A message from Emily

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been great to welcome families back to school for Term 2. I trust that you all had a wonderful break and Easter celebration. Children were very excited to learn last week that we no longer need to have yard "bubbles" and now free to play in either yard. It has also been very exciting to have new lunch time clubs launched this week. Children are able to engage in lego, coding and choir. We look forward to hearing the great things that happen at these clubs.

I hope that you have been able to follow on our social media pages (links can be found on our Contact Us page in the Newsletter) to the wonderful things that have taken place over the last fortnight. We acknowledged ANZAC Day with an assembly on our first day back, celebrated Jesus' resurrection with an Easter Liturgy last Friday, children working at the farm, Inter School Sports, preparations for Mother's Day and the beautiful spaces that have been set up for learning. 

I also take pleasure in announcing that Lauren, Chris and Billy welcomed Harvey Lucas Hudson on Sunday 1st May at 9:04pm weighing 4.8kgs. Lauren has said that they already adore him and can't wait to watch him grow and learn. We look forward to meeting Harvey and giving him lots of cuddles.

This term we have introduced a new specialist timetable where children are engaged in the specialist program for a day. This has proved to be a success already with comments that the children are more settled and the educators feeling more productive. It has also meant that we could incorporate lessons for Preps and Year 1's at the Farm. We are lucky that two of our newest staff members, Helen and Kelly, have a love and passion for the environment and bring this to their specialist program. Kelly also has experience as an educator for New York City Parks and Recreation in New York. We will look for opportunities for Helen and Kelly to share their expertise with the children in other year levels throughout the year. 

Specialist Days and Lessons

• Tuesdays: Prep - Physical Education, Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Farm
• Wednesdays: Yrs 3/4 and Yrs 5/6 - Physical Education, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Innovation and Japanese
• Thursdays: Year 1 and Year 2 - Physical Education, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Japanese, Innovation (Yr 2) and Farm (Yr 1)

It was sad to hear that our new chickens had developed a disease that required us to surrender them to the vet. As a result we have taken the vet's advice to undertake some works at the Farm to ensure that any future chickens don't contract this same disease. We have advertised a working bee for Friday 13th May at the Farm to dismantle the exisiting coup and clean the area up ready for a new chicken coup to be put in its place. We will also be continuing other projects at the Farm and Andrew will be able to talk about these at the working bee.

With recent changes to COVID restrictions we are now able to welcome parents onsite and within in our school buildings without you needing to show your vaccine status. However, if a parent is at school as a parent helper or volunteer then we will need to ask you to show evidence of your vaccine status when you check in at the office. If you choose to walk your child into their learning hub we do ask that you leave the space by 8:45am to allow children and educators to start their day. Please make sure you maintain social distancing when entering school buildings. We also ask that you remember that educators are actively supervising children before and after school so won't be able to engage in in-depth conversations with you about your child's learning. We encourage and welcome you to make a time to sit and do this with the educator when they are able to give you their full attention and share your child's growth.

At the end of last term we were sad to say goodbye to Kerri. Kerri made the difficult decision to not return to St John's this term for personal reasons. We wish Kerri all the best for her next endeavours. 

We are very excited to welcome Benita and Sarah. Benita will be working with us this term as a Student Counsellor and Sarah has been employed as our new psychologist. We are very lucky to have their expertise as part of our community. I encourage you to go to the Learning section of this newsletter to see a photo and learn more around these new staff members.

With the removal of staggered pick up at dismissal it has meant an increase in the number of vehicles accessing the area at the one time. We encourage everyone to have patience but also be aware of not blocking traffic, particularly the path for ambulances and public buses. Please do a lap of the streets if there is not space to safely pull over to collect your child/ren or wait 5 minutes to come to the school. There is always staff on duty for 15 minutes at the end of the day and usually by 3:25pm all traffic has dispersed. When accessing the back yard for pick up we need all cars to turn left back onto Essex Street at all times. Please do not attempt to turn right. This is unsafe and holds up the flow of traffic. Please respect staff on duty and the instructions they are giving in order to keep everyone safe and the traffic moving freely.

I would like to take to opportunity to wish all the mums, aunties, grandmothers and special women in the lives of the children and staff of St John's a very happy Mother's Day for this Sunday. We hope you are made to feel as special as you make us feel everyday.

Warm wishes,

Emily