Hi St James Families!

We hope the start of Term 2 has gone well for everyone in our community. It was really lovely to see so many of us gather in the multipurpose room this morning for a simple, but cosy morning tea and great to see so many new faces. A very big thanks to Clemi Kohambanwickremage for helping to organise the morning tea and Nicole Spezza for running the second-hand uniform stall at the same time.

As you will see from this rather long newsletter we have a lot planned for this term which is exciting (after last year!) and we will need your help, especially in Week 3 when we have a number of events requiring the generosity of volunteers. Many hands make light work, so if you have an hour to spare please consider giving some time to help these events be successful for our school.

DATES to REMEMBER

Thursday 6 May – Pies Food Day & Mother’s Day Stall

Friday 7 May – Grandparents Day

Saturday 8 May – Bunnings BBQ

Thursday 25 May – P&F Meeting, 7:30pm

Saturday 5 June – Disco Bingo Major Fundraiser

REBEL SPORT COMMUNITY GIVEBACKS – Great News and a Big Thank you!

Before we ask for your help for a variety of events this term, we wanted to send a VERY BIG thank you to the whole community for shopping at Rebel Sport! As a result of your shopping efforts over the past year and through lockdowns we have accrued $1800 in Community Giveback Dollars!

We will use some of these dollars to purchase prizes for raffles, auctions and competitions that we run, but have been pleased to be able to donate half of these dollars to the school to purchase sporting equipment for P.E. classes and to the Auskick Program, who will share the products purchased with the school. The school has received the following sports equipment as a direct result of you mentioning St James when shopping as a member at Rebel Sport: Softball equipment including batting tees, bases and bats; tennis balls, 2 X soccer goals, whistles, place kickers, hurdles, agility poles and a tackle bag.

If you haven't signed up, please do and mention St James whenever you purchase and 5% will be donated back to the School!

A big thanks to Jason Barrie, our Sponsorships and Donations coordinator, for helping organising and picking up these donations!

AUSKICK – SATURDAYS 8:30 – 9:30am

Auskick started last Saturday with around 60 children enjoying a kick, some drills and activities before a sausage sizzle. While I am not a fan of a BBQ for breakfast I am clearly in the minority as they were a certain hit! Thanks to the always amazing Chris Harvey for coordinating a brilliant Auskick program and the supremely organised Jen Harvey for coordinating the BBQ. The BBQ will be a relatively simple affair each week, with sausages and maybe a few drinks and packaged snacks such as chips and popcorn but Jen will need some help especially since she can't always be there until the end. Auskick parents can you help once or twice over the season? Please sign up here: volunteersignup.org/894KJ

FRIDAY TREATS - LAMINGTONS

Lamington Fingers @ 2 for 50c are on sale tomorrow at recess and every Friday for Term 2 and 3.

If you can help sell them on Fridays from 1:50pm to 2:20pm please sign up on the Term 2 roster:volunteersignup.org/X99BE

PIES FOOD DAY

Thursday 6 May

Order forms went home yesterday for our next Food Day on Thursday 6 May. Please return these by next Friday 30th April.

Due to Grandparent's Day we have moved this from the usual Friday but we will need quite a few helpers for this one. Five are needed from 9:00am to 11:00am to pack and sort drinks and snacks and then 5 more to join us from 10:15am to get our hot pies, sausage rolls and quiches into bags quickly so they are still nice and warm for our kids lunches! If you can help with this, Kylie would very much appreciate it. You can sign up here: volunteersignup.org/E3CWT

MOTHERS DAY STALL

Thursday 6 May

Look away Mums!

Your kids will need to talk to the Dads about a shopping trip at school for Mother's Day.

This year's Mother's Day Stall is on Thursday 6 May and kids will need $5 to select a special gift for Mum.

Cate Pigeault and Jess Savoia will need some helpers during the morning to sell gifts. Please sign up here if you can help: volunteersignup.org/JCDW7

A very big thanks to Cate and Jess for organising this!

MOTHER'S DAY RAFFLE

Tickets were sent home for our fabulous Mother's Day Raffle.

We have some fantastic prizes up for grabs for our mums, so don’t miss your chance to win any of the following:1st Prize - Hair Cut, Blow Dry & Hair Products - Value $200 (Care of Saint Rose Hair Salon, Nunawading)2nd Prize - Float & Sauna Package – Value $105 (Care of Set Me Free Spa – Rebecca Barrie)3rd Prize - Milk n Wine Voucher – Value $50 (Care of Milk n Wine Co. Heathmont) 4th Prize - Endota Spa Voucher – Value $50 (Care of Forest Hill Endota Spa) 5th Prize - JB Hi Fi Voucher – Value $30 (Care of Plus 61 Finance) To enter the raffle, simply write your name and contact number on as many of the ticket stubs that you wish to purchase, keep your lucky numbers and return the stubs with your money by Thursday 6th May, in an envelope labelled ‘Mother’s Day Raffle Tickets’. Prizes will be drawn on Friday 7th May.All tickets $1 each.

Thanks to Jason Barrie and Aimee Varga for organising this!

GRANDPARENTS DAY

Friday 7 May

As many of you may have heard the school will be holding a Grandparent's Day on Friday 7 May from 9am. It's always a very popular and very busy day and such great news that we can have it this year! The P&F has been asked to help with finding volunteers to assist with the morning tea. Tea, coffee and scones (delivered by a caterer) will be provided in the Community Centre from 9:15 until 11:15 am. We need 12 volunteers in 1 hr shifts to serve, tea and coffee, prepare scones and serve scones. Please sign up here if you can help: volunteersignup.org/E9QBE

BUNNINGS BBQ

Saturday 8 May

Our annual Bunnings BBQ is coming up very soon on Saturday 8 May at Vermont South Bunnings. A very big thank you to Dylan Dipierdomenico and Adrian Epifano (Grade 1 parents) who attended a briefing which detailed the procedures needing to be followed to meet Covidsafe requirements. Only 4 volunteers can be in the BBQ area at any one time and it was advised to extend shifts to limit change over. The shifts are from 8am to 12pm and then 12pm to 4pm. Four very generous volunteers have already been found to cook and serve and as such we need 4 more to fill the roster. Please sign up here if you can help: volunteersignup.org/RLQYC

SAVE THE DATE – MAJOR PARENT SOCIAL NIGHT

Saturday 5 June

As you will know our big fundraiser is coming up later this term! Please keep Saturday 5th June free to have fun and celebrate with other parents in our great community of St James!

The Grade 2 Champions, Junita Yeung, Emma Lovick and Clemi Kohambanwickremage are busy finalising catering and arrangements for the night which will be held in our Community Centre and will be sending out invites in the first week of May. Look forward to a night of food and drinks, music trivia and games, prizes, a small silent auction and to boogie and bingo the night away! More details to come very soon!

Donations for our Online Silent Auction

The Sponsorship and Donations team are seeking donations of prizes for an online silent auction which will be run in conjunction with our Major Parent Social Night. Do you have a business or contacts with a business who would like to support our school and at the same time advertise their business or products? Do you have new, unwanted items at home that may be a treasure for someone else? If so consider donating to support our school! The auction will run online prior to the event and then end on the night. Products and advertising of supporting businesses will be on display on the night but all bids made online! Please contact Jason Barrie at JBarrie@atlasbroker.com.au or Rachel Williams (Sponsorship and Donations Team) or one of the P&F Team Leaders if you or anyone you know who may be interested in this opportunity to donate or support our school.

SCHOOL DISCO - Save the Date!

Thursday 16 September

Our Grade 4 Champions (Tash Dumais, Rachel Shannon, Simone Whitfield and Renee Petitt) have been busily planning and locking in a DJ, a venue and big surprises for this year's school disco!

It's still quite a long time away, being in the last week of third term, but lock in the date as we are sure your kids will NOT want to miss this!

Thanks as always for your support!

Kylie and Sheleigh

P&F Team Leaders

St James Parent and Friends Association

pandf@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au

Library News