St John's School Newsletter

St John's 

School Advisory Council

School Advisory Council April Meeting Report

The School Advisory Committee (SAC) continues to meet regularly with the most recent meeting held on 30 April, 2024.

 

Key messages from our second meeting in 2024 included:

Open actions from the previous meeting included:

  • Family Bush Dance event is in the newsletter calendar and will continue to be promoted
  • The Parent's Association will coordinate a raffle on the night.
  • Masterplan Sub-Committee - Verona met with three different architects and a representative from MACS Infrastructure Department. Whisker Architects have been appointed, and Audrey is the main contact. 

The new Masterplan will prioritise:

  1. Accessibility in the school will be a priority and we will investigate where to install a lift in the school. 
  2. The Lyons room will also need to be redeveloped. 
  3. Front gardens and steps will also be a focus. 
  4. Possibly all toilets will be upgraded.
  5. Adventure playground area will be investigated for new playground options.
  6. Verona is looking for expressions of interest from parents who would like to join a sub committee, to share their expertise in the development of a new masterplan and we will seek input from the SAC members also.
  • Community Engagement - Verona has spoken with Loredana from the Parish to explore opportunitiues for the Intergenerational Program
  • School Leadership Team visits – Ange Crowe was there to present on Neurodiversity but deferred it to the next time when we have better attendance from SAC.
  • Risk assessment/register - team have been doing a lot of work on behaviour expectations and SEL, with a huge reduction in playground incidents. Collecting behaviour reflection sheets had a significant decrease. 
  • Verona - contacted Camp Australia to enquire re: Holiday program and surveyed the school - received 31 responses - only 45% said yes that they currently use the service After School but 96.8% said yes they would like to use the holiday program. 54.8% said they would use it 2-3 days, 22.6% were 4-5 days, no one would use it for a full week. 
  • Spartan schools is the new Uniform supplier - Verona meeting with them next week-will talk about the any changes to the uniform 
  • Leadership & Management - The whole staff was involved in a day of PL with Chris Daicos, focussing on feedback, mentoring and difficult conversations last Monday
  • Religious Dimension - Retreat day for year 3s was beautiful
  • All students will be involved in a day called being Courageous Catholics and Gen Bryant will run it. The day will include - storytelling, singing and taking action. 
  • Our school choir sang at the ANZAC Day Dawn service last week and was well attended by many school families
  • Learning and Teaching - Science of Learning and the Vision for Instruction will be a major focus for our staff this term - investigating the cognitive load. 
  • Student Wellbeing - Harmony Day was a huge success with the support of many families - students learnt about cultures from Indigenous, Italian, Indian and African perspectives
  • Kaboom whole school Sport Day coming up this term to celebrate the Olympics 
  • Roland Wans from MACS working with staff to continue the revision of the Positive Behaviour Matrix and Program 
  • School Community - Many families attended the Holy Week celebrations and liturgies across the last week of the term
  • Parent helpers are working mainly in the P- 2 levels
  • Senior students attended the Catholic Education Week Mass and Picnic
  • Social Media is increasing with more followers and regular posts and ads.
  • Family Bush Dance will be later this term
  • Emmikins ELC Kinder visited for excursion last week, working with the Preps

Courage Corner

Aligned with our school theme of “Courage” for the year, the SAC explored the idea of introducing a Parent page in the newsletter called “Courage Corner” to express or show courage for things felt or observed in our community and invite your submissions to principal@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au

 

We begin this “Courage Corner” by acknowledging the efforts Victoria Fox and Sam Mitchell for assisting on the Mother's Day Stall - Thanks so much Ladies 

 

Another acknowledgement goes to Nick McKay who lead the breakfast cooking for the Mum’s at the Mother’s Day Breakfast. A huge thank you Nick and to your helpers as well.

 

As always if you see one of us around the school please come and say hello and have a chat to us. We are always happy to listen to any concerns or ideas you might have.

 

Angela Maclean

Chairperson and Parent Representative