School Newsletter - Issue 5 - Friday, 12th April 2024

Principal's News

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to Week 10, it's very hard to believe that this is the end of the term! It’s been a very busy, but very enjoyable term. It’s been a huge term where we have held our school cross country, enjoyed the ‘Big Arvo’, hosted a very well attended Open Day/Night, completed sibling 2025 enrolment interviews, made Easter hats, and enjoyed our Easter Hat Parade, and most importantly established very settled class and school routines. 

Staff Development Days (Pupil Free) 

As a system, it was decided that for 2024 the number of staff development days would be increased. Below is a guide as to how these will be used. Most of these dates have been included on the Compass calendar but we are able to update two dates we had not locked in: 

Term 2 
Monday 29 April 2024 - System Curriculum Reform Day 
Friday 17 May – ADHD/PBL St John Fisher Staff only 
Friday 5 July 2024 – System-wide SDD Towards 2025 

 Term 3 
Monday 22 July 2024 - System Curriculum Reform Day (Primary only) 

Term 4
TBD – Staff Spirituality Day 
Thursday 19 December 2024 – Class handover meetings and forward planning (staff final day) 

Winter Uniform  

I know that you are so happy to see these words, just a precursor to think about preparing over the holidays! When the students return in Term 2, the summer uniform is still our uniform. We will gauge the weather as the term commences before giving notice as to when we will transition to winter uniform. We will give some transition time but aim for mid-term two. 

2025 Enrolments 

This is an important part of the enrolment process and one where partnerships between schools and families begin.  It has been very exciting interviewing and meeting sibling families over the last two weeks. We will continue these interviews with new prospective families early next term. It has been so affirming hearing what makes SJF a good place to be, we truly are blessed to be part of this amazing community. 

We wish you all a happy and safe break and look forward to welcoming everyone back relaxed and refreshed next term. 

 Kind regards


Marcel Arendse
Principal

Assistant Principal's News

Stage 2 Soccer Gala Day 

On the 10th of April, 2024, Year 3 and Year 4 went to a Soccer Gala Day at Adcock Park. It was a very windy day, but we all had so much fun playing games of soccer against the other schools. On the day, we had to wear shin pads, so if the ball hit us in the shin it wouldn’t hurt. We played lots of games and it was so much fun cheering on our teammates when they scored a goal. Everyone said they had a great day playing soccer with their friends and we thank our great teachers for taking us. We can’t wait until our next gala day! 

By Gracie C and Jayden F. 

Holiday Reading 

The children have had such a great start to the year and it is important to keep the momentum flowing over the holiday period, particularly with reading. If your child is a reluctant reader or finds reading challenging there are lots of things you can do to help them to read during the school holidays. 

• Continue with a daily reading routine. Short sessions of even 20 minutes per day can make a huge difference. 
• Spend some time with your child revising their letters, sounds, decoding words, making predictions, and inferring meaning from books.  
• Engage the children by giving them the agency to choose books for themselves. Take them to the library or a bookshop and let them find the books that interest them. 
• Find stories that relate to your child’s interests or, if you’re traveling somewhere, find stories about the destination or activities you’ll be doing. 

One of the very best things that we can do as parents is to show the kids how much pleasure they get from reading. So grab yourself a book, settle down to read, and enjoy the holidays! 

SJF Athletics Carnival

Our athletics carnival will be held on Wednesday 19th June, Week 8 at Mingara.

After-School AFL Clinic 

Excitingly, we have a 4-week After School Auskick program at school starting on Wednesday afternoons, 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm. The program will run from 15th May to 5th June in Term 2. This program will be run by Auskick facilitators. 

Students will have a great time playing amazing footy games, learn lots of new skills, and get an awesome goodie bag as part of the registration! 
 
Open to all students from St John Fisher in Kinder- Year 6. 
  
Register here or scan the barcode: https://www.playhq.com/afl/register/75767f 

Stephen Lynch
Assistant Principal

Key Dates

Class Merit Awards

Growing in Faith and Knowledge Awards

Religious Education Co-ordinator News

CC: The Graceful Chapter 

Project Compassion 

As always, Supporting Project Compassion is a big part of our Lenten focus at St John Fisher.  Thank you to all the families who have returned their fundraising boxes. We ask, could all boxes please be returned to school by Wednesday, Week 1 of next term. 

A special mention to Lucas M and his family for their outstanding fundraising efforts. They raised $307.40 and we are so grateful that they committed their time and efforts to such an amazing cause. 

Year 6 Leadership Day 

Year 6, together with all the other Broken Bay Catholic schools, participated in a leadership day run by Mr. Danny Casey, Director of Catholic Schools Broken Bay, and Bishop Anthony. The theme of the day was leadership and a call to action. 

Dance Troupe 

A huge thank you to the very talented Amy Kyle, with the assistance of Vanessa Turner, for their support in creating our first-ever SJF Dance Troupe.  Auditions were held over the last two Thursday mornings and were very well attended. When putting out an expression of interest, we had no idea that it would be so popular.  Therefore, we are now in the planning stages for ways we can support this opportunity to a wider audience.  To start, Amy will be working with a group of students in Years 4-6 and a St Peter’s Dance Troupe will be made from students in Years 5 & 6.   

Thank you to all who attended, we hope that you had fun and we will let you know about upcoming opportunities. 

Leaf Legends 

Starting next term, we will be implementing a whole school reward system where all students work together to make SJF an even better place.  Teachers will be acknowledging behaviours that follow our school rules: 

“At SJF We Make Good Choices to be Respectful, Responsible Citizens" 

Teachers will hand out ‘Leaf Legend’ awards to students making good choices.  The student then takes it back to class and explains to the classroom teacher why they have received a ‘Leaf Legend’.   

Once the class has collected 20 ‘Leaf Legends’ they will be acknowledged as a class in assembly and their little leaves will be swapped for a ‘Golden Leaf’ that will be placed on our big tree in the hall.  The aim is for the school to work as a team to collect 20 ‘Golden Leaves’. 

Mother’s Day Liturgy and Open Classrooms 

This year for Mother’s Day we are doing things a little differently.  We will be having breakfast as normal for all mums on the COLA, but it will be a hot breakfast this year.  Classrooms will also be open before school from 8:30 am for mums to go into and have a look around. We will do the same for Father’s Day this year and will swap Grandparent’s Day to open classrooms after the liturgy.  By alternating we hope that over time this suits everyone.  We will be celebrating Mother’s Day on Friday 10th May at 9:15 am, with breakfast starting at 7.30 am. 

Luisa Lawicki
Religious Education Co-ordinator

Parent Engagement Co-ordinator (PEC)

Anxiety Workshop 

This term we had over 50 of our SJF parents attend anxiety workshops aimed at providing valuable information and tools to families struggling with anxiety. The workshops were facilitated by Christine Hain, our school counselor/psychologist, whom we were so lucky to have with us this term.  

Over the holidays I will send out some resources via Compass for those unable to attend. And we hope to offer more on anxiety moving forward. 

This week, I sat down with our school counselor Liz and we planned some fantastic parent workshops for next term. Please feel free to reach out if there are any specific topics you’d like covered and we will do our best to make sure we provide as much support as we can to those families in need. 

Anzac Day – The Entrance Foreshore, Dawn Service & March 

Anzac Day, Thursday 25th April (week 2 of the school holidays). 
We would like to invite any SJF families to join us at the Dawn Service at The Entrance Foreshore. We will meet at Subway on The Entrance Rd and make our way as a group to the service. Some Year 6 students will lay a wreath on behalf of our SJF community. 
Later in the day, we invite you to join us to march on behalf of SJF. We will meet on Ocean Pde, outside KFC between 11 am and 11:15 am and make our way as a group to The Entrance Rd where we will join the march. Our students are preparing a beautiful handmade wreath to present at the service following the march. 
We ask that students wear the FULL SCHOOL UNIFORM and remind them of the importance of the day and honour in representing our school. Also, be reminded that this is a family event, there will be teachers attending, but you will be responsible for your children on the day. 
 
Here is the link to register your intention to attend. 
https://forms.office.com/r/7TkWaM9RrV 

Mother’s Day Stall 

This year our Mother’s Day Stall will be held on Wednesday the 8th of May. Gifts will be $6 each and there will also be grandparent options available. If you can help on the day from 8:30 am-11 am, please contact me at kate.benton@dbb.catholic.edu.au 

On Wednesday of Week 1, the 1st of May, I will require some assistance in bagging and organising all the gifts. If you are able to come along straight from drop-off, please let me know. The more helpers, the quicker it will be. 

Mother’s Day Dad Helpers 

Calling all dads, uncles, grandfathers, friends! We would love to spoil our beautiful mum community with a hot cooked breakfast this year at our Mother’s Day brekky, which will be held on Friday, 10th May. To make this happen we need help, from 7 am -9 am. We need 10 volunteers to set up, cook the BBQ, serve coffee & pack up. Please let me know if you can help or have someone you can offer up as a helper! 

Kate Benton
Parent Engagement Co-ordinator (PEC)

Library News

Reading is the best way to improve learning, and the holidays are a perfect time to encourage your child’s reading for leisure. Try talking about the stories being read in your family, listen to your child read while cooking, read to or with your child for some special one-on-one time, let them see you read. Don’t forget to remind them to add books they read to the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge and assist them if necessary. Tips for this can be found here.  

How to add a book to a Student Reading Record 

Adding a Personal Choice books to a Student Reading Record 

Congratulations to our students who have recently reached the halfway mark in the
Premier’s Reading Challenge:
Lotta L, Elijah B, Brooklyn D, Evie G, Jacob G, Ella H, Grace U, Kai N, Chloe J, Zoe K, Stella G, Ariah H, Mylee L, Lilly M, Leon S, Taylor S, Breanna A, Emilia B, Lachlan C, Kai D, Olivia F, Sophie K, Olivia L, Jasper P and Charlotte S. 

Special mention to the reading stars who have completed the challenge this fortnight:
Jonty H, Francesca L, Hudson S, Frankie B, Hudson H, Callan D, Leonardo L, Sophie K, Lucas M, Lola W, Oceane C, Adelaide K, Aria B, Jade F, Mila H and Natalie M.  

Many of our Years 3-6 students are accessing a trial of SORA, a digital ebook and audiobook library free to our school at the moment. This gives them access to a huge collection of texts which would be perfect for holiday reading. 

Scan the QR code or visit https://soraapp.com/library/cenetau and login with your dbb email address.eg. firstname.lastname@dbb.catholic.edu.au 

Remember to select ACEN as your school. 

Have a safe holiday and happy reading! 

Teresa O'Keeffe
Teacher / Librarian

Aboriginal Education

Yarn Up 

At Yarn Up we have had a lovely time getting to know one another, our stories, and our culture. Prior to Easter, we heard a dreaming story about the importance of eggs and experimented with foam eggs and shaving cream; a messy yet enjoyable time! 

Last week we attempted to play some Indigenous games indoors due to the rain. This week we gathered some natural resources for our next project which will be completed next term, Week 2, when Yarn Up starts again. I wish you all a very safe and relaxing holiday and I look forward to engaging with our students in Term 2 

Flyers

Upcoming Events