Principal's Report

Parent Teacher Interviews 

Parent Teacher Interviews will mark the end of term 1 this week and staff are looking forward to catching up with parents and students to talk about the learning and progress that has been taking place throughout the term. The Interviews are an important time to acknowledge the areas where a student has performed well, not only about their academic progress but also as a young person who is growing in respect, maturity, organisation and self-discipline. These are all important aspects of their continued development into young adults. During the parent teacher interviews students will be asked to reflect on what they have learned  and how they best learn. From these important conversations, the strategies and next steps will emerge for their learning in term 2. Parent Teacher Interviews begin on April 4th at 3.30pm in the Br Leo Scollen Stadium. 

House Athletics 2019

For the third year in a row, Aquila House took out the 2019 Athletics Carnival at Casey Fields on Monday from a very competitive Columba House. In overcast conditions, our students competed strongly in a range of events displaying the outstanding athletic abilities of the St John’s students. In addition, Phoenix House demonstrated by their house chants and enthusiastic support for their team members throughout the day won the Shield for House Spirit. I thank all of our students for their efforts on the day particularly our Sports Captain and House Leaders and extend my appreciation to our Sports Co-ordinator Mr Alexander, the PE staff and all staff on staging a wonderful Athletics Carnival. 

Easter Liturgy 

This week our school stopped to consider the central message of our Catholic faith through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our Easter liturgy gives our senior students the opportunity to reflect on the difficult message of Christ suffering and ultimate crucifixion, which we can only really understand in the context of the joy of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. In Christ, we find God’s promise to all of humanity, eternal life.

APLEC & LYG 2019 Conference 

Over the school holidays Lasallian Mission Services and St Bede's College will be facilitating the Asia Pacific Lasallian Educators Conference (APLEC 2019)  in Melbourne from 14 April to 16 April .  

Brothers, educational leaders and professionals from Lasallian institutions throughout the Asia-Pacific Region will gather to hear from Keynote presenters  Bishop Mark Edwards (Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne), Dr Jim Watterson (Dean, University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education), Sir and Brother Patrick Lynch (Emeritus Director of Catholic Education in New Zealand) amongst others. 

Congratulations to our own learning leaders Dion Spoljar and Helen Kelley who will present a workshop on managing the school change required for student success and agency in the 21st century. 

Alongside the APLEC conference, the 2019 Lasallian Youth Gathering will also be held in Melbourne celebrating the theme: "EDUCATING FOR LIFE". This will bring together over 200 young Lasallians from Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea.  Youth Minister Harmony Miller and staff member David Fong will accompany 7 students from St John’s for the 3-day conference.

Staffing News 

As the term closes, I update you with the following staff movements for term 2: 

We extend our best wishes to Ms Trish Dounias as she goes on maternity leave for the remainder of 2019. Ms Sue Keel will take on the role of House Leader for Aquila for the remainder of the school year and Ms Catherine Bortolus will take over Ms Dounias’ teaching load. 

Ms Anne Smith remains in our thoughts and prayers as she continues her leave for term 2 to care for her son Mitch. Mr Shaun McInnes will continue to replace Ms Smith for term 2.

We wish Mr Peter Colvin well for his Long Service Leave and overseas trip for term 2. Mr Colvin will be replaced by Ms Dominika Kapustka  

Mr Tim Lee will also be on Long Service Leave for the first two weeks of term 2. 

We welcome back Ms Bethany Millership for term 2 as she returns from Maternity leave. 

We welcome back Ms Heather Fennel from sick leave for the commencement of term 2. 

We also send our prayers and bet wishes for a speedy recovery to library staff member Ms Nataile Bonefin.  

Harmony Day 

On Thursday the 21st of March, St John’s celebrated Harmony Day as a part of the broader state-wide celebration of Cultural Diversity . At St John’s we have many students from different cultural backgrounds and one of the great things about our school community is the genuine affection and care that our students have for each other. It is a wonderful opportunity for all members of our community to come together to share aspects of their culture, faith and language and celebrate St John’s as a place where we all belong. A highlight of this year’s Harmony Day was a performance by a West African Dance and Drumming troop which as the photos suggest was enjoyed immensely by our staff and students.. I wish to thank and acknowledge our students from Food Technology and VCAL who under the guidance of their teachers produced and sold some wonderful international foods on the day to raise money for Caritas, the Catholic International Relief agency.

STEM Professionals In schools 

(CSIRO) 

STEM Professionals in Schools is a national volunteer program that facilitates partnerships between schools and industry to bring real STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) into the classroom. This year we will commence a partnership with a retired STEM professional Dr Sukvinder Badwell a former Chief Research Scientist at the CSIRO, who will work with our students on some hands on STEM projects. Dr Sukhvinder Badwal is a world-renowned solid-state electrochemist with more than 35 years’ research experience in fuel cells, membrane technologies, gas sensors and renewable energy systems using hydrogen. We were also grateful that Dr Badwell was able to donate 15 Casio calculators for use by our senior Maths students. 

Administration Centre relocation to

De La Salle Building 

The scheduled handover date for the new administration centre in the De La Salle Building is the 11th of April, the first week of the school holidays. This will see all functions of administration shift to the first floor of the De La Salle Building from the beginning of term 2. All access and entry to St John’s for the public will take place via the main entrance on Caroline Street, which will improve the safety and security of our school grounds. Parents requiring access to the administration will be able to park in the carpark adjacent to the De La Salle Building on Caroline Street. Parents will no longer be able to enter the school grounds via the main driveway to access visitor parking. We will update our parent community by SMS communication should our handover date and access to the new administration be delayed. 

Bereavement 

We pray for the soul of ex-student Jean-Pierre Canal who sadly passed away on 19 March 2019 at 47 years. Several members of the Canal Family attended St John’s in the 1980’s and Jean-Pierre coached the St John’s Old Collegians Football Club to a reserves premiership in 1999. 

We pray:   Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord and may perpetual light shine on him.  May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.  Master of the Universe, hear our prayers, we make them in confidence forever and ever. 

Amen. 

CLC Open for Business these School Holidays 

Our Contemporary Learning Centre will remain open from 9am until 3.30pm on each day of the school holidays except for the Easter public holidays. This service is open to all students wishing to complete homework or assignments for Term 2. 

Happy Holidays! 

I wish all members of our community a safe and Holy Easter Holiday and hopefully some relaxing family time together over the break. I look forward to seeing our students on theirsafe return on Tuesday the 23rd of April.