Dear Parents and Guardians,

We have had a marvellous start to Term Three, welcoming the students back with a Swell Start focused on the Olympic Games. The Kaboom! Kids Sports team led our Olympic Games Extravaganza beginning with the senior students waving giant flags while teams representing Sweden to South Africa chanted loudly in search of their first gold medals of the day. The live medal tally created a competitive and fun atmosphere and kept everyone motivated to join in rotating through the sporting events. Here are some pictures capturing some special moments from our “Swell” event.

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games

This Friday the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony will take place in Paris. It will be the first Olympic Games Opening Ceremony held outside a stadium and the traditional parade of athletes will take place in boats along the Seine. The children have been learning about the Olympic Games and it is important that they know these games are not just about sporting glory – they are about making friends, too! While competitive spirit is important, the Games are also about international cooperation and collaboration. They are a great chance for people from countries around the world to meet up and get to know each other! The three values of the Olympics are excellence, respect and friendship and would be a wonderful talking point around the family dinner table over the coming weeks.

Interschool Sports Achievements

Speaking of sporting achievements, we congratulate our Senior Footballers who have finished first on the ladder in our interschool AFL competition. They have qualified for the next stage and will be competing next Monday. We wish them all the best and pray for good weather! We thank Vanessa, Rhoe, Josie and Helen for their time and organisation over the last term in coaching and supervising our interschool sporting teams. We also congratulate all of our Senior students who participated in the varied sporting events and demonstrated great sportsmanship making us very proud.

Home Learning Policy

Our home learning policy was sent home alongside our Term Overviews last week. Please note that this is currently in draft form and as with any policy there will be an opportunity to revise and review. Thank you to all those who contributed their thoughts and perspectives to the development of the policy. We look forward to implementing this and refining our current practices. Please keep in mind that policy change takes time and that teaching teams will be ensuring that the compulsory and voluntary components of the policy will be refined over the Term. We thank you for your support and understanding.

School Events and Celebrations

We have a busy term ahead with many special school events scheduled including MLA and SLA excursions, the much-anticipated School Disco, the Sacrament of Confirmation, Father’s Day celebrations, Book Week, Bullying, No Way! National Week of Action, Class Masses and Open Classrooms. We are looking forward to these events and thank the teachers and many parents and friends of the school who offer their valuable time and efforts in ensuring their success.

Our school Disco will be taking place next Thursday 1st August. We are very grateful to our Parents and Friends Association and staff for supporting our school community and providing this opportunity for our students. It is sure to be a wonderful evening. Please see the attached flyer with this newsletter for further details and information about ordering food.

We are very excited for our Preps who will have been at school for 100 days next week! The 100th day of school is a great opportunity for our Preps to reflect on their progress and to celebrate their accomplishments. It allows us all to see just how far they have come since the beginning of the school year and to appreciate their hard work and efforts. It sounds like a fun-filled day ahead next Wednesday 31st July for our littlest learners and I am sure you join with us in celebrating this significant milestone for them.

International Conference on Thinking

Rhoe and I had the wonderful opportunity over the holidays to attend The International Conference on Thinking held at the Melbourne Convention Centre. The provocation for the conference was ‘We are on the edge of what?’. We heard from a diverse group of leading people, both international and local, from a range of industries and disciplines. The aim of the conference was to help educators, business and creative professionals to provoke, challenge, learn and discuss the many forms of thinking and its application, in creating new ideas and solving problems including those related to education and global issues. We cannot accurately predict the future, however, with clear, critical, creative thinking, and sharing new ideas and putting them into action, a future for the greater good can be co-created! I look forward to sharing with you more of our learnings in later newsletters.

Staff News

We have warmly welcomed Connie back after some time away travelling abroad and we thank Maureen for stepping in as Art specialist teacher for the past few weeks. We are also happy to share that Maria is keeping well and enjoying her current travels abroad. We look forward to her return in Week Five. If you require any support from leadership during Maria’s absence, please do not hesitate to contact myself.

2025 Enrolments

It has been wonderful meeting with our future Preps and their families. We kindly ask that all enrolment acceptances be returned, with payment, to the office at your earliest convenience.

Baby News

Congratulations to Paige and family on the safe arrival of Daisy May. We also congratulate the Salamone family on the joyous arrival of Romeo last week. We wish both families all the best as their newborns settle into their homes and family lives.

May God continue to bless all of our community members and our wonderful school.

Kind regards,

Geraldine Crowe

Acting Principal

geraldine.crowe@sjwreservoirnth.catholic.edu.au

Creative Music

Music Lessons at SJW