Informer - Term 4 Week 5

From Our Principal...

Dear Families,

Today sees the beginning of November and much to my wife’s’ displeasure, I will be growing my moustache back for Movember.

Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide. The Movember Foundation runs the Movember charity event, housed at Movember.com. The goal of Movember is to "change the face of men's health.

By encouraging men to get involved, Movember aims to increase early cancer detection, diagnosis and effective treatments, and ultimately reduce the number of preventable deaths. Besides annual check-ups, the Movember Foundation encourages men to be aware of family history of cancer and to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Using the moustache as the driving symbol of the movement, Movember focuses on the three key areas of prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health & suicide prevention. Since its inception, the Movember Foundation has raised $837 million and funded over 1,200 projects in more than 20 countries.

Since 2004, the Movember Foundation charity has run Movember events to raise awareness and funds for men's health issues, such as prostate cancer and depression, in Australia and New Zealand. (Movember Foundation)

Movember is a cause that I am very passionate about and one that I continue to promote. I think it is and interesting part of the male psyche, that we can be bed ridden by ‘man flu’ yet will ignore our bodies and all the warning signals of serious issues.

I see a growing number of Mo Bros every year. If you have the opportunity to support this very worthwhile charity, please be generous.

Have a great week and hug your kids.

Jamie Emerick
Principal

APRE News...

Making Jesus Real

Currently, we are following the focus of Being the Spirit of Jesus. 

Every day, we have many opportunities to be the Spirit of Jesus.  We can do this by:

• Having a positive attitude
• Saying “Yes!” with a smile
• Being a WEST person (Welcoming, Encouraging, saying Sorry and giving Thanks)
• Using your talents to help others
• Being a Giver (not a taker)

You can encourage being the Spirit of Jesus at home too by affirming your kids when they do any of the above.

Doing these things is a good habit to get into and one that is easily ‘caught’, not ‘taught’ from observing others.  Let’s all try to Be the Spirit of Jesus, so we help to spread the ripple effect.

Socktober – the Great 10c Challenge

We will continue to accumulate our 10c coins over the next couple of weeks.  The big day to lay the coins around our Nazarene Place will be Friday 19 November starting straight after assembly.  Perhaps you could join in this as a family and have a 10c jar for family members to add to as they come across these coins.

All monies collected will go to this year’s Catholic Mission’s focus kindergarten in Thailand, where these funds will make a huge difference to caring for the needs of these children.

Reconciliation

Congratulations to our students who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time last week.  What a great milestone in their faith journey.  We pray that this is the first of many times to receive this sacrament and receive the Lord’s forgiveness and blessing in such a special way.  Receiving this sacrament is another way of forming a special closeness to Jesus.

All Saints Day

Did you Know?

1^st November is a special day in the Catholic Church.  It’s called All Saints Day.  On this day we remember those who have died and been formally recognized as a Saint.  Of course, while we have an extensive list of those who have been given the title of ‘saint’, there are many ‘common folk’ who have gone before us, who are also saints in that they modelled living Gospel values in their lives and stood up for injustices and the needy. We remember all those who are “in glory with Christ: known or unknown, mighty or lowly, all whose lives were modelled on the Beatitudes and on the great commandment of love.

You can go to http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php and read up on different saints in the church. 

All Souls Day

2^nd November is also a special day in the Catholic Church.  It’s called All Souls Day.  On this day, we remember those who have died.  It is a church tradition stretching back prior to the time of Jesus, that we do this.  From the moment of our birth, we are on a pilgrimage of life that doesn’t end with death.  It continues into eternity, even when we are in heaven with our God.  This journey continues on through the ‘veil of death’.  In life, it is hoped that we choose to orient ourselves towards good and this journey continues even when we pass from this life. 

On All Souls Day, we acknowledge the continuation of the faith journey of others and we pray for those who have died but are still on that journey to perfect goodness.  It’s our way of supporting them in their journey to the ultimate finish line….eternity with God our Father.  We are all in this ‘race’ together and it’s good to cheer each other on.  In this life, we do that by encouraging others, giving words of affirmation and thanks.  For those who have died, we use our prayers to encourage them to the finish line to be perfectly orientated to God.

COVID Is Coming-Get Vaccinated NOW!

Robotics Club

Additional afternoon sessions for Robotics Club is available this week to allow teams extra time to prepare for the FLL competition on Saturday 6 November. Please ensure you collect your child on time.

Monday 1 November: 3pm to 4pm

Wednesday 3 November 3pm to 4pm

Thursday 4 November 3pm to 5pm (last school Robotics session for 2021)

On Saturday 6 November, students will need to be at CQU – Marina Campus at the Leo Zussino Building at 8am sharp for registrations to occur. Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. Barron and Miss Wheatley are required to attend a coaches meeting at 8:20am, therefore all registrations need to be completed before this. When we register, we will receive our team packs and the detailed day schedule, so you will know when our robot games are. The opening ceremony begins at 8:45am and the closing ceremony will begin around 3pm.

Parents and visitors are welcome to attend the ceremonies and the robot games as long as we remain under maximum building capacity.  This may impact the opening and closing ceremonies.  Please may we ask that parents/guests wait until all teams are seated in the auditorium.  If there are seats remaining, you are welcome to fill them.  People cannot stand in aisles or around the perimeter during the opening and closing ceremonies.  This is to reduce the safety risk in the event of an emergency and also follows Qld Health regulations.  During the day, we welcome parents and visitors to watch the games, visit the pit areas (Martin Hanson Building) and to enjoy seating in the canteen area and on the decks. Please sign in with the QR codes.

We are looking forward to the competition and thank you for your ongoing support,

Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. Barron and Miss Wheatley

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/

Year 4 - 6 Swimming Program

St John's Way Awards

Tuckshop Special

Volunteer Tuckshop Roster

Tuckshop Menu

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