A message from Lauren

Hello families,

There has been lots going on within our beautiful community over the past couple of weeks. Our staff have been strengthened by leaning into our Horizon and focusing on care, relationships and community. We hope you are taking the time to be present with loved ones and undertake activities that bring you and your family joy.

We extend our love and support to those families that are currently going through particularly challenging times. Please know that we are here to support you and help in any way we can. I am always available through phone or email if you need.

Over the past two weeks, we have been focusing on welcoming our newest community members, while preparing to say goodbye to our oldest. We have been generating some ideas for our 100th year celebration mural and beginning preparations to orientate new staff to our St. John’s Way.

Prep 2022 Orientation

It was a privilege to welcome our 2022 Preps into our school for their first of three transition days on Friday 12th of November. Although it was pouring, this didn't dampen our fun! Jordan and Patrick enjoyed spending the morning discovering many things with the children and discovering new things about them. If you are a parent of a 2022 Prep child, please have a look at the Prep 2022 Discovery Hub page for all the relevant and updated details for our next transition session and upcoming parent night. (We also encourage you to RSVP through the Admin email sent last week if you haven’t already. Thank you to those that have already responded).

Year Six Transition

A big thank you to Ceci Tankey for giving your time to help support our children on this day. And a big thanks to our amazing educators; Mitchell Hayes, Ashlee Owen, Michele Hayes, Jackie Schober and Daniela Deluca who spent many hours planning and executing such a successful day! Please see 'Learning' link and scroll down to the Wellbeing section of the newsletter for more details about the day.

St. John’s 100 years

To mark St. John’s 100th year in 2022, we have begun preparations for the creation of a commemorative mural. The mural will be painted on the outside of the rock climbing and Gaga pit (shelter shed) by a local Footscray artist, Justine McAllister. Justine was able to come and lead a workshop last week with our Prep to Two children and this week with our Three to Six children. The children brainstormed some keywords that represented St. John’s for them: discovery, joy, community, friendships, diversity, Wurundjeri, learning spaces… and then set to work showcasing their artistic talents and creative flair. There were drawings of people holding hands, symbols, snails… yes snails… and sketches of books, rainbows and love. Justine was very impressed! She has taken the drawings away with her as inspiration and will now begin her work of sketching ideas for the mural. 

There is still time to add to the thinking. We are inviting families to send us a sketch, a story or some keywords that capture your experience of St. John’s. You can drop this into our school office, or alternatively email a copy through to admin@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au. 

If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact Leonie in the office on 9687 3150.

Staffing update

We are in the process of finalising staffing for 2022 in consultation with Emily, our Principal from 2022. We are very excited to welcome some new faces who bring many experiences and expertise to St. John’s. As soon as these are finalised, we will share this news with our community.

COVID vaccinations - Parent helpers on excursions

Just a quick reminder that all parents joining us on excursions need at least one vaccination (until 29th November) but then need to be double vaccinated on or after this date. When you volunteer as parent helper, educators will ask you to send through your proof of vaccination certificate to the school office. We are mandated to keep these on file.

We hope this next fortnight is filled with experiences that include caring for each other, the relationships we hold dear and taking strength from knowing our community is always there for us.

Take care,

Lauren 

ldavis@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au