Principal's News 

Creator God, Your image is alive in every human person

Restore in us your vision of a world made whole, and inspire us to commit ourselves to the common good.

God, give us ears to hear, eyes to see and hearts to love, so that we reflect you in our way of life, and in our choices, words and actions.

Jesus is the good news to the poor. As his followers, may we recognise the call to be the same.

Amen.

This term in our Inquiry unit in all levels, we are focussed on one of the Catholic Social Justice teachings, the Dignity of the Human Person. Coupled with this we have a Gospel throughline which informs our Catholic response and drives our curriculum delivery.

‘for where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them’.

As a community I believe we have a desire to act for solidarity and an ability to work together, a willingness to share with others our time, our energy, our skills and talents. 

It is interesting that this week the Federal Government are discussing the Religious Discrimination bill.  There are different interpretations about what this means for society. 

Our prayer for this week is provided above. 

Short Term Accommodation

We are requesting assistance from someone in our school community for Short Term accommodation for approximately two months. ie Apartment / unit / or self contained accommodation.  

If you can assist or know of someone who can, please email principal@stjamesbrighton.catholic.edu.au 

2023 Enrolments - Important notice.  

The most effective school promotion we can have is from our parents.  St James is YOUR school.  You have made the decision to choose St James as the school for your children. Whether it was last year or in previous years, you made a considered decision and have an investment in St James. Can I request all Mums and Dads continue to advocate for YOUR school.

Please send this message to any family who may be interested. (Phone call, email, text etc).   Not only parents of 3 and 4 year olds but also children in other Primary levels.  

I am available to meet and chat to anyone who would like to know about St James.  

School Review

This year St James will be participating in a School Review.  

As one of Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACs)  we will engage in a single model of review using the School Improvement Framework (SIF) Rubric as the core tool. The SIF Rubric will be used to support deep learning and ongoing monitoring of our improvement throughout a four year cycle of the whole School Improvement process.  

The review process has two dimensions.

Improvement : which supports self assessment and reflection of performance and growth in school improvement and informs planning for our future growth.  This grounds our next School Improvement Plan

Compliance: an audit/ verification process of the minimum standards for our registration and other State and Commonwealth requirements for all Catholic schools.  

The review provides the opportunity to celebrate what is going well, where adjustments can be made.  Data sets from children, parents and teachers will be analyzed by the external reviewer to assist in the review and for future strategic planning (School Improvement Plan).

We are looking forward to the Review which will be conducted over three days in late Term 2 - to Term 3.

Children arriving early to school.

There are a number of children arriving at school before 8.40am  Teachers are not on supervision duty until 8.40am.  Could I strongly remind parents that children adhere to this safety request.  If children do arrive early they will need to sit quietly in the playground.

Risk Minimisation and Prevention strategies re Anaphylaxis

At St James we do have a number of children in our school who have Anaphylaxis Management Plans (ASCIA Action Plan).  

St James Primary School will not ban certain types of foods (e.g. nuts) as it is not practicable to do so, and is not a strategy recommended by the Department or the Royal Children’s Hospital. However, the school will avoid the use of nut based products in all school activities, and request that parents not send those items to school if at all possible.  It is important that we eliminate or reduce the likelihood of such allergens, and we will reinforce the rules about not sharing and not eating foods provided from home.

Parents Association

In the previous newsletter I asked for volunteers for Executive positions and other roles for the Parent Association.

I am pleased to announce that Connie Sands and Viginia Pullman have accepted the positions as Co-chairs for the Parents Association.  This is wonderful news.  The Parents Association is an integral part of school.  They provide the life and energy in creating a school community that is humming and focussed on assisting teachers, children and the wider community to join together in a spirit of nurture and fun.  

Thanks also  to the many people who have volunteered to assist with Pancake Tuesday.

Mel Fuller, Susan Conterno, Albana, Lee and Richard Hemingway…..  Apologies if I have left someone out who has offered support.  The Senior children will be away on camp for the early part of this week and will have pancakes at CYC Christain Youth Camp in the city.  

School Fees

This week fee statements were sent out to families.  This is later than in previous years as there have been delays with the MACs ICON platform across all Catholic schools. We apologize for the late notices you would have received this week

The setting of fee levels and other compulsory charges at St James is the responsibility of the school, taking into consideration the allocation of government funds.  Fees are reviewed annually by the Business Manager Cindy O’Donoghue, MACs and myself.  We do offer a number of methods in paying fees to reduce the financial burden and to assist your financial planning.  

Fees must be paid for your child to enrol and continue enrolment.  If you have difficulty in meeting the required fee payment, you are welcome to discuss this with me.  Included in your fee letter was the Fee Concessional Policy.

Thought for the week

It is not what you do for your children

but what you have taught them to do for themselves,

that will make them

successful human beings.

                                                                                                         Anne Landers

Please read the important news on the Teaching and Learning page.  This is important information for all families provided by Olivia Quinlan.

Faith in our future

Brendan