St James News

Principal's Post

Dear Families,

It's hard to believe that the school year is almost half over!

Overall, three weeks of Remote Learning is much better than last year's situation. Hopefully that is it for the year!

 

Student reports will be available via the emailed link on Thursday afternoon. Please ensure that our office has your current, correct email address. If you receive this newsletter and other COVID updates then we surely do.

Attached is some information which will help families understand the changes we have made to the presentation format.

 

We are delighted to be able to provide a link via email for you to be able to view your children’s Semester One Reports. This will be sent home next Thursday.

Class teachers will also send home an electronic reflection sheet completed by each student. We ask that as parents, you all take the opportunity to write a reflection and comments back to your children, affirming their achievements throughout the semester.

Ideally, this would be completed and available for us to save by the end of the school holidays.

You will no doubt be aware that following parent, student and staff feedback, as well as research we conducted, the format of the reports has changed. You will now see more detailed information. This will be in the form of statements regarding the curriculum standards at your child’s grade level and their personal achievement regarding these standards. This will illustrate areas your child may have achieved, excelled at or require further development in.

Each curriculum area will have an overview summarising what the students were taught in that particular subject for Terms 1 & 2.  This has been taken from the Victorian Curriculum.  See the example below.

Following the overview you will see the Victorian Curriculum progression dots for that subject area.  This is also seen on the summary page, page 3 of the reports. Some subject areas are broken down into strands.  

 Underneath the progression points you will see statements/checklists that the student are assessed against at their grade level  These are also taken from the Victorian Curriculum and  directly  correlate to the progression point. See the example below.

 

St James 50 Years Celebration 

Sunday 25 July 9.30am - 2.00pm starting with Mass 

Plans are well under way for this day of celebrating and giving thanks for all that St James has provided so many families over the past fifty years.

 

Bookings are essential so that we can account for numbers and provide a picnic box lunch for all visitors. Booking close on the first Friday of next term - Friday 16th July.

 

Have you completed your family's Operoo info?

Please take the 20 minutes required to complete the online information for your children. Once we have all families registered and with accurate, up to date information, we can implement this new system for excursions, camps, interschool sport, etc.  

Some families will be familiar with a similar system used in some secondary schools.

 

See the link below:

 

Operoo website: www.operoo.com. There is also a parent introduction page here: https://www.operoo.com/intro-for-parents/.

 

COVID Updates

We've had some inquiries about bringing commercially produced, individually packaged treats to share with classmates to celebrate birthdays. Yes - that fits within the guidelines!

Parents are allowed onsite. If you do enter a building, please register on the Vic QR Code.

 

 If you are here longer than 15 minutes, please register at the school office. We have noticed that it has been a real opportunity for some of our younger students to develop a greater sense of independence, in managing their bags and morning routines. That's been a positive, admist the restrictions!

A few brief updates/reminders

  • PS to Dads: There are a few outstanding $5:00 IOUs from children who came to the Mothers' Day stall and forgot their money. If that's the case, can you please pop it in an envelope and send it to the office? Thanks
  • Thank you for your contributions to our St James grocery collection which has been passed onto our Parish arm of St Vincent de Paul to be distributed to those in need.
  • Janine Piper, our wonderful volunteer who co ordinates our Bookclub orders, is moving on next year. If anyone would be interested in taking on this role, please ring the school, or Janine 0407336598 and you could 'shadow' her to learn the process!
  • Please keep the CONCERT DATES FREE ( Tuesday 31 August and Wednesday 1 September). We are working on, 'PLAN B' to ensure we can still celebrate our learning within the Performing Arts. To work within restrictions, it may look different to what we've had in the past.
  • Our Debating Night for Year 5 and 6 parents has been rescheduled to Wednesday 11 August.
  • The Year 6 Level Mass is planned for the first weekend back next term - 17 / 18 July. It is the opportunity to make a commitment to celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation.
  • Year Five camp to Sovereign Hill is happening! We leave on the first day of next term - Monday 12 July. Vic Gibson and Antionette Moroney will join the Year Five teachers - Madeline Herbert, Daniel Egan and myself . I'll return on Tuesday, when Tim Flintoff and Amy Darvell will join the group. It's a terrific learning experience and offers a real, historical perspective as the children have two days of  schooling in the 150s setting. I'm sure there will be plenty of photos to share next term.
  • Next term, we welcome Karina Geraghty to St James. She is completing four weeks of placement to complete her training to be a Learning Support Officer.
  • Last call to collect items from Lost Property. Any unnamed items of clothing are washed and donated to the second hand uniform stall at the end of each term.

Have a great week then a safe holiday period,

 

Dave