25 October 2024

Our Mission @ SJM

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

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Principal’s Message

As we step into a new term, we are excited to welcome everyone back to school! We hope you had a restful break and are ready to embrace new opportunities for growth and learning.

This term promises to be filled with engaging activities, inspiring lessons, and exciting events. Our dedicated teachers have been busy planning enriching experiences to ensure all students thrive both academically and socially.

Let’s work together to make this term a fantastic experience for all. Here’s to a great start!

Happy World Teacher's Day

On this World Teachers' Day, we take a moment to honour the incredible educators who inspire and guide our students every day. Their dedication, passion, and commitment to nurturing young minds shape the future and empower our community.

Teachers do more than impart knowledge; they ignite curiosity, foster creativity, and instill a love for learning. Today, we celebrate their hard work and the positive impact they have on our lives.

To show our appreciation, we encourage everyone to express gratitude in their own way.

Let’s take this opportunity to recognise the vital role our teachers play in shaping a brighter future. Happy World Teachers' Day!

Stay Connected 

To stay up to date with all the latest news and events, be sure to connect with us through our communication channels:

• Compass: Our primary platform for announcements, student progress, and important updates. Check it regularly for the latest information.
• School Newsletter: Keep an eye out for our fortnightly newsletter, which highlights upcoming events, student achievements, and important reminders.
• Facebook: Follow us on our official Facebook page for real-time updates, photos, and community engagement.

By staying connected, you’ll never miss a moment of what’s happening at our school!

Staffing Update

We are currently finalising our staffing for the upcoming year and hope to announce the new team in the coming weeks. We appreciate your patience during this process and are excited to introduce our dedicated educators who will support our students' growth and learning.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Canteen 

We’re excited to announce that our new canteen menu is now available! You can view it and place orders through the Qkr! app for your convenience.

Be sure to check out the delicious options we’ve added to cater to all tastes and dietary needs. 

Mr Aaron Moon

Assistant Principal

Australia celebrates teachers on World Teachers’ Day on Friday 25 October 2024

Hats off to Australia’s teachers this World Teachers’ Day! Australia is coming together to celebrate the wonderful skilled work our educators do to inspire and support students.

We are truly blessed at SJM to have a wonderful staff. Today is a day that we acknowledge and celebrate the amazing contributions of our SJM Staff. It's a day to recognize their hard work, dedication, and the impact they have on students' lives.

Thank you to all our SJM staff who work to provide engaging opportunities for our students, who support our students and each other and walk with them in their life journey.

Belongings

Please ensure that all student belongings are labelled clearly. We have a pile of jumpers, lunch boxes and hats that do not have correct names in our lost property box.

Mrs Jane Jacobs

Religion

Welcome back to Term 4 as we enter Mission Month and lead into our school Mission Day. This week all classes received a Socktober bag where they have begun constructing their soccer balls made of rags. We look forward to sharing the photos with our community and how the integrity of our constructions hold up! Whilst engaging in this activity it gives students time to reflect upon the blessings we have and the fun and enjoyment that can be had doing the simple things in life.

On Friday 8^th November we look forward to celebrating Mission Day with our St James’ School community. From 12.00-2pm we invite parents and families to join the students in raising important funds for those less fortunate than ourselves. All will be able to partake in a range of activities including: cake walk, coin toss, lolly toss, fairy floss, snow cones, drinks and chips, tattoos and nail art, lucky dips, raffles, photobooth, jungle run carnival game, cup stacking, basketball shootout and ice cream spiders. There are plenty of amazing activities on offer ranging in price. Please bring lots of coins to spend as activities will vary in price. The day will conclude with a class competition seeing who can produce the longest line of change.

Thanks for your support of our School and community,

Mrs Lauren Gehrig
Religious Education Coordinator

Merit Awards

Principal Awards

Class News

ES1

It was wonderful to welcome the students back for the start of our last term together. We have certainly missed those beaming smiles! It has been great to catch up on the stories about what is happening in your world……we have noticed that the tooth fairy has been extremely busy over the last 2 weeks!  We have also welcomed two new students to Kindergarten: Ruben Blake in KG and Azalea Blades in KM.

This term we are continuing to build upon our letter sound knowledge by introducing new digraphs: /wh/, /th/, /oo/, /ng/ and /ay/ . Our tricky words are expanding, and students are becoming more confident with reading words automatically.  Our reading goal this term is to read sentences with fluency and expression.   

The children are getting very excited about the Dance Night and are looking forward to showing off their moves! Let’s hope there is not too much stage fright!

Please ensure that your child has a library bag on Tuesday to borrow new books for the week and that your child has a drink bottle filled with water to drink at school in the classroom and the playground.  

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

Stage 1

Dear Parent and Carers

A warm welcome back to Term Four.

We hope that you had an enjoyable and restful break over our school holidays. This term is as always, an extremely busy but exciting term of learning and events. The students have been very excited to be back, eager to hear about some of the wonderful learning experiences being planned as well as re-connecting with their peers and friends.

Class teachers are currently working on their Term Four Newsletters. This document contains lots of essential information about what your child is learning about in each Key Learning Area as well as important date reminders. Please keep an eye out for its upload to COMPASS in the coming weeks and we encourage you to review this information to stay connected to what is occurring in classrooms.

Key events coming up in the following two weeks.

Stage One will be presenting our Grandparents Liturgy on Monday Oct 28^th starting at 9:30am. Open classrooms will follow our liturgy.

Preparations for our Whole School Dance Concert have been underway for several weeks now. The Dance Concert will be on McKillop Oval @ 5:30pm for a 6pm start on Wed Oct 30^th.  Mr Moon posted to COMPASS a flyer with all relevant information.

Learning snapshots This Week English and Mathematics.

Year One students have been busy in their English Unit studying a range of imaginative texts and have enjoyed our class focus book. “How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers.” We have also enjoyed starting to explore poetry and plays. 1M and 1G have also created some amazing star traps as part of our literature responses.

There was also a buzz of excitement in Mathematics this past week as we conducted a range of inquiry-based tasks focusing on capacity and volume.  It was wonderful to see the students apply their estimation skills and make accurate observations to develop their knowledge.

Year Two students have been thoroughly enjoying their English work focusing on the texts ‘Jabari Jumps!’ by Gaia Cornwall and Pete the Sheep by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley. Students have been learning to use time connectives in their writing as well as identifying and constructing sentences using dependent and independent clauses. It has been terrific to see the student’s responding to literature through a range of engaging learning tasks.

In Mathematics our classes have been focusing on the units of Time and Volume and Capacity. Students have really built upon their skills and enjoyed using a range of concrete materials and investigative tasks to explore a range of concepts. 2M and 2G has seen some amazing mathematical thinking.

As we commence Term 4, we would like to send out a few friendly reminders.

We have several clothing and student items from last term and this week found with no names. Please help us to reunite items in the future by checking your child’s belongings and if needed labelling items with your child’s name and class.

As the weather warms up, it is important as always to have students brining their hats and water bottles to school each day.

On your child’s library borrowing day, students need to have their library bags at school to be able to borrow.

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s classroom teacher for any questions you may have regarding your child’s learning. Thank you for your ongoing communication and cooperation.

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

Stage 2

Welcome to Week 2 of our last remaining term for 2024. We hope all families enjoyed their school holiday break and have loved hearing stories about what’s going on in your worlds.  Students have made an excellent start to Term 4, getting straight back into their learning.

Crazy Sock Day was a hit, as always, we thank those students who brought in a gold coin donation for Catholic Missions. We have many more upcoming events so please stay tuned. Two of these include; our excursion to Tamworth in Week 2 and our School Dance Night in Week 3. The students have been practicing very hard for our one hit wonder and they are so excited to perform.

For English this Term Year 4’s novel study is ‘Blueback’, written by Tim Winton. Students will explore informative, persuasive and imaginative writing throughout the 10 weeks, with a focus on point of view. They will also be creating artworks inspired by Blueback and watching the film. Year 3 will be studying ‘The thing About Oliver’ written by Deborah Kelly, with a focus on imaginative writing.

4G welcomed Miss Williamson who is a university student currently on her placement from Macquarie University. She will be with us for three weeks. Any questions, please contact Miss Dafter.

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

Stage 3

Term 4 has started off with a bang.

We are busy preparing our dances for the School Performance next week and are excited to show you what we have come up with.

We are looking forward to going to Great Aussie Bush Camp in Week 4 and spending time with our friends, out in the bush doing outdoor activities that will get some of us out of our comfort zones.

Grandparents' day is next Monday, and we hope to share some of our work with you.

In Religion Year 6 are exploring different perspectives of Christian Scriptures and why the same story can change depending on which book of the Bible it comes from. Year 5 are investigating the monotheistic religions Christianity, Judaism and Islam and how they relate to each other.

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

Library News

Author/Illustrator Visit

Thanks to the generous sponsorship from Bengalla Mining Company, we are excited to announce a visit from Sami Bayly, a talented natural history illustrator/author.

Sami will share her books and techniques/ideas for illustrating and writing, and her love of weird and wonderful creatures. She finds the beauty and importance of all animals, regardless of their appearance, and loves to research and draw these animals in her beautifully presented books.

Opportunities like these, help to broaden the minds of our students and assist with the development of literacy and artistic skills. Sami’s presentation will foster students’ curiosity in the wonders of the animal world.

Sami will visit our school on Tuesday 29^th October.

Scholastic Book fair

Our annual Scholastic Book Fair will commence next week: Monday 28^th October - Wednesday 30^th October. Students are completing a wish list and will bring it home this week.

Book Fair is open to parents at the following times:

Monday 28^th October:  9.00am – 3.30pm

Tuesday 29^th October: 3.00pm and 4.00pm

Wednesday 30^th October:  3.00pm and 4.00pm

If you are unable to attend, students may place their order in an envelope, clearly marked with their name, class, books and the amount.  

Payment is made ONLINE ONLY, there will be no cash payments accepted. EFTPOS is available for parents in the library.

Please feel free to contact the library if any problems/concerns arise.

lisa.wilson@mn.catholic.edu.au or 65433094

Happy Reading!

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