Principal's Post

Dear Families,

Our School Advisory Council is a crucial cog in the governance structure of St James. They are the representative group and voice of our parent community. We do take their advice, feedback and views very seriously, especially when deciding on possible changes and innovations.

The SAC met last Tuesday evening and among the agenda items were the following: 

• The Frank Street Crossing - While there has been very inconsistent delivery of the service, and we have had to staff the crossing as we have in the past, this should now be staffed at least every Tuesday and Thursday by council employees.
• Our new Administration Building works to be built at the front of the property  - The concept, both physically and financially has been approved by MACS and plans are now with the Council Town Planning Unit.
• Learning Conferences - we discussed some possible scenarios for Term Three considering the following: online, person, times and the number of days we offer the conferences given our concert production will be the week prior to them.
• School Finances - our Business Manager, Lucy Conway presented our funding model, explaining where our revenue comes from, where the majority of our expenses are incurred, the government's Capacity of Families to Contribute to fees concept and the plan to keep fees as low as possible while still raising enough funds for the school to operate as we do. 

Your representatives on the St James School Advisory Council are: 

Andrew Mitchell, Sam Hutt, David Mutimer, Kylie Brooks - Verberne, Deborah Vukic, James Wingate, April Warfield, Karina Squires-Unkles, Anita DellÓrso, James Sweatman, Paola Weinberg and Chris Harvey (chairperson) and Paola Weinberg (absent)

Seasons for Growth

Seasons for Growth is an innovative, evidence-based change, loss and grief education program that draws on the metaphor of the seasons to understand the experience of grief. It builds the knowledge and skills necessary to strengthen social and emotional wellbeing following significant loss by:

• Exploring the impact of change and loss
• Learning about effective ways to respond and adapt

Participants learn that they are not alone in their experience of change, loss and grief, and are able to build their communication, decision making and problem solving skills within the context of a safe and supportive peer group learning environment.

All Seasons for Growth programs are grounded in sound, person-centred educational principles.

As such, our programs have been shown to be a very effective education intervention. The programs do not provide counselling or psychotherapy.

School Uniform

Winter is certainly upon us and students are permitted to wear beanies, scarfs and coats outdoors.  Please ensure that all clothing items worn to school are clearly labelled with their name. There are many unclaimed jackets in the lost property tub. Please encourage your children to have a look before the end of term.

Year Four Gala Sports Day

Last Tuesday was a hugely successful day and our students played with great determination and sportsmanship. 

Tball

Gala day was fun and energetic. T Ball was a new sport to us and we played against some very competitive teams. It was amazing to make new and better friendships throughout the day with our team mates. Coach Amanda encouraged us to keep on going even when we were tired. We had a favourite game when we had a Parish battle between St James and St Johns! Everyone had a fair turn and encouraged each other especially when we made a home run. Overall, we had an incredible day and all went home with smiles from ear to ear!

By Emmerson  and Charlotte.

On Tuesday  6th of June at 9.00am, we went to Elgar Park for Gala Day!  We Tee Ballers played against some tough schools including Mount Pleasant, St Johns and more!  We got some good swings and many superior home runs! We had fun, even though we came unlucky last. We played like knights fighting dragons! 

By Jeremiah, Piper, Chloe C, Elle and Kennedy

Football 4B

We were really hyped and excited  when we arrived from our bus trip and saw the footy field and all the other schools. Everyone played fairly and competitively on the day. We won a few games and we made it into the semi final, unfortunately we lost it but we tried our very best. Even our newest classmate learnt how to kick a football for the very first time! Mr Mutimer encouraged us to keep on going and have a go. One of our greatest victories was 59 to 1. We also won the local derby against St John's. We played fairly and with great spirit and shook hands with the opposition teams every game. It was an awesome Gala day.

By Matthew and Andrew 

European Handball

On the morning  of the 6th of June…

A loud sound erupted from  our school bus “Beep beep!”

We came flying out of the bus, Jett started jumping on the sandpit.  Soon we started  playing our first match of European handball.  ”Toot Toot!”   The first match, the whistle went. We finally got the ball and slammed it into the goal. Soon we had won 4 games in a row including the semis. The grand final came closer and closer.” Tweet, tweet!” the whistle  sounded.  The other team got the ball past Jett and into the goal.   We kept on persisting and scored goals.   Goal after goal the Pelicans scored.” Smash! Bam! Crash!” The ball went into the goal. Sadly we couldn’t catch up and the final whistle blew.  Mrs D reminded us to keep our spirits up. “Show the St James way and well done for making it this far!”

That’s what happened for Gala Day!

By Xavier, Jett, Shaun, Cleo ,Chloe L,  Kobe ,Tyson and Jack H 

Fore more Gala Day reflections check out our Physical Education Page.

Footy Tips Update

1st Place we have 4 equal leaders on 77 tips: Hutt Family, NJonesy24, Lovely Lisa!, Bomber Liam 

Celebration of Visual Arts

The Years 3-6 students have been working very hard over the last semester on their visual arts skills. On Friday 16th of June parents are invited to come and see their children's artwork displayed in their classrooms from the Visual Arts lessons this semester. The viewing times are as follows 1:00pm-2:00pm (after mass) or 3:20pm-3:30pm. 

We hope to see you there!

Other News/Dates

• Friday 16 June - Feast of the Sacred Heart Mass - whole school celebration here in the Community Centre 12om
• Friday 23 June - Final day of Term Two - same 3.20pm dismissal
• Friday 21- 26 July - Scholastic Book Fair
• Tues 29 & Wed 30 August - School Concert Production at Crossways in East Burwood.

Have a great week.

Dave