St John's Newsletter - 10th June 2022
Dear Parents and Friends of St John's,
Next week, St John’s and All Saints Parish will be celebrating candidates who will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. This Rite of Initiation is seen as a 'coming of age' ritual and is administered to a baptised person by a bishop anointing the candidate’s head with oil. It is a sacrament designed to strengthen people in their Christian faith and elicit from them a promise to live a life that witnesses Christ’s presence. Candidates will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at the hands of Bishop Robert McGuckin at 6:00pm on 16th June at All Saints Church. All are welcome to attend this joyful celebration. Congratulations to the following St John’s students who will make their confirmation: Kianzie Cruz, Lucy Jenkins, Raffie Cawilan, Archie Densley, Hayden Marris, Bryce Mills, Kohan Wheatley, Eva Stevens, Kyle Howard, Oliver Howard, Hannah Murphy, Ethan Murphy , Lincoln Brown, Bentley Brider, Isabel Cook, William Stanford, Paige Proud, Scarlett Challenor, Max Challenor, Caitlin Auld, Ivy Barden, Kelcee Harvey, Keynan Harvey, Faith Iseppi, May Iseppi, Venessa Abil, Delilah Broom and Georgie Watson.
Last Wednesday, Marian students participated in their House Liturgy. The motto for Marian House is 'Mighty and Glorious'. Students and staff in this House seek to demonstrate courage and faith no matter what the circumstance. Older students (Lions) watch over their Cubs (younger students) and lead the pride. Lions teach us to hold our heads high, even in times of conflict, and to conduct ourselves with dignity. The lion is a symbol of strength and courage which students use to lead both in the classroom and in life. Our liturgical celebrations draw our students and staff together to share common beliefs of Christ’s love for all and our Mercy values. I thank Ms Baker, Mrs Parker and all staff and students involved in the liturgy.
Work has commenced on the removal of residential buildings on the old Pinaroo site. The site was acquired by St John’s in a land swap arrangement which saw Pinaroo assume the old Dean O’Dea Oval whilst St John’s acquired the area located on the corner of Duke and Bowen Streets. The site will be redeveloped to allow for the future construction of school drop off, carpark, sports shed and oval facilities and forms part of the St John’s Facilities Master Plan.
Year 11 students are currently engaged in an application process for leadership positions for 2022/2023. Eleven students have nominated for School Captain and House Prefect positions and next week they will deliver their speeches to staff and students in Years 4-12. Voting and interviews will complete the process during Week Nine with candidates informed of the outcomes during Week Ten prior to a Leadership Investiture Mass on Friday 24th June.
Years 11 and 12 Report Cards were released to families last Friday (3rd June) via the Parent Portal in Sentral. All future student reports cards will be released in this digital format. This means families will no longer receive a printed hard copy from the school. Currently, parents can access information about their children’s schooling including attendance and timetables from this web-based platform. The release of student reports through this digital platform will allow parents to download and print the reports. Instructions on how to access the Parent Portal are available through the school administration.
A reminder that our Athletics Carnival will be conducted next week with P-3 held on Friday 17th June at the school and Years 4-12 on Thursday 16th June at the Little Athletics in Bungil street. Events commence from 9am on both days.
God Bless
Jim Brennan
Recently, the Year Six classrooms have been a hive of activity as we have been working on different Design Technology challenges.
We’ve made our own seismographs as part of our Science unit on earthquakes.
As part of our HASS unit, we examined what makes a good infographic and then created our own on Canva.
We are now designing and testing our towers, using what we have learnt about the different ways to reinforce a building so it can withstand an earthquake. It is proving to be quite a challenge, as we can only use straws, pins, string and paper clips!
Parents
Tuckshop orders are received and paid for through Flexischools, which you can access online or by downloading the App. You can find our school by typing in Roma, then finding St John’s. Cut off time is 8am on the morning of Tuckshop (every Tuesday and Thursday). It’s important to let your child know if you have only ordered for one break and which break you have ordered, as students will sometimes get confused about the day or the break. It is very easy to think you have ordered First Break but accidentally put Second Break, and also it is quite easy to order for the wrong day, so be careful to check this before sending through. Flexischools will send you an email to confirm your order, so it is a great idea to check this to make sure there are no errors.
At the Tuckshop, we proceed to get the orders together which, for Primary, are put in their class boxes and picked up by Year Six students and taken to the classrooms. The students will need to come back to the Tuckshop, with their bag, if they have ordered an iceblock. Secondary students will collect their orders from the Tuckshop individually. If your child does not receive their order, please let them know to come to the Tuckshop or tell a teacher as we never let a child go hungry. Sometimes, it is just ordered for the next break, a different day or maybe another child has accidentally picked it up out of the box.
If you have any questions regarding Tuckshop orders, or volunteering at tuckshop, please do not hesitate to contact Anita Crawford on 0418985276.