A message from Emily

Dear parents and carers,

MACSSIS Survey Now Open: Last week you should have received an email from me with your family pin to access the MACSSIS Survey. This survey opened on Monday and is now ready for you to complete. Thank you to the families who have completed the survey already. We really value your feedback. Please contact the School Office if you need any support with this.

It was great to see so many children and staff of St John's participate in Book Week last Friday. Thank you to all the families who spent time putting costumes together for their children. Please check the Learning section for some photos from this event.

Last week I was lucky enough to participate in a Mary MacKillop pilgrimage run by Sr Rita who is a Joesphite sister and a former staff member at St John's. The pilgrimage started in Werribee at MacKillop College and progressed to Hamilton, Portland, Mount Gambier, Penola and finishing in Adelaide. This experienced allowed me to stand in the footsteps of Mary MacKillop as I learnt more about her and her achievements. I hope to share more of my reflections with you over the coming weeks but have included a couple of photos from the pilgrimage below. The quote I have included is something that resonated with me and my experience on the is pilgrimage. I captured this quote while in Adelaide at the Mary MacKillop Museum.

The above photos were taken in Penola at the site of the first school of the Sisters of St Joseph. There is a display that has all the schools listed in Australia that were opened by the Josephites including us at St John's. I am pointing to our school name on the display.

The above photos were taken outside the Mary MacKillop Museum in Adelaide where St John's purchased a brick. You will notice that there is a cross present in a couple of these photos. As part of the pilgrimage we were asked to bring an artefact from our school with us and I chose to take the cross that was gifted to us earlier in the term from the MacKillop Heritage Centre in celebration of our 100 years.

On Tuesday a number of staff members attended Day 2 of Berry Street Education Model. The focus of the day was relationships. Our educator, Sarah, was very engaging and shared a wealth of information with us. It was also affirming to connect with what Sarah named as being important components of the Berry Street Education Model and what is lived in the practice of staff at St John's. One of the key messages that I would like to share with you that I took from the day is; Behind every behaviour is an unmet need even if we don't agree with that need being unmet. So if feel your child is seeking connection, heightened or experiencing a 'meltdown', this will be linked to an unmet need. During these times we are encourage to have a 'zen mind' to create room for empathy. To create a 'zen mind' you might need to observe your breathing, observe your thoughts, pause all reactions before then supporting your child to calm down to a point they can talk about what is happening and helping them to regulate their behaviour before then entering into what the problem might be.

FINAL UPDATES:

• Tomorrow the installation of our new sails purchased using the Government Grants will be completed.
• Please check the Parish News section of the newsletter for information about the Spring Alpha starting tonight. 
• NAPLAN reports for parents of children in Year 3 and 5 will be sent home on Monday.
• Please don't block the Essex Street round-about. Only two cars can wait to enter the backyard for drop off and pick up. If two cars are already waiting please go around the block until it is safe to stop or enter the backyard gates.
• Check out the Parent Engagement section for construction images of our new chicken coup being built by Emmanuel College VCAL students.
• We're looking for parent volunteers to support Eileen in stocktaking and sorting our library books on Wednesday 14th September. If you can help, please email - econroy@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au

Warm wishes

Emily