Learning & Teaching
Learning from Hubs
REMINDER - Swimming Trials
On Friday 29th November, St John's will be running some swimming trials for Years 3, 4 & 5 children who wish to try out for the school swimming team that will compete at a district event in Term 1, 2025.
Children need to be able to swim 50m comfortably in any of the following strokes: Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke or Butterfly. Children can try out for one or all strokes.
Note: The Swimming Trials are not mandatory but we ask that you complete the Acivity Form on either PAM or SimonEverywhere as to whether your child will be attending.
Mother Nature Produces Zero Waste: A Community Initiative
Last term, our Year 5 and 6 children embarked on a journey to explore sustainable practices in our local community. As part of their "Mother Nature Produces Zero Waste" project, they delved into the world of recycling and reuse, researching various companies and programs dedicated to environmental sustainability.
The children’s hard work culminated in the creation of a sustainability brochure, designed to inform and inspire our community. This informative resource highlights local initiatives that encourage recycling and the reuse of materials, empowering us all to make a positive impact on our planet.
We invite you to explore this brochure and discover programs for reducing waste in our area. Together, we can create a more sustainable future for generations to come.
Deforestation Discovery Project
This week Maliko and Enzo from the 5/6 Hub launched their Deforestation project to their peers.
Our project was on the topic of deforestation. We researched the effects deforestation has on the environment and decided to raise awareness of what is happening in our world.
For our launch, we decided to bake a cake to show the effects of deforestation on the environment. Half of it was the world without forests and half with. Throughout this project we learnt new information about forests and our baking skills improved a lot!
- Enzo & Maliko
2025 Student Leader process
We're excited to announce that the process of selecting our 2025 student leaders is underway! Our Year 5 children have shown great enthusiasm, submitting thoughtful application letters and sharing their aspirations in individual interviews with Emily and Amy. We were truly impressed by their passion for our school community and their admiration for our educators and peers.
The children discussed their unique qualities and how they can contribute to fostering a positive and inclusive school environment. We heard inspiring ideas for initiatives that will strengthen our community and leave a lasting impact on St John's.
In the coming weeks, our shortlisted candidates will have the opportunity to deliver speeches to their peers in Years 4 and 5. The combined votes of children and educators will determine our School Leaders, Sports Captains, Social Justice Leaders and Sustainability Leaders for 2025. We wish all our Year 5 children the best of luck as they embark on this exciting journey.
Faith
The season of Advent is observed as a time of waiting and preparation for the birth of Jesus. This year, Advent begins on Sunday 1st December. In celebration of this, we will be marking each week of Advent through our Prayer Gatherings focused on Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. We will conclude with an end of year Prayer Gathering on Tuesday 17th December at 9am. Please see the attached flyer for further details. All gatherings will be celebrated in Joan’s Yard and are therefore subject to weather.
Prep 2025
Webinar: ‘Starting School: How your family can thrive and not just survive’
We are excited to offer this community webinar for new Prep families beginning in 2025 to help parents to feel more calm and confident about the “starting school” journey.
Inform and Empower’s, Carley McGauran (a psychologist and mum) will be facilitating the session. Please see the attached information below for topics she will be discussing.
Welcoming Prep 2025 Families
We would like to invite families within our current school community to donate a picture story book that we can give 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 ldavis@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au (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!).
Stay Connected with SIMON Everywhere
This year, we've introduced the SIMON Everywhere app, your convenient gateway to your PAM account. This user-friendly app enables us to directly communicate important updates and notifications with our school community.
We've been actively sharing information about upcoming events and exciting learning experiences on the group chat thread within the app. To ensure you don't miss any important announcements, please enable notifications for the app.
Starting in 2025, we will be transitioning all school communications to the SIMON Everywhere app. We strongly encourage all families to download the app and sign in using your PAM account credentials.
If you have any difficulties or require assistance with your PAM account details, please don't hesitate to contact the office (admin@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au, 9687 3150) or Amy (alittley@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au).
