Informer - Term 3 Week 4

From Our Principal...

Dear Families,

As we have seen over the weekend, the current Delta strain of the Covid 19 virus has the potential to change our situation very quickly. The information that has come through from Queensland Health is that this variant is significantly more contagious that earlier variants and as we can see in Brisbane, schools and students are not immune.

Attached to this week's newsletter are the current guidelines we are expected to operate under. Please take special note of the details relating to families members or students returning from the south east corner of Queensland. 

Under the current  legislation, all schools are expected to monitor and identify any risk of transmission. The guidelines around any students or staff presenting with flu like symptoms are still in place. These guidelines require us to isolate on site any students who present with symptoms and contact parents to pick students up. These procedures apply to Outside School Hours Care as well.  Please don't send students to school if they are  unwell.

The situation will continue to change over the coming days and hopefully the lockdown will contain this current outbreak.

After speaking with my own doctors last week, I have been advised to take a few weeks leave to manage my own health. Mrs Graham  will be acting principal in my absence.

Have a great week and hug your kids.

Jamie Emerick
Principal

COVID Update...

In light of the ever-changing COVID environment, we remind all families that as a school we are subject to all government requirements and implore that families continually refer to the Queensland Health website for all current and accurate information.

We have processes in place if circumstances change and advise our families to continue to be vigilant; stay home and get tested when unwell, continue with strong hygiene routines and social distancing, check-in using the QR Code app and frequently check the Queensland Health website for any updates.

At this point restrictions in our diocese have not changed.

The information below outlines requirements from Queensland Health that is relevant to students who were in the ‘impacted area’  from 1am on 31/07/21 or share a residence with anyone who has returned from the affected area.

The current legislation confirms that impacted individuals can attend a school, if:
•    instruction or care cannot reasonably be obtained in the person’s principle place of residence because the student’s parent or carer is undertaking essential work; or

•    the student needs to attend because of vulnerable circumstances.
  
  Students also need to comply with the lockdown rules in their home community. This means they cannot attend school unless they are a child of an essential worker.  They need to be supported to learn remotely as best they can during the lockdown period. As their entire household has to lockdown in that situation, they should have a parent at home unless the parents are essential workers.  Students whose parents are essential workers can come to school.  
  
  The current legislation prevents all students leaving their place of residence if they are unwell, other than to seek medical care or a COVID test.
  
  It is essential that all students follow the requirement not to be at school if they are unwell.

APRE Announcement...

APRE News...

Busy / Unbusy

I’ve written previously about busyness, but it is something we need to be constantly away of.  It’s a societal state of being almost and one that isn’t necessarily healthy or good.   Busyness can be used today as a status symbol and we are expected to all be ‘busy’ to be leading productive and worthwhile lives it seems.

We use being busy as an excuse for the bad manners of being late. We use it as an escape and hide behind keeping busy, instead of facing our own emotions.  Busyness is not conducive to good relationships with another.

In the bible, Jesus was visiting the home of his good friends, Lazarus, Mary and Martha.  Martha was busy preparing and serving the food to Jesus and his disciples.  Her sister, Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to him.  Martha complained to Jesus about Mary leaving her to do all the work, but Jesus said that Mary had made the better choice.

There is a time to be busy and a time to be unbusy.  We need to find the balance.  We need to make time to ‘rest’, which means to allow our body to rejuvenate, relax, and reflect, so we can reconnect with our true selves.

Take as little as 5 minutes a day to reconnect with our interior

Spend quality time, giving your full attention, with those close to you, to keep those relationships strong.

Develop interests that includes those you are close to, to further develop those relationships.

Start today to include times of ‘unbusyness’ every day.  It’s so important to model this for your children, so they too, learn the importance of having some ‘unbusy’ time, and be in the moment more fully.

Combined Schools Musical – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Recently, many students in Gladstone auditioned for the Combined Schools Musical for 2022, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  We are happy to announce that two of our students were successful in their audition - Tyler Watson and Charlotte Rippingale.  Congratulations to both of these students.  What a wonderful experience for them both and we look forward to attending this production next year to see their performances.

Did You Know?

The city of Jericho in Israel, often mentioned in the stories in the New Testament, is about 304.8m (1,000ft) below sea level, so when it is said in the bible that travellers walked from Jericho to Jerusalem, they would have had to climb 1005.8m (3,300ft).  Not an easy trip on foot!

School Fees...

PREP 2022

A reminder to existing St John's families that a Prep 2022 enrolment application must be submitted and completed in full for your child to be considered for Prep in 2022.

St John's Cooking Club...

Our final week of the inaugural St John’s Cooking Club, saw our eager chefs whip up a great little scroll number!

Much fun was had with sticky dough, but more importantly bellies were rumbling from the delicious smell coming from the oven at the end of the lesson.

A simple flour and yoghurt dough was perfect for our 3 filling choices this week:

1. Ham and cheese
2. Grated apple and cinnamon
3. Banana (with a squeeze of honey)

I have taken great pleasure working with our eager chefs of all ages, each week and I am really look forward to meeting 12 new keen cooks for our 2^nd round of St John’s Cooking Club starting on Wednesday 25 August from 3.00pm – 3.50pm in our tuckshop.

Student Voice...

Student Voice Question

As most people are aware, next year we are going to have a 4^th Prep Class and of course a new name is required. So, our Student Voice question for the next fortnight is ‘’What will we call the new 2022 Prep Class?

The new name must be an Australian animal to suit the names we already have for our other 21 classes at St John’s.  From our student’s responses we will keep a list of the top 10 names suggested, because every year until  2027, we will have an extra class, so we need to be prepared!!!

Australian Animal Suggestions

St John's Way Awards

Save The Sea Turtles

Volunteer Tuckshop Roster

Tuckshop Menu

Tuckshop Specials

Our Tuckshop is now offering gluten free bread and wrap options.
Prices available on QuickCliq

PORT TO PARK FUN RUN

Don't forget to Register now for the Port to Park Fun Run! (formerly know as Botanic to Bridge)

Our school’s favourite fun run is back for 2021 and with a new name and course!

Gladstone Ports Corporation’s (GPC) new-look Port to Park FunD Run will no doubt be a wonderful family-orientated community event and we’d love as many of our students and families to participate on Sunday 15 August.

This year, two new courses will wind through GPC's beautiful waterfront parklands of East Shores, Marina Parklands and Spinnaker Park.

The courses have new names too, recognising the language of our Traditional Owners of the land - the Bailai and Gooreng Gooreng nations.  The 9-kilometre Koongo Dash (meaning place of water) starts at 7am for our early risers, while the 3-kilometre Yallarm Family Run (meaning place of shells) will be perfect for those limbering up a little later at 8.30am.

​If you register before Monday 19 July using the code P2PEARLY you can receive a 10% discount.

So get your runners ready and start limbering up!

You can register here at www.gpcl.com.au/port-to-park 

Port to Park is proudly supported by a number of local corporations including Santos GLNG, Smit Lamnalco, Gladstone Regional Council and Gladstone Entertainment Convention Centre.

Fun In And Around OSHC...

OSHC Fun

QLD's Single-Use Plastic Ban

Single-Use Plastic Ban in Qld

From September 1 2021, certain single-use plastic items will be banned in Qld, including plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery, plates, bowls and expanded polystyrene cups and containers. 

As many community groups provide takeaway food and drink as part of their community and fundraising activities, this may affect how you operate. As such, your group may benefit from information on how to comply with the new bans.

To help you prepare, the Qld Government has contracted the Boomerang Alliance* to conduct a series of early evening forums across the state to answer your questions on:

• What items are included in the ban?
• What alternative products can be used?
• How can my organisation adapt to comply with the ban?

We would like to invite you to your local forum which is listed below. For venue information and to register, please follow THIS LINK to our Eventbrite page.

Drakes Fundraiser

Our St John’s App Is Live!

We are very excited to announce that the St John’s is live and ready for parents to download to their devices.

Please follow the instructions step-by-step for downloading the St John’s App. The one-off St John’s set-up passcode is 8892.

Additionally, to download the St John’s App to your iPad, laptop or PC, please follow the following link - https://stjohnclinton.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Once you have downloaded the App you will see we now have a one-stop-shop for all information you need to stay informed at St John’s.

In the top banner you will see Home, Feed and Manage.

Home will take you to the tiles and Feed will take you to alerts/messages (as Dojo did).

The latest ‘feed’ will be displayed on the home screen above the tiles.

The ‘’tiles’’ we have used are as follows:

• Parent Lounge – takes you straight to the Parent Lounge sign-in page
• Latest Newsletter – each week the newsletter will be uploaded to this tile
• Website – takes you straight to our website
• Forms and Documents – in this tile the following documents have been uploaded – simply tap on the link:
  

Parent Handbook
School Uniform
Behaviour Management
Fees and Levies Schedule
ICT Code of Practice
Tuckshop Menu

• School Calendar – all key dates for the upcoming term (continually updated)
• Tuckshop – takes you straight to the online tuckshop log-in page
• OSHC – links to required forms
• School Contact – takes you straight to our phone contact
• Facebook - takes you straight to our Facebook page
• Seesaw – Our new ‘Dojo’’ – please note that this is still a work in progress
• Newsletter Archive – each weekly newsletter will be archived to this tile for referral where required
• Subscribe to Newsletter – please note that all existing families will be automatically uploaded to this new platform. This tile is for new families in the future

While we feel we have covered all bases, things can be overlooked so we look forward to your feedback or suggestions on information that would be a benefit to be included. As always your feedback is valued; please email Jakki Graham at Jakki_graham@rok.catholic.edu.au