ST JOHN'S NEWSLETTER INSPIRING
STUDENTS FOR LIFE
TERM 2 WEEK 4

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TERM 2 WEEK 2

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

 

The Importance of a Learner’s Voice

Student agency, student voice, and student choice are essential for creating a positive and effective learning environment for children. When students have agency, they take an active role in their education, which helps them feel more responsible and motivated to learn. This sense of ownership encourages them to engage deeply with their learning. By working alongside and involving students in decisions about their learning, we help them develop important skills like critical thinking and problem-solving, preparing them for future challenges both in school and in life.

Collaborating with students and supporting them to know why and how they learn, makes their learning meaningful. When children have a voice in topics that interest them, they are more likely to stay engaged and retain information better. This relevance can lead to improved academic performance and a greater love for learning.

Additionally, when we listen to and value their input, we create a more inclusive and supportive school culture where every child feels valued and heard. This sense of belonging is crucial for their overall development and well-being.

 

We would like to welcome Ms Janelle Mellick to St John's. Janelle will be working as a Learning Coach in Year 2 and comes to us with lots of experience in her field.

We would also like to welcome a very special addition to the St John's family, Elijah Caleb Walsh. Mr Walsh (James) and wife Maegen welcomed little Elijah on Sunday. Mr Walsh is our Finance Manager and will be spending some quality time with his family. Congratulations to the Walsh family!

Welcomes

Yours in Christian service,


Brad Moss
Principal

Brad navy

From the deputy desk

 

ALWS Day

In Week 2, Celia Fielke from Australian Lutheran World Service (overseas aid) led workshops to increase our awareness of people in need around the world and how we can help them through the work of ALWS. K-2 learnt about caring for God’s world and people, Year 3/4 looked at how we can care for the world and the people who are suffering and Year 5/6’s topic covered the concept that life isn’t fair, and it’s even harder for people in developing countries with disability, people who don’t have rights recognised, and other vulnerable groups. Celia led engaging activities and shared photos and information from ALWS projects around the world.

 

Mother’s Day Chapel and Morning Tea

We had a wonderful morning celebrating our mothers and special people in our lives at our Week 2 Chapel and morning tea. Mrs Schulz and the amazing Year 2 staff and students led us in worship as we thanked God for the nurture we receive from our mums. You are such a blessing!

 

Work Experience and University Students

St John’s has been fortunate to have some students join our staff this semester to gain experience. St Paul’s College student, Keira Holmes, completed work experience in our Kinder classroom, Anthony Miles (brother-in-law to Mrs Emma Miles, our Design Lab teacher) did a 4 week teaching placement with our Year 2 class, and Georgia Stein is in her final and fourth week of her teaching placement with our Year 3/4 LK class. We thoroughly enjoyed having these people join us and look forward to having more work experience and teaching placements throughout the year.

 

Netball NSW Schools Cup

On Monday this week, 42 students from Years 4-6 participated in the Netball NSW Schools Cup in Albury, competing against other schools in our region. Thanks to our PE teacher, Miss Felicity Habermann, for organising our involvement and to Miss Cotter, Mrs Nic and Mrs Schulz for leading training sessions at school – Miss Cotter and Mrs Nic supervising our students on the day.

All of our teams were highly competitive and played in the spirit of the sportsmanship. Our ‘Gold’ team went through the day undefeated, and played in the grand final, going down to a very tall Trinity team! Congratulations to all students who participated and represented St John’s so well.

 

National Simultaneous Storytime

This week there was a special event that all classes participated in. National Simultaneous Storytime has been running for 24 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alison Jafari and Anna-Marie Bothe

 

 

FROM THE CHAPLAIN

 

Life Groups
We’re starting weekly groups for adults to get together to talk about life and faith. ‘Christianity in Context’ looks at today’s social issues through a Biblical lens to understand the many different positions Christians come to on any given topic. ‘The Story of the Bible’ looks in depth at what was happening during Bible times to understand what message the entire Bible is telling.

Life groups can be run in person or online and are open to anyone. If you are interested in either of these groups, please contact Peter – [email protected]

Newsletter
St John’s Chapel now has a regular newsletter

 

 

 

Peter Reed, Chaplain

Click here to sign up and keep up to date on church events  

CAFE CHURCH - FRIDAY MAY 31

 

Last week at Kid’s Church we started to explore what Christians across denominations believe. This week we will continue by asking: Who was Jesus? Did he really exist? What claims did he make about himself? Is he worth listening to today? Join the discussion over a hot drink on May 31! We start with a free sausage sizzle at 6, followed by the service at 6:30pm. If you would like regular updates on St John’s Chapel, click here to sign up for our newsletter. Or follow us on facebook or Instagram @stjohnschapeljindera

 

 

 

 

student achievment

CIS Netball

Congratulations to Lara male (Year 6) who went to Olympic Park in Sydney on Friday 17th May for CIS Netball trials. She played in a regional representative team in a round robin of matches, making it into the ‘possibles’ and ‘probables’ team (the two top levels of selection before the final team is chosen. Lara made it into the top 30/100 players on the day. We are so proud of Lara for this significant achievement and humility with which she conducts herself.    

 

 

 

STUDENT INFORMATION
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CLASS

KINDERGARTEN

BEING A HISTORIAN

Our PBL unit has begun for this term! We had a strange guest Historian- “Mr Walsh” (who looked a bit like Mrs Walsh but with a funny hat, coat and very strange voice). He came to tell us all about what a Historian does, tools they might use to look closely at objects/pictures/ information and how to find out the stories things can tell. Then, the Kinders got to design and create their very own tool that they could use as a Historian. We had special cameras, notepads, poking tools, hats and glasses that magnify. The Kinders are SO keen to use their tools and become Historians throughout this term.

JINDERA PIONEER MUSEUM

This week to kick off their PBL unit Kindergarten went on their first school excursion, to the Jindera Pioneer Museum. They were all very excited and walked beautifully down the road. When they arrived, Kinder split up into small groups and walked around the museum, looking at the way people use to live and examining artifacts from different time periods. They asked great questions, took photos on iPad, went on a scavenger hunt and played ‘olden day’ games in the picturesque grounds of the museum. A great time was had by all!!

YEAR 1

ENGLISH

During our InitialLit sessions the students have been revising previously taught sounds, especially blends, as well as learning the new sounds ee as in tree, ea as in leaf, and ow as in snow and oa like in boat. The students have also been introduced to the interesting world of homophones. During literacy rotations the students participate in group activities that help consolidate their learning.

MOVEMENT BREAKS

Year One’s have been participating in fun, high intensity aerobic dance routines during our movement breaks. Students love the fun songs and the fast-paced nature of the dance routines. These routines help to develop fundamental movement skills in a fun and exciting way and help us to burn off excess energy in a positive way.

YEAR 2

MATHEMATICS

Last week in Mathematics students enjoyed combining & separating quantities using number bonds and the relationship between addition and subtraction to solve problems involving partitioning. Students investigated different strategies to solve problems and loved thinking mathematically through games. One of the games that they enjoyed playing was “Strike it.”

READING PAIRS

Last week with the mild weather the students enjoyed getting outside and reading their decodable readers with their buddies. By pairing up with another student this allows for authentic reading practice and helps students to develop their fluency.

ATHLETICS AND TEAM WORK

This term in Sport students will be building on their skills in preparation for the athletics carnival, and team work. On Friday the Year Twos did lots of jumping activities and working together as a team.

YEAR 3/4 PV

FUN WITH OUR YEAR 2 BUDDIES!

During the week we did buddies with Year 2 and I loved it. We had to make mobiles of what a plant needed to grow. This was what they were learning about in science. With our buddies we got to colour in and cut things out. Me and my buddy (Flossy) had so much fun colouring and cutting. I love buddies I want to do it again!

By Lily

 

FLEXIBLE LEARNING SPACES

Wow! It has made such a difference to our classroom learning in this new space. From teacher’s perspectives when they walk into our classroom, they sense a feeling of calm. This may be due to the ambience of the colour scheme and furniture, or just that the space is airy, open and the students are engaged in their own little place. Personally, coming to work into such a lovely space is a pleasure. We feel very grateful.

 

ALWS

In week 2 we had a person from ALWS meet with us in the hall. We talked about how some people don’t have what we have- like food and clean water. They have to walk to a river and get river water to stay alive. Kids had to work to farm food for their family. And sometimes they go without food and water for weeks.  After listening to how other people live I feel grateful for what I have.

By Frankie

 

YEAR 3/4 LK

ENGLISH

Students have been working hard and enjoying themselves during our English sessions. Students are involved in fluency reading pairs, responding to texts and sentence level activities. One of the class’s favourite activities is authors chair, where they get to share the writing they have been working on and give each other feedback on their writing.

YEAR 5/6

MATHAs we continue to incorporate hands on activities in our lessons, Year 5’s have been enjoying relating maths to real life. They have been experimenting with the mass and length of everyday items and spaces. It has been interesting to see how heavy or long they think units of measurements are in comparison to the actual weight or length.

SPREADING KINDNESS

In align with our recent Bounce Back focus ‘kindness’, our class celebrated Do It For Dolly Day, raising awareness for the importance of spreading kindness to everyone, and being mindful of our actions and words. Students completed a range of activities as well as a ‘kindness pledge’. A special thank you to the Ginnivan family for donating kindness badges to our class for each student to have, and to serve as a reminder to spread kindness.

WELLBEING and the flu season

Flu season

It's that time of year again when coughs, colds and covid are about in the community.

NSW Health advise we are currently in the moderate level of COVID-19.

For everyone to stay well this season please follow the recommendations of the NSW Government and keep your child home when sick.


You can find out more via the following links

https://education.nsw.gov.au/schooling/covid-19/advice-for-families#Staying1

https://www.nsw.gov.au/health/covid-19/testing-managing/symptoms

 

Whilst we understand how challenging it is to be called at work, we also know parents value a safe school and we thank you for your support.

 

speach bubble circle

STAY HOME WHEN SICK!

PRAYING FOR YOU

At St John's, we pray for our students and their families and staff members.
This week, we are praying for:

Week 1

Darcy Wright

Ava Terlich

Eloise & Lewis Schilg

Charlotte & Beatrix Phelps

Hudson Chettleburgh & Lincoln Steeper

Aiyana Eames

Week 2

Grace Allan

Jim Berry

Mannix & Ava Dowell

Delilah Harrington

Jax Marshall, Elsie Carey & Lucille Harb

Kerrie Gordon

 

2011overheadhires
LOGO WHITE LS Lower

MERIT AWARDS

Kinder
Audrey Vitullo - Finnley Cox

Henry Whitehouse - Judd Miles
Year 1
Daria Jafari - Ava Dowell

Isla Gorton - Will Scolyer
Year 2

Rory O'Grady Moll - Sophie Wenke

Ruby McWaters - Benji Keen

 

Year 3/4 LK

Joel James - Jim Berry - Alex Chambers - Chad McPherson

Betty Blackman - Evelyn Tyrrell

Year 3/4 PV

Nate Pallett - Tennyson Deegan - Ari Severin

Lily Ross - George Shipp

Year 5/6 GC

Indi Knight - Isabel McGrath

Henry Edwards - Maddison Baker

Year 5/6 DB

Kade Anderson - Mackenzie Perdon  

Finn Condon - Levi Wilson

THEIRCARE
BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL CARE

06/05/24 – 10/05/24

Reminder


Strict 'no hat no play' rules apply at here at ThierCare, so remember to bring one along just in case and we can enjoy the sunshine together outside.

                                                                                                                                   

It’s was a busy and fun filled week here at ThierCare, we embraced the Safari theme as well as Mother’s Day! A random duo, but the children really enjoyed both sides of each. We started off on Monday with another paper plate activity, these are always a hit with the kids! We made Lion faces and other Safari animals with paper cups also. Our creativity really shined through when the children were asked to make their mothers, grandmothers, or caregivers something special for Sunday. We saw beautiful card making, bracelets, paintings, and drawings that I’m sure will be embraced by the lucky ladies on Sunday. Now that we are back into the swing of things this term, we grabbed another recipe off Jindera Public school. It was another savoury dish that I thought the children would like! Unfortunately, this was not the case for many students, too many veggies 😊 It was Mexican enchiladas, and I must say, Zali and I quite enjoyed them, and were happy to eat the leftovers!  

Summer Harris

 

 

This week:  We have a range of craft and activities programmed for next week, these don’t exactly fall under one theme, so we have called it children’s voices! These are based around what us educators have seen the children really enjoy here in the past. There are a good variety and mix of things, but I think that keeps the week more exciting! We will start off strong with slime making on Monday, after the holiday program it was evident that this is an activity, the children absolutely love. We will keep it outside here though…😊We will paint shells to look like sea creatures and make paper chain rainbows to hang around the room. On Wednesday we will change it up to another sweet dish, which might be a bit more accepting by the children, they are called cherry bliss balls, let’s hope they approve this time!

Summer Harris

A reminder - uniforms

please label all items


While we are in our Autumn months and the weather starts cool with jumpers and jackets, the days can heat up resulting in those jumpers and jackets being abandoned around the school, in classrooms, in the playground, even in the office!

If your child's school uniform (including their hat) isn't already clearly labelled, please do so as soon as possible so if we find them we can return them to their rightful owner.

If your child brings home an item of uniform (including a hat) that isn't theirs, please contact the office, or let their teacher know so we can make sure it gets back to the rightful owner.  

We would appreciate your help in checking hats and jackets/jumpers please.