Dear St John's Community,

Welcome back to another exciting school year for those who are returning, and a great big smiley-faced welcome to all our new families and students!

I hope everyone managed to have some downtime with family and friends over Christmas and the New Year and were able to enjoy some special moments. It's so important to cherish and make the most of these opportunities when they arise as the children grow up so quickly.

As we get going with 2025, I am looking forward to all the learning, growth, and joyful experiences ahead.

Our school motto, “Love is Life”, inspires us this year to continue to build a school community where every child feels safe, supported, and inspired. Our dedicated teachers have been working hard to prepare classrooms filled with creativity, curiosity, and care. It has been so heartwarming to walk around the school this week and see the students' smiles, hear their joy, and see how quickly they've settled in. I can honestly say I think we had the least amount of tears at the start of a school year since I've been here and that's testimony to the hard work and organisation the teachers did to prepare the classrooms and welcome back the students as well as a greater sense of consistency for the students at the start of the school year.

We welcome our new teachers; Mr Justin Aron in 4/5A and Miss Cyarni Klimek in 3/4K who have fitted in like they have always been here and I've heard lots of positives about them from their students already! Phew!

This year will be full of exciting opportunities so let’s encourage our kids to embrace every challenge with courage, every success with gratitude, and every day with kindness.

I look forward to a fantastic year ahead and can’t wait to journey together in faith, learning, and love.

Shiny new preps!

Our new preps have started this week all shiny and new and the seniors are already very excited at the prospect of taking on their Buddy roles. Please help their families feel welcome at St John's like you always do!

Important School Day Time Changes Term 1

I know these are on the calendar but I wanted to mention them as they specifically related to altered times when students are at school!

Wednesday 12th February - Students finish at 1pm for Parent-Teacher Meet-n-Greets (Student supervision from 1pm-3.15pm is available if necessary)
Thursday 13th February - School Closure Day - Staff Professional Learning

Assembly/Science & Tech Arvos:

We have tried a variety of formats in recent years for assemblies to keep them interesting and meaningful. The reality is that whatever we have tried has not led to any additional attendance by parents and they take up valuable learning time in the school week. Even so, we still feel it is an important part of school life and a valuable tool in developing the leadership capacity of the student leaders.

This term, we are going to hold assemblies in the school hall at the normal time of Friday afternoons from 2.30pm. However, we will only have three assemblies over the term in Weeks 3, 6, and 9.

In weeks 4, 5 and 7 we wait to use the Friday afternoons to introduce Science and Tech Arvo's. At these times, all classes across the school will engage in science or technology curriculum-related activities and inquiry learning methods. We envision Parents and Carers being able to support the activities on these afternoons. More information on these will be forthcoming from the classroom teachers in each level in coming weeks.

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.
We have added an extra supervision duty at the end of the school day in the front playground to ensure children are ready and waiting to be picked up. This will help move traffic through quicker.

End of School Day Supervision

As noted we have added a new supervision duty to the front playground at the end of the school day, 3.15pm-3.30pm. This is to ensure children being collected from the kiss-n-go are ready and waiting and not playing elsewhere.

We cannot allow any games or sporting activities in the front playground until after the supervision duty ends at 3.30pm. Any students engaging in such activities will be asked to stop and moved on to where they need to be.

Students waiting for siblings at basketball training must stay in the foyer of the hall until after 3.30pm. They should only be outside with supervision by a parent or carer or responsible adult after that time as there is no longer any teacher supervision provided.

Enrolments 2025

2024 saw another successful year of enrolments at St John's. By the end of the year, however, we faced the problem of having reached our teacher capacity based on school funding levels. As of the start of this school year, I have put waiting lists in place for Grades 3-6 and am watching closely the junior levels as well as we have already had a number of enquiries for enrolments across most levels other than prep for this year. While this will mean larger class sizes for 2025, I anticipate it will only be for this year. As the funding moves through based on our numbers I have no doubt we will have the capacity to increase classes next year and give us some breathing space.

Operoo Account & the nForma App

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

Please make sure you have downloaded the nForma App as well and set up your account. You need to use the same email address you used for the school to set up the account so you can access your child's information. All parent-teacher meetings will be managed and booked through the nForma App from now on.

We will be increasingly using the App over the year to communicate with parents.

Production 2024

If you missed out on purchasing a copy of our awesome Production USB at the end of last year, please contact the office. There are still some available for $15 each.

Pilates in the hall

Pilates back on this year in the school hall on Monday mornings from 9.15am-10.05am.

Any new parents are welcome to attend these sessions which are run by Francesca who is one of our wonderful parents and an experienced instructor.

Prayer

Dear Lord,

As our students begin a new school year,

we pray that you will keep them in your care.

Send your Spirit to open their minds to all that is true and beautiful and good. Help them to see the gifts and talents you have given them and to use them well.

Help them to grow in knowledge and wisdom. Help them to be kind to others and lead others to be kind to them. Give their teachers patience and understanding and help them teach what is just and true.

Send your angels to guide and guard our children and to keep them from all harm. Open their young hearts to your presence and enfold them in your peace and protection.

Hold them in the palm of your hand and bring them home safely every day of their lives.

Amen

Time to knuckle down and do some work! Have a great weekend!

Kind regards,

Derek Bruitzman

Principal

Jokes of the week:

Why did the echo get detention on the first day of school?

A. It kept answering back!

Q: What did the mummy buffalo say to her son at school drop-off?

A: Bison!

Q: Why did the child cross the playground?

A: To get to the other slide!

Fun facts of the week:

The international Space Station is the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon.

Every day your hair collects space dust from comets that have passed the earth. 14 tons of space dust lands on our planet every day.

It would take nine years to walk from Frankston to the moon.

2025 School Fees