Informer - Term 2 Week 8

From Our Principal ...

Dear Families

As I was thinking about this week’s newsletter on the weekend, I was reading through files on my laptop. I came across this email. It is reported to be from Apple billionaire Bill Gates. It says that:

Bill Gates spoke before a group of high school students and gave them his eleven rules of life.

RULE 1
Life is not fair – get used to it.

RULE 2
The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3
You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

RULE 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping they called it Opportunity.

RULE 6
If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

RULE 8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9
Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

RULE 10
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

If you go to Google and do a quick search, you will find out fairly quickly this is not from Bill Gates. It’s an excerpt from the book “Dumbing Down Our Kids” by educator Charles Sykes. It is a list of eleven things you did not learn in school and is directed at high school and college graduates. Even though they may be wise and relevant words, there are two important life lessons for us and our kids in this. Firstly, don’t believe everything you see or hear on the internet. You may find it hard to believe, but sometimes people just make things up. Always check your information and references! Secondly, always test the water. What is the information? Just because the source may not be accurate, does the information inform me? Does it make me think? Does it make me question my own attitudes or behaviours?

Here is a quote that I can vouch for the authenticity of. It comes from the author Steven Covey. Covey was an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker. His most popular book was “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.

“We must not let the actions or words of others determine our responses. Magnanimous people make the choice to respond to the indignities of others based upon their own principles and their own value system rather than their moods or anger.”

In it's own way this links up what I am talking about. We all respond to any input that comes into our lives. We have the choice of how we respond. We can learn and take something from every situation we find ourselves in, even the sad or unpleasant ones. It is our response to what happens in our lives that determines who we are and what we become rather than just the things that happen to us.

Have a great week and hug your kids.

Regards
Jamie Emerick

School Survey

As part of our commitment to continuous improvement at St John's, we are seeking feedback from our families on a range of issues relating to St John's. A link to a confidential 10-15 minute online survey has been emailed to all families by independent professional service, MYPCorp. Survey closes 9 June.

2023 Athletics Carnival - That's a Wrap

The 2023 Athletics Carnival was wonderful example of great sportsmanship, team spirit and strong competition!

Records were pushed, teams cheered and hearts beat very fast throughout the day, both from exertion and excitement!

It was great to see our 2023 Preps participate in their first Athletics Carnival and a little sad for our Year 6 students who participated in their last St John’s Athletics Carnival.

A big shout out to all of our parents and grandparents who came to support and cheer everyone on; you certainly added to the excitement of the day and it was a wonderful example of our school community spirit.

The Athletics Carnival would not have run as smoothly as it did without the commitment of all staff, volunteers and friends who lent a hand on the day, and of course to our students, who were fabulous examples of great competitors - running fast, cheering hard and putting 100% into every event – we thank you!

As always, the Athletics Carnival serves two purposes – an opportunity for our students to participate fully in a variety of athletics events and put their HPE skills into practice, as well as a selection for the Gladstone Athletics Trials.

Those students born in 2013, 2012 and 2011 who placed first or second in a championship event have now been selected to represent St John’s for the Gladstone trials. Notes were sent home today with information regarding this next level of competition. If you have any questions regarding Gladstone Athletics, please contact Mrs. Graham.

Congratulations to our 2023 Age Champions – they all showed great all-round speed, strength and huge doses of effort!

Two records tumbled at Friday’s Carnival – both by Braxon Attard in the 100m (14.38 secs) and the 200m (31.28 secs).

The Age Champions for 2023 were:

2011
Adyson Sutherland and Harry McAdam

2012
Kaylee Simpson and Kym Major

2013
Amelia Mullins and Hudson Brown

2014
Edwina Slean, Haine Attard and Braxon Attard

In addition, congratulations to the mighty Cummins team for winning the overall total points and being named the 2023 Athletics House Champions.

The placing for the four houses were 1^st Cummins, 2^nd Wallace, 3^rd Jordan and 4^th Philps.

And finally, a big shout-out to Wallace House who were awarded the Spirit Award for their great cheering and enthusiasm throughout the day!

Change to Eating Breaks, Play Breaks and Administering of Medication

On Friday 9 June, due to the celebration and blessing of our buildings, lunch breaks, play breaks and administering of medication will be as follows:

1^st Break (will be a short break)
Eat – 10.20am
Play – 10.30am
End of Play 10.40am

Administering of Medication
10.30am (instead of 11.30am)
(Parents, please advise if this will impact your child in any way?)

2^nd Break (will be a longer break)
Eat - 1.00pm
Play - 1.15pm
End of Play – 1.40pm

Blessing of Buildings Liturgy

All welcome!

School Photo Timetable - 15 & 16 June

Parents & Friends Meeting POSTPONED

Due to unforeseen circumstances, this afternoon's Parents & Friends Assocation meeting has been POSTPONED until 5:30pm on MONDAY, 29 APRIL. The meeting will be held in the staff room.

ALL WELCOME!

From Our Library Shelves ...

Today, June 5^th is World Environment Day. It is not a public holiday; it is an environmental awareness day, run by the United Nations. The aim of the Day is to raise awareness of the environment and specific environmental issues.

The theme of World Environment Day 2023 is "Solutions to plastic pollution" with the hashtag #BeatPlasticPollution. Plastic pollution is a major environmental problem.

Every year, millions of tons of plastic waste ends up in our oceans, landfills and waterways. This plastic can harm wildlife, pollute our air, our water and contribute to climate change.

Plastic pollution facts:

• Only 9% of all plastic produced is recycled.
• 2 million plastic bags are used every minute worldwide.
• Single-use plastics are illegal in some parts of the world.
• Every minute of every day a truckload of plastic is dumped into the ocean.
• 73% of beach litter worldwide is plastic.

St John's Way Awards

Homework Club - Year 3, 4, 5

Stop, Drop & Go

A reminder that all St John’s families using Stop, Drop and Go MUST abide by the following:

•     Laner Streeet Stop, Drop & Go:
      Students in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 (and their younger siblings in Prep, Year 1 and 2) only.
  
  
•     J Hickey Avenue Stop, Drop & Go:
      Prep, Year 1 and 2 only.

Thank you for ensuring the smooth and safe drop-off and collection of our wonderful students!

Aussie Bread Tags for Wheelchairs

Here at St. John’s, we pride ourselves on being sustainable and recycling what we can to help God’s creation. Aussie Bread Tags for Wheelchairs is an Australian company that is collecting and sorting bread tags nation-wide. They are creating new products with recycled bread tags that include wheelchairs and reusable food bowls. As of May 2023, they have recycled over 10,000kg of Aussie bread tags (that’s over 10 tonnes of plastic waste)!

How can you help? Please collect any plastic bread clips from home and bring them into your classroom to put into your class’ collection container. There is also a collection container at the front office. Once a fortnight, Year 4 will collect the containers and empty them into our main bin. Once this is full, we will take it to the collection depot in town, where they will be sent away for recycling.

Thank you for helping us to be kinder to our world and for looking after God’s creation.

Grandparents' Day

We celebrate Grandparent’s Day annually with a morning tea provided by the school. Grandparents are invited to come to school for our Friday assembly. This year it will be the Prep Owls on stage.

The morning will run as follows:

• Assembly at 8:39am
• Class visits 8:50am-9:20am.
• Students take their grandparents to visit their classrooms as well as to other classrooms to see loved ones.  At 9.20am students will return their grandparents to Nazarene Place for morning tea.  Morning tea is only for grandparents.  Students will return to class.
• Morning tea provided (sandwiches, scones, tea and coffee) 9:25am-10:15am

Tuckshop Special

Volunteer Tuckshop Roster

Tuckshop Menu

Uniform Shop - New Location

Parish News

OSHC June/July Vacation Program

If you require St John’s OSHC Vacation Care during the June/July school holidays, please book NOW.  Places are filling up quickly.  PLEASE NOTE: For Vacation Care, preference is NOT given to regular term time bookings.

OSHC Easter Vacation Program

Qld Department of Education Survey

The Queensland Government is exploring making kindy free for all Queensland families. These changes will mean that every child will have the same opportunity for a free year of kindy the year before Prep. Parents can share their thoughts about free kindy by visiting: www.qld.gov.au/kindy