St Johns Newsletter - 20 August 2025

Principals Report

Many students are feeling more anxious at school this term. We're seeing this for a variety of reasons, including a difficult return after holidays or an illness, issues with friendships, or general tiredness.

All children feel nervous or worried at some point, especially when facing new experiences. But sometimes, those feelings become so strong that they start to affect a child's daily life. When this happens, it may be anxiety.

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a normal and important emotion that acts like an internal alarm system to help keep us safe from danger. However, in some children, this alarm goes off too often, even when there's no real threat. Approximately 1 in 7 children experience anxiety that is strong enough to impact how they feel, think, and behave.

Anxiety, Stress, or Worry—What's the Difference?

• Worry is usually specific and short-term, such as wondering about misplacing something
• Stress typically comes from a particular situation or pressure, like having a lot of thing due at once.
• Anxiety is a bigger, ongoing feeling that sticks around. It can manifest physically as stomach aches, headaches, or trouble sleeping and can affect behaviour, causing a child to avoid school, become withdrawn, or get upset easily.
  

How Parents Can Help?

If your child is showing signs of anxiety, you can support them in gentle and effective ways:

• Acknowledge their feelings. Let them know it's okay to feel worried sometimes and that you're there to help.
• Maintain steady routines. Predictable daily patterns can create a sense of security for your child.
• Help them name their feelings. Giving a feeling a name, such as "worry" or "nervousness," can take away some of its power.
• Teach calm breathing. Try "bubble breathing," where they breathe in slowly through the nose and then out slowly as if blowing a bubble.
• Model calmness. Children often learn how to manage stress by watching how we handle our own worries

If you have any concerns about your child’s wellbeing, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher or our school wellbeing team. 

St Johns House Athletics: A couple of weeks ago, we had our St John’s House Athletic Sports. Well done to all the students for competing hard and trying their best. Congratulations to Cremin (Red) for winning this year’s carnival. The results of the senior events were used to select a squad to represent St John’s at the District Athletic Carnival which was held on Monday.  Students from here are selected to represent our district at Division level later in the term.

Inter School Winter Sports: Last week we played away at St Patrick’s Pakenham. Students competed in Football, Netball and Newcomb.

• Football: St John’s 54 points to St Pat’s 24 points       
• Newcomb:  St John’s 1 Set to St Pat’s 2 Sets
• Netball A: St John’s 11 goals to St Pat’s 1 goal        
• Netball B:  St John's 2 goals to St Pat’s 9 goals

This Friday we play away at St Clare’s Officer.  

Book Week is here!! This year's theme is “Book an Adventure" and marks the 80th anniversary of Children's Book Week. We encourage all students to embrace the magic of reading and come dressed as their favorite book character or someone who inspires them. 

Book Week Dress-Up Day is on Thursday 21st August followed by Pyjama Day on Friday 22nd - see flyer below for full details. 

Student Free Day 27th: A reminder that Wednesday 27 August is a student free day.

Regards 

Chris Dortmans, Principal

Religious Education News

Next week Fr Avinash returns after his annual break in India, during which time he celebrated his 40th Birthday. We all hope he enjoyed spending this special time with his family and friends. 

With Fr Avinash’s return, school mass will recommence. On Tuesday 26th August, the Junior classes will lead and celebrate Mass at 9:15am in the church. Please come along and share in this celebration with the children and the parish community.

Our Religious focus across the school this term is ‘CHOICES’

• The Junior inquiry unit is: Your mission, if you choose to accept it…
• How can we make loving choices everyday?
• How do our choices affect others?
• What does Jesus teach us about making good choices?
• How do our choices show who we are?
• What does it mean to care for the environment?
• What ways can we care for ourselves, others and the world?

The Senior inquiry is: How am I called to make right choices for myself and others? With a strong link to the Catholic Social Teaching Principles:

• Human Dignity
• Common Good
• Solidarity
• Subsidiarity
• Participation
• Stewardship
• Preferential Option for the poor

Pray Together

The Resilience Project - How much sleep do you need?

A recent survey of St John’s Grade 3 - 6 students found that our children are well below the national average in the number of hours of sleep they are getting each night. Adequate sleep is crucial for children's physical, cognitive, and emotional development. It supports growth, enhances learning, regulates mood, and strengthens the immune system. Insufficient sleep can lead to difficulties with concentration, memory, emotional control, and even increase the risk of mental health problems.

I Sea, I Care Ambassador Program

On August 12th, the ISIC Ambassadors, Ms T and Mel H all headed out to Banyan Reserve in Carrum Downs. The Ambassadors learnt about litter traps and the impact to our wildlife and waterways when they are not regularly checked. Students then learnt about a variety of frog species and we listened to their calls. After this the students  tested some of the water from the reserve to see how healthy it was. This required a series of tests to be completed, e.g. PH test and turbidity.

Following on from this, the Ambassadors went ponding with nets and caught some unusual water creatures like the Midgie Larvae (which looks like a mini red worm). Our group even caught a tiny little fish! The last thing we did was a little pick up with tongs and buckets. It was amazing to see how much rubbish was in such a small area. We talked about why this type of rubbish was in this location and the simple things we can do to help our environment. It was a really informative and fun day and we all enjoyed learning about waterways nearby and the impact humans have on them. 

My New Gallery

Book Week - Dress Up Day & Pyjama Day

FOSJ - Billy G's Cookie Dough Fundraiser

The St Johns, Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie Dough fundraiser is here! 🍪

Over the next few weeks, we will be selling dough-licious cookie dough to fundraise for the Friends of St Johns – all fundraising is used to purchase items that will benefit our students.

Have you set up your online profile yet? Make sure you follow the simple instructions in your order form to get started with Billy G's Cookie Dough!

Place your orders before Wed 3 Sept!      Orders delivered Thursday 18 Sept!

Follow the link below to get started. 

Father's Day - Breakfast, Liturgy, Stall & Raffle

Footy Day - Thur 4 Sept

RCIA Program - Want to become a Catholic?

Upcoming Events

Upcoming events shows events for the next 4 weeks, for events further ahead please see the calendar in PAM. 

Uniform Ordering - Beleza

St Johns uniform is sold through Beleza both in their Pakenham store and online - see links below for online shop  or shop location/contact details. 

Koo Wee Rup Catholic Parishes in Partnership

OSHC (Out of School Hours Care)

After School Hours Care operates out of the St Johns hall before and after school.

Please contact OSHC directly for all enquiries:     1300 946 337

To enrol in OSHC please use the online enrolment form via this link:  Enrolment Form

For all other information in regard to OSHC please follow the link below to their website: 

Out of School Hours Care | Windermere

Alternatively you can visit them in the hall before or after school to enquire. 

Community News

Run as part of a Koo Wee Rup Secondary College School Project