Principal's News
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Let us open our eyes to the love and beauty of the world, and let us close our eyes and reflect on the missed opportunities of the world. Lead us into compassion and care, not injustice or hate. Let us love the ones around us and help them to be selfless and kind.
St James, pray for us. Amen.
Written by Isabel D - Year 4J
A Service of Healing and Reconciliation
As we move to the beginning of rebuilding
St James Church we are holding a service:
- to acknowledge
- to lament
- for healing
- for reconciliation
- for hope
Bring along a chair, rug or cushion as we gather to lament for the past and pray for our future.
St James Church grounds in front of Presbytery
on Sunday 4 December @ 7pm
at 73 North Road GARDENVALE
Share your memories, reflect and celebrate our future. Please come and join us with Fr Martin Dixon & Frances J Sullivan CEO for Truth Justice and Healing Council of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
Rememberance Day 11/11/16
The Year 6 SRC Leaders and I were invited to represent the school at the Remembrance Day Service at the Green Point Cenotaph, Brighton last Friday 11th November.
We travelled by train from the Gardenvale Station to Brighton Beach station.
I was very proud of our students as they laid a wreath to honour our servicemen and women.
Wenceslao National High School
Is a small country school situated in the northern part of the Philippines. The staff and students are the happy recipients of
St James' old desktop computers. We thank Imelda Cuaresma (in the office) for arranging the transfer and we are very grateful for this donation to enhance our learning.
The Staff and Students of Wenceslao National High School.
Master Plan update
In recent months a Project Control Group consisting of parents, staff and Fr Martin have been meeting with the appointed architects, Baldasso Cortese, to create a Master Plan to reorganise St James in order to create a physical environment that is conducive to the learning and teaching needs of our community. Our school is currently operating in school buildings that are tired and in desperate need of work. In our desire to be a school that delivers quality education within a framework that embraces the challenges and excitement of education, this project will ensure that
St James can move forward and maintain its strong profile in the community.
The Project Control Group is a representative group with the responsibility of recalibrating our school. The PCG’s brief is to develop authentic learning spaces with an educational pedagogy that is responsive to an environment that allows for quality learning and teaching,and fosters our partnerships as a unique community.
The team members are Fr Martin, Liam Buckley, Samm Meagher, Donna Anderson, Tria Lynch, Marcus Bailey, John Marks, and myself with architects Steven Cortese, (Design Director) Ben Percy (Senior Project Architect), and Gabriella Muto (Architect).
To date we have had three consultation meetings as a Project Control Group and one meeting with Student Representative students in Year 5 and 6.
The process to date has been thorough and involved a shared understanding of what is significant for our children, parents and staff. Major discussion points have included an understanding of our school Vision and Values, site analysis and investigations, current constraints, a facilities brief, disk workshops, mood boards, designs by the students, possible design options and staging of the building project. This is indeed an exciting time and will transform St James being mindful of our past as well as an eye for the future.
Further information will be forwarded as details of the Project's progression evolve.
Student Report
On Thursday the 10th November the S.R.C.’s from Year six and the newly elected Year 5 S.R.C.’s came together with Mr. Flanagan, Gabby and Sherman who are the architects for the St James building project in 2017/18.
We discussed with them some things we liked already about the school, what needs improvement and our wishlist for the project. We then together created a ‘mood board’ which included pictures from other schools which have won awards for the architecture in their designs. We selected the pictures that we liked and stood out to us. We explained why we thought they would be good to include in our project.
Another activity that we did was a drawing activity. We used a picture of the school, and we put tracing paper over the picture and drew what we thought we should add on to the school. We let our creative juices flow and went crazy with our designs. We drew things like slides, swimming pools, trampolines, elevators and lots colourful stained glass windows.
We all had lots of fun doing these activities with Gabby and Sherman and we would like to say thank you to Mr. Flanagan for allowing lots of student voice to be heard in this project. On behalf of the students as well we would also like to thank Gabby and Sherman for coming in and sharing their ideas, knowledge and expertise about architecture and helping us with our project in the future.
Sybillle M. - Yr6
Health Checks
As we enter the final part of the school year our children can run out of steam. With the current swimming program and an increase in daylight hours our children will become tired. If your child is unwell with a persistent cough, or their energy is fading it is preferable that they have the time away to rest and recuperate. This is in fairness to the other children who they are in constant contact with. Headlice is also a constant worry in all schools. If your child attracts the dreaded friend please ensure that they are treated to ensure that they don’t befriend others.
According to one of my fellow Principals in Queensland, James Cook University contends that head lice cannot survive in hats or carpets. They need to be treated if your child contracts them to ensure that they are contained. I am not sure how they arrive however we have fixed the fence to restrict their entry.
Art Show
Please note the Art Show dates coordinated by our Visual Arts teacher Mrs Liz Hyslop.
The Launch Night is set for Thursday 24th November at 5pm - 8pm with following sessions on Friday 25th November 8.40- 9am and 3 -3.45pm
The Art show celebrates the artistic abilities of our children and promises to be an exciting time for our children and parents.
School Closure
To enable the staff to plan for the 2017 school year, St James will be finishing at 1.30pm on Monday 28th November. Our teachers will be dedicating the afternoon and into the evening time to ensure that the curriculum planning across the school is thoroughly prepared for the following year / term. Our new classroom teachers, Ms Teri Orengo, Miss Olivia Quinlan and Mrs Georgia McNamara will be with us at this time. I appreciate that this is short notice, however to ensure that St. James can continue to deliver the quality education, solid planning time is required. In the past weeks in preparation for the day, our staff have been working with Donna Anderson an Educational Consultant. Care will be available with OSHClub.
Mr Tim Wilson
Federal Member for Goldstein
Yesterday we received a call from Mr Tim Wilson’s Office in response to a series of persuasive texts (letters) written by our Year 5 children in response to the Asylum and Refugee challenges at Nauru and Manus Island. The letters were an attempt to present a child’s view on the detention issue and draw to the attention the concerns of our future Goldstein constituents. They will be voters in 6/7 years.
To be active and informed is a goal for our St James children. We want them to take responsibility for themselves and others, to be reflective and critical thinkers and to see knowledge as connecting viewpoints and also viewpoints that can be contested.
The response from Tim Wilson’s the Office manager addressed to Mr Buckley reads as follows,
‘Thank you for your time today and thanks to Joshua Martin who wrote to Tim about his concerns to human rights and asylum seekers. Confirming that Tim will attend your school on Wednesday December 7th at 2.30pm for the community assembly.
As discussed Tim is happy to address the concerns that Joshua raised in his letter and assist in the broader format of the assembly.
Many thanks for you assistance with this.’
Claire Ewart Kennedy
Office manager -Office of Tim Wilson MP
Tim Wilson was the previous Chair of the Human Rights Commission and preceded Gillian Triggs who currently holds this important position. We look forward the meeting and I strongly encourage parents to attend.
Special praise to Joshua Martin and all our Year 5’s for taking an active role in having a voice in matters that they are interested in.
Brendan