Term 4, Week 4, 3 November 2022
Principal Message
We are at the end of Week 4 and the halfway mark of the term is fast approaching.
On Tuesday we celebrated All Saints Day and we thank Stage 1 for leading us in a beautiful Mass. The students are to be commended on how well behaved and engaged they were. Thank you to Mrs Loane, Miss McEvoy and Miss Wells for their preparation of the Mass. Thank you also to the parents who were able to join us in this celebration.
A reminder that Monday 7th November is a pupil free day, however our staff will be hard at work. We have a busy day planned for the staff, as we will be co-constructing a data wall. A data wall is a visual representation of student data and the data that we are using for this is our writing data. The purpose of a data wall is to assist us in identifying learning patterns at different levels and for us to plan instruction for each individual learner. As we view the data wall, we will assess trends that concern us, question each learner's progress and begin work to prevent losing track of the progress of any learner. This work aligns with our School Improvement Plan (Image Below) - I can't wait to share more about this with the community.
Key Dates for Term 4
Please find below key dates for Term 4 at this stage. Any additional dates will be communicated as they arise during the term.
- Monday 7th November - Pupil Free Day
- Friday 11th November - Remembrance Day
- 11th - 13th November - Mullumbimby Show
- Saturday 19th November - Day on the Green Event
- Wednesday 23rd November - Swimming lessons for K-2 begin (Repeat each Wed, Thurs, Fri for 3 weeks)
- Wednesday 7th December - End of Year Concert
- Thursday 15th December - Last Day of Term 4
Ongoing items to be conscious of during term 4:
- School Assembly is taking place every Monday at 2:20pm. Parents Welcome
- The School newsletter will go out on Thursday in Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
- Family Connect Worker Lisa Wood is in every Monday.
- School Tuckshop will be open every Friday.
DAY ON THE GREEN
New Date - 19th November 3pm-7pm
St John's @ Mullumbimby Show
As we all know, the Mullumbimby Show is coming up! Mrs Bailey has been leading the community in designing and building a school exhibition for the show around the theme of BEES.
We are looking to set up the exhibition on Thursday 10th November from 8:00am. If you are able to bee of any assistance, please contact Ellie Bailey (Kindy Teacher).
We thank all of the teachers and students for their unbeeelieveable thoughts and contributions, but especially to Mrs Bailey for leading the charge - she has certainly Beeen busy!
SAVE THE DATE
End of Year Concert
Wednesday 7th December 5pm-6pm
School Supporter Caps
A new addition to our School is some School Supporter Caps. There are for sale at the front office for $15 each. It is always nice to support the community and show your support of St John's, so jump in and grab one today. The caps can't be used as a school hat by students at school unfortunately.
Kind Regards,
Dave Bermingham
Principal Awards - week 3
Assistant Principal Message
Voice from the Heart During the last week of term four I was extremely fortunate to be able to attend the tri-annual NATSICC conference (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Conference) which was hosted by the Townsville Diocese. The conference is a celebration of Aboriginal and Catholic spirituality and an opportunity to build stronger expressions of Indigenous spirituality within the Catholic Church liturgies and prayers.
The theme of the conference this year was Holy Spirit Land and the delegates came from right across Australia. Many of our Indigenous nations and communities were represented at the conference.
One of the major themes of the conference was the Uluru Statement and the coming referendum about the ‘Voice to Parliament’. Dean Parkin who has been involved with Uluru statement from the get go was one of the keynote speakers. Dean presented a compelling case for the Indigenous voice to parliament being enshrined. The Indigenous delegates at the conference were very supportive of the ‘voice’.
Please take some time to watch Dean’s youtube presentation below and read through the statement which I’ve included below as well. I’d be fascinated to hear what you think of the statement the way it is written and the hopes and aspirations contained within it.
You can watch Dean’s youtube here.
Are you keen to learn more about the ‘Voice to Parliament?’
Follow this link to the Voice from the Heart Alliance.
ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart: Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago. This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown. How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years? With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood. Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future. These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness. We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country. We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution. Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination. We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history. In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.
Performance Poet @ St John’s
On Wednesday the 26th of October, Stage 3 students from St johns had St Finbarrs Stage 3 come to our school. We had a very special guest, poet Luca Lesson (https://www.lukalesson.com/) come and perform a few poems for both stage 3’s in the assembly room. Luca is a professional poet and writes about a lot of things, along with performing them as a job.
He said “It is such a privilege to become a poet for a full time job, because it is very rare to become one and actually make a living out of it”
He taught us all about poems and how to construct them. It was really great for us to learn about poems and how luca finds his interests and topics. When he read out the poems, it was really fascinating to listen to. He memorised the whole thing and for him to be so enthusiastic about it made them very intriguing to listen to.
We are really grateful to have had the opportunity of Luca coming to visit our school. Speaking on the behalf of St johns and St Finbarrs stage 3 students, we thank the teachers from both schools for letting us have this special moment, and for Luca to take the time to share his knowledge and for him to inspire us with our poetry and expressing our thoughts and feelings in general.
Stage 3 representatives of St Johns Primary,
Shanti & Kodi
Performance Poet Visit
Student Poetry
The vacuum of Space Limerick
The empty vacuum of space is a cold and lifeless place.
It is much larger than Earth both in length and in girth,
the cold, dank vacuum of space.
Sleeping
Life is all about sleeping.
I am a stuffed toy lying on a bed.
I only want some peace and quiet.
The truth is I am always tired so go away and do something useful.
Sleeping is what i’m about so for the last time let me sleep.
Vida’s Poems
Life…
Life is all about soccer! I am a bulldog when chasing my opponent.
I only want soccer in my life, nothing else…
The truth is, I personally think I'm the BEST!
Life is all about soccer and I'm the STAR!
Days are tough…
Days are Tough when you have to get up in the morning…
Today I HAVE to go to school.
I try to act as best as I possibly can.
I believe that getting up in the morning is the HARDEST THING EVER! Days are Tough when CHILDREN have to get up.
Teaching & Learning
School Improvement and NAPLAN Data This year our school improvement goal in Learning and Teaching was to improve student achievement through agreed best practices, engagement, high expectations and collaboration with all stakeholders. One way to measure student achievement is through NAPLAN. We are always mindful that this is just one measurement tool within a range of tools that we use to measure student growth. There are multiple ways teachers gather data to inform classroom instruction.
Over the last few weeks staff have analysed the NAPLAN data to gain a better understanding of our strengths and future areas of focus. We were very encouraged to note the following in our Year 3 and Year 5 results:
- In Year 3, we outperformed both the state and statistically similar schools across all five domains (Grammar/punctuation; Spelling; Writing; Reading & Numeracy)
- In Year 3 writing, all students are above Band 3 with 55% of students sitting within the top two bands.
- Outstandingly 91% of Year 3 students scored in the top two bands for Reading.
- All Year 3 students are above Band 3 in Spelling with 46% of students sitting in the top two bands.
- Our Grammar and Punctuation results for Year 3 indicate that 64% of students are within the top two bands and all students are above Band 3.
- In Numeracy, 100% of students are above Band 3 with half the students sitting in the top two bands.
- We have double the number of Year 5 students in Band 5 or above for Grammar and Punctuation compared to 2021.
- 81% of Year 5 students are sitting above Band 5 in Writing.
- In Numeracy, we have more than doubled the percentage of students in Band 5 or above compared to last year.
- 54% of Year 5 students are in Band 5 and above in Spelling including 10% in the top two bands.
- In Reading, we have 81% of Year 5 students sitting above Band 5 including 18% within the top two bands.
These results are definitely worth celebrating. Congratulations to the teachers who have built such a solid foundation for learning. Our results will help us determine our focus areas for 2023 as we continue to strive to improve student achievement.
AROUND THE STAGES - Stage 3
Solving a NEED
Stage 3 have decided to:
k-2 – After surveying the students they would like to buy Sand and sand
play equipment
3-6 – After surveying the students they would like to buy basketballs,
handballs and Soccer balls.
Community – they are raising money for Mission Australia to buy goats
for Indonesia as they are in a drought and Goats milk is good for their
babies and food.
During Week 5 Stage will be raising money, please bring money to participate in the activities and help support them.
All Week - How many lollies in a Jar (Colt, Seb, Will, Hudson and Vida)
Tuesday – Stall in canteen (Katie and Aliza) Wednesday – Handball competition (Tommy and Joey) Thursday – Soccer shoot out (Marley and Quinn) Friday – Dress up Day (Year 6 organising)
SCHOOL INFORMATION
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU"
Our birthday people
Remi & Billy
Piano Lessons
Piano lessons are available at St John’s, during school hours and after school.
Enquiries please call Daniel Holland 0401 071 667
FAMILY CONNECT - The Lunch Box: snack sized tips with Lisa
Parenting Ideas
The Parenting Ideas website is a great resource for parents and was founded by Michael Grose, a leading Australian Parenting Educator. They have a blog https://www.parentingideas.com.au/blog which has loads of helpful posts with topics such as:
- Know what makes girls / boys tick
- How to stop sibling rivalry
- Helping children grow into their best selves
- Avoid doing deals with kids
- When a child loses a pet
- Helping your child make and keep friends
If you’re interested in developing your parenting skills, our Family Connect worker Lisa Wood can help link you into face to face or online parenting courses. Lisa is at St John’s each Monday. You can contact Lisa on 0429 441 518 or email her lisa.wood@socialfutures.org.au
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS PARENT ASSEMBLY
COMMUNITY NEWS
