St James News

Principal's Post

Dear Families,

Congratulations and thank you for making it through to the final week of the term, our ninth week of Remote Learning! I know it has been tough on our whole St James community; students, parents and staff. We should be proud of the ways we have worked together for everyone's benefit, especially the children. Thank you for the support you have provided our staff throughout the term.

 

Here is a message of hope from Pope Francis that might help us during these times.

 

“To Christians, the future does have a name, and its name is hope.  Feeling hopeful does not mean to be optimistically naive and ignore the tragedy humanity is facing.  Hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn’t lock itself in darkness, that doesn’t dwell on the past, does not simply get by in the present, but is able to see a tomorrow.  Hope is the door that opens onto the future.  Hope is a humble, hidden seed of life that, with time, will develop into a tree.  It is like some invisible yeast that allows the whole dough to grow, that brings flavour to all aspects of life.  And it can do so much, because a tiny flicker of life that feeds on hope is enough to shatter the shield of darkness.  A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you.  And there there will be another ‘you’ and another ‘you’ and it turns into ‘us’.  And so, does hope begin when we have an ‘us’?  No.  Hope begins with one ‘you’.  When there is an ‘us’, there begins a revolution”.     Pope Francis, 2017.

 

Please keep in touch with your child's class teacher to ensure that together we cater for your child's needs throughout Remote Learning.

 

We are all hoping that those in authority are able to allow our students to return to on site learning next term.  We will be communicating with families towards the end of the holidays.

Learning Conferences

Teachers are looking forward to catching up with all students and parents in their class on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons this week. This is an opportunity to have a three way chat about learning, wellbeing and possible goals for students for next term.

To ensure each student has their full 8 minutes, please be on time and keep to to your allotted 8 minutes. Please join via the link emailed to you on your child's school account and wait until the class teacher lets you into the meet. Unfortunately, any families who miss their allotted time will need to reschedule on another day next term.

Remote Learning Feedback Surveys 

Please take five minutes to complete the anonymous survey sent out by your child's class teacher last Friday over the next few days. This valuable information will help us to reflect on and evaluate the Remote Learning package we implemented this term. Your feedback will also enable us to make any necessary adjustments so that we cater for all students and family needs the best we can. Thanks to the many families who completed the short survey over the weekend.

Friday Footy Day

This Friday is our traditional FOOTY DAY. We are encouraging all students to dress up in footy team gear or colours for the day as they complete their Remote Learning. This can be from any code. There may be some lessons or activities involving a footy theme. At 1.00pm we are planning a school Kahoot which families can participate in. (Please be patient and understanding if it does not flow as smoothly as planned. It will be my first time with 200 families at once!)

You may even like to organise a footy themed lunch at home! 

 

Good luck to all Melbourne Demons and Footscray Western Bulldogs' supporters for the Grand Final.

Good luck to all Melbourne Storm supporters for their Preliminary Final.

Tournament of the Minds Champions

Congratulations to our Year Six Team of seven students who came second in the state of Victoria out of the 220 competing schools. After winning the regional section two weeks ago, the state finals were held over the weekend. Tom, Sian, Luke, Amelia, Sabine, Mitchell and Charlie have written a reflection on their experience.

Thank you to Miss Jessica Waters for the work put into preparing the students and guiding them through this event.

Here is a report from the students

 

Hi, this year we participated in something called  the Tournament of Minds, a competition that encourages creativity and teamwork. The Tournament of Minds team encourages students to think for themselves, so in these challenges, we were allowed no help from any family, friends or teachers. Our team was made up of seven year sixes Amelia, Luke, Charlie, Mitchell, Sian, Sabine and Tom. We chose to do our project in the STEMS category, which was about space.  First, we participated in the long term challenge, where we created a short, 10 minute video explaining the model that we created based on the Pioneer Plaques and the Voyager Golden Records. For this event we were up against people from our region, being Metro Melbourne. In the end we came first which was very exciting and gave us the opportunity to compete in the State Final to have a chance to represent our state in the STEMMs Primary School Division.

Once we went through to the state final we were given the task of the spontaneous challenge. This challenge would be a random open ended question and the points would be marked upon the creativity of our responses, the teamwork involved, how we explained and how we answered the questions as well as many more important points. We are very proud to say we placed 2nd in the whole of Victoria in the competition!

We are also very grateful for the support and assistance of Miss Waters. Miss Waters helped keep us on track and guided us throughout the entire competition. We are really grateful for Miss Waters’ support and would not be able to achieve what we were able to do without her help. Thank you for helping us achieve a once in a lifetime opportunity Miss Waters.

 

Thanks,

Amelia, Luke, Charlie, Mitchell, Sian, Sabine and Tom

MACSSIS Feedback Surveys

Theses will be distributed early next term and provide extremely valuable feedback on many aspects of our St James educational environment. Staff, students and parents' feedback help paint a complete picture of the current climate and consequently help set goals for our future School Improvement Plans. Please take the 20 minutes to complete these anonymous surveys early next term when they are sent out.

Community Safety and Sharing

Please be aware that any items appearing on your child's slides, including links are for the exclusive use of our St James community. I understand that at times, students or parents may wish to share images, work or photos with friends or family members. I need to ask you not to do this for both child safety reasons and also remembering that the slides are actually the intellectual property of staff.

Have you completed your family's Operoo info?

Please sign up to this today or you may find that you miss important information regarding students' extra curricular events and permission forms.

 

Operoo website: www.operoo.com. There is also a parent introduction page here: https://www.operoo.com/intro-for-parents/.

School Advisory Council Update

We held our meeting last week via an online platform and managed to discuss the following items:

  • We were not successful in gaining a building grant from the state government, yet again, however, we are now applying to MACS for some supplementary capital funding. Regardless of the outcome of this application, I have been in discussions with our architects regarding a self funded project on a smaller scale. We have been saving some money which includes 2020 and 2021 family capital fees and will compliment this via a loan to finance the project. Stay tuned for further details.
  • School Uniform Guidelines
  • Keeping 2022 Fee increases to a very minimum
  • COVID updates
  • NAPLAN results for our state and for St James - see the Literacy and Numeracy Page of this newsletter for details on the NAPLAN results

Message from the Visiting School Nurse

'Prep Families, thank you for returning the School Entrant Health Questionnaire for your child in Term Three. Due to remote learning, the Visiting Primary School Nurse is unable to visit the school to do face-to-face health assessments in Term Three. Over the coming weeks, the nurse Belinda may contact you by phone, email or text, to discuss your child’s health and development. Belinda will send all families a letter in response to the Questionnaire either via email or post. If you wish to contact Belinda directly to discuss any health or development concerns for your child, you may do so during business hours on 0412 161 470. '

Timetable Change to Specialist Classes this week

This week we have made a change to all specialist lessons. They will all be held on the same day for each of your children. This trial is to help facilitate both teacher level meetings and our Learning Conferences. On this designated day, all students will have their usual 9am or 9.15am class meet, then move onto specialist lessons as indicated in their daily slides. No English or Maths learning will be set for this day.

Tuesday: Year 1, 2, 5 and 6 Specialist classes

Wednesday: Prep Specialist classes

Thursday: Year 3 and 4 Specialist classes

A few brief updates/reminders

  • There are Bookclub Orders at the school office for collection. Please just buzz the office from the front gate and then send your child down the path to collect them.
  • There are some tables and desks still available until this Thursday. They may prove helpful for Remote Learning or Cubby House furniture
  • Don't forget to tap into a terrific resource on the Student Landing Page to access a variety of E Books: www.eplatform.co (USER NAME: child's initials and number from their school email address PASSWORD: SJV 2020)
  • Wednesday 3 November - proposed Twilight Sports to be held during the daytime on our oval
  • Monday 8 November - proposed filming of our whole school concert performance

 

Have a great week,

 

Dave