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. 

"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,

Paul Moroney
Principal

Happy Birthday to the following students and staff who are celebrating their birthday this week and during the holidays, 1st January - 6th February

Notice of P&F Annual General Meeting

Please note that the AGM Agenda is open. Please email any agenda items to pandf@sjctdow.catholic.edu.au by Monday 17th February 5pm.

AGM Details:

Date: Tuesday 23rd February 2020

Time: 7:00pm

Location: Tiered Learning Space (near Kindy and Year 1 classes)

All Executive positions will be made vacant and an election held for new office-bearers. The Nomination form and role descriptions follow. All are welcome to attend. We hope to see you there and look forward to meeting new parents of the school. Please contact us if you require any further information

Sports Uniform Days

Student Uniforms

Many teachers have needed to wear sunglasses due to the glare from the number of brand new white joggers this year!  It has been quite noticeable the number of new joggers and black school shoes this year - all of which are complying with our uniform policy.  We can’t thank you enough for supporting us in our whole school's focus on improving the standard of our uniform.

Once again we will have a focus on uniforms each week, and students will receive a token for their house each week if they are wearing their uniform correctly.  We will begin this next week, with students having the opportunity to receive a token for each of the following:

1. Wearing their school hat at all times when travelling to and from school, during Sport and PE, and whilst on the playground.
2. Wearing predominantly white joggers with white shoe laces.
3. Wearing short white sport socks that have no logos or lines on them.  Socks should be short, not sockettes or long white socks.

Please note that the wide brim hats are no longer accepted as part of our uniform.  These have been fazed out over a number of years when we got our reversible bucket hats.  We were also hoping to no longer accept the legionnaire caps, however, we are aware that Lowes still have a number of these in stock.  For this reason we will accept them as part of the uniform.  Please be mindful we will faze these out over time with our preference being the reversible bucket hats.  Students will be able to receive a token if they are wearing either the reversible bucket hat or the legionnaire cap.

Clothing Pool will be open this Friday 5th February from 8.30am in the school Clothing Pool . Cash and eftpos accepted

You will need to come through the office to 'Check in' prior to walking down to clothing pool 

Please remember to adhere to good social distancing and hygiene practices and don't attend if you have cold/flu like symptoms, 

Due to COVID restrictions parents are currently not allowed on school grounds. We also need to limit the amount of visitors that come into the office, so please only come into the office if necessary.

  It is important that you let the office know as soon as possible, via email or phone, if you are picking your child up prior to dismissal (including time).  We can then arrange to have them in the office ready for you.

Please note we are unable to arrange collection of your children during break times (11.15am-12 & 1.15pm-2pm) without prior notice. Please do not enter late arrivals or early departures into compass, this needs to be done by the school office.

Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

Just a reminder that due to Covid restrictions Children are unable to bring in any type of food/gifts for sharing with their class. There is the option of purchasing Zooper Doopers from the canteen, These are now available to purchase through Flexischools or you can order and pay at the front office.

Thank you for your understanding with this matter

If your child is away from school it is important to let the school know as soon as possible with a specific reason, e.g. what type of illness they have, If you are filling in a note on the Compass app, please add an explanation in the details/comments box .

Do not enter into compass if they are going to be late or leave early, that needs to be done from the school end.

It is really important to keep your child at home if they are unwell, this will help with the spread of illness. In the current COVID 19 climate ,if you child displays cold/flu symptoms you will need to get a medical clearance for your child to return to school 

If your child has a covid test, please notify the school when they have the test and as soon as you get your results please forward these on to the school.