Principal's Post

Dear Families,

Last Friday Dave left for Cape York to join together with a group of Principals from the Outer Eastern Region and attend an indigenous immersion experience.  We wish Dave and the group a rich learning experience and look forward to hearing about it upon his return. While Dave is away, I can be contacted should the need arise.   

Down Ball Competition  

Last Friday ten students across Year 5 & 6 attended our first Downball Competition. The team were excited to attend and enjoyed a fun day participating.  Thank you to Lisa Noden who helped the students on the day. Well done to all our students who represented our School! 

Book Week

It's Book Week! On Thursday students will be celebrating, enjoying stories from the CBCA shortlisted and with a performance on Thursday.  We are excited to announce that the publisher of the Short listed book, 'The way of the Dog' will be attending the Year 4- 6 to watch the performance! 

Tournament of the Minds

Yesterday seven of 5/6 students participated in The Tournament of Minds competition at Deakin University. This project provided students the opportunity to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent thinking whilst developing collaboration and teamwork. Over Term 3, the students worked together on a project that they presented yesterday in a calm and brilliant presentation! We are very proud of their efforts and thank you to the teachers who supported them along the way. 

Lost Property - mainly jackets

We will be having a blitz on students who leave their jackets lying around the playground. Students will be given a small reminder at playtimes if their jackets frequently appear in lost property.

Concert Reminders

With one week to go, our students and staff have been busily working on concert rehearsals and other preparations. Students will be having a dress rehearsal at school this Friday 25th, so please ensure they your child brings any parts of their costume to school as indicated by their classroom teacher.  On Tuesday 29th, students and staff will be attending Crossway for a whole school rehearsal day. Please refer to the Operoo form that was sent out last week outlining information.

Please also refer to the Operoo email that was sent out today with general information about the two performance evenings, including student drop off and pick up details. 

A reminder that concert information will also be added to our Newsletter in the Concert 2023 page for you to access.

2024 Enrolments at St James

We are expecting that all current families/students in Years Prep - Five will be returning to St James next year. If your family/child will not be returning next year, please contact the school office as we currently have waiting lists for many levels across the school.

Centre Road Street Parking Bays

A reminder that the Centre Road Parking Bays located at the front of St James have restricted parking times. We recently contacted the Whitehorse City Council in hope to have the displayed parking times reviewed and adjusted. Meanwhile, please ensure to keep to the displayed times to ensure the safety of all and avoid any fines that may be issued from Whitehorse City Council.

Farm Helpers Required

THANK YOU to those WONDERFUL families that have fed our chickens this term. We are still looking for families to help this weekend - 26th & 27th August and 16th & 17th September. If you are available to help, please let Michelle know your preferred date: michelle.wells@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au

MACSIS

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools – School Improvement Surveys (MACSSIS) will be conducted during 28 August – 15 September 2023. We are asking all families to take the 15 - 20 mins required to fill out the survey and provide us with feedback about many aspects to our St James school community. To encourage all families to complete the survey, we will be offering children a free Friday treat (paid for by the school) on the final Friday of Term Three. 

Michelle will send home a link to the surveys with an individual family login code.

The surveys are totally anonymous and while we can see the completion rate we cannot see individual results at all.

Second-hand uniform

A call out to families with any second-hand uniform that you may wish to donate to our depleted stocks. If you have any school uniform that you no longer require, please feel free to drop them in to the school office.

Marathon Club

Please note that, with the business of our upcoming events please note that Marathon Club has been cancelled on the following Weeks.

• Week 7  - Marathon Club will be happening (23/8)
• Week 8 - Marathon Club cancelled (30/8)
• Week 9  - Marathon Club cancelled (6/9)
• Week 10  - Marathon Club cancelled (13/9)

Upcoming events & dates

• Monday 28 August - MACSSIS surveys go live for two weeks
• Tues 29 & Wed 30 August - School Concert Production at Crossways in East Burwood.
• Friday 1st September - Father's Day Breakfast & Stall
• Monday 11th September - Year 4 Basketball Day
• Wednesday 13 - Learning Conferences - 1.30pm - 7.30pm (1pm early dismissal)

Enjoy a great week ahead! 

Anita