Dear Families and Carers,

As we come to the end of our fifth week together this year, I pause with gratitude for our belonging to the St John’s school community.

I am thankful for our engaged classrooms, busy playgrounds, warm greetings, and the curiosity our students bring each day. I am grateful for our welcoming community, our strong parent partnerships, and for the dedication of our staff and leadership team who work tirelessly to support every child.

As we continue through Lent, Pope Leo XIII reminds us that fasting is not only about giving up food. It can also mean fasting from unkind words and choosing to speak kindly about one another. It means replacing criticism with encouragement and complaints with gratitude.

May we continue to build a community where our words lift one another up and reflect the love and respect we hope to nurture in our children.

Congratulations to our Newly Appointed SRC

On Monday, we celebrated our Year 6 Leaders and our newly elected SRC Class Reps to the school community. Our Action teams and SRC’s have already shown excellent leadership qualities on the playground, around the school, and by representing St John’s at Leadership and sporting events. They also have one or two (or three!) ideas on how to improve the school. I look forward to hearing all about it.

Congratulations to the following SRC students

PD Charli	PM Ariana
1D James	1W Audrey
2MJ Isobel	2C Nicholas
3C Yasmin	3B Jack W
4BT Isabelle	4D Eva
5P Zoe	5L Mason
6G Zoe R	6T Darcy	6M Malin

It was wonderful seeing so many parents at our assembly. Thank you!

Congratulations Prep Families

Exciting news! Starting next week, our Prep students will be attending school full-time, with no more Wednesday Rest Days! Congratulations on a fantastic start to the year. I know their buddies and teachers are looking forward to having them here every day.PIC

PIC Events

This year, we would like to introduce a new approach to how our PIC events are organised at St John's. We are hoping that each year level will take responsibility for supporting one PIC event across the year.

This shared model will help ease the workload currently carried by our PIC Executive members. As volunteers and working parents, they generously give their time to our community and we are incredibly grateful for their commitment.

For our events to continue and thrive, we need the support of many hands. By sharing responsibility across year levels, we can ensure these wonderful community events remain sustainable, enjoyable and successful for everyone.

A HUGE thank you to our amazing PIC team for their recent fundraising efforts. Because of your generosity and hard work, our Year 3/4 students are already enjoying their new classroom furniture, which has made a real difference to their learning environment.

We are looking for a group of parents from each year level to coordinate the events as listed below. The PIC team will support the volunteers in the planning of events. We look forward to seeing these events led by a wide range of parents / carers from our school community.

Please email PIC with your names, class level and contact details - picstjohnsheidelberg@gmail.com

Prep: Food Day Term 3

Gr 1: Mother's Day Stall

Gr 2: Grandparents’ Morning Tea

Gr 3: Father’s Day Stall

Gr 4: Footy Day BBQ

GR 5: Graduation Dinner

GR 6: Food Day Term 2

Easter Raffle

Easter Raffle – Supporting Our School Community

PIC will be holding our annual Easter Raffle, and we are excited to invite all families to take part! Please read the PIC page of the newsletter for more details.

Funds raised from the raffle will go directly back into enhancing student experiences across the school. Thanks to your generous support, we are planning to purchase:

New sandpit toys
Classroom games for wet day play
Additional outdoor play equipment for the Top Yard

These additions will further enrich play opportunities, encourage creativity and collaboration, and support student wellbeing during both indoor and outdoor learning times.

Thank you for your continued support of our PIC initiatives

NAPLAN SCHEDULE- Year 3 and 5

11 March	Writing
12 March	Reading
13 March	Conventions of Language
17 March	Numeracy

The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing is just around the corner, beginning on 11 March. Our Year 3 and Year 5 students will be undergoing assessment of their skills in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar, and punctuation), and Numeracy . To ensure our students feel confident and at ease, our dedicated teachers are diligently familiarising them with the testing style. It is important that your child is present on the allocated days.

Here is more Naplan information for families

Parent Helper Course - Child Safety Induction Program

This year, we again welcome the support of parents / carers to assist in our classrooms. As a school we value strong partnerships and believe that your support is invaluable. All parents / carers are welcome to help. We require that all helpers assisting in the classrooms are fully trained and have a current Working with Children Check. There will be a compulsory training session (approximately 1 hour) for all new parent helpers. Parents / carers are asked to attend one of the following sessions either Thursday 12 March 2:30pm or Wednesday 25 March 9:00am. Please contact Elizabeth on ewhiting@sjheidelberg.catholic.edu.au for any questions.

Class Reps

We are still looking for parent class representatives in some year levels. The role will involve two parents from each class working together to increase social interaction and a sense of belonging within each class throughout the school.

Representatives will be asked to facilitate communication between families for example organise a parents’ morning coffee, a class dinner etc.

If you are interested in being the Parent Class Representative for your child’s year level, please email principal@sjheidelberg.catholic.edu.au asap.

SAC members

We are very pleased to announce the SAC members of 2026.

Fr Vinh - Parish Priest
Alison Dean- Principal
Elizabeth Whiting- Deputy Principal
Cristina Menegas and Marianne Di Fabio- Teachers Representatives
Leon Stavrou- Prep Representative
Aidan Depetro- Junior Representative
Melinda Mahady- Middle Representative
Mary Molloy- Senior Representative
Laurette Kairouz- Parish Representative

SAC Meetings for 2026 are to be held in the staffroom at 6:15pm

25 March
20 May
17 June
26 August
28 October
18 November

We look forward to working in partnership with families in support of the best outcomes for your children throughout 2026.

Parent Engagement in Learning Evenings

All families are encouraged to attend our Parent Engagement Information sessions. During these sessions you will learn more about your child's class learning and routines.

Wednesday 11 March

Prep - onsite 6-7pm

Year 5/6 online 7-8pm

Wednesday 18 March

Year 1 /2 online 6-7pm

Year 3/4 online 7-8pm

Netball at St John's

Why not come and try NETSETGO!

We are looking for students from Prep to Year 2 to come and learn some new ball skills and most impotantly have fun.

First Better Buddy Day on Monday

We are very much looking forward to our first Better Buddy Day on Monday 2 March.

During these sessions, your child will be part of a mixed year level group, working alongside students from across the school. Better Buddy Days are a wonderful opportunity to build connections, strengthen our sense of community, and develop leadership and collaboration skills.

Students are welcome to bring their favourite soft toy to share with their buddies and may also wear a touch of purple (for example, purple ribbons, socks, or a hair accessory) to help us celebrate the day together.

We can’t wait to see the joy and friendships that will grow through this special time.

Have a great week.

Alison

Community News

Free Family Event at Olympic Park