5 July 2024

Our Mission @ SJM

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

Quote

“Rest is so necessary for the health of our minds and bodies, and often so difficult to achieve due to the many demands placed on us. But rest is also essential for our spiritual health, so that we can hear God’s voice and understand what he asks of us.” — Pope Francis

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents and Carers

I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for your continued support of our efforts to maintain a healthy environment at here at SJM. Your cooperation during this time is invaluable as we work together to address sickness within our school community.

By monitoring your child's health closely, practicing good hygiene habits, and keeping informed about the latest health updates, you are playing a crucial role in safeguarding the well-being of all our students and staff. Your proactive approach not only helps prevent the spread of illnesses but also ensures a safe learning environment for everyone.

We greatly appreciate your partnership and commitment to the health and safety of our school community. I do hope you all take the time to rest up and recuperate in the holidays.

School Photos

We are pleased to inform you that the school photos have arrived and will be sent home with your children shortly. We hope you enjoy these memorable snapshots of your child's school year.

Please check your child's backpack in the coming days for the photos. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the photos, feel free to contact us at school.

NAPLAN

We wanted to inform you that the NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) results for this year will be available next term. These results provide valuable insights into your child's academic progress and achievements across key areas of literacy and numeracy.

We will ensure that you receive your child's NAPLAN results promptly. If you have any questions about the results or would like to discuss them further, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for your ongoing support and involvement in your child's education.

As the school term comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to wish each of you a fantastic holiday break filled with joy and relaxation.

We look forward to welcoming you back refreshed and ready for another exciting term ahead.

Cheers

Mr Aaron Moon
Principal

Assistant Principal

Parent Teacher Interviews

The teachers have had a very busy week meeting with their child’s classroom teacher. Thank you to all parents who attended these meetings. It is a great time to reflect on your child’s progress and celebrate their successes, as well as planning goals for the next semester.

Tell Them From Me Survey

Thank you to all parents in our SJM community who participated in our Tell Them From Me Survey. We will be reviewing our results over the next couple of weeks and are looking forward to sharing them with our school community.

Stay safe over your holiday travels

Mrs Jane Jacobs
Acting Assistant Principal

Religion

As we come to the end of Term 2 we begin to look forward to the many things ahead in the RE space. But before we do this reflection and contemplation on the words of Pope Francis’ quote above should lead us into the holiday break. May our students and families take time to recharge, relax and take time to reflect.

In the first week back of Term 2- Thursday 25^th July we celebrate the Feast Day of St James. St James being our Patron Saint holds a special significance for our school. St James was one of the three Apostles who were particularly close to the Lord. He was there with the Lord and his brother, John, and Peter at the Transfiguration and in the Garden of Gethsemane. This will be celebrated in St James’ Hall with the wider Muswellbrook Parish on Thursday 25^th July. We ask all families to join us on this day, with a morning tea to be held afterwards.

We have just passed the 13^th Sunday in Ordinary time and the focus of Mark’s Gospel presented stories of healing and the emphasis of having faith. Jesus healed Jairus’ daughter and the bleeding woman. Both stories also demonstrated the faith of praying for ourselves and for others. May we remember these important messages in our daily lives.

Wishing everyone a safe and restful holiday break. We look forward to the safe return of students for Term 3.

Mrs Lauren Gehrig
Acting Religious Education Coordinator

Office Of Safeguarding

Merit Awards

Class News

ES1

During Personal Development and Health this term, the students have identified signs that may indicate they are in a potentially unsafe situation.  They developed their knowledge of strategies and actions they can apply to promote their safety and wellbeing in a range of situations and environments. 

Embedded within this program is a range of activities and skills based on the Visible Wellbeing SEARCH Framework. This term, students strengthened their knowledge and understanding of the EMOTIONS pathway. Students have noticed, named and navigated the focus emotions: Happy, Sad, Scared, Angry, Excited. They have identified when they might feel the focus emotions.

Students have also finished the Term with a ‘Fairytale Dress-up Day’. This has concluded our unit focused on characterisation and the study of well-known fairytale stories. Kindergarten have come dressed in an array of fantastic costumes and descriptions of who they are. Many children were even able to include one or two of our vocabulary words in their character description!

We have been so pleased to see the continued growth and positive development of all the students thus far. 

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

Stage 1

Hello to all our wonderful stage 1 families! That is Term 2 done and dusted, and what a productive term it has been! From the Year 1 excursion to Musica Viva, COGAT testing, sport carnivals and the general business of the classroom, we have certainly had one exciting term. In this last week, students have had the opportunity to indulge in Triple M Day for End of Term Reward. We thank students for their efforts this term and look forward to seeing what they will accomplish in the second half of the year. We thank parents and caregivers who joined us this week for parent-teacher interviews. It was lovely meeting some of you face-to-face, and reconnecting with some who we have met before. It is a wonderful opportunity to discuss as a cohesive unit, your child's home and schooling lives, and assess how we can work together to ensure they continue thriving.

This term in history, we have wrapped up our knowledge on communication and digital technologies. We have explored the evolution of technological devices such as television, video games, phones and entertainment, and have considered what these advancements could look like in the future. We have had some great discussion on potential phone designs, such as a spinning dial to spin the numbers on our mobiles to make it fun when dialling, funky colours and designs to make it look appealing, and self-charging phones that do not need a battery or charging cable.

In Science we have wrapped up our unit on ‘food for our future’ as we explored the process from plant to table. We have explored the process, time and changing of roles it takes to take wheat and turn it into the toast on our plate, as well as the process of harvesting fruit and vegetables. We loved looking at some familiar machinery, such as harvesters and sprayers. We loved looking at the finished product of students’ farms, and enjoyed the excitement it brought to students as they were constructing it. We hope these farms brought a great deal of discussions at your homes.

We thank everyone for the communication provided this term, and the efforts placed by students. We wish you all a safe and happy two-week break and we look forward to seeing you all again in Term 3. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.

Kind Regards,

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

Stage 2

We’ve made it! It is Week 10 and it’s almost time for another 2-week break from school. It has been a massive term, and we’re so proud of our Stage 2 students who have put a lot of effort into their schoolwork over the 10-week period. As always, we also appreciate your support and involvement with your child’s education. 

This week is parent teacher interview week. For those who have booked an interview in with your child’s teacher, it is a great opportunity to discuss your child’s overall achievement and classroom work habits this semester and see what we can do to continually improve their educational outcomes next semester.

Inside Out 2 and MMM were the highlights for this week.  It was great to see so many students make reward day on Wednesday.  Our excursion to the Movies was a great way to end the term and conclude our unit on emotions.

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

Stage 3

Stage 3 have come to the end of another productive and fun filled term. Students this week have had the opportunity to participate in the Science and Engineering Discovery Day at Muswellbrook Indoor Sports Centre. Our team of 32 stage 3 students represented St James’ in a range of hands-on activities ranging from bridge building, balsa wood plane launching, fan building and much more. Students used problem solving and investigative skills to achieve the best possible results. They all represented St James’ with pride and should be proud of their efforts and persistence throughout the day!

We have also been lucky enough to attend St Joseph’s Aberdeen’s musical ‘Popstars’. It has been wonderful for students to have an experience of what High School has to offer and the talents on display. Students recognised lots of the music and even a few familiar faces on the stage!

We look forward to another positive and enjoyable Term 3. We hope you all have a restful break.

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

Sport News

School Athletics Carnival 

On Friday 14^th June the School Athletics was held on Skellatar Oval.  A huge thank you to the parent helpers and staff for ensuring that our carnival could be run efficiently. A massive congratulations to all students who participated on the day to gain points for their house team. 

The Winning House Team: Pheasants
Junior Boy Champion: Arlo Gallagher Pheasants
11yr Boy Champion:   Oliver Brochtrup Pheasants
Senior Boy Champion: Logan McFawn Kookaburras
Junior Girl Champion:  Annalee Mills Kookaburras
11yrs Girl Champions: Halle Partridge Pheasants
                                         Liliana Rutherford Kookaburras
                                         Isabella Sellers Rosellas
 Senior Girl Champion: Stella Medhurst Eagles

Regional Athletics Carnival 

The Regional Athletics Carnival was held at Singleton on Monday 1^st July. 

The following students attended the carnival:

Pastoral Care

Strengths Focus for this Fortnight

Humour

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. Humour is a strength within the transcendence class. Strengths withing the transcendence class such as humour help individuals to connect to the larger universe and provide meaning in life.

If humour is one of your top strengths

Humourous individuals are those who can recognise what is amusing in situations and find a lighter side to situations that are not so amusing. Humour is important in social interactions and can contribute to team building and moving toward group goals.

If someone is using the strength of humour

SEE: expressions/body language/actions

“I can see when other people are laughing around you that you are using your strength of humour”

HEAR: volume/word choice/para-language

“I can hear through your loud voice boisterous tone that you are using your strength of humour”

FEEL: temperature/pressure/other sensations

“I feel warm and delighted when you make me feel better with your humour in a hard situation”

“Your sense of humour is one of the most powerful tools you have”

Practicing humour

• We can practice our strength of humour by telling jokes to make people feel better.
• We can practice our strength of humour by
• We can practice our strength of humour by

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

Miss Emily Gavin
Pastoral Care Worker

Community Notices

St. James’ P & F Association

P&F Committee Contacts