St John the Baptist Ferntree Gully Newsletter

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. 

Father’s Day Brekkie: We look forward to welcoming our fathers, grandfathers and special friends to this year’s SJB Father’s Day Brekkie on Friday 5th 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 for 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 Jess Pfeiffer, Janelle Trimble, Reeda Raydan, Jacqui Escobar, Sara Giangiulio, Michelle Cann, Maxine Schimizzi, Natalie Conway and Fleur Dow for your wonderful sense of community.

Congratulations Sophia on being selected as a finalist for Tilly Aston Awards in the categories of Outstanding Young Achiever and Leadership.

 This is an outstanding achievement. We are incredibly proud of you on being recognised for your leadership at SJB.

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. 

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!!

We are most excited to announce that Brendan Lee, Mathematics consultant and expert in explicit teaching in Mathematics will be presenting demonstration lessons in Year 1/2 and Year 3/4 classes at SJB on Wednesday 10th September.

Brendan is a highly sought after Mathematics Consultant with expertise in the evidence based practices of Explicit Teaching and Science of Learning. 

We are most fortunate to have Brendan deliver lessons onsite at SJB with our students. The SJB staff will be released to observe Brendan in action. Additionally, we will be joined by teachers from MACS eastern region schools who are part of the MACS Mathematics Acceleration Program.

Last Monday we went to Cranbourne Botanic Gardens. We saw flowers, trees and bushes. We also saw a lot of water. 

After we had some lunch we went on a long walk. After we had second lunch we did one lesson and three activities. The first lesson we learnt about Aboriginal objects. For the first activity we had lemon tea- by the way it was disgusting. The second activity we drew with rocks and the third we looked at a tree. Then we came back on the bus.

By Ayva S and Isla H

On Monday 25th August at 9.15am all of the 1/2 classes went to the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens. We were so excited. We got there by bus and when we got there we saw the Red Sand Garden. Then we looked for a place to eat our lunch. Then we went for a walk and we walked 8,000 steps.

By Layah C

On Monday 25th August we went on an excursion at 9.15am. Three 1/2 classes went by bus. 1/2B and 1/2HL got the big bus and 1/2JM got the small one. It took 40 minutes to get there. First when we got there we saw the Red Sand outback circle. Then we got some lunch. After that we explored the gardens. Next we saw grass trees, the dry river bed, plants and flowers. Every class met up and we learnt about tools, hunting and more. Finally we learnt how to do hand prints and we smelt lemon myrtle leaf tea.

By Will P

The Biennial St John the Baptist Art Show will be held in the school hall this year on Wednesday 17th September 2:30 - 4:30pm and Thursday 18th September 5:30 - 7:30pm.  We warmly welcome families to celebrate the artistic talents of all our students. This is a wonderful community event that celebrates our students' creative expression through their artwork.   

Mrs Renee Armstrong continues to work tirelessly with all students in preparation for the Art Show. We are most excited and looking forward to celebrating our students amazing efforts.

At the conclusion of this year’s Art Show a number of the students' work will be on display at The Hut Gallery and Burrinja Centre. We thank Renee for her passion, dedication and support of our students in preparing this wonderful event.

The SJB Choir will also be performing at this year's Art Show. This is another wonderful aspect of the Arts on display at SJB. We look forward to hearing our SJB Choir perform.  We thank Mrs Bec Russell for her work in leading the SJB Choir.

During the final week 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 Tracey Ryan - 15th September - 18th September. Returning Monday 6th October

Mrs Brylie Johnson - 15th September - 8th October. Returning Monday 13th October

Mrs Susan Smith - 17th September - 10th October . Returning to SJB 15th October

Mrs Andrea Hayman - 7th October - 6th November. Returning to SJB 7th November

I will additionally be offsite in the final two weeks of the term as I join 20 Outer East Principals on a Faith Pilgrimage.  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 and sharing my learning from the pilgrimage.

At St John the Baptist we strongly value our partnerships with our families and the importance of open communication.  To continue our strong partnerships we have introduced an Optional Parent Teacher Interview in Term 3. The Optional Parent Teacher Interviews may be booked by families or requested by your child’s class teacher, should they feel that it is important to meet with you.

Prep JD and Year 3/4RS will have their optional interviews on Tuesday 9th September due to members of staff being on Long Service Leave in Week 9. All other classes with have optional interviews on Tuesday September 16th at 3.30-5.30pm.

Optional Interviews can now be booked through our new booking system - School Interviews using this link -
 https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/dpbgn 

Families are reminded that should you have a PSG for your child that this takes the place of the Parent/Teacher Interview.

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 have been emailed home this week to 70 randomly selected families.  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 Village Cinema Gold Class voucher.

Please email your screenshot to office@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au to be in the running to win.

Our school chickens have been working hard, and we’re proud to say… they’ve laid enough eggs for us to share with you!

You can now buy fresh school eggs for $4 per half dozen (Cash preferred).

To spread the love far and wide, we’ll be limiting sales to one half dozen per family (for now!).  

Pick up your eggs from the school admin building—but be quick, our clever hens can only lay so many each day!

Keeping chickens is a sustainable way of sourcing fresh eggs, reducing food miles and helping us learn how to care for animals responsibly.

All money raised will go straight back into caring for our chickens—buying their food and special chicken snacks. 

Thank you for supporting our feathered friends and the students who help care for them.

Christian der Kinderen

Sustainability Leader

This year’s Dad’s and Kids camping weekend has been scheduled for Friday 5th - Sunday 7th December.

If you would be interested in assisting in the coordination of this year’s SJB Dad’s & Kids camping weekend please email either Ursula DeCorrado or myself at -

udecorrado@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au or kjohnston@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au 

Wishing everyone a fabulous week ahead.

Kelli Johnston

Term 3

September

3rd - 9:15am Year 1/2 Level Mass

3rd - 7:00pm School Advisory Council Meeting

4th - District Athletics - Knox Athletics

5th - Father's Day Breakfast

7th - Father's Day

10th - Brendan Lee - Mathematics Masterclass

11th - Year 3/4 Camp

12th - Year 3/4 Camp

17th - Division Athletics

17th - SJB Art Show - 2:30-4:30pm

18th - SJB Art Show - 5:00-7:30pm

18th - Year 5/6 Level Mass

19th - Footy Day

19th - Term 3 Concludes @ 2:00pm

Below is a current stock list. We have very few Size 8 and Size 10 items. If you have any official SJB uniform items in clean, good condition that your child/ren no longer wear, donating them to the 2nd Hand Uniform Shop would be much appreciated. Donations can be left at the office, when convenient for you. 

Janice

Tuckshop orders can be placed via http://www.flexischools.com.au

Orders must be placed no later than 7.30am on the Wednesday or Friday.

 Friday September 5th

Maxine Schimizzi

Amy Chan

Kelly Brooks

Friday September 12th

Mel Price

Katrina Horne

Carrie Canton

Friday September 19th

FOOTY LUNCH DAY

Mark Molan

Troy Kristof

Rients Huitema