Our first week back at school has been very successful and I would like to thank all of our staff, students and parents for their flexibility and commitment to the COVID safe measures in place.

Classes have worked well in cohorts and the staggered play times have kept everyone separated despite the juggle. We hope that some of these measures will only be required for a short time. Thank you to all of our families for supporting children through the altered pick up and drop off arrangements. Each day these have continued to become more efficient and simple. Our staggered pick up in the afternoons have been limited to 25 minutes in total. 

We look forward to our Years 3, 4 and 5 students returning next week. We have missed their presence in the school.

With the new updated ACT Roadmap released this week we have a little more clarity around what the end of year will look like. Next week we will release some dates for end of year functions.

Staffing news

We would like to welcome Kellie in our Canteen for the immediate future. Kellie began this week while Maria is currently unavailable. Kellie is a colleague of Maria's from SFX and will maintain 'business as usual' in the Canteen until Maria returns.

At the end of last term we undertook a recruitment process to complete our staffing for 2022. Thank you to Ms Katie Matthews, Community Council Chairperson, for assisting on the interview panel. It's with pleasure that I let our community know of the following teaching appointments for 2022.

Mr Brett Seaman will return to St John the Apostle. We are also expecting the return of Mrs Kate Macdonald whose artistic input in the school has always been appreciated.

We are pleased to continue to have with us Ms Tabitha Wormald, Ms Lily Kennelly and Mr Sean O'Neill throughout 2022. Their contributions to our staff and the success of their students has been quite exemplary. Mrs Lauren Hudson will also continue with us as a classroom teacher and we thank her for her fantastic role as Teacher-Librarian this year.

We welcome two new teachers to our staff team. Firstly, Mr James Doepel, an experienced teacher in other Catholic schools who has taught in junior, middle and senior year levels. Secondly, Ms Emma Alcock, an experienced Teacher-Librarian who will continue to build the already wonderful library we are fortunate to have within the hub of our school. They will visit our school later this term to meet staff and students.

We will farewell a few teachers at the end of this year. Firstly, Ms Tamika Norris who will teach at St Matthew's, Page in 2022. Ms Norris is much loved by her students and has a long history as both a student and teacher at St John the Apostle. We will farewell Mrs Lizette French who graciously stepped in to teach Performing Arts in Kate Macdonald's absence and we thank her for her willingness to provide fabulous opportunities for our students in the Arts. We will also farewell Ms Elizabeth Jones who has been teaching Sustainability to Year 3-6 students since the beginning of lockdown and Ms Rachel Pearson who has been an associate teacher in a number of classes this year.

We are in the process of filling our Inclusion Assistant roles for 2022. We congratulate and farewell Mr Ben Fely, who was recently appointed as a boundary umpire to the AFL based out of Sydney. Mr Fely has been a calm and conscientious Inclusion Assistant for the past two years and worked with many of our students. We wish him all the best and look forward to seeing him in action.

Lastly, we wish to congratulate Mrs Bree Dess, and her husband Drew, who are due to have a baby early next year. We wish them the very, very best during this exciting and joyful time.

World Teachers Day

Today is World Teachers Day. It is a day to acknowledge the work our teachers do for

their students, whether through remote learning or face to face teaching.

The following video is just a small sample of students sharing their thoughts about our teachers and the work they do in our school.

Thank you to the Community Council who provided coffee and cake from Bean Origin for all of our staff today on behalf of the community. It was very much appreciated.

Every day I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work in such and engaged and supportive school community.

I hope you all continue to enjoy this beautiful Spring time.

God Bless