St Johns College Dubbo Term 1, Week 10 2024

Principal

Dear St Johns Community,

I hope all of you had a chance to enjoy some peace over the Easter public holidays. We now continue in the season of Easter for the next six weeks. It is a time of optimism and renewal in the Church’s calendar where the miracle of Easter inspires us to live better lives. Not an easy task by any stretch but a great challenge that we can all aspire to!

Thank you to all those students who have been working so diligently on their assessment tasks over the past few weeks and for many students, the whole of this term. As this is the last newsletter for this term, I would like to encourage students to think about what they have been able to achieve. The holidays are a good time to reflect on your achievements and to re-examine your goals. If your performance, attitude or behaviour has let you down during first term then you need to return to school re-energised and enthused so as to produce your personal best in Term 2. For the many students who had a great Term 1, well done, congratulations and thank you for being prepared to do all that is asked of you each and every day. You are the backbone of St Johns!

Year 12
At the end of next week Year 12 will only have two terms of school before they graduate. For many this would be a scary prospect but it doesn’t need to be! Continuing to work hard, striving to do your best, putting the time in, will allay these fears and produce results. It is important that as Year 12 receive their results from their assessment tasks they listen and take on board the feedback from their teachers and ask for assistance and guidance. While Year 12 do need to take a break in the holidays they also need to complete any work the teachers have assigned them, keep studying, ensure their notes are up to date, and do as many practice HSC questions as they can manage. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard!

Principal Appointment
I’m very pleased to inform you that Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst has appointed Mr Justin McCarney to the substantive position of Principal St Johns College Dubbo effective Monday 20th May. Mr McCarney is currently the Secondary Campus Director at St Matthew’s Mudgee and previously taught here at St Johns. He is very keen to renew his association with the St Johns community. We will keep you posted as to the opportunities for parents to meet Mr McCarney.

CEDB School Improvement Survey
The purpose of this survey is to provide all members of our school community with a say. The survey is straightforward and your responses are collected, collated and used to inform the school as to where we are operating well and where we can improve. This is an important tool that all schools in our Diocese participate in each year. Data from it forms and guides our annual improvement plans for the following year. I invite all members of our school community to be active in your participation with this survey. Students and Parents will receive their survey and information on Thursday 2nd May. The survey will be "live" for two weeks from the initial survey "open" date. Closing date is the 16th of May.

Congratulations
Another great show for the fantastic team of Mr Toll and Ms Rice and all the parents and students that make up the Ag Show Team. A pile of medals again this time from the big one: the Sydney Royal Easter Show. St Johns has won the Reserve Champion Trade Steer on the hook. Fantastic effort from all those involved! Special mention must go to Tracserv Dubbo, Mr Aaron Colbram for their generous sponsorship and to all the parents who without them, this wonderful opportunity would not be possible. We intend to publicly thank and acknowledge all of these people at the first College assembly in Term 2.

Congratulations to Joely Bruce Yr 11, Abbie Messner Yr 8 and Harrison Stevens Yr 7 on their great results in the NSW CCC Swimming Carnival yesterday. They are now off to Nationals….how good is that!!!

St Johns is a good school lets all continue to work to make it a better school!

Yours faithfully

Ray Wooby
Interim Principal

Assistant Principal

As we approach the end of the Term, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our students for their dedication in completing assessments tasks over the last few weeks. It is wonderful to see the effort that students have put in to showcase what they have learned throughout the term.

Parents of those students who have not completed assessments will have been notified by now and provided with further information about the impact that this could have on their child’s grades. A reminder that the first point of contact regarding assessment tasks should be the classroom teacher. 

Our pastoral care team have been very busy this term in ensuring that all students at St Johns College are provided with safe spaces to learn and relax during breaks. We continue to focus on further developing our learning culture. A major focus with Years 7 - 9 has been our hands off policy. It is important that students understand that this rule exists to protect them as it does to protect others. Maintaining the hands off policy is a sign of respect for all members of the College.

As we move into Week 11, I would like to remind all students and their families that it is business as usual at the College. Many subjects have moved on to new units of work and week 11 will look much the same as any other week - full of valuable learning experiences for all students. 

Attendance Reminder

Holidays should be booked during school breaks. Students should be at school every day during the school term, right from the first day until the last.

While it's generally advised for holidays to be booked during school breaks, it's also important for parents to communicate with the school regarding any planned absences and to adhere to the school's attendance policies. 

In cases where absences are unavoidable, working with teachers to ensure that missed material is caught up can help minimise the impact on a student's education and school processes are followed for any missed assessment tasks. 

Warm regards

Mrs Emma Chater
Assistant Principal - Acting

Religious Education

Dear Families,

I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter break and that you enjoyed some quality time with family and friends. It was wonderful to see many of our families at the Good Friday Mass and Easter Sunday Mass. If you were at the Good Friday Mass, I am sure you would have been extremely moved by the solemness of the mass, the beautiful voices of the Men’s choir and by the passion play. My thanks goes to students Chad Condon, Emily-Rose Bailey, Jessica Ibe, Piper Muller and ex-student Jennifer Ibe who performed the passion play so well. Thanks also to Mr Adam Caton who played the role of Pontius Pilate and Mr Matthew O’Dea who helped narrate. It is wonderful to see staff and students alike contribute to parish life. 

Our Year 7 Retreat days were held on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Tuesday’s group were impacted by rain, but still brought a wonderful energy to the day. Wednesday’s group had the sunshine and also brought a positive attitude to the activities on offer. The retreat days for Year 7 focus on 3 relationships - relationship with self, with one another and with God. It is very important that our students are aware of who they are, their uniqueness, and the gifts they bring to the year group. It is also important that they acknowledge the gifts and individualness of their peers. This is a group of young people who, for the most part, are going to spend the next 5 and half years together. For their time together to be successful, they must show kindness and compassion towards each other. They must be accepting and inclusive. It is only in that kind of environment that each and every one of them can be the people they are meant to be and feel they have permission to shine their lights. The day was spent playing games, working in groups to complete challenges and sharing ideas with one another. I hope many of our students made at least one new friend on the day.

Each student’s relationship with God is unique. They are all at a different place on their faith journeys. One of the first things we did on the Retreat Day was have mass in the beautiful St Brigid’s Church. Father Greg, as usual, did an amazing job making all students feel welcome and guiding them through mass. For some students, this was the first time they had been in this church. As a Catholic school, the importance of the mass cannot be overlooked. We have many masses throughout the year, and my hope is that eventually every student not only knows how to respond and what to do, but that they will start to understand how special mass can be. It connects us to every other Catholic school, every Catholic person - not just those alive today, but all the way back to the Last Supper when Jesus first led the Eucharist. 

I believe both Retreat days were enjoyed by our students and they are to be commended on their positive approach to each activity. My thanks goes to Fr Greg, Mr Josh Galvin, Miss Stef Leslie, Mr Peter Bourke, Mrs Sue McAlister, Mr Keith Hill, Mr Nick Bakker, Hugh Gibbons, Will O’Connor, Abbey Larsen, Tyrone Peckham, Rhys O’Neill and Ms Tracey Rapley for giving their time and positive energy to these retreat days.  

In closing, I would like to invite all students to march with the school on ANZAC Day during the holidays. An email will be sent out, but I thought I would start reminding families of this important day. Our school has a significant number of students and therefore Dubbo should see a large number of students marching with our school. I would love to see as many students there are possible. Please keep an eye out for the email about this. 

Warm regards

Elissa Burden
Leader of Ministry and Mission

Yr 7 Retreat

Learning and Teaching

Maths Pathway

Why we like it at SJC:

Maths Pathways looks for a gap in an individual student’s understanding and creates tailored lessons and assessments to help the student build the missing skill. This is really important because, as the study of maths progresses, that one gap can lock students out of more and more learning across a range of maths topics. 

We also love how data rich the program is. Teachers can see all of the gaps in a student’s understanding, and a detailed analysis of how they are progressing in these things. This gets reported to parents at the end of the semester.

There is other great stuff it can support us with, like:

• Enriching and extending so students can work beyond their stage
• Individualised lessons
• Individualised assessment
• Small group mini lessons
  

Some of the pitfalls:

When students are working on modules, they can speed through them, writing down the answers as the program reveals them - kind of like flipping over to the back of the textbook. Obviously, students don’t engage in deep learning when this happens. Maths Pathway knows if students are going too fast, and tells them to slow down and do the working. When the program assesses their progress, if the skill has not been learned, they cannot progress to the next module.

What students can do to maximise their learning through Maths Pathway:

• Follow the teacher’s instructions to do everything in your workbook, including all of the working.
• Don’t take shortcuts. If you don’t demonstrate you are learning and progressing, Maths Pathway will keep directing you back to the skills you have not mastered.
• Extend yourself by allocating an hour a week to modules at home.

Students can access the Maths Pathway program at home to further their learning:

These bonus modules that can be completed at home go a long way to enhancing the growth of a student and are tested in the end of topic quiz before being marked as completed. To work effectively at home on Maths Pathway, students should copy the question, their working out, and the answer into a workbook. It is important for students to bring this work to class and show their teacher so teachers can check understanding and offer additional clarification and support.

Assessment and Feedback

Don’t forget to be checking CANVAS for marks and feedback on assessment tasks. You can also see how you performed compared to other students who completed the task.

Not sure how to check your marks and feedback? This article will help.
How do I view my grades in CANVAS?

Novel Season

A number of our English courses have commenced their novel study. Year 7 have started Blueback, Year 9 are studying Macbeth and Year 10 are reading The Outsiders. Students are encouraged to spend some time reading and annotating beyond class. Audiobooks and films are great and supplement our learning, but nothing compares to knowing the text well through reading.

Literacy Focus 2024 and the College Writing Rubric

Term 2 commences with a staff professional learning day. This will give us a chance to complete some mandatory training, but also to establish our writing focus for the remainder of the semester. Our teachers will refine our schoolwide approaches to writing, and prepare to share their subject specific strategies and progress with their colleagues.

Warm regards

Catherine Jones
Leader of Teaching and Learning

Pathways and Careers

Universities Admissions Centre

Applications are open

UAC applications for study at uni in 2025 are now open for domestic students.

Please following this link for further information.

Kerry-Lyn Strain - VET and Stage 5 Future Pathways  k.strain@bth.catholic.edu.au
Patricia Strahorn - ASPA and Stage 6 Future Pathways p.strahorn@bth.catholic.edu.au

Resource Hub - Library

Book Review

Mrs Bruce - Teacher Librarian
Miss Lappa - Library Technician

SJC Cattle Team

2024 Sydney Royal Report 

Thursday
Zoe Street received third in school paraders.

In the F002 which the girls had to qualify for prior to the Sydney Royal, Jemima Foran received first in Heat 6, Chloe Long received third in Heat 10 and Layla Den received second in Heat 11.

Friday 
Purebred Steers 

• In Class 3 one of our Sarana bred steers, Sarana Jimbob received 4th
• In Class 5, Sarana Maximus got 6th place
• Our steer breed by Leigh Scott, Meadowflat Marshal received 5th in Class 7
• Sheraton Rambo bred by Toll Cattle received 1st place in Class 11, also in this class another Sarana bred steer, Sarana Titan, received 4th place. 

Saturday 
Trade Steers
In Class 1 of the trade competition, another steer bred by Leigh Scott received 4th, and the trade heifer bred by Toll Cattle came away with 6th.     

In the trade section we also came away with the Reserve Champion Trade Carcass won by our Leigh Scott trade steer.  

2025 Year 7 Enrolments Closing Soon

Enrolments close Friday 12th April 2024.

Attendance

We care about attendance because we care about your child.

Sport

NSW CCC Western Rugby League Trials.

On Wednesday 25 students from St Johns attended the NSW CCC Western Rugby League trials in Forbes.  There were over 150 boys from Dubbo to Wagga to Goulburn and everywhere in between playing for a position in the Under 15's or Opens.

We had eight boys in the Under 15's selected. Congratulations to Billy C, Zayde B, Thomas M, Jackson L, Bailey C, Levi S, Sam L and Jimmy M. We also had four boys selected in the Opens. Congratulations to Noah S, Billy H, Darby H and Ajay I. They will play in Wagga May 8 in the next level of selection.

Mr Andy Haycock, Rugby League Coordinator

CCC Polding Swimming Carnival - Homebush

Congratulations to Joely B who has won GOLD in the Opens 50m Breaststroke in a time of 34.69 and won GOLD in the Opens 100m Breaststroke in a time of 1:15:08!

Congratulations also to Harrison S who has won BRONZE in the 13yrs 50m Breaststroke. He took 3.5 seconds off his Diocesan time!

Congratulations to Abbie M who won BRONZE in the 14yrs 50m Backstroke in a time of 32.69!

Well done to you all we are very proud of your achievments.

SJC Cross Country

We held our annual SJC Cross Country on Wednesday 27th March. Congratulations to the following Age Champions.

12 Years Girls Only - Maebelle C
13 Years - Girls Grace C, Boys Jarvis P
14 Years - Girls Molly J, Boys Harry M
15 Years - Girls Tatiana P,  Boys Logan P
16 Years - Girls Chloe B, Boys Zamael B
Opens - Girls Ella P, Boys Zander B

House Pointscore
First: McAuley 675
Second: Moore 450
Third: La Salle 350
Fourth: Lennons

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School Fees

Dear Parents/Guardians 

Thank you to our families who have paid the first instalment of their College fees which was due on 15 March 2024. For families who are paying their College school fees by the term and have not yet paid please note that Instalment 1 is now overdue. Please ensure payment is made promptly before the end of Term 1.

Alternatively, it is not too late to set up a regular payment plan, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, to ensure your College fees account is on track to be finalised by the due date 30 November 2024.

To discuss your account or payment plans please contact the College Fees Office on 6841 5142 or email m.carlow@bth.catholic.edu.au 

Please note the College Fees Office will be closed for the school holidays

Kind Regards 

Maree Carlow
Administration Finance Leader

Important Dates

Term 1 2024

If you would like to add the St Johns College Calendar to your google calendar please click on this link.

Tuesday 9th April
Easter Art Excursion

Wednesday 10th April
Duke of Edinburgh
2024 Da Vinci Decathlon

Friday 12th April
Last day of Term 1
Yr 7 2025 Enrolments Due

Thursday 25th April
ANZAC Day

Term 2 2024

Monday 29th April
Pupil Free Day (Staff Professional Development)

Friday 3rd May
Interschool Cup - St Johns v's James Sheahan

Tuesday 7th May
SJC Athletics Carnival

Thursday 9th May
Year 12 Careers Information Day
Diocesan Cross Country - Orange

Community News