ST JOHN'S NEWSLETTER INSPIRING
STUDENTS FOR LIFE
TERM 1 WEEK 10

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A MESSAGE FROM THE

PRINCIPAL

Principal’s Message Week 10 2025

Last week we held our annual St John’s Cross Country and what wonderful examples of compassion we witnessed! Our PE Teacher, Mrs Sarroff, was unfortunately unable to attend due to illness; the thoughtfulness she had put into the organisation and communication with staff made it possible for us to run it successfully.

Compassion! All of our staff at St John’s stepped up to help, flexibly taking on different roles or adjusting the way we did tasks.

Compassion! St Paul’s College brought Year 8, 9 and 10 students to help us – they ran with students, provided much needed encouragement for those finding the run challenging and helped pack up our heavy marquees, all with a big smile.

Compassion! Our parents, families, friends and students cheered students on, giving them the boost they needed.

No wonder ‘We are Compassionate’ is one of our school values.

Thank you to everyone in our school community who shows it in so many ways.

Anna-Marie Bothe

Interim Principal

IMPORTANT DATES

Week 10

  • Monday 31/3 - OPEN DAY session 1 9:30 - 11:00am session 2 5:30 - 6:30pm
  • Tuesday 1/4 - INCURSION: The King and Queen of Greens Realm of Rubbish
  • Friday 4/4 - 5/6DB Chapel 9:30am AND Kids Church 6pm

Week 11

Friday 11/4 - LAST DAY Term 1 AND Easter Chapel 9:30am AND Riverina LCA                            Youth Group 6:30pm

 

School Holidays

  • Monday 14/4 to Friday 25/4
  • Maundy Thursday 17/4
  • Good Friday 18/4
  • Easter Sunday 20/4
  • Friday 25/4 - ANZAC Day

Term 2 Week 1

  • Monday 28/4 - PUPIL FREE DAY and Staff PD Day
  • Tuesday 29/4 - STUDENTS RETURN
  • Thursday 1/5 - SCHOOL PHOTOS
  • Friday 2/5 - KIDS CHURCH 6pm

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

Calendar

From the deputy desk
School Happenings!

Term 1, Week 10!

What a busy and productive term we have had! There have been so many wonderful events and activities both inside and outside of the classroom this term. I am sure that all of the teachers and students are almost ready for a well-earned break during the Easter Holidays. I wish everybody a safe and restful time over the upcoming holidays!

Restorative Practices

St John’s is a Restorative Practices school. As a Christian school, these practices help us put God’s love into action to build meaningful connections with each other.

What are Restorative Practices?

Restorative Practices acknowledge that harm is caused when our school expectations for behaviour and respect are not followed, creating a need for healing and restored relationships. They go hand-in-hand with our school positive behaviour approach, including teaching students that there are consequences for actions.

Restorative Conversations

When harm has been caused, our leaders, teachers and learning coaches use the following WARM conversation format:

What happened?

How were others Affected? (E.g. feelings hurt, being disrespected)

How can we Restore relationships and Repair hurt?

How can we Move forward from here and what will happen if it occurs again?

Through his teachings, Jesus focused on relationships, with his greatest commandment being to love God and to love one another (Matthew 22:34-40). These WARM conversations are a wonderful example of how we show compassion towards each other and live life just as Jesus would.

NAPLAN

Students in Year 3 and 5 successfully participated in NAPLAN during Week 7 and 8. Later in the year, parents will receive their child’s personal NAPLAN report. The report will describe the child’s particular skills in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. The report will also show how your child performed in relation to national minimum standards. These describe the minimum acceptable standards for students across Australia.

For more information about NAPLAN Online, please visit the NAP website at www.nap.edu.au

SCHOOL PHOTO DAY

A reminder that our School Photo Day is on Thursday 1st May.

Envelopes to purchase photos went home earlier this week. Envelopes must be returned by the end of term even if you do not wish to purchase any photos.

Sibling photo envelopes are available at the front office.

Alison Jafari

Deputy Principal

FROM THE CHAPLAIN

FRIDAY NIGHT CHAPEL

Jesus – The unexpected Servant King

From the movies we see, to the books we read, and real-life royalty, our ideas of Kings and Queens is a far cry from the King of Kings we received. So, what set him so far apart from traditional royalty, and what did Jesus teach us to do during His time on earth?

Join us from 6pm Friday for a free BBQ as school dad, Jono Schmidt teaches us about Jesus the King

Contact Chappy Pete for more information – [email protected]

 

EASTER SERVICES

This year we have some exciting events you can take part in over the school holidays!

Maundy Thursday Agape Meal

The earliest Christians shared a feast every week to remember Jesus’ last supper. We will be recreating this by sharing a meal sitting on the floor together! Lots of fun for all ages!

6pm, Thursday April 17

St John’s Hall

Click here to book your spot!


Easter Sunday

Join us for:

An open-air service

Easter egg hunt

BYO BBQ

Please bring:

Camp chairs/picnic blankets

BYO food and drinks for the BBQ

12pm, Sunday April 20

Jindera Village Green

Click here to let us know you are coming!

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 1 VALUE

 

COMPASSIONATE

Compassion is empathy and Christ’s love in action. At St John’s, empathy is the most important aspect of our five Learner Profile characteristics.

Compassion is how we show respect for the diversity of different perspectives, experiences and needs within our community and beyond. It opens our hearts and minds to be inclusive in how we view and treat each other.

Compassion is at the heart of our school approach to wellbeing. We learn how to reflect on our behaviour and make choices that have positive impacts on others. We forgive and heal hurt through God’s grace.

 

STUDENT PROFILE:

  • I can understand and respect others' perspectives and experiences.
  • I can adapt my behaviour to positively affect others.
  • I can show compassion and consider the needs of others.  

STAFF PROFILE:

  • We demonstrate compassion and respect each other’s perspectives
  • We constructively resolve conflict, showing Christ-like forgiveness through restorative practices.
  • We respectfully hold ourselves and each other accountable to demonstrate ‘above the line’ behaviour.
  • We place our students’ needs at the centre of all of our decisions.

SAVE THE DATE

CROSS Country

What a day! Clear blue skies, sun shining, sausages cooking, music playing and 180+ kids ready to RUUUNNNNNN! We couldn't ask for anything more.

Thanks to everyone who helped out on the day, with a special thanks to Mrs Emily Sarroff for organising, and the Year 8, 9 and 10 students from St Paul's for helping us out on check points, running with and encouraging our students and helping us pack up. We couldn't have done it without you!

Student ACHIEVMENTS

Ivy Tervet represented St John's at the NSW CIS Primary Swimming Championships in Sydney on Wednesday 26 March. The highlight of Ivy's program at the Olympic Pool was her 50m freestyle, in which a pb of 35.94 seconds saw her not only win her heat but earn a ranking of 11th place overall. Ivy followed this up with strong swims in the 50m breaststroke, 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly, coming away with top-25 finishes in each event.

This season Ivy has raced in Sydney, Melbourne, Griffith, Wagga Wagga, Wangaratta and Corowa as well as the local pools in Albury-Wodonga. She won four silver medals at the Ovens & Murray Championships and made it all the way through NSW Country to the Speedo NSW Junior State Age Championships.

We asked Ivy a few questions after she swam at CIS on Wednesday.

How did you feel at the start of the day? Really nervous because I didn't know how the day was going to go!

How did you feel at the end of the day? Extremely proud for getting under 36 seconds in the 50m freestyle.

What do you love about swimming? That you are trying to beat yourself and not others.

What is the hardest thing about swimming? When you don't get a PB.

What can you tell us about your training? I train 3-4 times a week at Albury Swim Centre. Sessions for my squad are on Monday and Wednesday, from 5-6.30pm, and Tuesday and Thursday, 5.30-7am. I have to set my alarm for 4.30am on those days.

What is your proudest moment in the pool so far? Going to the highest level of club swimming for my age group this year (NSW Junior State).

What do you hope to achieve in the future? Go to the Olympics in Brisbane in 2032!

An absolutely amazing effort Ivy and what a goal! We too would love to watch you compete in Brisbane in 2032!!

 

Fletcher Barber is another super star of St John's who represented Albury/Wodonga in the U10 mixed soccer carnival held in Bendigo over the weekend. His team, AWFA white team won their division 3-0 to Avondale in the Grand Final and were the Boys and Girls FC Champions 2025.

We asked Fletcher a couple of questions about the day.

What was the highlight of the carnival? Winning the Tournament

How many games did you play over the weekend? 7

What position did you play? Centre back - a defender position.

What's the best thing about soccer? Scoring goals!

Well done Fletcher!

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

 

This month, we watched in awe as our chrysalises hatched into Monarch butterflies, explored messy play with volcano eruptions and "fake concrete", and had fun flipping pancakes for Shrove Tuesday! A big thank you to the family who brought in thorny stick insects—our little scientists loved observing them! Here’s to another month of learning and discovery!

KINDERGARTEN

 

After lunch each day Kinders have 10-15 minutes to engage quietly in Fine Motor activities. This helps develop their finger strength, which is preparing them for learning to write for writing, but it also gives them a nice calm space to relax and unwind from lunch play. A favourite recently has been the beads. They are loving making headbands, necklaces and bracelets.

The Kinders have also spent some time learning about action words. We played a game of charades and went on a verb hunt. They engaged well in the activity and especially enjoyed acting out an action.

YEAR 1

Our students have been learning about odd and even numbers by exploring how to split numbers into equal groups. It’s been a fun and engaging way to look at patterns. In PBL, students have been using their creativity and collaboration skills to plan and design a new outdoor learning space. Their ideas have been imaginative and thoughtful. During Art, students continue to explore the technique of printing. We took inspiration from Paul Klee's Castle and Sun; an abstract piece that plays with both colour and shape. Using wooden blocks, we created our own geometric buildings based on the artwork.

YEAR 2

How is it already week 10? Gosh this term has flown, and what a fun term we have had!

The students have done a fantastic job of settling into Year 2 and working out our daily routines. The past few weeks we have done so many different fun things!

We got a fluffy little visitor! Thanks Ivy and Ivy’s Mum for bringing her in!

We have been doing a lot of subtraction and grouping in maths, which has been fun with the hands-on activities we do. The students did particularly well working out multiplication sums by using cubes and putting them into different groups!

We keep doing partnered reading, which is so good for fluency and confidence.

Finally, we have been doing some fun and engaging artwork recently. You will see our most recent piece displayed in the front office! This took us a lot of time and patience.

As we come to the end of term 1, we hope that all our lovely families have a safe break and we look forward to seeing all the students refreshed and ready to go in Term 2!

YEAR 3/4 LK

Year 3-4 have been hard at work learning about Australian landforms. Students really enjoyed Mr Walsh's talk about the Australian Alps and their importance.

Students have been spending time getting to know their Buddies from Year 1. Great friendships are already blossoming, and students have enjoyed spending time finding out about each other’s interests.

After all the hard work that the students have been doing, it was nice after cross-country to have a bit of time to do some FUN things. We discovered that many students are great singers and pretty good dancers too.

YEAR 3/4 GC

Our students have started their buddy sessions with Year 2. It has been fantastic to see them step as leaders and be great role models in these sessions. In PBL, we were very lucky to have Mr Walsh come and speak to us about the Australian Alps. As an avid bushwalker, he was able to provide the students with a very engaging and informative presentation. In maths, Year 4 have been looking at two dimensional shapes, so we spent time exploring tangrams and the shapes we make with these.

YEAR 5/6

Leadership Day

The Year 6s joined local Lutheran schools - Wagga, St Paul’s Henty and Victory Lutheran College for an engaging day learning about leadership through a Christian lens. After the day, Scarlett said, “I found it interesting when we worked in groups to order leadership traits from most to least valuable. I enjoyed seeing other opinions from the Year 6s.”

Halve Waste

An excursion to Halve Waste was a great introduction and learning experience for our PBL unit on recycling. Noah found it was disappointing to see how much rubbish is in landfill.

Classroom Learning

The Year 5/6 students had a lesson on how to use Clipchamp, an online video editor designed for video creation, allowing users to combine media, add effects, and export videos. This will be useful after students have filmed their PBL videos.  It was great to see students teaching others that still needed help.

2025 NSW Premier's Reading Challenge

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

How do students participate in the Premier's Reading Challenge?

In order to complete the Challenge, students are required to read the following number of books:

To log in

Use this link

Go to ‘Logon’ on the left pull down box.

Then enter your child’s username and password (Sent home this week by their class teacher)

NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2025

Click here

This is the link to find books to read......

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 10

Mia and Ivy Lieschke

Eden and Ivy Lawrence

Bryce Knobel

Arabella Griffin

Narelle Hayes

Week 11

Luke Schulz and Joel James  

Isla and Bethany Gorton

Pipper Harris

Georgia Stoll

James Morey

AFL NSW

After-School Clinics at St John's

MERIT AWARDS

WEEK 7

 

Kinder

Edith Hoek and Beau Kotzur  
Year 1

Ava Jones and Ella Lewis  
Year 2

Piper Barber and Jonti Noordam    

 

Year 3/4 LK

Edward Sarroff and Norah Heath    

Year 3/4 GC

George Shipp and Max Ley  

Year 5/6 PV

Isaac Hartley and Ian Wang  

Year 5/6 DB

Tennyson Deegan and Ivy Tervet

WEEK 8

 

Kinder

Ellena Murtagh and Samuel Busch  
Year 1

Deliah Harrington and Indigo Sutcliffe  
Year 2

Daria Jafari and Jimmy Schmidt  

 

Year 3/4 LK

Evelynn Tyrell and Tilda Gurney    

Year 3/4 GC

Gloria Wang and Chloe Oates

Year 5/6 PV

Layla Forrester and Ari Severin    

Year 5/6 DB

Jethro Harper and Sarah Bergmeier

WEEK 9

 

Kinder

Madelyn Swift and Lance Taylor
Year 1

Ziggy Saggers and Phillipa Louwrier
Year 2

Archer Walker and Stevie Thies  

 

Year 3/4 LK

Ryder Bakes and Eli Johnston    

Year 3/4 GC

Amelia Yong and Evie Noordam  

Year 5/6 PV

Johan Klaassen and Ivy McWaters

Year 5/6 DB

Maison Holm and Evy Groenwald  

WEEK 10

 

Kinder

Xavier Biggs and Walter Cottrell and

Blair Thomson
Year 1

Arthur Lieschke and Theo Bakes
Year 2

George Tuohey and Theo Merkel  

 

Year 3/4 LK

Tom Hancock and Maeve Bryant    

Year 3/4 GC

Sophie Chang and Ivy Lawrence  

Year 5/6 PV

Leo Jensen and Jett Smith and Henry Edwards

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