Informer - Term 4 Week 2

From Our Principal...

Dear Families

My brother who was a priest, used to be very quick to tell me that if we wanted to make God laugh, we should tell him our plans. It wasn't his own bit of wisdom, but a kernel of truth that the Dominicans had known for centuries.

We never know what is around the corner and life can change in an instant.

It doesn't mean meekly accepting what ever life throws at us, but it does mean being open to accepting the possibilities of a new direction.

The American self help author Wayne D Dyer wrote that "peace is the result of training  your mind to accept life as it is, rather than how you think it should be".

If you had told me at 23 that I would become a teacher and the principal of a wonderful school like St John's, I would have laughed as well as most of the people who knew me. But the consequences of one game of football and damaged ligaments and cartilage sent me on a totally different life journey from what I had planned. Yet at the time, I had great resentment for the injury and circumstances that totally change what I had mapped out for my life.

The great saint, Francis de Sales used to tell his followers, "Never be in a hurry. Do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace, even if your whole world seems upset."
I am not always particularly good at the quiet and calm part, but what I have learnt is that the one thing I can control in this life is my attitude. No matter what comes at me or what situations I find myself in, the one thing I have total control over is how I choose to respond. That didn't come quickly, but I was fortunate to have great people around me to model and remind me. It is an important learning experience when we take the time to ask our kids what choice did they make and get them to examine the consequences.

Have a great week and hug your kids,

Jamie Emerick
Principal

APRE News...

Socktober  https://www.socktober.org.au

Socktober is the fundraiser for Catholic Mission which runs many projects around the world for the vulnerable and needy.

“This Socktober we are encouraging students to learn what life is like for children from Thailand, specifically those from slum areas in Bangkok, the bustling capital. 

Socktober for Mission Month uses the ‘head, heart and hands’ framework. Children will be encouraged to firstly ‘get their head’ around what the reality is for many children around the world.  Stories and activities will help fill their hearts with love and compassion for these little ones.  And finally they will feel a need to use their hands to take action and do what they can to help.

Fundraiser: We will start the fundraising this Friday with our annual Crazy Sock Day.  Students bring a donation to be able to wear crazy socks.  Funds raised will go towards helping the work of the Good Shepherd Sisters in a kindergarten in Bangkok, as part of their work to support vulnerable mothers and babies in their time of need.

We are encouraging our students to think of ways they can make small sacrifices to further help raise funds.  Perhaps they could do without their iceblock or even their whole tuckshop order and donate that money instead.  They many choose not to have a treat you offer to buy them and donate that. 

October is the Month of the Rosary

The Rosary is a beautiful prayer to say.  It is really about Jesus.  It’s like we sit with Mary and think about Jesus and all the special big events of his life – his birth, baptism, first miracle, Sermon on the Mount and his death.  It’s good to sit with Mary because, afterall, she is his mother and knows him well.  She is a great model to us of loving Jesus and following him.  When we pray the Rosary, we are also making a link to our spiritual parents, Our Father in heaven and Mary.

How to Pray the Rosary

The order of prayers is as follows:

Pray: The Apostles Creed

The Our Father

Three Hail Marys

The Glory Be.

Name the first Mystery and read the related Scripture passage.

You can then either:

• Pray the Our Father, 10 Hail Marys and the Glory Be as a mantra while you meditate on this mystery
• Think of a special intention and reflect on that as you Pray the Our Father, 10 Hail Marys and the Glory Be
• Concentrate on the words of these prayers as you Pray the Our Father, 10 Hail Marys and the Glory Be

Repeat the steps above for the remaining 4 mysteries and end by praying the Hail Holy Queen.

If you are pressed for time, then just say one decade i.e. Our Father, 10X Hail Marys, Glory Be

Or for those with a very short amount of time, there’s what’s called “The Joey Rosary’

• State your intention
• Pray the Our Father, 10 Hail Marys and the Glory Be

Rememberance Day

P & F Meeting Postponed

Tonight's P & F Meeting is postponed to 25th October at 5:30pm in the Library.

Thank you for your understanding and sorry for any inconvenience.

Swimming Carnival Wrap-up!

2021 Year 3-6 Swimming Carnival

Our Year 3-6 Swimming Carnival saw a seesawing points table throughout the day and a very close points tally by the end of the carnival!

Our students cheered and raced their hearts out at the Gladstone Aquatic Centre seeing a positive, competitive spirit displayed by all.

While there were over 100 competitive races over 100m, 50m and 25m in the morning session, the kickboard race, large obstacle course and splash zone saw a more laid back, but 100% enjoyable afternoon!

Cummins House came out victors again this year with the points allocation as follows:

1^st       Cummins House      477 points

2^nd      Jordan House          406 points

3^rd      Philps House           393 points

4^th       Wallace House        392 points

The 2021 Spirit of Carnival trophy was presented to Jordan House, with the whole House cheering their lungs out throughout the entire day!

While no records were set this year, the races were slick and the following students were awarded Age Champion for 2021:

2009   RILEY VACHER and HARLEY WILKINSON

2010   LEVI PROSSLINER and MADDISON WHITAKER

2011   CODY PEACHEY and LAYLAH PIMM

2012   BAILEY PIMM and ELLA WALZ

Thank you to all St John’s staff for all the hard work they put in leading up to and during the St John’s Swimming Carnival.

Extra Curricular Activities

All extra curricular activities will resume this week:

Mindfullness - Monday 11:00am
Fitness - Tuesday 7:45am
Chess - Wednesay  3:00pm  - 3:50pm
Robotics - Thursday 3:00pm  - 5:00pm
Cooking  Club (Final  Week)  - Wednesday  3:00pm  - 3:50pm

Thank you

Crazy Sock Day

On Friday 15 October we invite all St John's students to participate in the Catholic Mission's Socktober initiative by taking part in Crazy Sock Day. Students are encouraged to bring a monetary donation and wear crazy socks with their usual school uniform in support of vulnerable children in Thailand. Funds raised will support a Thai kindergarten run by the Good Shepherd Sisters in Bangkok to provide a caring learning environment for children to allow their parents to work and support their family. Just $35 can help fund the cost of school supplies for a child for an entire year! What a fun and fabulous opportunity for students to Make Jesus Real by making a genuine difference in the lives of those less fortunate.   #StJohnTheBaptistCatholicPrimarySchool #MakeJesusReal #mjr #StJohnsSpirit #socktober2021 #Socktober4Mission

Prep Vision Screening

Prep Vision Screening will be conducted this Wednesday at school from 9:00am.  

National Bandanna Day

Every year, St John’s fundraises for Canteen by hosting our own St John’s Bandanna Day. National Bandanna Day is the flagship fundraising and awareness campaign for Canteen and has raised over $33 million to support young people impacted by cancer. Every dollar we raise at St John’s adds to this very worthy cause.

Our Year 6 Leaders will be selling bandannas each day from Monday 18 October (week 3) through to Friday 29 October (week 4) at our Nazarene Place.

Bandannas cost $5.00 each and students can wear their bandanna on Friday 29 October to show their support for Canteen.

Please don’t leave your child’s purchase of a bandanna until the last minute as we are only allocated a set amount and bandannas tend to sell out fast!

St John's Way Awards

Travel Assistance Scheme

Tuckshop Special

Volunteer Tuckshop Roster

Tuckshop Menu

Parish News...

Ninja Dash

Pumped Sport’s new Ninja Dash event is on THIS Wednesday 3 November starting at 3.15pm and runs for 75 minutes. Cash or credit card payments can be made on the day. Children kindy aged and older are $15 and toddlers are $10. For more information and to register head to https://pumpedsport.com.au/events/

Community Events...

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