This Week's Updates

 Dear Families,

I hope you had a relaxing break over the holidays and managed to find some time to celebrate Holy Week and the Easter Season over the past few days.

We were deeply saddened to hear of the loss of Pope Francis yesterday and shared this with our students at assembly this morning.  Pope Francis was a powerful example of living out the Gospel values we learn in the classroom every day. His humility, compassion for the poor, and dedication to justice reminds us what it truly means to follow Christ. He wasn't just a leader of the Church—he was a role model for kindness, mercy, and service, inspiring young people to be courageous in faith and generous in love. May he rest in peace. You are all welcome to join the St Johns Parish community in a thanksgiving celebration of his life this evening at St John's Parish Church. 

On the last Wednesday of Term 1 we celebrated the official opening of the Foster Administration Building. Ours guests included local politicians, MACS representatives, our architects, builders and surveyors, our beautiful St James families, past and present and our former principals. The guest of honour was of course Carmel Foster, after whom the building was named. Carmel was thrilled and humbled in equal measure to have such an honour bestowed upon her. 

On Holy Thursday afternoon I was joined by 11 of our St James Netballers and a few parents as Michael Sukkar made an election commitment to our St James Netball Club. The commitment is: should his party be elected into government, they will provide funds to build a roof cover over the netball court, enabling it to be used by the St James Netball Club for training come rain, hail or shine. The lights will also enable training to be conducted during the evening and night times.

Our school would also benefit by being able to use the space during school hours for Physical Education lessons, at lunchtime, at recess time.

• Thank you Catherine Nicolas for organising the Hot Cross Bun and pastry  fundraiser. Thanks also to the band of helpers who packed and helped distribute the orders
• Save the date mums! Our Mother's Day Breakfast will take place in our community centre on Friday 9 May before school.  There will be two sittings before school at approximately 7:30am and 8:15am.
• Thank you to the families who watered our new lawn, kept our plants alive and took on farm duty over the holidays; our community values your time, effort and support.
• 2026 Prep Enrolments - a reminder that current families should have already submitted their online enrolment form.
• Our St James Internal House Cross Country is on next Friday 2 May 12 - 2.45pm.
• We will have a group of Year Six leaders representing St James by laying a wreath at the ANZAC Day dawn service at Halliday Park on Friday morning.

Marathon Club will commence next week, so please don't show up tomorrow morning.

Have a wonderful week ahead. 

Dave