St John's Newsletter - 4th March 2022
- Principal's Report
- Prep/Year One Music
- Year One
- Year Three
- Year Five
- Year Eight
- Year Nine
- Xaverian House
- Theresian One
- Student Representative Council
- Sacramental Program
- Sporting News
- R & D and Southwest Permission Forms
- All Saints Mass Times
- Easter In The Country Art Show
- Easter In The Country Art Show
- Easter In The Country Art Show
- Easter In The Country Art Show
- Career Development
- Career Development
- Career Development
- MedEntry
- School Cleaner Position
- NAPLAN 2022
- NAPLAN 2022
- Tuckshop
Dear Parents and Friends of St John's,
This week, we celebrated Ash Wednesday which marks the commencement of Lent within the Catholic Church. During the forty-six-day journey towards Easter, we are called to grow deeper in our relationship with God. Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolise the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person's forehead, he speaks the words: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Due to COVID restrictions, Ash Wednesday was celebrated through classroom liturgies rather than an assembly and ashes were unable to be distributed; however, in their place, students were provided with a Lenten commitment card. Students completed this card outlining tangible strategies to become more Christ like and will reflect of these cards at the end of term.
Reflecting upon and enacting the school’s values of compassion, respect, justice and excellence is a good starting point for developing a deeper relationship with God. You might encourage your children to reflect upon what God has provided us with, or additionally consider how they might make a difference for others. An excellent example is to consider becoming involved in Project Compassion. This Caritas fundraiser seeks to address global poverty, promote justice and uphold human dignity. Students can collect Project Compassion envelopes from the school office. Another way to become more Christ like is to consider providing some of our time for others. It can be as simple as taking the time to talk a little longer around the dinner table with family or taking the time to inquire about how someone else is faring.
Over the last week, we have farewelled a number of staff taking leave. Ms Jacina van Slobbe and Mrs Katie Shellshear have commenced parental leave and our community is looking forward to news of their baby arrivals. We also congratulate Ms Phoebe Waugh who was recently married to her partner Harrison. St John’s School welcomes Ms Emily Koster to the Year 4 teaching team. Emily has been working as a School Officer since the beginning of the year and recently graduated from USQ receiving her Bachelor of Education. Ms Angela Pollock steps into the role of Career Development Practitioner whilst Katie Shellshear is on leave. Ange is well known to our community through her previous role as a P-6 teacher, whilst she also has acted in the CDP role.
The Government recently announced significant changes to Queensland’s current face mask restrictions and other COVID-19 measures in a variety of settings from 04 March. Face masks will not be required in most settings, including schools, from 6pm on Friday 04 March. Masks are still required on public transport, in hospitals, disability care, aged care, airports and planes.
The restrictions that were applied as part of the back-to-school plan for Term 1 2022 will also be removed. St Johns will lift any current restrictions on large gatherings, assemblies, and excursions, from Monday 7th March.
During the last fortnight, a large number of St John’s students have been involved in Roma and District Trials for Netball, Rugby League and Tennis. Congratulations to all who participated and those who have been selected to represent R&D. The selection of students is not only a testament to their skills, but also a commitment to schooling. All students who represent the school are required to achieve high attendance, effort and behavioural standards.
I am always in awe of the learnings of our young men and woman. Last week during class visits, I learnt about pasteurisation, photosynthesis, fictional and nonfictional texts, handwriting and self-efficacy regarding personal health. I could not go past the wise incite of Year 5 student, Jack Freeman, who stated, “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you; however, if you are willing to learn no one can stop you.” Well said indeed young Jack!
God bless.
Jim Brennan
In Prep and Year One Music this term, we are learning about beat, pitch, dynamics and tempo. Students are exploring and learning through movement, singing familiar and new songs and playing various instruments. We also love to have a lot of fun in Music! Students have learnt our routine, class prayer and move around the school between their specialist lessons beautifully. What a wonderful start to our musical journey!
Mrs Vaughan
This term, Year One students have been busily engaged in a variety of reading activities as part of the morning’s literacy rotations. Each morning, groups are rostered on to practise their reading with a teacher. Before the students read, they practise reading and writing the high frequency words and vocabulary words used in the text. They spend some time looking through the book and discussing what they think the story might be about. While reading the text aloud, the students practise using the different strategies that they are learning about to help them with their reading. After they have read the text, the students answer literal and inferential questions about the text and complete writing activities about the text. During the week, the students also have the opportunity to use the Listening Post to listen to and view a story and the iPad for Reading Eggs.
Each week, the Year One students go to the library to borrow books that they can read at home. The students really enjoy going to the library and look forward to choosing their own books each week.
Angela Brennan, Mark Brennan and Katelyn Redinger
Year One Teachers
This term in Science, the Year Fives have been exploring light. We need light to see everything we do in every moment of the day. We rely on light to read a book, cross the street, admire artwork, watch the sunset, and look into faces. In our Light Fantastic unit so far, we have explored different light sources and how we use them to see. After writing and conducting experiments using peek boxes and torches, we discovered that we see objects only when light travels from a light source to an object and then to our eyes. We have learnt to draw annotated ray diagrams showing the path that light travels, and we have discovered that light travels in straight lines. We are so excited to learn more about how light travels, light refraction, absorption, and reflection, and about how we see colours.
Xaverian House embodies the motto of Respect All, Fear None. As Xaverians we exemplify respectful behaviour within our school and wider community and certainly are not fearful of a challenge. Like crocodiles, we are willing to take a powerful bite out of any challenge that lies ahead. Xaverian House was named after St Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missionaries. Like St Francis Xavier, members of Xaverian House rise up to the occasion to help others in need.
This term, we launched our Mercy value of Excellence. The Mercy value of Excellence is about trying your very best in everything that you do. It doesn’t matter if something is new and really hard, or something you do every day – you give it 100% effort every time. Excellence is something we work towards every day. To recognise YOU giving your best each day we are running a Tickets of Excellence Competition. This term, we will be on the look out to see our students living the Mercy value of Excellence. The winning House will receive 100 points towards the Spirit Cup.
Xaverian welcomes anewly appointed House Prefect, Ruby Taylor. To get to know Ruby, we asked her three things she likes. Her responses were, “I like my dog, watching movies and hanging out with my friends.” This year, St John’s has welcomed the Student Representative Council which includes students from Years 5 to 10. We would like to congratulate Ruby Taylor as House Prefect and Isabelle Bond from Six Maroon on being a part of the Student Representative Council for Xaverian.
Finally, we welcome our Prep students to St John's and our ‘Baby Crocs’. We can’t wait to see what they bring to Xaverian House, not just this year but for the rest of their schooling journey. We hope that you have had a smooth transition into Prep at St John’s and that you enjoyed the House Assembly last Wednesday. Thank you for being apart of our first house assembly for 2022.
Kind regards
Mr Valentine
Xaverian Pastoral Leader
R & D 16-18 Years Boys' Rugby League Team
Charles McInnerney
Daniel Cox
Thorn Whitfield
Billy Duff
Tom McCoy
Hunter Hughes
Liam Sabine
Brayden Crawford
Logan Walsh
R & D 14-15 Years Boys' Rugby League Team
Alex Freeman
Darby Fisher
Jack Bowen
Daniel McCoy
Nate Freeman
Connor Walsh
Charlie Jenkins
Lachlan McInnerney
Alex Cox
Rory Delaney
SW 14 - 15 Girls' Rugby League
Phoebe Knight
Chelsea McDonald
Dayna Gorry
SW 16 - 18 Years Girls' Rugby League
Amy Meacle
Sarah Moran
R & D 13 - 15 Years Netball
Eadi Bruton
Sophie Pollock
Macy Lemon
Jorja Ferguson
R & D 16 - 19 Years Netball
Sophie Filan
Briony Burns
Tully Stone
Kirri Wright
Lalitha Cooper
South West Swimming Team
Mia Bruton
Gemma Lee
Isla Allwood
Bray Kenafake
Students interested in pursuing medicine and dentistry need to sit the UCAT test in July/August 2022. MedEntry is a government-accredited Registered Training Organisation specialising in UCAT preparation. MedEntry offers discounts of 40% for groups of two or more, and many other discounts including for those nominated by their teacher. For more information, please visit www.MedEntry.edu.au or see your Careers Team in the Library.
Parents
Please remember to change your child’s year level on Flexischools to correspond with their new year level. This can be changed in the PROFILE tab at the bottom of the App.
New Parents
Tuckshop orders are received and paid for through Flexischools, which you can access online or by downloading the App. You can find our school by typing in Roma, then finding St John’s. Cut off time is 8am on the morning of Tuckshop (every Tuesday and Thursday). It’s important to let your child know if you have only ordered for one break and which break you have ordered, as students will sometimes get confused about the day or the break. It is very easy to think you have ordered First Break but accidentally put Second Break, and also it is quite easy to order for the wrong day, so be careful to check this before sending through. Flexischools will send you an email to confirm your order, so it is a great idea to check this to make sure there are no errors.
At the Tuckshop, we proceed to get the orders together which, for Primary, are put in their class boxes and picked up by Year Six students and taken to the classrooms. The students will need to come back to the Tuckshop, with their bag, if they have ordered an iceblock. Secondary students will collect their orders from the Tuckshop individually. If your child does not receive their order, please let them know to come to the Tuckshop or tell a teacher as we never let a child go hungry. Sometimes, it is just ordered for the next break, a different day or maybe another child has accidentally picked it up out of the box.
If you have any questions regarding Tuckshop orders, or volunteering at tuckshop, please do not hesitate to contact Anita Crawford on 0418985276.