A message from Emily

Dear parents and carers,

It was wonderful to celebrate our mothers and the other special women in our lives last fortnight. We hope you loved the handmade heart magnets the children created as a Mother's Day gift!

A massive thank you to our wonderful volunteers—Margaret (Amy's mum), Michele Hayes, Annette (Michele's mum), and Alicia Hambleton—who acted as our craft experts to help sew the children's heart designs together. We truly appreciate your time and support!

Over the past two weeks, leaders and educators across the school have attended professional learning days run by Dr. Ange Rogers, titled Making Sense of Numbers (covering P–2, 3–4, and 5–6).

Dr. Rogers brings many years of experience as a teacher, school leader, and PhD researcher with a true passion for Mathematics. She loves working alongside educators to link research with practical classroom practice, boosting both teacher confidence and student outcomes. MACS has engaged Dr. Rogers to work across our system, and our team has already gained incredible insights from her.

What's Next? The staff who attended these sessions will be using their new learning to lead professional development and build the capacity of the rest of our team during our upcoming Term 3 school closure day (Monday 13 July).

This term, we introduced library access during break times for children looking for different play options to those offered outside or during our regular lunch clubs. It has been fantastic to see so many students taking up this opportunity and making the most of the space!

The excitement doesn't stop there—our Village Leaders will also be sharing some news around additional play options during next Friday's school assembly.

Hall Update: Following up on our last newsletter, I recently welcomed our new MACS Infrastructure Delivery Officer to St John’s. It was a wonderful opportunity to show him firsthand the journey we’ve been on to redevelop our hall into a COLA (Covered Outdoor Learning Area). He gave me reassurance that construction will definitely begin this year. Based on recent updates, he is already being incredibly proactive on our behalf, working closely with the architect and the MACS team to keep things moving forward. 

Uniform update: Our uniform supplier recently ran tests to investigate why some of our school polos have experienced deteriorating logos.

They concluded that tumble drying is causing the printed logo to peel. While the care label does recommend avoiding the dryer, we completely understand that for busy households, the dryer is essential to get laundry done—especially as we head into the cooler months.

Our Next Steps:

• Future Batches: While we will continue to clear our current stock of printed shirts, we will officially switch to an embroidered logo for the next manufacturing run to prevent this from happening. We have been reassured that this will be at the same cost as the current polo.
• We Need Your Feedback: If you have experienced the logo peeling on a polo that has never been tumble-dried, please let us know so we can pass this data back to the supplier.

When you order online you will notice the inclusion of a navy skort to our uniform list. We have had parents request this as an option and are pleased to say that it is now available for purchase. Order online - Link

Thank you to participants who attended the Inform and Empower webinar last week. 

It really was informative and empowering! There were suggestions, guidelines and updates presented with real examples. 

“It was such a valuable webinar and I loved the examples of what is happening online as well as the suggestions of small actions we can take to provide a safer environment for ourselves and our children. Thank you so much for holding this session.” 

Please find a link to a recording of this session - you can watch it in one sitting or over two or three sittings depending on the time you have. Marty and Carly are excellent presenters, providing great insight about the digital world. 

Link to the webinar replay: informandempower.com.au/schools-webinars/2026

It is also great to see an increase in the number of parents who have accessed the Qustodio App and used their school-linked email address as a way to help monitor and manage internet accessibility. Click on the image below if you would like to also get started with fantastic platform that we are able to offer our families.

Cyber Safety & Digital Wellbeing Incursions

Over the last 3 weeks, children from Years Prep-6 participated in Inform & Empower’s incursions focused on building healthy digital habits.

• Prep Hub: Students explored active vs. passive screen time, learning the difference between creating and consuming to help them make clever choices.
• One & Two Hubs: Children focused on balancing screen time with "green time," the value of healthy sleep, and why it can be hard to put devices down.
• 3/4 Hub: Students investigated how screen time affects their sleep and feelings, and how excessive use impacts their physical, social, and emotional wellbeing.
• 5/6 Hub: Students looked at building healthy relationships with technology, examining addictive app features (like streaks and notifications) and the impacts of excessive screen time.

To find out more about these learning experiences, head to  parents.informandempower.com.au.

For more parent information head to St John's Online Safety Hub - https://sjfootscray.onlinesafetyhub.com.au/

TERM 2 Fundraiser STARTS NEXT WEEK

Something sweet is headed to St John's! Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie Dough is officially on the way! 🍪✨

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling, scooping, and selling this dough-licious cookie dough to help raise funds for improving our outdoor spaces including the shade sail over our playground.

👀 Keep your eyes peeled! An order form will be making its way home on MONDAY. Get ready for some seriously yummy fun!

Division Cross Country

After running very well at the District event in Term 1,  Eloise W (Yr 6), Fionn N (Yr 6) and Evie R (Yr 5) are representing St John's at the Division Cross Country event next week.  The St John’s community wishes them well in this event.

Inter School Winter Sport (Yr 5/6 Hub)

Our Yr 5/6Hub children have started their Winter sports season off very well with some strong team performances by all teams. Each week all teams have been developing their skills along with understanding tactics of the game to improve their team play. 

All educators involved were impressed and very proud of the efforts of all of our teams. They improved not only in their skills but also their cooperation, teamwork and in their resilience to keep trying and persist during challenging games.

Good luck to our team for their next 3 games.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Please keep the children preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation on 4 June in your prayers.

Holy Spirit,

Guide the hearts of the children as they prepare for their Confirmation. Help them to listen to Your voice, to grow closer to Jesus, and to use the gifts You give us to bring light to the world. Fill them with Your peace and courage today and always.

Amen.

God Bless,

Emily

Coming Soon: School holiday program, 29 June - 10 July

MACSEYE School Holiday Program is coming soon, packed with creative activities, active fun, themed experiences and memorable excursions for primary school-aged children. Full program and booking details coming soon.

Save the Date:

We have a date locked in for a St John's Bunnings BBQ fundraiser. Make sure you put Sunday 13th September into your calendar as a reminder! We will be looking for volunteers to help on the day but also plenty of customers to come and buy a sausage to help raise funds for our school.

What's coming up:

• Walk Safely to School Day tomorrow Friday 22 May
• Prayer Gathering tomorrow at 2:45pm led by 1 Hub
• Prep 2027 Enrolment Interviews have begun
• Cookie Dough Fundraiser
• National Reconciliation Week

Reminders:

• Log into PAM an review and update all areas including Connect Fields and Connect Surveys
• Sustainability Initiative: Children are invited to bring their own lunch box for DT Fuzions lunch orders. Lunch boxes must be clearly labelled and an appropriate size to fit the order.
• Complete the form to let us know if you would like to support the PFA via donations, time or skills : https://forms.gle/nP8qUdxtAUyVuSfq8 

OUR IMAGE OF THE CHILD

‘At St. John’s, we strongly believe that children are at the centre when given authentic and meaningful experiences. They flourish when their passions and interests are acknowledged and valued. Children are empowered when they take ownership for their learning. They have a right to develop autonomy through discovery.’

(St. John’s Staff, 2018)

We respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation as the owners of the land on which we live, play and learn at St John's Primary School, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

All students attending St. John's Primary School have the right to feel safe. The care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people is a fundamental responsibility of all within our school.