A message from Emily

Welcome Back 

Hello everyone and welcome back to another incredible term! The fourth and last of the year. Can you believe it? Families and children have transitioned back to the routines of school in the last two weeks with calmness and patience. Tomorrow, we welcome back Emily who has been participating in the Spiritus International Formation Program for Principals in Rome and Assisi. We look forward to hearing about all of the amazing learning that she has undertaken on her travels!

We look forward to a term of celebration as we prepare for the arrival of the season of Advent in readiness for Christmas. Our leaders and educators are continuing to prepare and facilitate thoughtful and provoking learning experiences for the children. Please see the Learning and Teaching page for more information. There will be many family events occurring also, including Grandparents morning tea, Trivia night, Christmas Carols night, as well as preparations for Year 6 Transition and welcoming our incoming Preps through the Orientation Program. 

Welcoming Prep 2025 families

We would like to invite families within our current school community to donate a picture story book that we can gift to our new families on their first official day of school at the beginning of 2025. We are hoping that this book may be special or meaningful to your family in some way. We are hoping to collect 40 books. If you would like to contribute, please send along your book to Lauren Davis (by placing it in the Hub office tub with a post-it note label and please include the reason behind your choice if you have one!).

 5/6 Interschool Sport commencing 

Tomorrow, the children in the 5/6 Hub will participate in the first round of Summer Interschool Sports. This is a wonderful opportunity for children to develop skills in their sport and also to learn the important lessons of sportspersonship and resilience. We thank Michelle Graham, our amazing PE educator for her coordination of this program and the 5/6 Hub staff, Taryn, Greg, Mish and Lauren M who have taken on coaching and supporting roles for each of the sports. Due to reduced outdoor space at St. John’s at the moment, all matches for St. John’s will be at venues offsite. We wish our children good luck and trust that they will have lots of fun engaging in these important learning experiences while representing our school. 

Children progressing to Regional Athletics 

Next Tuesday the 22nd of October, a small group of children will compete at the Regional Athletics Carnival at Keilor Athletics Track. We are so proud of the efforts of Pearl, Alec, Bryan, Liam, Aaron and Phupa so far in progressing through the stages of the Athletics Pathway and we wish them all the very best on this next stage. Go team!

Camping Program - 3/4 offsite camp & 1/2 dinner

This Tuesday the 22nd of October and Wednesday the 23rd of October, the 3/4 Hub will be going on camp to Lady Northcote Camp in Glenmore, just outside of Bacchus Marsh. The weather forecast is looking good so far so we hope that our 3/4 children will have wonderful experiences in building confidence, resilience and independence through this most valuable outdoor learning experience. Thank you to Amy, the attending leaders and the 3/4 Hub staff in their preparation and coordination of this experience and for taking the time out of their personal lives to facilitate this program.

On Thursday the 24th of October, the One and Two Hubs will be participating in their Camp Experience with a day of activities and an afternoon tea. We look forward to this event which is an important part of the progression of experiences leading to the overnight/offsite program by the senior years. The afternoon tea will conclude promptly at 5pm. Thank you to the One and Two Hub staff for their organisation of this experience for the benefit of the children. For further details, please see the Learning and Teaching page.

Teacher Appreciation & Acknowledgement Day 

Next Friday the 25th of October is Teacher Appreciation Day. St. John’s will be celebrating our amazing educators on Tuesday 29th of October with a special morning tea. Our educators work tirelessly with our children and families to ensure the best possible learning and wellbeing outcomes for each child. Their commitment and dedication to their professional roles at St. John’s is evident every day and their collaboration and collegiality is the essence of what makes St. John’s a wonderful learning environment that places every child at the heart of all we do. It would be lovely for our educators to receive your kind words of gratitude on the day!

Have a wonderful fortnight.

Karen & Lauren