News

Mr LaForgia and Mrs Overall attended a reception at Government House to celebrate Playgroup SA's 50th Anniversary. During the evening, the Playgroup SA Excellence Award winners were announced, and we are delighted to share that our Play to Grow Playgroup received an award for Excellence in Intergenerational Play and Practise. Mrs Overall accepted the award from the Governor of South Australia, Her Excellency the Honourable Frances Adamson AC. Congratulations to Karina and everyone who supports our wonderful playgroup!

Catholic Schools Open Week runs from the 19th to 25th August.  It is a good time to come and visit our  school and see what we offer . We have a tour on Tuesday 20th August at 9.30am.  Please phone 8218 3300 to book!

We also feature in an article about our school and Parish relationship in the South Australian Catholic Schools Magazine which was in the Advertiser on Saturday 10th August. It featured our Principal, Mr LaForgia, Parish Priest, Fr Denis and students Gracie, Mila and Ollie!

The annual Catholic Education awards were held last night at the Hilton Hotel and St John the Baptist Catholic School and Parish Office were the recipients of  ‘Innovative Program’ Award category.  The award recognises the deep interactions and collaboration between the school and parish staff and the positive impact on the wider school community. Fr Dennis and Todd accepted this award on behalf of the school and parish.  It was a wonderful night with representation of the parish and staff in attendance.

We are excited to announce that the redevelopment of the carpark and additional green space is now complete. This increase in the school’s footprint along Anzac Highway will provide additional car parking facilities for the school and parish community and further play space for the students.

On Friday 16^th February our Year 6 students participated in a Leaders Day at Plympton Oval. In the morning session, the students reflected on servant leadership and what it means to think of others and lead by example. The students then participated in a Rock and Water session led by David Hilliard before concluding the day with an exploration of the skills the students will bring to leadership roles within the school community during 2024.

On Saturday evening, the Year 1 parents hosted a Greek inspired dinner welcoming new parents to the St John the Baptist Catholic School community. This was a great night of connection for our parent community. A huge thank you is extended to Simon Herald and Jennie Piccoli for their commitment in coordinating the event, to the team of Year 1 parents who ably assisted on the night and to the staff who were in attendance.

We are pleased to announce that our recent school building project received international commendation at the Architecture and Design Collection Awards and the ArchFrame Design Awards at the end of 2023. Two awards were won - Platinum Winner for Educational Facilities (Architecture & Design Collection Awards) and Gold Winner for Education Built (ArchFrame Design Awards).

As we prepare for Christmas, we recall that Advent is a time of hope, waiting, compassion and kindness, as we await the coming of Jesus. During this time it is important for us to take a moment to reflect and give thanks for the many blessings bestowed upon us, but also to pray for those members of our school community and families that maybe facing challenges during this time.

The birth of Jesus signifies a new beginning for all of us. A time for renewed hope, peace, love and new beginnings. On behalf of the staff of St John the Baptist Catholic School, we would like to wish you and your family a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and a New year blessed with health and happiness.

On Tuesday 1^st August we celebrated a significant school event when we officially opened and blessed the new building. The celebration was presided over by Archbishop Patrick O’Regan and the plaque unveiled by the Hon Blair Boyer, MP- Minister for Education, Training and Skills. They were joined by the Chair of the South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools, Mr John Neate and the Executive Director of Catholic Education, Dr Neil McGoran and a number of invited guests. It was a wonderful community celebration. 

Jodie & Haysey from Nova 919 visited our school as part of their hunt for Adelaide's next handball champion. Mikayla & Danica C scored an invitation to face off with Jodie & Haysey and will hopefully walk away with bragging rights and a mammoth Handball Blitz trophy and a cash prize in the weeks to come.

On Saturday evening the 18th February, the Year 1 parents hosted an Indian themed dinner welcoming new parents to the St John the Baptist Catholic School community. This was a great night of connection for our parent community. A huge thank you is extended to Neeta and Alan Saldanha for their commitment in coordinating the night, to the team of Year 1 parents who ably assisted in the lead up to and on the night and to the Dachepalli family (British India Restaurant) for supplying the beautiful food.

On Monday 30^th January we welcomed 350 children to St John the Baptist Catholic School, of which 47 were new students.  We look forward to a wonderful year of learning, connection and growing as a community.

We are excited to announce that the next stage of the School Master Plan has commenced.  Two properties and the acquisition of a third, on Anzac Highway will be developed over the coming months to provide the children with additional play space and our families with increased parking facilities.  The sketch above provides a general idea of the proposed plans. 

St John the Baptist Catholic School has featured in the newsletter of dwp, a worldwide architectural design service after the recent completion of its education facilities.

Link to the article can be found here.

‘Leaders Talking About Learning’ is our new series of short videos designed to give you an insight into some of the teaching and learning practices at St John the Baptist Catholic School. A variety of learning topics will be showcased and explained throughout the series. Please click on the Teaching & Learning tab to find out more.

Limited places are available for Mid-Year Reception 2022 (Fee Free) and Reception 2023. 

For further information or assistance with your application, please contact the enrolments team by email info@stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au or phone (08) 8218 3300.

Our school canteen is an integral part of St John the Baptist Catholic School and allows for students, staff and volunteers (all essential ingredients) to work together to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh seasonal food.

The school canteen operates each day of the school week, with families able to choose and order from a variety of menu items via a school app.

We are excited to be participating in the Stretch Project in 2022/23. The project will be led by Dr Rebecca Napier, Gifted Education Advisor at Catholic Education SA, along with a team of both internal Catholic Education SA advisors and external experts in Gifted Education. The project will enable teachers at St John the Baptist School to design programs that are optimal for gifted learners.  We look forward to sharing further information once the project commences.

Our new building which has been under construction this year is due for completion in November of this year. The new building has 6 new classrooms, undercover play area and will join to the existing building to create an open space for Art, Design & Technology.  We are excited to see how these space will complement and enhance the learning opportunities for our students.

Research, data and a scientific approach is at the heart of our goal for growth in Literacy for all of our students.  With literacy a top priority at St John the Baptist Catholic School , we’ve recently implemented a new Reading and spelling approach, and are tracking children’s progress and development across the whole school.  It’s exciting to report, we’re seeing early evidence of success from across the school as a result of the implementation of the new Reading approach.

The framework has a strong emphasis on developing student’s phonic knowledge through a systematic, synthetic phonics approach. The engagement of our students in this program has been excellent. We’re quickly seeing the positive effects of the explicit classroom practice.  Not only does this program benefit our early readers, it also supports students with underlying learning difficulties. Helping students who may need to revisit different sounds, or those who need additional practise with blending and segmenting of words. Importantly, this program covers the five areas of reading which include phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.