Message from Gemma

Dear families and friends,

Our children have settled in beautifully and we are learning so much about each other through our Wonder and WoW weeks. Thank you to all the families who were able to book a chat online with our hub educators. Learning from your family is always the first point of call for us. It was lovely to hear the feedback and the interests / traditions of different families. 

Our beginning of school Mass was a beautiful celebration, full of joy and hope. Our walk to the Church was a swift and easy one. We were able to take small groups per Educator, this enabled lots of conversations and wonders to be shared on the way and the way back.  

School Picnic 

We have been checking daily in hope that the limit on outdoor gatherings increased, however, we far exceed the numbers for a COVID safe gathering. We were so excited to welcome all families onsite unfortunately it is not possible to continue with this whole school event. Therefore we have made the difficult decision to limit our picnic to our Prep families only, as they have not previously had a chance to meet together after the cancellation of their social gathering in 2020. 

The Prep family welcome picnic (5:30 pm, Tuesday 16th Feb) will now also replace our planned Prep Parent event on Fri 26th as COVID numbers will also restrict that indoor gathering.

We will live stream our Welcome to Country ceremony for all families to join in this sacred experience. A link to view will be shared via the Community Portal. We will also organise our Lunar New Year Dragon to arrive during school hours to ensure ALL children experience this special event. 

Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday

 We will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday as a faith community. This marks the beginning of Lent, a period of reflection and preparation before Easter. 

Shrove Tuesday (Tuesday 16th Feb), also referred to as Pancake Tuesday, is traditionally a day where people use up all of the rich foods in their house, such as butter, sugar and eggs, before fasting begins on Ash Wednesday. 

This year we will be gathering in our Houses to learn about Shrove Tuesday and to share some delicious pancakes as a community. We encourage children to wear their house colours on this day. Children will be sharing experiences in mixed age groupings. Ash Wednesday  will be gathering in our St John’s Church Hall on Ash Wednesday to celebrate a liturgy, led by Father Rene.  

Swimming

Good luck to the following children competing in the zone swimming.  We super proud of you all. 

Eric Pham

Tom Nguyen

Eliza Morris

Jimmy Bua

Joanna Bua

Vanessa Yu

Caspian Truong 

Joshua Tran

Oliver Ryan

Staff change 

Just when we think we are all settled - Matt decides to leave for a sunnier state.  The sun is calling Matt, Leah and Harper for a new adventure. As we smile for them, we cry for us. We hope the adventure is full of great experiences Matt and keep in touch!! We will be forever thankful for the work and support you have given us at St John's. Andrew will be at the farm on Wednesday's with Haley. 

Uniform 

Please remember to wear the correct school uniform (sport on sport days), including black school shoes (all black sneakers are fine). Please note that leggings or stockings are not permitted to be worn under the summer dress due to heat of the day. Our school dresses are available to buy, we are seeing a few creative versions of the school dress however the school dress as displayed in the uniform catalogue is the correct dress. 

Please note that in 2021 the children will have Sport on the following days:

Prep - Thursday

Year 1 - Thursday

Year 2 - Thursday

Year 3/4 - Wednesday 

Year 5/6 - Wednesday