Dear families and community members,

As the term nears the end it has been great to see all the activity around the school. I was fortunate to attend the SAPSASA Swimming carnival and piped into cricket today, the P&F have met, what a keen bunch, and we are out and about on excursions. I hope to see families join us for assembly this Thursday at 9.15 on The Green! 

Opportunities at STJK

You will have noticed a few new activities getting underway to engage students at STJK beyond the usual curriculum, to support individuals in areas of interest and importantly to provide students with the opportunity to develop skills in a variety of areas including social skills.

Chess Club - We are beginning a Chess club for those interested in Years 1-6. Chess is such a great game with many benefits for learning and socially.

Debating - This will begin soon, providing an opportunity to empower our students. Thank you to all who have registered. Through the many conversations I have had, I am sure it's going to be a hit! 

ECO Warriors - This has been an existing program at STJK, with a change this year to being separate from SRC. Keep an eye out in this area!

SRC - Providing student voice through agency that moves beyond consultation to participation, advocacy and leadership. 

COVID Update

We have been fortunate to have had a reasonably low number of COVID-19 cases in both staff and students. The large number of students and staff away has predominantly been due to close contact status or being unwell. Even with the small numbers, the most challenging thing has been staffing as there is a real shortage of available relief staff. Again, compared to other schools we have been able to cover on most occasions with some modifications.

In terms of reporting cases to classes, we only report cases when the person was at school in the infectious period. At times a child may have been away due to being a close contact prior to symptoms and becoming positive while already in isolation. 

I am particularly grateful to families keeping unwell children home to stop the spread of colds. I am sure this is helping keep down our overall numbers. As winter nears, hopefully this action will continue to reduce the impact of colds and flu. We will continue to keep up hand washing and sanitising to support this as well.

Keeping them safe

In the recent Classroom Pulse Check undertake by students, 1/4 of years 4-7 students commented about the gates and fences, the question was ‘I feel safe at this school’. Positive sentiments were high fences, locked gates and equally negative sentiments were you can jump over them, unlocked low fences. It is clear that high fences and locked gates help students feel safe. 

As part of our commitment to child protection, I remind all volunteers of your responsibility as mandated notifiers for reporting child abuse and neglect and that the following documents are available to support you as a parent and as a volunteer. Volunteers will be supported by the school, who will then complete the notification documents with the Principal. Parents may be interested in the Keeping Safe Child Protection Curriculum which is required to be taught each year.

• Reporting Harm of Children and Young People Procedure
• Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy (Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide) 
• Responding to Online Safety incidents in South Australian schools: Guidelines for staff working in education settings
• Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum information for educators (Department for Education SA)

I thank all our volunteers for your support in keeping children safe at school, on excursions and in our community. Remember, if you're ever concerned please come and talk to the school as your information may help keep a child safe.

As we are in the season of Lent, remember it is a time to reflect on our daily lives and becoming people of hope - Easter People.

Kindest regards,

Jodie Higgins
Principal