Week 6 Term 4 2023

Over the last few weeks, we have celebrated the many gifts and talents of our students at the Sports Presentation evening and the Soiree. Children thrive with the opportunity to pursue their gifts and talents may it be a sporting interest, learning to play an instrument or both.

A big thank you to our sporting coaches who volunteer their time and energy to enable our children to participate in the sport they love. We also thank our music tutors from Learning through Music, who guide our children to develop as young musicians. A big shout out to Dino Zandona, Mace van Weenen and Matthew Scott who coordinate our sporting and musical extra-curricular activities.

This week has been extremely busy with the children heading off to swimming lessons at Seaton. We are currently reviewing the swimming program and St John Bosco’s continued involvement in partaking in future years. Our legal requirement is to maintain a consistent supervision ratio of 1:6 for children in the early years and 1:10 for Year 3-6 children. We are finding it difficult to maintain the correct supervision ratio for 5 days straight. We are in desperate need of parents to undertake the process to become registered St John Bosco volunteers. This enables parents/guardians and grandparents to attend our excursions and ensure excursions can still remain on our agenda. Please enquire at our front office to become a registered volunteer in our community. We sincerely thank all the parents and staff who have assisted throughout this week.

School Fees

Please note that 2023 School Fees are due to be finalised by 30th November 2023. Thank you to all the families who have finalised their accounts by the due date. We would like to remind families to return their 2024 School Fees Payment Plan Agreement Form asap.

Christmas Concert

We invite families to our annual Christmas Concert on Friday 1st December. Gates will open at 5:00pm with a BBQ available, catering for vegetarians with a sausage sizzle, hamburgers and hot dogs. Cold drinks, tea, coffee, ice blocks and ice creams will also be available for purchase. The concert will begin at 5:30pm with all classes currently working hard to polish their performance.

The Parents and Friends will be selling bubbles and lollipops on the night. The Christmas Raffle will be drawn on the night. We appreciate all the families that are busily selling their raffle tickets and returning sold tickets to the front office.

We would like to acknowledge and thank our Parents and Friends and the following businesses for their generous donations and support towards our Christmas Raffle and Concert:

• SA Spice/GFresh Adelaide
• Chicken Shack, Plympton
• Pilates by Kelly, Torrensville
• Betel Leaf Cafe, Seaton
• Sign Fairy Adelaide, wonderful Christmas display

Pupil Free Days

Our last school day for 2023 is Wednesday 13th December. If you require care for children on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th December, please contact Mirella by email mirella.tsimikilis@sjb.catholic.edu.au to book your child. A charge of $49.00 per day is applied before your CCS allowance.

OSHC Fees in 2024

From 1st January 2024 the OSHC Fees at St John Bosco School will increase. The School Board endorse the increase in OSHC fees due to rising costs associated with running an OSHC and the consistent fee schedule we have maintained for the past four years.

Fees effective from 1st January 2024:

Before School Care (BSC): $12.50

After School Care (ASC): $23.00

Vacation Care: $55:00 (plus incursion and excursion charges)

Pupil Free Days: $55:00

A $50.00 late fee will be charged for each 15 minute block.

Kate Turner

Remembrance Day Service 

On Monday 13th November we gathered as a whole school for a Remembrance Day service led by some of our Year 5/6 children. Special guest Peter Southam, secretary of the Hilton RSL, joined us in this special celebration. Each child created their own unique poppy, that was placed at the base of the flagpoles. Each poppy contributed to a whole-school piece of artwork as a symbol of our respect and remembrance. A special mention goes to Evan and Mia who represented our school at the Remembrance Day Service at the West Torrens Memorial Gardens, conducted by the Hilton RSL. Evan and Mia laid a wreath, to honour those who have paid the supreme sacrifice for our country. 

Sacramental Program 2024 

Planning is underway for the 2024 Sacramental Program. The 2024 enrolment forms for the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Holy Communion are now available from the Parish Churches (Sacristies) and from the St John Bosco School Front Office. The program is open to any child who is in Year 3 or above in 2023 and is a baptised Catholic. To be accepted into the 2024 Sacramental Program the enrolment form, together with the child’s baptismal certificate, are to be returned to the Parish Office by Friday, 8 December 2023. Alternatively, you can email either a scanned copy or photo of your child’s baptism certificate to sacraments@brooklynparkrichmond.org.au. If you wish to return a hard copy of the form to the Front Office, we will happily pass it on to the Parish Office. An information session for parents/carers will be held on Tuesday, 13th February 2024 in the St Mary Mazzarello Complex at 17 Lipsett Terrace. Brooklyn Park (rear of St John Bosco Church) at 6:30pm. 

St Dominic Savio Crazy Day – written by Ivy and Victoria 

Crazy Day was a fun and inclusive day for the children to dress up in a unique way. The activities were; creating a crazy dance (which had the children coming up with dance moves and the helpers presenting the dance), create your crazy cookies (which was a crazy and delicious activity that had icing, sprinkles, lollies and biscuits), create your own crazy lunchbox (which had a unique spin to your average lunchbox, that had your favorite food, but in a crazy way) and crazy hair art (which was a blast getting to see everyone’s ideas, for their crazy hair). They were creative and artistic. In-case children didn’t want to play at lunch time, there were contests happening. These were Silent Ball, Craziest Hair, Craziest Face and Craziest Outfit. The Gold Team house captains searched the school to see who had the craziest outfit and the craziest hair. The winners were…Paola for her outfit and Mia for her hair! Paola had a red sparkly tie, a blue crazy wig and glasses that read 2021 and finally, a barbie land t-shirt. Mia’s hair had 2 space buns, with cupcake wrapping, and fairy lights. The winner for Silent Ball, was Japnoor. The winner for who can make the craziest face contest was Lena in Reception and Alayna and Joanna came 2nd. Lena won a lolly bag and Alayna and Joanna won chocolates. Our chosen fundraiser was The Heart Foundation. They raised money will assist people who are currently struggling with heart disease. The Heart Foundation’s mission is to have an Australia which is free of heart disease. We thought this charity would be perfect  to assist in eliminating people passing from heart disease across the globe. This was a very crazy and fun day for the children to enjoy.   

Moore Street Christmas Hampers 

This Christmas, St John Bosco School will be supporting Moore Street Day Centre who will be delivering more than 2,500 Christmas hampers to needy people all over Adelaide. Thank you to those families who have already kindly donated to this cause. Please continue to donate what you can: tinned meats and fruits, Christmas puddings and cakes, pasta and rice, nuts and dried fruit, long life milk, tinned vegetables, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, (no conditioners or body wash), coloured textas, pencils, pens, crayons, stationary, writing, painting, school materials, beading and other creative sets, lego, puzzles, board games, books and novels, sports equipment. 

Leah Bellifemini

Term 4 has been a fun term so far in 3/4D with lots of exciting learning. With less than three weeks of the term to go, it is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the school year.

In Week Two, we hosted an assembly and it was amazing for us to showcase our learning from throughout the year. 

Some of the other highlights this term for 3/4D have included School Swimming, working on our Joy Exhibition display, reflecting on Remembrance Day, the Premier’s Reading Challenge awards, St Dominic Savio Fundraiser, making Rangoli artworks out of coloured rice to celebrate Diwali and performing at the Music Soiree.

We asked some of our classmates about their recent highlights at SJB:

I liked Mission Day because it was super fun and there were loads of epic stalls and places to look at. Afterwards, I got a giant sugar rush - Poppy
The school picnic was definitely a highlight because I got to sit and play with all of my friends and had lots of fun going on the massive playground - Harry
I have enjoyed going to swimming because swimming is good for your health, lots of fun and I have learnt new things - Caleigh
I liked doing The Seven Sacraments posters - Bentley
I have enjoyed coming to school so I can be a good learner and I can also show gratitude - Maulik
I enjoyed going to the school picnic. It was fun because I could play with my friends and the whole school got to go on a picnic together - Gia
I like swimming week because it's just so fun to swim with friends - Zak

We are sure there will be a few more highlights to add to our list over the last few weeks of term.

Congratulations to all the students that successfully completed and participated in the Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) in 2023.

To celebrate 20 years of (PRC), all students waere encouraged to read 20 books in commemoration of the 20 years of the Premier’s Reading Challenge.

This year was special because there was the extra challenge of reading more books.

A big congratulations to Rachel Sandhu who received the Reader for Life Award.

In the fifth week of this term, our Music Soiree for music tuition students was a resounding success, showcasing an array of incredible talents. The evening featured performances of songs on piano, bass, drums, and vocals, presenting a diverse range of musical prowess. 

A big thank you to our Performing Arts Coordinator, Matthew Scott, and our Music Tutors—Nate, Caitlin, and Melody. Their planning and dedication led to the seamless organisation of this fantastic event, leaving everyone in awe and feeling inspired. 

A special commendation goes out to all the children who took to the stage and delivered exceptional performances. Your dedication and hard work shone brightly, and we are immensely proud of each and every one of you. 

I was proud of myself and so was my music teacher Nate and my dad. - Vardhan 1/2R 

I was very nervous until I got up there and poured my heart out on the piano. - Faith 5/6LK 

I thought it was a great experience, and when I saw the incredible talent, my classmates had I was very impressed! - Harriet 5/6DM

All the music was fantastic, there was some great talent, including piano, guitar, drums it was amazing I was so amazed! -  Mia 5/6LK

At the start of the night I was very shy but I felt better when I started playing on the piano. I felt great performing in front of everyone, it went so well. - Elkin 1/2LA   

I felt nervous at the start as I made some mistakes but I kept going and was proud of myself. - Athul 1/2LA 

The children amazed me, I was so proud of all the performers. It was an amazing night. Well done to all the children, Mr Scott, Nate, Caitlin and Melody. - Mrs Turner

Matthew Scott

Performing Arts Teacher