Around The Primary

Dear Parents

This morning we celebrated ‘All Saints Day’ with a beautiful Mass prepared by Mrs Goss and Year 5B.

Beginning the day in this way is a wonderfully peaceful, reflective time for staff, parents and children. Prioritising these opportunities, by placing a value on attending Mass sends a very powerful message to your child.

Likewise by talking to them about how going to Mass is a special time to reconnect, to pray, to ask for help, to say thank you, to receive the spiritual food – you are helping them understand how our faith plays an important part in who we are and in how we want to live our lives. The Eucharist nurtures us for the ups and downs we all face in our daily life.

Our end of Year Mass is on 12 December and we hope to see you there if you can make it.

Tomorrow is All Souls Day, we are encouraging our students to remember a special family member or friend who has passed away and to pray for them. 

Kind regards,

Antoinette De Pinto

Head of Primary

Staff News

Congratulations to Jodi Joyce and Ross on the safe arrival of baby Charlie Jeremy. 

They are full of love and joy and very excited!

Dates to Remember

Please check the College Website for Term 4 to note all the important Primary school events for your family calendar. http://www.johnxxiii.edu.au/view/for-parents/calendars

2020 Booklist Information

Booklist orders for Year 1 to Year 4 will follow a new bulk order system in 2020.  This system will enable students to have everything they need for the first day and ensure all students have the same equipment as their classmates.

Our new Booklist provider for 2020 is Ziggies Educational Supplies.

How does the Bulk Order system work?

Teachers complete a bulk order list for their year level that will provide all the equipment each student will need for the year.  For instance, if a student fills an exercise book then a new book will be provided.  Parents will not need to purchase any extra stationery.  The only time parents will be required to buy supplies will be if their child intentionally damages any equipment or regularly misplaces supplies. 

How does this help children and teachers?

Firstly, every student will have exactly the same materials.  Students will not feel left out if they do not have the correct materials or the latest trendy pencil case etc.  Teachers are guaranteed that every book and stationery item is correct and it will be available in class for the first day of 2020. 

This bulk order option will also be a more cost-effective option for parents, as well as, offering an easier method for teachers to organise resources ahead of time.

It is important to note that this Bulk Order cost will be added to the 2020 School Fees.

Booklists in Years 5 and 6

Our original process will continue for Year 5 and 6 with booklists orders being completed and payment being made directly to Ziggies Educational Supplies.  Further details will follow.

Sport Update

We are looking forward to a nice sunny day on Thursday for our rescheduled Junior Primary Athletics Carnival.  We hope many parents and grandparents can join us. 

Next week the Pre-Primary to Year 4 students will begin tennis lessons with tennis pro, Nick Kirkbride and the Year 5 & 6’s have their final touch rugby sessions in preparation for the IPSHA Touch Rugby Carnival on Thursday 14 November.

A friendly reminder to get your swimming forms into your class teachers as soon as possible.   These are due by 13 November.

Mr Williams

Primary Sports Coordinator 

Scitech Challenge

Congratulations to our Year 6 GATE students who participated in the Scitech Challenge Day. The students came first and second place in their respective groups. They worked in teams of four, to foster their development of creativity, communication, critical thinking and collaboration skills.

Mrs Purcell

GATE Teacher

The Scitech Challenge Day was an amazing day. We got to learn new things and unleash our creativity when making the prototype. At the beginning of the day it was fun to learn about the circular economy and repurposing waste materials. Once we understood about a circular economy, we could design a product to improve school life made from recycled materials.

Austin Vujcich 6B

The Scitech Challenge day was a creative, challenging and fun day! We worked with other schools to see how we could improve our lives at school using waste materials. We brainstormed ideas, built a prototype and then showcased it to the other schools. I enjoyed designing with my peers.

Ella Matthews 6G

The Scitech Challenge Day was exactly that – a challenging and a fun experience! We were able to work as teams to learn about and eventually create products that would improve the environment, as well as, our school lives using waste materials. We learnt about a design process used in the real world, called the ‘Stanford Design’ process.

Bianca Petsos 6G

The Scitech Challenge Day was fantastic! We were able to create and learn about objects that can help the environment and we also learnt a new design process called the ‘Stanford Design’ process.  This allowed us to be not only the designer but the client for our product. We met students from different schools and learnt about what they wanted to improve in their schools. 

Joshua Tyson 6G

Dairy Delights

On Thursday the 24 October the Year 4 classes visited Brownes Dairy Factory. We learnt about the dairy production process and how milk and yoghurt is made.

Before milk is ready for consumption, it must be standardised, pasteurised and homogenised. We viewed the factory floor from the viewing windows and watched the milk being put into the cartons and boxed for delivery.

It was amazing to see the robots at work! We loved our excursion to Brownes and we learnt so much.

Cara Bradley and Stella Fullerton 4G

Car Park Courtesy 

The final Year 12 examinations began on Wednesday and will continue until Friday 15 November.  They are held in the Thomas More Exhibition Centre from 9:00am to 12:10pm and from 2:00pm to 5:10pm.

As such the College community are asked to be mindful of the noise in the TMEC car park, including tooting horns, car doors slamming and 'calling out'. It is a great opportunity to demonstrate our support of the graduating students through our actions in the car park.