St James' Primary School Yamba eNewsletter

What is On?

Friday 26th February - Diocesan Swimming carnival - Murwillumbah

Monday 15th March - School Photo Day

Thursday 18th March- NORPA River project -Stage 2.

Thursday 18th March- Stage 3 Leadership Camp- Palmers Island

Friday 19th March - Grafton Pool Day

Friday 26th March - School Cross Country

Tuesday 30th March - Last day term 1 for all students.

Wednesday 31st March and Thursday 1st April - Staff development days - school closed - all staff attend

May

Wednesday 5th May - Proclaim Lismore - School closed - all staff attend

June

Friday 25th June - Staff Professional Learning - School Improvement Plan - school closed- all staff attend

September

Friday 17th September - Professional Learning - First Aid - school closed - all staff attend

Dear Parents and Carers

Today we held a leadership meeting with our captains. We looked at what makes a good leader. The children gave examples that they could emulate. When I asked who they were thinking of in developing the list, they named Beau and Eve. Last year's captains have left a mark.

Here is our list of traits for Good leaders:

*fair

*do what is right

*listen

*advocate

*show respect

*look out for others

*trustworthy

*kind

*very honest

*confident

We also looked at the times when it is hard to be a leader:

*being responsible

*doing what you are meant to do

listening to other's ideas

*showing respect when you would rather have fun

*doing what is right when it is not popular.

We have also made a Term 1 goal list which you will hear about as the term goes forward. This was drawn from the Captains Speeches (last year).

Mrs Jeffrey and I are looking forward to working with the children over the 2021 school year. Big shoes to fill but we are confident in the leaders chosen by the school community.

See you in Kiss and Drop

Ann

Grafton Pool Day - Friday 19th March

Stages 1 -3 will have their "catch up pool day" on Friday 19th March. This was postponed due to the weather on the last day of 2020.

Parish School Forum is sponsoring this event and more details will come as we get closer.

For 2021, all children who complete their Premier's Reading Challenge will be invited to the pool in Grafton on Wednesday 15th December. It is such a fun day we do plan well ahead!

School Photos - Monday 15th March

Photo envelopes need to be returned to the school office by Friday 26th February - NOT ON PHOTO DAY.

Please keep your child's photo envelope safe as it has thier unique student code.

Family envelopes are available from the school office if required.

If you are paying online, family envelopes still need to be filled out and returned to the school office.

RE News

Beginning of School Liturgy

We celebrated our Beginning School Liturgy on Tuesday with Father Nicolas. This liturgy marked the beginning of another year of learning and faith at St James School. As part of our liturgy students walked around our St James Boat Prayer Space and viewed the many scallop shells, that represented the families in our school community.

Incitāre

Incitāre is a one-day retreat experience for Year 6 students from Catholic Primary Schools based in regions of the Diocese to celebrate their faith. The retreat is a chance to bring students together to meet like-minded peers and to celebrate with other young people who practice their faith. Our Year 6 students will travel to McAuley College on Friday 5th March to participate in this retreat experience with other Year 6 students from the Clarence Catholic primary schools.

Sacrament Dates- for your calendar

Confirmation- Thursday 22nd July, St Mary’s Church, Maclean.

First Holy Communion- 28th August, St James Church Yamba

Reconciliation- 25th August, in the school hall 11:45am.

Further Sacramental information to follow later in the year.

If you would like your child to receive these Sacraments, please email yamp@lism.catholic.edu.au to advise which Sacraments you would like your child to receive this year. For your child to receive any of these Sacraments they must first be Baptised. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me at school.

Renee Howland

Leader of School Evangelisation & Catechesis

Stage 3 Leadership Camp

Mid-March the Stage 3 children will be spending a day and night at Big 4, Palmers Island for a Leadership Camp. Please save the date if you are a Stage 3 parent, as we have been able to have a evening BBQ at the Big 4. This got the biggest cheer from the children as you can imagine and we will send out more details early next week.

Sport News

Next Wednesday the Clarence Zone Winter Sports trials are being held down in Woolgoolga. We have 4 students representing St James at these trials. Pippi Short, Tayah Cole and Taya Murphy will be trialling for the Netball team and Jesse Daley-Malone for the Rugby Union team. If successful in gaining selection, these students will then represent the Clarence Zone at the Diocesan Carnival in Grafton on 12th March. Good luck

Zone Swimming

Seeking 2021 Class Parents!

Are you interested in meeting new St James school families?

Would you like to help build strong relationships within our school community?

We are currently seeking 2 parents per stage to take on the role of being a 2021 Class Parent. Your role would include obtaining contact details from families in each stage, organising stage social gatherings and communicating closely with the teacher to support our St James school family needs. We believe that now, more than ever, building community is important to our school. We have many new families at our school that may be seeking new connections and we can’t wait to begin this process. If you are interested or seek more information on taking on this role please email: yamp@lism.catholic.edu.au

Thank you in advance - April Ferguson and Natasha Hancock

Worm Juice

Curriculum Corner

2021 Premier's Reading Challenge
The Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely.
The 2021 challenge will open on March 1, 2021, however students can keep a record of books they are reading now to include on their 2021 reading records when online reading records open. PRC student reading records will need to be finalised by August 20, 2021.

K-2 students, you can read the books on your own, read them with someone, or someone can read them to you.

3-4, 5-6 students, you must read the books on your own, but someone can help you choose them.

Premier's Reading Challenge(PRC)Tips for parents and carers for participating in the Challenge from 1st March - 20th August, 2021.

Familiarise yourself with the PRC website https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html. Logon is not required to view the Book Lists or read the Rules.
Visit the new Premier’s Reading Challenge Support website. It allows you to search for information about the PRC and also contact the PRC team.
Set reminders for Challenge opening and closing dates in your and your child’s calendar.
Assist your child to borrow books from the school or local library. Listen to your child read and talk about the story/ characters/ information.
Help your child to add books to her/his Student Reading Record regularly.
If unsure of anything, speak to your child’s classroom teacher.

Christine Jeffrey

Early Stage 1

This week in ES1 we have started our age-appropriate play based Investigations. These investigations are based on student interests, explorative learning and a balance of explicit instruction in literacy and numeracy. In the Nature Investigation, Skye-Leah and Lola discovered and counted seeds inside the gumnuts, and these have now been planted. Molly, Elliott and Aiden are exploring using tools, screwing nuts and bolts together in the Tinkering area. Check out the protective eye-wear! The Writing Workshop is where Cruz, Maeve and Lilly have started becoming authors “like Mo Williams”. We are learning about the features of books. Louis and Oliver are building habitats for the Sensory “Dinosaur world”, using rocks and sand. These Investigations ensure that each morning every child starts the day feeling success and that they have choice around their learning.

Stage 1

Learning is fun in Stage 1. This week has seen the start of some programs and the continuation of others. In particular this week we have begun learning with investigations. Getting to know new friends and working co-operatively with others have been areas of development this week.