Principal's Post
Dear Families,
Welcome to Term 1, 2025!
We are delighted to have our familiar families returning and the thirty new families joining our wonderful St James community. Many of these families have children in Prep and we welcome the following students to other levels within our school; Audrey K, Sophia K, Courtney and Blake I.
Our 2025 school year will have many highlights including some of those listed here; Year Six camp to Phillip Island later this week, Year Five camp to Sovereign Hill (15 - 17 September), Whole School Concert Production (11 & 12 August), Confirmation (Thursday 21 August), First Eucharist (Saturday 17 May) and of course the official opening of our new Administration Building later this term.
We are operating from the new administration building which should be much easier for parents to access from the street.
Building Restoration
Works on the Year Prep - Grade Two classrooms took a bit of a standstill for a week or two over the holidays but has resumed and is progressing at a fast rate now. We have carpet and walls in the Prep rooms and works will continue through the other rooms this week. Until the joinery is installed, we will continue to use our temporary locations and may use these rooms for Performing Arts and Auslan.
Year Six Leaders
We presented all of our Year Six students with their leadership badges at this morning's assembly. Every one of our Year Six students is a leader of St James. They are provided with and expected to step up to a variety of leadership opportunities. We believe they will make us, as a staff, and you as their parents very proud throughout the year.
Last year, following a study unit on Leadership, our Year Five students wrote and presented a speech on their own leadership qualities and aspirations. Both students and staff had input to our final selections of official leadership positions which for the 2025 school year are as follows:
School Captains: Tessa B, Amelia B, Andrew M, Xavier V
Language Leaders: Adele M, Katherine G
Mission Leaders: Matisse W, Julian J
Wellbeing Leaders: Levi S, Matthew B, Charlotte O
Art Leaders: Talitha K, Andrea B
Environmental Leaders: Chloe L, Piper M
Sport Leaders: Spencer B, Ben Mc
STEM Leaders: Zac T, Maddie H
School Photos
School photos will be taken next Monday 10 February.
Please note that our whole staff photo will be taken at 8.20am.
We ask parents: please do NOT drop off students early because there will be no supervision until 8.30am.
Instructions to order photos will be provided shortly.
Parent Information Evening Wednesday 12 February
These class information sessions offer an opportunity for you to hear from your child's teacher and are compulsory for at least one parent to attend.
We schedule two sessions to assist parents with more than one child to attend each child's session. No bookings are required.
Times are 5.45pm - 6.30pm and 6.45pm - 7.30pm in your child's class
Due to limited space as a result of restoration works, we will not hold the whole school gathering in between the sessions as per previous years.
Term One - things to note
Watering - Thank you to the families who gave up their time to water our turf over the weekend. It's Thank you to the families who volunteered and were not required. Emir will contact some of these families to help us out next weekend.
Farm Duty - Thank you to our families who have volunteered their time over the weekend during Term One to look after the farm animals.
Our Parents and Friends will be meeting soon and we are still looking for some leadership support for Jason Barrie in a joint coordinating role and a Treasurer to work and liaise with Lisa in our office.
Friday Treat Icypoles start this Friday. Students may purchase an icy pole at recess for 50 cents; yes we still use actual coins! See the P & F section of the newsletter for further details.
Marathon Club will commence Wednesday 12 February.
Keep an eye out for permissions and authorisations via Operoo.
Closure Days Term One and Two
We discussed possibilities with our SAC last year and decided to hold these on Friday 7th March and Monday 21st April. We will engage MACSEYE to be available for families who require child minding on these days.
MACSEYE Out of Hours School Care
Please register your children for this service
Click here to register
If you have any questions you can email MACSEYE
directly at enrolments@macseye.vic.edu.au
Uniform Shop
St James uniform is available from Spartan School World shop at U12/100 New St, Ringwood or via the website. Please note the change in address.
Have a great week. I will be at the Yr 6 Camp Wed - Thurs, while Anita will be attending Thurs - Fri.
Dave