2022: Week 4, Term 1

Principal's Message

Welcome to our second newsletter for the school year. It has been wonderful working with our Year 6 SRC leaders so far this year. Today, Fr Dominic, Mrs Tomic and myself conducted interviews for our School Captains for 2022. What an impressive group of students they are! We look forward to sharing our announcement in the coming days. In the meantime, the entire SRC have exciting plans for the school in 2022. Stay tuned.

JOHN the BAPTIST ANNUAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2022

In consultation with Sydney Catholic Schools, John the Baptist has an annual outline of teaching and learning goals which will form the basis of our professional development and classroom practice. Our three improvement goals for 2022 are as follows:

1. Social & Emotional Learning – establishing clear goals for expected behaviours, identification and support for students with particular learning needs (across all areas), effective communication with parents
2. Mathematics – establishing consistent teaching practices, embedding high quality assessment, supporting students in reaching individual targets and goals
3. Differentiation & Inquiry – clear, data informed structures that challenge students to reach their academic potential, identifying and nurturing giftedness across all learning (including sport, art, music, drama), using critical and creative thinking to deepen learning

Quality teaching and learning occurs when each student understands and respects the values that make our school great - respect for teachers and students, pride in our uniform, respect for school property, and most importantly, valuing learning. We will also be supporting our students in understanding these key values, and sincerely appreciate your support of our common goals by sharing these with your children.

With my best wishes for the week ahead.

Mr O’Connor

PRINCIPAL

Assistant Principal News

Dear Parents, 

It was wonderful to see so many of you join us for our first whole school Assembly last week on Monday. We will continue to share the Zoom Link with you via our Parent Calendar. 

If your child is set to receive their Bronze, Silver or Gold Badge at the Assembly, we will email you to let you know. Our next Assembly will be held on Monday 28th February - we look forward to seeing you all again. 

Family Support Worker

We are very excited to share that we now have a dedicated Family Support Worker for our community here at JB. We welcome Lisa Harris from Catholic Care as a part of our team. 

Lisa is able to offer free confidential support for families going through challenging times. She can help you and your family with issues you may be facing, including some of the following:

• Child behaviour concerns
• Domestic and family violence
• Advocacy and referrals
• Financial hardship
• NDIS
• Traumatic events
• Housing stress

 Lisa is available every Friday and can be contacted directly on - 0419 223 677 or via email - lisa.harris@catholiccare.org

Please feel free to contact Lisa directly for further information or to make an appointment. 

Uniform & Haircuts

Thank you to all of the students for the way they are wearing their uniform with pride. It has been wonderful to see students coming in with their hats on and shirts tucked in. A reminder regarding appropriate haircuts for school: 

• Hair should be neat and tidy. Extreme hair styles (determined by School Leadership) or colours or extremely untidy hair are not permitted. Shaved shapes are not to be worn to school. Boys hair should be above the collar (mullets are not permitted).

SMILe Days

SMILe Days have been added to our Parent Calendar which can be accessed via Compass for your convenience. We will let you know if there is ever a need to change your child's allocated day. 

Facebook 

Be sure to like our school Facebook Page - we will be regularly posting some of the exciting things taking place at JB. 

https://www.facebook.com/jbbonnyrigg

Once again, thank you for your continued support and partnership.

Mrs Natali Tomic

Assistant Principal

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2023 Kindergarten Enrolments & Open Day Tours

Kindergarten 2023 enrolments will open as of Monday 7th March.

From this date, Sydney Catholic Schools invites new and existing families seeking enrolment for their Kindergarten child or other grade, to submit an application online via our school website: https://www.jbbonnyrigg.catholic.edu.au/  You may do this by simply selecting the 'Enrol Now' button. Open Day Guided Tours for new families will be held on Wednesday 9th March as detailed below.

Please share these details with any friends and family who are wanting to join our wonderful community in 2023.   Bookings for the limited Open Day Guided Tours can be made via TryBooking link: https://www.trybooking.com/BXENH

Family Educator

ZOOM- SPaR- A chance each week this term to meet virtually via ZOOM on Monday mornings at 9.30am, to STOP Pray and REFLECT. ALL are welcome to come online and share some catch up time afterwards too! The actual reflection will last no more than 15 minutes- it’s the conversation afterwards that is up to YOU. So make a CUPPA and join us by registering on THIS LINK

JB Juniors PLAYGROUP- at this time we can not run a face to face preschooler playgroup, but we hope to resume in Term 2 in some way. You can find some activities HERE

Healthy Friendships- 

This week is Healthy Friendship week, an initiative of CatholicCare. Do you ever consider that friendship is a gift of GRACE from GOD? He places certain people into our lives to offer us companionship as we navigate our LIFE journey.

The last two years have made it difficult to meet with friends face to face, but have we stayed in touch in other ways?

This week you might like to discuss with your children what they think a healthy friendship is.

God bless, 

Tina Dunn  Family Educator

Ideas for TABLE Discussion:

What qualities do you look for in your friends? Do I have those qualities myself? 

How does a good friend make you feel?

Do I respect others and their points of view, even when they are different from my own?

Can I make someone’s day better by being a good friend?

Perhaps we can even reconnect with an old friend this week!

Parish Matters:

LOST AND FOUND- An item of jewellery was found in the church at the Thursday night Confirmation Mass in December last year. If you have lost an item of jewellery, please call Linda Barilla- 0409 914083

ANSWER THE CALL! Share your Faith! Be a Catechist.

YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD OR TOO YOUNG TO SHARE YOUR FAITH.

We had a wonderful recruiting drive and were blessed with 4 new helpers who will start their

Level One training on the 21 st February. But we are still in need of 10 catechists to teach the classes with vacancies on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays..

Catechist Opening Mass and Meeting will be on Wednesday 23 Feb 7pm – please try to

attend .

Do something of eternal significance- be a Catechist or helper!  We invite you to join this

ministry and our wonderful JB Team .

Any enquiries please contact: Nina Laureti 0408 465 149

Mass is on in the church on Tuesday mornings at 8am and you are very welcome to attend with your children. It is  approximately 20 minutes in duration- a great way to start the day.

On weekends we have several masses-

Sat: 5.30pm Vigil

Sun: 8am, 10am and 5.30pm (4th Sunday in each month in Tagalog)

Religious Education

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Reconciliation preparation lessons commence in weeks beginning 28th Feb, 7th March, 

14th March and 21st March.

Year 1 Grade Celebration - Liturgy of the Word

Year 1 celebrated a Liturgy of the Word on Friday 18th February. A beautiful way to gather, listen to the Word of God and think about how we can live the Scripture message in our daily lives. 

 God Bless.

Mrs Jansen

Religious Education Coordinator 

Newman News

CogAT assessments

Over the next few weeks, Year 1 and Year 4 students will complete the CogAT assessment. This assessment is an ability based assessment that helps the class and specialist teachers to identify the strengths of your child’s learning and any areas we can work on together. It assesses students’ ability in their verbal, nonverbal and number skills. The assessments will be completed online, on three different days over the course of a week. A special thank you to the Year 1 teachers, Year 4 teachers, and all the specialist teachers for their assistance in administering the tests! 

‘Celebrating Harmony’ Poster Competition 

This year’s theme for the Harmony Week poster competition is ‘Celebrating Harmony’. The competition is open to every student at JB and there are exciting prizes to be won! 

The finalists from our school Harmony Day Poster Competition will be entered into  a statewide competition!

In order for your artwork to qualify, please ensure your artwork is:

• completed on A3 paper
• a drawing or painting (no models)
• made from any traditional media, including pastel, oil pastels, pen, pencil, charcoal, acrylics, watercolour, oils, mixed media, collage or other materials.
• your own creation and of your own imagination. You cannot trace or copy another image. It is not acceptable to colour in an outline printed or have it drawn by someone else.
• completed by yourself. You will be doing your artwork at home, but you must make sure you work on it independently. 

Please hand your Celebrating Harmony poster into Mrs Bushby no later than Friday 25th March, 2022.

Mrs Francine Bushby

Newman Facilitator/Gifted and Talented Coordinator

Literacy News

Literacy Corner Week 6 Term 1

Parents and carers who read aloud with children in a secure, safe and comfortable context motivate their children to read.  Parents’ perceptions, values, attitudes and expectations play an important role in influencing their children’s attitudes toward reading and subsequent literacy development.  When children share a book with someone who makes them feel special, the attitude that reading is pleasurable is transferred to other reading encounters. 

At the core of reading is a relationship and it is the bond between children and parents that is enhanced through reading together.  It only takes ten minutes a day to build this relationship.  If you are looking for some recommendations on books to read with your child why not come and visit Early Bird Reading and discuss this with the teachers.  Early Bird Reading is open every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning from 8:10am in the library.

Congratulations to 6 Emerald, 6 Gold and 6 Silver once again on their outstanding efforts in the Summer Reading Challenge.  These classes participated in a fun filled afternoon which included a scrumptious ice cream buffet.

Happy reading everyone!

READ! READ! READ!

Mrs Teresa Wojtowicz

Literacy Coordinator

Sport News

Term 1 Sports Trials

Cyrus Trinh recently participated in the Sydney Basketball Trials. Great effort Cyrus!

The following students will represent John The Baptist in sports trials throughout the term. We wish them all the very best!

Soccer: Antoni Curjak, Lukas Curjak, Andre Lalic, Kristian Komadina, Joshua Gabriel and

Santana Rodi 

Netball: Abbey Vanderwert

Rugby League:  Ethan Polistina

Good luck!

Creative Arts News

School of Rock - The Musical 

Sydney Catholic Schools’ Archdiocesan musical extravaganza is coming in 2022! With 4000 SCS performers, the Andrew Lloyd Webster musical, School of Rock, will be an exciting and joyous celebration of the arts on 9-12 October at Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. 

First round auditions for Lead Cast and Lead Ensemble are available for students in Years 5 and 6. Video submissions are due by Monday, 28 February. Second round callback auditions are on Monday, 14 March from 5-9pm at Southern Cross Catholic College, Burwood.  

There are various roles featured in this musical, with different skills involved in each (actor/musician/dancer/singer). 

If your child is in Year 5 or 6 and is interested in auditioning, please complete the form linked below by Monday, 28 February. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact Miss Mircevska via email (ellena.mircevska@syd.catholic.edu.au) 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdG_KqDTp_fDZ3syoi6yMiw5selwmZE_Q3VjPr9IP2_prWmFw/viewform  

Rehearsal Schedule (please check these dates before completing online registration): 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IREDTfp6E0HsdbOIMxtO14Qicr7K6EgAhWU3KKVeDag/edit

Library News

Notes from the Office

2022 SCHOOL FEES

Dear Parents,

Please be aware your 2022 School Fee Statements were emailed to you last week. It would be appreciated if your payments are made by the scheduled dates as listed on your statement.

Payments can be made by BPAY, Compass Parent Portal, Cash, Eftpos or Centrepay.

Please contact the office if you did not receive your statement, or have any queries in relation to your fees.

Your co-operation is greatly appreciated.

2022 ACARA STUDENT BACKGROUND DATA COLLECTION

Parents, please be aware the 2022 ACARA Student Background Data Collection is taking place during March.

ACARA (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority collects student background data (SBD) for all Australian schools.

While you are not required to do anything for this collection, we ask you to ensure our school records are up-to-date and correct.  If you have any concerns or queries regarding the collection you may contact the Principal. More information on the collection of student background data is available on the ACARA website: https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/student-background-data-collection-for-independent-schools. Please also refer to the Standard Collection Notice below.

SCHOOL TRAVEL PASSES

Students who need a School Opal card or travel pass but have not yet applied need to apply or update their details as soon as possible. In the Opal network, students should travel with a Child/Youth Opal card until they receive their valid School Opal card. If outside Greater Sydney, parents should contact their local bus operator to discuss their travel needs. New Student Opal cards (including new Term Bus Passes) will be sent to the student’s nominated postal address within two weeks of their application being approved. Students living in rural and regional (R&R) areas will receive their travel pass from their nominated transport operator. It may be issued via their school or be sent directly to them at home. Note: some R&R operators do not issue travel passes. Students/parents should confirm with their nominated operator if they do not receive a pass.

CAMP Australia

Awards

Congratulations to the following students on achieving their badges:

Dates to Remember