Term 2, Week 4, 18 May 2023

Principal Message

Dear Parents, carers and members of the St John's community,

It was fantastic to see all of the mums, grandparents and motherly figures come in for the mother's day breakfast. I hope that all of the mothers had a blessed Mother's Day.

These events are so good for our community to celebrate and great opportunities to gather together. Thank you also to the stage 1 team and Ellie Bailey - Leader of Mission for their preparation of a beautiful Mother's day liturgy which followed the breakfast. 

During the week I was lucky enough to travel down to Coffs Harbour for a learning collaborative conference in which the keynote speaker was Lyn Sharratt. We have a learning collaborative team of teachers here at St John's so we all attended together. Over the 3 days of the conference we were delving into the different Components of the Lyn Sharratt Assessment Waterfall Chart. 

The Assessment Waterfall Chart provides a framework for rigorous assessment, curriculum design and instructional practice. Ultimately, the framework seeks to develop a culture of learning where we work intentionally to develop student metacognition and assessment literate and capable students, teachers and leaders. 

The Assessment Waterfall Chart provides a broad framework for developing assessment capable learners who:
• Are aware of their current level of understanding in a learning area.
• Understand their learning path and are confident enough to take on the challenge.
• Can select tools and resources to guide their learning.
• Seek feedback and recognise that errors are opportunities to learn.
• Monitor their own progress and adjust course as needed.
• Recognise what they’re learning and can teach others.

We can't wait to share this new knowledge with staff and continue on this journey to improve learning outcomes for our students here at St John's. 

Mrs O'Dwyer - Long Service Leave

We wish Mrs O all the best as she officially began her period of Long Service Leave on Monday. Mrs O will be on leave until 14th June as she travels to Canada to visit her Daughter. During this time we welcome Greg Flint into the role of Acting Assistant Principal - a role he is very familiar with! We also welcome Karla Chartres who will work additional days to cover some of Greg’s and Naomi’s classroom teaching/support duties from Monday-Wednesday for the duration of Naomi’s leave. We thank Greg and Karla for their flexibility and we wish Naomi a safe and happy trip.

2023 School Annual Improvement Plan

It is my pleasure to share with you the 2023 St John's School Annual Improvement Plan (SAIP). Data collected through the Parent, student and staff Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Surveys in 2022, as well as student learning data, have informed our direction for this year. I welcome any feedback or questions that you may have.

To view the 2023 SAIP, please click on the link below. 

St John's External Review

On June 20th-22nd, we will have a panel consisting of Lismore Catholic School office staff, peer principal and a Review Chair from ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) conducting a review on the school. 

The school review is an opportunity to reflect on current practices and progress made towards improving the quality of teaching and learning and subsequently, student learning and wellbeing outcomes. The review team will work closely and collaboratively with our school staff, students and parents to identify existing strengths and provide recommendations to inform the school’s next improvement cycle.

The Panel will use the National School Improvement Tool (NSIT) to collect evidence and analyse data against  To view this Tool, please click HERE.

Upcoming Dates

Please find below a list of dates savers below of events that are occuring this term. 

• Friday 26th May - National Sorry Day
• Friday 26th May-Sunday 3rd June - National Reconciliation Week
• Wednesday the 31st of May - 9:30am whole  school Mass Pentecost (stage 3 leading)
• Monday 5th June-Friday 9th June - St John’s Catholic Schools Week
• Friday 9th June - School Athletics Carnival
• Saturday 10th June - Old and Gold Festival @ Bruns
• Monday 12th June - King’s Birthday Public Holiday
  
• Tuesday 20th June - Thursday 22nd June - St John’s External Review
• Friday 23rd June - St John's Trivia Night (Please see flyer below)
• Tuesday 27th June - Student Report Cards released to Parents
• Thursday 29th June - Last Day of Term 2
• Friday 30th June - Pupil Free Day (Staff PD Day)

Cyber Safety Parent Workshop

Please find below a flyer with information about a Cyber Safety Parent Workshop with Brett Lee from Internet Safe Education. This session will take place in Murwillumbah. I have personally attended a number of Brett's sessions as a parent and educator and found them extremely practical. Brett Lee founded internet safe education in 2008 and has been working tirelessly in schools to educate parents and students about technology. Brett has worked as a Queensland police Officer for 22 years, 16 of those as a Detective in the field of Child Exploitation. In the 5 years prior to his retirement from the QPS, he was a specialist in the field of internet child exploitation investigations. This experience gives him great insight into how to keep kids safe online. 

If you can get there, it would definitely be worth your while. 

St John's Trivia Night

I invite you to attend the St John's Trivia Night. Book a table and bring some friends for what will be a great night. Thank you to the Parent Forum who have organised the night for our community!

To book your table, please see Tundra in the office or book online using the link below. https://www.trybooking.com/CILBF

Kind Regards, 

Dave Bermingham

Principal Awards Week 4

LEADER OF PASTORAL CARE & WELLBEING

How do you manage screen time in your household?

Hard to believe it is already week four. The feel at school is very positive: I can see that the children have settled back in to school life and learning very smoothly. Positive pro-social behaviours and engaged play on the playground and strong learning habits evident across all classrooms auger well for student wellbeing. Of course we work together parents and school to nurture strong learning habits and healthy social development. 

Managing childrens’ access screen time appropriately at home is something parents can do that has big pay offs at school in both the social and learning domains. See below for lots of great info regarding managing healthy screen use in the home. Check out the website if you’d like further info.

Best regards, Greg

Most families wrestle with the management of children and screen time at some point or another. It is a vexed issue, one well worth spending time and effort to get right. Research is telling us that excessive screen time has many negative impacts on children, including poorer self-regulation, concentration and more anxious behaviours. We also know now that many online games are designed by teams of programmers who work with psychologists to design games that have addictive qualities. They are simply very hard for kids to resist!

Excellent website for parents:

Screen time and digital technology use for children: part of a healthy lifestyle

Screen time and digital technology use can be part of a healthy lifestyle when they’re balanced with other activities that are good for your child’s development. These activities include physical play, outdoor play, creative play, reading and socialising. Getting the right balance also includes making sure screen time doesn’t interfere with sleep.

Our tips can help you encourage your child to use digital technology in balanced and healthy ways.

Make rules about screen time and digital technology use

You can help your child balance screen time and digital technology use with other activities. One of the best ways to do this is by working together on family rules or a family media plan.

Your family’s rules might cover:

• where your child can use digital technology – for example, only in family rooms or not in the car
• when your child can use digital technology – for example, mealtimes are free of TV, computers and phones, or no screens before school or until chores are finished
• how your child can use digital technology – for example, for making animations or checking a netball shooting technique, but not for playing Candy Crush
• how you handle digital technology use for children of different ages – for example, there might be some games that your older child can play only when their younger sibling is out or has gone to bed
• how your child can stay safe online – for example, by letting you know if they come across upsetting and inappropriate content, or by checking privacy and location settings and personal data safety.

It’s OK if your rules include time limits to help your child balance screen time with other things like physical activity. For example, it might help to know that Australian physical activity guidelines say school-age children should have at least one hour a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity like running or jumping.

2. Aim for short screen time sessions

When your child is using digital technology, it’s best for your child to have short screen time sessions and take regular breaks. Getting up and moving around is important for your child’s energy levels, development, sleep, and overall health and wellbeing.

You can do this by encouraging your child to:

• use a timer to set breaks
• do something active when the timer ends, like play outside
• make use of natural breaks in screen time – for example, encourage your child to do a victory dance when they finish a level in a game.

LEADER OF MISSION

Living our Mission!

In Week 7 of this term 5th - 9th of June we are celebrating something really worthwhile - Catholic Schools Week. This year's theme is “Living our Mission”.                                                                                               This is a theme well-used by the Salvation Army who put their feet on the ground in helping those in need. 

How do we live our Mission? Whose mission is it? The Church? Jesus? Mine?                                             Pope Francis said in his World Mission Day address, “...In a similar way, every Christian is called to be a missionary and witness to Christ. And the Church, the community of Christ’s disciples, has no other mission than that of bringing the Gospel to the entire world by bearing witness to Christ.”

As a Catholic School community we are being called to live out the mission of Jesus Christ. If we are followers of Jesus we need to own something about the mission. How do we do that?

One way our St John’s community did this was by raising funds for Project Compassion during Lent last term. This term our focus is the Mini Vinnies Program. Next week in week 5 Miss Riley O’Leary and I will introduce to the students some creative ways our St John’s community can raise funds for St Vincent De Paul. Students are encouraged to join the Mini Vinnies group and plan these activities. At the end of term we will hand over the funds raised to St Vincent De Paul in Mullumbimby. 

Tuning into Kids Parent Workshops

Every Thursday for 6 weeks we have Tuning into Kids Parent Workshops occuring from 1:15pm-2:45pm. Please find a flyer below.

Tuning in to Kids® is an emotion-focussed parenting program. It provides parents and carers with skills in emotion coaching, which is about recognising, understanding and managing their own and their children’s emotions.

When children develop these emotional skills they are better able to negotiate the ups and downs of life. To date over 100,000 parents have attended Tuning in to Kids® programs in Australia alone.

Getting the Most out of Gaming - Parent webinar

The Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT, in conjunction with the eSafety Commissioner, is holding a 45 minute webinar on Tuesday, 23 May, to provide families with strategies for supporting children and young people to have safe, positive experiences when playing games online. It is designed for parents and carers of children aged 7 to 14.

It will cover the following:

• when gaming can be beneficial;
• strategies to promote better in-game experiences;
• how to keep children safe online – using safety and privacy settings in games and platforms;
• strategies to promote more balanced gaming and how to create smoother transitions from game-play to other activities; and
• the key online risks and where to find help for things like bullying and harassment in games.

For more information and to register, click here.

STORY DOGS

SCHOOL INFORMATION

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU"

Our Birthday people:-  

Mia, Malakai, Alariah, Samara & Penny

Chromebooks for Sale

We have some old school stock (5 years old) of Chromebooks. Both white and Black laptops are available to purchase for $50. Laptops have been reset to factory default and include a charging cord. Please see Tundra in the office if you wish to make a purchase. 

Piano Lessons

Piano lessons in 2023  at St John’s, during school hours and after school.
Enquiries please call Daniel Holland 0401 071 667