Principal's Post

Dear Families,

It's week 6 and a short one as Friday is a school closure day as we conduct our internal staff reflections as part of our school review process.

Our Prep dinner and social evening was a great success last Tuesday and a wonderful opportunity for all our families to come together. It was great to see so many current families and new families gather together in a social setting and form bonds that will last the duration of their 7 year primary school journey.

Congratulations to all our students for partaking in last weeks District Swimming and well done to the 16 students who have qualified for Division swimming. The division event was held today, providing competitors the opportunity to progress onto the regional finals. Congratulations Lachie, Emma and Petra who have progressed onto the Regional competition to be held later this month.

Phones, Watches and Electronic Devices

We have seen an increase in the inappropriate use of smart watches during learning time, school gatherings and playtimes, with messaging, gaming, photos and calls causing unnecessary distractions. As with mobile phones, any smart watch used for communication must be handed into the school office on arrival and collected at dismissal unless they are fully in school mode. We ask families to support us by having a discussion with your child regarding responsible use of these devices.

Students have access to clocks throughout the school, and an outdoor clock will be installed soon. Students requiring watches for medical monitoring are exempt.

Staff will be asking students to remove their smart watches if they have been or become a distraction and send them up to the office to keep them safe.

Thank you for your support in maintaining a focused learning environment

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.

School Advisory Council

Our first meeting of the year is on tomorrow evening at 6.15pm in the new administration building. With James Wingate the only SAC member departing, we currently have enough members for 2026 but will definitely be calling for new members at the end of the year.

NAPLAN - next week

With the 2026 NAPLAN commencing next week, it's an appropriate time to publish the comparison results we received late last year. These results compare our St James 2025 Year 3 and Year 5 cohorts with average cohorts in the state of Victoria and throughout Australia. As you will see, our students performed very well in comparison to the state and national mean.

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. If you enrol for the webinar and cannot attend then you will receive a copy of the presentation to view another time.

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

Date: Tuesday 3 March 7.30 - 8.30pm

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Child Safe Standards

With the importance and commitment that we place on student safety as a school system, please take the time to read and familiarise yourself with the information in the

Child Safe Standard Three Parent/Carer Newsletter.

MACSEYE

We farewell Sama from our OHSC service and sincerely thank her for the care, commitment and support she has provided to our students and families during her time with us. We wish her all the very best in her future endeavours.

We warmly welcome our new coordinator, Liya, who will be working alongside Atily.

Upcoming Events

The Hunt for the SJV Footy Tipping crown begins again!

Think you’ve got the best footy brain in Vermont? We’re inviting all members of the SJV Family community to join our footy tipping competition for the 2026 season.

The details:

Website: footytips.com.au

Comp Name: St James Vermont family & friends

Password: not needed

A fun prize will be awarded at the end of the season to 1st and 2nd spot.

For more details and to join this competition, click here

All the best tipping.

On behalf of the SJV Community

Cinema Night - Friday 13th March - volunteers are required to help on a shift to run this event. Grab your tickets now on CDF Pay.

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

Parent Student Teacher Learning conferences will take place on 1st and 2nd April. Please note that OHSC will be available on Thursday 2 April, subject to minimum numbers.

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

Have a great week .

Dave