Principal's Post

Dear Families,

Welcome to week 6! That means less than 6 weeks to go for our Year Six students!

We had 8 families attend our Prep 2028 school tour on Friday and it was heartwarming to hear how many of them were visiting based on recommendations from our current families.

Our 2027 Prep cohort of 50 students will be joining us again on Wednesday for their final Prep transition. They are very enthusiastic and we look forward to welcoming them next year as full time students!!

Congratulations to our 2nd early raffle ticket winner - The McDade Family - who were happy recipients of a $50 voucher. If you haven't returned your raffle tickets, please do so ASAP as all books, sold or unsold, must be accounted for as part of the terms of the raffle.

Thank you to all those families who have kindly donated chocolate blocks and lollies for our fete stalls. Please endeavour to bring some in if you have not yet done so. One block of chocolate and one bag of lollies from each family at the school, ensures that the stalls are sufficiently stocked on Fete day.

Sports Day This Thursday

We are excited about our Whole School Sports Day this Thursday, 12 November from 12pm - 3pm here at St. James. Don't forget to wear your child's house colour when you come along to support. We have organised a coffee van 11.30am - 1.00pm for parents to purchase drinks from.

Students are to wear their Sports Uniform and a touch of the House Colour which may include; a T shirt , head band, ribbons, socks, hat etc

Here is the schedule for the day:

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

Important Reminder: Photography, Privacy, and AI Use at School Events

As our school community gathers for upcoming events, performances, and celebrations, we kindly ask all families to help us maintain a safe and respectful environment regarding privacy and digital security.

Photographing Students: You are welcome to take photos or videos of your own child. However, please ensure that other students or staff members are not included in your shots without their express permission.
Social Media & Online Sharing: Please do not post photos or videos containing other students or staff members on social media platforms, personal websites, or public forums.
AI Processing & Uploads: Under no circumstances should images or recordings of other students or staff be uploaded into artificial intelligence (AI) tools, apps, or image generators. Uploading photos to AI platforms often stores and processes biometric and visual data on external servers, creating privacy risks for individuals.

We appreciate your cooperation in protecting the privacy, identity, and safety of every member of our school community.

Swimming & Water Safety

Our Prep to Yr 4 Swimming Program will begin on Monday 16th November to Friday 27th November. This will be a nine day program due to the School Closure day on Friday 20th November. Student permission forms have been sent to parents via NForma. please ensure to complete the form by the end of the week.

Our Water Safety Program for our Year 5s will take place on Monday 23rd November and for our Year 6s on Thursday 26th November. Information and permission forms have been shared with parents to complete.

Due to the P- 4 Swimming program in week 7 and 8, there will be an adjusted Specialist timetable for all classes. This will be emailed to parents over the next couple of days.

Parish Fete Items for Every Family to Tick Off

return raffle tickets
send along a large block of chocolate for the lob a choc stall
send along a bag of lollies for the lolly stall
sign up for a shift working at the fete (each family is expected to contribute some time to supporting the fete noting the following recommendations:
Popcorn & Fairy Floss     Prep
Coffee Yr 1
Snow Cones     Yr 2
Lolly      Yr 3
Donuts     Yr 4
Cakes    Yr 5
JJs café     Yr 6
(Of course you are welcome to sign up for any stall you are interested in.)
students return colouring competition sheets
purchase ride wrist bands early to save money. Early bird tickets are $45 and online bookings close at 11pm on 18th November. General Wristbands are $55 from 18th November and on Fete Day. *******Clickhere to purchase wristbands.*******
We are looking for volunteers to help make this event a success. Please refer to the St John's Fete page.

AFL Footy at St James - Postponed

Unfortunately, due to low uptake, the AFL Superkick program at St James has been postponed until Term 1 next year. Those who have registered will be contacted directly by the AFL coordinators. Information regarding registration for Term 1 will be shared early next year.

Library Update

Thank you to all who supported our 2026 Scholastic Book Fair. It was our most successful fair ever and we made a profit of over $1,500 which will go directly to new books and resources for our library. Students are already enjoying some new titles that have been introduced to our shelves!

Over the past few months we have been reviewing our ePlatform subscriptions (ebooks and audiobooks) that are available to all St James students to use at school and at home. The service isn’t being utilised enough to warrant continuing the subscriptions, so these will not be renewed going forward. For those few students that are using the service, the ebook access will discontinue any day now and the audio books will discontinue in March 2027.

If your child would like to keep reading and listening to books digitally, we highly recommend switching to these free alternatives:

Epic (Great for school hours/sick days at home)Our teachers use Epic in the classroom. Students can read thousands of digital books for free Monday to Friday during school hours (7am to 4pm) using their class code. (Please note: Parents can set up a separate account for reading at home after 4pm or on weekends, however access is limited to 2 hours per week unless families choose to buy a premium home account).

BorrowBox & Libby (Best for free home reading & audiobooks)For unlimited, completely free access to ebooks and audiobooks at home, you can download the free BorrowBox App or Libby App on any smartphone or tablet. You simply log in using a free junior membership card from your local public library. If your child does not have a public library card yet, you can sign up online for free on your local council library’s website. Please remember these apps have books for all ages, therefore you may wish to screen what books your child is borrowing if your library does not screen books according to your child's age.

Don’t forget we have thousands of amazing books available for students to borrow in our St James Library!

Thank you for your ongoing support in keeping our students reading!

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. Staff have also recently been meeting to read and discuss the 11 standards, reviewing ways we demonstrate our commitment to the Standards at St James and the vital importance they have in our organisation.

Note from our P&F Chairman

We’re incredibly fortunate to be part of such a warm, generous and enthusiastic community, and 2027 is a wonderful opportunity to bring that spirit to life through some truly memorable events. We’re inviting parents to bring their energy, ideas and community spirit to a range of exciting roles within our Parents and Friends Committee for 2027.

Our P and F already has a fantastic foundation in place, with clearly defined roles and Year Level Champions helping everything run smoothly. There’s also a wonderful network of experienced and supportive parents who have helped bring past events to life and can share their knowledge with anyone keen to get involved in 2027.

More than anything, volunteering is a brilliant way to connect with other families, make new friendships and contribute to the community our children are growing up in. And there’s something pretty special about the kids seeing Mum or Dad get involved, lend a hand and show them what community spirit looks like in action!

If you can assist please sign up via the link below, or if you are curious and wish to discuss, please reach out via pandf@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au or Jason on 0421-566-346.

https://volunteersignup.org/49EK3

St James P & F

A new home for our ducks

While we’ve loved having the ducks, we have realized they unfortunately aren't the best fit for our farm set-up. If anyone in our school community is interested in offering them a loving new home, please get in touch with me for more details at joanne.magnik@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au

Movember

The St James Movember Team are once again embracing Movember by growing mos, walking/running/swimming 500km and supporting men’s health in various ways. So far we are up to 176km!!!

If you’d like to support our worthy cause, please click the link below: https://au.movember.com/team/2403393

As of now we have raised an amazing $135 with all funds raised go towards innovative, world-class men’s health projects in key areas such as mental health, suicide prevention and cancer research.

A special thanks to the staff, families and students who have donated so far!

Movember Team

Have a great week,

Dave