Informer Term 3, Week 7

From Our Principal ...

Dear Families,

CS Lewis was a great English writer and thinker. He was a great lover of reading and books. One of his quotes that has always stuck with me is that "he can’t imagine someone really enjoying a book and only reading it once.”

Reading is something that, both my wife and I have always had a great love for. I have been lost in books many times over the years at the expense of other jobs I am meant to be doing. One positive of this though is that our kids have always seen me reading. As parents, we both read to our children from an early age. The importance of this cannot be overstated. Our kids learn language from exposure. They hear the way we use our voice, they develop a vocabulary from being exposed to a variety of different word as read to them that they will use in their own speech.

As our kids get older, they will model themselves on what they see happening around them. Do they see significant people in their life reading for enjoyment? As they mature the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ model doesn’t have much influence. Regardless of the text, it can be anything from Rugby League Week to book about gardening or cooking, our kids need to see us modelling and engaging in reading. If they see this from a young age, they are more likely to see the importance of engaging ‘not just because I you have to do it at school’.

Devices have an important part to play in our society, but I am a big believer that our human brain is hardwired to listen to stories, it has been part of our DNA going back to stories around the fire. Do the experiment and try reading to your own children. It is a very powerful way to connect.

Have a great week and hug your kids.

Regards,
Jamie Emerick
Principal.

Pupil Free Day - Friday 30 August

Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum

This week we start working through the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum with all students in Prep to Year Six during HPE lessons. These lessons will continue into early Term Four. The curriculum is based on principles of best practice in child safety education and centres around three key messages: Recognise, React and Report. Through a series of lessons, students will learn to recognise, react and report when they are unsafe or find themselves in situations that can have a significant detrimental effect on their physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing.

Information about the Child Safety Curriculum can be found at www.education.qld.gov.au/child-safety-curriculum. I urge families to log on and read through this, in particular the terms that will be used in these lessons.

Recognise
The first key safety message of the curriculum is recognise. Recognise is about being aware of your environment.

Children, young people and adults can all learn to take notice of what is happening around them to help keep themselves safe. Everyone can use clues, such as the things we see, hear, smell or feel to help protect us from harm and keep ourselves safe. Clues can be simple things that warn us about a danger, e.g. hearing a fire alarm or seeing smoke, that prompt us to react. We can also use clues to prepare for potentially unsafe situations, e.g. if we are walking alone at night, then we try to use a well-lit route and avoid secluded lanes or parks.

When we recognise that there might be a safety problem we can take steps to move away or reduce the risk or develop strategies that can help keep us safe. For instance, if you are in a busy environment such as the Ekka or a local event where there are big crowds, you might consider what you and your child could do if you became separated. Strategies could include: going to a highly visible pre-determined meeting spot; writing your phone number on a card and placing it in your child’s pocket; identifying who your child could approach if they become lost, e.g. police, staff at a booth.

React
The second safety message is react.

When children recognise that they are in an unsafe situation, we encourage them to think about what they could do to be safe again. They will have opportunities to think about ways to react using real-life scenarios. Our students will also learn that breaking the rules (e.g. saying no to an adult who is behaving inappropriately) is sometimes necessary so that they can become safe again.

Please take the time to talk with your children about what they have been learning about safety and, in particular, the ways they could react if they are unsafe to make themselves safe again. Talking with your child about ways to stay safe will help them to develop life-long safety skills.

Report
The third safety message is report.

This means that when children or young people have been in a situation that is unsafe that they are taught to report what has happened to an adult. Even if a child has been able to make themselves safe, it is vital that they still report what has happened. Adults need to know about unsafe situations so that some action can be taken to help the child be safe again or ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Students involved in the Child Safety Curriculum will be encouraged to make a list of adult safety helpers. These are adults the children and young people nominate whom they can talk to when they are feeling unsafe or have experienced an unsafe situation or feel they are at risk of something that may cause them harm. This list will include a selection of adults who live in and outside the home.

Report also includes telling an adult about unsafe or inappropriate incidents which may occur when children or young people are online. This might occur when surfing the net or using social media sites like Facebook and twitter, and can include cyberbullying, viewing or receiving inappropriate images or messages or communicating with unknown contacts.

It is important that the key safety messages of the Child Safety Curriculum: Recognise, React and Report are reinforced, both at school and home. I encourage you, wherever possible, to talk with your child about safety to help them stay safe now and in the future.

St John's Got Talent - Grand Final Time!

After 5 weeks of heats, and semi-finals, we are finally ready for the St John’s Got Talent Grand Final!  

On Wednesday 21 August at 8.40am, we will see 12 performers over a variety of year levels, grace the stage and share their wonderful talents.

We will have dancers, orators, musicians, gymnasts, singers and magicians to captivate an audience of over 650 – daunting to most, but not to our talented, confident young people!

We would like to congratulate all students who shared their talents over the last 5 weeks – we have been truly blessed, and we wish our grand finalists the best of luck.

Book Week Dress-Up

We are getting in early with a date claimer for our BOOK WEEK DRESS-UP. We are encouraging all students to come dressed as their favourite book character on FRIDAY 23 AUGUST. This year's theme is 'Reading is Magic" so this may give your child/ren and you some food for thought!!

Library News ...

To celebrate this year’s upcoming Book Week, we have a few activities running during first break.  See you all then!!

Activity 1.    Cardboard sheets and chalks are ready to go.

Activity 2.    We will be decorating scratch bookmarks!

Activity 3.  Shirts are ready to be decorated and hung on the clothesline.

Activity 4.    Boomerangs are ready to be decorated with dot painting.

The Importance of Protein

Protein is really important for children’s growth and development, yet research is telling us that many school-age children are not meeting the recommended daily intake.

Protein is essential for many bodily functions, including recovery and repair of muscles, skin, organs, blood, hair and nails.

Good sources of provide important nutrients like vitamin E, the B vitamins, zinc, iron and magnesium, all of which are required by just about every cell in our bodies.

When protein is lacking in a diet, health issues such as fatigue, poor concentration, slowed growth, bone and joint pain, poor wound healing and increased colds and flus. By being conscious to include a source of protein in all meals we can protect our children and ourselves against a problematic protein deficiency.

With empty (little to no nutritional value) calorie choices taking over our children’s diets it is more and more important to be mindful of including good quality protein foods in young (and older) people’s diets. From dairy to eggs to meats to nuts, and a whole lot more, there are plenty of choices out there even for our pickiest of eaters!

Maybe you would like to try my ‘Real Chicken Nuggets’ recipe for a lunch, dinner or a great lunchbox idea.

Ingredients

500g chicken thighs
½ cup oats
1/3 cup cashews or almonds
1/3 cup coconut flakes
2 eggs
2 tbs whole egg mayonnaise

Splash olive oil

Get Going………..

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
2. Chop chicken into ‘nugget’ sized cubes and set aside.
3. In a nutri-bullet add oats, nuts and coconut and blitz to a rough ‘flour’. Place in a bowl.
4. In a 2^nd bowl, add eggs and mayo and combine to a ‘batter’.
5. Dip the nuggets in the ‘batter’, then coat in the ‘flour’ mix and place on a lightly oiled tray and bake in the oven for 20 minutes and Enjoy!

School Fun Run

The letter below, together with a fundraising prize booklet, was given to your child/ren during their recent PE lesson.

The Fun Run will take place this Friday, 13 September commencing at 2pm on the school oval.

Counsellor's Corner

More Eisteddfod Results

In addition to last week's long list of Eisteddfod achievements, we also CONGRATULATE:

Piano:
Emma H - Highly Commended
Vihal S - 3rd place

Well done!

Sally Pearson Visits St John's

Olympian and GPC Port to Park ambassador Sally Pearson, talked with our Year 5 and Year 6 students last week.  about the importance of keeping fit and healthy, as well as about the grit and determination that is required to become an Olympic athlete. 

Our students were very interested in what Sally had to say and asked several questions about her life as an athlete.

We thank Sally for making time in her busy schedule to visit St John’s.

Signing Club

Learn to Pray...

Chess Club....

St John the Baptist Chess Club practice has changed to every Wednesday first break with Father Peter and Mrs Milic in the Music room. Chess club is open for students year 2 to year 6. Come for training games or just to have game for fun. Please email Mrs Milic, Irene_Milic@rok.catholic.edu.au for further information.

St John's Way Awardees ...

Tuckshop Ordering Information

The following information will ensure the efficient ordering of tuckshop for your child/ren:

• Tuckshop must be ordered online via QuickCliq www.quickcliq.com.au  Orders will not be accepted at the Tuckshop or Office.
• Orders must be placed by 8:10am. Tuckshop can be ordered weeks in advance. Simply click on the day/s that tuckshop is required.
• QuickCliq operates very slowly at very busy times i.e. close to 8:10am.  During these times the system may boot you off and require you to log back in. Late orders put a lot of pressure on our tuckshop staff and volunteer helpers.
• If you miss the ordering cut off time, your order will be transferred to the following day.  You will be notified of this on the screen.
• Parents MUST check confirmation email to ensure the order has been processed for the correct food on the correct day.

If you have any problems with the online ordering system please contact QuickCliq via 1300 11 66 37, or email: support@quickcliq.com.au

Our tuckshop operates every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (first and second breaks).

Volunteer Tuckshop Roster

Tuckshop Menu

Uniform Shop Hours

Parish News

Position Vacant - LOTE Teacher St Francis

Casual Relief Teachers

Golding Showcase Official Opening

Free Community Cultural Event: An evening in the Japanese Tea Gardens

Gladstone Gymnastics Acro Come & Try

CQ Health Sport and Recreation Expo

Women's Wellbeing Expo

Sharks Volleyball Camp