Principal's News
Presence
As I begin this prayer, God is here.
Around me, in my sensations, in my thoughts and deep within me.
I pause for a moment, and become aware
of God's life-giving presence.
Good afternoon St James parents and friends,
This is the first full week of school for a long time. We have not had all of the school back as one since the last week of Term 2!
How good is it to hear the squeals of joy, laughter and voices of the children. The school today is what we all enjoy. It is one of the reasons why we are teachers, to be with and amongst the happiness and fun of children.
We have further good news to share as well.
The big news this week is that we are a finalist in the Keep Victoria Beautiful Sustainable Cities Award. A media release was shared with all Archdiocesan schools last Friday which is below.
KEEP VICTORIA BEAUTIFUL
St James’ School, Brighton, is a finalist in the Education category of Keep Victoria Beautiful’s Sustainable Cities 2021 Awards.
Since late 2020, the school has undergone a sustainable transformation. Through the hard work of parents and friends, led by Dave Ferrier, worn artificial surfaces have been replaced with a natural wonderland. After remote learning due to the pandemic, students were welcomed back to school 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, and teachers relished a new outdoor classroom around a ‘campfire’. The Urban Food Forest soon followed, with containers of herbs, tomatoes and peppers planted to thrive over summer. More hard work resulted in eight extra garden beds ready for planting, plus a new rustic log-sided sandpit, just for fun.
With greater community support, plans are underway for a chicken coop and outdoor pizza oven made from recycled materials, and a ‘bush tucker’ garden developed with the Boon Wurrung community as traditional custodians of the land.
The 2021 Victorian Schools Garden Awards Virtual Ceremony will be held on Thursday 2 December at 11:00am.
Using material from previous applications and the Sustainable Schools Festival presentation, these Award categories have been applied for :
* Most Engaging Student Garden for Well-Being Learning Award
* Greatest Demonstrated Improvement of School’s Green Space Award
* Most Engaging Garden for Play
Each Award has $1000 if St James CPS is judged as the best school in the Primary and Special Schools with less than 280 pupils category.
There’s also a $2000 Garden Compost Package prize submitted for, and there is a Regional Award of $350 and 1 State Award of $1500. More info is here: https://www.vsgp.org.au/vsga-awards-program/award-categories-and-prizes/.
Confirmation
Next Wednesday 17th November, our Year 6 students continue their faith journey as young Catholic Christians when they celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation with Bishop Tony Ireland. This is a very special time in their life as they come to a fuller awareness of God in their lives as young adults. The Reflection day yesterday was a further moment of preparation for them and we are grateful for the support of Mums Paula, Kate and Adriana.
As a Catholic school and as an inclusive learning community, the Religious Education program at St James does provide that open space of meanings and relationships. The mediations such as stories, symbols, rituals and values that are offered at St James are animated in a conscious and caring manner through what we do as a school community.
Through these mediations and on Confirmation night, all members of the community, parents, students and teachers, are invited and given the opportunity to enter into that living relationship with a transcendent reality we call God, uniquely incarnated in Christ, a relationship that is transformative for both the educational context of our school and parish and the total personal development of every community member.
Due to COVID restrictions we are required to have two celebrations, 5pm and 6.30pm. We are grateful to Bishop Tony Ireland who was able to adjust and accommodate our special day.
Please pray for our young people and their families.
Year ¾ Camp
Next week the children in Year 3 and 4 are heading off to Maldon for their bike camp. St James has been to the Blue Light Youth Camp for many years now. When excursion and camp restrictions were lifted, we were fortunate to be asked to quickly make a decision. Our good friend Denise at Maldon, immediately called us to see if we were interested in attending so late in the school year, as we are one of the school groups that they are pleased to have in Maldon. This decision is wonderful, as the Year 3 children were unable to attend the Zoo trip. There are additional costs associated with this camp as it is two nights accommodation and further bus transport.
Thanks to the teachers Mrs Joplin, Mrs Conway, Lachie, Miss Contin and Mrs Busch, who were able to quickly organise the camping needs and also reorganise their home lives. Let’s hope that the weather is fine. We do celebrate two birthdays whilst on camp (Camille and Valentina), and we will ensure that the celebration on the 16th of November will be one to remember.
Swimming
There will be no swimming program this year. As a school it is important that we reconnect as a school group together at school after such a long period of time. As a school we have many competing elements at the moment . Year ¾ school Camp, Year 6 Confirmation, Year 6 Graduation, Transition programs for new enrolments and Year 6 students, School Production, Assessment schedules and School Reports.
School Production - Shrek the Musical Jr.
At this stage of the school year, it is now likely that we will not be able to have a full audience at the Star of the Sea Performing Arts Centre. Tess has been outstanding in planning around the difficulties of preparing the children for Shrek the Musical Jr. We are still hopeful that we will be able to film the production at Star and therefore all children will be able to be in front of a camera, however not an audience. This is disappointing for everyone as there has been an enormous amount of time and effort invested. What we do finish with will be a first class celebration of talent and something we can treasure for many years. Yesterday I attended a catch up meeting with parents and again the magnificent support to bring the production to life has been a lovely collaborative project.
Upcoming Events
Please read further in the newsletter for details of these fun upcoming events i.e., the annual St James Parents Party, the inaugural St James Dads Movie Night and the St James Kahoot Family Trivia Night. There is also an update from OSHClub on the final page of the newsletter.
COVID Safety Reminders
We ask everyone in our community to monitor for symptoms, such as fever, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath and get testedif any symptoms appear and do not attend school. We ask that students remain at home if a household member is suspected of COVID - 19 until they receive a negative result.
Faith in our future
Brendan