Learning and Teaching

                   St John's Geography Expo                         Wednesday 24 June, 2.30-3.15pm 

A key highlight of this term will be our Geography Expo, where students will showcase their learning in creative and engaging ways. Each year level will present their new discoveries through hands-on, inquiry-based experiences that highlight student voice, creativity and deep thinking about place and environment. 

Come and join us at 2.30pm next Wednesday in the all of the classrooms.

Families are reminded to please sign-in at reception when attending special events at school

FIRE Carriers Long Walk Reflections

Our Fire Carriers had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Long Walk at Aquinas College, joining with students from other schools to walk together in the spirit of reconciliation. The day provided meaningful opportunities to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, histories and perspectives while reflecting on the importance of respect, understanding and unity. We are incredibly proud of our students for representing our school so thoughtfully and embracing this valuable learning experience.” - Miss Cara Woolley 

Long Walk Reflection Aquinas - Evie W.

Today some selected senior students went on the long walk around Aquianus.

Why do we do the long walk? 

We do the long walk to say sorry to what our ancestors did to the indigenous / aboriginal culture. We also do the walk to celebrate the first nations culture and Torres straight islander people.

                                                  What I learnt during the long walk:

  I learnt that we should always acknowledge the indigenous culture- no matter the day. and also about Micheal Long, a football player that walked from Melbourne to Canberra- more than 650km to raise national awareness of Indigenous issues and speaking up against racism.

                                                          What happened there?

We had a guest speaker- James Peris concluded some very nice words and also on how his grandmothers and ancestors were a part of the stolen generation and on how we should make every day reconciliation day- not just from May 27 to June 3.

Why is it important?

  The long walk is important because it is dedicated time for all Australians to learn about shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each person can contribute to spreading reconciliation.

What's next?

We can learn more about first nations and indigenous people and spread the word to all generations coming and treat everyone fairly and with respect.

Aquinas long walk Reflection by Aerin

What happened!

Today we went on a long walk at Aquinas. It was a great honour to have the opportunity to be in a wonderful community filled with lovely people. Before we started, we ate a bunch of delicious food along with some amazing drinks like tea and juice for lunch.

 A few minutes after we had our lunch, along with everyone else, we all gathered in an outside meeting area where we had a guest speaker, Jack Paris, who came in and told us the story about Reconciliation and how special the tradition was. We also said prayers and did an Acknowledgement of Country. 

Then we set off on our long walk where we then had to walk about 1.9 km which was around the whole of Aquinas college. Along the way, there were many people that took photos of us, and some of us got interviewed. We took a lot of photos and really enjoyed the fun experience. 

Once the walk was completed, we all gathered around in the same meeting spot where we all said our final goodbyes, and we left in our little bus, back to school. 

Aquinas Long Walk by Jan

Today on the Long Walk we got to see all the students there from Aquinas and many other schools. There were a couple of people giving a speech with a person called Jack Peris who was aboriginal. Many staff members stood up and acknowledged all the aboriginal people and as a very exciting gift we were given snacks. It was quite cold however I still managed to survive. 

When we began to walk there were many people taking photos using cameras, phones and other equipment showing how so many people were drawn to this. For me, my responsibility was to carry the Saint John's flag but was quite light. 

As the walk ended we made an estimate of how long it was, around 1.91 km. When the walk finished we headed over to this massive yard area in the school and there they mainly talked about seating and for us people carrying flags to go up. In the end we found out how important today was and why we should all be proud for coming, supporting all of the Aboriginal people in our community.   

PAPER PLANES

To celebrate the conclusion of our English unit based onthe engaging novel Paper Planes by Steve Worland, the Grade 5/6 students took part in their very own paper plane competition. Following the same rules as the competition featured in the novel, students were given just two minutes to design and construct their paper planes before taking their turn to launch them.

After an exciting series of flights, the four highest-performing competitors advanced to a thrilling grand finale. With the crowd cheering them on, the finalists battled it out to see whose plane could travel the greatest distance. Congratulations to Vespa, whose impressive design, soared more than 12 metres to claim first place!

The competition provided a fun and memorable way to conclude a unit in which students explored grammar, spelling, character studies, narrative writing and persuasive writing. It was wonderful to see students applying creativity, problem-solving and perseverance as they put their paper plane designs to the test.