Learning & Teaching

Two Hub Parent Evening

Last Tuesday evening, we welcomed parents from Two Hub to an informative session designed to support their children's transition into Year 3. It was wonderful to see our parents actively engage with each other through our wire provocation, sharing their personal learning experiences.

During the session, we delved into the significant changes that our children undergo as they progress to Year 3. We explored the exciting shift from discovery spaces and diverse languages of learning to the spark of passion-driven projects. This transition allows our children to continue to take ownership of their learning journey and delve deeper into their interests.

We believe that a strong parent-school partnership is essential for our children’s success. This information session provided an invaluable opportunity for our community to witness the progression of learning at St John's and to understand the dedicated support our educators provide throughout this journey.

Please keep an eye out for upcoming parent information sessions, where we will continue to share insights into our learning approach at St John's.

Camp Program - One/Two Afternoon Tea

Last Thursday the children in the One/Two Hub’s celebrated the One/Two Afternoon tea. The children explored the concept of interdependence (connection of a group and working together for the one common goal) and the disposition of collaboration through organising and working together in “teams” to make the day successful.

As a group we played a variety of games planned by the children in the games group. We then walked to Whitten Oval to play on the playground and watch the Western Bulldogs AFLW team train. Upon returning to school, we completed some mindful activities created by the activity team. The children in the cooking groups began to make pizzas, jelly and cupcakes, and the children in the decorations team set up different posters and a photobooth area for our afternoon tea. 

On Friday the children split into their 5 teams to reflect on the day and identify the strengths they brought to the team to ensure its success. These reflections will guide our future learning and exploration in our Term 4 Community Project ‘Who Can We Be When We Work Together?’. 

3/4 Hub Camp Review 

On Tuesday 3/4 went to camp. It took us about 1 hour to drive there by bus. The camp we are going to is called Lady Northcote in Bacchus Marsh. When we got there we could have a snack and play around there for a bit. Then we got to go into our cabins and set up our beds with a fitted sheet, pillow and sleeping bag. In my cabin were Alec, Marcus, Rocco and Yel.  After that we had our first activity which was low ropes. After a good first activity it was time for our first meal at camp. We had burgers for lunch. Some of the things I had with my burger was beetroot, lettuce, cheese tomato sauce, and of course the patty. They were yum! 

After lunch we had our second activity which was canoeing. After a great session of canoeing it was time for free time, we could play in our cabins or play outside near the cabins. Then we got to have dinner and we had pasta and for dessert we had chocolate mousse. After that we went for a night walk, there were clues and we had to find where the clues led us. After it was time for bed. My cabin was fun. In the morning we had to pack everything up and leave our cabins with all our stuff packed. Then we had a choice of pancakes, toast or cereal. I chose pancakes. Then we had our third activity  which was Archery. Archery was so cool! Then we had scones for morning tea.

Then we did the Giant swing. It was crazy fun and the giant swing was so tall it was definitely the most fun activity that I did on camp! I felt so proud of myself. 

Then we took the drive back to school that took one hour. Camp was crazy, really amazing and enjoyable and I am so glad we got to go. 

By Jason

Faith

Wishing a happy Diwali to those in our community who are celebrating, The Festival of Lights, beginning tomorrow night, Thursday 31st October.

Our children have learnt a little bit more about this special celebration for many Hindus, Sikhs and Jains all around the world. It is a 5 day festival that celebrates new beginnings and the triumph of good (light) over evil (darkness).

Please see this link if you would like to learn more - watch the first two minutes of this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRVbv-c1DM8 

Stay Connected with SIMON Everywhere

This year, we've introduced the SIMON Everywhere app, your convenient gateway to your PAM account. This user-friendly app enables us to directly communicate important updates and notifications with our school community.

We've been actively sharing information about upcoming events and exciting learning experiences on the group chat thread within the app. To ensure you don't miss any important announcements, please enable notifications for the app.

Starting in 2025, we will be transitioning all school communications to the SIMON Everywhere app. We strongly encourage all families to download the app and sign in using your PAM account credentials.

If you have any difficulties or require assistance with your PAM account details, please don't hesitate to contact the office (admin@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au, 9687 3150) or Amy (alittley@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au).  

Cyber Safety & Digital Wellbeing Incursions

Over the last 2 weeks, children in Years 1-6 participated in Cyber Safety & Digital Wellbeing incursions by Inform & Empower.  

Years 1/2 focused on: 

• Help seeking strategies
• Navigating uncomfortable interactions
• Early warning signs

You can access the accompanying ‘Parent Tip Sheet’ here

Years 3/4 focused on:

• Device settings
• Navigating unsafe interactions
• Red flags

You can access the accompanying ‘Parent Tip Sheet’ here

Years 5/6 focused on:

• Navigating unsafe interactions
• Red flags 
• Online influencers (creators and consumers)
• AI

You can access the accompanying ‘Parent Tip Sheet’ here

Don’t forget, we also have the St John’s Online Safety Hub if you would like to read more about specific apps, websites or games. This is an amazing resource. 

Regional Athletics Day

Congratulations to our students who represented St Johns’ at the Western Regional Athletics Carnival on Tuesday 22nd October. This is a huge achievement to be competing against students from all Western Melbourne suburb schools and schools from the Geelong area.

Results

Yr 6 

Pearl 800m - 6th & Long Jump - 6th 

She achieved better results in both events compared to last year.

Boys 4 x 100m Relay team: 

Aaron, Phupa, Liam & Bryan - 8th with a time of 59.06s 

a PB for the boys

Yr 4

Alec in Discus - 14th with a massive 19.4m PB

A big thank you to the parents for your support on the day.

Upcoming Swimming Trials

On Friday 29 November, St John's will be running some swimming trials for Years 3, 4 & 5 children who wish to try out for the school swimming team that will compete at a district event in Term 1 2025.

Children need to be able to swim 50m comfortably in any of the following strokes: Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke or Butterfly. Children can try out for 1 or all strokes.

Further information will be distributed to the children in the coming weeks. Please look out for a message and consent form on PAM.

Inter School Summer sports

After a wash out in Week 2, our Year 5 and 6 children started their Summers sports competitions last Friday with games against Dinjerra Primary School. The children were very excited and played well in some light rain.

Our Bat Tennis team came away with a win showing some wonderful sportsmanship and cooperation in their partner games and demonstrated some very good skills on the court.

Our Basketballers showed good team work and determination in both games. The girls team had a convincing win, however, our mixed team went down to a strong team of mostly boys.

Our Newcombe team adjusted to the different rules of the game and improved with their throwing and team work as they played each set, losing the first 2 sets but had a great win in the 3rd set.

Our Cricketers are still waiting to play their 1st game as Dinjerra did not have a cricket team.

We do not have a game tomorrow but will have 3 more games in November and 1 in December.

Good luck to our teams for their remaining 4 games.