Dear St John's Community,

The Catholic season of Lent is upon us. Did you know that the word Lent is a shortened form of an Old English word, 'lencten', which means 'a spring season?'

Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter. 40 being a significant number in the Bible as it relates to the fulfilment of God's promises and is most often linked to themes of testing, trial or judgment.

It is tradition to have an ‘extra focus on Jesus at this time, and many Christians around the world choose to do special things during the 40 days before Easter. Some still choose to fast, but fasting isn’t always about food. Some people choose to fast from technology or give up an activity that takes up too much time, so that they can focus that time on praying and thinking about others, including almsgiving.

Lent is about preparing our hearts to remember Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. We remember that he saved us from our sins, and he defeated death!

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday next week, and we invite all our community to join us at 9 am mass at St John's Church.

God sees our hearts and knows our motives. Let's invite His spirit to guide us in our Lenten practice and draw us closer to Him.

Student Medication at School

These days, schools are governed very heavily in the use and storage of any medications. No student can bring medication to school unless it is included with the following form and brought to the office.

Medication Authority Form

Canteen help!

We still need help!

If you or someone you know has a few hours to spare on a Friday, we desperately need a helper/s on Fridays in the canteen. Please contact the office if you or someone you know might be able to help now and then!

Tickets through Trybooking

Reconciliation Prayer

Please also remember our Reconciliation Sacrament Candidates in your prayers this week as they undertake their Commitment Mass on Sunday.

Dear God,

We lift up to You these precious children who are preparing to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. Fill their hearts with Your peace and love as they take this important step in their journey of faith.

Guide their minds and hearts as they examine their conscience.

Grant them the courage to be honest and the humility to seek forgiveness.

Strengthen them with the grace of this sacrament, that they may grow closer to You and strive to live a life of goodness and virtue.

Bless their families and staff who have supported and prepared them for this sacred moment.

May they continue to nurture these young souls in faith, hope, and love.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Have a great weekend!

Kind regards,

Derek Bruitzman

Principal

NAPLAN 2026 Info for Parents

School Census 2026

The Australian Government Department of Education (the department) would like to notify you that they have requested for your child’s school to provide residential address and other information.

Under the Australian Education Regulations 2023, the school is required to provide the department with the following information about each student at the school:

• names and residential addresses of the student’s parent(s) and/or guardian(s)

• student residential address (excluding student names)

• whether the student is a primary or secondary student (education level)

• whether the student is boarding or a day student (boarding status).

The school collects the above information by generating a unique and unidentifiable student reference number (SRN) for each student record. The school only uses the SRN for this collection. The SRN cannot be used for any other purpose. The number only indicates to the department that each record provided is for one student.

Purpose of the collection

The address collection informs Australian Government school education policy and helps ensure funding for non-government schools is based on need. The information collected is used to inform school funding calculations. It is combined with Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data to calculate a non-government school community’s anticipated capacity to contribute to schooling costs, known as the capacity to contribute (CTC) score.

Use and disclosure of personal information Your personal information is protected by law under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act). Personal information is information or an opinion about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes an individual’s name and contact details.

Any use or disclosure of your personal information must occur in accordance with the Privacy Act, the Australian Education Act 2013 and Australian Education Regulations 2023. Your personal information provided to the department through the collection may be:

• disclosed to the ABS for the purposes of the ABS linking names and address(es) with their personal income taxation data using the capacity to contribute calculations and analysis as a part of the Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA – previously known as MADIP).

• disclosed to an authorised person (for example, contracted auditor or identified departmental official) where the department may audit a school’s collection submission. The authorised person compares the school’s submission with the student enrolment information. The authorised person will not use the information for any other purpose

• disclosed to our service providers for the purpose of providing the department with information and communications technology support

• used or disclosed where it is otherwise required or authorised by law.

The department does not intend to disclose your personal information to any overseas recipients.

Aggregated information will be provided to your school in the form of school level median income for the last 3 years, rounded to the nearest $5,000. This information is provided to help your school understand their level of government funding. Your personal income information will not be provided to your school.

The department’s privacy policy on the Department of Education web site includes information on:

• how individuals can access and modify personal information held by the department

• how complaints about potential breaches or breaches of the Privacy Act can be made

• how the department will deal with these complaints.

In association with this, the department commissioned an independent Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA). The PIA assessed the flows of information under the address collection, compliance with the Privacy Act and measures in place to safeguard the personal information being collected.

What do you need to do?

You are not required to do anything. Your school is responsible for providing the department with the requested details; however, you can contact the school to update your family’s details.

Child-Safe Standards

For all our new families, as well as a reminder to existing families. Anytime you come to the school to help in some way you need a current Working with Children Check, you need to sign the school's volunteer Child-Safe Code of Conduct and potentially review a risk assessment document as well, depending on the activity you are supporting.

When we have events such as Athletics Day or Assemby, all parents on site must register their presence in the school. You do not have to sign in at the office at these times, we have provided QR codes around the school to enable you to register yourself quickly and easily for those events.

Thank you in advance for helping us maintain the Child-Safe Standards of our school.

Kelly Sports Sessions

Will be carrying on from Term 1 with the:

Wednesday afternoon multi-sport program (3.20pm - 4.30pm). First session is the 11th of February.

Thursday lunchtime dance program (1.30pm - 2.15pm). First session is the 26th of February.

Navigating the Car Park/ Kiss n Go/ Pick up & Drop off

We have a number of new families and relatives learning the ways of the car park, please be patient at these times. Important things to remember are as follows:

Please adhere to the designated speed limit when travelling through the car park
Please give way to cars needing to park in the marked bays
Do not leave your vehicle unattended in the kiss-n-go from 8.30am - 9am or 3pm to 3.30pm. Any blockage in the kiss-n-go at those times has an ongoing impact on us being able to move cars in off the street.
You must stop, indicate and give way to Paisley St traffic before crossing the solid line from Jayne St into the school carpark.
You need to remain aware that if you sit on Paisley or Jayne St waiting to get into the school, you can be booked by the council. You are not supposed to remain stationary on either of those roads. We will try to get you into the carpark as quickly as possible. We have been unsuccessful in the past in overturning any bookings made by the council regarding this.
If you arrive at school before 3pm you are not permitted to remain in the drive-through area. You must call the school and have your child sent out to you.

Operoo Account & the nForma App

Please make sure you set up your child's account on nForma so all our correspondence and permission forms, etc can get to you.

You need to use the same email address you used for the school to set up the account on nForma so you can access your child's information.

Parents - St John's Facebook page

Search: Parents @ St. Johns

Note: You are required to answer the questions to be allowed access to the page.

Jokes of the week:

Q. What do astronauts listen to on the radio?

A. Nep-tunes

Q: What did the alien say to the cat?

A: Take me to your litter!

Q: Why is life on earth so expensive?

A: Because it includes a free trip around the sun each year.

Fun facts of the week:

Rats can actually laugh, we just can't hear it with the human ear!

Scientists found 40000 year old frozen worms in Siberia and were able to revive them...(No way!)

Ever had brain freeze! The scientific term for it is: sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia

Child Safe Standard 1