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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

NOVEMBER 14 Wednesday 2019 Prep Orientation, 2.00-3.00pm 16 Friday School Closure Day 17 Saturday St John’s Community Fete 18 Sunday Working Bee, 9.00am 20 Tuesday 2019 Prep Orientation, 9.15-10.45am 22 Thursday 2019 First Reconciliation Parent Night, 7.30pm 24 Saturday Level Five Mass & Creed Presentation, 6.00pm 25 Sunday Level Five Mass & Creed Presentation, 11.15am Click here to access St John’s Parish Newsletter

November 12, 2018 No. 31

Dear Parents,

What an exciting morning we had at our Prep assembly….a marriage proposal!!!

Congratulations to Miss Curtis and Brandon and thanks for allowing us to be part of it. It was such a surprise and Miss Curtis had no idea!

Fete We have our fete this Saturday and the predicted weather forecast looks promising. There is a school closure day on Friday so things can be set up. The St John’s staff will be hard at work down at St James School. There are many stalls that need volunteers so can I please ask you to give an hour of your time by following the live link included in the fete newsletter. Congratulations to the Wallis family (Christopher 3/4RF) for winning a

$50 Bucatini voucher in the second early bird raffle draw. The choir are performing on stage at 2pm followed by Scottish dancers at 2:15pm On Sunday, there is a working bee to put the school back together so many helpers needed. Families from St James are also asked to come along and support this. Please sign up on the link in the fete newsletter.

Staffing At the end of this year, we will be saying farewell to three staff members. Bianca Martino who has been on staff since 2014, has accepted a positon at St Patrick’s Mentone which will be much closer to her new home when she gets married in January. Bianca has been such a vibrant and passionate member of staff and it has been wonderful seeing her grow as a teacher in her 5 years here. She has lead our school in the area of Learning and Teaching and Digital Technologies for the past few years with some great new initiates. We will miss seeing her happy face around the place.

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Important Dates to Remember

November 24 Saturday Year Five Level Mass and Creed Presentation, 6:00pm

25 Sunday Year Five Level Mass and Creed Presentation, 11:15am

Our Gospel Challenge this week is to: be generous!

Jesus talks about role models in this week’s Gospel. He contrasts the scribes and the rich people with the widow. The scribes, Jesus says, draw attention to themselves, seeking the crowd’s praise. Some rich people make large donations, but none that require real sacrifice. Meanwhile, a widow quietly sacrifices from her meagre income to offer something to her religion. Widows were some of the poorest people in Ancient Israel. Where do you look for role models? Our culture often promotes modern-day scribes as role models for young people to follow – athletes and corporate CEOs who flaunt their wealth, politicians who love their power, and religious leaders who profit from their connections to powerful people. Jesus says, look for another way if you are seeking a life of holiness. Search out people who make quiet but significant sacrifices for others. Think about your parents. How have they sacrificed to improve your life? How about your teach-ers? Many teachers don’t make a lot of money, but stay committed to teaching because they like helping young people. Don’t forget the people who are working at your parish. Church workers often work long hours because they believe the world needs to hear Jesus’ message. Remembrance Day Yesterday was Remembrance Day. At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns on the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare. This year marks 100th anniversary. The Armistice. ... For this reason, Remembrance Day was originally called Armistice Day. In Australia, it was renamed in 1997. The name change broadened the meaning of the day, widening the focus from World War I, to a day which commemorates those who served in any war or conflict. Have a good week everyone, Monica

Penelope Lang has decided to say goodbye to St John’s after being on staff for 7 years. Penelope’s talent for eve-rything musical allowed our school to shine in the area of Performing Arts. She will be remembered for the all the amazing school performances and allowing students opportunities to believe in themselves.

Anne Sciola our Italian teacher will follow other passions and interests after 40 years of teaching with the last six of them being at St John’s. Anne loved seeing the children show an appreciation for another language and her highlight of each year is always our Italian incursion. We thank Anne for her commitment to our school. Prep 2019 We welcomed our new preps on Thursday and they were all so excited. They are back on Wednesday for their next Orientation session. Emmaus visit Our Year 3 – 6 students have been invited to spend an afternoon at Emmaus College in Vermont on Thursday. Per-mission notes will be coming home today and could they please be returned as soon as possible. Oxfam Our school choir will be performing at the Oxfam music festival at the Box Hill Town Hall on Thursday night com-mencing at 7pm. I have no doubt they will be impressive. Have a good week, Jacqui Marshall, Principal

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ST JOHN’S SCHOOL CHOIR & SCOTTISH DANCING

Oxfam Music Concert – Choir Only A very big thank you to those of you who have returned your letter regarding our performance at Oxfam Mu-sic Festival. Please remember we are singing at Box Hill Town Hall on THURSDAY 15th November at 7.00pm. Monica and I will be there from 6.30pm. Parking can be tricky so I suggest you arrive early or maybe even car pool. Remember, it will be much easier if you have booked your tickets in advance as it can get very busy on the night. Log on to www.trybooking.com for your tickets. Students are to wear full summer school uniform (no hats!)

Fete Day Entertainment – Choir and Scottish Dancers I am sure you are all getting very excited about the school fete happening on SATURDAY 17th November. I certainly am! The choir and Scottish dancers have been asked to provide some entertainment on the day so it would be wonderful if you could plan your fete visit so your child can participate (or perhaps just stay all day!)

CHOIR: 2.00pm SCOTTISH DANCERS: 2.15pm

All Scottish dancers need to meet in the multi-purpose room at 1.45pm so they can get changed. If you are singing only then please meet near the stage at 1.55pm. We will make an announcement on the day.

2019 SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM Many thanks to those parents who attended the meeting on “Readiness for the Sacraments” held on Octo-ber 25 . You will receive shortly a copy of Indicators of Readiness for both Reconciliation and First Eucha-rist that we worked on together at the meeting. The indicators are a guide for you to use when you are deciding if your child and your family are ready to undertake this journey together. If at any time you have any questions or concerns about our sacramental policy regarding Reconciliation and First Eucharist please feel free to contact me by phone 9873 1341 or you can contact me via email at Maree.OKeefe@cam.org.au In the meantime I hope you are enjoying working through the booklet with your child and I'm sure that you are finding it a very helpful resource. This booklet supports what the children are learning in our school R.E. programs and our Parish R.E. classes on Wednesdays. We look forward to hearing from you to set up a time to chat with you and for you to enrol your child for Reconciliation and First Eucharist if that is your decision. A reminder that the Parent Information Night for First Reconciliation is on THURSDAY NOVEMBER 22 2018 at 7.30pm in the Coghlan Centre. At this meeting we will explore the sacrament itself and how it will be celebrated with your child next year. For those parents who were unable to attend the “readiness” meeting and would like their child to cele-brate sacraments in 2019 you will need to contact me on: Phone 9873 1341 or email Maree.Okeefe@cam.org.au to collect a family activity booklet as well as the dates and indicators of readiness. Many thanks Maree O'Keefe

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The school fete is this Saturday and many families will be helping on the stalls for a good part of the day. Please remind your children of the importance of checking in with you on a regular basis.

Don’t forget the sunscreen!

For safety reasons students cannot be in attendance on Thursday night or Friday during fete setup.

BIRTHDAYS

This week we congratulate Sebastian Adams who will be celebrating his birthday .

We hope you have a very…….

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY”

Italian Phrase of the Week

Mi lavo I denti (Mee lar-voh ee dentee)

I brush my teeth

The Australian Mathematics Competition - sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank

Congratulations to the 23 St John’s students who competed in the Australian Mathematics Competi-tion earlier this year.

Special mention to William Adams, Thomas Kelly, Chris Wallis, Elisha Beh and Chloe Moran who received a distinction award and were placed in the top 20% of the country.

Congratulations also to the 12 students who re-ceived credit certificates.

All students who competed in the competition re-ceived their certificate, individual performance re-port and a copy of the competition test at assembly today.

Kellie Cumming

Good Sport Awards

Congratulations to the following students who are receiving this week’s Good Sport awards for acts of sportsmanship:

Riley Baguley Elliot Sutton-Whelan Amari Gonsalvez

Please continue to encourage and remind your children on how to be a good sport!

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to Erin Marriner who received her blackbelt for Kara-te during the September school holi-days. Erin trained with the Nippon-Den Kempo Junseikan International karate group. It has taken her five years and her family are very proud of her.

Well done Erin!

Lori and baby Lilly payed dad, Mr Jackson and St John’s staff and student’s a visit last week and it was lovely to see them.

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YEAR 5/6 BIKE EDUCATION Congratulations to the grade 5 and 6 students who completed their trail ride today. The ride signified the end of the three week bike education unit which was focused on during health and P.E. The students practised their road rules and road safety skills riding from St John’s, Mitcham to Doncaster East. Thank you to all staff who accompa-nied the students for the 12km trail ride and well done to the 5 & 6’s for a successful and wonderful trail ride! A special thanks to John Kelly, Scott Taylor and Janine Coates for also joining us on our ride, your time and support is greatly appreciated.

“I practiced scanning behind me as I was riding and I also enjoyed riding on the road.” 5/6 KR - Hamish

“I found it really challenging riding up the hills but it felt good to keep going when I wanted to stop. It was good practice to ride on the road and bike paths.” 5/6 KR - Ayanna

“I was challenged by going up the steep hills and when I was stuck, I never gave up and tried different ways to push through.” 5/6 TJ - Lya

“I practised my one hand bike riding for when i need to signal. I am glad that I am able to ride and indicate to other drivers when I am turning with one hand.” 5/6 TJ - DeeDee