This Week's Updates

Dear Families,

Last week was certainly a full one for our students and staff. Our Year 1 and 2 students enjoyed their Zoo Excursion, while our Year 6s took part in their Water Safety Day. On Wednesday we had our Special Subway Food Day , and despite the heat, our Year 4s managed a successful Bike Ed Day on Thursday.

Our Advent Open Morning and Parent Thank You Celebration was a very positive way to bring the community together. Parents spent time in classrooms, students were proud to share their learning, and staff enjoyed welcoming families into the school. The feedback from the morning has been encouraging, and it’s an event we’ll definitely continue to build on next year.

We commenced this week with our Prep 2026 Welcome Mass yesterday. This was a great chance to acknowledge new beginnings for our next cohort and to welcome their families into the St James community. There were many families who took advantage of the sausage sizzle and push pops generously organised by our parish team.

As we enter our final full week of Term, we find ourselves well and truly in the Advent and Christmas seasons, and we have another busy week ahead. On Tuesday afternoon, reports will be available on the nForma portal then in the evening, we gather for our Thanksgiving End-of-Year Mass at 7pm in the Community Centre. This celebration provides an opportunity to farewell families departing our St James community next week.

Year Six students then head off to Funfields on Wednesday, followed by their Graduation Evening on Thursday. We will also be farewelling, our Literacy Leader of the past 2 years, Louise Matthews, as she retires from this role at the end of the year. We look forward to having Louise back in a CRT capacity next year.

On Friday, students will meet their 2026 classes during Move Up Morning, and later we will come together for the Prep and Year 1 Nativity Prayer Service at 2:30pm. This will also provide us with an opportunity to farewell Jo Matarazzo who has been keeping our library in fine condition for the past twenty four years. We’ll then round out the week with our End of Term BBQ from 3:20pm–4pm.

Next Monday we will farewell our Year Six students as they lead our final moving on assembly and prayer service from 2pm in the Community Centre. This will be followed by the traditional guard of honour. Next Tuesday is the final day for all students in Years Prep - Yr 5 with dismissal at the usual time of 3.20pm.

With all of this happening, it’s a good moment to pause and remember the heart of the Christmas season. As a Catholic school, we are reminded that Christmas is, above all, a celebration of the birth of Jesus. It's the season for giving, gratitude, and kindness.

I hope the week ahead brings moments of joy and connection for our students and families, and that the spirit of Christmas is felt in the small and simple ways across our school. Speaking of which, our school choir visited Vermont Aged Care today, led by Carlie Eriksen spreading Christmas spirit by singing a lovely variety of festive carols and other songs.

Other important things to note:

Bookings for Beginning of the year student assessments will be open on Friday
Please check the lost property bins as anything left over will be removed over the break
Raffle tickets - please return them by Friday 12th December so that we can draw the winner on Monday 15th December.
We recently had Carlie McGauran speak to our new Prep families about Managing Big Feelings. The replay is available here for 30 days or click here for the Parent Toolkit
Don't forget to pop your letters to Santa in the North Pole Express mailbox in the front office.
A note regarding your child's class for 2026 will be sent out via nForma on Friday and bookings will be open to book Start of Year Assessments on Friday. Wednesday 28th will only be available for our current families to make a booking. New Prep families, please make bookings for any of the subsequent Wednesdays.
As of December 11th, we will no longer use Operoo as our online platform. Instead, we will transition to nForma, which will become our main platform for online parent communication.

Have a great week, and remember Jesus is the reason for the season.

Dave