Around The Primary

Dear Parents,

With only 4 weeks until the end of the term and some big events coming up, please make sure that you have all the important dates on your family calendar. It really is so hard to believe how quickly this term is flying by, however; while the days continue to rush on past, the real challenge for us all, is to keep making each and every minute count and to try and resist zooming mindlessly through our days – rather, treasure the many moments, experiences and people we have in our lives.

The Remembrance Day Prayer Service and class Reflections held on Thursday are very special ways for our school community to remember, honour, pray for and reflect upon the sacrifices made by so many.  It is so important that children have these opportunities to identify with significant events in our history and that they continue to learn about how we can continue to grow in peace, tolerance and mutual respect in our local, national and world family.

Preparations are now well underway for the new school year. We are looking forward to seeing many current and new parents at our Kindy and Pre-Primary 2021 Parent Information Sessions next Thursday, 19 November. This is a wonderful opportunity for parents to hear about our early childhood programs. All current Kindy parents are kindly requested to wear their badge.

Christmas, the season of giving, provides us with a special prompt to do something practical for families in need. By donating non-perishable food items to our local St Vinnies, we hope to support their efforts to provide hampers for families facing a difficult Christmas. St Vinnies will be collecting all the donations next Friday 27 November.

Kind regards,

Antoinette De Pinto

Head of Primary 

Dates to Remember

Please check the College Website to note all the important Primary school events for your family calendar. http://www.johnxxiii.edu.au/view/for-parents/calendars

Parents as Partners

Special thanks to Lisha D’Souza (Primary Convener), Olivia Watson (Secretary) and all the parent coordinators for their fantastic contributions in the Primary School. They have done a wonderful job of organising family and parent events throughout the year, as well as, coordinating volunteers for various events. 

GATE is Great

This term the students have been working on ‘Creative Problem Solving’ learning.  Each student chose a problem, then formed a group with those who wanted to solve the same problem.  The students brainstormed ideas, wrote scripts, made props and finally performed their solutions in front of parents and Miss De Pinto and Miss Graves.

The problems included catching a villain on a movie set using a silent movie and creating a team made instrument to play music; a video game spin on the Greek Myth ‘Pandora’s Box’; and a superhero who had to save ‘Creativity’.

Here are a few thoughts from the students about their journey:

I really enjoyed working as a team to create a fun and quirky solution to a problem and present our solution to our parents. 

Lucy Morgan 6B

It was great to step out of my comfort zone and act in front of my parents.

Devan Finn 6B

Choosing our own problem as individuals, then forming groups with others who wanted to solve the same problem. This made it easier because we were all on the same page. I also loved the creating process.

Elizabeth Levey 6B

I really enjoyed the process of coming up with an idea and watching it evolve into solution which was performance based.

Catherine Gazia 6B

Mrs Tara Purcell

Primary GATE Teacher

Primary Music Update

Beethoven Poster Competition

Congratulations to the students who entered this competition. There were many fantastic entries with lots of research and creativity demonstrated. The winners of the competition are Ciara Thornton (3B), Cailin McNamara (3B) and Munesu Marerwa (3G). Special mentions to Stella Fullerton (5B), Hannah Engelbrecht (5B), Alice Wever (3G), Jack Hodge (3G), Oliver Byrne (3G), Matilda Davini (3G) and Niamh Jennings (3B) for their excellent work.

Primary Recitals

The Primary Winds, Brass and Percussion recital last Friday was a huge success. A big thank you to everyone in the Music Department for their hard work. Special mention to Mrs Gratton for her administration assistance, Ms Jennings (Head of Winds) and Mr Dockery for accompanying the students, and the music tutors for preparing the students. We look forward to hearing the string and guitar students perform this afternoon.

Reminder to any piano students who are not enrolled in lessons at school that entries for the piano recitals are now due. Any entries not received by Monday 16 November will not be included in the recital. Please email Mrs Haydon catherine.haydon@cewa.edu.au with any queries.  Students who have lessons at school will be entered by their tutors. Information will be emailed to piano students in Years 1-3 at the start of next week regarding the recital on Friday 20 November.

 Mrs Catherine Haydon

Primary Music Teacher 

Vinnies Christmas Appeal

Every year the Society of St Vincent de Paul in the Claremont Parish of St Thomas Apostle provides hampers to more than 60 families. Once again, they are looking forward to being able to distribute Christmas hampers due to the generosity of the John XXIII College community. This year many families are struggling more than ever, and our support is especially welcomed.

John XXIII College families are invited to select from the following list and bring it to school by the end of November. There will be collection baskets in all the classrooms and Front Administration.

HAMPER ITEMS

• Christmas fare – e.g. fruit mince pies, Christmas cake, cookies, shortbread, ham, snack foods
• Christmas stockings, Christmas crackers, Christmas napkins
• Grocery items – e.g. Breakfast Cereal, Coffee, Tea, Milo, Tinned Fruit, Custard, Long life juice, Biscuits, Pasta sauce and Pasta
• Toiletry items, including gift-type items

Sports Update

IPSHA Touch Rugby Carnival 

On Thursday 34 of our Year 6 students took part in the IPSHA Touch Rugby Carnival.  Our teams played 7 matches throughout the day and the standard of rugby improved with each game.  There was excellent teamwork and outstanding individual effort in attack and defense.  Well done to all. 

Mr Steve Williams 

Primary Sport Coordinator 

Sacramental Certificates

Parents are requested to email a copy of their child’s Sacramental Certificate (Reconciliation, Eucharist or Confirmation) to Mrs Petsos in Main Administration nancy.petsos@cewa.edu.au for our College records.