Dear Families,

Welcome to Week Four of the school year!

Today we enjoyed our annual School Photo Day which is always a lovely, albeit busy day at school. It’s special to capture a snapshot of our students as they are right now, in this moment of their schooling journey. We appreciate how beautifully the children presented themselves in readiness for the photos today. If you have any questions about ordering photos, please refer to the order slip that your child brought home last week. Students will bring home their school photos once the school receives them - hopefully before the end of term.

Later this week we will gather for Ash Wednesday mass at 12pm, as we begin the season of Lent. Lent is an important time of prayer, reflection and thinking about how we can grow closer to God. It’s also about action including showing kindness, making small sacrifices and looking for ways to help others.

On Sunday we will celebrate two parishioners, Gerard and Nerida Thurbon, at our Founders Day Mass at 9.45am on Sunday at our St John's church . All students and parents are invited to attend to thank these two people who have put so much time and effort into the St James Community.

Last Friday we presented our Year Six students with their leadership badges. I must say that as a group of leaders, they have been very impressive so far this year, displaying respect, inclusion, responsibility and using their initiative. We also presented our Student Representative Council members for Semester one with their badges. Click on the Student Wellbeing page for further information regarding our SRC.

Behaviour Matrix Soft Launch

On Wednesday evening at our Parent Information session in the Reynolds Community Centre, we explained our new Behaviour Matrix to all parents in attendance.

Our Behaviour Matrix is the result of a goal we had on our 2024 and 2025 Annual Action Plans. The release of MACS Vision for Engagement last year supported the work that we have done to develop a clear and consistent whole school behaviour expectation. The Matrix aims to list positive behaviour and where students are expected to display these across the school.

We value the importance of all staff, students, and parents to know that the implementation of the matrix will be consistent across our school, ensuring shared expectations for behaviour. Our focus remains on supporting students to learn and grow, while maintaining a safe, respectful, and positive environment for everyone.

We know that the strongest outcomes come when school and home work together. We appreciate your support as we implement this shared approach to behaviour and wellbeing across St James.

2026 School Review

Every four years, all catholic schools undergo a school review as part of our School Improvement Process. The outcome of this review is the formation of our School Improvement Plan. This four year plan is addressed each year via our Annual Action Plan which is presented to our School Advisory Council and then shared with our parent community. Towards the end of each year, we review our AAP against the goals and targets we set before forming the AAP for the following year.

We require a number of staff meetings and school closure days to complete the work required for the four yearly review. Friday 6th and Tuesday 10th March are the two designated school closure days to work on our internal review process. Both student and parent input is required and in fact essential if we are to fully review our school.

While Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) staff work with our leadership team to facilitate the review process, the documents we prepare and data sets we use are reviewed by an external reviewer. We then receive a report back from the reviewer which will be shared with staff, the SAC and the wider parent community. Following this report, we commence the process of writing our next four year School Improvement Plan.

Parent Education - Managing Big Feelings Webinar

We have booked Carley McGauran once again to present this hour long webinar aimed at but not limited to parents of students in Years Prep - 2

The school is paying for this so there is no cost to parents.

Date: Tuesday 3 March 7.30 - 8.30pm

Sign up via the QR code on the attached brochure -

Upcoming Events

Prep Parents Dinner - Tuesday 24th February - a reminder to all prep parents to book in for this event via the link sent to you on nforma.

Cinema Night - Friday 13th March - volunteers are required to help on a shift to run this event. Ticket sales will be advertised in the next few weeks.

School Closure Days - Friday 6 and Tuesday 10 March - MACSEYE care is available for students on these days, subject to minimum numbers of 8 students. Please book in via the MACSEYE page

Naplan Dates

NAPLAN will take place for students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 across Australia. The testing window is scheduled for Wednesday, 11 March to Monday, 23 March. These assessments provide a national snapshot of student progress in literacy and numeracy, with all tests conducted online except for the Year 3 Writing assessment, which remains paper-based. Further details for parents whose students will be participating in NAPLAN will be sent out over the coming weeks.

Child Safe Standards

In our last newsletter we shared the new Child Safe Standard, Parent/Carer Newsletter. With the importance and commitment that we place on student safety as a school system we hope that you take the time to read and familiarise yourself with the information.

Child Safe Standard Two Parent/Carer Newsletter

Medication

If your child requires any short- or long-term medication at school, please ensure the correct medical forms are completed and provided to the office before sending medication. Under no circumstances should students carry medication in their school bags. All medication must be stored and administered through the office for safety reasons. Please contact the office should you have any questions.

School Uniform and Accessories

Many students are wearing their correct school uniform with pride. The area some students are letting themselves down in is some of the accessories: earrings, hair ties and socks.

Please note the following:

earrings must only be studs or small sleepers
navy blue socks are to be worn with school shoes
plain white socks are to be worn with runners and sports uniform
plain white socks are to be worn with school shoes when wearing the Summer dress
long hair is to be tied back and hair-ties should be either in our school colour (blue and maroon) or in a similar colour to children's hair
nail polish is not permitted

Thanks to all families who have been working with us to ensure all students wear the correct uniform.

Farm

We’re looking for volunteers to help with weekend farm duty this term 🐓🦆

Farm duty involves two quick visits each day: a morning visit to let the chooks and ducks out and feed all the animals, and an afternoon/evening visit to make sure everyone is safely locked away for the night.

We’d love to have new families get involved! I’m very happy to show you what needs to be done, it’s very simple, and the kids absolutely love helping out.

We need helpers for the following weekend:

Sat 21st & Sun 22nd March

Outside of School Hours Care

This service will be available for our two upcoming school closure dates on 6th and 10th March subject to minimum enrolments being reached.

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

Please note, they cannot attend the service if they are not registered.

We still need some help moving the mulch from the driveway. If possible, can you please come along with a shovel and/or wheelbarrow on Thursday from 2:30pm - 4pm.

Have a great week .

Dave

Spotlight on Learning

Students of the Week