Prayer For All Saints Dear Father You have given the Saints in heaven eternal happiness and they now live in the fullness of Your glory. Because of their holy love for You, they also care about me and my family, my friends, my church and my neighbours. Thank you for the gift of their friendship and the witness of their holy lives. I ask that our patron saint and every saint that has become important to me to intercede for us. O Lord, give us their protection. Grant us their assistance in gaining the fullness of life with You.

Dear Parents Tomorrow we celebrate All Saints’ Day with a whole school Mass, lead by our Yr 4s and commencing at 8:45am. Feast Day celebrations It was terrific to see the community spirit evident at the school celebrations to mark the Feast Day for St John Paul II. The liturgy, charisms discussion and very popular fun activities ensured children had a great day. Thanks to the staff for their efforts and parents for their support. Uniform Shop This week saw the end of an era in the Uniform Shop. Mrs Alexia Pierre has volunteered in the Uniform Shop for many years. Recently she has been managing the Uniform Shop and was instrumental in overseeing its relocation, the change to new uniforms, arranging the new girls dress and sourcing better deals regarding stock. Her efficiency and business-like approach, mixed with her easy to get on with manner will be missed. She leaves to support the developing family business and we wish her all the best for the future. I thank our current uniform shop volunteers, Samantha, Rebecca & Kerry, who will continue to operate the shop at the same times until the end of the school year.

Volume 17 – 31st October 2019

2020 Classes We have had some families indicate that they will be attending Grandis Primary School (new government school over the road from SJP2) next year. Whereas we may be losing some families, by far the bigger impact is that we are losing families (very happy with the school) who are moving out of the area and these are not being replaced with children who are coming into the area. As such, it is highly probable that there could be changes to classes next year. At this stage it is likely that year 1 and 4 will only have one class. In this uncertain environment, it is proving very difficult to plan for next year. If you know you will not be here in 2020 for whatever reason, can you please contact the office as soon as possible. Professional Teaching Council of WA Congratulations to Ibu McAdam who was recognised for her work within the Indonesian Teaching Association. At a recent Professional Teaching Council of WA ceremony, she was awarded an Outstanding Professional Service Award. We are very lucky to have such an enthusiastic language teacher working at St John Paul II. Community AGM Attached to this week’s newsletter is a brochure providing information about the upcoming School

Board AGM. Please read it and consider nominating. The Annual School Community Meeting will

be held in the school library on Wednesday 20th November beginning at 5.30pm. All parents are

urged to attend this meeting where we report back to the community on the activities of the

School Board and the Parents & Friends Association over the past year. As Principal, I will be

reporting back to the community on developments in the school.

We are seeking nominations for new Board members as there are vacancies on the Board for 2020.

Please contact me if you have an interest or would like further information.

School Production What a fabulous opening night, children excelled in their various roles. We are eagerly awaiting tonight’s final performance and will send out an overview with photos of the evening with next week’s newsletter. This was all made possible due to the hard work of many staff who took on responsibilities including overseeing dance, singing, acting, lighting, stage management, props, costumes, ticket sales, setting up the undercover area and organising refreshments. It involved a lot of work over many months culminating in a wonderful experience and opportunity for those involved. Reconciliation Meeting Thanks to those who attended last Tuesday night’s Parish Reconciliation meeting for parents who

have their child preparing to receive the Sacrament. Reconciliation will take place on Wednesday

14th November.

P&F Fun Run I’m sure children, parents and staff are looking forward to tomorrows P&F Fun Run. Children can wear their fun run clothes tomorrow to reduce the likelihood of losing items when having to change into clothes. The event will commence at 2:00pm with the older classes moving off first. Interschool Sports Carnival Last Friday selected children represented the school at the Interschool Athletics Carnival. I am pleased to report that along with competitors enjoying the day we also had some terrific individual results. Swimming Lessons Thanks to staff for their efforts in organising and helping with the recent swimming lessons. Swimming lessons are not part of the school curriculum and not a school responsibility. A wonderful, and the cheapest, opportunity is for parents to enrol their child in Vacswim, a school holiday program offering swimming lessons. https://www.education.wa.edu.au/programs-and-locations I did survey parents a few years ago and there was strong support for swimming lessons to be held in school time. I appreciate the convenience for parents and we have tried to accommodate. I’m hearing that some parents, not sure to what extent, have questioned if they are being over-charged as there were only 7 lessons/bus trips this year. Each year we endeavour to get the best timeslot available for lessons with government schools being given priority. One year we couldn’t get lessons at all, another year we had to have some classes do lessons in the beginning of the year and others at the end of the year. This year we managed to get them together but not at our preferred time of the year. This is how we set the fees. You are charged for the lessons, admission and transport according to what we can organise, sometimes there’s less lessons but they may go for slightly longer. The school does not set out to make money from swimming lessons. On occasions the school has even had to subsidise transport costs. This year, having had to book lessons a year in advance, we unexpectedly had to reduce lessons by one due to children in Years 3-6 being involved in the interschool carnival. Rather than create a small refund for all families (an administrative headache) I have organised for Miss Rutley to come in for a day and work with the children in Years 1-6 to do a dance routine culminating in a ‘flashdance type’ opportunity/performance. Details to follow later! God Bless Mr Chris Lamb Principal

DATES TO REMEMBER

OCTOBER

31st School Musical 7pm

NOVEMBER 1st All Saints Whole School

Mass 8:45am P & F Colour Explosion

School Fun Run 4th Year 1 excursion 6th Kindy P Liturgy 8th Merit Assembly Year 5 St Vincent de Paul

Prayer Assembly Mission Day 11th Remembrance Day Prayer

Service Yr 2P – 11:00am 12th Pre Primary Bunnings

Incursion 9:30am 13th School Board Meeting 15th Constable Care Incursion 11:30am Kindy to Yr 3 1:10pm Yr 4 to Yr6

PARISH INFORMATION

St John Paul II Mass

Monday to Saturday 8.00am Every Saturday 6.00pm Every Sunday 9.30pm Reconciliation

Sundays @ 8.45am to 9.15am After Sunday Mass if required Anytime by appointment Baptism & Weddings

By appointment Father Vinh Dong contact details 6400 0276 or 0422 422 773 Parish Office

St John Paul II Catholic Primary School

Tuesday and Thursday 8.00 to 11.00am

Presbytery

79 Joseph Banks Boulevard

Banksia Grove WA 6031

Email: vinh.dong@perthcatholic.org.au

School Times

Start 8.25am Finish 3.00pm Monday Finish 2.00pm

Kindy Times

Start 8.25am Finish 2.45pm Monday Finish 2.00pm Uniform Shop

Tuesday 8.00am to 9.00am Wednesday 8.00am to 9.00am Children’s School Banking

Every Friday unless otherwise advised

P&F Meeting

AGM – Wednesday 20th November

Board Meeting

Wednesday 13th November

OTHER DATES AND TIMES

CENTRED ON JESUS CHRIST

What a Wonderful Day! Our St John Paul II Feast Day, which we celebrated on Monday, was a thoroughly

worthwhile and enjoyable occasion! The day began with a short liturgy celebrating the

Charisms of St John Paul II which we strive to bring to life in our school community –

Forgiveness, Compassion and a Desire for Unity. The children, as always were very

reverent during this time. Children then mixed with students in other year levels to

complete activities related to each of our Charisms. After recess a variety of stalls were

set up by staff with the aim of enabling children to celebrate being part of our school.

We had Mario Kart, coin tossing, ping pong ball bouncing, spin the wheel, lolly jar

guessing, fishing, a lemonade stand, card games, face painting, biscuit decorating and

lucky dips. We all gathered to watch an exciting playoff from the paper plane making

stand where Lawrie Toby won after a rematch!

It was mostly intended as a ‘fun’ raiser, but we managed to raise a similar amount of

money for worthwhile causes as we did last year. Approximately $1300 was raised

which will go towards helping people who benefit from the work of Catholic Mission,

supporting Wheelchairs for Kids and raising funds to help with the building of our new

church. It was delightful to see the smiles on the faces of all involved in this special

day on our school calendar.

Soon We’ll Celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation! Thank you to all the Mums and Dads who were able to join us for the information evening in preparation for the Sacrament of Penance (aka Reconciliation, Confession) that many of our students will be celebrating very soon. Mr Raftos, Mrs Bakunowicz and Mrs Chamberlain did a wonderful job running the session and, as always, we greatly appreciated Father Vinh’s reassurance and input during the evening.

There will be a liturgy prepared by our Year 3 classes at school on Wednesday, 4th December at 8.45 am followed by the Reconciliation ceremony for the students making their First Reconciliation. We will then have a morning tea to celebrate which should conclude by 11.00 am. Parents of students making their Reconciliation are invited to join with us for the liturgy and the Reconciliation ceremony afterwards. Parents are welcome to bring in a plate to share on the day as we will be having a morning tea to celebrate this special day for the students making their First Reconciliation.

Kindy Liturgy Outside the Square Mrs Cannon’s Kindy class gathered in an intimate circle of chairs

with parents to celebrate their liturgy with Fr Vinh. Mrs Kostov put up

a display of forgiveness and St John Paul II. The children joined in

prayers and songs magnificently! The circle harked back to the early

years of our school when the whole school community was able to

gather in a prayer circle each morning. There’s something very

symbolic about gathering like this, all joined in prayer with Jesus at

the centre. Next Wednesday at 8.45am, Mrs O’Brien’s Kindy class

will have their Liturgy. I believe they will use this circle idea too!

Halloween, All Saints and All Souls Sometimes people ask why we don’t make a big deal of Halloween in our school –

probably the simplest answer is that we’re more excited about All Saints Day! The

following is taken from Catholic Online, a useful resource for a Catholic perspective

on many things:

‘We all know trick-or-treaters ask for candy door-to-door in costumes ranging from

adorable to frightening, but the day does not have roots in either candy or costumes.

Long ago in Ireland and Britain, Christians would come together on All Hallows Eve to

ask for God's blessing and protection from the evil in the world. The source of the

modern celebrations stemmed from the donning of saintly and evil spirit costumes to

act out the battle between good and evil.

According to dictionary.com, the word "Halloween" is a "direct derivation of All Saints

Day" with "All Hallows" in Old English meaning "the feast of the saints."

All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day are related, but they are two separate celebrations.

On All Saints' Day there's a call to live as saints, to remind us how we're supposed to

live. On All Souls' Day, we're talking about all souls and asking God's mercy for them.

We're talking about those people who have died before us, and their process of getting

to heaven, through Christ.

All Souls' Day is a commemoration of the faithfully departed and is observed primarily

in the Catholic Church.

Each celebration touches on cultural beliefs about the spirit world, honouring the dead

and feasts, so if you celebrate Halloween this year remember to prepare for All Saints'

Day and All Souls' Day as well.’

Saint John Paul II Care Mission Launch

Next Friday, 8 November, our Year 5 classes will be launching our St John Paul II

Care Mission Day. While it has a similar focus as the wonderful work of St Vincent de

Paul Society, St John Paul II Care will replace this food raising mission this year. We

will find out more when our Year 5s launch this event!

Remembrance Day Liturgy

All are welcome to join us at 11am on

the 11th day of this 11th month to

commemorate Remembrance Day as

a school community.

Miss Carbone’s Year 2P class will

lead us in prayer.

This Week’s Question Congratulations to Aimee Nikhil who correctly identified ‘Jonah’ as the answer to our last newsletter question ‘ This week’s question is: ‘Who played the voice of God in our musical production?’

Give your answer to Mr Maxwell and you will be in the running to win a little prize 😊

May God bless you,

Tim Maxwell (Assistant Principal)

Jonah! – Final show tonight!

SJPII NEWS FLASH

ICY POLE DAY

FAMILIES LEAVING IN 2020

SAUSAGE ROLL DAY

P & F COLOUR RUN COMMUNICATION MINISTRY

Keep an eye out on our School Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/sjpiicps/ for the next edition!

Last week, each child received a Sausage Roll Day Lunch Order form. This lunch day will be held on

7th November. Cost is $5.00 for a sausage roll and a juice box. Order form and payment must be

back to the class teacher by no later than Tuesday 5th November.

Families, other than students in Year 6, who are not returning to school next year, are asked to please email the office as soon as possible. This information helps administration with future planning of classes which will be commencing soon.

Icy Pole Day will be held every Friday for Term 4 commencing tomorrow, 1st November. If you

would like your child to purchase one, the cost is $1 per icy pole.

This is what has been happening at SJPII during the last fortnight:

Last Friday was the Interschool Sports Carnival at Ridgewood Reserve. Students participated in long

jump, turbo jav, shot put and racing events. Congratulations to Garang Dekuek for coming first in

every event that he participated in. A big thank you to Miss Rutley for organising students to be

involved in the carnival and to the teachers and parents for supporting and cheering us on.

On Monday the whole school celebrated our St John Paul II Feast Day. Students came to school in

free dress for a gold coin donation. In the morning students learnt about the 3 charisms which are

Forgiveness, Compassion and Desire for Unity. Then each class set up a stall to fundraise money

for Catholic Mission, Wheelchair for kids and the new church. Some of the stalls and activities that

students enjoyed were hairspray, Mario cart, basketball, paper aeroplane competition, face

painting and many more. Thank you to everyone involved and their generosity.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the production of our school musical “Jonah A Fishy Tale”.

Tuesday’s opening night was a huge success and good luck to the cast and crew for their second

performance on Thursday night.

Annual School Community Meeting

Wednesday 20th November 2019 @ 5.30pm

Prior to and following the meeting, drinks and nibbles will be available

St John Paul II Community Meeting

As an adult member of the St John Paul II School Community you are cordially invited to attend the 2019 meeting.

Each November the St John Paul II School Community meet. The meetings are generally brief and to the point.

Hear reports outlining what has been done throughout the year as well as what has been planned for 2020.

Agenda:

The order of business for the meeting:

1. Board Chairman Report

2. Treasurer’s Report

3. Announcement of criteria for Board membership

4. Voting to fill vacancies in Board membership

5. Principal’s Report

6. Announcement of names of new members of the Board.

Criteria for Board membership:

1. Possession of special skills that will be an asset to the Board

2. A deep interest in the welfare of all students and staff

3. A desire to give service to the Catholic school community

4. A keenness to promote Catholic schooling

5. An ability to work cooperatively and constructively with all other members of the Board

6. A sufficiency of time to devote to Board duties.

St John Paul II School Board Members 2019

Father Vinh Parish Priest

Chris Lamb Principal

Amor Uy Parish Representative

Samantha Poole P & F Representative

Steve O’Brien Seeking re-election

Paul Jagger Continuing

Michael Richards Completed term. Finishing.

Amor Uy Seeking re-election

Mel O’Leary Seeking re-election

The Board can have 4—6 members.

We are seeking nominations.

Annual General Meeting Nomination Form

Nominations need to be received by 4.00 pm Friday 8th November 2019.

School Board Nomination

I wish to offer myself as a candidate for election to the School Board.

NAME: _________________________________________________________________

SIGNED: _____________________________________ DATE: ____________________

Parents & Friends Nomination

I wish to offer myself as a candidate for election to the Parents & Friends for the

following position.

President:

Treasurer:

Vice President:

Secretary:

Committee Member:

NAME: _______________________________________________________________

SIGNED: ________________________________DATE: ________________________

COMMUNITY NEWS

Child & Parent Centre, 10 Viridian Drive Banksia Grove are holding the following groups: Transition to Kindy: Starting Kindy can be both exciting and challenging. A positive start to

school will benefit your child’s future learning as well as their social and emotional development.

Time: 6:30 to 8:30pm Date: Wednesday 14th November 2019 Booking essential on 9367 0964 or email banksiagrove@ngala.com.au Protective Behaviours: Protective Behaviours is a life skills program for parents, designed to

help them teach and promote safety to their children. Time: 6:30 to 8:30pm

Date: Wednesday 6th November 2019 Booking essential on 9367 0964 or email banksiagrove@ngala.com.au