Term 2 Week 2 (05/05/2023)

What is On?

Week 3 - Catholic Schools Week

Monday 8th May - Parent Night: 5:30pm - Pizza, 6pm to 7pm - Meeting

Tuesday 9th May - Out and About- Please join us for lunch at the lighthouse at 1pm. 

Wednesday 10th May-  CSW Liturgy in hall 10:15am and classrooms open (see details below)

Friday 12th May - Mother's Day Morning Breakie (See details in invitation below)

Friday 12th May - Stage 3 Emu farm excursion

Thursday 18th May - Disco

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

Thursday 25th May - The Biggest Morning Tea Fundraiser (More details to come)

June

Friday 2nd June - Indigenous Performance- Ryka (Reconciliation Week)

Thursday 8th June - Close the Gap

Friday 9th June - Staff Professional Learning - Pupil Free Day

Tuesday 13th  June - Polding Cross Country-Sydney

Friday 16th June - School Athletics Carnival

Thursday 29th June -Zone Athletics  -  Coffs Harbour

Thursday 29th June - Last day Term 2

Friday 30th June - Staff Foundation Day - Pupil Free Day

Dear Parents and Carers

I've been away for the past three days at the Diocesan Principals Conference Coffs Harbour looking at Budgeting, School Improvement, Disposition of learners and Innovation in workforce retention.

Some of my take homes:

I am very proud the workforce at St James' who work hard to build a culture of learning and collaboration in every Stage. As part of the innovation I was asked to provide some recordings of our student voice. The information the children gave me included comments such as "When the teachers give us voice and choice in our learning we feel much more connected to our school." "Being part of the planning with our teachers means that we feel safe as learners!" When we work with our teachers and tell them what we want as learners we feel that they listen and we learn better because we know they listen to us". 

Very proud of these children from Stage 1 through to Stage 3!

I have followed along on carnivals, learning and the daily life of the school in Instagram and love seeing our children involved in learning, sport and in life (doing a mixture). I love how the teachers curate on Instagram and am always excited to keep tabs when I'm away. Thank you staff for keeping us all in the loop.

Next Monday evening Janita Tomson returns to St James' with the data from our parent's leadership survey. I look forward to seeing the data with you and moving forward on the format or structure identified in the survey. We have waited a long time for the new direction and governance process to be finalised by the Diocese and I can't wait to move forward with you in whatever direction you have chosen. Thank you to those people who were able to respond to that survey.

Happy Catholic Schools Week, hope to see you somewhere during that week.

Ann

Catholic Schools Week

Catholic Schools Week starts today with year 6 in Grafton in the Art Gallery and attending a launch Mass with all the Clarence schools.

Next Week is jam packed:

Monday - Parent Meeting

Tuesday - Out and about in the community

Wednesday - Liturgy in hall

Friday - Mother's Day Morning 

Attendance at any or all we would love to see you, All grandparents, carers, Aunts, Ect!

RE News - CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK 2023

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK 2023

Our school will join with more than 620 Catholic schools across NSW and the ACT to celebrate the annual Catholic Schools Week (CSW) next week. We began this celebration today with Year 6 joining other Year 6 students from Clarence feeder schools and Year 10 McAuley students in Grafton for Mass.

 This year’s theme “Living our Mission’’ highlights the mission of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Lismore. The Catholic school community has a co-responsibility in the service of mission through sharing Jesus’ messages of love and forgiveness, peace, hope and joy as revealed in the Gospels. The transforming power of mission ensures our students experience the fullness of life (John 10:10). 

We are immensely proud of the important role the Catholic school has alongside our Bishop, Parish Priest, school staff, parishioners and families in the missionary activity of bringing the ‘Good News' to the world. This week provides us with the opportunity to showcase and celebrate the missionary activities of our Catholic schools as well as the quality education we offer.

I would like to extend an invitation for you to participate with members of our parish and wider community in the spirit of this celebration. Below is a schedule of events for the week that you are invited to attend:

Tuesday 9th May: Whole school excursion- each Stage class group is going on tour to various locations around the Clarence Valley. We are meeting for lunch at the Yamba lighthouse at 1pm- parents and families are welcome to join us for lunch.

Wednesday 10th May: 10:15am Liturgy in our school hall,  to celebrate our Catholic identity and Mission. This will be followed by open classrooms and lunch at 11am. All are welcome to attend.

Friday 12th May: Mother’s Day Morning 7am- 9am.

Thank you for your ongoing support. We look forward to seeing you during our celebrations for Catholic Schools Week in 2023.

 Renee Howland

Assistant Principal- Mission

Mother's Day - Save the Date

SAVE THE DATE!

We would like to invite all families to our Mother's Day Morning. 

When: Friday 12th May 

Time: 7am - 9am

Under the big top and canteen area.

Light breakfast will be provided so please click on the below google form to confirm numbers. This form will need to be completed by Tuesday 9th May. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJgfEs1K9FqJ9SN1FLkOxqLR9Z7YonNZIeg5gk0IsoyBCdHA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Mums, Grandmothers, Aunts, Dads, and all carers are welcome!

Sport News

Cross Country

The Clarence Zone Cross Country carnival was held on Wednesday this week at McAuley College in Grafton. On what is a very tough course, and in warm weather, St James team of 34 runners did exceptionally well, finishing 3rd in the overall pointscore and having two students, Iyla Towner and Jake Seivers finish as winners in their events and age champions on the day. 12 students (see below) have now qualified to compete at the Diocesan Cross Country carnival which will be held back at McAuley College on Tuesday, 23rd May.

8/9yrs Girls:

1st - Iyla Towner, 3rd - Sunny Seivers, 4th - Remi Murphy

8/9yrs Boys:

2nd - Harlan Bews, 3rd - Jarrah Wright, 8th - Luca Espag

10yrs Boys:

1st - Jake Seivers

11yrs Girls: 

8th - Sailor Short

12yrs Girls:

3rd - Marlie Zvatora, 4th - Willow Seivers

12yrs Boys:

7th - Eamon Mawn, 8th - Kydan Jones

Netball

St James entered two teams into the Netball NSW Cup carnival that was held at Maclean on Thursday. The Stage 2 team played excellent and had 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss from their 5 games on the day. Stage 3 were dominant in all their games and went through undefeated in their division which was a fantastic effort. Special thanks to Mrs Hancock and Miss Imeson for their help coaching and umpiring on the day.

The Stage 3 team now travel to Casino next term to play in the Far North Coast finals with the winners from that earning a spot in the State Finals in Sydney. Good luck!

Mosquitoes

If you would like your child to wear insect repellent at school, please apply it in the morning before coming to school.

Sport Dates 2023



Sacrament Dates 2023

Confirmation- Tuesday 15th August -  St Mary’s Church, Maclean. 

Stage 1 News

Welcome back to term two! It has been wonderful to see everyone start the term with big smiles and full of excitement. 

Maths

We have started the term with length and measurement. Students have enjoyed spending time using different objects to measure and compare lengths of different things in and outside of the classroom. They have been learning that in order to measure accurately we have to ensure that the objects that we are measuring with don’t overlap and there are no gaps. 

Science 

Stage one was out in the bush playground this week collecting data about the living things that live there. We discovered lots of different fauna: dragonflies, frogs, spiders, stick insects, snails, lorikeets, magpies, noisy miners. As well as some interesting flora: staghorns, ferns,vines, mushrooms and fungus. This data will help us to decide what animals we can create homes for and what creatures we might be able to encourage by creating homes for them.

Age- Appropriate Pedagogies -  Investigations

Stage 1 students have expressed an interest in creating a WIRES & Vet Dramatic Play Investigation area. In this area they are measuring, weighing and recording animal lengths. They are communicating, working as a team and extending their vocabulary with Information books about native animals. We are examining animal homes and this is linking in with our Science learning. Thank you to all the families who have been bringing in animal cages and native animal soft toys!