February 3rd, 2025: Newsletter #2

Acknowledgement of Country

St. John’s school community respect and honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past and present. 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

In 2025 our the Pope has declared that it is a Jubilee Holy Year, the 2025th anniversary of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The concept of "Jubilee" originates in the Book of Leviticus (chapter 25) as a special year of reconciliation, pilgrimage, and coming home. Jubilee years are celebrated every 25 years.  Pope Francis has designated the 2025 Holy Year as a time to renew ourselves as "Pilgrims of Hope."  DOBCEL has developed a theme for 2025 built on the Jubilee while drawing on the gift of scripture where St Paul writes to the community of believers in Rome.  

The context of the greater passage of St Paul’s letters to the Romans is to provide direction, encouragement, and guidance to the community of believers in Rome, a community that Paul had not met personally.  In the Ballarat Diocese today, as a community of communities from the Murray to the Sea, we are also tasked to uplift and guide those within our Catholic Christian educational community. 

We draw on the inspiration of Pope Francis and the wisdom of St Paul as we strive to bring the peace and joy that God offers to the people of our communities.  

From the Principal

The commencement of a school year is always a time of mixed emotions such as excitement and uncertainty as a new year always bring change.  I would like to welcome our families who are returning, our families commencing their educational journey in Foundation and to the families who are new to our community, I welcome you. As you settle in, please know that you have a community of supportive teachers, staff and fellow students and their families ready to welcome and support you. 

As we commence the 2025 school year, we look forward to another year of learning, celebrations, creativity and challenge whilst we all explore our unlimitless potential. 

On a personal note I am super excited to be working back in Dennington, it is something I missed dearly in Term 4 of last year. My thanks to Amy and Jan who were sensational as Interim Principals throughout that time. 

New Staff: This year we welcome the following staff to our community: Trainees Zahli Brookes, Cohan Boyle and Darcy McInerney, STEM teacher Samantha Lane, Foundation teacher Katie Buwalda, Music teacher Nicolas Palmer and Mental Health & Welllbeing leader Mel Willis.  I hope that all of these staff members find our school as rewarding and welcoming as I do.

Mass: This Wednesday 5th February we will hold our Opening School Mass at St. Pius Church at 10.00am. All students will attend and families are invited to come along. Foundation students do not attend school on this day but are very welcome to join in. We will be offically inducting our student leaders on this day. 

Congratulations: On Tuesday all of the staff members from our local Catholic schools celebrated mass to commence the school year. As a part of the ceremony staff members were recognised for celebrating milestones in our Catholic network. Congratulations to the Kristie Painter (10 Years) and Damien Webster (40 Years) who were recognised for their service. 

Attendance: Consistent daily attendance at school is compulsory, if your child is absent for any reason, please ensure that you notify the school. Parents/guardians may submit full day and partial day absences via PAM or the
Schoolzine (Szapp).

Late Arrival/ Early Departure or appointments during the school day: If a student leaves during the school day, they must be signed out at the Office by an adult. Similarly, if they are arriving late or leaving early, they must be signed in or out by an adult. 

Social Media Use by Primary Age Children: All families should be aware of recent legislation passed in Australia that bans children under the age of 16 from using most social media platforms. This law aims to protect young people from online harms, such as cyberbullying and exposure to inappropriate content, by ensuring that social media companies take responsibility for verifying users' ages and preventing underage access. The legislation has been passed by both houses of the Australian Parliament and will come into effect in late 2025, giving social media companies time to implement the necessary age-verification measures.
As a result, students will no longer be able to create or maintain accounts on platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. This change may impact how students interact and communicate outside of school, and we encourage parents to discuss these new rules with their children to help them understand the importance of online safety. 

Enjoy the week ahead and always feel free to contact me should the need arise,  Ben.

Learning and Teaching with Jan & Amy

The teachers are very busy at the moment getting to know your children and for your children to know them.

There are many assessments occurring, one of which is in literacy to help organise your child (in Year 1,2 and 3) to have a reader which is at their reading level.  This process takes a little while so the home readers will be coming home soon but please be patient. In the meantime, please continue to read to your child, read books from home and the library.

On Tuesday March 4th at 2.30pm in the Gathering Space, there will be a parent information session on Structured literacy. We strongly encourage any parent who didn't get to the session last year to attend and new parents to the school.

Have a great week,

Jan and Amy.

Tell Me Abouts

This year we are commencing a new initiative that we hope will enhance relationships and communication between teaching staff and our school families.

Each term we publish a document in week 2 that outlines what is happening in class, we do this in the hope that families will sit with their child/ children and discuss what is happening in the classroom, this document is referred to as an "Ask Me About".

The new initiative is called "Tell me About" where the teachers will sit and listen to parents/ guardians speak to their child's classroom teacher about their child.

Some question prompts for you to consider could be but are certainly not limited to these.  

• When you think about your child, what makes you proud?
• Do you have any suggestions on how to best connect with your child?
• What sparks your child's interest/ passions?
• What triggers frustration or withdrawal in your child?
• Is there anything else you think I need to know?

The "Tell Me About" Sessions are for Parents/ Guardians and Teachers only, our students will be involved in the 3 Way Conversations which are held in term 2. 

For those families who need it, we will have staff available to supervise school aged children whilst you are attending your "Tell Me About" session. 

The "Tell Me About" sessions will be held on Monday Feb 17th and Tuesday Feb 18th from 2pm-5pm, families will be able to book appointments via their PAM account. This invitation will be sent out by the end of the week- please contact the office should you need assistance.

Please note, this session for Gr 4JM will take place on Wednesday February 26th. 

School Captains

Congratulations to the following Grade 6 students on their well deserved positions of leadership. Please join us at our Opening School Mass at St. Pius X Church this Wednesday at 10.00am where we will officially induct them to their roles.

BushFire at Risk Register (BARR)

Our school is listed on the Bushfire at Risk Register. 

With the implementation of the new national Fire Danger Rating (FDR) system, all schools on the "Bushfire and Grassfire At Risk Registers" will be closed on days classified as Catastrophic FDR.

What does this mean?  On a Catastrophic FDR, our school will be closed, along with school bus services.  No one will be allowed on site. Such ratings will be declared ahead of the nominated day. In the event of a Catastophic FDR an email and a Schoolzine alert will go out to parents.

Please note: A Catastrophic FDR is different to a Day of Total Fire Ban.

Traffic Management

Pick up and drop off time is a very busy at St John's therefore 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.

The loops are designed for a quick drop off and pick up, please do not park in the loops, this disrupts the flow of traffic and causes congestion and if your child requires assistance getting in and out of the car, please park in the car parks at either end of the school.

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.

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 from Morriss Road Takeaway begin next Tuesday 11th February and are available to purchase on Tuesdays and Fridays. All orders are to be placed through CDFpay. 

There is no need to write your order on a bag and drop it in to school or the shop, orders that you place on the app will go directly to the shop and then delivered to school. The close off time for online ordering is 9.30am on the day. 

Financial Information

School fee statments will be emailed out in Week 3. If you do not receive your statement by the end of next week please contact the office.

If you hold a current Pension or Health Care Card, you may be eligible for one of the following support programs listed below. If you do think this applies to you, or have any questions regarding school fees please speak with Sarah Burchell, our Finance Officer.

The Family Fee Assistance scheme: Families who have a valid health care or concession card and 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.  

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF): If you are a parent/guardian who is new to the school, an existing parent/guardian and your circumstances have changed or if you have not previously applied for the CSEF allowance, please submit an application form to claim the CSEF allowance. The allowance is for eligible families who hold a valid meanstested concession card or are a temporary foster parent or a gold card veterans affairs pensioner. Payments are made to the school and will be deducted from a family’s school fees. Applications and a copy of your card need to be submitted by Thursday 3 July 2025 and returned to Sarah Burchell. Further details about the CSEF allowance can be found at the Department of Education and Training’s website.

School Savings Bonus: New families and new applicants that qualify for the Camps Sports & Excursion Fund will also be eligible for the School Savings Bonus. The $400 bonus will be provided directly to the school and will be applied directly to your fee account. The $400 School Saving Bonus is available for each child. That means an eligible family with three school-aged children will receive a total reduction of $1,200 to school fees. 

In 2025, our school fee structure, as approved by our Governing Authority DOBCEL is;

• Student Levy  $150
• Family fee  $1090
• Building Levy  $240
• Gr 5/6 Camp $350
• Gr 3/4 Camp  $200
• Gr F-4 Swimming $100
• Gr 5/6 Surf Awareness  $100
• Participation Levy  $200

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.

It is an expectation that school fee accounts are finalised by Term 4 each year. It is a good idea to plan how you are going  to pay your fees now as it is never pleasant for us, or you, if we have to chase up school fees at the end of the year.  We offer a variety of payment methods including direct transfer and EFT. We also offer direct debit for families each fortnight as an option to pay school fees. Direct debit is a good way to spread the cost throughout the year. School fee statements are emailed out in Week 3 each term. if you do not receive your statement please let the office know asap so we can update your email address.

CDFpay

We are now using CDFpay for all online ordering such as lunch orders, Wednesday Treats, various events and fundraising activities. CDFpay is an app that you download to your phone. 

• In the app store search for CDFpay
• Create a new account
• When searching for our school, start with our postcode of 3280 and our school will come up in the shortened list to select from
• You will need to add each of your children and select their 2025 classroom. Please make sure this is correct, as this is where the lunch order will be delivered to. 

If you need any assistance please contact the office but it is important to note that due to privacy restrictions associated to this app, we can not add students or amend your account for you in any way.

School Communication Channels

It is very important that we have up to date contact details for all parents/guardians, if you have chnaged address, email address etc please notify the office asap - admin@sjdennington.catholic.edu.au

Newsletter:  Our newsletter is published weekly on Mondays and is distributed directly to all families via schoolzine 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. Please note that this group is for parents/guardians only and requests by other family members will not be accepted.

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

Seesaw: Homeroom teachers use this app to send photos of students work and what is happening in the classroom. They will send out invitations via email to join this group. All questions regarding this app are to be directed to your child's homeroom teacher.

2025 School Dates

Our school calendar an be accessed via our SZApp or website and is updated daily. Parents are encouraged to refer to this for important school dates including many 2025 dates including:

• term dates
• school closures
• public holidays
• sacramental dates
• school camps
• excursions
• P&F Social Group meetings
• Community events
• Mother's Day morning tea
• Father's Day breakfast
• orientation day
• graduation mass
• final assembly
  

PAM Requests/Medical Profile

If you haven't already done so, please log into your PAM account and sign off on the following documentation for the 2025 school year. 

Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety agreement, Local Excursion permission, Media permission, Parent Participation Levy, Parent/Guardian Code of Conduct and enrolment agreement. These requests need to be completed asap.

Families of Foundation students will also need to complete their child's medical profile. For existing students it is also a good opportunity for you to review their medical profile and update if necessary. We can't reiterate enough how important it is for us to have this correct information at hand. 

Uniform

Our uniform is available to purchase at Lowes at Gateway Plaza. Please ensure your child is wearing the correct uniform each day and please label every item of clothing, including shoes!

Staff will be vigilant in ensuring students are in correct uniform each day and will be contacting parents when children are wearing incorrect pieces of clothing or footwear.

On non specialist days, children must be wearing shoes that are all black (whether it be leather or runners).

Sports shorts (Blue with the school logo) should only be worn on specialist days. 

As in previous years, Grades 3 - 6 will continue to have specialist classes on Thursday whilst Foundation - Gr 2 have their specialist classes on Fridays. Students are to wear their sports uniform on their specialist day.

All students must wear a hat when they are outside as per our Sunsmart policy. Students without a hat will play in the undercover quiet area. We do not provide spare hats.

Please also note hair that touches the shoulders must be fully tied back (partially tied up hair is not permitted) and jewellery should be limited to studs or sleeper- necklaces or bracelets should not be worn.

Opening the Doors Foundation

The Opening the Doors Foundation provides grants to families to assist with the extra costs incurred in the schooling of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary or secondary school students. The 2025 Grant Round is now open and closes on 14th March 2025.

Please note that due to a substantial increase in applications, the Foundation’s Trustees have had to modify the eligibility criteria. The updated criteria and guidelines are outlined on both the Opening the Doors Foundation website and the Opening the Doors Foundation Application. 

Phone: 1300 236 356     Email: applications@openingthedoors.org.au

Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club is back next Tuesday 11th February! It is open to all students accross the school and runs weekly on a Tuesday morning from 8.15am - 8.45am in the Library, facilitated by Jasmine our Pastoral Care Leader and Mel, our newly appointed Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader. 

Breakfast Club gives students the opportunity to eat a wholesome, nutritious breakfast with their peers along with fostering positive impacts such as physical and mental health, social skills and concentration. 

Theircare

All bookings and questions regarding our outside school provider TheirCare, are to  be made directly to them on 1300 072 410.  Bookings can also be made at https://theircare.com.au/  and selecting St John's Dennington as the booking location.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to the following students who celebrated their birthday last week and during the holidays, we hope you had a fantastic day! Levi B, Jax M, Ethan B, Jove F, Nate I, Chase H, Rubie R, Charli F, Ivy M, Bronte T, Brooklyn B, Indi L, Polly M, Daisy R, Ava S, Zarah B, Jack T, Lenny E, Hayley H, Abigail B, Hallie W, Linclon T, Chet M, Harry W and Levi P.

Best wishes to Jaxson F who celebrates his birthday this week, we hope its an awesome fun filled day!

Student Awards

Student News

Bridget and Matthew welcomed their adorable new baby sister, Jacinta, on the 3rd January. She spent 2 weeks in special care at the Royal Children's Hospital and arrived home to enjoy some time with her siblings before school.

We also celebrate the arrival of Charlotte and Oliver, Archie's gorgeous twin siblings who arrived 16th January, what a proud big brother!

Around our School- Week 1

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Parents and Friends Social Group

Our first meeting for 2025 is being held tonight (Monday 3rd) at 7.00pm in the Gathering Space. Everyone is welcome, we always look forward to seeing some new faces. We hope you can make it.

At the final assembly last year the P & F presented a cheque to the school for $40,000. Thank you to everyone in our school community for supporting our fundraisers throughout the year.

Family Picnic

Please join us Thursday 6th February as we have our Family Picnic night at school. This is a fun night and the perfect chance to come along and meet other families at the school. BYO dinner, drinks and a picnic blanket/chairs. Hope to see you there!

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. Please download the roster below.

All funds raised throughout the year will be donated to various charities. Please drop your store purchased cake into the office with your family name written on top.  If there is no assembly on your rostered day due to a school closure or event, please drop your cake in the week before or after.

All students will have the opportunity to buy a raffle ticket for 20c 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 for Monday 10th February:

Ahearn, Allely, Amartey, Anderson, Arnold and Atkins.

School Sponsorship

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 9.00am 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 5th February: Beginning of school Mass at St. Pius X Church at 10.00am

Thursday 6th February: Family Picnic from 5.30pm

Tuesday 11th February: Lunch orders and Breakfast Club commence

Monday 24th February: Whole School Athletics Carnival at BrauerAnder Park

Tuesday 4th March: School Photo Day

Tuesday 4th March: Structured literacy parent information session at 2.30pm in the Gathering Space