Phone: 6882 - 2677

Fax: 6884 -4500

Term 4 Week 8 23rd November, 2015

ST JOHNS PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

www.stjohnsprimarydubbo.catholic.edu.au

138 Sheraton Road

P.O. Box 4914

S C H O O L M A N A G E R F a t h e r G r eg Ken n ed y

S C H O O L C H A P L A I N F a t h e r G r eg Ken n ed y

P R I N C I P A L M r . A n t h on y O ’ L e a r y

A S S I S T A N T P R I N C I P A L M r . A d am F o l e y

R E C M r . D a v i d S c h w ag e r

PRIMARY COORDINATOR

Mrs. Angela Benton TEACHING STAFF:

KINDERGARTEN Mrs. Teagan Hoper. Mrs. Karyn King / Mrs. Sarah Davis

Mrs. Maria Brice

YEAR 1

Mrs. Kim English/Mrs. Paula Clifford Miss Louise Lindsay

YEAR 2 Mrs. Gabrielle Jones / Mr. David Schwager

Mrs. Michelle Noonan

YEAR 3

Miss Anna Veech Mrs. Angela Benton/Mrs. Amanda Shields

YEAR 4 Mrs. Judith Gibson/Mrs. Aimee Rose

Ms. Carmel Reidy/Mrs. Paula Clifford .

YEAR 5

Miss Emma Bolton Mrs. Katrina Isbester/Mrs. Aimee Rose

YEAR 6 Miss Maddie Redden Mrs. Mickaela Wright

SPECIAL EDUCATION: Mrs. Patricia Toohey, Mr. Adam Foley

Mrs. Amanda Shields. Mrs. Deanna Swanson

TEACHER’S AIDES: Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Sissian, Mrs. Duncan

Mrs. Amoranto, Mrs. Montague, Mr. Thomas, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Mehta and Mr. Doolan

LIBRARIAN: Mrs. Maree Williams

ABORIGINAL EDUCATION WORKER:

Miss Kristie Daley.

CREATIVE ARTS:

Mrs. Maggie Dunn SCHOOL SECRETARY:

Mrs. Margo Green CANTEEN MANAGER:

Mrs. Cathy Dries

GENERAL HAND :

Mr. Mark Bradford CLEANER: Mrs. Kerry Iverach

P&F MEETINGS: 3rd Tuesday every month PARENTS/GUARDIANS Please note that photographs of students may be used in this publication. Please advise the School if you do not approve of your child’s photo being used.

From the Principal’s desk….

Welcome to Week 8. Last Friday we welcomed our new 2016 Kindergarten students to

school. They were very settled as they explored the classrooms, met new people and

participated in a wide range of activities. Their Orientation will continue this Friday.

Fees Transition – Family Information Request and Fee Agreement

Today we will be sending home to each family a package that will assist in the transition to

the new fees arrangements. As you are aware we have moved from the Dubbo Fees Office

model to school based fee collection. In the package there are a number of documents

that need to be signed and verified. These are:

A verification report of your details.

A School Fee Agreement that details the process for fee collection.

We request that these documents are returned to school by Friday, 27th of November.

Gospel and Reflection - John 18:33-37

‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked. Jesus replied, ‘Do you ask this of your own

accord, or have others spoken to you about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? It is your

own people and the chief priests who have handed you over

to me: what have you done?’ Jesus replied, ‘Mine is not a

kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my

men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to

the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this kind.’ ‘So you are a

king then?’ said Pilate. ‘It is you who say it’ answered Jesus.

‘Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for

this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side

of truth listen to my voice.’

VISION STATEMENT

St John’s Primary School strives to foster a community of faith that is centred on the teachings of Christ, where love and

concern develops the whole child, empowering each individual to realize his/her potential.

Important Dates to Remember

23rd November—27th November— INTENSIVE SWIMMING PROGRAMME Year 2– 11.50am /Year 3 -12.50pm.

30th November—4th December — INTENSIVE SWIMMING PROGRAMME Kindy—11.50am/ Year 1- 12.50pm.

7th December— End of Year / Graduation Mass 10am St Brigid’s Church.

7th December—Christmas Carols Evening 6:00—8:30pm.

14th December— Year 7 2016 2nd Orientation Day 9.30am—11.30 am.

14th December—Year 6 Graduation Dinner.

16th December— LAST DAY OF TERM 2015.

Reflection

The dialogue between Pilate and Jesus seems almost respectful, as if Pilate was trying to understand why Jesus

had been handed over to him. In this dialogue he seems genuinely puzzled about what Jesus has done, and he

almost seems to accept that Jesus might be a king, although of a different kind.

In the 21st century the concept of a king is quite different to that of biblical times, or even later times in history.

21st century kings are few in number and have very limited powers; some do not have huge wealth and most

have only a ceremonial role with the army of their land. We have to reach back to the fairy tales of our youth for

knowledge of kings with armies and subjects.

A king is usually defined as a male ruler whose position is hereditary, but there is a second definition which is

simply “one who is pre-eminent”. This four word definition offers great richness for reflection.

The “king as ruler” concept when applied to our relationship with Jesus potentially undermines his gift to us of

free will, introducing an element of fearful obedience into our spirituality.

Jesus as “one who is pre-eminent” in our lives is very different concept. This pre-eminence grows with the

nurturing of our relationship with him.

This week we will be interviewing for a number of positions for 2016. It is my hope that teacher class allocations

will be finalised by the end of Week 9. Our school is very fortunate that so many highly qualified and experienced

teachers have expressed a desire to work at SJP. 2016 will indeed be an exciting year for SJP as we embed

Professional Learning Communities, Project Based Learning and continue the roll out of quality ICT.

God Bless and have a wonderful week

Anthony O’Leary

COMBINED CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FEES & FAMILY SUPPORT OFFICE Welcome to Term 4 of the 2015 school year.

The School Fees and Family Support Office relocated from St Johns College to St John’s Primary yesterday.

Apologies if you experience any difficulty when trying to ring or fax as arrangements are still in progress in this regard. It is anticipated that the original phone and fax numbers will remain as is. There are still a few ‘glitches’ to work through. I will confirm this in the next newsletter.

Please email if you have any enquiries.

The office is now in Demountable 15 behind the St John’s Primary School Hall. There is a pathway which leads to the demountable as you come through the small metal gate. Hopefully there will be a signage in the near future to assist you if attending the office in person. If you do happen to get lost while trying to find us, just go to the St John’s Primary main office and ask the office staff for directions.

Regards

Karen Meredith

Manager

6882 6152

k.meredith@bth.catholic.edu.au

JUMP ROPE FOR HEART UPDATE

A very big thank-you goes out to all of the students who participated in

fundraising for Jump Rope for Heart. We are very pleased to announce that

St John’s Primary raised a fantastic $8183.96 for the Heart Foundation.

This money will go towards lifesaving heart research.

Prizes will be distributed within the next week.

Emma Bolton.

Conversations with Kindies!

(As told to Mr Schwager)

Name: Sebastien Low

Favourite Book: SpongeBob Squarepants

Favourite Food: Sausages with sauce

Favourite Movie: Jurassic park

Favourite Game: Mario

Favourite Sport: Cricket

What makes you happy? Playing computer

games

What makes you sad? My sister kicked me once

in the leg

What do you like about Dubbo? Inflatable

World– it has a big slide

What kinds of things do you think you can do in

heaven? People can be anywhere they want

How do you try and live like Jesus? Say nice

words to others

What message would you like to give to the rest

of the school? I’d like to ride in a digger, like my

uncle’s at the Cobar Mines

Graduation/ End of Year Mass

On Monday 7th December at 10am, we will be

participating in our final school Mass for the 2015,

with a focus on celebrating the year and farewelling

our Year 6 students who are graduating from 7 years

of Primary Schooling. Families and parishioners are

very welcome to attend.

St Vinnies’ Christmas Hampers

Thank you for your generous support of this very

worthwhile cause. Some families have donated more

than what was asked of them, and this certainly helps

us fill the hampers well. Please send in items as soon

as possible so classes can seal and decorate the

hampers before they are collected by members of

our local St Vincent de Paul team.

Save the Date: 2016 Beginning Year/ Leaders’ Badge

Presentation Mass – Thursday 4th February

Wishing you all a good week, David Schwager

(REC)

This week's REC Award goes to:

Samson Vadakanchery

To Live, Love and Learn in the Light of Christ”

Religious Education News Term 4 Week Eight 2015

CHRISTMAS TIMETABLE 2015

ST BRIGID’S PARISH

2nd Rite of Reconciliation

Tuesday 15th December at 12.00pm St Laurence’s Church

Tuesday 15th December at 7.30pm St Brigid’s Church

24th December Christmas Eve - Thursday

6.00pm Mass St Brigid’s Church.

(NB Includes children’s play.)

7.00pm Mass St Laurence’s Church.

9.00pm Mass St Brigid's Church.

25th December - Christmas Day - Friday.

7.30am Mass St Laurence’s Church.

9.00am Mass St Brigid’s Church.

26th December - Feast of St Stephen - Saturday.

6.00pm Mass St Brigid’s Church.

Library News Week 8

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is completed for 2015. The Challenge aims to encourage a

love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students and to enable them to experience quality

literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to

read more widely.

Congratulations to the following students who have received their certificates for successfully

completing the 2015 Challenge: Xavier Evans, Saheli Jayanetty, Aoife Joe, Ramya Mehta,

Alexander Raine, Rahul Rajesh, Orlagh Quigley, Vishaka Rupasinghe, Grace Peters, Brianna

Shuttle, Nicholas Peters, Xanthe Mara, Eva Osborne, Amoya Quigley and Eoin Quigley.

Well Done!

Maree Williams

Librarian

2016 Leadership Speeches

We would like to congratulate the following year 5 students who have been selected

to make a speech for Captain and Vice-Captain positions in 2016. Speeches will take

place in the school hall at 10am on Monday the 30th of November. Voting will then

take place at the conclusion of the speeches. We wish all these students all the best

with their speeches.

Boys

Eoin Quigley Laughlin Wilshire

Jack Cowper Elijah Amoranto

Billy Burden Louis Russell

Girls

Makayla Tink Lily Crowley

Jade McKeown Keira Bussey Eva Lordan

Elizabeth Meadows

Opportunity Hub Excursion

Some of our year 5 and 6 students attended the Official Launch for the Opportunity Hub at TAFE Western last

Thursday.

Our year 5 and 6 students that attended the launch have been attending workshops with Miss Kristie Daley and Miss

Belinda Solomon Coordinator for the Opportunity Hub every second Friday during cultural groups where they have

been learning about Identity, Aboriginal Culture, History and Traditions.

St John’s Students excelled at Representative Touch Tournament

Four of our students were selected to represent Dubbo for a touch football tournament held at Orange over the

weekend. Broden Konz and Nik Seaton played with the U’12 boys who won the grand final. Kiara Konz and Saxbii

Shaw played with the U’10 girls who were undefeated all day and also won their grand final. A big congratulations

goes out to Saxbii Shaw for winning Player of the tournament. Well Done Saxbii! The students will now play at

Tournaments held at Parkes and Wellington before heading to Port Macquarie for the Junior State Cup in February.

P & F News

Non Perishable Items Needed

We are looking for donations for our chocolate wheel at our Christmas Carols Evening, 7th

December 2015. Are you able to donate a non perishable item or vouchers please drop

them into St John’s Primary. It would be greatly appreciated.

The St John’s P&F are in need of some crafty people for our upcoming Christmas Carols for

our Christmas Stall.

Please either contact Belinda 0428 87 3711 or email stjohnspandf@gmail.com

St John’s Primary P&F Association are having a

CHRISTMAS HAM RAFFLE PER GRADE

DRAWN: Christmas Carols Night 7th December 2015, 6:30 – 8:30

$2 per Ticket.

All unsold Raffle tickets to be returned to the office

Please return to school in an envelope with Childs name and class CLEARLY marked that you

would like raffle drawn from.

Community News

CANTEEN NEWS

Hi Everyone,

The hot weather has helped the canteen reduce our special 50c poppers-we only have a dozen or so left so please don’t include them on lunch orders any longer. A big thankyou to all our volunteers for 2015-your assistance has been invaluable!!

Regards Cathy 0458 550 747