Term 4 Week 5 (11/11/2022)

What is On?

Monday 21st November – Friday 25th November - S3 Camp

Friday 25th November - Dio Summer Sport Trials

SAVE THE DATE - Monday  28th November ( moved from 14/11/22- Community Conversation, 5:30pm - 6:30pm

December:

Friday 2nd December - Little J's Graduation 

Tuesday 6th December - Year 5 Captain Speeches

Wednesday 7th December - A Little Bit of Christmas - Christmas Carol evening- picnic dinner, 5:30pm - 6:30pm (flyer below)

Monday 12th December - Instrumental concert, 9:00 – 10:00am

Tuesday 13th December - End of Year Mass, 12pm in school hall - Captains to hand over candle to 2023 leaders.

Wednesday 14th December -  Year 6 Graduation Dinner, 5:30pm for 6pm – 8:30pm -at the Tavern

Thursday 15th December - End of Year Awards Assembly, 9:30am  (includes Graduation and Spirit of St James) - School Hall

Friday 16th December - Final Day Term 4 for students - Grafton Fun (details to come)

Dear Parents and Carers

As you drive in to drop off on Monday you may notice that there are several large wrapped deliveries beside the hall. We have "done a bit of shopping" and while getting supplies for any project is tricky at the moment and logistics challenging (does anyone else Michael Bublé tickets for a pre-Christmas show?!) the packages contain some new outdoor seating for the lunch area and bin surrounds for our rubbish and recycling.  We will have these operational within the next two weeks and we are a little excited. We will be able to have 80 children seated using these tables and there will need to be another purchase but this is the start. 

Where are we with the playground situation? As you know we have removed the timber playground from site due to safety concerns and are in the process of negotiating with the DLCSL regarding support. We have been looking at potential replacements and what other schools have and do. The intention is to move the location of the equipment to higher ground and to have a very different contemporary offering.  We will be seeking input and voice from families, staff and students but until I have the go-a-head from the company we will not be able to move on a plan.

To replace what we have in a new position was quoted at a similar school to us at $135,000, which is significant and beyond our already submitted budget in a single year. We are looking at approved DLCSL suppliers we will action together as soon as possible.  We might be looking at a staged approach and beginning with a base which could be expanded but this will need to be done in conjunction with the Property Manager from DLCSL as the value of any initiative will have a significant cost. 

Staffing for 2023 is all but completed and I am hoping to announce this within the fortnight. I can announce that we have moved to the diocesan preferred triad model of two assistant principals and that Renee Howland and Lisa Dougherty have accepted these positions.

Hoping that the week is wonderful for all,

Ann

Safe On Social

On Thursday evening 34 families attended the Safe On Social seminar at Saint James. To hear a well-respected voice offer current "best practice" advice which linked to the inputs that their children had during the day, was well received. It was a great evening of powerful encouragement for families who are all striving to minimise the risks for their children online while recognising the opportunities that digital tools offer.  

Requests for another session in 2023 area a testimont to the amount of change that has taken place since our last  session. 

In attending the 2019 session, our 2020 session online and last nights session it was obvious that the boundaries, issues and apps that were discussed has changed massively.

Tik Tok was just becoming popular in 2019 and was not really part of the conversation. Instagram was very popular and some children had facebook accounts. Snapchat was just beginning. Some of these apps are no longer in the world of our students and some are now  "the conversation"but the key messages remained focused on 

 Using social media with awareness
 Keeping personal information private
 Online grooming
 Posting and sharing photos
 What is a digital footprint
 Cyber-bullying, harassment and how to report it
 Strategies to build resilience
 Online gaming safety 

When we offer another session in 2023 we encourage all families to consider attending. 

SAVE THE DATE

School Awards Assembly (10/11/2022)

St James' Award:

Principal's Award -Finley WAGHORN

Early Stage 1:

Be Your Best Self -Joey BYRNE

MJR -Grace JAMES

Sports -Liv ISON

Achievement -Hudson HARDWICK

Encouragement -Christopher D'ANTONIO

Student of the Week -Elsie LEWIS

Stage 1:

Be Your Best Self -Jarrah WRIGHT, Dolly DOUGHERTY

MJR -Arabella DENDLE

Sports -Iyla TOWNER

Achievement –Luca ESPAG, Jack JAMES

Encouragement –Miles FERGUSON, Sunny SEIVERS 

 Student of the Week –Ivie STAPLETON, Mila STAPLETON

Stage 2:

Be Your Best Self -Hannah HASLETT, Myla CRANSTON

MJR -Sarai WAGHORN

Sports -Rashad RICE

Achievement -Eli BYRNE, Slater PETERSEN

Encouragement - Clarence DOUGHERTY, Sanne LITTLE

Student of the Week –Ella CAROLAN, Jake SEIVERS

Stage 3:

Be Your Best Self -Sam BRAILSFORD, Sage EDWARDS

MJR -Mitchell GALOUZIS

Sports -Elly DAY

Achievement -Willow SEIVERS, Willow BEWS

Encouragement -Mignon ESPAG, Alfie ISON

Student of the Week -Gypsy WILLIAMS, Connor POOLE

RE News

LOP News

Below, component 3 of the Big Six reading process makes it very clear that children should be using their newly developing phonic skills when practising their home readers but they should continue to have high quality texts read to them.

Mini Vinnies - Christmas Appeal

Mini Vinnies Christmas Appeal 

Mini Vinnies is collecting food items for the St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal.

Some families in our community are unable to buy special treats to share with their loved ones at Christmas time and rely on Christmas food hampers from St Vincent de Paul. We are asking the St James families if they would like to donate any of the following non perishable food items to help make Christmas Hampers.

This week our mission reps from Stage 3 will deliver boxes to each stage & to the front office. Thank you for your kindness and generosity.

Christmas treats for the hampers include: long life custard, long life milk, plum pudding, blocks of chocolate, Christmas cake, bags of lollies, soft drink, cans of beetroot, pineapple, corn, peas or fruit, packets of jelly, popcorn, chips, nuts, corn chips, salsa, milo, fruit mince pies, icy poles in plastic, biscuits or anything else you might enjoy at Christmas.

Little J's

FEATURED CLASS - Stage 2

English

In English recently, we have been learning about Poetry. We have been looking at many different types of poetry and discovering the freedom and creativity that it allows. We have been looking at what makes a ‘good’ poem and coming up with ideas about things we’d like to learn.

Here are some of our ideas:

Ashton: I like poems that use humour - like Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes

Sailor: I like to read poems that have a rhythm when you read them - they use the same number of syllables on each line 

Oscar: I like poems that exaggerate - that's called using hyperbole

Ella: I love the chance to be more creative

Sol: I’ve learned that not all poems have to rhyme

Rhys: I like writing poems about our 5 senses, it’s super easy to do

Lucee: I like poems thart rhyme because they can be funny and clever

Sanne: I like sensory poetry because it’s fun and easy to describe those things

Jack: Im excited about the different types of poetry that we are about to learn next

Dean: There are lots of types of poetry and they’re set out differently. Im looking forward to learning about Haikus

Creative Arts

In Creative Arts we have been dancing up a storm. We learned some funky moves and then choreographed our own dances to perform to our class. You might have also heard about our Heel and Toe flash mobs that have been popping up at different times.

Mathematics

In Maths we have begun looking at Data. We did an activity this week that involved the students getting a box of Smarties and recording the amount they had in their box and the different colours. They recorded their data in a table and also displayed it as a column graph. And of course once they had recorded and displayed their Smartie data, they all enjoyed eating them! 

Diocesan Parent Education - vaping

COVID Update

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Families

You may be aware of an increased number of positive cases of COVID-19 in the broader community. Please be reminded that students and staff CANNOT attend school if they are showing any symptoms of COVID-19. These include fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, loss of smell/taste, muscle/joint pains, diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting, extreme tiredness, unexplained chest pain or conjunctivitis (eye infection).

It is no longer a requirement to self-isolate if you test positive for COVID-19, however, if your child is unwell, displaying any COVID-19 or cold and flu-like symptoms at any time, your child CANNOT attend school and should undertake a rapid antigen test.

If the rapid antigen test is positive and your child is unwell and/or experiencing any symptoms, your child CANNOT attend school.

If the rapid antigen test is positive and your child is not feeling unwell and not displaying or experiencing any symptoms, your child CAN attend school under the following conditions:

• the school office is informed of the positive test result, AND
• your child (over 12 years old) wears a mask for a period of 7 days in all indoor settings.

Please ask if you require more RAT tests. We do have limited supply but it is a supply! and available  upn request.

Birthdays

Gemma Hollington -12th November, Sage Wright - 14th November, Mrs Frazer - 16th November, Mrs Ferguson - 19th November, Isabella McEwen - 23rd November