Principal's Post

Dear Families,

On Wednesday evening, Emir from our office and I attended the Emmaus production "Funny Girl" at The Round, Whitehorse Council's new community facility. Our Year Four and Five students also attended the matinee performance on Wednesday. Four of our past students; Cooper Dawson, Cameron Ackland, Montanna Spezza and Jessica Lagos performed on stage and were all brilliant. It's very satisfying to see our former students performing with such skill and self confidence.

This week has many extra curricular activities for our students with today's STEM Olympics, Tuesday's Year Four, Five and Six Athletics Day at Box Hill Aths Track, Thursday's St James Feast Day Mass at midday in the Community Centre and Friday's Mini Mission Fete.

Level Newsletters are also available on the Year Level and Specialist Curriculum Page

St James Feast Day Celebrations

James the Great was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and pilgrims, and according to tradition, his remains are held in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. We will celebrate the St James Feast Day with Mass here at midday in the Reynolds Community Centre on Thursday 25 July.

Mini Mission Fete

Our Mini Mission Fete on Friday 26 July 11am - 1.00pm

Please refer to last week's operoo notice - some key points are outlined below:

The Mini Mission Fete will be hosted by the Year 5 and 6 students on Friday 26th July from 11:00am to 1:00pm. This fundraising social justice initiative is a St James tradition, deliberately held near our Feast Day as an opportunity to raise awareness and support others who are less fortunate than us.

There will be a sausage sizzle available on the day as lunch. Final orders can be accepted by 9am tomorrow, Tuesday 23 July. There are spare forms available at the office, so you can pay directly if you have missed the deadline.

Students are asked to wear 'free dress' on Friday 26th July for a $1 donation. These coins can be given to their classroom teacher when students arrive at school in the morning and will help form the float for our stalls.

Parents and grandparents are welcome to attend any time between 11am and 1pm. Please sign the visitor sheet near the pedestrian gate on arrival.

Action:

· Bring money in a labelled purse/wallet (coins preferred)

· Wear 'free dress' on Friday 26th July for a $1 donation

Check out the beautifully crafted posters around the school this week. The students have done a wonderful job of promoting their stalls.

Year One/Two Parish Mass

This Sunday 28 July, we are expecting as many Yr 1/2 students as possible to attend this celebration at St John's church at 9.45am. Parents of students who are definitely attending and would like to read a prayer please email Josh Crowe to facilitate this

joshua.crowe@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au

Parish Fete

Last year we had many of our St James families volunteer to support the Parish fete in a variety of ways. Thanks to these generous contributions, the fete managed to raise some healthy dollars. Our school benefitted with $1980 from the sales of raffle tickets which we added to our P & F funds to help pay for the new drink station outside the Community Centre. We also received $8500 as our St James cut of the fete profits. We used these funds to purchase our goats, literacy resources and new 3D printers.

This year's fete will be on Saturday 16 November. All families are expected to contribute to our fete. This year, as a fete committee, we are discussing the possibility of asking for volunteers to sign up earlier than in the past to help avoid that last minute panic.

Fathers Day Breakfast & Stall

Father's Day breakfast will be on Friday 30 August. Please save this date to your calendar. More information about this special event will be shared in the coming weeks

School Uniform

Please have a look at home for any uniform items that your child has outgrown. Small sizes and jackets are in demand. Any uniform donations can be sent to the Admin Office or the classroom and will be sent to the office via the classroom tub. All uniform donations are greatly appreciated.

Book Fair

The Book Fair will be held in the Library Friday 26th to Wednesday 31st July. Parents are invited to attend the library during the time listed below for each day. Purchases can be made via Eftpos or cash. A huge thank you in advance to all families who support these sales as a portion of all sales are donated to our school library.

Friday: 3.00 – 4.00 pm
Monday: 8.30 – 9.00 am; 3.15 – 4.00 pm
Tuesday: 8.30 – 9.00 am; 3.00 – 4.00 pm
Wednesday: 8.30 am - 4.00 pm

St James Art Show

We are excited to bring you our Art Show this year! Please save the following dates for this exciting event.

Opening Ceremony
- Thursday 12 September 2:30pm
Viewing Times
- Thurs 12 & Fri 13 Sept, 3 - 4pm
- Fri 13 & Mon 16 Sept, 8.30 - 9.15am
- Sun 15 September, 10am - 12pm

Please look out for further information shared via the newsletter over the coming weeks.

Confirmation

Our Year Six candidates participated in their retreat day last Friday at St John's as part of their Confirmation preparation. Students met with the Bishop and participated in a variety of experiences deepening their knowledge of the Holy Spirit. The Confirmation celebration will be on Saturday 10 August at 1pm in the church at Mitcham.

Check out the Education in Faith section of the newsletter.

Catholic Secondary College Enrolments for Current Year Five Students

Students must be enrolled when in Year Five. Enrolments close on Friday 16 August.

St James is a direct feeder school to Emmaus College, Aquinas College, Our Lady of Sion College and Whitefriars College. This means that St James catholic students receive direct entry and St James non -catholic students receive greater consideration of entry into these Secondary Colleges.

STEM Olympics

The STEM Olympics was a huge success today with many parents dropping in today to be a part of it. We will have a full report in our next newsletter. Lyons Green House were the overall winners. A massive thank you to Mrs. Jones for all her hard work and planning to ensure such a successful event.

Have a great week,

Dave