullivan), Gurry, Gysen, Hadden and Haebich.

Please drop your (store purchased) cake into the front office with your child's name written on top.

School Sponsorship

A big thank you to O'Brien's Electrical, Joinery by Jarrod, Fry Painting and Carry on Travel who sponsor our school!

Would you like to advertise your business in our school newsletter? Businesses can advertise for only $100 a year and will have a business card sized listing in every school newsletter.

Please contact parents@sjdennington.catholic.edu.au for more information.

Star of the Sea Bulletin

Sunday Mass is held at 10.00am at St. Pius X Church. School families are always welcome. 

The Parish office can be contacted on 5562 2231 and this weekends bulletin is featured below. Other information and contact details can be found on the Star of the Sea South West Coast website: https://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/parish/southwestcoast/ 

Community Notices

Upcoming Events

Wednesday 29th May: DDO Meeting at 7:15pm in the Gathering Space

Friday 14th June: School Disco

Wednesday 19th June: Parents and Friends Social Group Meeting at 7.00pm in the Gathering Space

Monday 24th June: Mass at 10.00am and Fire Carrier Walk-A Thon

Friday 28th June: End of Term 2, school concludes at 2.20pm