Term 2 Week 7 (04/06/2021)
What is On?
Tuesday 8th June - Parent Evening Event- Flyer below
Wednesday 16th June - Accendere - Year 4 Retreat in hall
Friday 18th June - School Athletics Carnival
Tuesday 22nd June - S3 Presentation Night - Change Makers, 6:15 pm -7:15 pm
Thursday 24th June - Last Day of Term 2 for students
Friday 25th June - Staff Development Day- School Closed
Monday 12th July - Staff Development Day- School Closed
Tuesday 13th July - Students Return for Term 3
Kindergarten Enrolments for 2022
Do we have any families with siblings that need to enrol in Kindergarten in 2022?
We are very close to having a waiting list so please phone the school office if you would like to enrol your child in Kindergarten for 2022.
Please return your acceptance letter as classes are about to be formed.
Dear Parents and Carers
This has been a big week of learning for the staff at St James. You will hear and see some differnce in the manner in which we teach Religious Education in Stage 3 in Term 3. You might also hear different language or slightly adapted routines in Mathematics ( see Curriculum Corner for more information).
Next week, the new company structure for the Lismore Diocese will be released to Principals. I have a zoom with the CEO Dr Sally Towns, on Wednesday to hear how the changes will impact on our operations. I do not expect there to be major changes, but I do expect some "behind the scenes" adaptions. Stay tuned!
I have asked the Diocesan Workplace Health and Safety Officer to visit with me regarding our requirements with Kiss and Drop. His initial information is that our school responsibility is to have children safely secured within their appropriate car seats before they depart the school.
In a related matter, I have been seeking a new line marking company to remark our area for some time. All the big companies doing work locally have declined, as the job is not significant enough. Last week, I approached the CSO purchasing officer and he was able to secure 2 interested parties. I am hoping that over the coming hoidays I will have a crew onsite. ( cross your fingers!)
Just some thoughts on learning (which is why we are here!)
Today I visited Stage 2, and saw some of their great artwork which is featured below.
I also saw Stage 3 knee deep in their biographies for the Change Maker unit in History. It is interesting to see and hear who and why they chose to study. I also noticed how diverse the choice of Australian nation builders or change makers are. This is a broad representation of who Australia has become.
As I write, Early Stage 1 is returning from an excusion to the Yamba Museum and St James Catholic Church. It sounds like everyone had a great time.
I visited Stage 1 with Mrs Jeffrey. It was a little like Christmas, as we have purchased a significant number of home readers for our lower school (ES1 and S1). Mrs Jeffrey will offer more information next week in the newsletter. She has spent her morning stamping books for distribution.
Have a lovely week
Ann
Why do we have to sign in to attend any Saint James event?
Under the Child Protection Laws in Australia, there are increased accountabilities for schools.
This means that the ONLY sign-in system being used in the Diocese of Lismore is Who's On Location and also captures our COVID information. This has been chosen as it is able to meet all the NESA requirements. If you attend any St James event you are obliged to sign in with this system. This is not a negotiable process and is applicable for all events onsite or offsite ( including Class Parents events) which are sponsored by the school.
Parent Evening Event
Sport News
Cross Country
Good luck to Taya Murphy who is competing next Tuesday, 8th June, at the Polding Cross Country carnival in Sydney. Taya will be representing the Lismore Diocese in the 11yr old girls event. Good luck Taya, we hope you enjoy the experience and look forward to hearing about it on your return.
Athletics
Our Athletics Carnival is being held on Friday 18th June. We will be holding the Long Jump and Shot Put events at school, beginning next week with Long Jump. 11 and 12yr old boys and girls events will be held at Recess time on Monday & Tuesday and the Juniors (8, 9,10yrs) on Wednesday and Thursday.
RE News
Pentecost
A Reflection from the Fuel Daily
A game that kids love to play is ‘spot the difference’. In a way, we could play spot the difference with the disciples before and after Pentecost.
Before Pentecost, they were weak, fearful unbelieving. Just look at Peter, he denied Jesus three times when Jesus needed him most. After they had been filled with the Holy Spirit, they were hopeful, bold, full of purpose and faith. Peter went on the preach to masses of people and convert thousands at a time!
All the believers were radically transformed by this event. Nothing was the same, they saw the world in a different way and their part in the world differently too.
And this same power, this same transformation, is available to us as well.
When we pray 'Come Holy Spirit,’ we are inviting the same Spirit that filled apostles and the disciples two thousand years ago and the saints and holy men and women that have been transformed since then. We are inviting the Spirit who knows no limits, who rose Jesus from the dead and who wants to do something incredible in your life today.
+ Come Holy Spirit. Amen.
Curriculum Corner
Yesterday Stage 2 & Stage 3 teachers and I participated in a professional learning day via zoom with Peter Sullivan from Melbourne. Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 teachers will have this professional learning opportunity next Monday.
Peter Sullivan is currently Emeritus Professor of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, Monash University. He has extensive experience in research and teaching in teacher education. Peter is now helping support Australian teachers in their transition to the National Curriculum.
Peter is used to asking some big questions concerning how young people learn: What tasks are effective in Mathematics teaching and how can a teacher best use those tasks? What motivates students to do well? What are the characteristics of an effective classroom and how do students respond?
We’re combining these questions to look at what sort of things teachers can do to encourage students to try hard and persist. What kind of tasks are challenging and engaging for students and encourage them to work hard? Also, ways teachers can support students in doing the challenging tasks, so as to build the type of learning that we’re looking for.
Techniques that Peter has found to be particularly useful for teaching have been exercises where students have to make decisions, have to connect two or three ideas together, can use different strategies to find the answer, and can find several answers.
The day was filled with robust learning for teachers, by exploring the potential of structured mathematics learning sequences.
Christine Jeffrey
Early Stage 1
This week in Science we have been learning about the seasons. We celebrated the seasonal change from Autumn to Winter on Tuesday! We looked at our birthday chart to discover the seasons our birthdays fall in. We explored clothing, foods and the types of activities we do in each season. We are identifying how seasonal changes in the environment affect humans and other living things. We are off on our very first excursion today… stay tuned to hear all about it soon! We are so excited!
Stage 1
This week we have started to look at multiplication and division. Of course at this stage most of the students will know little to nothing about times tables or rote learning of them. However from the earliest days in Stage 1 we begin to develop multiplicative thinking.
Multiplicative thinking is the ability to see things in terms of same ‘groups of’ or ‘rows and columns of’. We begin to see multiplicative thinking in the world around us. Mathematics is everywhere. Students during investigations this week have begun to explore the school grounds looking for groups of or arrays. Next week they will be searching for them at home too.
Multiplicative thinking is a great accelerator of learning. It links into addition and subtraction simply by saying,
- how many would we have if we added another group?
- How many would we have if we had 10 groups?
- How many would we have if we took a group away.
Have a great week
Rachelle and Anne-Maree
Stage 2
In visual arts students have been looking at bicycles! Students have been using their sketching and drawing skills to create a bicycle art piece. Students had to look at a bike and take note of the physical details including the wheel spokes, handlebars, brakes, chain and gears. We think we have some future artists in stage 2!
Stage 3
Police Request
Police have contacted me regarding the line for afternoon Parent Pick up through Kiss and Drop. They are requesting that as the line forms, cars pull fully off to the side once you reach the front of St James School on Carr's Drive (onto the dirt) to allow safe passage for passing vehicles.