St James Learning and Teaching

Curriculum / Classroom News

Literacy

HOLIDAY READING

Continued reading during the holiday period is essential to maintain the progress your child has made this term. Take the time to visit the local library and borrow books which capture imagination and interest. Focus on reading for enjoyment, talking about the text and nurturing a love of literature

We understand that your child’s reading is important so in lieu of take home readers there are several programs that you can use at home over the next two weeks

Read with your child regularly. You can borrow books from your local library and co-read with them.
In the junior school use Pm online or in Prep and Year 1 MultiLit readers.
There are a multitude of websites with fun literacy based activities. For examples: ABCya - Please note this website does not work on iPads.
Keep a diary of what is happening during the holidays, read this to someone in the family.
Visit the local library.

FUN WAYS TO ENCOURAGE READING IN THE SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

Some children bask in the uninterrupted reading time that the holidays allows, whilst others celebrate the end of the term – and enforced reading requirements – with glee. However, it’s important for children to continue reading over the school holidays in order to maintain their literacy skills.

There is nothing more important for your child’s education than for them to read. We’ve put together some ideas to help you nudge your children into action.

DISCOVER NEW GENRES - BOOKS AND READING APPS

When children read they learn new words, they get ideas; we suggest using trial and sample books on Amazon and Apple Books. If your kids don’t want to read the first two chapters, they’re probably not going to pursue the third chapter and you can try something else.

One of the real advantages of stores like the Amazon Kindle store, is that it learns from your preferences. Once you start to find some books in a genre that you like, it recommends new books for you. It can be a great challenge for someone who doesn’t yet know which genre of books they like to read but the school holidays are a great time to figure it out.

PLAY WORD, BOARD AND CARD GAMES

One effective way to consolidate children’s learning is to play games. It’s reading that doesn’t feel like reading! A game of eye spy in the car helps kids practice associating letters with objects in the real world. Board games like Scrabble and card games cultivate language and literacy skills. Try Bananagrams or Hangman.

TRY AUDIOBOOKS AND PODCASTS

Using audiobooks and podcasts is an effective strategy to help children who don't want to read on the holidays connect with words and literature. Children can engage with the material in a way that is more entertaining and less stressful for them.

Audiobooks

Children can find themselves captivated by a narrated story. Music and sound effects are also part of the production and make listening to an audiobook a truly immersive experience. Even though it’s not technically reading, audiobooks support reading and literacy skills by building vocabulary and modelling fluency.

Audiobooks are fantastic for long car rides to holiday destinations or to use when your little ones need to wind down at bedtime. Let their minds wander through the wardrobe and into the land of Narnia with stories of C.S. Lewis, or imagine themselves climbing the treehouse, higher and higher, to inhabit the ‘stories’ of Andy Griffiths. Older children can wander the wild plains of Africa listening to stories by Paul Theroux while they walk the dog.

Audiobooks can be accessed via a number of streaming services like Audible and Spotify, and most e-readers have audio functions. Your local library is likely to have an audio borrowing system too, so speak to your librarian.

Audiobook suggestions

In the Junior school try:

Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne, narrated by Stephen Fry
Charlotte’s Web by E B White, narrated by the author
The Faraway Tree By Enid Byton, narrated by Kate Winslett
Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl, narrated by Chris O’Dowd

For our older readers try:

Harry Potter series by JK Rowling, narrated by Stephen Fry
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Tatiana Maslany
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein, narrated by Rob Inglis
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, narrated by Tim Curry

Thank you for a fantastic term of literacy. Have a wonderful holiday. We look forward to hearing all about the amazing adventures you read about in Term 4 .

Mandi Joplin

Junior Literacy and Intervention Leader

Sport

Congratulations to all 60 students who competed at the Holt District Athletics Carnival on Friday 1st September. It was a lovely day to be trackside and our students absolutely made the St James community proud. We finished 3rd overall which was a fantastic achievement. Well done to everyone be it their first time competing for St James or their last.

Congratulations to Lyla P who created a new record in the 11yo 100ms And Ethan K who also broke the 11yo Triple Jump record by 1.5m’s.

The following students have now qualified for the Beachside athletics carnival to be held on Tuesday 10th October at Duncan McKinnon. All details for this event have been shared separately via Operoo.

St James Beachside Athletics Team 2023

Tuesday 10th October

Duncan McKinnon

Kind Regards,

Georgia McNamara

Sport Co-Ordinator/Senior Physical Education Teacher

Skipathon Champions

The students in years Foundation, Year 1, Year 3 and Year 4 participated in the annual skipathon at Lunchtime on Tuesday. The students have been doing a skipping unit of work in their Physical Education lessons and have all demonstrated a marked improvement. The champions for each class are listed below:

Foundation – Hugo and Rose

Year 1- Arya and Adam

Year 3- Scarlett and Hope

Year 4 – Tilly and Beau

Congratulations to all the students who participated and our year six sports leaders.

Mrs Kidman

Junior Physical Education Teacher

Library

Premier's Reading Challenge

Congratulations to all our students on their efforts in the Premier’s Reading Challenge. It has been an amazing effort! Awards for those who completed the challenge will be handed out at the first assembly in Term 4.

Family Library Time

In the St James Library we really value listening to reading - especially from the most important members of our community - OUR FAMILY! That is why starting in Term 4 the Library will be open Wednesday mornings from 8:30am for family reading and borrowing time. This is a time for parents to come into the library and share a story with their children. Parents may borrow under their child’s name. Younger siblings are encouraged to join their parents. All children MUST be supervised by a parent.

Happy reading over the holidays!

Mandi Joplin

Teacher Librarian

STEM

Rocket Launch Competition and Space Night

To end Science Week, we had a Rocket Launch Competition with all students working in teams to design and make a rocket that either had the best design or best flight. It was fantastic to see so much creativity, problem solving and design skills on show. Well done to all students for all of their hard work and to the winners from each grade.

We also had our St James Space night where students went on a hunt around the school to find all of the planets, took photos with the backdrops that were created by Mrs Egan, looked through telescopes to try and get a closer look at the stars and used apps to find where the moon and planets were in the sky. It was a lovely evening exploring our night sky. Thank you to all of the families who came along and to everyone who celebrated Science Week with us.

STEM Club

Last Week at STEM Club, the students played with the Spheros and had a go at controlling them around the room. They used the iPads to program where they wanted the Sphero to go and created games such as hide a seek.

STEM MAD

Last term all students in Years 3-6 participated in STEM MAD. They had to think of a real life problem and work in a team to come up with a solution that could make a difference in the world. The students thought of many fantastic ideas that linked to the Catholic Social Teaching of Care for Our Common Home. The students then chose one team from both the Middle School and the Senior School to represent St James in the next round. The 2 groups worked hard to produce a prototype of their design and a video explaining the design process that they went through in order to end up with their final idea. Congratulations to Charlie F, Mila, Byron, Holly, Lenni, Nieve and Katie who planned, designed, problem solved, modified and explained their thinking. The ¾ team will represent St James at the STEM MAD showcase with other MACS schools at the beginning of next term.

Bridie Slater

STEM Leader

Performing Arts / Music

Term 3 has flown by, and what a pleasure it's been to return to St James as Performing Arts/Music teacher. The key learning area will continue to be Music during timetabled lessons with me, and Miss Leisa will continue as Director of Suessical Jr the Musical. Each class is timetabled for a music lesson once a fortnight.

As you are aware, students from Grade 1-6 commenced Recorder lessons this term.

The recorder is a portable, inexpensive and easy instrument to learn for whole classes. Success in playing comes quickly which builds confidence. Given that the students have only had 5 lessons it is wonderful to see the progress they have made. On Tuesday evening a group of students from Grades 3, 4 and 5 volunteered to play as an ensemble at the St James Musical Soiree. Twenty three students performed two songs that they learnt during the term. They played so well, and should be very proud of themselves. A shout out to Miss Corio who performed Mary had a Little Lamb to open the Soiree. Students and parents very much enjoyed it.

As you are aware, students from Grade 1-6 commenced Recorder lessons this term.

During lessons we have also been singing songs, using percussion instruments alongside our recorder playing and learning how to read the notes of the music we are playing. Learning to keep the beat is very important in music and we have been playing various games including Beat Detective to help consolidate our learning.

Foundation students have been singing, dancing, using body percussion and percussion instruments in their lessons.

A big thankyou to Angus Picking (Grade 6) and Charlie Eason (Grade 3) who cheerfully lend a hand with the set up of music stands each week. It is much appreciated.

Wishing you all happy and relaxing holidays,

Mandy Cooper

Performing Arts / Music Teacher