School Newsletter - Issue 11 - Friday, 28th July 2023

Principal's News

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Welcome back to term 3 with what will be another action packed term full of learning and fun! Looking forward, we have Father’s Day, Kindy celebrating 100 days of Kinder, Science Week and Book Week just to name a few events. We will continually keep you updated but also keep referring to the school calendar for any events planned. 

Australian Primary Principal’s Association Conference (APPA) 

I will be attending the APPA conference from Monday to Wednesday next week. This will be a great opportunity to listen to distinguished keynote speakers as well as network with Principal’s from around the country. It’s an important opportunity to build these relationships and bring these learnings and connections back to our community as well as keep up to date with current research and practice. 

Important Contact Detail Updates 

We have recently had some issues trying to contact parents/carers if your child is sick, injured or just doesn’t know how to get home. Please check and/or update personal information ie: address, phone numbers and contacts on Compass. This needs to be done on the browser, not on your phone app. We have had a few incorrect details when we have tried to contact parents about students in sick bay, don’t know how to get home etc and can’t get hold of parents/carers. Please contact the office for support if needed. 

 Kind Regards

Marcel Arendse
Principal

Assistant Principal's News

At Home Reading 

This term at St John Fisher, we really want to encourage reading at home every night for our children. The below infographic demonstrates how important it is to read at home each night. 

When reading at home with your child, don’t feel like you need to take the place of your child’s teacher. They will support you with books and resources to help your child practise reading at home. We want families to encourage a love of reading with their children whilst they are practicing a very important skill. 

Attendance 

It has been a great start to the school term at St John Fisher and it has been great welcoming all of our new and returning families. We have noticed an increase in children arriving late to school in the morning. We understand getting children to school in the morning can be difficult at times, but we know that even being 10 minutes late in the morning can have a significant impact on learning and social skills over a period of time.  

Morning supervision at school begins at 8:20am and the children begin to make their way to class at 8:50am. Children arriving after this time must be signed in by a parent as ‘Late’ at the front office as class rolls have already been marked. 

Afternoon Pick Up   

The children have been responding really well to our afternoon pick up routines. It is important the children are clear in the morning how they are getting home whether it be by bus, drive through or walkers. If these arrangements change throughout the day, please notify the office and they will pass the message to your child. 

A reminder for families using the drive through pick up not park where the witches hats are prior to 3:10pm. There have been some cars starting to park for drive through early which has caused lots of congestion on Hansen’s Rd and limits the ability for other cars to enter the school car park. 

Thanks for your help and support with this. 

Congratulations

We are extremely proud to announce that Conner M from Year 5 has been chosen by public vote to have his artwork published in an indigenous children's story book! The book has been collaboratively developed as part of the 'Drawing Us Together' competition run by Bateau Bay Square and an indigenous author for NAIDOC week.

The story was sent out to a group of schools who's Indigenous students were invited to illustrate a page in the book, and the illustrations were displayed at Bateau Bay Square over the school holidays for the public to vote for their favourite artworks.

We had 6 finalists chosen from our school who produced some incredible artwork, and all of them should be so proud of their illustrations. Conner's illustration was amongst the top number of public votes, and will feature in the book! This is such an amazing achievement and experience for Conner! We cannot wait to see the book come to life!

Stephen Lynch
Assistant Principal

Class Merit Awards

Religious Education Co-ordinator News

                   Sourced from: https://www.creativebiblestudy.com/Bible-study-on-prayer.html 

Behavioural Expectations 
 
Every fortnight, as a school we focus on specific behavioural expectations that helps the students of St John Fisher follow our one school rule: 

This fortnight we have been learning that: 
SJF is a Safe and Happy Place when:  
We Play Fairly and Allow Others to Play in Peace 

Classes have been looking at fair play, how to establish rules in a game and how to play within the same areas and get along.  We are very blessed to have such wide-open spaces for the children to play at SJF, but negotiation skills and fair play is very important wherever you are.   

Upcoming dates: 

7th August 7 pm - First Eucharist Information Evening St Cecilia’s Wyong 
8th August - Mary MacKillop Liturgy at 9:15 am led by Year by Year 4  
15th August -Whole school & Parish Mass for the Assumption of Mary 9.15 am 
1st September - Father’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy  

Luisa Lawicki
Religious Education Co-ordinator

Sports News

CCC Athletics Carnival

We wish all the students who will be participating in the 2023 CCC Athletics Carnival at Mingara next Friday all the best of luck, and especially to Willow T who will be running the 100m in the first multi-class race.

Library News

Premier's Reading Challenge

There are 3 weeks remaining until the end of the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge. Students have until the 18th August to enter books read onto the website to participate. With nearly 300 students participating and 86 students completed, this is the best participation St John Fisher has ever had!

Listed below are the students who have passed the halfway mark over the last month, many ar
K-2 students who have reached the halfway mark as we read books together in their Library session.
Big congratulations to those who have recently completed the challenge. Well done!

Reading your favourite books is a great way to prepare for Book Week in week 6. For more information about the NSW PRC check out the website NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2023 : Home (det.nsw.edu.au) or help logging books contact teresa.okeeffe@dbb.catholic.edu.au

Teresa O'Keefe
Teacher Librarian

Parent Engagement Co-ordinator (PEC)

SJF Advisory Meeting

During week 3 this term our SJF Advisory will be meeting. If you have any items to be raised at the meeting, please contact me on my email below or any of the advisory members who can be found by following this link SJF Advisory - St John Fisher Tumbi Umbi (sjfdbb.catholic.edu.au)

Mufti Day

On Tuesday 8^th August we will celebrate the Feast Day of Mary MacKillop. On this day we will be having a Mufti Day to help support Catholic Care and Mary Mac's Place. Please bring in a gold coin donation to help us donate to this very worthy cause.

Parent Support Group

We still have some places available for any parents hoping to attend our 6 week support group run by our counsellor Wendy and myself. If you are needing any extra tools or support this is a wonderful opportunity offered by our school. The groups will be running on a Thursday morning at 8am from week 4 to week 9. Please contact me if you’d like to be included via my email below.

Uniform Fittings

I will be available in the school hall on Friday 11^th of August from 8:30am with a selection of uniforms available to try on.

Playgroup

Our first “Little Fisher’s” Playgroup for the term will take place on Friday 11^th of August following assembly at 9:15am in the main hall. Siblings, friends and family are all welcome.

Parent Helpers

We have some events coming up at school and would love some helpers to volunteer for the following,
Wednesday 23^rd August – Assembling Father’s Day Gifts (9am – 10am)
Wednesday 30^th August – Father’s Day Stall (8:30am – 11am)
Friday 1^st September – Father’s Day Breakfast (various times between 6:30am – 9am)

If you are available for any of these days, please pop me an email at   
kate.benton@dbb.catholic.edu.au

Kate Benton
Parent Engagement Co-ordinator (PEC) 

Flyers

Upcoming Events