Principal's Post

Dear Families,

Last week was another eventful and busy one, starting with our school photos. It’s always wonderful to see our students looking their best to capture these special memories. We anticipate that the photos will arrive by the end of term for students to bring home.

I'm very pleased to inform you all that Dave is at home recovering well from his procedure. While he is missing us all, I’m sure he’s not complaining about having more time to watch re-plays of the Collingwood premiership a few more times! We look forward to welcoming him back soon.

On the facilities front, we are thrilled that the majority of our renovated classrooms are now complete! While there were some delays in receiving the final items, our students, staff, and parents have shown incredible resilience and positivity throughout the process.

Over the next week or two, as the remaining pieces arrive and are installed, we will finalise these fantastic new learning spaces. Staff will come together in teams on Friday 28th February, to unpack and set up their rooms, ready for all Preps, Yr 2 and 1E classes to start in their new rooms on Monday 3rd March. A reminder to parents to complete the response for the Student Stay at Home day, so that we know how many students will be onsite. OHSC will also be operating as usual,before and after school hours.

We can’t wait to see our students and teachers settled in and thriving.

Thank you for your ongoing support—we are excited for the weeks ahead!

NAPLAN

Students in Year 3 and Year 5 will participate in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). The assessment period will run from Wednesday, 12 March 2025, to Monday, 24 March 2025. The Parent NAPLAN Information Sheet provides further details. Additional information will be shared with Year 3 and Year 5 parents soon.

Medical Forms

If your child requires medication to be administered at school, please complete the necessary MACS medical forms located on Operoo, and submit them along with the medication to the Admin Office.

If you require any further MACS medical forms or information on the medication administration process, please contact Antoinette, our First Aid Officer, or Anita Dell'Orso via the school office.

Second Hand Uniform and Morning Tea

We will be running our second hand uniform shop in our Community Centre on Wednesday 12th March. We will have a morning tea from 9am -10am. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet and catch up with other parents and purchase some uniform items. We hope to see you there. We would like some volunteers to run the morning tea. If you can help please email pandf@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au or sign up on our "2025 P&F Roles & Event Teams" page volunteersignup.org/KL7JM

New Admin building

Each week, we are settling more into our new Admin Building, and it’s been wonderful to hear such positive and warm feedback from families about the space. While we’re still waiting on some final pieces of furniture to complete the setup, the building is already feeling like home.

One thing we’ve noticed is that a path from the driveway to the front entrance would have been a highly practical addition to the original plans. After following up with our builders and architect, they agreed, and we’re pleased to share that a concrete path will be installed in the coming weeks to improve accessibility and convenience. Also, please stay tuned as we plan a date for a special opening of our new Admin building.

CDF Pay

St James Vermont has recently switched from FlexiSchools to CDFpay for special food days and sports top purchases.

Important: Your existing CDFpay credentials will not work for the new CDFpay mobile app. To create a new CDFpay account, please follow these steps (you can use the same email address if you prefer):

Download the CDFpay mobile app from the app store on your device. No app? Register here.
Register your child, providing their full name and class, then select St James Primary School Vermont.

Details about upcoming special food days and some tips for new families are included on the P&F page.

Parent Information Evening

It was fantastic to see so many parents attend Wednesday evening’s Year Level Information Sessions and actively engage in their children's education. Informal feedback from many parents was positive and reassuring.

These sessions aim to provide a valuable opportunity to meet your child's class teacher and other key educators while gaining important insights into the year ahead. This year classroom teachers presented some information on behalf of Dave and myself due to limited availability of large meeting spaces. A list of this information is listed below.

Car Parking

Be aware of the street parking signs/parking times
Keep bus bay free until bus leaves 3:20 pm approx
Please do not leave your car while it is in the drop off/pick up zone at the front of the school

Late Arrival & Early Dismissal

School starts at 8:50. It is expected that children arrive on time.
Parents must sign their child in and out at the new Admin Office. Children cannot sign themselves in.

School Uniform

Students are expected to wear school uniform as outlined in the handbook
Shoulder length hair or longer must be tied back
Jewellery is to be kept to a minimum as in the parent handbook
Runners have mesh and shoes have leather or synthetic leather

MACS Vision For Instruction

This will be continuing on with MACS Vision for Instruction focus. This is an evidence informed practice of how students learn best. Vision for Instruction promotes a unified and consistent approach, and continuous improvement to meet the changing needs of our students. It provides MACS teachers with the training and resources they need to ensure excellence and equity in all our schools.

See Parents Guide for further information

Closure Days Term One

We have our Stay at Home Day on Friday 28th February. Please ensure to complete the Operoo form sent out to parents last Friday so that we can organise sufficient supervision and working spaces. OSHC will be operating as normal, before and after school in the case that this service is required.

On Friday 7th March, we have a school closure day focus on our continued work on Vision for Instruction. This is a strategically planned day for staff to continue to deepen their knowledge of research informed practice and further develop teacher's classroom practice.

As suggested by the SAC last year, this particular Friday was the preferred day due to the long weekend. MACSEYE will be available for care on this day.

nForma Parent App

Just a reminder that all parents can now log into the nForma Parent App (using the email you provided the school), to not only view school reports, but also to mark a child's absence. At the moment you can only do this the day or evening before the student will be absent. Coming soon will be the ability to mark an absence on the morning of the student being away. Please see Nadine's Digital Technologies page for a how to Parent Guide on using the app.

If you need to email in regards to a students absence we ask that you ensure you email the class teacher and cc in attendance25@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au

MACSEYE Out of Hours School Care

Please register your children for this service

Click here to register

If you have any questions you can email MACSEYE

directly at enrolments@macseye.vic.edu.au

Uniform Shop

St James uniform is available from Spartan School World shop at U12/100 New St, Ringwood or via the website. Please note the change in address.

Hope you all have a great week ahead.

Kind regards,

Anita Dell'Orso

Acting Principal