Message from Gemma

Dear families and friends,

A big few weeks at St John's. Our open hub night was amazing, it felt so warm and right to see our families in the spaces.  Uncle Bill definitely set the scene of our night with welcome to country and blessing place. He welcomed us with his stories, shared language, history and future. We hope to continue learning more and doing better. 

It's a big newsletter this week - apologies in advance for all the info :)

Staffing

We announced to our 3/4 hub last week, Angela Flint will be heading on to a new adventure. Angela has given many many years to St John's in various roles - Classroom teacher, Religious Education Leader and Family Engagement. Each year I hear Ange say to children, I taught your older brother, sister and so on. Ange has certainly held a large piece of St John's story and will be very missed. Her incredible time at St John's will be celebrated on the 4th June in a special assembly after recess. This change of time is to enable the 3/4 hub to have time together and have their children's 'celebration plans' fulfilled.   

Jarryd and Thushari will be assigned to 3/4 hub from June 4th.

We also welcome extra educators, one educator will soon be appointed to Year 1 and we welcome Nicki to our Year 2 hub, along with Mary. This supports Mitch to have a greater role in 5/6 as Linda heads off on her travel adventures and Thushari to return to 3/4 solely.  Nicki's profile will be up on the web very soon, along with our yet to be announced Year 1 educator. 

Professional Learning

We had 2 amazing sessions with Sue Larkey after school over the past 2 weeks. Sue Larkey is passionate about her mission – to inspire parents and educators. She has taught both as a primary school teacher and a special education teacher. She is a highly qualified educator,  she combines practical experience with extensive research having completed a Masters in Special Education and currently undertaking a Doctorate in Education. We certainly left feeling a greater understanding and with practical strategies to implement. We will continue learning in this area with different experts leading us. 

Learning and Teaching walks for parents: 

In the coming weeks, I will be holding learning walks. The purpose will be to take elements of our learning and teaching design and give greater depth to the place of these the purpose and the impact of these. I'd love to hear what you would like to know more about. :) 

Reports and learning feedback 

We are constantly trying to best feedback and feed forward the plethora of data we have of children's growth at St John's. We will be trialling a Parent and Teacher data chat. This is an optional chat where Semester One reports will also be given. If you chose not to attend, the report will be sent home.  We acknowledge the report is one piece of information indicating your child's level against the Victoria Curriculum. We have much more data we are able to share.  We are building upon Seesaw to show growth and children's progress in a timely manner.  We are working towards each post showing your child's learning and demonstrating intention and success within a quality post, not necessarily building the quantity/frequency of posts. 

Growth / Data chats - Parent and Teacher Chats 

This NEW opportunity will give parents an optional time (a link will be provided) to meet with a hub teacher to discuss a snapshot of data - your child's progression and what is next, pre and post assessment, reading levels, reading and writing goals, essential assessments - learning at home that might support this growth etc. We will be very interested to hear your thoughts after this experience.  

Ideas on the table: 

What are your family thoughts?

As always our team review what is working, what is not working or simply what do we think could work better. Our yard times have always been on the table. We find many of our children want to eat their 'bigger' lunch earlier. If we were to swap play times around to our previous times (40 mins first and 30 min second and 5-10 min mindfulness) we have thought of the following benefits:

• Second play - calmer entry back into hubs with music and time to be grounded and centred
• First play 40 mins - time to eat a 'bigger' meal
• Specialist  classes would move from 45min to 1 hour
• 2 hour learning blocks 9am - 11am and 11.40am - 1.40pm throughout day

To ensure we make a decision based on different perspectives, I'd love to hear any thoughts / opinions / wonderings if you have any.  Please email me by May 31st. We will not be discussing this as a team until after this date. 

Building and engagement on the playgrounds 

We are witnessing a lot of play in our new cubby under the hut. Lots of washing up and cooking going on each day. Water play and colouring have been a hit. Our lunch time clubs are full each day. 

Our new seating area has been a hit for our avid readers and game players. 

Soon we will be working on the 3/4 hub area - creating an inside atrium. This will support our many weather changes. Our atrium will be full of glass and light to capture as much of the outside inside. 

We're also excited to announce a 'new arrival' to St John's in the coming weeks - our very own recycled piano. This piano is part of the PREPS (Program for Recycling Educational Pianos in Schools) initiative, we can't wait to hear the children creating their own tunes at break times!

100 Year celebration 2022 

Our beautiful school is 100 years young next year. We are beginning to plan for our 100 celebrations. We have begun talks with a local mural artist - our plan is to create a mural on the shelter shed wall facing  the farm - this mural would tell the story of 100 years. We will be calling any parishioners, community members,  ex students, families, current families and children to be part of this. We hope to have families talk and draw images which will inform the mural.  We will be finalising dates for our celebration Mass and our day of celebration within the school. More info to come... 

I once again thank everyone for your support, care and love. We are seeing many effects of last years Co-vid year, we are managing many different emotions and feelings when settling back into a new normal, this is made easier with your support. 

In thanks,

Gemma