Welcome back to our 2022 school year. It is wonderful to be back together again as a community and we have been delighted with the positive way the children have begun their new school year. We have heard many stories of holiday destinations, catch ups with extended family and gatherings with friends - experiences that I think many of us will never take for granted again!
Our staff officially started school on Friday of last week and are to be commended for the many hours of preparation that they put in over the holidays to ensure that your children would have a great start to the year and exciting and engaging spaces for them to learn.
We are so fortunate to have some new members of staff joining our team for 2022.
We welcome Melissa Donelly who will join Stephanie May in Prep MD. Melissa will teach in the classroom on a Monday whilst Stephanie supports our staff and students in the area of ICT and ELearning.
We also welcome Tess Farry who will be leading our Physical Education program and Christine Barcham who will be working as part of our Intervention Team, teaching our Reading Recovery program. We also welcome Tim Berthelsen who will be replacing Tracey Ryan while she is on Long Service Leave for Term 1. We look forward to working alongside them this year as they join our amazing SJB community.
Introducing our wonderful staff for 2022:
Parish Priest: Father Thomas Kuruvila
School Administration:
Mrs Cynthia Schouten (Mon-Wed); Mrs Jo Devenish (Tue/Thur/Fri)
Acting Principal: Mrs Ursula DeCorrado
Acting Deputy Principal/Learning Diversity: Mrs Jo Stoica
Religious Education Leader: Mrs Marialisa Mandarino (Tue)
Maths Leader: Mrs Kathryn Forbes (Tue)
Sustainability Leader: Mrs Deborah Butler (Thur)
E-Learning Leader: Mrs Stephanie May
Intervention: Sue Cahill (Wed, Fri)
Learning Support Officers:
Mrs Julie Gellie (& Library Coordinator); Mrs Amy Wright, Mrs Ange Cavarra, Mrs Sue Davey & Mrs Renee Armstrong
Specialist Teachers:
Italian: Mrs Marialisa Mandarino (Wed, Thur)
Performing Arts (P-6): Mrs Sue Cahill (Mon,Wed,Fri)
PE: Mrs Tess Farry (Wed, Thur)
Reading Recovery: Christine Barcham
Grounds & Maintenance:
Mr John O’Halloran (Mon/Thur) & Gardener: Kieran Lennon (Mon)
Classroom Teachers:
Prep MD: Mrs Stephanie May and Mrs Melissa Donelly (M)
Prep S: Miss Rebecca Swan
1/2BR: Miss Molly Brown
1/2BC: Mrs Deborah Butler (M,T,W) & Mrs Shari Correlje (Th,F)
1/2BE: Mrs Michelle Bearder
3/4KC: Mrs Gisella Koroknai (M,W,Th,F) & Mrs Sue Cahill (T)
3/4 SM: Mrs Susan Smith (Tue/Wed/Thur) & Mrs Marialisa Mandarino (M,F)
5/6 RJ: Mrs Tracey Ryan (M,T,W,Th) & Mrs Emily Johnston (F)
5/6 FJ: Mrs Kathryn Forbes (M,W,Th,F) & Mrs Emily Johnston (T)
Monday was such an exciting day for us as we greeted our new youngest members of our school.
Welcome to:
Fletcher, Bethany, Sophie, Aurelia, Alice, Albie, Keira, Xander, Jay, Evie, Adrianna, Stefan, Nathan, Neve, Madden, Samuel, Skye, Amelia, Georgia C, Jack, Benjamin, Briar, Georgia H, Quinn, Mack, Rory, Seamus, Sam, Willow, Pippy, Arabella, Louis, Aaron and Marley.
We also welcome our youngest member to the St John’s community. Beautiful Zoe Grace Hendricks was born on 28th December. She is so very lucky to have Olivia (Year 2) as her big sister and Xavier as her big brother. Congratulations to the Hendricks family on their new arrival.
Our parent/ Teacher Meet & Greet Meetings will be held on 8th and 9th February from 3:30 - 6:00pm virtually via Zoom. These Meet and Greet sessions strengthen your child’s transition into their new grade and give you the opportunity to share information about your child with their new teacher. We really value your input and believe that positive home/school partnerships will enhance the learning outcomes for your child. We would encourage all parents to make a booking through our online booking system.
You will be sent a link to access your Zoom meeting from your child/ren's teacher.
Please note the booking system will open at 8.00am tomorrow, Wednesday February 2nd 2022.
Link to booking system - Click here
This year we will run our swimming training sessions before school on a Wednesday morning from 8:00 - 8:30 am at St Joseph’s pool to prepare our swimming squad for the District Swimming Carnival. Notes came home yesterday for children in Year 3-6 who would like to trial for this event. Children must be able to competently swim 50m.
The Parents and Friends are hosting their annual welcome evening for all our families. The cost of the evening is $10 per family to cover the cost of the entertainment. BYO food, drink & picnic rug or chairs. The evening will commence at 6:00pm on our school oval. Please make note of this date as we welcome our 2022 school year as a whole school community.
Our annual St John the Baptist sports day will be held on 18th February at Knox Athletics Track. All children in the school will participate in events earning points for their house. The children will travel by bus on this day and we hope you can join us either as a helper or a member of the cheer squad!
Thank you to everyone that contributed to our Welcome Morning Tea on Monday. It was a lovely way for our new families to get to know each other and for our current families to catch up after our holidays.
Special thanks to the following families:-
Croning, Aponso, Hobba, Neve, Portbury, Cann, Walker, Russell, Ong, Thompson, Dwyer, Ambler, Kristof, Conway, Brodie, Serrao, Reed, Trimble and Schmidt
ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
Reflecting on the PAST
Embracing the PRESENT
Growing towards the FUTURE
Living in the SPIRIT
Responding to GOD in all.