Newsletter - 28th March 2024
Sod Turning Ceremony
Last week, we marked the sod turning for our new construction project on Bowen St. The project encompasses three vital components:
A Multi-Purpose Sports Hall: This is a space where our students will engage in physical activities and learn valuable life skills such as teamwork, discipline and resilience.
A Parking Area: This well-needed parking facility will help ensure the safety and convenience of our students, parents and staff.
A Drop-off and Pick-up Zone: This area will help to streamline the drop-off and pick-up process for your students. The frustration of long wait times, multiple trips around the block, and traffic backing up on Duke Street will be overcome.
Our gratitude extends to Aspect, ICM, the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office and the local subcontractors who will transform these plans into reality. Their expertise and commitment will shape the future of our school. Special thanks must also go to Mr Jim Brennan, former principal of St John’s, and Belinda Hayward, our business manager. Their strategic vision and persistence in applying for grants to help fund this construction were essential in getting us to this point.
Years Five and Six SRC speeches
I had the privilege of watching the Year Five and Six students deliver their speeches to apply for positions on the Student Representative Council. I was very impressed by the quality of their speeches and their public speaking ability. Many referenced the values of St John’s School and our school theme for 2024, ‘We are better together’. We are so lucky to have so many great students to choose from for leadership positions.
Cross Country in the Rain
The resilience of our senior students was on display on Monday as our competitive cross-country runners braved the elements to register their times for selection in Roma & Districts teams. Their good humour was well appreciated, and I’m sure it was a memorable experience for them. At the next level, cross-country events go ahead in rain, hail, or shine, so I’m sure it was good practice for them. Thank you to Meg Lyons for organising the event and for her flexibility in altering carefully laid plans at the last minute to ensure the event could take place.
NAPLAN
NAPLAN is over for another year. Well done to the students in Years Three, Five, Seven and Nine for their perseverance and effort in completing the tests to the best of their ability. The school will receive their performance data in Term Two, which will help to identify areas of strength and areas to focus on for improvement. We look forward to seeing the growth in our students' performance.
Lastly, my family and I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Easter break.
Cheers,
Mark
We are excited to share a glimpse into what our Year One Health classes have been up to this term.
This term, we’ve explored the concepts of personal identity and emotions.
One of the focal points of our lessons has been exploring the strengths and achievements of each student and understanding how they contribute to our unique identities. Through various activities and discussions, students have been encouraged to reflect on their personal strengths and celebrate their achievements. It has been wonderful that the children have been able to discover more about themselves and their classmates, sometimes even revealing some hidden talents.
We have also spent some time understanding emotions and the impact our feelings have on ourselves and others. Through interactive role playing and miming activities, students have been able to demonstrate a range of emotions with their peers and build an understanding of how emotions impact others. The learning activities students have participated in this term have not only supported individual growth but helped in building relationships with others.
This term, Year Three students have been investigating how ‘Night and Day’ works. We have explored how the sizes, shapes, positions and movements of the Sun, Earth and Moon create night and day. We investigated how shadows change throughout the day and linked these changes to the Sun’s ‘apparent’ movement across the sky. We realised that in fact we are moving, not the sun! We role-played the movements of the Earth in relation to the Sun and Moon. Following our investigations, we were able to explain night and day in terms of the Earth spinning on its axis. We made predictions, conducted observations and experiments, and even made our very own sundial. The sundial was tricky; however, we learnt a lot about fair testing and discussing how our experiment could be improved for next time.
In Year Six English, students have been learning about visual literacy and the techniques authors use to convey meaning without words. We have explored Gary Crew's books, 'The Water Tower' and ‘Beneath the Surface’ to analyse the devices employed to create a specific effect. As we progress through our unit, we are focusing on creating our own texts to accompany a wordless picture book.
Did you know that Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth and Xanthophobia is the fear of the colour yellow?
In Media Arts, we have been learning about movie trailers. Students then used their knowledge to create a movie trailer for a horror movie about a phobia. They had to consider the movie’s genre, unique selling point and target audience. When filming and editing, students thought about music, shot types, voiceovers and special effects. We also learnt about using green screens for photos and videos.
When the movie trailers were finished, we held a screening. Our special guests, Mr Watson and Mrs Purssell chose one group to be the recipients of our very own Oscar inspired statues.
The fear of media is called mediaphobia!
This term in our St John’s Year Ten Visual Art class, students created a mixed media resolved artwork inspired by Lewis Carroll’s famous children’s novel, Alice in Wonderland. Students explored both the story and its characters, before learning about Steampunk Art which is a style of art inspired by the Industrial Revolution. They then designed and created their own masterpieces using a variety of media. The students had a lot of fun during this process and created some amazing pieces. Well done, students!
A massive thank you goes to all students who participated in the Crazy Hair Day and sausage sizzle. We truly appreciate the support from parents and caregivers who helped create some artistic hair styles. We are sure you are still finding glitter in your home as we are still finding it in our classrooms.
It was an amazing sight for the leaders to walk through the school and see the variety of hair designs which definitely showed that students had been very creative. We are glad to announce that $1,354.20 was raised; this is all thanks to you. This money will go towards a brand-new water bubbler at the new basketball courts adjacent to the secondary oval. We could all do with a nice cool drink on these hot days.
Thank you so very much.
The Student Leadership Team
Alex Bond
Alex is a Year 12 student who treats teachers and peers with respect and leads by example. He always displays impeccable manners and has a kind word for all. He gives every task his best effort and is always willing to lend a hand in PC. Alex is a popular role model with our Year one buddies and younger PC students and is always happy to have a laugh. He is an asset to our PC and Xaverian House. We know Alex will continue to do great things in his senior year and beyond!
Holy Week
This week is Holy Week, the week preceding Easter, and it is a very solemn time within the Church. Since Easter represents the fulfilment of God's promises to mankind, it is the most important holiday on the Christian calendar. It is an opportunity to reflect on the last 40 days of Lent and the journey to become more like God in our thoughts and actions. We will hold our Holy Week Liturgy on Thursday for all students and staff.
Project Compassion
Thank you for all the support shown for our school’s Project Compassion fundraising. We will have a donation of over $700 for Caritas to help continue the work they do with the poor and disadvantaged around the world.
Easter Mass times
Easter Mass time for All Saints Parish, Roma, are as follows:
Good Friday: 9am Stations of the Cross
3pm The Passion of the Lord
Easter Saturday: 7pm Easter Vigil Roma
Uniform Shop Hours:
Monday 2:00 - 4:30pm (including Monday 15th April)
Wednesday 8:00 - 10:30 am
Term 2 - Monday 15th April
Online:
https://theschoollocker.com.au/schools/st-johns-catholic-school
