Term 2 - Week 1, 2024
Principal's Message
Hi everyone,
Welcome back to Term 2! Seeing the students reconnect with each other and the staff after the holidays has been wonderful. It has been a great week, with a lot happening to start the term.
Welcome Uncle Al
I am thrilled to welcome Uncle Allan Phillips to our school as our Aboriginal Education Worker! Uncle Al is a much-loved member of our local community and a proud Gumbaynggirr man. He will be working at Mt St John's each Monday and Friday, helping us build cultural awareness and supporting all our students. Welcome Uncle!
ANZAC Day March and Liturgy
Thank you to all the students and families who attended our ANZAC Day March. All our students participated with reverence and respect. A special thank you to Eden Gibson and Ethan Miller, who stepped up as student leaders and laid the wreath.
On Thursday, we celebrated ANZAC Day with a moving Liturgy at school, punctuated by Xavier Beckett's incredible rendition of the Last Post.
Zone Cross Country
We had 19 students compete at the Zone Cross Country in Grafton on Wednesday. I was incredibly proud of all our students' sportsmanship, resilience and persistence. A special congratulations to Colby Gibson, who has made it to the Diocesan Cross Country. Well done to everyone who had a go!
Compliance
As part of compliance, I am required to let you know about our Child Protection Policy and Procedures. All staff are mandatory reporters, which means that legally, we are obliged to report to the NSW Government any reports of children at risk of harm or any significant incidents involving child safety.
Our Child Protection Policy and Complaints Handling Policy are available on our website HERE (under About Us/ Policies).
What's On - Term 2
At the end of Term 1, we published a comprehensive What's On for Term 2. Here is a LINK in case you missed it.
Newsletter Survey
We had 7 responses to our Newsletter survey, and as a result, we will continue to publish the newsletter fortnightly (odd weeks). I have included a screenshot of the results for your information.
Please mark Monday, June 3rd, on your calendar. We are offering a Parent Webinar with the team from The Resilience Project. Some details are included later in the newsletter, and more information will follow closer to the day. There will be dinner and babysitting provided to make it easier for you to attend!
As always, please call or email me with any questions or concerns.
Have a lovely (albeit wet!) weekend,
Deborah Bailey
Principal
School Improvement - Mission
Teachers create Improvement goals annually that drive the school’s agenda for the year. As last fortnight’s newsletter shared, Mt St John’s has three goals this year: the Mission of Jesus Christ, Learning and Teaching, and Pastoral Care.
Our Mission Goal for 2024 is:
All students and staff will develop a shared understanding of our history and identity as a Catholic school.
We aim to achieve this by:
- Investigating our history and the work of the Presentation and Mercy Sisters and aligning and renewing our school values.
- Introducing students to various prayer styles, including traditional, meditative and contemporary prayers and traditional and contemporary hymns.
- Celebrating our school centenary.
In our school, you will see evidence of this in the following ways:
- All staff will engage in professional learning about the history and charism of Mt St John's. They will gather data from parents, students and the wider community about what values we want our students to embody, then review our school values to ensure they align.
- At the end of each lunch break, students will be introduced to traditional prayers as a whole school. All community members can nominate a special intention through a prayer bowl in the foyer. The school then uses this as a focus for the prayer each day. This fortnight, we are learning the Hail Mary.
- The community will come together to plan and celebrate our rich history when we celebrate the centenary later in the year.
Parent Forum Update
Thank you to everyone who attended our Parent Forum evening on Tuesday. We had 40% of families represented, which is AMAZING. Janita Thomson led us through the process of deciding which Parent Group model our school will use moving forward. As promised, we are attaching a 'one-pager' explaining the 2 models and some historical data outlining fundraising over the past 7 years.
If you want to learn more about the two models you can read more in this document.
When you are ready to give your preference, you can click here to complete this short survey.
Please register your preference by FRIDAY 17th MAY.
Whole School Focus
Our school community focuses on a particular social skill or community concern each fortnight. Our teachers and student leaders look for students demonstrating these skills and give out GEM Awards to celebrate. In Term 1, we focused on Keeping Our Bags and Belongings Tidy, Saying Please and Thank you, and Using People's Names. Below is our focus for this fortnight.
Mothers' Day Events
Mothers' Day Fair
What is it? It is a market where children bring up to $5 to school and can buy a Mother's Day gift.
How does it work? We ask families to send in gifts they have been given that may not quite hit the mark but that other Mums might love. These are then regifted. It is an opportunity to clean out the cupboards by regifting unopened and unused presents you may have been given. These items are sent to school, and then the children can buy a gift for their Mum.
If you have gathered items to add to our fair, please bring them to school. The children will make their purchases next Thursday morning, 9th May. Items will be sold for $5, $3, or $2 and wrapped after the children make their selections.
This is an exciting event for the children as they shop for their Mum independently. Remember - all items for sale have been re-gifted and are in excellent condition. If you don’t want your donation returned to you, it might be a good idea to let the children know what you are donating (just a tip from past experience). The proceeds from our market will support Pregnancy Care in Coffs Harbour. We plan to run a similar event for Father’s Day later in the year. Thank you for your support of this event!
Mothers' Day Liturgy & Afternoon Tea
All mums, grandmothers, and those who care for the children in our school are invited to a special Mother's Day liturgy and afternoon tea next Friday, May 12th, at 12:30 p.m.
Could you please send in a photo of yourself and your child to be used as part of our liturgy by next Wednesday to my email: louise.sprowles@lism.catholic.
Looking forward to seeing you next Friday!
Louise Sprowles
Leader of School Evangelisation and Catechesis
Staff Development Days
Please be advised that our school has the following CSO-mandated MID-WEEK Staff Development Days. Students do not attend school on these days.
Thursday 30th May
The Resilience Project
You are warmly invited to our next Parent Night—Connected Parenting Webinar, which will be held on Monday, June 3rd, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.
What you can expect.
This Connected Parenting Webinar offers a valuable set of tools for parents and carers aiming to raise children through positive connections and communication. Tips for parents and carers will include;
- Guiding our children to become resilient adults.
- Practical strategies to build stronger connections with your children.
- Ideas to support your children when they are frustrated or going through challenging situations.
- Simple ways to create co-operation.
- Dealing with our own triggers as a parent.
- Understanding big emotions and feelings and assisting your kids in becoming emotionally resilient.
The evening will be led by Lael Stone, an author, TEDx speaker, counsellor and parenting educator who specialises in navigating trauma and disconnection in families. She has spent the last 17 years working with families, as well as running programs in Secondary schools for teens on relationships and Well-being. She is a mother of three grown up children and the co-founder of Woodline Primary School - a new innovative school focused on supporting emotional intelligence in children.
Class Awards
This term, we are re-instituting Class Awards in addition to our GEM Awards each week. Congratulations to all our Award Winners for Week 1.
| Principal's Award | Xavier Beckett | for his courage and willingness to play The Last Post at our Anzac Liturgy. |
| Kindy | Jack Morgan | for using your great listening skills in Religion. |
Sam Garnock | for your wonderful work during our sound lessons. | |
| Stage 1 | Larney Francis | for great work in sequencing numbers in Mathematics. |
Charlotte Wickham | for her ability to listen to instructions and then work well in group work. | |
| Stage 2 | Ryan Beaumont | for your hard work and persistence when adding 10 to larger numbers. |
Lucca Laughlin | for your willingness to share your mathematical thinking with the whole class. | |
| Stage 3 | Mia Gilbert | for excellent work in Maths. |
Hayley Munro | For applying herself to all class activities. |
GEM Awards
Congratulations to our GEM Award winners
| Week 1 | |
| Whole School | Tyson Talbot |
| Kindy | Ziggy Carter-Sims |
| Stage 1 | Lawson Ellis |
| Stage 2 | James Beaumont |
| Stage 3 | Rosie Wright |
School Library News
Now that our library is open, students can borrow again regularly. We are splitting library times for infants and primary school students over two days after lunch to minimise disruptions to key learning times.
The schedule will be:
Wednesday - Primary (Stage 2 and Stage 3)
Thursday - Infants (Kindy and Stage 1)
Students may borrow 4 books each week, and they should bring a cloth library bag to school on their library day to help protect their books.
We look forward to sharing our beautiful, reimagined library space with the students and encouraging them to develop a lifelong love of reading!
Cathy
School Librarian
Book Club
Issue 3 Book club catalogues have been sent home this week. Orders and money are due back at school by next Friday 10th May.
Enrolment Changes
Our school has moved from paper-based enrolment applications to online enrolments using Compass. As an existing user of Compass, you will find a new tile in the Compass app called Family and Enrolments, found under the “More” icon in the Compass app or under the Cog icon in your preferred browser.
Now that the family and enrolment module has gone live, you can update your contact details as a parent anytime. We strongly encourage you to log in to confirm your details. If you update your details, they will update across all schools where your child is enrolled.
Applications for 2025 can be completed from June 2024.
See our website for more details on how to enrol and where to get assistance if you need it.
Term 1 School Fees
Term 2 school fees have been billed to each family this week. Term 2 fees are due by Friday 14th June, unless you are paying by regular direct debit amounts.
1 student - $318
2 students - $556.50
Payment options are:
- using the Compass app - You can check your school fee balance and pay fees through the Compass app. Select more - school fees - next - and enter your credit card details. You have the option to pay in full or pay a portion of your fees.
- cash or cheque at school
- direct deposit to the school's bank account (see instructions below)
When using Internet banking, please use your child’s surname as a reference.
Banancoast Community Credit Union
BSB no. 533-000
Account no. 3282 0430
Name: Mt St John’s Primary School
Remember, if you feel you will be unable to finalise your Term 2 school fees by this date, some financial assistance may be available from St Vincent de Paul - to make an appointment with them, call 0472 718862. You will need to take your school fee statement with you to your appointment.
Thank you!
School Facebook Page
Check out our school Facebook page! It is wonderful to be able to share the good news of our school with our families and community.
How to Cancel a Canteen Order
If you need to, you can cancel canteen orders before 9am on canteen day. If you know your child is going to be away you can go into Compass Canteen and select "cancel order".
The refunded money goes back into your Compass "wallet" so you can use it next time you order - when you get to the Confirm & pay screen, click on the down arrow and select Compass Credit.
Community Notices
GLUE
GLUE God Loves Us Eternally KidsClub is held each Wednesday during school term time from 3-5pm at the Anglican Church Hall. Afternoon tea, games, fun worship and craft. All primary kids in Years 1-6 are welcome, as are newcomers. For more info, ring Gwenneth on 6657 2135.
Dorrigo Rangers Rugby
Bellingen Dorrigo Junior Rugby League
Felicitee Method Consultations
NSWCPS Girls 7s Rugby
Bellingen Bulldogs AFL
Bellingen Bulldog's Junior AFL offers programs for boys and girls aged from 5 years old to 17 years of age, starting with an Auskick program for younger children and competitive teams for boys and girls starting from under 10's up to under 17's.
Information on how to register for the club along with contact information for parents is below.
School Bus Travel
Students who need a School Opal card or travel pass for 2024 can apply here. A new application will need to be submitted if they are applying for the first time, or if they are requesting additional travel entitlement because of new shared parental arrangement (e.g. joint custody).
If a student’s distance eligibility has changed based on their grade (i.e. grade two to grade three), the system will automatically update their entitlement if they meet the new criteria. If they do not meet the new eligibility criteria, an expiry notification will be sent via email.
Students who have an entitlement approved under a medical condition that is due to expire will receive a notification advising them to re-apply.
Term Bus Pass holders will receive a notification to re-apply.
Students living in rural and regional (R&R) areas should receive their travel pass at the start of the new school year from their nominated transport operator. It may come via the school or be sent directly to them at home. Note: some R&R operators do not issue travel passes. Students/parents should confirm with their nominated operator if they do not receive a pass.
School Drive Subsidy
The School Drive Subsidy is available for eligible school students where there is no public transport available for all or part of the journey. If you have to drive your child more than 1.6km to a school bus stop, you may be eligible for this subsidy – go to the link below to apply.
Vaping Information for Primary School Parents
Healthy Lunchbox Website
Cancer Council’s Healthy Lunch Box website is your one-stop shop for everything you need to know about packing a healthy lunch box. For recipes, information and health tips please visit the website below.
