Term 1, Week 2 2025

It has been a lovely start to the school year, seeing so many excited and smiling faces. I hope that you have all had a wonderful time over the Christmas break. Now we are back into the school routine!

Beginning of Year Mass
To mark the beginning of the school year, the whole school will be attending Mass tomorrow morning at 9:30am in St John the Baptist Church. Families are most welcome to attend.

Year level Mass
As with each term, we will be having year levels attend Mass with the parish on Wednesday mornings at 9:30am. You will find which week your child or children will be attending Mass, as per our school term calendar. We look forward to having families join us at these Masses.

Sacramental Programme 2025
We are still accepting enrolments for the 2025 Sacramental Programme. If your child or children are aged 8 or over, or will be turning 8 before August 2025 and you believe they are ready to be involved in the program, please complete the details in the form provided and send a copy of your child's Baptism certificate to the Parish Office or email address: plymptonparish@stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au

Plympton Parish Quiz Night
You are welcome to join the parish Catholic Quiz night on Friday 28^th February at 7:00pm. 

Entry is free. BYO Supper and Drinks. Please book through the Parish Office: 8293 6600 or through trybooking.com/CYHHN

Welcome to 2025, I hope you had a lovely Christmas & New Year break.  School Fee statements will be posted out in Week 3, so if you do not receive yours by 20^th February, please contact me and I can resend it.  Thank you to the many families who have already completed and returned their direct debit forms last year, these have all been loaded into our system and payments will be starting as requested.  If you would like another form, please let me know.  Otherwise, other payment options are cash or EFTPOS via the front office, Qkr payments via your phone app, Bpay and direct to bank details are on the bottom of your statement.  If you have changed your postal address, please ensure the school has your current information as statements are posted out each term to all families with a balance.

2025 Fees
Our Annual School Fees are:

Full Fee - $3,280
Lower Income Fee - $1,795

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

If you pay your fees in full by the 7^th March you will qualify for the 5% upfront discount of $164 for 1 child, $296 if you have 2 children, $415.75 if you have 3 children.  Please deduct this amount and pay the remainder of the fees.  If you would like assistance to work out what to pay please contact me on accounts@stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au

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

To be eligible for the lower income fee, you need to apply & qualify as a low-income family via the SA Government School Card Scheme each year.  This is determined by your family's gross 2023-24 income and is set by the State Government.  Your family's gross income needs to be below $74,189 for a family with one school aged child (the limit will vary depending on how many dependent children you have increasing by $1,426 per additional child).

School Card
Please follow the link below to apply for the 2025 School Card Scheme and apply online via the School Card – apply now button.

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 may be sent out for special events and this will ensure you don't miss out.  See instructions below regarding turning on notifications.

If you have any queries regarding fees or payments or if your circumstances have changed and you are experiencing difficulties making payments, please contact me via email on accounts@stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au

Jodie Veldhoen
Finance Officer

Dear St John’s Community,

Welcome back! It’s excellent to begin a new sporting year and I very much look forward to a promising 2025 in the area of Sport here at St John the Baptist School. What a great opportunity we have all had to break routines and spend time relaxing with those who mean the most to us. Personally, I thought it was great to get away and spend some time building new memories with my family.

In the initial weeks of school, we have spent some time together in our class groups going through some Physical Education routines and expectations:

Reception – Year 2 Expectations

1. Showing kindness always                   
2.  "Red Faces" always
3.   Be the best we can be always

Year 3 – Year 6 Expectations

1. Respect everyone through words and actions always
2. Being "1% Better" everyday always
3. Striving for personal growth always

It is great to be back and seeing the students settle into a new year level with additional responsibilities and more maturity.

Already in our community we have had some students achieving wonderful things. We wish to congratulate Jaya (6M), Nash (4PC), Albie (4G), Judd (4G) and Syd (3EB) for recently competing in the State Athletics Relay Championships which were held at the SA Athletics Stadium. All students did a fantastic job and posted some very impressive results. We would like to further congratulate both Nash (4PC) and Syd (3EB) for obtaining medals for the following results: Nash – Gold in 4 x 100m Relay Team and Syd – Gold in 4 x 200m Relay Team, Gold in 4 x 100m Relay Team and Bronze in Field Relay. Keep up the great work athletes and I look forward to hearing about more students and their achievements throughout the course of the year.   

 

We wish to also congratulate Ethan (3J) who attends the Glenelg Surf Club and was involved in the Brighton Jetty Swim. Ethan was the first swimmer home and received a wonderful Gold medal, well done on your efforts here Ethan.

Our first SACPSSA school carnival will be held during Term 1 – Week 9. After taking the overall honours last year we have been upgraded into Section 2 and will be heading to Burnside Swimming Centre on the 25^th March. Trials for making this team will be held at the Immanuel College iSwim facility on Wednesday 19^th of February. (Week 4)

Through Cricket Australia and SACA we have secured a 4 Week ‘Growing Girls in Cricket’ program for all girls in Years 5/6. This is a great opportunity for the girls to get together for an additional 40 minute session of PE on a Monday afternoon to learn new skills whilst having fun together.

We are pleased to see our ‘After School’ Sport programs getting started in 2025. During Term 1 we are offering Basketball, Cricket and T-Ball. Well done to the students and families who have found that additional time to get involved in these opportunities. Thank you to the parents too who have so willingly offered their precious time in order to be Mentors and Managers for these teams. These opportunities simply couldn’t go ahead without the support of these people. So, if you see a Mentor or Manager of a team, say thank you and tell them that they are doing a wonderful job. I look forward to getting out to support these teams and to see them all in action.

I would like to remind all families that we are affiliated with the Airport District for SAPSASA opportunities. If your child has a passion and outstanding skills in a certain area and would like to be considered for teams or events please visit the following website to see the calendar: SAPSASA Calendar  Term 1 SAPSASA opportunities consist of the District Swimming Carnival, State Softball Carnival and District Football Carnival. Please email me well in advance if your child has an interest in a particular area and I will be more than happy to supply them with the paperwork required when it becomes available to me.

If there is any other information you would like to know, our school handbook is a great resource. Please click on the following link in order to see this handbook: Sports Handbook

I look forward to a very promising year of Sport here at St John the Baptist School, we hope you and your children are equally as excited.

Yours in sport

Sam Putland
SPORTS COORDINATOR

Scholastic Book Club
Scholastic Book Club catalogues will be sent home this week.  If you would like to order please do so by the 17th February.  The school gets a percentage of items sold in $ rewards to spend on new books/resources for our library

We have over $300 worth of rewards from last year to spend in Term 1.  Thank you.

Overdue Books
If your child has outstanding books from last year please keep looking for them.  One was found in someone's chook shed at the end of last year...but I wouldn't recommend reading in there! 

Please let us know if they are lost so that your child can borrow this year.

Maria French and the Library Team

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 7th February - Jo & Jo Rowett

Monday 10th February - Julie

Tuesday 11th February - Jo

Wednesday 12th February - Julie

Thursday 13th February - Jo

Friday 14th Februrary - Jo & Liza Coombes

Monday 17th February - Julie

Tuesday 18th February - Jo

Wednesday 19th February - Julie

Thursday 20th February - Jo

Friday 21st February - Jo & Sarah Dennis

Monday 24th February - Julie

Tuesday 25th February - Jo

Wednesday 26th February - Julie

Thursday 27th February - Jo

Friday 28th February - Jo & Cara Finneran

Canteen Feedback

We would love your feedback regarding the canteen.

Is there anything that you would like to see on the menu that we may be able to consider adding on?

Please send your feedback to jfitzgerald@stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au

Julie Henschke & Jo Fitzgerald

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 and have completed the volunteers application package.

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 Julia Roy on jroy@stjohnpl.catholic.edu.au .

                                               

Insights may be discussed at future School Advisory Board meetings or you may be contacted personally for further follow up!

Please find link here for your suggestions.

Australian Girls Choir Open Day

Look no further than the Australian Girls Choir (AGC) because we encourage, challenge and inspire girls as they learn to sing, dance and perform. School aged girls are invited to come along to our February Open Day to try our fun and inclusive classes and learn more about being part of the AGC! Please visit our website to register to attend our free Open Day: ausgirlschoir.com.au/joinagc

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.