Principal's News 

Jesus said, ``Come to me all you who are burdened and weary, and I will give you  rest’...”

Matthew 11:28

God’s Word today is a comforting word for us: a word to remember whenever our hearts and minds are troubled, anxious or weary.  Sometimes things can become too big for us to carry alone.  We do get tired and at times not sure who to turn to.  Jesus and our St James community invite each of us to trust each other and rest safely in the love that we extend to and with each other.

Enjoy the rest and restoration period ahead with your families and friends.

End of Term

As we enter the last days of the term, can I offer a huge thank you to all the children, parents and teachers for the amazing work for the first two terms of the 2021 year.  There have been some minor adjustments that we have needed to make with closures, but again the community has negotiated the terrain with the same positive mindset that we displayed last year during the extensive lockdown period. We head to the end of June looking forward to a well-deserved break.  The flexibility that we have shown was again obvious and an indication that St James is a resilient and happy place to be. 

Learning Walks

On Monday 22nd June we held our second Learning Walk at St James.  The Learning Walk is an invitation to parents to come into our school for a set period of time to be led on a facilitated and structured learning walk of the school and learning spaces. The focus of the structured walk is children and their learning. 

The purpose is more about giving parents an opportunity to witness what the “real” learning looks like. These are also not about a parent sitting in and observing their child...but to learn more about a topic or the school through observing learning in action. Following the Learning Walk, our participants sat down to a more “in depth community conversation” about what they've observed. We will be having more of the same in Term 3.

Tony Dalton our external Educational consultant supported Olivia, Karlee, Carmelina and I in leading our parent around our learnng spaces.

He has also sent a complementary message on Tuesday morning summarising the walk.

Good morning Brendan

Thanks for yesterday's walk and meeting, thought it was highly impacting all round for both parents, leaders and staff and I confirm that it can really assist in pointing out and making explicit for families the great learning that your children enjoy and are part of.

I think that some of the "best" of St James was on display yesterday and very evident in the feedback from families.

A summary of the parents' responses after the day.  

Learning Walk 2 responses from our 12 participants              Monday 21/6/2021

• The Learning Walk was an insightful experience for parents to see the learning in the environment
• I would encourage parents to come in and see the learning
• It allowed the parents to see/ educate us about what our children learn
• The children were responsible for the learning - the ‘temperature’ in the room was wonderful
• The school community is inclusive
• All parents want to know that their children are doing well
• A Dad's comment when seeing his boys was 'Aah  you are here’, after seeing first hand what is happening and not normally receiving information from them at home
• I appreciated the opportunity to be part of the Learning Walk
• We have been judging by a criteria of learning that happened years ago

Learning at St James is:

• Connected
• Their is a great sense of togetherness
• Learning is fun
• Comfortable
• Progressive
• Relaxed
• Diverse and interactive
• Warm
• A good feel of connection between the children and with teachers and support staff
• It is definitely not the same
• It is not run of the mill
• We discover the joy of learning
• It is family

The Tomorrow's Leaders for Sustainability Program 

St James with the Port Phillip Eco Centre is participating in the Tomorrow's Leaders for Sustainability (TLfS) Program. This program aims to help young people understand and appreciate the key principles and issues of sustainability, while also gaining the knowledge and skills to become leaders in their future careers. The program's training in sustainability leadership is based on a holistic and interactiveapproach to learning that respects the student's prior experience, knowledge and skills. 

The content of the TLfS Program is based on the latest research in both principles of sustainability and leadership training. It is delivered through quality instruction and utilises a "learning by doing" philosophy.

The aim of the project is to make a positive difference in the lives of our students by developing their potential for sustainability leadership, personal growth and career success. 

As tomorrow is the final day of Term 2, students will be dismissed at 1:30pm.

Have a happy safe holiday and see you all on Monday 12th July.

Faith in our Future

Brendan