Week 4 Term 4, 2021

I am looking forward to our School Disco this Friday night. A big thank you to the Parents and Friends for planning a night of dancing with a Photo Booth making an appearance this year! Tickets are available through QKR.

A huge congratulation to the Parents and Friends on a very successful Sausage Sizzle Fundraiser at Airport Bunnings. I would like to thank Esta for her leadership in guiding all the parents and staff who volunteered their time to assist in cooking and serving. We actually had a great time being together while raising $750.00 towards resources for our much loved Nature Play learning environment.

Over the last couple of weeks we have welcomed our Little Boscos into our community. The children have immersed themselves into the first couple of weeks of their seven week transition program full of energy, awe and wonder. We welcome Isha, Liana, Tashvick, Sophia G, Luca, Levi, Allison, Minka-Lee, Waris, Freya and Sophia H to the St John Bosco community, we look forward to watching you all thrive on your learning journey.

St John Bosco School celebrated World Teachers’ Day with a morning tea to celebrate our wonderful teachers. We are truly blessed to have a bunch of dedicated staff who work collaboratively to ensure each child in our community is thriving.

Congratulations to Robyn Windham our Performing Arts teacher who was presented with a World Teachers day Award by Minister John Gardner Friday night. Robyn was recognised for her outstanding contribution to the Orff Schulwerk Association of South Australia (OSASA).

OSASA is a professional organisation of classroom music teachers who use the creative teaching approach of music and movement developed by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman.

The association share a belief that learning about music – learning to sing and play, to hear and understand, to move and create – should be an active and joyful experience.

I would also like to congratulate Nicki Sharrad and Dino Zandona who have just completed the first year of a two year Aspiring Leaders Program. The program is shaped to assist teachers to discern their capabilities for leadership and wish to prepare themselves for a formal leadership position within Catholic Education South Australia.

We are beginning to plan for next year with our staff beginning to work on 2022 class placements in the coming weeks. If you have any special considerations you would like us to be aware of please speak to me or email me personally kate.turner@sjb.catholic.edu.au by Friday 12th November.

I would like to remind families that the transition period of moving from the old style school uniform to the new uniform ends at the end of the 2021 school year. All children are required to be in the new school uniform at the beginning of 2022. As a school we will happily collect all your old uniform pieces to donate to our friends in Samoa, please drop off to the front office.

Please place Friday December 3rd in your diaries as we have our COVID friendly School Concert. We will have our concert on school oval with a 6:00pm start. Families are encouraged to bring a picnic rug and dinner, find the perfect spot on our oval and sit back and enjoy each class perform. We encourage families to support this event as your child’s Performing Arts lessons throughout Term 4 are focussed on our end of years School Concert. It promises to be a fun filled night!

As the busyness of Term 4 begins to roll in, please check out the Important Dates included in the side of the Newsletter to ensure you’re keeping up with all the happenings.

We warmly invite members of the community to a consultation meeting led by Edge Architects, St John Bosco Schools Master Plan will be presented. The meeting will be held in the school library on Tuesday 16^th November 2021 at 5:30pm. I look forward to seeing members of the community at the meeting to provide feedback on our new Master Plan.

God bless

Kate Turner

We are all Connected – All Saints and All Souls Day

In the Church calendar, the month of November is a time to think about our connections: past, present and future.

All Saints

Monday 1st November, is All Saints Day. It is about the huge ‘family’ of which we are a part of, the long line of people through the ages who have tried to live their lives with compassion, justice and love. We are part of what the Church calls a ‘communion of saints’, connected through the hope and message of Jesus.

All Souls

The following day, Tuesday 2nd November, is All Souls Day, a time to remember and pray for those who have died. In our school foyer there is a ‘Book of Remembrance’ in which you are invited to write the name of friends or family members who have passed away and whom you wish to remember in this way. When we write the name of someone who has passed away we are really asking the whole community to support us, to pray with us to God.

You are very welcome to visit the St John Bosco Church any time you have the chance to pray for someone who has passed or to just be still for a moment.

What’s Halloween?

The name ‘Halloween’ comes from ‘Hallowed (Holy) Evening’ meaning the evening of All Saints Day.  Halloween is the vigil of the feast of All Saints on November 1.

Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic tribes who lived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany.

While understanding the historical background of Halloween shows that most of its customs are not, in essence, oppositional to Christian faith, this custom (now, very American) is not something we celebrate at school. In our Catholic Tradition we focus on contemporary prayer and liturgy around a beautiful belief in the ‘communion of saints’ of which we are a part and our ongoing prayers for all, in every stage of life and death.

Sara Hart

Congratulations to all the athletes that participated in the SACPSSA Athletics Carnival yesterday at Santos Stadium. Our athletes proudly represented St John Bosco School competing with energy and enthusiasm throughout the day. A special mention to Imelda who was awarded Year 3 age champion, well done. Thank you to all the volunteers and supporters who assisted with the logistics of the day, we are truly grateful for your support. 

Dino Zandona

PE Coordinator