St John the Baptist Ferntree Gully Newsletter

A Prayer for Father's Day

Heavenly Father,

We thank You for all the fathers in our lives, both those we know and those we remember. We thank You for the strength, guidance, and love they provide, and ask that You bless them with Your own wisdom, patience, and tenderheartedness. 

May they feel deeply appreciated and valued for their sacrifices and dedication to their families. Grant them the courage to lead by example, the strength to overcome challenges, and the joy to find peace in their work and in their relationships. 

We pray for those fathers who are struggling, feeling overwhelmed, or facing difficult times. Surround them with Your presence and provide the support they need to fulfill their roles with grace. 

For those fathers who are no longer with us, we ask for Your comfort for their families and for the blessing of eternal rest for them. 

May all men in fatherly roles strive to reflect Your perfect, loving heart. In Your name we pray. Amen. 

We look forward to welcoming our fathers, grandfathers and special friends to this year’s SJB Father’s Day Brekkie on Friday 4th September from 7:30am.  We look forward to celebrating our Dads and the important role they play in our students’ lives.

There was much excitement this morning as students selected gifts for our dads at this year’s Father’s Day Stall. We hope our students will be able to contain their excitement and keep their gifts as a surprise until Sunday!!

We would like to thank the wonderful members of our P & F for their work and organisation of this year’s Father’s Day Stall. Thank you to Reeda Raydan, Maxine Schimizzi, Janice Stiglich, The Davies Family, Carrie Canton, Carmen Parry, Cassie Hereford, Sheree Ulrich Field, The Bagnoux Family, Katrina Morse, Kelly Brady, The Grimshaw Family, The Jenkins Family, The Barrett Family and Fleur Dow for your wonderful sense of community. Your contributions to the success of this year’s Father’s Day Stall are so greatly appreciated.  We hope all Dads have a wonderful Father’s Day.

We look forward to supporting our students in their faith journey as they prepare to receive the Sacrament of First Eucharist. A wonderful afternoon of celebration awaits for our candidates and their families.

Families of First Eucharist candidates will receive information in regard to professional photography opportunities for the Sacrament of First Eucharist. Families will receive communication through nForma in relation to photography for the day. First Eucharist Candidates are required to be at school by 2:25pm for a 2:30pm group photo.

Sacrament of First Eucharist - Sunday 13th September, 3pm

On Friday our students and staff enjoyed celebrating Book Week with a dress up day and parade. This year’s theme was a Symphony of Stories. It was wonderful to see SJB as a ‘Symphony of Stories’ celebrating our favourite stories and characters. Building a love of reading and enjoying rich literature is a passion across our school. To see this celebrated and shared across the school is an absolute joy. Thank you to everyone for embracing the spirit of Book Week.

A big congratulations to Ethan and Jacob on their efforts in the EFNL under 11 competition. Ethan was awarded the Best and Fairest Award and Jacob came 7th in the competition.  Such a wonderful achievement. Well done.

Exciting times ahead as our Year 3-6 students prepare to participate in the District Athletics Carnival at Knox Athletics Track, Bunjil Way, Knoxfield on Thursday 3rd September.

We look forward to a fun day of athletics competition. We know that our students will represent themselves and SJB school in an exemplary manner.  Good luck everyone!!

The tuckshop will be closed on Friday 4th September as this will be the Father’s Day Breakfast. This is a significant event that our wonderful tuckshop officer Tracey Walker oversees. To run the community event and tuckshop in one morning is significant. We will therefore pause tuckshop on this day.

This year the Prep - Year 2 students will participate in a 5 day intensive swimming program. The Prep - Year 2 swimming will run daily next week commencing Monday 7th September through to Friday 11th September.

A significant and formal way in which we engage and gather data is through MACSSIS, the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools – School Improvement Surveys.

MACSSIS is a set of surveys that have been built specifically for Catholic schools in Melbourne by the Learning Services team at MACS, in partnership with researchers at Learning First and in wide consultation with principals in our schools.

MACSSIS surveys will be emailed home to all  families and the portal will be open on Monday 31st August.  We ask that you look out for an email from ORIMA research which will contain the link to access the survey.  Your login details will be sent in a separate email from our school.

Our community’s opinions are critical to understanding how our school is performing – MACSSIS is a key data source so please take the time to complete the survey so that the thoughts and opinions of our whole school community can be used in guiding the ongoing work to improve our school.

If you would like more information, please contact the school.

Families who complete this year’s MACSSIS survey may send a screenshot of their completed survey to go in the running to win a $50 Cinema voucher. Please email your screenshot to office@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au to be in the running to win.

We are very grateful for the many parents who have so generously given their time and expertise to assist us with many maintenance tasks.  This has allowed for significant savings that we have been able to redirect  to activities, incursions and resources for your children.

Below is the current job list.  Lionel has offered to do the staining and it would be great to get a couple more volunteers as many hands make light work!

If there is any task that you think you may like to sign up for please contact Ursula DeCorrado at 

udecorrado@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au

Many thanks for your continued support and community spirit,

Ursula DeCorrado

Job Examples

During the final weeks of the term and beginning of Term 4 we have staff taking a period of Long Service Leave.  Long Service Leave is an opportunity for staff to relax, reflect and rejuvenate after significant periods of service to education. We wish our staff wonderful times as they take their periods of LSL.  Additionally we are extremely fortunate to have a group of strong CRTs supporting SJB with filling the positions of LSL during staff periods of leave.

Over the coming weeks the following staff will be taking LSL. We wish them great times ahead.

Mrs Susan Smith - 9th September - 18th September. Returning to SJB 7th October

Mrs Amanda Heidenrijk - 5th October - 21st October. Returning to SJB 26th October

I will additionally be offsite in the final two weeks of the term as I take two weeks long service leave.  My husband I are looking forward to travelling through Vietnam for three weeks.  I thank Ursula DeCorrado and the entire SJB team for their work as they work together to support our students and a number of events scheduled for the final two weeks of the term.

I look forward to returning in Term 4 for a wonderful final term of the year.

This year’s Dads and Kids camping weekend at Gilwell Park has been scheduled for two nights away due to popular request. Further details will be shared in the near future.

Dads, mark the date in your calendar and save the date for a terrific weekend with your children and SJB community

The 2nd hand uniform shop is open Tuesdays, 2:45 pm to 3:15 pm. All items are $5, cash only. We’d love donations of clean, official SJB uniform, particularly sizes 8+. These can be left at the office at a time that is convenient for you.

The Australian Girls Choir are coming to SJB on Tuesday September 15th, to run a 30 minute workshop for any interested girls.

The workshop is fun and non-competitive, and involves simple singing and movement activities. 

Parents are asked to register their child through the website via the QR code on the flyer, if you are interested in your daughter participating, forms are also available from the school office.

NB. Students are only permitted to participate if they have been registered through the website. The AGC will send the school a list of enrolled students.

Wishing everyone a fabulous week ahead.

Kelli Johnston

September

2nd - SAC Meeting @ 7pm

3rd - District  Athletics Day Years 3-6

4th - Father's Day breakfast from 7:30am

4th - PSGs

6th - Father's Day

7th - Prep - Year 2 Swimming commences daily for one week

7th - PSGs

9th - Swimming - full clothing day

10th - R U OK Day - prayer service

10th - Year 3/4 Camp

11th - Year 3/4 Camp returns

13th - First Eucharist Sacrament @ 3pm

15th - PSGs

15th - Australian Girls Choir visit @ 11:30am

16th - Optional Parent Teacher Interviews -3:30-5:30pm

16th - Division Athletics

18th - Footy Day

18th - Term 3 Concludes @ 2pm

Orders are to be placed via Flexischools - www.flexischools.com.au

Friday September 4th

Father's Day Breakfast

Friday September 11th

Kellie Brooks

Amy Chan

Friday September 18th

FOOTY LUNCH DAY

HELPERS NEEDED PLEASE