Around The Primary

Dear Parents,

Spring is finally here! Time to open up the house and let the sunshine in. Clean those windows, tidy up the garden, go through all the cupboards, and throw away everything that has cluttered up the house.

Spring is also a great time to clear our busy schedules and to take the time to be in the moment, to see, to listen and to appreciate our family and friends.

In these last two busy weeks of school, take the time to share with your children the everyday things you are grateful for and listen to what they have to be grateful for. Find the joy in a simple conversation with your family across the dinner table, or while you walk the dog or even as you wait in the car after-school for the traffic to clear on John XXlll Avenue. 

Let’s all try hard to support children to appreciate the little things we are ‘gifted’ with each day.

Our Interhouse Athletics Carnival was a huge success today! Congratulations to all the Years 3-6 students - it was great to see their determination and perseverance throughout the day. They are also to be commended for their enthusiastic level of participation and team-work. It was wonderful to have many parents on the oval encouraging and cheering the students. A big thank you to all the staff, parents and the grounds staff for their assistance throughout the carnival and special thanks to Mr Williams for his organisation and preparation of this great event.  Well done to all our Houses.

Congratulations to our champion House for 2020: Koolyangarra 

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

Future Playground Workshop

Our landscape architects enjoyed visiting the College and running a workshop with a group of Year 5 and 6 students to investigate their preferred options for a dream playground.

Grandparents Picnic Update

Thank you for your ongoing efforts to ensure that our College is a safe place for our children and staff during this unprecedented time.

To ensure that we all continue to remain safe, schools are required to adhere to physical distancing recommendations, as well as, appropriate hygiene practices.

Even though we continue to move ahead cautiously with events, the College has decided not to host our annual Grandparents’ Picnic Lunch this year.

We understand this can be disappointing for families, however we appreciate your understanding as the safety and well-being of all in our community, especially our wonderful grandparents, is our priority.

Little Libraries

Some ‘Little Libraries’ have popped up around our Primary School! The idea behind these Little Libraries is to provide students with the opportunity to share their love of books with others and to foster their own joy of reading. 

Students are able to browse through the books in the Little Library and select one they might like to read at home and in return they leave an old favourite of theirs behind for someone to choose. 

The students are keen to be involved and so we look forward to seeing a number of titles coming and going from the Little Libraries to keep the interest and supply of books alive. 

Angelico Art Exhibition 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Angelico Art Exhibition was not open to the public this year, however the Artwork can be viewed as a virtual tour online: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=CjCPtLjJwxj 

Congratulations to the following students whose artwork was selected to be exhibited, the largest number to date!

Special mention to Elizabeth Levey (6B) whose painting titled 'Family Tree' was awarded the Fra Angelico Highly Commended Award.  Congratulations Elizabeth!

All their amazing artwork will be exhibited at the John XXIII College Art Exhibition in Term 4.

Ms Fiona Blaauw

Primary Visual Arts Teacher

Science Wonderland

Last Friday the Year 5 classes enjoyed an action-packed day at thescience wonderland Scitech!

It was a fantastic opportunity to have a productive day out of the classroom and extend our science knowledge. The students explored the interactive exhibits, participated in a wind turbine building challenge and enjoyed the show in the planetarium. 

“Scitech was a fun and energetic day for the Year 5’s and we got to experience all sorts of science activities. The planetarium was the favourite… but the easiest way to feel sick!” Blake Kavanagh 5B

“Scitech was an extraordinary experience for everyone. We were all engaged in lots of fun hands on activities. A highlight was the planetarium because you felt like you were in a rocket ship travelling around space.” Jake Fleay 5B

“I loved all the hands on experiences. The activities were great and I Ioved the planetarium, as well as, the free time exploring the different areas at Scitech.”  Hannah Engelbrech 5B

It was a memorable experience and lots of fun was had by all! 

Mrs Sonja Goss & Ms Jacqui O’Connor

Year 5 Teachers

Sports Update

Interhouse Athletics Carnival 

What a fantastic day full of colour, cheering, incredible effort and house spirit.  The individual performances in the track and field events were fantastic and in the team games, all houses displayed excellent teamwork.  

Hot off the press, final placings for the Carnival are:

Well done to all the students for their outstanding efforts and enthusiasm throughout the day.

Special congratulations to St Louis who took out the House Spirit Award!

The interschool team is being finalised and an email will be sent to families of students who will be selected to represent the College.  

Mr Steve Williams

Primary Sports Coordinator 

Counsellor's Corner

On Thursday it was ‘RU OK? Day’. Our Year 6 Community leaders ‘checked’ in with Primary staff and students to ask if they were ‘ok’. They visited classrooms and ran a stall at lunchtime to promote the RU OK? message and start a conversation using these 4 steps:

Children cannot be expected to fix someone’s problems, nor know the best way to help and support. However, they can be encouraged to listen to what their friend is saying, let them know they care and tell a teacher, school counsellor or trusted adult if they are worried about their friend. 

By promoting an environment of positive peer support and accessing support channels via an adult, children can learn that asking, ‘Are you ok?’ is a key life skill.

Thank you to our Year 6 Community Leaders - Annie Annan, Carla Chipperfield, Madeleine Holly, Lucy Soares and Renazia Tringas for their wonderful contributions on RU OK? Day. 

Mrs Anne Murphy

Primary Counsellor