Principal's News
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Enhancing Catholic School Identity Survey
Early next week parents will receive information regarding the Enhancing Catholic School Identity ( ECSI) survey. You will receive an individual user code and password next week. The survey needs to be completed by May 14.
This survey is conducted every four years for schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne to support schools in maintaining and promoting their current Catholic Identity. Students in Year 5 and 6, staff and parents are included in the survey. It is important that we have a strong parents response to the ECSI survey as in previous years the sample size has not been sufficient to provide a realistic indication of the Catholic Identity.
Catholic schools today are challenged to continually articulate our identity and vision, and to express their distinctiveness as a Catholic school in a society where Christian faith is increasingly marginalised.
To assist St James in facing these present realities the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV and Melbourne Catholic Schools (MACS) have entered into a research partnership with the Catholic university in Leuven, Belgium to profile and develop the Catholic Identity of Catholic schools. The ECSI project will assist us to understand better how our Catholic identity is expressed in practice and to support our future development.
I encourage you all to complete the survey and to assist your participation a prize of a book voucher will be supplied to one lucky family on the completion of the survey.
Opening School Disco
Last Friday night was a wonderful occasion for all our school community. The school disco was a huge success and our congratulations and thanks are extended to Sarah Webb and her team of assistants. It was terrific to see the children bopping away to the disco music with our energetic disco leader, Matt. The pizza and fish and chip trucks kept the masses fed and the ice cream van complemented the evening. Friday night was the first time that we have gathered together as a school community for quite a while. The opportunity for our new families to mix with those that have been here for a number of year created a lovely welcoming spirit of connection. The set up for the evening with table settings, decorations, Year 6 stalls and the lighting was well organised. With the cooler weather approaching it was all over by 7:15pm in time for the children to go home to bed after a busy first week.
Dads drinks
Last Thursday the dads had an opportunity to visit the heritage garden and have a tour of the school classrooms. This was the first time for many of them to see the learning spaces at St James, as we have been limited in having too many individuals in the school. Dave Ferrier was able to provide the Dads with an explanation of the heritage garden from its inception to the current stage.
We are hoping to have a similar evening tour for our Mums at some later stage.
Sustainable Gardens and Outdoor Learning Spaces
The Teacher Environment Network will be hosting a Professional Learning opportunity for teachers on May 19th in our St James Heritage Garden. If you haven’t had the chance to see the garden, please do so, as we are being acknowledged in the wider community.
We have recently appeared in the Port Phillip Eco Centre communication newsletter.
Topic: Sustainable Gardens and Outdoor Learning Spaces
Price: FREE
Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2021
Time: 4pm to 5.30pm
Location: St James Catholic Parish Primary School, 6 St James Close, Brighton
Come along for a tour of St James Catholic Parish Primary School’s new Heritage Garden and outdoor learning space. Dave Ferrier, a school parent and arborist, turned to his creative skills during the 2020 lockdown to design, lead and construct this showcase of sustainability.
Through the hard work of parents and friends, old artificial surfaces have been replaced with a natural wonderland. After learning at home, students were welcomed back to school in 2021 to a new sensory garden, made from natural materials like wood, fallen tree branches and river stones. Play spaces to feed imagination were linked by an ‘adventure trail’ through a dry creek bed hiding a crocodile and other friends. And for teachers, a new outdoor classroom around a ‘campfire’.
The herb garden and first stage of the Urban Food Forest soon followed, with herbs, tomatoes and peppers planted to thrive over summer. Plans are being made for the next stage of the project – a new ‘bush tucker’ garden developed with guidance and education from the Boon Wurrung community.
Come along and hear from leadership, parents and students about how this initiative took off, the value it’s providing to the school community and how the outdoor space is being integrated into their learning.
NAPLAN
On Monday many parents tuned in for a presentation of information about the upcoming National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), which will commence on Tuesday 11th May - Thursday 13th May. Parents of children who were unable to attend would have received information this week that was presented by Olivia Quinlan (Teaching and Learning Leader) and Karlee Agnew (Learning Diversity Leader). Our Year 3 and 5 teachers, Mrs Busch, Mrs Conway, Mrs Herbert, Mrs Ferrari, Mrs Joplin,and Miss Contin were also in attendance.
NAPLAN is a national yearly assessment tool that all Year 3, 5,7 & 9 students undertake every year. It is one of many assessments which is part of our assessment schedule.
Communication
Last week you may have seen a message on our Facebook page welcoming everyone back to school. Please refer to the social media modes to also receive updated information and share / like etc.
It's amazing how far and wide posts can extend and this is a valuable means of increasing our school profile and celebrating all that happens at St James. Many prospective families check social media as an initial introduction to St James. At this time of the year we are in the process of interviewing and welcoming new families to our school. This is a shared responsibility, so I encourage you all to be active participants in our social media platforms.
Welcome back
With the easing of COVID restrictions in the wider community we are happy to announce that parents are most welcome in the school both before and after school for 15 minutes. It will be great to have the parents' traffic back and in our learning spaces.
Fabulous News
We congratulate Elise (formerly known at St James as Miss Nooy) and Nathan, who both welcomed their newest bundle of joy into the world. A beautiful baby girl named "Gracie Marie".
Born at 1:13pm on 4.4.21
3.32kgs and 49cm long
Faith in our Future
Brendan