27 September 2024

Our Mission @ SJM

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

Principal’s Message

Thank You for a Wonderful Term!

As we wrap up another fantastic term, we want to take a moment to express our gratitude to our amazing community. Your support, enthusiasm, and dedication have made a significant impact on our students' experiences.

From engaging in our school events to volunteer efforts, your involvement has enriched our school environment and fostered a sense of belonging. Together, we’ve created a vibrant place where our students can thrive academically and socially.

Thank you for being such an integral part of our school community. We look forward to more exciting adventures in the upcoming term.

Lyn Sharratt @ SJM

On Wednesday St James' had the absolute honour of welcoming Dr Lyn Sharratt, along with colleagues from across the Diocese, to our school. Lyn travelled from her home in Canada to be with us at SJM and the Diocesan system of schools.

Lyn Sharratt is a highly accomplished practitioner, researcher, author, and presenter. She works tirelessly, focusing her time and efforts on increasing each student’s achievement by working alongside leaders and teachers to put FACES on their data, taking intentional action to make equity and excellence a reality for all students.

Today Lyn and all of our visitors looked at the great work happening within our classrooms..... from student voice, walls that teach and goal setting.

Some of the feedback we received can be seen below.

I appreciate:

• the openness and pride of teachers and students of their spaces
• the evidence of student voice
• that you co-create bump it up walls with your students
• the collaboration of the staff
• the insight and ideas that were showcased differently in each class
• the amazing environments for student learning
• the class environments enable all students to improve in their learning
• the calm learning environments where teacher feedback was presented in the moment

TELL THEM FROM ME – WE HAVE LISTENED

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated in the Tell Them From Me survey earlier in the year. Your feedback is invaluable, and we truly appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts and insights.

We have listened to your responses and are committed to using this information to enhance our school environment and improve our community. Your voices matter, and together we can continue to make our community even stronger.

New Path

We would like to announce that, based on your valuable feedback, we will be installing a new path linking St. Nick's and the School Hall to the Admin. This improvement will improve accessibility and make navigating our school easier for everyone.

The installation is scheduled to take place over the holidays, ensuring minimal disruption to our school activities. We can't wait to see this improvement, and we appreciate your continued support in making our school a better place for all!

Changes to the Canteen

Thank you also for your feedback regarding wanting new items for our canteen menu. We’ve created a survey featuring some exciting new options. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Please take a moment to complete the survey using the link below:

https://forms.office.com/r/PKqhyCWLgR

Your input is invaluable in helping us create a menu that everyone will enjoy. Thank you for being an active part of our school community.

Jobs in Holidays

We’re pleased to share that several important projects will be taking place during the upcoming holidays to enhance our school facilities.

First, new guttering will be installed in the COLA area, improving drainage and ensuring a safer environment for our students. Additionally, we will be updating the carpets in all Primary Classrooms (Years 3-6) to create a more comfortable and inviting learning space.

We look forward to unveiling these improvements when everyone returns.

Survey for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day

We’d love to hear your suggestions as we plan for next year’s Mother’s Day and Father’s Day activities. Your input is important in helping us create memorable celebrations.

Please share your ideas by completing the survey using the link below:

https://forms.office.com/r/Uu14dKZqhG

Staff Changes

We would like to inform you that Miss Eloise Hand will not be returning to our school as planned next year. We sincerely thank Eloise for the valuable contributions she has made to our community and the positive impact she has made during her time here.

We wish her all the best in her future endeavours and will miss her greatly!

We regret to inform you that Miss Justine Birt has resigned from her position at our school. We sincerely appreciate her contributions and the positive impact she has had on our students and community. We welcome Elda Meyer to our school as our new Learning Support Assistant.

Mr Aaron Moon
Principal

Assistant Principal

As we head into the holiday period, I wanted to reflect upon a remarkable term filled with growth, learning and achievements. Our classrooms are filled with student centred learning, where each child can express their learning through a variety of differentiated tasks. Our classrooms are places where engaging activities happen, dynamic environments are created to foster a positive atmosphere. Some strategies that teachers are use are flexible seating (floor cushions, standing desks and lap desks), digital tools (interactive whiteboards, laptops and iPads) and collaborative learning (group work – which encourage teamwork, problem solving, shared goals, reflection and feedback).

As we head into the break, I encourage families to enjoy this time together. Whether it’s reading, exploring new hobbies, or simply relaxing together, it’s important for our students to recharge and reflect on their learning experiences.

I have included the Actions for happiness calendar will help you focus on specific things every day. It may start a new tradition in your family or simply give you a few different ideas on how you can celebrate your own unique family.

May your light continue to shine brightly

Mrs Jane Jacobs
Acting Assistant Principal

Office Of Safeguarding

These days we are all spending more and more time online. The online environment is extremely useful, but can also be a daunting and unsafe place for children who are unaware of the dangers. Please click on the following link for information regarding Online safety for parents/carers.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

Religion

It has been a busy Term and I’m sure all our students and families are ready for a well-deserved rest.

During Term 4 we will have a range of exciting events coming up. October is recognised in the Catholic Church as World Mission Month, a time when Catholics all over the world join to support and celebrate global missionary work. As mentioned in previous newsletters we are taking part in Socktober and students will be creating their own soccer ball out of rags to represent the lack of resources in less fortunate countries in our world.

We will also join to together as a school community to celebrate St James’ Mission Day. This will take place on the 8th November from 12.00pm-2.00pm. All families are invited to join us, with all proceeds going to Catholic Mission to support those less fortunate than ourselves. We ask that students bring lots of coins to participate in the activities and variety of treats that will be on offer. Some of the activities and treats will include: snow cones, fairy floss, chips and drinks, cake walk, photo booth, disco, coin toss/lolly toss and many many more. We hope to see lots of families and students to raise as much as we can as a community.

Next Term our Stage masses will again resume each Friday. We look forward to celebrating many more as a school and parish community.

Mrs Lauren Gehrig
Acting Religious Education Coordinator

Merit Awards

Class News

ES1

Wow what a term. Can you believe there is only one term until Kindergarten are in year 1.

It has been very rewarding to watch Kindergarten grow this term. Many are reading beautifully, remembering all the new sounds we have learnt and counting beyond 30.

We had a great time on our excursion to Highbrook Park and are already looking forward to our excursion to the Zoo next term. It will be exciting to catch the bus and learn more about living things.

It has been lovely to watch the children use the gifts of courage, reverence, wisdom, awe, judgement, understanding and knowledge from the Holy Spirit in play and everyday interactions. We are learning to recognise when we use these gifts and when others are using them too.

We have been practicing our dance ready to showcase for the whole school next term. We can move our bodies in time to the music and are starting to remember the steps independently.

Thank you for a great term,
Mrs Donna Smith (KG) and Mrs Trishelle Threadgate (KM)

Stage 1

Dear Stage 1 Families,

We can’t believe we are in week 10 of Term 3 already! This term, as like the rest of them, has absolutely flown by. Stage 1 students, teachers, and learning support assistants are well and truly ready for our 2-week break, ensuring we are rested and ready to learn, laugh and have fun in Term 4.

As you have probably seen already on our SJM Facebook page, Stage 1 have had some much-loved visitors in our final two weeks of term. Chickens! Staff from Henny Penny Hatching set up an incredible area in the Year 2 middle room for some baby chicks to explore over Weeks 9 and 10. They also brought an incubator full of more eggs which students have had the privilege of watching hatch. This hands-on and rare experience has enriched students’ learning and engaged their thinking about living things, and life cycles as part of this term's Science unit, Living Things. Thank you to Miss Becus for organising. We will all be very sad to say goodbye to our 12 chicks on the last day of term.

Students have been working very hard, as usual, in their key learning areas at school. Year 2 have continued learning about fairy tales and adapting them to incorporate an Australian theme. Meanwhile, Year 1 have been looking at improving their persuasive writing skills, by focusing on the topic Which Pet Should I Get?

Thank you for your constant collaboration and communication with your child’s learning. We wish you a safe, happy, and blessed two week break and look forward to continuing our successful year together when Term 4 begins.

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

Stage 2

Welcome to week 10 of Term 3, it has been another amazing term at SJM. Often teachers will say that Term 3 is their favourite as we see the most growth in our students. This has certainly remained true this term. I would like to commend students on their continual efforts, positive attitude towards their learning, their creativity and curiosity that continually prompt our learning to go further.

This week, students will reap the rewards of their patience and care towards their terrariums. We have successfully grown and will harvest our herbs and make delicious pizzas from scratch on Friday. We will further examine the ingredients required to make a yoghurt dough, examine the nutritious value of these and identify if it is a sometimes food or an all the time food and how this sustenance fuels our body as a part of our healthy eating unit in PDH.

Students have also donned their acting hats over the past three weeks. Students have been preparing a short drama display learning lines, the importance of expression and how to step into the role of a character. Students are off script and are even adding some impromptu actions and lines to add a flare to their performance. Students are commended on the respect they have shown each other during this process and the encouragement of each other to let their inner lights shine.

End of term reward will be happening this Thursday. It is Laser tag, I know a lot of students are looking forward to this. We will also be celebrating the last day of this term with PJ Day. The weather looks as though it is turning cold so please pack warm clothes.

Enjoy your spring holidays, we look forward to students return nice and refreshed ready for term 4.

From the stage 2 team.
Miss Maher (3M), Miss Fitzsimmons (3G), Miss Dafter (4G), Mrs Jane Jacobs & Mrs Mary Ballard (4M)

Stage 3

Last week many of our students in stage 3 took part in St Catherine’s Catholic College Netball Gala Day. The enthusiasm, teamwork and sportsmanship that was on display by all four teams was fantastic to see. All students were committed, and we witnessed some fantastic netball skills in action! Thankyou to all students and their parents for supporting this fantastic day! We look forward to our teams in action again in 2025!

This week also saw the end to our Sports Fun days with Year 10 St Joseph’s Aberdeen students. We would like to extend our thanks to these students for teaching our stage 3 students many new skills and strategies in the various sports on offer.

Again, we would like to congratulate all of our students for their flexibility and adaptability this week for helping to prepare our classrooms ready for new carpet during the holidays. We can’t wait to see the transformation next term.

In Term 4 we have much to look forward to including our whole school dance night and Great Aussie Bush Camp! But for now, we hope all students and their families have a restful holiday break and we look forward to another successful term full of new learning opportunities.

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

Community Notices

St. James’ P & F Association

P&F Committee Contacts