Week 7 Term 3 2024

I imagine all the dads had a lovely Father’s Day enjoying the sunshine while spending time with family. It was wonderful that so many of our dad’s came together last Friday morning to enjoy a bacon and egg sandwich, thank you to the staff for organising. A big thank you to our Parents and Friends for organising our Father’s Day stall to assist our children in selecting a special gift for their dad.

School Disco

A big thank you to the Parents and Friends, staff and children who contributed to making the school disco in our new school hall a wonderful night. The children danced the night away while taking short breaks to capture the event with an image from the photo booth. 

2025 Planning Forms

As we begin our planning for the 2025 school year, we would appreciate families completing the 2025 Planning Form sent home earlier this week. As stated in our 2024 Finance Policy, families of children attending St John Bosco School must provide one term’s notice in writing of their intention to withdraw their child(ren) from the school. If this is not provided a term’s fee will be required. Please return your form to the front office or to your child’s classroom teacher, by Monday 16th September.

School Photos

MSP Photographers will be taking our class photos on Thursday 19th September. School Photo information and payment options have been sent directly to families this year to your email address, please complete the online form and payment prior to School Photo Day. Please ensure your child is wearing their complete St John Bosco uniform with no extra layering and hair clips in school colours.

School Picnic

On Friday 27th September the whole school will be travelling by chartered buses to Thorndon Park Reserve, Hamilton Terrace Newton for our School Picnic. We welcome families to join us for the day. Information regarding the format of the day has been sent home to families. Please complete your child’s consent form and return to school asap. We anticipate a fun filled day enjoying nature.

Fundraising Paver

As we finalise plans for the rejuvenation of our courtyard space into a beautiful natural gathering space, I strongly encourage families to purchase a named paver. The opportunity to have a paver with your family’s names engraved and featured in our new amphitheatre space seems too good of an opportunity to miss. We have many old scholars visiting our school and they always search for their named paver. Order your paver today! 

Parents and Friends

Over the years the Parents and Friends have had many fundraising initiatives and community building events. Years of hard work raising funds is finally coming to fruition with the selection of a new playground for our older children. We are working on having the playground installed in the coming weeks. On behalf of the staff and children, I thank the active Parents and Friends for all their efforts in raising funds, we also thank all the families that support each and every fundraising event offered by our hardworking Parents and Friends committee.

Performance

The opportunity to attend a performance of our very Slava and Sharon Grigoryan, parents of Sebastian in Reception is a wonderful opportunity not to be missed. Slava and Sharon Grigoryan’s debut album ‘Our Place’ (ABC) has been nominated for Best Classical Album at the 2020 ARIA Awards. Slava is an acknowledged guitar master on the world stage. Sharon has forged a formidable career throughout Australia performing with all major symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles, including her recent 7-year tenure with the Australian String Quartet. We thank Slava and Sharon for volunteering their time to offer a performance for the school and wider community, raising funds for our school. Tickets will be available very soon for $40.00 per adult. Please mark Wednesday 6th November 2024 in your diaries for an adults only event, the night will begin with cheese and wine at 5:30pm before Sharon and Slava perform at 6:30pm. Please note a whole school afternoon performance will also occur for the children the week before.

Sacramental Program 

You are invited to join in the celebration of our St John Bosco children who are receiving the sacraments of Eucharist on Sunday 8th September at 11:00am, both at St Aloysius Church, Richmond. Please see the photos below of the children that celebrated the Sacarement of Confirmation last Tuesday night.

Walk a Mile @ St John Bosco 

Thanks to the incredible effort and generosity of our community, we raised $4,000 for Hutt St Centre! This tremendous achievement will go a long way in providing the Hutt Street Centre with funds to help those in need. It reflects the spirit of giving and togetherness that makes St John Bosco School such a special place. A huge thank you to everyone who participated, donated, and supported the Walkathon. Your contributions have made a real difference, and we are grateful for your continued commitment to our school and its values. 

ReLAT Test 

During Week 8 (Mon 9 – Fri 13 September), the Year 4 children will undertake the Religious Literacy Assessment Tool (ReLAT) assessment which has been developed by the Catholic Education Office. Religious Education (RE) is a core Learning Area in all Catholic schools. It is a foundation for all learning and is integrated into the life of the school through prayer, liturgy and social justice programs. ReLAT will focus on knowledge content which is core to the Year 3/4 Crossways Religious Education curriculum. It is an online multiple-choice test with 35 questions. Children are given up to an hour to complete the test.  

MITIOG 

During Weeks 8-10, the children will be exploring the Made in the Image of God Sexuality and Respectful Relationships Curriculum (MITIOG). This is the official program for sexuality and respectful relationships education in South Australian Catholic Schools for Years R-12. Each year our children engage with age-appropriate curriculum content regarding sexuality and respectful relationships through MITIOG. We acknowledge that families are the first educators of their child’s sexuality and that it is the role of the school to support families in this area. We are committed to supporting and enriching these partnerships. If you have any questions or queries, I invite you to please contact myself via email at Leah.Bellifemini@sjb.catholic.edu.au.  

St Francis de Sales House Fundraiser 

On Monday 16th September, the St Francis de Sales Captains, Olivia and Isio, will be leading their House Fundraiser. They have chosen to support St Patrick’s Special School and Our Lady of La Vang. Children are encouraged to wear blue and/or green and bring a gold coin donation. There will be biscuit decorating for the children, at a cost of $1 per biscuit. Activities will be run from Recess onwards, for the children to participate in.  

Leah Bellifemini

This week, our children had the wonderful opportunity to attend swimming sessions at Immanuel College, and we are delighted to share that it has been an incredibly successful and enjoyable experience for all! Throughout the week, the children have enthusiastically participated in various swimming activities designed to boost their confidence, improve their techniques, and reinforce essential water safety skills. From the moment they stepped into the pool, it was clear that this was going to be a week filled with learning and laughter. The instructors at Immanuel College have been fantastic, guiding each student with care and expertise. Whether it was mastering a new stroke, practicing floating, or simply having fun splashing around, the children have thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

Here is what 3/4S have had to say about their experience:

My favourite part about today was going into groups with my friends and spending time with them. - Chris

My favourite part of swimming today was when we got to do the sinkies. - Vangeli

Today I really enjoyed doing the backstroke in the water. – Nicolas

I really liked that we got to mix with the year 5s and I made many new friends in my group. We had such a great time with our teacher Luke.  – Aurora  

I loved floating on the water. -Vardhan

My favourite part of today was doing the ‘bubble bubble breathe’ you blow bubbles twice under the water and then turn your head to the side to breathe. – Johnny

I really enjoyed doing the mushroom float competition. You jump into the water and make your body into a mushroom and float. -Matilda

I enjoyed doing freestyle one way and then doing backstroke another, I felt like I was at the Olympics. - Carter

I liked experiencing swimming with the year 5s. - Izac

I really enjoyed meeting my swimming instructor, he was really funny and very patient with us. - Gurasees

My favourite part of swimming was when we did the backstroke with the body board, it was something new I learnt. - Kuol

I like that they gave you goggles to help us see under the water. - Matt

I LOVED the mushroom float challenge and that I got to swim up the lane by myself. - Harfateh

My favourite part about swimming is doing the freestyle swim and I also enjoyed how my teacher was funny and helped us when we needed help. - Bruno

What I liked about swimming was learning something new. I learnt a dive called the duck dive. - Zac

I enjoyed learning how to dive and my teacher help me feel safe in the water. - Andres

I liked that we got to play a game called sinkies at the end of the class. - Isaac

My instructor was really nice and helped me with breathing under water. - Aliyah

I enjoyed breathing under water, I was really brave when I was lying on my back and floating. - Cooper

iSwim @ Immanuel are offering our families 25% discount for Swim School Lessons in Term 4, bringing the price to $165 per child for ten weeks.  You are also able to use the 2024 Sports voucher - if not already used - which will reduce the fee by a further $100.

They are also offering a free refugee new migrant pool to beach program in the first week of the school holidays in December for children and adults.

Over the last 4 weeks our Year 5 and 6 children were lucky enough to participate in an AFL reachout schools program hosted by the SANFL and Port Adelaide Football Club. The children were exposed to different AFL skills and games facilitated by AFLW Power players and SANFL development staff. The children had a wonderful time learning new skills and being coached by professional athletes. 

Mace van Weenen