Term 4 Week 9 (9/12/2022)

What is On?

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

Tuesday 13th December - End of Year Mass, 12pm  - 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,(includes Graduation and Spirit of St James) - School Hall 

End of Year Awards Assembly times:

ES1 and Stage 1:   9:30am

 Stage 2 and Stage 3 :  10:15am

Friday 16th December - Final Day Term 4 for students - Grafton Fun (permission on Compass this weekend)

2023 Return dates

Friday 27th January -Staff return

Monday 30th January - Stage 1, 2 and 3 Return

Monday 6th February - ES1 first day

Advent - a season of PEACE

Prayer for the Second Sunday of Advent 
Father, this second week of Advent, keep us in perfect peace as our mind stays on the truth of your powerful love. 
Thank you for your mighty, sovereign hand. 
Help us to trust fully in you and rest in the peace that you offer. It’s in the precious name of Jesus we pray.
Amen. 

Dear Parents and Carers

I have had the pleasure this week of speaking with our outgoing captains  and congratulating them on how they have finished the year-still getting involved and still responding to the call for service.

I have also spoken to the incoming captains and every plan they have (as those in attendance on Monday would have heard ) is on serving others and looking beyond themselves to the greater good. 
It is a lovely thing to hear. 

Next year their goals are for fundraising mufti-days for charities who help the disabled, the homeless, medical research and education about indigenous Australians. Not a bad list from a  group of 11 and 12 year old students who can see beyond our classrooms. 

We had a visit today from the CSO property manager who brought a designer and they looked at potential playground solutions. I am not sure that they have ever been to a site inspection where 40 children followed them and questioned their every idea! but they coped with the "input" from the children. The children complained about bark chips down their socks and argued for a set of monkey bars in the design.

My favourite part was when Mr Griffiths asked them to look around for a flat area and they all ran to the middle of the soccer field. At that point Aiden frowned and said "Definitely not here! Where will we play soccer? This is a terrible place." Aiden has your back soccer players!

Can I thank the staff who covered the classes while this took place and the children who shared plans, maths book lessons and letters with the visitors. 

Now as I finish this newsletter ( staff now call it my blog) I need to watch the video which has just arrived on how to publish the reports. Keep an eye on your inbox!

Have a lovely weekend 

Ann

Our Leadership Team 2023

Marlie Zvatora                                                                              Willow Seivers

Eamon Mawn                                                                                Alfie Ison

                                                                                                           Sage Edwards

2023 Sport Dates

2023 Sport Dates:

The following sport dates have been locked in for Term 1 and Term 2 next year.

Term 1

School Swimming Carnival - Thursday 2nd February (Week 1)

Zone Swimming Carnival - Monday 27th February - Maclean (Week 5)

Diocesan Swimming Carnival - Friday 3rd March - Kempsey (Week 5)

School Cross Country - Friday 24th March (Week 8)

Polding Swimming Carnival - Thursday 30th March - Sydney (Week 9)

PSSA Swimming Carnival - Wednesday/Thursday 5th, 6th March - Sydney (Week 10)

Term 2

Zone Cross Country - Wednesday 3rd May - Grafton (Week 2)

Diocesan Cross Country - Tuesday 23rd May - Grafton (Week 5)

Polding Cross Country - Tuesday 13th June - Sydney (Week 8)

RE News

ADVENT

We take the season of Advent as a time for pause, reflection, and preparation for the gift of God’s love coming to us through the baby Jesus.

The four weeks of Advent are popularly considered to symbolise the four thousand years of darkness before the coming of Christ. We set up Nativity scenes, light Advent candles, and decorate wreaths in our homes to signify Christ’s presence. Four candles adorn an Advent wreath, one for each week. A fifth candle is sometimes placed in the centre for the beginning of the Christmas season.

Advent colours are worn by priests and decorate the church. They are represented in the candles that surround the Advent wreath:

Violet: royalty, repentance, and fasting (First, Second, and Fourth Week of Advent)

Rose: abundant joy (Third Week of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday, joy in Latin)

White: light and purity (Christ Candle, centre candle completes the season and begins Christmas)

We are so thankful…

Many thanks to all who donated gift cards to our special Giving Tree at the Christmas Carols on Wednesday evening. We are so grateful and we know the families from Woodburn will be very appreciative of your generosity. We will be sending these gift cards to St Joseph’s School, Woodburn to be distributed to families in need, after the floods earlier this year. We are so lucky to have such a supportive school community. We thank you SO SO much!

Renee Howland

Leader of School Mission

LOP News

Vocabulary is a key component of reading for meaning. If children know the meaning of a word, they are far more likely to be able to read it and make sense of it within a sentence. 

Vocabulary is, learned indirectly through repeated exposures to new words in conversations, by listening to stories, by reading and through the media. Exposure to words in meaningful contexts is enough to make their meaning clear and so the process of vocabulary acquisition occurs. If they are being read to regularly, they will also learn a more literate vocabulary. 

During the holidays is a great time to read to children and have vocabulary rich conversations in the car, on the beach or wherever you may be.

Lisa Dougherty

Library News

Little J's

FEATURED CLASS - Stage 2

Creative Arts

Stage 2 students have been busy getting into the Christmas spirit and have been doing some Christmas inspired artworks. They’ve enjoyed creating some Reindeer posters and have also been busy making some Christmas wrapping paper.

English

In English we have been learning about many different types of poetry. Over the past few weeks we have covered the following types: sensory, acrostic, magnetic, free verse, cinquain, diamante… and we have just finished our unit learning about Odes. 

Please enjoy a sample of our poetry on the topic of Christmas!

An Ode to Christmas - by Myla Cranston

To Christmas

You are the King of all holidays,

You are as magical as God, 

You are heaven wrapped in Christmas paper.

You make my heart sing, 

Oh Christmas, how I adore you!

A Christmas || Easter Diamante Poem -  by Harlan Bews

                                                                                           Christmas

Helpful, Joyful

Decorating, Opening, Sharing

Jesus, Santa, Bunny, Chocolate

Finding, Snatching, Eating

Hungry, Excited

Easter

A Santa Acrostic Poem - by Sanne Little

S - Seeing if you are naughty or nice,

A - Arriving on time when you are sleeping,

N - Not making a sound, 

T - Travelling around the world,

A - Advent is this time of the year.

An Ode to Christmas - by Dean Perugini

To Christmas,

You are the greatest of all celebrations,

You are as fun as an adventure park,

You are heaven for the family,

You make my heart spin. 

Oh Christmas, how I adore you!

A Cinquain poem - by Zoe Edwards

                                                                                           Christmas

Family, Presents

Waiting, Eating, Singing

Excitedly waiting 

Holiday 

A Christmas Acrostic Poem - by Indie Wright

Carolling with family and friends.

Helping set up the Christmas tree.

Running around at a Christmas party.

Impatiently waiting for Santa to deliver the presents.

Santa and his reindeers flying across the sky.

Tip toeing around at night to catch Santa in action.

Mums and Dads tucking you into bed.

Always asking for more pudding.

Shopping for Christmas decorations and food.

A Christmas || Halloween Diamante Poem - by Billie Gould

                                                                                           Christmas

Joyful, exciting

wrapping, giving, sharing

Santa, presents, lollies, ghosts

Scaring , knocking, devouring

Spooky, creepy

Halloween

School Fees

It is unusual for us to use the newsletter to remind families of the school fees which are due or over due. As the year comes to an end we still have quite a few outstanding fee accounts. This is in itself an unusual position for Saint James to be in. 

The fees (while levied by the CSO) are deposited into the school accounts and pay for electricity, cleaning, maintenance, water and rates (to name a few). The only thing the federal government pays is the wages of the teaching staff.  We ask all families to check their position and make arrangements to meet this commitment. Please contact the school if you need to discuss. Thank you to those families who have responded to the accounts. 

Birthdays