February 5th, 2024: Newsletter #1

Acknowledgment 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. 

Week 2 Prayer

From the Principal

Welcome to 2024! As we embark on the upcoming school year, there is an unmistakable sense of enthusiasm and hope in the atmosphere, we all eagerly anticipate the opportunities that lay ahead. I hope that everyone in our community has had the opportunity to rest, to recharge the batteries and to prepare for a magical year of learning, and living a love filled life. 

Our key belief is that communication is key to a successful partnership between the school and our families. Throughout the year, we will keep you informed about important events, school updates, and opportunities for involvement through regular newsletters, our school website and various communication channels. A great way to start this relationship is to attend of our classroom information sessions on this Tuesday, please a flyer included below. 

In 2024 we welcome new Foundations and other students across the grades. We are excited to welcome you into our community and hope that you experience welcome, friendship and support. At St. John's we continue to provide an environment that is safe, nurturing, and inclusive where children are challenged to think critically, take risks and be comfortable with making mistakes because this where the true learning occurs. 

We look forward to the year ahead. 

Condolences: Our sympathies and prayers are with the family of Jax M as his grandmother Sue passed away during the holidays, may her family be comforted by the love of those around them. May she rest in peace. 

Opening Mass: Our school community will gather on Wednesday Feb 7th at 10.00am in St Pius X Church to ask blessings on the new school year. All students will travel to and from St. Pius Church by bus. Family and friends  are welcome to attend. 

On this day we will formally induct our student leaders for 2024 and we welcome all community members to join with us on this day.  

Enjoy the year ahead, Ben.

2024 Arrangements and Reminders

Foundation Rest Days: Foundation students do not attend school on Wednesday during February.

Weekly Assembly: Assembly's have moved to Monday's at 2.30pm in the Stadium. 

Hats: All students must wear a hat when they are outside as per our sunsmart policy. School hats along with our uniform provision are available to purchase from Lowes at Gateway Plaza.

Breakfast Club: Our much loved Breakfast Club will continue this year and will run weekly on a Tuesday morning from 8.15am - 8.45am in the Library. Breakfast Club is a great opportunity for students to catch over whilst enjoying some delicious toast or cereal. Breakfast Club will commence on Tuesday 20th February.         

Headphones:  All students require a pair of overhead headphones, please download the attached flyer for more information.    

Uniform Expectations

Please find linked below a document which outlines our guidelines and expectations regarding the wearing of our school uniform, pleaase take the time to read through this important information. 

School Communication Channels

Newsletter:  Our newsletter is published weekly on Mondays and is distributed directly to all families via the Schoolzine App and email. The newsletter carries the bulk of our news and information about what is happening at St. John’s. It is the main way parents/guardians can be informed about coming events, student and teacher achievements. It is important for all families to read the newsletter each week. 

Schoolzine App: This App is the simplest way to receive short messages, reminders, or emergency information direct to your mobile phone. The Schoolzine App can be downloaded free from either Apple App Store or Google Play and then once installed, search for ‘St. John’s’ Primary School Dennington’.

Facebook: Facebook allows us to share many of the wonderful stories about what’s happening at our school including individual and team achievements.

As a parent/guardian, we encourage you to also join our closed Facebook community - St John's Dennington School Community.  This page is for reminders and notices. If you have a direct question that requires an answer from staff please email your child's teacher or call the office on 5562 5362 rather than posting in this group.

Email: Parents are welcome to email staff with questions or to request a time to meet. Please note that staff will only respond between the hours of 8am and 5pm. Staff emails consist of first inital and surname@sjdennington.catholic.edu.au eg Jan Madden - jmadden@sjdennington.catholic.edu.au

Our communication guidelines are available to view under the Useful Information Tab in the Schoolzine app. A summary is also pinned in our closed Facebook community page.

Classroom Information Sessions

Little Learners

Literacy is going to look very different at St. John's in 2024 and beyond. These sessions will provide you with information about the learning and how you can support your child at home. It is highly recommended that you attend one of the three sessions available.

Allergy Management

There are a number of our students who suffer from allergies that range from mild to extreme and we are seeking the support of the wider community to assist in supporting students with these allergies.

Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that is potentially life-threatening. The most common causes of anaphylaxis in schools are allergies to food and insects (bees). To help manage allergies, our school follows the DOBCEL Anaphylaxis Management Policy which has been developed in accordance with best practice guidelines from the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy.

ASCIA recommends an Allergy Aware approach, which means we are supporting students at risk of anaphylaxis in the following ways:

• training staff
• educating students about allergies and anaphylaxis
• teaching students that we all have different needs and to be respectful of others
• teaching students the importance of getting help immediately if their friend with allergy looks sick.

For food allergies, we are also:

• encouraging students with food allergies to wash their hands before and after eating
• encouraging students to wash their hands after eating something their classmate or friend is allergic to
• teaching students not to share food with friends who have a food allergy.

Food allergies are common in school aged children and avoiding the food is the only way to prevent an allergic reaction, this is particularly difficult in junior classes. We therefore ask all families to be careful of the foods they send each day, a product that states it may contain traces of nuts would be acceptable whilst sending a conatiner filled with cashews is not. 

We have also chosen not to stock nuts or nut products on our lunch order list or our Wednesday Treat meal choices.

We ask you to support the school’s Allergy Aware approach so that we can increase safety and provide an environment that meets the needs of all our students.

PAM Requests/Medical Profile

There are still a number of families yet to log into PAM and sign off on their  CONNECT requests. There are seven requests to complete.  Please take the time to read them thoroughly as when you sign off on them, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions of each request. We ask all families to please to do so asap.

• Children Code of Conduct
• Cyber Safety Agreement
• Dennington Recreation Reserve
• Media Permissions
• Parent Code of Conduct
• Parent Participation Levy
• St. Pius X Church

Whilst in PAM, it is also a good opportunity for you to review your child's medical profile and update if neccessary. We can't reiterate enough how important it is for us to have this correct information at hand. 

If your child has Asthma, we require an Asthma Action plan every 12 months signed by a doctor. We also require a spacer and ventolin to be stored in our sick bay.

If you require any assistance with PAM please contact the office.

2024 Timetable

Our timetable for 2024 will operate as outlined below. 

• 8.40am: Doors Open
• 8.55am: Children enter classrooms
• 9.00am: Homeroom
• 9.10am: Learning Block 1
• 10.00am: Learning Block 2
• 10:50am: 1st Lunch (30 minutes of play, 10 minutes of eating)
• 11.30am: Learning Block 3
• 12.20pm: Learning Block 4
• 1.10pm: 2nd Lunch (10 minutes of eating, 30 minutes of play)
• 1.50pm: Learning Block 5
• 2.35pm: Learning Block 6
• 3.00pm Fitness groups (Tuesday & Wednesday only)
• 3.10pm: Homerooms
• 3.20pm: End of school day dismissal

2024 Specialist Classes

In 2024, our specialist subjects will focus specifically on gaps in our curriculum and to assist the children to develop their skills in all facets of the curriculum. All children will participate in a 50 minute lesson for the following subjects which will complement their classroom program, the subjects are;

• Visual Arts taught by Miss Gen O'Connor
• Performing Arts/Music taught by Mr Damien Webster
• STEM taught by Mrs Kristie Painter
• PE taught by Mrs Brodie Boyd
• Japanese taught by Mrs Narelle Marsden
• Digi Tech taught by Mrs Jayne Brown

Our Gr 3-6 children will have these classes on Thursday and Gr F-2 children will have these classes on Friday; please ensure you have your child wearing their PE uniform on their specialist day. 

Financial Information

Financial Information & Support: If you hold a current Pension or Health Care Card, you may be eligible for one of the following support programs. If you do think this applies to you, please speak with our Office staff. 

Family Fee Assistance Scheme - are you eligible?: The Family Assistance Scheme, designed by the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat offers a tuition fee concession to families who hold a current Health Care Card/Centrelink or Veteran Affairs concession card. Families who qualify for the scheme will pay $520 per annum for primary school tuition fees. The discounted fee covers tuition and capital fees only. It does not cover additional charges such as camps, student fees and excursions.

Camp, Sports & Excursion Fund (CSEF): Similarly, if you are eligible for the above assistance, then there is a strong chance you will also be eligible for the CSEF. This amount is aimed at offsetting the costs associated with any camps, excursions and sporting events that your child participates in. Form is attached below.

As always, should you have any queries of concerns regarding the payment of fees then we encourage you to speak with the office staff to see what support you may be eligible for. 

2024 School Fee Structure: At our final School Advisory Council meeting of 2023, the group decided upon the following fee structure for 2024. The increases are in line with actual costs of events such as camps and swimming programs etc. The Diocese of Ballarat also provides recommended fee bands which we currently sit just within. This to ensure we are working towards having fees which are in line with DOBCEL expectations but doing it in a way that doesn’t place undue financial burden on our parents.  

• Student Levy-                  $150
• Family fee-                      $1075
• Building Levy-                 $175
• Gr 5/6 Camp-                  $350
• Gr 3/4 Camp-                  $200
• Gr F-4 Swimming-           $100
• Gr 5/6 Surf Awareness- $100

Please note that our fees only make up the difference between the Government (Federal and State) funding we receive and the amount the Government determines as the cost of educating a Primary student. Fees do not mean that we have extra money in our budget to expend on additional resources.

The Family Fee Assistance scheme will be available again in 2024. Families who qualify for the scheme will pay $520 per annum for primary school tuition fees. The discounted fee covers tuition and capital fees only. It does not cover additional charges such as camps, student fees, and excursions.

If you have any queries regarding school fees or funding please do not hesitate to contact Gayle or Ben.

Traffic Management

Pick Up: Pick Up time is a very busy at St John's so we have the following procedures in place to help manage traffic flow. We are asking that families who use either of the loops to collect their children at the end of the day, do so as follows;

• Families with surnames A-J use the Russell St Loop.
• Families with surnames K-Z use the Coghlan's Rd Loop.

Please note that children who walk or ride home can use whichever exit suits them and families are still welcome to use the pencil path and park their cars in Russell St or park and pick up in the Russell Street car park or the Coghlan's Road car park.

We also ask that if you have to hop out of the car to assist your child to hop into the car that you park your car and collect them rather than hold up the loop. We also ask that parents do not park on the oval near the portable buildings as this is a play area where children will be. 

Russell St Crossing: It is important that all children (and any adults with them) crossing Russell Street do so at the designated school crossing. This is simply the only safe option, it may take longer but it is safer. 

Lunch Orders

Lunch orders are available from the Dennington Store each Tuesday and Friday. Orders can be dropped directly into the store or into school no later than the day before. Lunch Orders commence this week. 

A price list is included below. 

Sport

Welcome back to 2024, its going to be another great year of sporting opportunities for our students!

Swimming Trials: Division Swimming will take place on Thursday 29^th Febuary at Aquazone Warrnambool. Students who wish to be considered for nomination, please email your swimming times to me on the email below. Swimmers must be able to competently swim 50m & must have recorded a time equal to or faster than the qualifying time. Times can be from swimming club, school or time trials. If parents arrange their own timing this must be signed off by either a swimming club committee member or pool staff member (eg lifeguard, swim teacher). Entries close Monday 19th February 2023. Parents are required to take students to the event and be responsible for them on the day. Relay teams will be selected based on times sent through.  

Athletics Carnival: In the coming weeks during our Physical Education lessons, we will be training for our school Athletics Carnival which will be held on Wednesday 6^th March at Brauerander Park. I will send out more details closer to the event but put the date in the calendar as students are very excited.

Brodie Boyd -  bboyd@sjdennington.catholic.edu.au

Hands on Learning

Grade 5/6 families - Please click the link below to apply for this year's Hands on Learning intake.

https://forms.gle/SDc4HfrVDK3mDug89 

2024 Japanese Study Tour- Final Chance!!

In September 2024, the Warrnambool Catholic Schools Network hope to take a group of Yr 6 students on a Cultural and Study Tour to Japan for approximately 8-10 days. Students from across the Warrnambool and District Network are invited to come. In November last year, we held an information meeting for parents at St Joseph's in Warrnambool, giving an overview of what students could expect on the trip. Parents then submitted a deposit and confirmed their interest in December 2023. 

This is the last call for any parents who might be interested in their child taking part in the Japan Trip in 2024. Please fill out the attached form by Friday 9th February. You will then be sent information (including pricing) to help you in your decision. You can also email Catherine Lee  (St Joseph's PS)  clee@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au for further information. Confirmation of interest and a deposit, would then need to be submitted by Friday 16th February, so that bookings can commence. 

Catherine Lee (St. Joseph's)

Connected Communities

To boost education opportunities and narrow the digital divide, the Australian Government is providing up to 30,000 eligible families with school age children with no internet at home, access to free NBN under the SSBI.

Access to the SSBI will become easier, with the announcement of a National Referral Centre that parents/carers with school students can contact directly to check their eligibility.

Victorian families with students enrolled in Foundation to Year 12, who do not have an active NBN connection (or had one in the previous 14 days) but can access a standard NBN service at their premises, can become eligible with an application to the National Referral Centre.

You can find more information about the NRC on Anglicare Victoria’s website or contact Jordan Smith at the Catholic Education Ballarat Office.

Check your eligibility
1. Contact the National Referral Centre on 1800 954 610 (Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm AEDT) or by visiting
www.anglicarevic.org.au/student-internet.

Student News

Huddy is the proud big brother of gorgeous little Bowie, born early January. A huge congratulations to Erin, Tim, Huddy and Sully on your adorable new addition to your family.

Around our School- Week 1

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Student Awards

Happy Birthday

A big Happy Birthday to the following students who celebrated their special day during the school holidays, we hope you had a fantastic day! Bella J, Summer S, Rhiley S, Jaxon B, Olivia R, Skylar C, Levi B, Jacob D, J Mason, Caleb B, Jove F, Nate I, Chace A, Daniel H, Rubie R, Charli F, Ivy M, Bronte T, Indi L, Polly M, Louie B, Ava S, Jack T, Hayley H, Abigail B, Jasper F, Archie S, Ray O, Hallie W, Lincoln T, Chet M and Harry W.

Best wishes to Riley S, Jaxon F, Lucy C and Ella A who celebrate their birthday this week, have a fabulous day! 

Parents & Friends Social Group

Family Picnic

This Thursday night we will be having a family picnic at school from 5-8pm. This fun night is the perfect chance to come along and meet other families at the school.  A note will be coming home with students today.

Pancake Tuesday

Tuesday 13th February the Parents and Friends Social group will be providing pancakes for all of the students. 

We will be on the lookout for parents to help cook on the day. This is a great way to tick off some of your participation points. There is a note coming home tonight to complete and return, please also keep an eye out of the Facebook Group for a post requesting volunteers.

Dennington Dash 

The Dennington Dash is a twilight fun run/walk for the whole family. Whether you're up for a competitive 3km run or a 3km walk. We have amazing place-getting prizes to be won. A post race BBQ is also available for the whole family.

Save the date for Friday 15th March, racing at 6.00pm. This great event is an awesome pre-season training opportunity for you and your sporting team.

Click here for further information and to register. 

Advertising in the newsletter

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.

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 12th February.

Adams, Ahearn, Allely, Amartey and Anderson.

Emmanuel College

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

Tuesday 6th February: Classroom Information Sessions- see flyer for times.

Wednesday 7th February: Opening School Mass at St Pius at 10.00am.

Thursday 8th February: Family Picnic Night.

Tuesday 13th February: Shrove Tuesday.

Tuesday 20th February: Wine Cheese and Chat night- P&F Social group function.

Tuesday 20th February: Little Learners Information Sessions- see flyer for times.

Wednesday 6th March: School Athletics Carnival.

Friday 15th March: Dennington Dash.

Tuesday 19th March: P&F Social Group AGM and first meeting.