Term 2 Week 5 (27/5/2022)

What is On?

Tuesday 31st May - Wear Red for 65 Roses Day - gold coin donation (flyer below)

 Wednesday 1st June - Incitare Year 6 Retreat

Tuesday 7th June - Polding Cross Country

Thursday 9th June - School Awards Assembly ( details below)

Friday 24th June - School Athletics Carnival

Thursday 30th June - Confirmation - Maclean

Thursday 30th June - Last day term 2 for students

Friday 1st July - Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day- Foundation Professional Development

August

Save the Date - Wednesday 3rd August - School Disco

Dear Parents and Carers

I visited the hall yesterday afternoon during the Stage 3 Dance. I was so impressed by the effort of all the children who were learning to Shuffle. I am sure very soon the children will be shuffling on the front steps of the hall and across the COLA! 

This is what I believe we need to be offering our learners; opportunities to engage in learning which links their world with the wider world. Opportunities to make an effort which is supported and encouraged no matter your skill level.

At Recess, we had discussed dance as a part of our curriculum.  It has certainly changed since I was in school- Ms Aumuller and I can remember learning the Pride of Erin and the Barn Dance in our time and the experience was very different. ( Parents you may need to ask your parents about those dances! or remember your teachers attempts to get you to dance!) 

I could be talking about something I saw in every room yesterday, but this was something a bit different. To get 46 Stage 3 children to engage in the Creative Arts syllabus Dance component is a feat of positive belief, confidence in the children as learners and lots of pre-planning. This is the focus of what very teacher does at St James:-

*Believe that all children can and do learn.

*Trust that all children what to be their "best self".

*Be organised for learning with pre-planning and engaging content. 

I was going to say we are lucky but in reality it is the partnership between the children, family and Saint James which bringings this about. 

A post script on the dancing-

I of course tried to join in but... there is no evidence of my attempts and anything you may hear about how good or otherwise my attemps were  would be classed as "heresay" in a court of law!!! 

See you in Week 6

Ann

Fee support for families affected by flooding

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Families,

( I am not sure this has been widely circulated so I am resending) 

We know that some flood-affected families and communities will continue to work through their response and recovery for some time. We understand that the financial impact of the flood event has been extensive for many families in the affected regions.
In recognition of this burden, the Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Ltd (DLCSL) Board has approved support to schools and parishes to provide full or partial fee relief (50%). This fee relief will include levies and elective fees.
Full-year fee relief will be provided to families that received any Australian Government financial assistance payment relating to the 2022 floods, including either the:

• Disaster Recovery Payment (property damage)
• Disaster Recovery Allowance (income)

Partial fee relief (up to 50%) may be provided to other flood-affected families at the Principal’s discretion. Although individual circumstances will vary widely, the following factors will be considered in approving partial fee relief:

• Extent of property damage
• Duration of loss of income
• Other factors as appropriate

If you would like to request the fee relief outlined above, please contact [School to supply address]. We ask that you present documentation indicating you are receiving the relevant Disaster Recovery payments when making your application.
Fees that have already been paid can be refunded or carried forward as a credit for 2023. Please indicate in your application which of these options you prefer.
I thank you again for your ongoing support of Saint James. Please don’t hesitate to contact the school  should you have any questions.

Sport Dates 2022

Cross Country

-Polding - Tuesday 7th June

Athletics

-School - Yamba, Friday 24th June

-Zone - Coffs Harbour, Wednesday 20th July

-Dio - Lismore, Friday 12th August

-Polding - Newcastle, Friday 9th September

Baptism

Sol McInnes received the Sacrament of Baptism at Saint James Church in Yamba last week. Congratulations Sol. ( From the photo you can see that we are very happy for you!)

SACRAMENTAL DATES 2022

Confirmation- Thursday 30th June, from 5:30pm at St Mary’s Church, Maclean.

Reconciliation- Wednesday 24th August, 11:40am in school hall.

First Holy Communion- Saturday 27th August, 5:30pm at St James Church, Yamba

Sport News

Diocesan Cross Country

The Diocesan Cross Country carnival was held at Grafton Racecourse on Tuesday in wet, muddy conditions. St James had 10 students who qualified from the Zone carnival to compete on the day and they all ran well against some very strong competition. 3 students in particular ran exceptionally well, Iyla Towner, Jake Seivers and Heidi Van Leest and managed to qualify for the Polding Cross Country carnival. These 3 students will represent the Lismore Diocese down at Eastern Creek in Sydney on Tuesday, 7th June. A fantastic effort and we wish them all the best.

Diocesan Cross Country Results:

9yr Girls 2km

-Iyla Towner, 4th. 9:14

-Poppy Erbacher, 15th. 10:11

-Sunny Seivers, 17th. 10:20

9yrs Boys 2km

-Jake Seivers, 4th. 7:51

-Harlan Bews, 29th. 9:45

10yrs Girls 2km

-Grace Wilkinson, 18th. 9:50

11yrs Girls 3km

-Willow Seivers, 9th. 14:27

-Marlie Zvatora, 16th. 15:13

11yrs Boys 3km

-Eamon Mawn, 28th. 14:19

12yrs Girls 3km

-Heidi Van Leest, 5th. 13:35

School Awards Assembly - Save the Date

Term 2 Awards Assembly in the school hall has been postponed to Thursday 9th June. 

There will be two assemblies on that day as follows- 9am ES1 & S1 students and parents

                                                                                                          -9:30am for S2 & S3 students and parents

Parents of awardees will be notified by Tuesday 7th June.

Thanks for your continued support,

Christine Jeffrey

School Disco - Save the Date

Wednesday 3rd August.

RE News

INCITARE

On Wednesday 1st June Year 6 students will travel to McAuley Catholic College in Grafton for Incitare Student Discipleship Retreat. Incitare, which means ‘Stir up’ or ‘ignite’ is a one-day retreat experience for Year 6 students from the Clarence feeder-schools, where students are encouraged to celebrate their faith. Students will engage with other Year 6 students from St Joseph’s Maclean, St Mary’s Grafton and St Joseph’s South Grafton, many of whom will be at high school together next year. We are looking forward to this experience.

FAMILY MATTERS

Laudato Si Week (May 22-29) is a great opportunity to share with our families the commitment we are all called to have as Christians to the wise stewardship of God’s gift of creation. Caritas has created an excellent resource that provides a collection of nature-based activities for the whole family. These activities seek to encourage a shared sense of awe and contemplation about nature, leading to a renewed sense of commitment and action towards the protection of the planet and its people. Enjoy!

Early Stage 1

This week in ES1 we have been focusing on measurement in mathematics. We have been learning to describe and compare lengths and distances using everyday language. Students have enjoyed comparing and ordering our heights, using words like taller, shorter. We have also been measuring different lengths of string, finding objects longer, shorter or the same as our string. Ask your child to compare lengths or heights of some objects at home this week!

Stage 1

Stage 1 have been building their skills in addition and subtraction over the past week and have been learning to play a fun partner card game called the golden number. A 20 sided dice is rolled to give the golden 2 digit number. Then three cards are dealt to add together to try and add up to the golden number. If the cards don’t add to the golden number a new card is drawn and laid on top of a card to change the total. See if your child can show you how to play this game with you. 

We have a new investigation space - The beach cafe. Students have the opportunity to engage in dramatic play in the cafe where they role-play chefs, waiters/waitresses, and customers. Writing and mathematics is embedded in this space as they create menus, take orders and count money. The space has been a hit!

Stage 2

This week we have learned about Reconciliation Week. National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. 

In particular we learned about Sorry Day and heard stories about the Stolen Generation. 

We read about children who were forcibly removed from their homes and their loving parents. We took some time to think about how they would have felt, and the trauma this caused for so many people. We then thought about how this still impacts people today.

Finally, we completed some journaling around the question: What Does Sorry Day Mean to me?

Sol - Sorry Day is where we say sorry. Kevin Rudd was the first Prime Minister to say sorry about the Stolen Generation where the kids were taken even when they tried to hide.

Sevi - It was horrible what happened to the Stolen Generation. It is good we are acknowledging the mistake now.

Myla - Sorry Day means to me that lots of little girls and boys were taken away from their family. The Prime Minister said they were sorry and I agree because being taken away from your family is not right.

Zoe - On Sorry Day I acknowledge that the Indigenous people got taken away from their parents and now they're still healing from that horrible time.

Rashad - I feel sorry for back in the old days when people got taken away from their family. I'm happy that the Prime Minister said sorry.

Fionn - What happened was terrible and we have seen that it was a big mistake. That is why Kevin Rudd said Sorry in 2008. We want our Indigenous culture to continue and heal.

Jensen - On Sorry Day we remember the time when the Prime Minister of 2008 said sorry to Aboriginal people during reconciliation week. The Prime Minister’s name was Kevin Rudd. 

Reconciliation Week

Stage 3

Religion 

We have finished our ‘Teach Us to Pray’ unit and we are starting a new unit called ‘Walk Humbly with God’. Year 6 is going to Incitare in Grafton on June 1st with Mrs Howland!

Maths

We are learning the formal algorithm in multiplication and 2D and 3D shapes where we draw and label the vertices, edges and faces.

Geography

This week we picked our country to create a website about. Within this website we will be writing about the history, customs and traditions of our chosen country and any other information that we can find about it. To get us ready to write our websites we have been learning about the biggest trading countries in the world. We learnt what import and export mean and some of the things that Australia gets exported and imported. We also did another task where we had to guess where a lot of our everyday objects come from. Some of these objects were batteries, deodorant (which was made in Australia), toothbrushes, teabags, etc.

Dance

We have started a journal about the evolution of dance and the types of dances that are popular now and the dances that were popular back in the day. 

Sport

We have been playing a new game which is like dodgeball but is played with footballs! We learnt the game from Will and Adrian who have been coming to the school every Friday to teach us rugby skills!

Wear Red for 65 Roses Day

Birthdays

Mrs Petersen - 31st May, Millie Crouch - 1st June, Jessie Wallace - 3rd June, Cleo Stokes - 4th June, Jacob Triggs - 8th June, Ava Scanlon - 9th June, Mrs O Keeffe - 11th June