Term 1 Week 5 (1/3/2024)
What is On?
Friday 8th March, 9:00am - Awards Assembly
Friday 8th March 2024 -Dio Winter Sport Trials (Soccer, Netball, Rugby League)
*Monday 11th March- Zone Winter Sport Trials- Rugby Union- Coffs Harbour
Wednesday 13th March to Friday 22nd March - NAPLAN (Year 3 and 5 students)
SAVE THE DATE - Thursday 21st March - Community Coversation #7, 5:30pm (Family games night Flyer below)
Monday 25th March - School Photo Day (see below for details)
Wednesday 27th March 2024 - School Cross Country
Thursday 28th March - Holy Thursday Liturgy
April
Wednesday 3rd April 2024 - Polding Swimming-Sydney
Monday 8th April - Catholic Schools Week Liturgy in hall, 10am followed by open classrooms and morning tea.
Tuesday 9th April - Zone Cross Country - McAuley Catholic College Grafton
Thursday 11th April – Friday 12 April 2024 - PSSA Swimming
Thursday 11th April- Last day Term 1, 2024 for students
Friday 12th April 2024 - Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day
*Further information will be sent home with students eligible to trial for the Winter Sports closer to the trial dates.
Dear Parents and Carers
It has been a busy week at Saint James. I feel like I have opened gates for buses all week! I know I haven't but it is nice to have our learners out and about across the region.
Monday was Zone Swimming, Thursday Swimming and Surfing and today we have Year 6 at Incitāre in Grafton and Diocesan Swimming. As I wrote that, I thought "Mmm, we are going to have some waterlogged kids at school!" Interestingly, in Kiss and Drop, I regularly meet children who have been at swim training, surfing with dad/mum, at skateboard lessons or at surfing lessons. The children come in eating toast and always with wet hair! Water is a theme for us as a school. I am glad we are focusing our sport on water-based activities for this month.
Thank you to all the families who have taken the opportunity to attend a Parent Teacher Conference this past week. Remember to jump on and book if you have missed this, as the interviews continue into next week. Click on Conferences in the COMPASS app and choose you child, a staff member to meet and a time. Easy to do and very important for us as a school.
I am away most of next week for the Principal/CSO/Priest Gathering in Coffs Harbour, where we are continuing to look at the moving ground and changing scenery of the DLCSL Company structure. The change from an independent Parish entity to a part of a company is huge, with new legislation regarding ... most things (actually everything) except what matters most- the learning focus for the children in our care. You will notice the changes already and I expect more will come. The biggest impacts are within administration and while you will not be massively impacted, the staff are always responding to new agendas and regulations. Not a bad thing, just a change and an explanation of my absence.
I have had my” classroom fix" today visiting ES1 and S1 in literacy! S1 were reading and a few numeracy workers came for a visit as well. ES1 were reading We are Going On a Bear Hunt. It was fabulous! Who had more fun? The children or Miss Haines?! If you know, you know! This afternoon some S2 children came down with a novel where the principal was called Mr Dawson. Not my family but we had a good laugh!
Next fortnight I need to get in to S3 as they ramp up their learning.
Have a lovely weekend
Ann
RE News
2024 Sacrament Dates
Confirmation- Monday 17th June 2024, 5pm at St Mary’s Church, Maclean.
Reconciliation- Wednesday 4th September, 11:35 am at school.
First Holy Communion- Saturday 7th September, 5:30pm Mass at St James Church, Yamba
The order of Sacraments in the Lismore Diocese is:
Baptism, Confirmation (Year 3), Reconciliation (Year 4), First Eucharist (Year 4)
If you need more information regarding Baptism for your child, please contact the Parish Office in Maclean on 6645 1188 (Open Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday 9am-1:30pm).
If you would like your child to receive any other Sacraments, please contact Mrs Howland at school. For your child to receive any of these Sacraments they must first be Baptised.
If your child has received the Sacrament of Confirmation last year, they will be invited to receive Reconciliation and First Communion this year. All preparation is completed at school as part of Religion lessons.
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me at school.
Renee Howland
Assistant Principal- Mission
Sport News
On Monday St James was well represented at the Clarence Zone Swimming Carnival in Maclean. We had 24 students attend the carnival. All students completed well and demonstrated great sportsmanship. A big congratulations to Clarence who was named the 11 Year Boys Age Champion. 11 Students were successful in progressing to the next carnival held in Macksville today
The following students represented the Clarence Zone at the Diosecan Swimming Championships held today in Macksville! Congratulations to Deja Little, Sanne Little, Clarence Dougherty, Lola Dougherty, Chase Towner, Remi Murphy, Aiden Johnson, Harlan Bews, Archer Madge, Bradley Haslett and Indie Wright.
Lola, Clarence and Deja were all awarded Runners Up Age Champions!!
The following students have made it through to the Polding Swimming Championships to be held in Sydney on the 3rd April. Congratulations- Deja, Sanne, Lola, Clarence and Harlan
Regards
Tash Hancock
Sports Coordinator
Sport Dates
Friday 8th - March 2024 -Dio Winter Sport Trials (Soccer, Netball, Rugby League)
*Monday 11th March- Zone Winter Sport Trials- Rugby Union- Coffs Harbour
Wednesday 27th March 2024 - School Cross Country
Wednesday 3rd April 2024 - Polding Swimming-Sydney
Tuesday 9th April - Zone Cross Country - McAuley Catholic College, Grafton
Thursday 11th April – Friday 12 April 2024 - PSSA Swimming
Friday 17th May - Dio Rugby Union Trials
*Further information will be sent home with students eligible to trial for the Winter Sports closer to the trial dates.
School Photo Day - Monday 25th March
School Photo envelopes have been sent home with your child.
As each child has a unique code and only one envelope per child is provided, please ensure these envelopes are not misplaced.
Please return the envelopes to the school by Friday 15th March.
NOT ON PHOTO DAY Please.
Sibling envelopes are available at the school office if required.
Family Games Night
Pastoral Care and Wellbeing news
ES1 News
Wow, what an incredible start to the year we have had in ES1! We’re all so proud of how settled the students are; they have made new friends, adapted to new routines, and are all showing a keen desire to learn!
This week we did our first Science experiment after exploring how living things drink water. We looked at how humans and animals drink through mouths and then looked at how plants drink through roots and stems. Over the week we observed the effects of giving celery either water or no water - coloured dye helped us to see the water travel up the stem!
In Maths we have been learning about features, and this has helped us to sort a wide variety of objects in different ways. We’ve also been practising our subitising skills for numbers 1-6, and have learnt some new games to help with this. In English we are developing a love of stories, and are learning how to make predictions based on pictures and titles, and are concentrating on forming our letters and saying sounds correctly. In Religion we’ve been practising the Sign of the Cross and learning about the symbols of our prayer space. What a busy first 4 weeks!
Arrival and Departures
A reminder that students can not be on site before 8:20am.
Supervision begins at 8:30am and the children must sit under the big top on the seats until that time. Children who are dropped at the end of the road to walk in are not to be on site before 8:20am. The walking to school is great but the supervision is not available and I will contact families in the coming weeks as a courtesy to let you know if your child is at school beyond our school hours.
My other reminder is that if your child is going home with another family we need an email or a call. Calling is probably the best. Sue, Baxter and Kelly will happily take a message. The emails come to the principal email and if I am away! the message may not get through.