Term 4 Week 5 (10/11/2023)
What's On?
Monday 13th November- S3 Parent Information Evening, 5:30pm– 7:00pm (details on Compass)
Thursday 16th November - School Awards Assembly
Friday 17th November – Pupil Free Day – Staff Development
19th – 23rd November - Stage 3 Canberra Excursion
Wednesday 29th November -Year 5 Captain Speeches
Friday 1st December - National Disability Day Fundraiser - Wear Purple
End of Year Dates:
Monday 4th December - Choir singing at Caroona
Tuesday 5th December - Just a Little Bit of Fun for Christmas, 5:30 – 7:30pm (Details Below)
Monday 11th December - Music Concert- Academy, 9:00am
Tuesday 12th December - End of Year Mass at St James Church
Wednesday 13th December⋅5:30 pm – 9:00pm - Year 6 Graduation- Yamba Golf Club
Thursday 14th December - End of Year Awards Assembly
- Spirit of Saint James Run (Year 6)
Friday 15th December - Last Day of School 2023
Compass Message
If you know your child will Not be attending an event, Please Decline in Compass.
Dear Parents and Carers
This week I had the pleasure of visiting Early Stage 1 as they prepared their storytelling resources for Noah's Ark. What I loved about the experience was that the children were NOT using any worksheets or templates for arks, animals, people or plants. What was happening was that the children were dipping into the animal sets from their investigations kits and tracing shapes of animals OR doing a life drawing course. Picture this - a 3D 10cm tall rhino on its side being traced - the paddle pop sticks which hold him up will need to be quite strong! Another idea was a paddle pop stick with 4 penguins walking up it and lastly, a 3D 15cm long cheetah standing on the table while small Rembrandts carefully sketched the detail and every dot and swirl for an original art piece.
This is what I see in every classroom when I visit. I had visits this week from Stage 3 children in Geography who were interpreting the maps of Canberra for their plans. I am a bit excited for the journey as this is a wonderful experience for our children to engage in government, civics and remembrance (and a lot of fun).
From Stage 2 this week I read a wonderful letter to an engineer saying thank you for the work you do keeping us safe in the world!
Stage 1 what have they done??
In Stage 1, the work on building vocabulary and knowledge continues unabated and I even had an older sibling send me the definitions of words from the literacy block earlier in the day.
All these things support our learners.
I like my job! (particularly the bits in classrooms!)
Have a great weekend
Ann
Just a Little Bit of Fun for Christmas
RE News
Mini Vinnies Christmas Appeal
Mini Vinnies is collecting food items for the St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal.
Some families in our community are unable to buy special treats to share with their loved ones at Christmas time and rely on Christmas food hampers from St Vincent de Paul. We are asking the St James families to please donate any of the following non perishable food items to help make Christmas Hampers.
Christmas treats for the hampers include: long life custard, long life milk, plum pudding, blocks of chocolate, Christmas cake, bags of lollies, soft drink, cans of beetroot, pineapple, corn, peas or fruit, packets of jelly, popcorn, chips, nuts, corn chips, salsa, milo, fruit mince pies, icy poles in plastic, biscuits or anything else you might enjoy at Christmas.
Next week our Mission Reps from Stage 3 will deliver boxes to each stage & to the front office.
Thank you for your kindness and generosity.
Ella Mooney and Renee Howland
School Mission
Little J's
ES1 News
Kindy have been so busy already this term! In English we have been learning how to write a compound sentence using a conjunction (and/but), in Maths we have created growing and shrinking patterns and learnt our pairs of ten! In Science we have been investigating different materials and what they are used for, and in Religion we have been exploring Creation, and learning the ‘Noah and the Ark’ story - we are in the middle of creating our own props to retell this story next week!
Birthdays
Gemma – 12th November, Sage- 14th November, Mrs Frazer – 16th November, Mrs Ferguson – 19th November