Principal’s Message

Welcome to Term 3 and Semester 2. These first few weeks have been busy weeks with which to commence the new term, and I thank the students for the way that they have involved themselves in the daily life and activities of St James College, and applied themselves to their classes and their studies following their return from the holiday break.

Feast of St James the Apostle

Thursday 25 July, was the feast day of St James The Apostle, our College’s Patron Saint.  St James was one of the Twelve Apostles who were called by Jesus to follow him, as he moved around Judea, preaching the message of God. From the Gospel stories, James was one of only a few apostles present when Jesus worked many of his miracles and cures.

James was also one of those closer to Jesus when Jesus suffered what we know as the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the evening before Jesus was crucified on Mt Calvary, near Jerusalem. As we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, James was the first of the twelve apostles to be put to death, martyred, for his following and preaching the teachings of Jesus. James was a great proponent of putting our faith into action through the doing of good works, and this is particularly relevant for our College community as we work towards our Mission Action Day walkathon in week five of this term to raise funds to assist the students and staff at Lasalle Technical College in Port Moresby, PNG. Further information regarding the walkathon is included in this newsletter - thank you to our walkathon Facilitator, Mr Joel Harriss, who is organising this year’s campaign.

We celebrated St James Day with a whole school Mass on Friday, and afterwards, our Semester 1 awards ceremony. Thank you to Fr Jacob, Parish Priest of Holy Trinity Parish, who celebrated our Mass. We appreciate the attendance at our celebration of the De La Salle Brothers from the Mentone Community – Br Joseph Gabel, Br Quentin O’Halloran and Br Michael McCabe. Br Joseph Gabel is a former principal of St James College and we acknowledge his leadership and contribution to our College during the mid-1980s.

Academic Awards Ceremony

Following our mass, we presented the St James Award to one student at each year level. The St James the Apostle Award is presented to students who embody the Lasallian Principles and the Spirit of St James College. We congratulate this year’s award winners: Xavier Green (7), William Kokotis (8), George Aliss (9) and James Vakis (10).

Many students were acknowledged with Academic Awards for Semester One, as well as presentation of the Semester One Academic Dux prize at each year level to Blake Johnson (7), Zachary Fernandez (8), Lewis Desmond (9) and Maxwell Fernandez (10). I congratulate these students, along with the many students who received awards for Academic Effort, Achievement and Excellence for their involvement and dedication to their studies, whilst encouraging all St James students to challenge themselves to achieve higher results during the second half of the year.

The new Year 7 Student Representative Councillors were also acknowledged and presented with their badges of Office during this ceremony. We look forward to working with Anthony Emelianov (7.1), Frederick Telfer (7.2), Ethan Tsiakos (7.3) and William Blitz (7.4) as part of the Student Council group.

Thank you to the many parents and families who were present on this occasion to congratulate their sons who were receiving Awards.

Long Serving Staff Awards

We also acknowledged Long Serving Staff members at our recent Awards Ceremony. Congratulations and thank you to the following teachers for their work with our students and their contribution to our College:

10 Years

Kate Brierty

Dan McMahon

Damian Perry

20 Years

Natalie Bates

Dee O’Neill

Patrick Janes

SIS Theatre Sports

Congratulations to our SIS Theatre Sports Teams who performed very well at the SIS Championships last week. Our junior boys and our seniors were both Runners-Up in their sections. Well done to the students involved and to our Drama teacher, Ms Rachel Urquhart on their achievements.

Year 10 Transition Evenings

I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents for their attendance and continued support at the recent Year 11 Subject Selection Interview Evening for our Year 10 students transitioning to St Bede’s College, and the VCE Information Evening for our students moving to De La Salle College next year. We wish our students and families well as they continue to work through this transition process that works very smoothly with our fellow Lasallian Colleges and our other partner schools.

Prayer

Following his recent Feast Day, we recall that St James was a faithful disciple of Jesus and is an inspiration for all of us. We attribute much of our Catholic Heritage to the qualities that St James displayed while being with, and following Jesus, namely: companionship, support for others, collegiality, respect, and being the guiding example for others.

We pray that like St James, each of us will gain better insights into how we too can be faithful followers of the message of Jesus, as found in the Gospels: the Good News!

I would like to wish everyone connected with St James College all the very best for Semester 2.

Stephen Pooley

Principal