Dear Families,

Welcome to week 5 of the term.

It was wonderful to see so many members of our school community gather for our Founders Day Mass yesterday. It was a special opportunity to honour the families who have contributed so generously to our community before, during and long after their children’s time at St James. We are deeply grateful for the lasting impact they continue to have on our school.

Both families are very dear to us. The Thurborn family have been part of St James as students over the years, and Nerida and Gerard have given countless hours to our community through the Fete and many other events. Trish McLaughlin, who was honoured by St John’s school, is a familiar and much-loved presence at our school masses and it's lovely to see her smiling face each Friday morning. We are so pleased to recognise and celebrate these valued members of our St James community. Well done to our School Leaders who interviewed them so thoroughly, prepared and delivered the speech.

We look forward to our Prep parent social event on Tuesday evening. If you are a Prep parent and are keen to attend, please rsvp through nForma ASAP. Please note that this is the final Wednesday rest day for our Preps. They commence full time next week.

A very warm welcome to the Emmanuel family who joined the St James Community this week. We are delighted to have Zion in Grade 4 and Kingston in Grade 2.

Please note MACSEYE will be open for care on our upcoming school closure dates, on 6th and 10th March, subject to minimum enrolments being reached. If you intend on utilising the service, please book in ASAP. Details are

Please register your children here if you require this service next year.

If you have any questions you can email MACSEYE

directly at enrolments@macseye.vic.edu.au

NAPLAN

NAPLAN will commence on Wednesday 11th April. Please refer to the NAPLAN Parent Information Sheet for details about the assessment. Year 3 & 5 Parents, will be emailed a timetable outlining days students will be completing the assessments at St James.

Early pick up for students: clarification of procedures

All students being collected prior to 3.20pm must be signed out at the office. When the parents are signing the students out, the office staff will call down to the classroom or put an announcement over the PA for the student to walk to the office.

To save time, our office staff will call for the students while you are signing them out. We are finding that too many students are missing learning or social time after wandering up themselves, and waiting in the office to be collected.

The recommendation for parents is to arrive in time to allow 5 minutes for your child to make their way to the office.

Thanks for your cooperation with this.

Thank you Parent Volunteers

I am very appreciative of the Parent volunteers we have within our St James community.

A few recent examples include; cinema night organisation, marathon club, icy poles, mulch moving, BBQ at Founders Day Mass.

Our Parents and Friends first meeting for the year is on tonight in the new front meeting room 6pm - 7pm.

Dates to note:

February

Monday 23 - P & F Meeting 6pm

Tuesday 24 - Prep Parent Social Event - 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Wednesday 25 - District Swimming Carnival

Thursday 26 - Food Day #1- Subway day

March

Tuesday 3 - SAC Meeting #1

Friday 6 - School Closure Day for School Review

Monday 9 - Labour Day holiday

Tuesday 10 - School Closure Day for School Review

Note from our P&F Committee

P&F MEETING

Tonight at 6pm - 7pm in the front meeting room in the office! Remember you don’t need to have volunteered for something to attend the meeting, and there will be no pressure or expectation to sign up to any roles! We welcome everyone who would like to come and see what it’s all about.

SUBWAY FOOD DAY THIS THURSDAY

Reminder that if you have placed a Subway order it will be delivered to your child’s classroom at lunchtime this Thursday, so no need to pack lunch that day, but Freggie is still required.

MOVIE NIGHT FRIDAY 13th MARCH

Tickets and food can be purchased via CDF Pay, please see attached flyer for further information and details.

Please purchase raffle tickets by Tuesday 3rd March, see attached flyer for awesome prize details.

We are also looking for more volunteers to make the night a success, it’s a fun team to be a part of and the kids really love this night! Sign up via this link-

https://volunteersignup.org/C8L9Y

Hope you have a great week ahead,

Dave

St James News

'St James School Community is committed to the Victorian Child Safe Standards.'

Update Sheet - Week 5- Term 1 - 2026 · 23 Feb 2026

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