Principal's Report
Dear Parents/Carers,
Even though we have had students back at school for a week now, this is the first time I have been able to welcome you back for the school year. I trust that your Christmas was a time of great blessing, and that your family was able to have some quality time together during the summer break.
On behalf of our school community, I especially welcome the new families who have joined St John's this year. I pray that your time with us is rewarding and that you get to experience the wonderful community spirit that exists in our school.
Parent-School Partnership Framework
Our diocesan system of schools has developed this framework to support the positive connections that exist bewteen home, school and parish. Together, we are all striving to provide a school environment for the children to find meaning and purpose through continual growth in faith and learning. I encourage you to read through this framework.
Each week I will highlight one of the Principles of this framework. The first is "Co-Creating a Catholic Community." Parents can support this principle by taking an interest in the Religious Education provided by the school, ensuring children are supported in receiving the sacraments, attending when possible any Masses or liturgies and supporting social justice initiatives.
"Meet and Greet" sessions
Between Monday 15 February and Friday 19 February you will have the opportunity to attend a "Meet and Greet" meeting with your child's teacher. This will give you and the teacher the chance to share any necessary information that will support your child's growth and development this year. A notification will be pushed out on Compass next week with more information about this. Please note, in order to comply with COVID directives:
- parents must book a meeting on Compass
- parents should only arrive at the time of their meeting and then leave the school site as soon as the meeting has concluded
- the meeting time must be limited to 10 minutes
- cleaning of the furniture will take place bewteen meetings
- while masks are not mandatory, parents can choose to wear one.
Change of school times
As a staff, we have been discussing the potential of adjusting the times of our school day. Currently, our times are 8.55am - 3.20pm (as you know, since the COVID restrictions have been imposed, we have been allowing children to be collected from 3.00pm to support social distancing.)
Our discussions have been about starting earlier and finishing earlier. One of the key reasons is that we have noticed that a significant number of children arrive at school between 8.15-8.30am, with nearly all children here by 8.45am. We figure that we may as well begin our day if the children are here by then.
If we make any change, it would not happen any earlier than Term 2.
To help with any potential change we will be surveying parents to guage your response. This survey will be pushed out on Compass. Please feel free to contact our office if you have any other ideas or questions.
COVID Restrictions
Please keep referring to the Catholic Education, Diocese of Wollongong site (link) for any upadtes about restrictions. As a school we will also keep you informed via the Newsletter and Compass.
Unfortunately we are still unable to have parents attend events at school, including our upcoming Beginning Year Mass. We hope that restrictions begin to ease soon.
Wishing you a safe and fulfilling week,
Principal