Principal's News

Dear Families,

Congratulations, Cooper – Peace Ambassador to Japan!

We are very proud to announce that Cooper Harper, one of our Year 6 Leaders, has been selected as a Peace Ambassador for the Asian Pacific Children’s Convention (APCC) in Fukuoka, Japan.  A process that was finalised earlier in the year after several interviews.  Cooper was nominated by our Japanese teacher Ayako Mizushima along with Chloe Harvey-Bredden who made it to the final round of selections ( a great achievement). This prestigious international event is organised by the Australia-Japan Business Council of Victoria and brings together 300 children from over 40 countries across the Asia-Pacific region. The 2025 theme is "We are the Bridges: We connect dreams around the world."

Each year, six Australian children (three boys and three girls, aged 11) are chosen through a competitive selection process to represent their country at the convention. These children, known as Junior Ambassadors (JAs), travel to Fukuoka in July for a two-week cultural immersion experience.  During their stay, the JAs spend a week at 'Marine House' participating in a variety of intercultural activities designed to foster global friendships and understanding. They then enjoy a homestay with a Japanese family, giving them a unique opportunity to experience Japanese culture, school life, and hospitality.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Cooper, and we know he will be a fantastic representative for St Johns and also for Australia. Congratulations, Cooper – your school community, along with your proud family, celebrates this incredible achievement with you!  Well done!

Changes to our Classrooms next term.

• Next term Rachel Timperley will be taking some much-deserved Long Service Leave and will be away for the duration of Term 3.  Mr Jake Penman will be taking the Year 2 students in her absence.  Jake has been spending time over the last weeks in the Year 2 classroom and is very familiar with the children.  Fiona will continue in there each Friday.
• Nic Asquith will return to teaching STEM.
• Linc McKernan returns from LSL and will be teaching PE (2 days), 1 day in Year 5 and 2 days in Year 6 (which is a change)
• Bernadette Dinneen will be taking Art for the first 5 weeks of the term.
• We thank Andrea Williams for taking the children for STEM this term.

Keeping Our School Community Healthy.  We kindly ask that if your child is unwell, please keep them at home to rest and recover. This helps prevent the spread of illness to other students and staff. If your child becomes unwell during the school day, we will contact you to arrange for them to be collected. Thank you for helping us keep our school community healthy and safe.  We have a germ at the moment currently making its way through several of the classrooms.  

Wired for sound in the Mercy Centre!  During the holidays we are having the sound system in the Mercy Centre upgraded, so we can hear the wonderful things happening at our school during Assembly times and for other events.  Thank you for your patience with this!

New fencing will be installed along the front and back fences over the school holidays.

St Vinnies in Euroa - Thank you your generosity that has allowed the children to shop at Burton's IGA for St Vincent De Paul in Euroa.  The children have very carefully considered what to buy for those that need it in the local area.  This has prompted a great deal of conversation around Social Justice and what we can do to help others.  It has also been a great learning experience around the use of money and what the children could and couldn't afford to buy, with some children very surprised by how much things cost!

Please keep Selby Burke's family in your prayers after the sudden death of his grandmother, Annette Walton last week. Annette worked very closely with our MHiPS Leader Denise Hall last year and it is thanks to her that we received funding from the local Counci for the Resilience Project at St Johns.  Annette in her role as the Youth Services Officer was a very strong advocate for the young people of Euroa.

Lunch Orders - Please make sure you include the correct money in your child's/children's lunch orders.  Lately there have been quite a few orders with no money in them at all.

Bishop Shane MacKinlay - We farewell Bishop Shane from the Sandhurst Diocese as he takes his next very significant step as a leader of the Catholic Church.  He has been appointed Archbishop of Brisbane.  He will be a big loss to our Diocese and Brisbane is very lucky to have him.  He always speaks very highly of the children from St John's and always remarks on their beautiful singing at our Centenary Celebrations whenever I see him.  They made quite the impression!

Year 6 Leaders - Our Year 6 Leaders have visited Good Start Kinder and Euroa Kinder over the term.  They have really tested their skills at times, introducing themselves to the children, asking them about themselves and playing with them.  For some it comes naturally, for others not so much.  It has been a great experience for the Kinder children and for the St John's children.  We thank the Kinders for allowing us to visit and have this opportunity.  We look forward to welcoming the Kinder children to St John's for a visit to the school as they begin their transition for 2026!

BookWeek is fast approaching!  

Our Celebration of Learning next term will be centred around BookWeek, with visitors coming into the children's classrooms for some BookWeek fun.

Whole School Mass

We will be celebrating Mass together on Friday for the Feast of the Sacred Heart and to thank God for the term that is coming to an end.  We will present our donations to St Vincent De Paul for them to distribute to people in the local area.  You are very welcome to join us at 12:30 in the Church.

This is our last newsletter for the term.  As we come to the end of weeks of learning, we’d like to sincerely thank parents and families for your ongoing support. We also acknowledge the efforts of our teachers and the enthusiasm and hard work of our students as we continue to implement the Magnify learning platform. We know the platform is working extremely well, as we observe calm, focused classrooms where teachers are teaching and all students are engaged in learning. It has been a productive and positive term, and we are proud of all that has been achieved.  We look forward to all the great things that will happen next term.

Holidays - The school holidays are fast approaching.  The children finish at 2:15 on Friday 4th Julyfor a two-week break.

Wishing all our families and children a safe, restful, and happy holiday break!

See you on Monday 21st July!

Until next term

Therese