24 May 2024

Our Mission @ SJM

St James’ Primary School community excel in education through living and learning in Christ.

Quote

“On the feast of Pentecost, we pray that the Holy Spirit, the Love of The Father and the Son, may create harmony in our hearts, families and societies and fill the whole world with harmony”.

Pope Francis

Principal’s Message

Catholic Schools Week 

The theme for Catholic Schools Week (CSW) this year is 'Follow Me!', which draws on Jesus' simple yet profound invitation to walk with Him on a journey of discipleship. This invitation is not a mere call to walk alongside Jesus but a summons to be taught by Him and transformed by Him – just like it was for his Apostles and first disciples who left their fishing boats behind and followed Jesus. It's an invitation to us to “leave our boats behind” too; to step out of the familiar confines of our personal "boats," the routines and securities we cling to, and embrace a life marked by trust, faithfulness, and love. 

It was lovely to celebrate Catholic Schools Week with you here on Monday. It was great to see so many of you here sharing in Liturgy, Open Classrooms and lunch. 

You are a valued part of our school community. Thank you for choosing Catholic Education for your child. I feel honoured to be part of your families’ education. 

Another highlight of CSW at SJM was Andrew Chinn. The students had a great time working with Andrew. The concert that afternoon was another joyous celebration where we came together to celebrate Catholic Schools Week. Thank you so much for celebrating with us.

Code of Conduct 

I just wanted to take the time to share with you the Diocesan School Community Code of Conduct. This Code of Conduct is what you, as parents and grandparents, abide by here at SJM. 

Please take the time to familiarise yourself with this document. Please ensure you abide by this document with all interactions with staff, students and other parents. 

All concerns you have about school issues should be directed to the appropriate person, whether teacher, clerical or exec, within school so that the matter can be dealt with appropriately. 

If you feel that the school has not dealt with your concerns appropriately you may speak to myself directly or you can follow the complaints procedure on our school website –

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate in contacting me.

Mr Aaron Moon
Principal

Assistant Principal

TELL THEM FROM ME SURVEY 

The Diocese of Maitland Newcastle Catholic Schools office is supporting SJM and inviting all parents and carers to participate in a survey conducted by independent research facilitators, The Learning Bar. The survey data provides us with valuable feedback on what our students think about their faith, school life, how engaged they are with school and the different ways that teachers interact with them. 

The information gathered from this survey helps our school community to be better informed about what we are doing well, where we need to focus more attention and how we can sharpen our planning to ensure we achieve improved outcomes for our students. This year, we are seeking your help and participation. The parent carer survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Most questions have a ‘tick box’ answer, but some allow you to provide comments. As you complete the survey, you will be able to see how many questions you have remaining. 

If you have more than one child attending the same school, you only need to complete the survey once, and we ask that you base your responses on your eldest child’s experiences. All responses will be completely anonymous. 

As parents and carers of students in our school, we deeply value your feedback and encourage you to partner with us and complete this survey. The information we gather is critical to us and allows us to hear directly from you and gain insight into what you think is important about the work we do, how we communicate with you and where you think we need to improve. 

SEMESTER 1 REPORTS AND PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS 

Teachers have begun the process of collating data, interpreting that information about your child’s learning, and writing Semester 1 reports. I thank the teachers for the time they take to prepare reports that reflect the learning opportunities that have taken place inside (and outside) our classrooms. 

The reports will be available on Compass on Friday 28 June (Week 9). Those parents who would like to meet with their child’s teacher regarding progress will have the opportunity during Week 10. Information for booking an interview will be sent out via Compass in the next couple of weeks, and you will book that interview using Compass. Please keep an eye out for this information. 

Illness and absences 

Just a reminder that we ask you to keep your child at home if they are unwell. We have lots of students coming to school with coughs and colds, as well as complaints of tummy aches. If you know your child is unwell, please do not send them to school. We ask that you keep your child at home until they are well enough to return to school. If your child has a tummy bug, we ask that you keep your child at home at least 24 hours after the symptoms have ceased. If your child is absent due to illness, we ask you to add the attendance note via Compass.

Mrs Jane Jacobs
Acting Assistant Principal

Religion

It has been a wonderful week with celebrations for Catholic Schools Week and the marking of Pentecost last Sunday. As discussed with students during assembly, Pentecost is the time where we recognise the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the disciples. It is the formal marking of 50 days since the Passover and an invitation to all to open their eyes to the mystery of life and the love of Christ. It is a time where we remember that despite our differences, we are all united by the messages of all the great things God has done.

Catholic Schools Week started with a Liturgy in the hall, open classrooms and followed with a shared picnic lunch with our SJM parents and families. It was wonderful to see so many families in attendance viewing all the wonderful work their children have been doing in class. Catholic Schools Week is a time where we give thanks for the gift of Catholic education and celebrate as a school, parish and wider community.

On Wednesday we had Andrew Chinn here at St James’ sharing his faith filled music with the students. Classes participated in workshops where he introduced several songs, and the day was culminated with a whole school performance. It was great to see students’ enthusiastic participation and the overall enjoyment.

Mrs Lauren Gehrig
Acting Religious Education Coordinator

Merit Awards

Principal Awards

Class News

ES1

Week 4 has been a week filled with music. First, Andrew Chinn entertained us with his singing and playing on Wednesday and then on Friday, the ‘Colour of Sound’ musicians gave the students the tools to create music based on their own unique worldview. Both concerts encouraged participation and KG and KM students joined in with enthusiasm!

During our sport lessons this term, the students are continuing to develop their fundamental movement skills with relation to being able to project an object towards a target. Hand-eye coordination and motor skills are being developed in order for students to practise aim and accuracy. The students began by rolling balls towards a target, then to one side of a target. They learnt the importance of keeping their eyes focused on the target and moving their hands towards the target. We then moved on to catching, beginning with beanbags and then moving on to large, soft balls and then tennis balls. The students are taught indigenous games each week to reinforce the skills being learned. It is great to see the improvement in these skills as we progress through the term.

Mrs Donna Smith (KG) and Mrs Trishelle Threadgate (KM)

Stage 1

Hello to all our wonderful stage 1 families! We hope you all had a safe and exciting start to Term 2, as you learn all about your child’s journey. Stage One staff are incredibly proud of the wonderful performances and reading opportunities students across the stage engaged in during our Mother’s Day liturgy. We thank all those who were able to attend and thank those mothers/motherly figures working tirelessly in their child’s lives. Students are now busily awaiting the upcoming Andrew chin performances, practicing some beloved favourites. Musica Viva is another great performance students will have the chance to attend on Friday, as they explore the connection between colour/emotions and song.

This week students will begin to construct a classroom greenhouse as they grow either carrots, beans or peas. Students have been researching what we need to successfully grow our vegetables and how to care for them so that they may sprout. This will then see students moving onto farms and how they are constructed. Students went home with a note asking if they could please bring in recycled materials so that they may build their own farm in weeks 8-9. Recycled materials could include, but not limited to: paper towel rolls, empty/cleaned butter containers, empty cardboard boxes (no staples) and tissue boxes. We ask that no recycled materials contain/or once contained alcohol and nuts or were used in unhygienic instances (toilet rolls). These can be brought in over the next couple of weeks in a labelled bag.

In history, students have been exploring the growth of communication through understanding different stages of technological growth. For example, students have had the chance to identify the changes in phones over the years, and how this has changed to alter the changing needs. If you have any old phone lying around at home, this might make for a great topic of discussion!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher. We look forward to an exciting term!

Kind Regards,
Mrs Baker & Mrs Ballard (1G), Mr Sabotic & Mrs Whithead (1M), Miss Cooper (2M), Miss Becus (2G)

Stage 2

Dear Families,  

Wow! We have had a busy and exciting fortnight and the students have been working very hard in all KLAs 

• We had a wonderful time celebrating Mother’s Day with you and we hope you had a lovely day celebrating with your families.
• The students had a great time at Andrew Chinn’s concert, he always has a very positive vibe and beautiful presence when entertaining the students.
• Everyone has been busy learning, listening and improvising to music in readiness for the Musica Viva concert, Colours of Home on Friday.
• Congratulations to all the award winners for this fortnight.

Miss Maher (3M), Miss Fitzsimmons (3G), Miss Dafter (4G), Mrs Jane Jacobs & Mrs Mary Ballard (4M)

Stage 3

Weeks three and four have been a busy time for our Stage 3 students. In English we are focusing on our persuasive writing skills and using modality to convince our readers. We have begun using our brand-new laptops, which we are very excited about. Our laptops are allowing us to produce published texts, whilst also investigating and researching independently.

Week four was Catholic Schools Week. In Catholic Schools Week we explore everything that is wonderful about our school. We began the week with a liturgy and open classrooms. It was so lovely to see many parents within our rooms. On Wednesday we had a special performance from Andrew Chin. The students greatly enjoyed this performance. On Friday we also had a performance from Musica Viva.

During sport this term alongside Mr Sweeney, our students are developing their net and court game skills. It has been fabulous to see the enthusiasm that Stage 3 is displaying. The students are working on their coordination, teamwork and strategy skills. Stage 3 has been working together as one cohesive unit which has proven to improve the quality of their games.

Mrs Gehrig (5G), Miss Brimble (5M), Miss Lamont (6G), Mrs McLennan (6M)

Pastoral Care

Strengths Focus : Creativity

Each of the 24 character strengths can be categorised into 6 different classes of virtues. They are wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Creativity falls into the wisdom virtue class. Wisdom describes strengths that assist you to gather and use information. There are two important aspects of creativity, originality and adaptiveness. This means that whatever is created must also have a use.

If Creativity is one of your top strengths

Creative individuals generate ideas or behaviours that are novel or unusual which make a positive contribution to their own lives and to others. Some traits that are included within creativity are curiosity, playfulness, open-mindedness, sensitivity and ambition.

If Someone is using the strength of creativity

SEE: expressions/body language/actions

“I can see when you use creative problem-solving ideas that you are using your character strength of creativity”

HEAR: volume/word choice/para-language

“When you use unusual and interesting words, I can hear that you are using your strength of creativity”

FEEL: temperature/pressure/other sensations

“I feel buzzing when you show me a new creation you have made”

“I am creative, conceptualizing something useful, coming up with ideas that result in something worthwhile”

Practicing creativity

• We can practice creativity by thinking outside of the box when we have an issue to solve.
• We can use creativity when we are building things or coming up with new ideas.
• We can practice creativity through reading, writing, drawing and painting.

Please discuss the strength of Creativity with your child this week using the language of the see, hear, feel framework when you notice the strength of creativity being used.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have!

Miss Emily Gavin
Pastoral Care Worker

Community Notices

St. James’ P & F Association

P&F Committee Contacts