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PARISH CONTACTS:

PH: 9873 1341

PARISH PRIEST Father Dispin John

PARISH SECRETARIES Mrs. Elisa Kelesidis Mrs. Martine Giles

PASTORAL ASSOCIATE Mrs. Maree O’Keefe

SCHOOL OFFICE HOURS Monday -Friday, 8.30am –4.00pm UNIFORM

RHSport , Ringwood PH: 9870 1377 SECOND HAND UNIFORM

CO-ORDINATOR Kathleen Spicer

Open first Tuesday of each month 8.30 -9.00am Multi Purpose Room

CAMP AUSTRALIA

Before & After School Care 1300 105 343

CO-ORDINATOR Richard HOURS: 7.00 -8.30 am 3.20 –6.15 pm LUNCH ORDERS

Every Tuesday Lunchtime To order register online: www.flexischools.com.au

COMING UP AT ST JOHN’S

DECEMBER 2 Sunday 2019 Prep Welcome Mass, 9.45 5 Wednesday Parent Association AGM, 7.00pm 10 Monday School Assembly, 8.50am 12 Wednesday Carols at St John’s, 6.00pm 17 Monday 2019 Orientation Morning and School Picnic 18 Tuesday Final Day of School 2018 Free Dress Day Thanksgiving Mass, 7.00pm JANUARY 31 Thursday First Day of School 2019, 8.45am Click here to access St John’s Parish Newsletter

November 26, 2018 No. 33

Dear Parents,

It was wonderful to see our new prep cohort settle in so well over the past few weeks during their orienta-tion sessions.

Prep 2019 Welcome mass We look forward to the Prep Welcome Mass this Sunday at 9:45am where our current Preps welcome our 2019 Preps. This is always such a beautiful celebration.

Class structure for 2019 Next year we will have the following classroom structure: Prep 2 x Year 1/2 classes 2 x Year 3/4 classes 3 x Year 5/6 classes I will advise you of the staffing arrangements in the coming weeks. If you have anything that you would like to raise with me about your child’s transition into 2019 please make an appointment to see me.

Student Leadership Today I had the opportunity to talk to our senior students about leadership. Student voice and empower-ment is very important at St John’s that is why student leadership is valued and supported. We shared to-gether the qualities of successful leaders, such as respect, honesty, integrity and commitment. Our current year sixes are reflecting on their year as leaders and supporting our year five students in the next step. I look forward to walking the journey with them as they begin to consider what leadership roles they would like in 2019

Have a great week, Jacqui Marshall

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Important Dates to Remember December 2 Sunday 2019 Prep Welcome Mass, 9:45am 18 Tuesday Thanksgiving Mass, 7:00pm

Our Gospel Challenge this week is to: be honest and tell the truth.

Jesus tells Pilate in this week’s Gospel that he has no earthly kingdom. Jesus wasn’t a politician, but he hoped to reshape society – government and religion – to reflect God’s Kingdom. That’s the work we carry on as his followers. For disciples the cross always rises above the flag. We’re called to be Catholic patriots, people whose faith shapes our patriotism; not patriotic Catholics, people who place national policies above Gospel values. Patriotism for Christians means using our political system to shape a more compassionate, peaceful nation – being a seed of Jesus’ Kingdom. That might cause conflict with other people at times. Our nation separates church and state. That means the state can’t tell you what religion to follow. It doesn’t mean that Christian values should be separated from our political life. Christ calls us as disciples to trace each of our political opinions back to the Gospel. How does the Gospel challenge our national policies on poverty? on health care? on war and peace? on criminal justice? on environmental issues? on abortion? This Wednesday is Red Wednesday, which is a global event, led by Aid to the Church in need (an International Catholic Foundation), to stand in solidarity with all who have been persecuted because of their peacefully held religious beliefs, to raise awareness of all religious persecution and to work toward a world where every person’s right to peacefully hold and practise their beliefs is respected. Mil-lions of adults and children in the world suffer oppression and violence because of their faith. In our school, parish and communities are people who have fled persecution from their home country because of their religious beliefs. The free-dom to practice your religious belief. We have all been created to naturally seek the truth of ourselves and the world. This Wednesday we will light a red candle and leave it burning in the office area to raise awareness of this issue and to stand in solidarity with those suffering. For simply holding a religious belief. Aid to the Church in Need, together with the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, invites you to Stand Up for Faith and Freedom on Red Wednesday – 28th November 2018. Please join us for an Interfaith Gathering at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The Cathedral will be floodlit in red for the first time as a visible sign of solidarity with those facing persecution. Interfaith Gathering Time: 7.30pm – 8.30pm Date: Wednesday 28th November 2018 Venue: Forecourt, St. Patrick’s Cathedral Program: 7.30pm Interfaith Prayers and Reflections 8.00pm Light refreshments 8.30pm Floodlighting the Cathedral Further information / inquires - email jus-tice@cam.org.au Have an enjoyable week,

Monica

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MARATHON CLUB

The last day of Marathon Club will be Thursday 13 De-cember. There will be breakfast in the park for everyone who has participated during the year.

SCHOOL BANKING

The last day of school banking will be on Monday 17 November. Thank you to Maria Wallis for her time, managing the school banking program for students this year.

With Summer coming up have you discussed the im-portance of water safety with your child/children?

BIRTHDAYS

This week we congratulate Tia Iliopoulos and Deedee Deiwal as they celebrate their birthday. We hope you both have a very ……...

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY”

MAINTENANCE - HELP!

The sandpit is one of the most popular areas in our playground. Unfortunately the wood surrounding it is beginning to rot and needs to be replaced. If you are willing and able to help us with this pro-ject, please contact the school office, Jacqui or Monica.

Italian Phrase of the Week

Vado a scoula (Ver-doh ah skwo-lah)

I go to school

ICE-CREAM DAY Friday 30th November is Ice Cream Special Food Day! The Parents Association has arranged an ice cream van to serve soft serve and gelato at recess. Order forms went home Friday. All orders need to be completed and returned with correct money by tomorrow Tuesday 27th November. If your child has a nut or other food allergy, please advise Jackie Harkin on 0411232071 (Astrid 5/6TJ & Zoe 3/4KC).

FROM NIGERIA TO MITCHAM …..TO MELTON

As you may be aware, between March 2014 and November 2015 with guidance from Catholic Care, the St John’s Parish Family and St John’s Primary School supported a family from Nigeria, seeking asylum, Lateeph, Ann and their three boys Fawas, Faiz and Fuwad. In November 2015 the family moved to Tarneit and Ann gave birth in early 2016 to their fourth son Xavier. In 2017 they moved to Melton for more employment op-portunities for Lateeph and he has been employed full time since that move.

On Tuesday 20 November Kevin and Lyn Thornycroft, Trish Harkin and Bryan Meehan trav-elled to Melton to celebrate the whole family becoming Australian Citizens. The four attendees were very moved by the occasion, the pure excitement and joy that Ann and Lateeph and the four boys displayed, how they presented themselves for the ceremony and the trouble they went to in preparing a celebration feast for their guests.

Ann sent this email after the ceremony we would like to share with you all.

“We are so happy and grateful to see you all today at our citizenship ceremony, all the way from Mitcham. Wow we felt so loved and we want to say a very big thank you from the bottom of our heart, we are so blessed. God bless and please pass our love to your families and to the parish.” - Ann.

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Learning and Teaching Assessment at St. John’s

Assessment does not only take place at St John’s around report writing time. Staff at St John’s are consistent-ly assessing students all the time. Assessment is the process of gathering and interpreting evidence to make judgements about students’ learning. Assessment is used by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are at in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there. We classify assessment into two categories according to its purpose and timing.

Summative Assessment

Summative assessments are used to place students along a continuum of development and is usually admin-istered at the completion of a unit of learning. Summative assessment evaluates teaching and learning. This form of assessment provides information about how effective teaching strategies have been and how to im-prove teaching for future students. Examples of this includes post tests after a unit of work. At St. John’s we also utilise a number of external formal testing such as NAPLAN, PAT assessment data and LAP that exam-ine the progress of individual learners over a period of time. These formal testing procedures are used by thousands of schools in Australia and around the world through leading educational agencies such as Austral-ian Council of Educational Research and the University of Melbourne.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is generally carried out both prior to teaching and during a learning activity. It is all the activities undertaken by teachers and students which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Formative assessment informs teaching and learning. Examples of this include all learning tasks including dialogue and observations.

A nice analogy we heard recently for the two forms of assessment is, “when a cook tastes the soup, that’s formative and when a guest tastes the soup, that’s summative”.

As educators we also need to consider that the assessment needs to be relevant to the teaching and learning and provides opportunities for students to be “assessment capable” so they can reflect and monitor their own progress and consequently plan their future learning goals.

Carols Night

Wednesday 12th December

Not long to go now before our annual Christmas concert on Wednesday 12 December!

The concert will start promptly at 6.00pm on the basketball court and will finish at 7.00pm(approximately).

I know the students can’t wait to entertain you! There will be more information to come in next weeks newsletter. We look forward to celebrating our wonderful 2018 year with you.

- Penelope Lang

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