Around The Primary

Dear Families

This week, the College’s Visual Art Exhibition has been a showcase of incredible artwork from both Secondary and Primary students.

Our Years 3-6 students are actively involved in weekly specialist Visual Art lessons, and each of them has a piece of their artwork displayed. Additionally, there is a selection from the Early Years on display, making it an excellent opportunity for families and the community to appreciate artwork from all year levels. This event allows students to demonstrate their creativity and showcase their 2D and 3D work across various forms.

The Exhibition will conclude tomorrow, Saturday, 19 October, and will be open from 11am to 2pm. We extend a warm welcome to everyone to come and view the captivating 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional works.

Special thanks to Fiona Blaauw, our Primary Visual Arts Teacher, for generously sharing her artistic skills and talents with our students.

We are all looking forward to the Junior Primary Athletics Carnival next Thursday, 24 October. As always, we are crossing our fingers for good weather.

Sports Carnivals are an opportunity:

• To build school spirit
• For students to support each other
• To showcase a diverse range of skills and talents
• To infuse a sense of fun and camaraderie 
• To provide a purpose for practicing important physical skills
• To teach resiliency skills 

Our students are well supported leading up to and on the day of the carnival with a strong focus on participation, teamwork, celebrating effort and the success of others, and maintaining a positive attitude. We look forward to seeing many families at this special event.

While the next few weeks are undoubtedly going to be action-packed, both in and out of the classroom, our ongoing goal for all students, is to ensure the term is as calm, focused, productive and positive as ever. We are committed to supporting your child’s learning right up to the last day of term, while also encouraging the children to continue nurturing their friendships and enjoying the many opportunities that come their way.

As parents and caregivers, you can support your child to have a calm, happy, and successful term here at school by ensuring they:

• arrive at school on time, ready for a calm transition to the school day
• have a consistently good night’s sleep
• are not ‘over-scheduled’ after school – leaving enough time for them to relax, do some reading, and participate in unstructured and active play
• have limited technology after school

As role models we need to work together to set the students up for success by being a good example, speaking positively about others, thinking the best of all students, and directing our energies to being as helpful, thoughtful and generous as we can. This will all help to make Term 4 at John XXIII a great term for everyone to enjoy. 

Kind regards

Antoinette De Pinto

Head of Primary

Dates to Remember

Please check the College website to note all the important Primary school events for your family calendar. http://www.johnxxiii.edu.au/view/for-parents/calendars

By subscribing to the College calendar, you are automatically alerted when details of an existing event are changed. 

2025 Term Dates

The term dates for 2025 have now been published on the College Website and can be accessed using this link Parent Information | Term Dates | John XXIII College

Counsellor's Corner

This term Primary students will continue to participate in lessons from the Keeping Safe Curriculum, with a focus on strategies to stay safe.  This includes learning about community services which can help like 000 and a range of problem-solving strategies using relevant age-appropriate scenarios. 

Assertive communication, persistence and resilience are all explored, and persistence is reinforced so students understand that they need to keep telling until someone listens and takes action.

Students are also participating in lessons about the URSTRONG program. URSTRONG is an internationally recognized Social Emotional Wellbeing program, that empowers children with the skills, language, and self-confidence to be better friends and develop healthier relationships. Friendship is such an important part of children’s lives and across the primary school children are learning practical useful strategies to help make this a positive, happy part of their life.

Families are invited to take advantage of a FREE Parent Membership to access URSTRONG resources, including an eight session video series. This will allow you to learn the same language and strategies being taught in the classroom through the Friendology 101 curriculum. Just follow the link FREE Parent Membership

John XXIII also has a membership to the Happy Families website which offers a variety of parenting resources.  To access free just log in using these credentials:

https://schools.happyfamilies.com.au/login/jxc

Password: happyjxc

Please contact me via email with any questions – anne.murphy@johnxxiii.edu.au 

Anne Murphy

Primary Counsellor

Sports News       

Excitement is building amongst the Junior Primary students for their upcoming athletics carnival.  Preparations are going well, and we look forward to seeing lots of parents, grandparents and special friends on Thursday, 24 October.  Please remember to wear your parent badge.  

Extra parking will be available in the carpark off Heritage Lane for this event. 

If you have any queries about anything sport-related, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email: steve.williams@johnxxiii.edu.au

Steve Williams

Primary Sport Coordinator

Music News

Primary Choir and Instrumental Ensemble Rehearsals

Save The Date

Please note the following music performance dates for this term:

Primary Instrumental Recitals

The Primary Instrumental Recitals held on Monday, 25 November, are an exciting opportunity for students to show off their hard work from throughout the year. This performance opportunity is open to students who learn an instrument at school or privately. Students are invited to play one piece in the appropriate recital category (i.e. either a solo or group piece). Students may perform in multiple categories (for example, piano and strings) if they learn more than one instrument. These recitals will be divided into groups based on student year groups and the number of entries with family members invited to watch the performances. Timetables will be emailed in due course. 

 Entry forms will be available via an online link in the Newsletter next week. (Students who learn an instrument at school will automatically be entered by their tutor).

Pre-Primary Music

The Pre-Primary students have been studying high and low sounds, in particular, noting that size is related to pitch. The students matched Goldilocks and the Three Bears puppets with instruments from the string family (violin, viola, cello and double bass) according to size/pitch. The students were especially amazed at the size of the double bass and enjoyed comparing their heights with those of the instruments. 

If you have any queries regarding Primary Music, please contact me via email: catherine.haydon@johnxxiii.edu.au

Catherine Haydon

Primary Music Teacher

Metro pipe renewals close to John XXIII College

Water Corporation has planned water pipe replacement work in Pine Tree Lane, close to John XXII College, scheduled to commence mid-November 2024 and be completed by mid-December. The work will improve the reliability of the local water supply and prevent future leaks and breaks.

The exact location of the work is in the map below. Work will take place from 7am to 5pm, Monday to Friday and some Saturdays when required.

You may notice the impact of the work largely through extra traffic management in the area; however, given the work will be within verges, no roads are expected to be closed. Water Corporation do expect some potential traffic delays within the area for parents; however, again, this is expected to be minimal.

For more information, please visit their website.