Term 3 Week 4 2022 (12/8/2022)
What is On?
Monday 15th August, 100 Days of School- Kindergarten
Friday 19th August - Awards Assembly - ES1 & S1 9-9:30am, 9:30-10am S2 & S3
Save the Date - Monday 22 August- Informed Consent Parent evening offered by the Diocesan
Parent Assembly
Monday 22nd August to Friday 26th August - Book Week
Wednesday 24th August - Reconciliation
Saturday 27th August - First Holy Communion
Tuesday 30th August - Book Week Character Parade -Note Change of Date
September:
Tuesday 6th September - Stage 3 Soccer/Netball Carnival
Friday 9th September - Polding Athletics - Newcastle
Thursday 15th September - Meerkat Performance, 2pm -3pm
Friday 16th September - Touch Carnival S2 & S3
Thursday 22nd September - Last Day Term 3 for students
Friday 23rd September - Staff - Professional Learning Day
Coming Events
Sacramental dates 2022
Reconciliation- Wednesday 24th August, 11:40am in school hall.
First Holy Communion- Saturday 27th August, 5:30pm at St James Church, Yamba
Sport Dates 2022
Athletics
-Polding - Newcastle, Friday 9th September
Dear Parents and Carers
It has been a day....
Yesterday afternoon at 3:29pm we found out that we can not go to our regular Stage 3 camp at Lake Ainsworth. We have spent today on the phone and computer re-organising. We can only thank the camps who offered suggestions (but no availability) and Wards Bus Company who very quickly gave us quotes and made us reservations!
Miss Haines and I have had a fun day but not really on what we had planned. I am now finalising the newsletter (after school) and Stage 3 will help us with the gathering of resources for Little J's next week. But we have a plan.
Mrs Jeffrey has announced her intention to retire at the end of the 2022 school year. We have advertisements active for the position.
Christine began at Saint James as a foundation staff member in 1997 (after teaching in many centres both on the north coast and beyond) and has been on the executive for most of her time at the school. While I will personally miss the excellent teacher and the strong administratior I wish her all the best into the future and acknowledge her work in advocating for the learning of all children.
With many areas I could comment on, a major area of Christine's work beyond curriculum has been in mentoring young teachers. Mrs O'Keeffe, Miss Daley, Miss Haines and (I think there is another in the last few years!) are some of the young teachers she has supported as a mentor to achieve proficiency and has kept an active interest in as a peer.
The original vege garden and recycling, Reading Challenge and Stage 3 Lake Ainsworth Camp and Sydney/Canberra Camp were Christine's ideas as well. I am sure Chris will not miss the bus trips! but I know that these things were all about the children and we have been blessed by her work in these areas.
Next Monday all families will receive an online process called "Tell them from me". Can I recommend this to every family as this data assists us in planning and reflecting as a school community.
On Monday, families worked with the Catholic Parent Partnership team to look at how we might go forward into the future with parent voice. There are two options going to the board and we looked at the possibilities for our school. Can we invite all parents to the next conversation early in Term 4. More details to come.
Monday is a big day for our littlest learners... 100 days of learning... keep an eye on "the gram" as we post the celebrations. Looks like a great day and evening.
Bookweek Parade has become a moving date this year. Fingers crossed but the new date is Tuesday 30th August. I know it will be great!
Have a lovely weekend and can I recommend you read on about our wonderful team from "Dio", Long Way Home and the classroom happenings. I was in the classroom during the preparation for some of these events and I know the quality of the learning.
Ann
Sport News
On Wednesday we had 16 students from St James compete at the Diocesan Athletics Carnival in Coffs Harbour. The students all competed well with many making finals in their individual events. Special mention to Iyla Towner and Will Hutchinson who both managed to qualify for the Polding Athletics Carnival, which is being held at the Hunter Sports Complex in Newcastle on Friday 9th September. Full results are listed below.
Iyla Towner - 3rd 8yrs 100m
Will Hutchinson - 3rd Sr Long Jump, 4th Sr 200m, 5th 12yrs 100m, 10th Sr Shot Put
Levi O’Shea - 5th 11yrs 100m, 5th 11yrs 200m
Heidi Van Leest - 5th Sr 800m, 8th Sr 1500m
Jake Seivers - 8th Jr 1500m, 9th Jr 800m
Willow Bews - 11th 11yrs Shot Put
Jr Boys Relay - 7th
Jr Girls Relay - 7th
Sr Boys Relay - 7th
Below are a couple of photos shared by our families.
RE News
On Monday 15th August we will celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. We give thanks and praise for her grace-filled and blessed life as we celebrate her crowning glory in her assumption into heaven.
Mary is a woman who is one of our own. Human in every way; a woman who through her openness and trust in God enabled God’s will to be fulfilled in the most extraordinary way. Mary is more than a model of what is possible in relationship with God, she is our hope and our promise of what God can do in our own lives if we trust and believe.
LOP News
Reading at home should be a positive experience and crucial to developing attitudes as well as practising and applying reading skills and knowledge. The texts should be a few levels lower than texts used in the classroom in a guided reading session.
Long Way Home writing competition
Each year, Stage 3 students participate in the local writing competition, ‘Long Way Home’, as part of their imaginative writing English curriculum. This year's theme was ‘Let Go’, and after weeks of planning, drafting and editing, we are thrilled to announce that four students have made the shortlist and will be published authors in the Long Way Home book later this year! Congratulations to Pippi Short (‘Let Go’), Chloe Edwards (‘Let Go’), Autumn Enns (‘The Flood’) and Willow Seivers (‘Sandon River Bay’)!
ES1 News
ES1 excitedly welcomed back Mrs Ferguson from her trip to Canada and enjoyed hearing stories from her travels. The students are busy now preparing for the 100 Days of Kindy celebration on Monday 15th August, 5 - 6:30pm in the ES1 classroom! Please RSVP via our QR code for catering purposes. In Mathematics, we have been enjoying Number Busting the number 100. Check out our photos below. We have also been using our storytelling box to retell the story of St Mary Mackillop, please ask us to explain to you why she was such a special lady.
Stage 1 News
Stage 1 started the term off researching and learning about the Commonwealth Games. Students thoroughly enjoyed finding facts about the Commonwealth Games- they learnt about the sports held, the countries that participate and the athletes. Last Friday we concluded our research with our very own mini Commonwealth Games. Our events included cotton wool ball shot put, straw javelin and one jump long jump. Students demonstrated great sportsmanship, comradery and enthusiasm. Congratulations to our winning team ‘The Gorillaz’!
Stage 2 News
This week in Stage 2 we held our Great Debate. We were in affirmative and negative teams and had roles such as adjudicators and time keepers. Each team was effective in putting their persuasive skills to the test. We particularly worked on our persuasive speaking delivery skills such as the use of confident body language, hand gestures, and expressive voice.
All teams made an outstanding effort engaging in quality debates. It was a treat to witness such clever arguments!
Well done Stage 2
Stage 3 News
To celebrate the Feast Day of Mary MacKillop, Stage 3 students created blackout poems. Blackout poetry is when a page of text - newspaper article, song lyrics, etc - is blacked out or drawn over, except for a select few words. When only these words are visible, a poem is created from the existing text. We used two hymns from Mary’s Canonisation Mass as our starting text, ‘Our Chosen One’ and ‘In Mary’s Hands’. They look fantastic and are now on display in our room.
Parent Assembly event
The Diocesan Parent Assembly is offering this very highly regarded speaker in a workshop for parents. Jane will also offer sessions ( age appropriate) for the stage groups as well. All are invited.
Birthdays
Mrs Jeffrey - 13th August, Joey Byrne - 15th August, Hope Homewood - 17th August, Marlie Zvatora - 17th August, Maeve Mortimer - 18th August, Jonas Collins - 20th August, Kayden Duckett - 21st August, Heath Ferguson - 21st August, Eamon Mawn - 21st August, Ashton Miller - 21st August, Athena Pattas - 23rd August.