Dear Families,

I hope you all had a pleasant Melbourne Cup weekend and enjoyed a few consecutive days off from routine and making lunches.

Our wonderful P&F team kindly celebrated our wonderful, amazing teachers and staff last Friday on World Teachers and Staff day with special teacher cupcakes and morning tea. We are so grateful for our generous parents! See more photos on the St James and P&F Facebook pages.

Once Cup Day has passed, it always signals another sprint to the finish line, in what always is a busy, action packed, and fun few final weeks of term. Our Year 6 students are busily working on their memory books and reflecting on their time at St James in preparation for their Graduation evening.

This short week includes our 3rd Prep transition and we have also commenced school tours for Prep 2028 intake. Feel free to complete an online enrolment form if you have a child due to commence Prep in 2028.

The St James past Movember participant group has met and decided to open Movember up to all staff this year! Movember raises awareness and funds for men’s health, focusing on mental health and cancer, while encouraging everyone to get moving, start conversations and support one another.

We have set ourselves a fitness target of 500km which is well within our reach and some of us will also be growing mo! Last year the St James community helped us raise an amazing $1,335!!

The link to donate can be found here: https://au.movember.com/team/2403393

Whole School Sports

The schedule has been finalised for our Afternoon Sports on Thursday 12 November from 12pm - 3pm. We are excited to make a success of it here at St James and look forward to seeing many of you in attendance.

We have organised a coffee van to be there 11.30am - 1.00pm if you wish to purchase a hot drink.

Here is an attached timetable of events to use as an approximate guide. Please note that some events may commence slightly earlier or later.

12.10pm - students are gathered on the oval, a welcome and instructions for the afternoon

Sports Captains - small speech and introduce the house captains and officially open the event
Sport Captains/ House Captains run the chants and warm up with students (as warm up)

12.15pm - Mixed circular relay (2 students from each year level (boy/girl) represents their house).

12.25pm - Year 6/Prep Buddy relay (along straight)

12.35pm - House Chants

12.45pm - Students head to their first rotation

2.35pm - drinks break and Toddler race

2.40pm - Year 6 400m race (Girls/Boys)

2.50pm - Final Chants/Trophies/Speeches

3.00pm - Conclusion and pack up

Other Sports News

Well done to our three students who competed in the Regional Athletics competition on Thursday; - Lachie Yr 6 - Discus, Petra Year 4 - Long Jump, Olivia Y Year 4 - 100m and 200m.

St John's Parish Fete - 21st November

Thanks so much to all of you who have returned your Raffle tickets for our annual Parish Fete fundraiser. If you haven't already done so, please return your raffle tickets by Friday 6 November.

Thank you to all the families that have already donated lollies and blocks of chocolate. We really appreciate your help with this as we need these items to run the Lob a Choc and lollies stall at the Fete.

Please sign up for a shift at a stall. It is an enrolment expectation that all families contribute at least an hour to the fete. Teamwork makes the dream work!

If you have not yet signed up for a stall then we are suggesting families to sign up for the following stalls. This will not only ensure a distribution of labour but also enable parents to possibly be on a stall with some familiar faces. Of course you are welcome to sign up for any stall you are interested in.

Popcorn & Fairy Floss Prep

Coffee Yr 1

Snow Cones Yr 2

Lolly Yr 3

Donuts Yr 4

Cakes Yr 5

JJs café Yr 6

Please open the below PDF to sign up directly to the stall of your choice.

The return the school gets from the parish fete and from raffle ticket sales will go directly to funding the astro turf we are planning to install on the lower grassed/mud area. If we can raise enough funds this may be completed over the Christmas holidays.

Toy Donations

Have any preloved toys at home in good, clean condition? We'd love your donations for the Fete Toy Stall! Please drop them off at the front school office.

AFL at St James

The AFL Superkick program at St James has been pushed back to a later start in Term 4 and will commence on Wednesday 11 November. You can still register your child to partake by clicking on the below link. At the moment unless numbers increase from 7 participants to the minimum required of 15, this will have to be rescheduled to next year. If you are interested, please sign up by Monday 9th November.

https://www.playhq.com/afl/register/6f5847

ST JAMES VERMONT PS SUPERKICK CENTRE

Season Dates:

Wednesday 11th November 3:40pm - 4:40pm

Wednesday 18th November 3:40pm - 4:40pm

Wednesday 25th November 3:40pm - 4:40pm

Wednesday 2nd December 3:40pm - 4:40pm

The St James Vermont PS Superkick Centre is open for those who are in Prep through to Grade 6. As part of your registration for the program, participants will also receive a FREE football valued at $30. The cost of the program is $55.

Participants can register for the 4 week program either via the link below or via the QR code attached to the flyer. Register here now:

https://www.playhq.com/afl/register/6f5847

Child Safe Standards

With the importance and commitment that we place on student safety as a school system, please take the time to read and familiarise yourself with the information in the

Child Safe Standard Eight Parent/Carer Newsletter.

Upcoming P & F Events

Mums Night Out - Friday 13th November

All Mum’s are invited to come and join us for a fun night out! Will be an enjoyable and relaxed catch up. Come with friends or make new friends on the night! Please let us know if you can make it via this Google Form - https://forms.gle/oNKygG3iq1UJNCXK8

St. John’s Parish Fete - Saturday 21st November

Fete prep is in full swing!

* Please remember to sign up for a volunteer spot using the links in this newsletter - one time slot per family will fill them all

* Return all raffle tickets (sold or unsold) by tomorrow!

* Donate a block of chocolate and a bag of lollies

* Wristbands are on sale until Wed 18 Nov at $45 each. They will be $55 on fete day

* Missed last Sunday’s pre-loved goods and toys drop-off? No worries! Our next collection is Sunday 8 November, 9am–12pm at the Parish garage (head up the driveway next to the church and Parish Office).

* Please remember your time and effort is rewarded financially to our school to help pay for the astro turf to be installed on the grassed area near the adventure playground

Have a great short week ahead,

Dave

St James News

'St James School Community is committed to the Victorian Child Safe Standards.'

Update Sheet - Week 5- Term 4- 2026 · 04 Nov 2026

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