Principal's Post

Dear Families,

What an incredible year 2023 has been within our St James community. The first full year back from the COVID virus resulted in us having numerous opportunities for community engagement and enriching our community partnership we share as parents, educators and students.

I'm not going to write a reflection on all events, however, a personal highlight was our Performing Arts Concert Production. All of the hard work, planning, rehearsing, stepping out of comfort zones, teamwork and enthusiasm paid off with two superb performances.

Celebrating our Thanksgiving Mass last Thursday evening in the Reynolds Community Centre provided a great opportunity to not only reflect on our year, but also give thanks and publicly thank our departing families. There were many families in attendance who have their youngest child in Year Six and have contributed so much time, spirit and energy to our St James community over many years. To these families and those departing across other levels, I say THANK YOU. You are always welcome within our St James community.

On Friday we said farewell to Siumi Kirby as she commences her maternity leave. We have a variety of staff teaching 3K this week, most of whom are familiar with the students. Please email the office and myself with any correspondence over the new few days for 3K.

Siumi enters this very special phase of her life at a busy time of the year. Siumi has been at St James for approximately 8 years and has mainly taught Year One and Year Three. Students probably remember Siumi for three main things: making them feel so much a part of the class, her kindness to all members of our community and her susceptibility to feeling the cold which led to her often wearing a jacket while teaching!

We look forward to welcoming Siumi back to St James in some teaching capacity, whether this be full or part time.

Following this afternoon's Prep/Year One Nativity Prayer Service, we said farewell to Vic Gibson, cathy Dimitrakopoulos and wished Cassie Pascoe well for her upcoming wedding.

Cathy Dimitrakopoulos joined us five years ago and has been an instrumental leader at St James. Her main role has been our Learning and Teaching Leader and our Literacy Leader. 

Other roles have been as one day a week prep teacher, one day a week Yr 4 teacher and Education in Faith curriculum leader.

AND - friendly face in the staffroom and around the school.

If you are wondering what these leadership roles have entailed, it’s a bit like this: Cathy has worked with the teachers in looking at student's results, data and growth. She also headed up our Assessment and Reporting schedule and supported staff in preparing, analysing and writing assessment and reports. Part of her role has also entailed going into classrooms and team teaching with the teacher or even teaching a small group of students. And of course, another aspect to Cathy’s role has been leading staff in their own professional learning.

Cathy will be missed here at St James, but I know will be a great asset to St Thomas as their new Deputy Principal.

On behalf of everyone here at St James, Thank you!

Victoire Gibson, our magnificent Learning Support Officer has finally graduated from her studies to become a teacher. Congratulations Vic!

Vic’s heart is as big as you can get. She been so invested in our St James students, particularly some who required extra assistance. Apart from assisting many students with their learning, social and emotional development, Vic have been a wonderful leader of our farmyard. So, as well as students, staff and parents, the chooks will miss you next year too!

We wish Vic all the best as you take up a teaching position at Our lady’s Ringwood.

On behalf of everyone here at St James, Thank you!

Cassie  Pascoe and I started at St James on the very same day. The same day as our Yr 5s started in Prep!

I had the pleasure of watching her mature from a graduate teacher in Year 3 to a Year One teacher then to a Year 5 teacher and next Year Miss Pascoe will be teaching Visual Arts in the Art Room. Miss Pascoe’s husband to be is the captain of Vermont Seniors and I know some of our students have seen him play.

Over the holidays Cassie and Connor i will celebrate their wedding day. Congratulations to you both. 

We know you will make a beautiful bride Cassie.

Volunteer Thank You Afternoon Tea.

Thank you to parents who were able and parents who were not able to attend the thank you afternoon tea this afternoon. It was our opportunity as a school staff to say thank you for all of the time and effort you put into making our community a better place. We appreciate the volunteering you do.

2024 Staffing

Today we held our "Move Up Day" where students spent the morning in their 2024 class with their 2024 class teacher. 

Here are the new members either joining or returning to our team.

2024 Student Leaders

The Year Five students have been studying a unit of work centred on Leadership throughout Term Four. The work involved experiences such as; listening to and interviewing guest speakers, working with the Phoenix Soar Basketball leaders, looking at leaders in our local and global context, writing speeches about their own leadership qualities and presenting these speeches to the Year Level.

It's a great credit to all students and their families that the selection of our 2024 school leaders was such a hard task. Both staff and students have input into the selections with our staff leadership team having the final say. While all students are leaders and are expected to step up and take on leadership opportunities when presented, on Friday we announced the official leaders for 2024.

They are listed here on the doc:

2024 Student Leaders

School Leaders

Alby Walters

Asher Spezza

Henry Warfield

Natalia Licciardi

Social Justice Leaders

Joshua Heath

Gegi Gyimesi

Sustainability Leaders

Lucy Collins

Ivy Vienna

Sports Leaders

Lily Cleary

Archer Eslick

Arts Leaders

Harriet Archer

Zoe Dalton

STEMMS Leaders

Macy Cleary

William Crozier

Language Leaders (Auslan)

Lucy Baggoley-Dening

Chloe Mosca

Student Assessment Days - January 30 & 31

Please look out for our School Assessment booking email that will be sent out to all families tomorrow. 

Parents and Friends

Our first family function for 2024 is the "Cinema Under the Stars"  hopefully making a return to our school oval on Friday 1 March. We already have a group of parents organising this event so mark the date in your calendars.

Parish Fete Wrap up

Brendan Mills, the Chair of the Parish Fete committee asked me to pass on his and the committee's thanks for the incredible support our St James families gave to the fete. The total profit looks like being in the vicinity of $36 000. 

Our St James return from raffle ticket sales should be at least $1500. This amount will go  into our St James P & F account.

School Advisory Council

With a few members moving on after their three years on the SAC, we called for new members from our school community and have had a few positive responses, so thank you. The new members will add a little diversity to our group to help cover representation from almost every grade level at St James.

2024 School Fees 

Please find attached the approved St James School Fees for 2024.

North Pole Mailbox 

The North Pole Mailbox is in the office again this year. Students are invited to write a letter to Santa and place it in the mailbox from this week to the last day of school. We will then forward them to Santa.

Uma in the spotlight

We are excited to share that all 10 episodes of Planet Lulin will drop on ABC Me on 1st of January. See below for a sneak peek.

https://youtu.be/Ew2db_qOlvs?si=uX51raUv5_T1JK2P

Enjoy a great week ahead! 

Dave