Term 1, Week 2 2023

Dear Families

Welcome Back
Welcome back to St John the Baptist Catholic School as we embark upon an exciting new school year. We particularly welcome the new students and their families who have joined our school community this year. We welcome 32 Receptions (15 continuing) as well as Cassandra, Anhad, Sussani and Naira (Yr 2), Caleb, Isabelle, Taylor, Elham, Ayla and Ayah (Yr 3), Ethan (Yr 4) and Amali, Japreet and Madison (Yr 5) who join our community. 

We also welcome three new staff members to our school. Jodie Hamilton is teaching a Year 5 class and Eloise Napoli and Josie Maiese will work across the school in their roles as Education Support Officers. We know they have felt warmly welcomed by our wonderful community. 

School Theme
“Take Fresh Courage” is our 2023 School Theme. Amanda Razon introduced the theme to the staff during Week 0 and we know through last week each class explored the meaning of the theme, as well as prayed the Take Fresh Courage School prayer. Amanda explores the theme and shares the prayer a little further on in the newsletter. 

Wellbeing Week
We begin each year with a Wellbeing Week, where the intention is to build strong connections with the children, establish routines and revisit the wellbeing supports that exist at St John the Baptist. Across the school each class explores school and classroom expectations, St Mary Mackillop values, our Learning Dispositions, the school theme and the 5 point scale. We believe this is a vital process to set a solid foundation for the year ahead. These key aspects of the school are revisited each term and form part of the ‘Circle of Care’ that we wrap around our students. 

Please find a diagram of our Circle of Care here. 

Staffing News
Katie De Leo will conclude her employment at St John the Baptist at the end of this week, Friday 10th February. Katie has worked with many children across the school in her role as an Education Support Officer over the past 4 years. We thank for her for commitment and contribution to the school. 

Katie is staying connected to Catholic Education, having won an administrative role at Catholic Parents SA. We wish Katie all the best in this new role. 

We are also pleased to announce that Smantha Slee will be joining the staff of St John the Baptist as a Learning Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator. 

Smantha has for many years worked as a Special Education Teacher in schools, but has for the past 4 years been working at Autism SA as an Autism Advisor and Facilitator, where she has worked closely with children, families and the staff of both government and non government schools. We look forward to welcoming Smantha to the school from Monday 13th February. 

Camp Australia has appointed Tate Jarvis as the new coordinator of the service here at the school. Tate takes over the role from Shazia who concluded her appointment at the end of last year. Tate is a familiar face to the children and has led the service since returning from the break in mid January. We wish Tate all the best in her new role. 

Sport Qkr! 
Over the past two years we have been working towards all school sport payments being processed through the Qkr! App. In 2023, this process will continue with the addition of parent permission for participation in both after school sport and sporting carnivals. Payment for student participation in an activity must be made prior to the activity commencing. We look forward to your continued support as we move to a paperless system. 

2023 Catholic Education Awards
Nominations are now open for the 2023 Catholic Education Awards. The awards will be presented as part of Catholic Education Week in May. Please find further information at the link here. 

Data Collection
Each year the Australian Government Department of Education request that all schools distribute correspondence to their community members regarding 2023 Student Residential Address and Other Information. Please find information at the link here. 

NAPLAN
Later this term students in Years 3 and 5 will sit the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing. These national tests will be held in the morning teaching block on each of the specified days and will be supervised by classroom teachers.

Over the coming weeks, the classroom teachers will begin to prepare the children for the tests, familiarising the children with the log in process, question types, language features and general expectations of the test.

Please note that if you wish to withdraw your child from the tests, this will need to be done in writing before the end of Week 4, Friday 24th of February. You will need to contact Joanne Livingstone at the school to do this.

Further information is also available at www.nap.edu.au

COVID
COVID-19 continues to affect the community and we all have a part to play in keeping our school community safe and minimising the disruption to learning that can occur when illness circulates at school.

Students who are unwell should stay home if they have cold or flu-like symptoms and get tested for COVID-19. If the test returns positive, please advise the school as soon as possible, and stay at home until all acute symptoms (runny nose, sore throat, cough and fever) have cleared. We thank you for your continued support.

We wish all students, their families and the school staff the very best for the 2023 school year.  

Best Wishes

The Leadership Team
Todd LaForgia, Jo Livingstone, Amanda Razon & Michael Cimarosti

Take Fresh Courage
Welcome to a new school year! We mark the beginning of our new year with a new school theme, “Take Fresh Courage”. This was inspired by our Josephite charism, our Catholic identity and the way our community supports growth.

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop was a prime example of this courage. There were times when she did not know if she would have enough food or resources to provide those in her care. Yet she held on to her faith in God and stepped out in courage to go about doing what she needed to do.

St Mary MacKillop recognised each day as a blessing from God, walking in faith and love for Jesus and the Gospel. We hope that we can walk in the footsteps of Mary and all the other Saints who have gone before us, to step out in faith. For it is when we can stretch ourselves to go outside of our comfort zone, then we grow. So, our school theme will help us to remember that every new opportunity is a chance to “Take Fresh Courage”.

Beginning of Year Mass
A reminder that we will have our Beginning of Year Mass tomorrow (Friday 10^th February) at 12pm in St John the Baptist church. It will mark the beginning of our year and it will also be an opportunity to present our new Receptions and Year 6 leaders to our school community.

Prayer Spaces
Being a Catholic school, prayer becomes a large and integral part of our community. Last week, a new “Prayer Space” was introduced to the students. This space had paper butterfly cut-outs, pencils and blu-tack so that children could write their prayers, offering to God:

1. What they were thankful for last school year
2. What they are hopeful for this school year

The children had a warm response to this initiative, creating a beautiful array of butterflies on the glass wall at the bottom of the stairwell. We hope that we can explore new and meaningful ways to pray throughout this term.

Sacramental Program
We are now taking enrolments for the Sacramental Program. If your child is aged 8 and over, and have received the Sacrament of Baptism, they can start preparing to receive their Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and Holy Communion in the Catholic Church.

To register your child, please fill out the following form https://forms.office.com/r/DNwX228htZ

Alpha
The Plympton Parish is running another ALPHA program.

If you missed ALPHA last year, come and join us at daytime sessions this year beginning in February.

It’s free, welcoming, non-judgemental and most of all spiritually uplifting & renewing.

For bookings, please contact Carlien on 0488 006 927

Amanda Razon
APRIM

                          Our prayers are with those who have recently lost loved ones.

                                                       May God keep them close.

                          To the family of Blake Crossman from 5F for his grandfather.

                                        "Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord,

                                       and let perpetual light shine upon him,

                                                May he Rest In Peace."

Do you have a child who is due to start school in Term 3 2023 or in 2024 and have not yet submitted an enrolment form?  If so, enrolments are now over due!

Enrolment Forms can be collected from our school office or downloaded via our website www.stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au

If you have any queries, please contact our office on 8218 3300.

Fees

Our Annual School Fees are:

Full Fee - $3280
Lower Income Fee - $1795

The fees above includes all tuition and excursion levies for each child's education.  Extra Curricular activities, sport, camps and uniforms are excluded and will be charged separately.

To be eligible for the lower income fee, you need to qualify as a low income family.  This is determined by your family's gross income and is set by the State Government.  Your family's gross income needs to be below approximately $62,440 (2022 income limit) for a family with one school aged child (the limit will vary depending on how many dependant children you have).

Proof of income is required and applicants will need to apply via the State Governments School Card Scheme, please find information below on how to apply.

For further information regarding fees, please visit our website here.

The School Card scheme provides low-income families attending a non-government school with financial assistance for school fees (materials and services charges). 

Eligibility 

School Card is available to: 

• families with children aged four years and over who attend a school full-time 
• independent full-time students studying year 10, 11 or 12 

• adult re-entry students undertaking subjects to complete their SAC 

https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/education-and-learning/financial-help-scholarships-and-grants/school-card-scheme 

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries regarding the above. 

Qkr! Notifications
Please ensure that you have your notifications on for Qkr!  Notifications are sent out when items are closing to ensure you don't miss out.  See instructions below regarding turning on notifications.

We ask those families whose circumstances may have changed or are experiencing difficulties to please contact Todd LaForgia or myself at your earliest convenience via email: pmarks@stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au

Pam Marks 
Bursar/Finance Officer 

School Sport
There has been an outstanding response from the children to participate in their preferred sport/s.

Please find below the teams for the Term 1 season. We have the following:

Basketball teams playing at Wayville

Year 3/4 Boys STJB 36ers - Coaches – Andi Richardson / Peter Gianni

Year 3/4 Boys STJB Wizards - Coaches – Jeff Balkwill & Carolyne Ryan

Year 5/6 Boys STJB Warriors - Coach - Filomena Francis

Year 5/6 Girls STJB Clippers - Coaches – Hilary Sadler / Simon Croxton

Year 2/3 Open STJB Jazz - Coach – Emma Vivian

Year 2/3 Open STJB Lakers - Coaches – Grant / Jo Evans

Year 2/3 Open STJB Magic - Coach – Michelle Politis

Year 3 Master Blaster (Cricket) team playing at Glandore Oval - Coach – Warren Mitchell

Tee ball (Baseball) playing at Adelaide “Angels” Baseball Club

Seagulls - Coach – Sophie Cook

Pelicans - Coach – Paul Grosvenor         

Netball teams playing (mostly) at Cabra College

Year 3/4 STJB Allstars - Coach –Michelle Politis

Year 3/4 STJB Firebirds - Coach – Angela Speirs

             Year 5/6 STJB Vixens - Coach – Megan Spokes

Volleyball teams playing at Westbourne Park Community Centre

STJB Storm - Coach – Beth Tamm

STJB Thunder - Coach – Dani Amato

A special thank you to all the parents who have given up their time and volunteered to coach a team.

School sports that start in Week 2

• Netball
• Volleyball

School sports that start in Week 3

• Basketball
• Tee Ball
• MasterBlaster Cricket

Team selections are made by the school and requests will only be considered in extenuating circumstances and at the school's discretion.

BASEBALL / Past Student / Claxton Shield
Jordan McCardle is the captain of the Adelaide Giants Baseball team who have just won the Claxton Shield. South Australia has not won the Claxton Shield since 1980 – that's 43 years ago!

Jordan and his sister (Ella) are past students of St John the Baptist Catholic School. Congratulations to Jordan.

Paul O'Dea
PE & Co-curricular Sport Co-ordinator
podea@stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au

Student Counselling Support
My name is Sarah Byrnes and I am the school counsellor at St John's the Baptist. I have been at the school since term 4 of 2021. I am here on a Tuesday and meet with children who present with a range of different challenges that can be overwhelming. The school counselling program is run by Centacare Catholic Family Services and our program supports a range of issues such as anxiety and worries, basic behaviour difficulties, social and friendship problems and more. If your child is having difficulties at school and you feel they need some counselling support, please reach out to your child's teacher, or the leadership team to organise a referral. At times there can be a wait list, so if your child needs more urgent support, please reach out to your GP to discuss your child's mental health care plan. 

I love working with and supporting the children of St John's and look forward to a positive year ahead. 

If you would like to know more about Centacare's School Counselling Program please click on the link https://centacare.org.au/service/school-counselling-program/ or have a look at the attached brochure.

Sarah Byrnes
CENTACARE SCHOOL COUNSELLOR

All orders for both recess and lunch are to be ordered via our Qkr! app.   

Canteen orders close each canteen day (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) at 9.00am.

Healthy Canteen (Tuesday & Thursday) orders close on Mondays at 12pm.

Canteen Roster

Term 1

Friday 10th Feb - Sonya Carr

Monday 13th Feb - Julie

Wednesday 15th Feb - Julie

Friday 17th Feb - Monica Holland

Monday 20th Feb - Julie

Wednesday 22nd Feb - Julie

Thursday 23rd Feb - Karen Drury

Friday 24th Feb - TBC

Monday 27th Feb - Julie

Wednesday 1st Mar - Julie

Friday 3rd Mar - Hilary Sadler

Monday 6th Mar - Julie

Wednesday 8th Mar - Julie

Friday 10th Mar - Lucianna Introna

Julie Henschke & Jo Fitzgerald

Would your child like to learn guitar in 2023?

If you are interested please contact Dido on Mobile: 0407719836.  

St John the Baptist School provides a safe environment for all while valuing the partnership between school and home.

As a Catholic community, we welcome and value volunteers. To be able to volunteer, and/or attend at other times throughout the school year, we ask that you hold a current Catholic Police Check (parents/caregivers attending excursions, reading in class, helping in class, attending community events), a current Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect in Education and Care for Volunteers certificate, have completed the volunteers application package and your COVID vaccination certificate.

A Catholic Police Check for volunteers is free for our current parents and caregivers. Application Forms are available in our school office.

This process ensures we maintain a child safe environment. To avoid disappointment, we encourage you to apply for a Catholic Police Check through the school office as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the school office on 8218 3300 or email Francis Schulz on fschulz@stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au .

The links and information that are being provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only.  They do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by St John the Baptist Catholic School of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organisation or individual.  St John the Baptist Catholic School bears no responsibility for the accuracy legality or contact of the external site or for that of subsequent links.  Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.