Term 1 Week 3 (18/02/2022)

What is On?

Wednesday 23rd Feb - Dio Swimming - Murwillumbah

March 2022

Friday 4th March - Incitāre - Year 6 Event - McAuley Catholic College Hall, Grafton

Monday 21st March - School Photos - More information to come.

Sport Dates 2022

Dear Parents and Carers

It is 2:51 pm on Friday and as I sit to write I am expecting some significant changes over the next 2 weeks. 

I am expecting new information so can I ask all parents to keep an eye on the app for the update. 

I asked the CSO Officer about the "cohorting for play" which I do not like much! I have been asked to maintain this for another week. 

I am praying that next Friday I can send you photos of children playing where ever they want and mixing with their siblings and family friends... and perhaps making new friends. I can only thank all the children and staff for their patience at this time. 

For families who are new ( Lane, Jolly, Pattas, Lewis, Perry, D' Antonio, Hadimioglu, Hamilton, Howden, Nixon, Perugini,  Morris) both a welcome and an explanation. Our children usually play all together, where ever they like. We believe in the choice that our playground spaces offer. 

Please keep an eye on your emails this weekend or early next week for the next plan. 

In other news, I will be sending  the Learning Letters home this weekend. These will be emailed. 

Can I thank Finn B, Owen M and Jack C for giving up their reward time this afternoon to shovel the sand in the big pit. This is so that all children can play in one of our favourite areas. This is truly what service is. Great example from our leaders.  

Best wishes

Ann

RE News

Beginning School Liturgy

On Tuesday morning we celebrated our Beginning School Liturgy via zoom. It was a wonderful celebration of learning and gathering together as a Catholic School community. Our Year 6 leaders received their blessed badges and Father Nicolas attended to bless our school community.

Many thanks to the families who decorated their scallop shell, to be included in our display at the Kiss and Drop.These scallop shells represent all of our families that make up our school community and the journeys they have travelled to arrive at St James School and join our wonderful learning community.

Have you noticed our St James Boat mural?

Last week Kate Stroud from @stroud_de_signs designed and painted a beautiful mural on our special boat prayer space at the front of the school. We worked with Kate to design a suitable mural that represented St James School, Yamba as a community. We are very proud of our boat and this will continue to be used as an outdoor prayer space for our students to engage with.

Renee Howland

Leader of School Mission & Catechesis

Sport News

It's been a busy start to the year Sport wise with lots of different events happening already. 

We had 23 students represent St James on Wednesday at the Zone swimming carnival in Maclean. All students swam well and our school managed to finish in 3rd place overall in the pointscore which was a great effort. A special congratulations to Harlan Bews, Lola Dougherty, Clarence Dougherty, Kydan Jones and Heidi Van Leest who have all managed to qualify for the Diocesan carnival in individual events. We also had the Junior Boys Relay team of Alfie Ison, Jake Seivers, Rashad Rice and Clarence Dougherty along with the Senior Girls Relay team of Jesse Wallace, Gypsy Williams, Willow Bews and Heidi Van Leest, qualify for Diocesan as well. These students will head to Murwillumbah next Wednesday, 23rd February, to compete and we wish them all the best.

Summer Sport Trials for Touch Football were held yesterday for the boys and we had Eamon Mawn and Levi O’Shea both selected in the Clarence Zone team. These boys, along with Heidi Van Leest, Elly Day, Sage Edwards, Marlie Zvatora and Willow Seivers in the girls team, will compete at the Diocesan Touch Football trials in Lismore on Tuesday, 8th March. Best of luck to all involved.

Looking ahead to next week, we have the Zone Winter Sport Trials happening next Tuesday, 22nd February, in Woolgoolga for Rugby Union and Netball and in Grafton for Soccer. Good luck to those students taking part in those.

Martin Dougherty

LOP News

Yamba Song Videos 

Writing a song 

The LOP writing challenge in  2021 was to write a song about Yamba. The students listened to the song Old Welcome Feeling by Rob Imeson for inspiration. When children learn how to write songs, they are learning how language works and how to experiment with different rhythmical and rhyming structures. To begin, some students  came up with an idea ( based on Yamba ). The students  used the app chrome music maker to make  a melody that was simple and memorable.  

We will showcase the entrants through the school newsletter.

Entrant: Tully Waghorn (year 6, 2021)

ES1

This week in Kindergarten we have started our age-appropriate investigations. There are many spaces around our classroom that students have had time to explore and learn in. A big hit is our Dramatic Play Space: Yamba Kiosk Cafe. Chase and Christopher have been busy taking orders and serving coffee here, while Lennox is making Open and Closed signs. The Tinkering Space is where students learn to use tools and work out how things are made. Jett, Anthony, Billy P, Jackson & Magnus were able to work together and unscrew the bike seat & training wheels from an old bike. We are getting better at learning our friends' names and working together as a team.

Stage 1

We have dropped in some fantastic donated surf lifesaving gear into our investigations this week. This is part of our exploration of our geography and English unit of our community and local environments. There have been some other great investigations happening too in the tinkering, painting and dramatic play spaces.

Stage 2

This week in Stage 2 we have been learning new Maths games. These games help us to warm up our brains and, whilst being extremely fun, are a great way for us to practise important skills that we can apply in our problem solving. So far we know Greedy Pigs, The Nasty Game, and a group counting game. The students should be experts at these games by now and can hopefully teach everyone at home how to play.

We have also spent time this week talking about Service. This is something we will focus heavily on throughout the year. We are wondering what it means to ‘serve’ others, and thinking about times when we have been of service to others. This led to discussions around how being of service to others has the effect of enriching our lives as well as those around us.

We set some individual intentions around Service and offered these as part of creating our prayer space. The ideas suggested by Stage 2 children were both heartwarming and inspiring -  what a lovely group of children to be surrounded by!

Stage 3

Lost Property

Parental Concerns and Complaints

Our goal in all Catholic Schools is to maintain  a safe and supportive learning  environment for all learners, their families and the staff. Policies are in place throughout the diocese to assist with this. These are available at https://www.yamplism.catholic.edu.au/policies on our website ( the site is new and much more user friendly - have look around!) 

As always all parents and carers can approach the office ( at the moment by phone on 66463266) to speak with a staff member or the leadership team. An email can also be sent to yamp@lism.catholic.edu.au to arrange a meeting.

A safe and secure environment is the goal  in all interactions. As we know children learn best when we work as a team. 

Bus Safety Week 2022

Bus Safety Week reminds all road users to ‘Be Bus Aware’
Our school bus operator Busways is reminding all road users, parents, and students to ‘be bus
aware’ as part of Transport for NSW’s Bus Safety Week campaign, running Feb 21 - 27.
Bus Safety Week, part of the ‘Be Bus Aware’ campaign, sees Governments, bus operators, and
emergency services raise awareness about the importance of being safe in and around buses and
spread the message to ‘Be Bus Aware’.
The initiative provides a timely reminder to parents to have a talk with their children about bus
safety; to motorists when giving way to buses; to pedestrians to make sure they are alert of their
SCHOOL COMMUNICATIONS TOOLKIT – BUS SAFETY WEEK 2022 Page 3 of 4
surroundings; and to cyclists to ensure they can see where buses are. We all have a part to play in
bus safety.
The ‘Be Bus Aware’ campaign has been developed with input from Bus NSW, NSW Police and
Transport for NSW.
For more information on bus safety or to learn about Transport for NSW’s ‘Be Bus Aware’
campaign, visit https://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/campaigns/be-bus-aware/ or visit the
Busways website www.busways.com.au.

Birthdays

Kingston Hamilton - 18th February, Bradley Haslett - 21st February, Kydan Jones - 22nd February, Zoe Edwards - 23rd February, Ella Carolan - 28th February, Latifah Rice - 3rd March,