Principal's Page

'A Welcoming Community Leading the Future of Learning with Faith and Love'

A Message from the Principal

As I reflect back on the first half of this year I am reminded of what a wonderful place St John's is. The supportive families, hardworking and energetic students and fabulous staff. Together we are all making a difference in our world, inspiring our students as tomorrow's leaders, inventors and custodians. This term we have achieved so much as a community including:

• Singing at the Mitcham ANZAC Day Dawn service
• Hip Hop Dance Classes with SDS Dance School and Steph
• Running the Peaceful Kids program
• Year 3/4 and 5/6 sports Gala Days
• Cross Country 
• Bike It program
• Fire officers visit
• Mother's Day breakfast and stall
• Grandparents and Special Visitors Day
• Reconciliation Week and the Long Walk
• First Eucharist
• Working Bee
• Numerous school tours and Open Days
• Visits from 3 different kindergarten groups
• Prep 2024 Information Evening
• Prep 2024 interviews
• Soccer and AFL clinics
• Kids Disco
• Scholastic Book Fair
• Year 5/6 History Learning Expo

All of this is only possible with the support of all of our families, my dedicated staff and the collaboration of the whole school community. St John's is a great place to be and the positive growth in student outcomes is evidence of the impact that this combined support achieves.

Over the past few weeks all teachers have been working hard to finalise assessments and analyse their student data, to produce our mid year reports. Each child's report will be emailed to their parents tomorrow, via PAM. It has been a steep learning curve for us all using this new format and portal. The student reports are extensive and provide detailed information about your child's achievements. I love reading all of the reports, especially the teacher and student comments. It is a great celebration of their many successes throughout the semester and helps to set future learning goals.

Parent Teacher Interviews will be offered in Term 3, 8 August, to discuss your child's progress in more detail. If you wish to meet with the class teacher prior to this please email them directly.

Our Year 5/6 teacher, Esther Wallis will be finishing up at the end of this term, as she has accepted a promotion at another school. She has been a great staff member and a valuable part of the Year 5/6 teaching team, as well as assisiting with the Marathon Club every Tuesday. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours. I am in the process of employing our new teacher and will let you know prior to the start of next term.

Policy Acknowledgement

Please complete the PAM acknowledgement of the new Child Safe Standards and Parent Code of Conduct policies on PAM.

PAM - https://pam.sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au

New Enterprise Bargaining Agreement for School Staff

A new enterprise agreement covering teachers across most of the Catholic schools in Victoria, including ours, has been approved and is in effect. The new agreement delivers several positive changes for both our dedicated staff and the overall functioning of our school, including improved pay and employment conditions. One key aspect of this agreement is the inclusion of new time-in-lieu provisions, which will enable our teachers and support staff to accumulate additional time off when they are required to work more than their regular 38 hours per week which might include overnight camps and presentations or supervision at evening and weekend activities. 

This change is a recognition of the considerable extra work our teachers are asked to do and will enhance their work-life balance and well-being. However, implementing these changes will mean that students will finish up a couple of days earlier than usual, on Friday 15 December at the end of the year and the early end of term finish at 1.00pm. 

This will limit any disruption to students throughout the year and enable our staff to avail themselves of their earned time off during the holiday season, rejuvenating themselves for the upcoming year. I am letting you know now as I wanted to give you ample time of the finishing up date to accommodate any changes to your schedules or arrangements at what is a busy time of the year.

We sincerely appreciate your understanding and support in this matter. By priorotising the well-being and work-life balance of our dedicated staff, we are fostering an environment that promotes excellence in teaching and learning. If you have any questions or concerns about the new enterprise agreement you are welcome to discuss them with me.

Thank you for your continued partnership as we strive to provide an outstanding education for our students.

Going Pink in June

On the last day of Term all students are asked to wear Pink for our Free Dress Day. This June the staff and I have been wearing PINK and I have registered our school for the Go Pink fundraiser in June. I wanted to raise awareness about the importance of regular checks for women and men. I hope that you can have a day or two of Going Pink also.

Each student is asked to bring in a gold coin donation on Friday or you are welcome to go online to make your own donation. We will add each classes donation t the fundraising page.

https://fundraise.nbcf.org.au/fundraisers/stjohnsprimaryschoolmitcham

Chinese - Learning and Teaching Videos

This week we are featuring our new Chinese Language Video in our newsletter. At St John's our students learn Chinese from Prep to Year 6 with our specialist teacher. Our program engages the students in the culture and language of China, designed specifically to meet the needs of every student. As our Students acquire communication skills in Chinese they develop a greater understanding and appreciation of the culture. Learning Chinese broadens our students’ horizons about the social and cultural opportunities and experiences that are available in our interconnected community. 

Learning Chinese gives our students an openness to different perspectives and develops their understanding of how culture shapes and extends learners’ understanding of themselves, their own heritage, beliefs, culture and identity.

Please visit the website to see all of our new videos.

https://www.sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au/

School Uniforms

RHUniforms will be stocktaking over the first week of the school holidays.

Their retail stores will trade on Monday 26th June 9-5pm and 

CLOSE from Tuesday, 27 to Friday, 30 June.  

The stores will be back trading on Monday, 3 July.

Trivia Night Major Fundraiser 2023

For information regarding this year's major fundraiser, our Trivia Night on 29 July, please go to the Community Association page where you can follow the link to book your tickets.

Please contact Emir if you are able to offer your assistance or for any donations. emirbajcic@gmail.com

Bebras Australia Computational Thinking Challenge 2023 

Round 1 of Bebras was held at school during weeks 2 and 3 of term 2 this year. Congratulations to all the students in years 3-6 who participated in the Bebras Australia Computational Thinking Challenge. Students worked individually or in small teams on a variety of tasks designed to challenge their collaboration and problem solving skills. The year 5/6 challenge was challenging for many students. 

Special mention goes to those students who achieved particularly high scores. These students were acknowledged and presented with a certificate at assembly today.

High Distinction: Zeina, Jasmine, Ben and Penelope W.

Distinction: Chelsea and Allegra.

Credit: Trinita, Isaac R, Isla, Nate, Erika, Jasper and Mida.

Well done everyone who participated and gave it your best shot! We look forward to Round 2 in Term 3.  

Winter Jokes of the Week

I hope that you enjoy the school holidays and are able to take some time to plan some special outings and activities with your children. It is a great time to get out the board games and jigsaw puzzles. I can highly recommend watching 'The Platypus Guardian' on ABC iView. It is a beautiful story and a great lead in to our geography focus for learning next term.

Stay safe and warm!

Verona Gridley

Principal 

vgridley@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au

PAM - https://pam.sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au

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