Term 3 Week 10
From the Principal
Retirement of Paul O'Keefe
This week, our school community came together to bid a heartfelt farewell to Paul O'Keefe as he prepares to retire at the end of the term. Paul has been a steadfast presence at St John the Baptist for the past 23 years, dedicating his time and effort to ensuring that our school environment is always welcoming and ready for students, staff, and visitors.
Over the years, Paul has become much more than just a member of the staff; he has been a friend, and a role model for many. His warm smile and willingness to lend a hand will be deeply missed, but his legacy of care and dedication will continue to be felt throughout the school.
As Paul moves into this next chapter of his life, we wish him all the best in his well-deserved retirement. While we will miss his presence, we are grateful for the many years he has given to our school community, helping to shape it into the special place it is today.
Period Positivity
Period poverty refers to the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, and adequate toilet facilities. It also includes the stigma, shame, and embarrassment surrounding menstruation, which can negatively impact mental health.
In 2022, students from St Paul’s Catholic College Booragul advocated for the availability of female hygiene products in school toilets to promote access, equity, and dignity. In response, a Diocese-wide working group was formed to address period poverty in our schools by:
- Installing free period products in dispensers, aligned with sanitary bins.
- Developing a menstrual hygiene education program for schools.
- Creating a policy to reinforce dignity, gender equality, and reproductive health.
This led to the Period Positivity initiative, aimed at normalising menstruation through free period products and informative discussions. The initiative began with a successful pilot program at St Paul’s Catholic College Booragul in 2022, where free sanitary dispensers were installed, receiving positive feedback and strong survey results.
Following the success of the pilot, dispensers were rolled out across all Diocesan secondary schools in 2023, with primary schools in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle to follow in 2024.
Period Positivity will begin at St. John the Baptist Primary School in Term 4, 2024.
Sanitary products will be available for free in toilet block dispensers. Students can continue using their own products but will have the option to use the free products provided.
The rollout will be supported by an educational awareness program. Professional learning resources will equip teachers to confidently deliver materials on menstrual health, anatomy, dispelling myths, product accessibility, gender equity, and promoting dignity.
For more information, visit Period Positivity.
Regional Public Speaking Competition
I am thrilled to share the wonderful achievements of three of our students who recently participated in the Regional Public Speaking event. Representing our school with pride and confidence, Charlotte (Stage 1), Mia (Stage 2), and Roxy (Stage 3) each delivered outstanding speeches to an audience of parents, staff, and students from St. Aloysius, Chisholm.
As a school, we commend these students for their hard work and dedication in preparing for this event. Their performances not only showcased their individual talents but as representatives of SJB highlighted the strength of our school community.
I look forward to seeing these young speakers continue to develop their skills and take on new challenges in the future. Congratulations to Charlotte, Mia, and Roxy!
Fortnightly Frames - Around St John the Baptist
Students express their gratitude and heartfelt goodbyes with handmade cards for our retiring school cleaner, Paul O'Keefe.
Year 6 students lead exciting science experiments each morning, inspiring the whole school as we celebrate Science Week together.
Year 1 students shine in their percussion performance, proudly showcasing their talent so far this term.
Congratulations to Finnegan who won our termly Gotcha reward with over 600 gotchas!
Finnegan were rewarded with an excursion to Harold Gregson Park.
Year 12 students, SJB year 6 leaders and staff joined together in faith during the 'Stand By Me Liturgy' as they prepare for their HSC exams.
Socktober
On Tuesday 17 September, Mini Vinnies leaders and Mrs Stretton, travelled with Year 10 students from All Saints College on their bus to McDonald Jones Stadium for the launch of Socktober. We started with a liturgy where the Aspire choir sang hymns and Father Anthony made us laugh and really listen to his amazing homily. We learnt about Mongolia and the children there who need our help. St Bede’s organised eight soccer activities which we rotated through on the field! We ate sandwiches and fruit for lunch and met students from other schools. After the event we used donated rags, string and rope to make Socktober balls which we will use next term during our Socktober activities at school.
Hugh, Frankie, Harper, Lucille.
Sporting News
RUGBY
We had a fantastic day at the Digby Rayward Shield Rugby Union Gala Day at Hunter Valley Grammar School. We had a Stage 2 and Stage 3 team participate.
Our Stage 3 team had a narrow loss against Dungog Public School to start the day, a draw to St Therese’s New Lambton and a final loss against a very strong Scone Grammar team who ended up winning the competition in the U12s.
Our Stage 2 team won their first two games against St Catherine’s Singleton and Scone Grammar to book their place in the final. We ended up winning the final in a thrilling game against Hunter Valley Grammar School in extra time to win the U10s division!
Both teams scored plenty of tries throughout the day, made some great tackles and enjoyed a day full of smiles and fun. Their behaviour and sportsmanship was excellent and we were all very proud of our amazing students.
Massive thanks to Nathan Weir, Marty McCullum and Nick O’Toole who helped our teams and all of the families who came and cheered for our boys and girls
Porty Shirts
Over the past 12 months, we have once again delivered 50 Porty Shirts to Ronald McDonald House, with the final delivery being made last week.
A big thank you to all the families who donated shirts, zippers, or snap lock bags for packaging. A special thanks to our dedicated sewing team, who generously gave hours of their time to sew the zippers into the shirts, transforming them into Porty Shirts. The staff at Ronald McDonald House were deeply appreciative of this donation.
Thank you to our entire SJB community for your support!
Top Blokes Foundation
This Term in Year 5, we have had the opportunity of the Top Blokes Foundation to come in and empower our young men. Each Thursday, we spent an hour with Danny and Gavin to talk with our boys in an inclusive and supportive way. The program we have been following is "Mentoring for Young Boys" which is tailored for boys in their pre-teen years. It has guided them through the complexities of early adolescence with a focus on promoting healthy and safe lifestyles. They have been deep diving into different topics such as stereotypes, mental health, being an upstander, risky behaviours, peer pressure, cyber bullying and many more!
Danny and Gavin have provided a supportive and mature approach to allow our boys to feel confident in learning about these things. As well as, feeling confident to express themselves with their group. The boys have loved them coming in and asking about Danny's baby and Gavin's toothache!! Thank you Danny and Gavin!
Here's some key insights from our boys:
"I really enjoyed the activities." - River
"They taught us to work better together." - Billy
"I enjoyed the activity where you had to flip a blue tarp around without touching the floor by standing on top of it." - George
"I liked when we had to put the lollies in. There was a basket and we each got 2 lollies to try. There was a green, yellow and red dot where we had to try and throw the lolly into a basket from a chosen dot. If we got it in, we got different amounts of lollies back!" - Declan
"It was fun. I learnt how to be nice."- Logan
"The check-in we did because I told them different things each week that we had to say. Like you had to say what number from 1-10 we are, a word that describes our feeling and then one of them gave us a question like "what is your favourite subject?" - Archer
"I love how the people they brought in were nice." -Antonio
"We got to learn new things like how to treat others and being nice to people even if they are different to you." - Leo
Special thanks to the APA Kurri Kurri Lateral Pipeline Community Grants Program who funded this wonderful opportunity!
Year 5 Excursion
Year 5 loved going to the movies to watch "The Wild Robot" as part of their Science Fiction Genre study. They represented the school beautifully and loved making comparisons between the book and the film.
P&F Donations
Thank you to the P & F for donating all of these balls for the students!
Class Awards Week 9 & 10
Congratulations to our class award winners for Week 9 & 10!
Kindergarten - Coby K, Lexi B, Benjamin O, Lily W, Sebastian S
Year 1 - Harry B, Finn G, Eddie S, Elijah W
Year 2 - Kailen F, Jude M, Alex B, Leila C
Year 3 - Lily C, Marianne N, Thomas N, Delilah P
Year 4 - Sullivan S, Max M, Arwen W, Mia R, Beau H, Jack W, Elizabeth L, Simon L
Year 5 - Tiffany C, Patrick R, Ellie P, Dylan G, Grace L, Emmett R, Luke R
Year 6 - Charlotte H, Sophie C, Rosie F, Pippi A