Principal's Post

Dear Families,

Welcome to our 2024 school year of opportunity, fun, learning and community.

We had a very productive week last week with students settling in well and teachers gathering a great deal of informative data to help plan learning opportunities targeted at students' needs.

Farewell Michelle Wells from the Office

Last Friday we said farewell to Michelle and wished her all the best in her new role. Over the holidays Michelle was offered a position working as the Executive Assistant to our State Government Minister Steve Dimopoulos. In her two years here at St James, Michelle's friendly, caring and efficient ways has made a great impact and contribution towards our St James community. 

Welcome Preps

Our new Prep Students settled into school life at St James so easily last week. The only tears came from a few of our invested parents who were proud of their their beautiful children ias they left them in our care for the day. I would estimate that this 2024 cohort have been the most settled in my seven years of welcoming preps to St James. Experience tells us that there will be a few hiccups over the next month, but let's celebrate them being settled for now!

We clapped them in to our Prayer Service/Assembly on Friday, introduced them to the audience and then they sat and listened.

Year Six Leaders

I am so proud of our Year Six students who were all presented with their leadership badges on Friday afternoon as well. A few of these leaders lead our assembly and prayer service for the first time and did so with great confidence, despite hardly any rehearsal time. They head off to camp at Phillip Island on Wednesday morning.

School  Start and Finish Times 

Here is a reminder of times to assist all families with the procedures before and after school.

8.30am - students enter the property and teachers commence supervision duty

               - students play on the quadrangle and netball court area

               - any student who arrives early MUST sit on the seats outside the office until the teacher comes out on duty

8.45am - music plays and students move into classrooms

8.50am - First Bell for Meditation/Prayer/Roll to commence the day

3.15pm - Pack up/Bus Bell rings

3.20pm - Dismissal Bell 

                - Teacher on duty at top driveway gate

                - Crossing supervisor at bottom crossing

3.30pm - Students not collected are returned to wait at the office if parents are late

3.40pm - Students not yet collected are taken to After School Care to be collected

Breaktime Clubs

We have a number of lunchtime clubs commencing this week. The idea behind these clubs is to provide students with some alternate social and active opportunities to playing on the playground during break times. Depending on the popularity of the clubs we sometimes need to rotate the various grade levels of students attending. We rely on the generosity of our staff giving up part of their break times to facilitate these clubs which occur during the first half of lunchtime break.

Monday: Lego Club in the Reynolds Community Centre

Tuesday: Art Drawing Club in the Art Room

Wednesday: Farmyard Open

Thursday: Choir 

Friday: Book Cafe & Chess Club in the Library

Marathon Club

This will commence next week on Wednesday 21 February. All Year three to Six students are invited to come along on Wednesday mornings 7.45 - 8.15, run/walk laps of the school, gain points for your sports house colour and then have a breakfast prepared by some of our wonderful parent volunteers.

The cost is $10 per term, payable in cash in a clearly labelled envelope (Marathon Club and Students name and class) which can be handed in to the office or brought along on a Wednesday morning.

Parents wishing to volunteer to be on the breakfast roster please contact one of our generous parent organisers, Belinda Bele 0434 677 402 or Katrina van Vuuren 0406334647.

Late Pick Up

Please take note that our school office will now be closed from 4pm. Consequently, any students who have not been collected by 3.40pm, 20 minutes after dismissal time will need to be taken to our Camp Australia run After School Care program where they can be supervised and fed afternoon tea. Unfortunately, there will be a cost involved for this care to be provided.

If parents are running a few minutes late, we are always happy to look after your children, however, we have meetings and planning sessions that we need to attend.

Photo Day next Monday 12 February

Please ensure that you have completed the online order forms by Friday.

Please also ensure that students are wearing their correct school uniform including appropriate shoes, hair ties etc

Photos will be taken with jumpers off.

Medication Forms

If your child requires any occasional or long term medication at home or school, please ensure to fill out the appropriate forms that are located on Operoo.  All completed forms must be uploaded to your child's Operoo profile.  Please note that the new MACS forms require details of a healthcare provider, these include 

• Nurses, midwives, nurse practitioners and other endorsed nurses
• Pharmacists
• Dentists, dental hygienists, dental therapists and oral health therapists
• Optometrists, authorised optometrists and orthoptists
• Podiatrists and authorised podiatrists
• Psychologists
• Physiotherapist

If you have any questions regarding this process or the MACS forms, please feel free to contact our First Aid Officer, Antoinette Moroney via email.  antoinette.moroney@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au 

Parent Information Evening Wednesday 14 February

This is one of the few evenings we expect every family to be represented at the school. It is the only opportunity we have for classroom teachers to present the same information regarding the curriculum, extra curricular activities and general expectations to all parents in the level.

The format of the evening is as follows:

6.00pm           Classroom Teachers Presentation in classrooms

6.45pm.          Whole School Presentation by Dave/Leaders in the Community Centre

7.20pm.          Classroom Teachers Presentation in classrooms repeated

8.00pm           Finish

We repeat the session to allow for parent with more than one child to attend more than one session and to provide parents with only one child at school to choose which classroom session they attend.

Level and Specialist Newsletters

The Level and Specialist Newsletters will be emailed to parents next Monday 12th February. These will also be published in our next school Newsletter. In the meanwhile if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email your child's classroom teacher or Anita Dell'Orso. 

Time in Lieu, The New Award and Closure Days

In line with the new award for teachers and other staff working in schools are a number of changes we are required to make to the working hours of staff. We discussed this at a number of our School Advisory Council meetings last year and made a conscious effort to cause as least disruption to families as possible. Unfortunately a few changes to past practices are now required to be put into place. 

For this term we are holding our Learning Conferences on the afternoon of Wednesday 27 March and the morning of Thursday 28 March. This means that the final day for classes this term will be Wednesday 27 March.

We also have a School Closure Day for staff professional development on Friday 8 March, the Friday of the Labour Day long weekend.

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) have also advised schools to have a Time in Lieu Day on Friday 26 April, the day following ANZAC Day. 

2024 CSEF Applications

2024 Camp, Sport and Excursion Fund applications are now open.  If you hold a current Healthcare Card you are welcome to apply.  Once the form is completed, either drop it into the office or email it to lisa.morris@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au.

Please see link below for the application form.

SIGN UP NOW FOR MUSIC LESSONS AT SCHOOL

A message from Online Music Solutions

Hello Parents and students,

Lessons for keyboard, guitar, sax, clarinet, flute and trumpet are available for students from grades prep-6. Lessons are held at school on Mondays through Online Music Solutions (OMS). Group lessons cost $17.50 with 1:1 lessons also available from $25.

Other instrumental lessons are available for Violin, Cello with Peter O’Shea (0409 193 004). Parents of students wishing to participation any of these programs please emailoms@bigpond.net.au for an ENROLMENT FORM. Further enquiries phone Justin 0410 678 584

Enjoy a great week ahead! 

Dave