St James Learning and Teaching 

MATHS  &  STEM

SCIENCE WEEK

Last week we celebrated Science Week which saw all students continue to develop their Science Inquiry Skills whilst engaging in various experiments, activities and investigations.

Students were involved in various events throughout the week including STEM club, a guess the animal noise competition and designing their own animal. We also had an incursion from Nüdel Kart where students were able to design and build anything they could think of including boats, ice cream vans and even a new school. 

On Thursday, Reptile Encounters introduced us to lots of incredible animals from our local environment. It was fantastic to see all students learning about these creatures, asking questions and carefully patting or holding each animal.

To end the week, students had the opportunity to see all of the new animals that each student in the school had designed. They selected features from a range of animals and thought about where the animal might live. Students were also invited to wear a ‘touch of Science’ which saw lots of doctors, astronauts, Albert Einsteins, animals and Scientists in white lab coats at school.

It was a fantastic week seeing all students engaged in Science.

FAMILY MATHS AFTERNOON 

Next Friday the 30th of August we will be holding our St James Family Maths Afternoon. This is an opportunity for families to learn new, simple Maths games that can be easily played at home with all children to support their learning in Maths and to challenge their thinking.

The afternoon will begin at 2:30pm so we ask that families arrive by 2:20pm. All of the details on how the afternoon will run have been shared via Operoo.

We look forward to seeing as many families as possible for this engaging afternoon!

Miss Bridie Slater

Maths & STEM Leader

SPORT

The senior Hoop Time was held on Friday 9th August. St James had 5 teams competing across 3 different divisions. It was a very busy and loud day, but our students all left happy and tired after playing many rounds. 

Hoop Time includes students who don’t play and all the way through to representative players, so it is a great opportunity for everyone. A huge thank-you to our parent volunteers on the day. They certainly worked very hard on coaching, rotations from the bench, scoring, supervising and even helping out other schools with umpiring! 

Our All Star Girls team finished top of their pool which meant they then played in the Grand Final and finished second overall. It was a wonderful atmosphere watching our other teams who had finished cheering them on. 

The St James Athletics Team has now been announced and all students should have received an Operoo. The team will be competing at the Holt District Athletics Championships on Monday 2nd September at Duncan McKinnon. All students have been practising at school on Tuesday and Friday lunchtimes. A huge thank-you to our sports leaders who have been helping to set up the training stations. 

The St James Ski Team had their first official competition this week at Mt Buller. St James had 10 students competing across 6 different events over two days. To say that we were proud of our students and families who attended this event would be an understatement. A huge thank you to Steffen and Tony, proud St James parents who organised everything from the entries, to the information sharing, bib collection, event listings and numbers, team managers, a bib presentation dinner, setting up the flag (there is a funny story to that if you ask Steffen) and meeting for the opening ceremony and fireworks. The work that went into the preparation for sending our students and families to this event did not go unnoticed. 

To our students who competed Gwen B, Willa D, Alba D, Annie S, Pat H, Rory O, Poppy H, Anita G, Viv B and Ella K, your courage, bravery and resilience was outstanding. The conditions on day 1 were great but day 2 had 60km/h winds, and a fog that meant at times they could barely see the flags they were trying to get through; there were delays and a wait of up to 3 hours for their events, there was also a fall and disqualifications, but words of encouragement from team mates got them up and going again. This was a fantastic experience for everyone who was able to attend.  Both Carmelina and I were incredibly grateful to attend but also for all of the work that went into this event. Look out for the sign ups for next year because I think this team is going to keep on growing. 

Mrs Georgia McNamara

Deputy Principal - Sport Co-Ordinator/ Senior Physical Education Teacher

LIBRARY

We are in the middle of an amazing week of reading fun and imagination in Book Week. We have had many exciting activities including our Author visit from Morris Gleitzman, Mystery Reader, DEAR time around St James, and even the St James Masked Reader. 

Tomorrow is our Annual Book Week parade. This year the theme is Reading is Magic. So come dressed as your favourite magical character. Younger children, siblings and our Kinder friends are encouraged to join in the fun!

St James's Masked Reader

This Year one of our Book Week lunchtime activities was the St James Masked Reader Competition. 

Have a look at the contestants  https://youtu.be/7RaEAOwnIvM 

Children can still guess who the readers are, watch the video, write down the 10 staff members and hand it to Mrs Joplin by next Thursday. The big reveal will be next Friday at assembly. 

All St James children are now registered and have received a login and password from the class teacher. Children in the  junior school are encouraged to listen to their parents read books from the reading list and have conversations about the text. As the competition progresses parents are encouraged to help their children read together. 

The Victorian Government has carefully curated a long list of rich texts for young readers. Please see the booklist attached for books. 

Progress of the challenge will be celebrated in fortnightly assemblies and newsletters. 

The challenge runs all the way to September and is very attainable for all children. 

Children need to read:

Prep to Year 2

• Number of books: 30
• Number of books from the Challenge book list: 20 or more

Year 3 to Year 6

• Number of books: 15

• Number of books from the Challenge book list: 10 or more

Most of the books you read should be from the Challenge book lists. The rest can be any book you choose.

You can read books on the book list for your year level or a level above and they'll count towards your Challenge total. You should check with your teachers or parents if you're not in years 9 or 10 and want to read a book from that list. This list includes titles for mature readers.

You can read a book from a level below your year level if your teacher agrees. You still need to read the number of books for your year level to meet the Challenge.

Your teacher will give you a Challenge username and passcode. You should find this in your child’s diary or magic words book where other passwords are located. 

If you lose or forget your Challenge passcode,please  ask or email  Mrs joplin  at ajoplin@stjamesbrighton.catholic.edu.au to generate a new one for you.

1. Go to the Challenge application.
2. Select the School/Student button.
3. Select the VPRC login option.
4. Enter your username and password.
5. Select Login.

The dashboard is your main workspace as you progress through the Challenge.

At the top of the dashboard are gemstone badges. These are grey when you start your Challenge. They change to green as you progress through the Challenge.

Below the badges is a green bar. This shows you how many days are left until the end of the Challenge.

There are also two progress wheels that show:

• what your Challenge target is
• how many Challenge or Choice books you have finished or had verified.

Your reading list shows the books you have added and finished reading.

As you add more books to your reading list, the application will learn the kinds of books you like to read. It will recommend other books by:

• genre
• author
• series
• subject

Books other students at your school and across Victoria are reading appear on the Trending books list.

The side menu lets you:

• see your Profile Details and add an avatar
• see all the book reviews you have written
• search for books you would like to add to your reading list.

A big Congratulations to Olivia, Audrey, Lucia, Poppy and Elly who have been very busy over the past 2 weeks reading. A special shout out to Tia, Megan and Peyton who are hot on the tails of our leaders. Many students have been hard at work, reading an extraordinary number of books! Well Done to everyone! Don't forget to keep adding your books to the challenge. You still have 3 weeks left!

Let’s get reading!!

Mrs Mandi Joplin

Teacher Librarian