General Information
Information which you need to be aware of
PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS
Parent Teacher Interviews will be held on dates listed below:
- Thursday 11th September between 1:00-8:00pm
- Tuesday 16th September between 3:30-7:30pm
Interviews will be held in 15 minute time slots and will be offered online and in person. If choosing in person you will need to sign in at the front office on arrival. A booking link to make your appointment time has been sent to all families via Operoo, you can also access the booking portal via the link below:
WELCOME BABY BORG
Congratulations to Mrs Borg on the safe arrival of her Baby. Ashleigh and Nathan welcomed their beautiful baby boy Boston Borg into the world on the 20th August. Ash has reported that Boston’s main hobbies are eating, sleeping and cheering on Carlton with his Dad. We wish the Borg family all the best.
SWIMMING PROGRAM
Our Year 3s & 4s began their week long Swimming Program yesterday. This program is an important aspect of the students being able to develop an awareness of water safety and an ability to manage themselves in a variety of aqua environments.
JUNKYARD BEATS YEAR 1 INCURSION
On Tuesday 26th August the Year 1 students participated in a fantastic incursion. The staff from Junkyard Beats helped the students to transform ordinary household items and recycled materials into musical instruments. The items created were a reflection of sustainability meeting creativity.
YEAR 2 LIFE ED PROGRAM
On Wednesday 20th August the Year 2s participated in an incursion run by staff from the Life Ed Program. The Life Ed Program promotes students' physical, social and emotional health and wellbeing. During the session the students explored how being resilient helps us overcome challenges and boosts wellbeing. Each Year 2 class also got to meet Harold the Giraffe.
YEAR 5 SOVEREIGN HILL EXCURSION
On Wednesday 20th August the Year 5s travelled by bus to Ballarat to visit Sovereign Hill. During the day students participated in a variety of engaging and educational activities that helped them to understand and appreciate life in the 1850s gold rush era. The Year 5s panned for gold, went underground on an interactive mining tour and had the opportunity to dress up in some of the items that would have been seen on the goldfields.
BOOK WEEK @ ST JOHN’S
This year, we celebrated Book Week in a BIG WAY! Mrs Angela Anderson, our Curriculum Leader, organised some engaging activities for us to enjoy. Book Week is a special time at our school to celebrate the joy of reading. This year’s theme, “Book an Adventure!”, saw students explore stories such as We Live in a Bus, Afloat, The Garden of Broken Things, These Long-Lived Things, and Leaf Called Greaf. Each book shared important themes, beautiful illustrations, and rich language. Below are images of some of the covers of the shortlisted books for Book Week.
We began the week this year with a visit from Batman and Wonder Woman and students in Years 3–6 enjoyed a special Zoom session with author Andy Griffiths. Our celebrations concluded on Thursday 21st with a fantastic Book Week Parade. These events are covered in more detail throughout the newsletter.
Overall, this year’s Book Week experience has been one to remember. Thank you to all of our students for your enthusiasm, to the staff for your creativity and motivation, and to our families for your amazing support. Successful events like this are only made possible when we all work together.
BATMAN AND WONDER WOMAN!
To launch this year’s Book Week celebrations, we were visited by DC Comics’ Batman and Wonder Woman. They were full of energy, kept everyone engaged, and even had us up on our feet dancing!
ANDY GRIFFITHS’ ZOOM MEET
Students in Years 3–6 enjoyed a special Zoom session with author Andy Griffiths. With a guest appearance from illustrator Bill Hope, Andy took students on a fun-filled quest, sharing exciting activities, creative ideas, and his new book You & Me and the Peanut Butter Beast!
BOOK WEEK PARADE
On Thursday 21st August, we held our Book Week Parade, which was a wonderful success! A big thank you to all the students and staff for dressing up in such creative and imaginative costumes. The amazing support and participation from families made the event even more memorable. Scroll through the photos below to see some of the amazing costumes in each grade.
CHILD SAFETY
As part of our commitment to online safety, St John’s works in partnership with Linewize. This platform helps students and families to develop better digital habits, while also monitoring and tracking digital usages. Families have access to free parental control tools to help keep children safe while using their personal devices. We also have our own Online Safety Parent Hub. The Parent Hub provides a wealth of online safety resources; such as digital parenting guides, app reviews and articles, developed by a team of leading digital safety and wellbeing experts.
Student Pedestrian Crossing
Children develop the skills and experience to be safe around traffic at different ages, but usually around nine to 13 years old. Young children need to be specifically taught to Stop, Look, Listen and Think when crossing roads. A reminder to all families whose child leaves the school near the roundabout on the corner of Kingbird Ave and Cottesloe Blvd, to please use the supervised Pedestrian Crossing. We have noticed students stepping out onto Kingbird Ave from in between cars. This is a very dangerous practise as drivers are often unable to see children, so we strongly encourage parents to remind their children to use the crossing on Cottesloe Blvd.
VIC POLICE REMINDER
With an increase in car break-ins and thefts, the Vic Police have asked us to remind families in our community to ensure their vehicles are securely locked. Please see the poster below for some simple tips.
ASSEMBLY LIVE STREAM
Each Friday the students gather for a whole school assembly in the Hall. This event is usually streamed to our Vimeo channel. Families can view the assembly by clicking on the link which is emailed via email using your Operoo profile. The email only goes to those parents who have “receive correspondence” checked in their settings.