Term 3 - Week 10, 2021

Acting Principal's Message

We had a lot of fun dressing up for Book Week yesterday. A couple of Harry Potters, Fern from Charlotte’s Web... even Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer! Thanks parents and carers for helping to make it a special day and thanks to these wonderful staff "crayons" for bringing a splash of colour and putting a smile on everyone’s faces. Scroll down for more photos!

We had a visit from our new principal, Craig Warnes on Tuesday and, although he was delighted to meet all of the children and the staff, I think he just might have enjoyed his time in Kindergarten most of all! 

Thank you for making me so welcome in my short tenure at Mount Saint Johns. I didn’t get to meet many of you face-to-face but spending this week with your beautiful children has made up for that. God bless you all.

Liz Watts

Acting Principal

Weekly Awards

This week's class awards went to:

Owen K - for reading like talking and trying hard to track reading only using his eyes.

Rory O - for excellent effort in sport and in learning to play tennis.

Aurora W - for excellent participation in all areas of Learning From Home.

Jinky W - for completing all tasks online. You even completed a Lego challenge or Religion activity or Art lesson each day. You are a champion!

Kyrin Mil - for great work in class and having a great attitude towards learning!

Cormac O - for wonderful work in Maths and great thinking!

Holly S - for being able to create engaging texts during Online Learning by using a variety of integrated language features.

Lily S - for creating an engaging narrative, based on an Australian scene, as an Online Learning task.

2021 Book Week & Book Fair

This week's Book Week and Book Fair activities have been great fun, in spite of the COVID obstacles that were thrown in our path. Yesterday's Book Character Parade was fantastic, with some truly great costumes. Hopefully next year we can gather together again as a school community to celebrate the wonderful world of books. Many thanks to our Book Fair organisers, Melinda MacDonell, Ashlee Turner and Elaine Morssink, whose creativity helped to make the Fair another success. We raised $1064 and this enabled the school to purchase lots more books for our school library.

Congratulations to Hunter G, Piper B, Reid G and Ava M, who were the winners of the "Redesign a Book Cover" competition.

2022 Enrolments Now Open

We are taking enrolments for Kindergarten for 2022. Children are eligible for Kindergarten if they turn 5 by July 31 of that year. All children must be enrolled in school by their sixth birthday. To enrol at Mt St John’s, follow these three steps:

1. Collect an enrolment form from the school office.
2. Return the completed enrolment form to school office.
3. Attend an enrolment interview with your child.

In Term 4, students who are enrolled for 2022 can attend our formal Kindergarten transition sessions. We look forward to meeting our new Kindergarten students soon!

Parenting Webinars

The following webinars are coming up starting week 1, Term 4.

• Talking About Puberty with Michelle Mitchell
• Anxiety in Kids and Teens with Karen Young
• Getting real with Teens about Respectful Relationships with Paul Ninnes

School Photos

Our 2021 school photos will be taken in Week 3 of next Term, on Thursday 21st October. Order forms will be sent home in Week 1 of next term.

Learn to Swim Term 4

YMCA Dorrigo will open on 2nd October 2021 and Dorrigo YMCA Learn to Swim program for term 4 will begin Wednesday 6^th October (subject to government restrictions). For those wanting to enrol children or those wishing to find out more information please email:  admin.dorrigo@ymcansw.org.au

Please leave your best contact details and the day/s and times you would prefer. We’re not on site at the moment but alternatively you can phone the pool and leave a message and we’ll get back to you.

Stay safe, hoping to see you all soon.

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. 

Library Day - Wednesday

Library day for all students is Wednesday - please make sure your child brings in his or her cloth library bag on this day. Each student may borrow four books per week. 

Term 3 School Fees

Term 3 school fees are now due, unless you are paying by regular direct debit.

Several payment methods are available; 

• Regular direct deposit payments (see suggested amounts below).
• Lump sum direct deposit
• Cash
• Cheque

1 student - Term 3 - $276.00

       $46.16 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $23.08 per week (x 50 weeks)

2 students - Term 3 - $483.00

       $81.28 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $40.64 per week (x 50 weeks)

3 or more students  - Term 3 – $621.00

       $105.36 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $52.68 per week (x 50 weeks)

If you would like to arrange a regular direct debit payment from your Bananacoast Credit Union account into the school’s account, the BCU Credit Union in Dorrigo will organize this for you.

When using Internet banking, please use your child’s surname as a reference.

Bananacoast Community Credit Union   BSB no. 533-000

Account no. 3282 0430                 Name: Mt St John’s Primary School

Canteen

If anyone is available to volunteer in our canteen one or more Fridays per term, please contact our canteen co-ordinator Alicia on 0488 280683. If we have no volunteers available we will have to cancel canteen for that week.

A reminder to place your canteen order before Thursday night each week.

Please note - if you top up your canteen account via bank transfer, the funds will take a week to clear so you will not be able to order canteen immediately. 

Please send your lunch wallets into school and we will keep them here.

Basketball NSW FREE ONLINE School Holiday Festival

This free four-day event runs from Monday the 20th - 23rd of September (NEXT WEEK) and registrations went live on Wednesday night.

We're hoping to keep young people engaged with basketball and give them something positive to focus on while unable to participate in community sport. It will also hopefully take the pressure off working parents, in keeping the kids busy and active for at least part of the school holidays.

A few highlights of the carnival include; training/fitness sessions delivered by the Illawarra Hawks, Sydney Kings, Brydens Sydney Uni Flames, Centre of Excellence, along with Basketball NSW High Performance Coaches, Strength & Conditioning Session delivered by NBA Global Academy, special workshops featuring Indigenous Basketball Australia, Q & A sessions with Nick Kay, Katie Rae Ebzery, Damien Martin & our Paralympians.

We also have special guest appearances by Kristy Wallace, Lauren Nicholson and Renae Garlepp, along with a special session to celebrate the FIBA Women’s World Cup 2022 ‘One Year To Go’ celebrations.

Participants who sign up will go in the running to win a Spalding TF 1000 basketball. 

Register here - www.bit.ly/BNSWFestival

Full schedule here - https://www.bnsw.com.au/news/free-online-school-holiday-basketball-festival/

Facebook event here - https://fb.me/e/1KZdXSWdO

Dorrigo Show 2021

Below are some exciting competitions that the Show Society will be holding this year. The Show organisers are encouraging students to participate and make a wonderful display. Please note that this year's Show will be held on Friday 26 November and Saturday 27 November. Check out the Dorrigo Show website for more information. 

Vision Screening Clinics

School Bus Travel

Applications for student travel can now be made online. Apply here 

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. 

Instrumental Music With Hazel

We have a music tutor available to teach instrumental music through private tuition. Hazel Buchanan is interested in working with our students. Hazel can teach flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, percussion and bass guitar.

The school owns a flute and a clarinet, which are available for families to borrow long-term at no cost. The payments for lessons are billed each term and paid directly to Hazel. An Essential Element Band Book will be supplied by the school too.

Students wishing to learn these instruments can do so in individual lessons or in small groups depending on the instrument chosen. It is hoped that one day, we can start a small ensemble or band for instrumental students to play together. 

If you are interested in taking up this opportunity, please contact Hazel directly on 0458 572 525.

Lessons will take place on Fridays. 

GLUE

GLUE: "God Loves Us Eternally" (formerly GFS) restarts term 4 Wednesday 6th October. It is held each Wednesday from 3-5pm at the Anglican Hall. Afternoon tea, games, fun worship and craft. All primary kids welcome, as are newcomers. For more info, ring Gwenneth on 6657 2135. COVID-safe practices will apply.

September School Holiday Take Home packs at Dorrigo Library

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.

Nutrition Snippet