St James' Primary School Yamba eNewsletter

What is On?

Monday 3rd - Confirmation Retreat - Maclean

Tuesday 4th June - Close the Gap- change of venue- Grafton (note earlier departure time)

Wednesday 5th June- Polding Cross Country

Wednesday 12th June 2024- Rugby Gala Day

Monday 17th June - Confirmation - St Mary’s Church, Maclean. 5:00pm

Tuesday 18th June - Community Conversation#9 - Parenting For Postive Mental Health

Friday 28th June - Athletics Carnival

Thursday 4th July - Last Day Term 2 for students

Friday 5th July - Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day

Dear Parents and Carers,

I find myself in a reflective mood after our trip to Coffs Harbour as a staff for Proclaim, Lismore 2024.

This is a big agenda across all schools, all settings and all parishes. The goal of Proclaim is to empower all staff and students to animate the identity of Catholic education. Proclaim Lismore is the accompaniment of students and peers towards a deeper relationship with themselves, others, and God.

We had 2 amazing speakers focused on the theme of Hope for the Future.

Dr Mauve Heaney, the head of Theology at the Australian Catholic University spoke as a Keynote on the ideas of hope,dreaming and the mission of working in Catholic Education. Her message was that as individuals we are where we are meant to be and that we have a chance to take the best of our human experience and our faith to make meaning. As a musician and a poet, she shared some amazing insights into our faith story as a Catholic school and as you can imagine, with music and poetry I was predisposed to love it. Her biggest challenge to us as a system of schools, is to be more than value laden. All schools and all staffs have the same value laden curriculums to teach. All staff in all schools are working from a strong values base but she asked us to link this work back to the faith in ways that support the students and families. Invitation not imposition.

Roby Curtis from Emmanuel City Mission Brisbane (who has been on staff in our diocese) spoke about the need for outreach and how we can be "Living Mission". The Emmanuel City Mission works with the homeless in South Brisbane and West End, during the day to provide quality meals, safe spaces, a listening ear, showers, washing machines and dryers for rough sleepers. This excellent speaker asked us not to look to go to help him with his organisation but to look locally at how we can support those who have less than ourselves. Act in your own community. This session certainly resonated with the staff of Saint James.

Our student leaders have already asked about the Minnie Vines CEO sleep out and have great ideas to support in education and action. The link is clear and as Saint James has always been amazing in supporting the St Vinnes Winter Appeal we know that the children will feel supported in their endeavours. Stay tuned for more information early next term.

The final part of the day was a narrated Mass where Father Joy from Coffs Harbour explained the Mass as he offered it with us. My favourite comment from staff- "I did not know I needed that, but I am so glad I was there."

Getting to Coffs Harbour for a day like this is a big effort. We did not want to be late, so all staff were on the road by 6:30am and I wish to honour the effort made by all.

Best wishes to Iyla and Jake who run in the Polding Cross Country Championships on Wednesday in the Diocesan Team. We will scream encouragement from Yamba.

I am away for the next 10 days. I am finalising this newsletter from afar, as I have some personal leave. In Week 7, I am travelling to Melbourne with all the principals in the Clarence Cluster.

Talk soon

Ann

Proclaim

Raffle- Mother's Month of May

We would like to thank all the businesses who supported the Community Conversations Group to fund raise for resources for all children and learning at Saint James.

The raffle total raised $2,475.38 and the winners have been drawn.

Thank you all for purchasing tickets.

The winners are

The Sands voucher- Kate Berger
Summi Summi voucher- Tess White
Embella voucher- Amie Bice
GHD Hair Straightener- Annie Lippert
Belinda’s Store voucher- Lauren Ziems
Just Enough Beach voucher- Lauren Ziems
Freckles Hair voucher- Kate Mawn
The Green Door by Kellie- Renee Little
Free The Coconut voucher- Emma Bews
Body Care pack from Soul Pattison and Numbat- Susan Imeson
Basket box with Blanket from Shirley Drum- Helen Berger
Nadee Guy voucher- Ali Phillips

RE News

SACRAMENTS

Confirmation

We have a group of 14 students who are preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation at present. During Confirmation, students will receive the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit which help them throughout their life. Confirmation completes Baptism, by which in the laying on of hands and the anointing with Chrism Oil, which first happened at Baptism, we are confirmed with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

The Sacrament of Confirmation will be held in St Mary’s Church, Maclean on Monday 17th June.

The order of Sacraments in the Lismore Diocese is: Baptism, Confirmation (Year 3), Reconciliation (Year 4), First Eucharist (Year 4). All preparation is undertaken at school.

If you would like your child to receive these Sacraments, please contact Mrs Howland at school ASAP. We are currently finalising numbers for the parish office.

For your child to receive any of these Sacraments they must first be Baptised. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me at school.

If you are interested in your child/ren being Baptised, please contact the Maclean Parish Office on 66451188 Mon/ Wed/ Fri 9am-2pm.

Renee Howland

Assistant Principal Mission

CONFIRMATION Candidates

In English, we know 16 sounds, and we use these daily in our reading and writing! We’ve recently read “The Book with No Pictures” and have been using our imaginations to create amazing characters, drawing them and describing their features. We’ve also been working on using adjectives to make our descriptions more exciting.

In Maths, we have been learning about 5- and 10-frames, which help us to instantly recognise number quantities. We are also learning about 2D shapes and their features.

In Science, we are learning about the weather and how humans and animals use shelters to protect them from the elements - we worked in teams and used recyclable materials to design and create shelters for a toy - check out the photos below!

We’re also really loving our new Investiagion space, ‘Drama Land’, where the dress-ups change each week to encourage imaginative play. So far, we’ve had Princes & Princesses, Mums & Dads, and this week, Pirates & Mermaids! So much creative play!

Design and Create

The University of New England recently held an art competition where over 553 students from over 46 schools in NSW submitted entries. 60 finalists were selected and Slater is one of those finalists.

His artwork will be professionally hung and exhibited in the New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, between 26th July and 11th August. A special “Opening Night” where the winners will be announced will be held on Friday 26th July - good luck Slater.

Bus Travel

Busways has asked that we communicate with all families the importance of everyone wearing a seatbelt when they travel to and from any school and on any bus. We will be inviting the bus company to come to school and do a "Safe bus travel" session for the children. Can we please ask all families to engage with all children regarding the safe use of seat belts on buses.

More information about the safety of seat belts is available at

https://www.busways.com.au/news-items/reminder-wear-your-seatbelt

Sports Dates

Wednesday 12th June 2024- Rugby Gala Day

Friday 28th June - Athletics Carnival

Tuesday 30th July 2024 - Zone Athletics Carnival- Coffs Harbour

Friday 16th August 2024 - Dio Athletics Carnival

Awards Assembly

St James' Award –Lola

Be Your Best Self - Harvey, Hudson, Jett, Cleo, Ivie, Ava, Liam

MJR – Layla, Charlotte, Lily, Sailor

Sports - Sundae, Bronte, Elsie, Lucee-Mae

Achievement - Juliet, Tippi, Noah, Vivian, Sebastian, Indie, Dean

Encouragement -Lennox, Hendrix, Taura, Ned, Pearl, Billie, Indigo

Student of the Week -Lachlan, Anthony, Bonnie, Sunny, Rocco, Reevan, Deja

There is much discussion amongst principals and the Safety Team at the DLCSL at the moment regarding how much is too much information to place on a newsletter. We have change the images on Instagram for our Assembly to only have photos and no names. This week I am trialling only first names for the awards. Our newletter is public within the system and while I know you are all careful with what you release regarding your children, we are small enough still that you will recognise most names. Our Grafton primary schools have changed over too. Not sure if this is too restrictive but let me know what you think.

Term 2 Week 5 (31/05/2024) -