Newsletter 6 March 2024
Principal's Message
Tonight, we are looking forward to beginning our preparation for our Parish Based Sacramental Program. Fr Elio Capra will facilitate this session for us. It is a wonderful opportunity for us to gather together and have a conversation with Fr Elio to understand the Catholic Particularity of Sacraments. It is also one of the few opportunities we have to meet with our broader Parish family as we welcome Parishioners and our partner schools St John the Baptist and Columba.
We also have our whole school athletics carnival on Wednesday March 20, again at Edwin Flack Reserve. Much work goes in behind the scenes from planning events, booking buses and venues and ensuring risk assessments are completed. Thank you to the admin team who have spent countless hours in this space. Karen, who runs the actual event met with staff last night and will be here next Thursday for PE lessons so that our children are fully aware of events and have the time to practise these. We are looking forward to a fantastic day!
Next week, we begin NAPLAN. Parents of students in years 3 and 5, please remember that these assessments are a snapshot of your child's learning at a particular point in time. We use this data, with other school based assessments to plan for student learning. If you have any questions, please see your child's teacher or Kathy.
We finish our term with Prayers and Picnics. Every student will be involved in sharing the Easter journey with us. Families, extended family and Parishioners are invited to bring along afternoon tea, a picnic blanket and share the events in the lead up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Staff will be involved in professional learning on Friday focusing on aspects of the Victorian Curriculum and how this supports our approach to student wellbeing and our Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviour Support. We hope everyone has a safe and happy extra long weekend.
There will be No Assembly next Wednesday 13 March
Take care, Bec
Deputy Principal's Message
Dear St James Families,
Please note next week the grade three and five students from st James will be complete NAPLAN testing.
Please see below Timetable for this year.
As a school we use student data to drive our planning to improve student outcomes and will therefore support our students by:
- revising curriculum content taught in literacy and numeracy
- share example NAPLAN questions
- discuss strategies needed to understand the formatting of NAPLAN questions
- discuss how to answer multiple choice questions
- practice answering questions using a Chromebook
- minimise student anxiety by maintaining school routines
- support students to do their best
If you have any questions or concerns about your child/ren sitting NAPLAN please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards, Kathy Zandona
Date: | Wednesday 13/03/2024 | Thursday 14/03/2024 | Friday 15/03/2023 | Monday 18/03/2023 | Thursday 21/03/2024 | ||
Time: | 9.15am | 9.15am | 11.45am | 11.45am | 9.30am | 11.45am | 9.15am |
Test: | Writing | Reading | Writing Catch Up Session | Language Conventions | Numeracy | Catch up Session | Catch up Session |
Year Level: | 3 and 5 | 3 and 5 | 3 and 5 | 3 and 5 | 3 and 5 | ||
Religious Education
Kind Regards, Julie Veldman
Parents and Friends News
The P & F committee have a lot of exciting ideas for 2024, to not only fundraise but to continue on rebuilding our sense of community connection after covid held us back for a couple of years there!
Our first event to enable this will be some fun barefoot bowls at Pakenham on Friday May 3rd! Save the date and book a sitter! More info to come!
Thanks to all who have provided Easter eggs for our raffle to be drawn at the prayers and picnic on 27th March! Keep ‘em coming! Raffle tickets will need to be back in by Monday 25th.
BINGO!!
You should have received a letter calling out for bingo volunteers! Each class have been assigned to a night throughout the year, please contact Abby Scanlon or the office if you can help out!
Grade 6: 7th march
Grade 5: 9th may
Grade 3/4: 11th july
Grade 1/2: 12th sep
F: 14th nov
Lastly, if you have any old pots and pans etc that you would like to donate towards the kids sandpit and mud/sand kitchens, please drop them into the office!
Division Swimming
Next Tuesday four of our students will be representing St James at the Division Swimming Carnival.
The best of luck to Lachlan C, Felicity P, Scarlett D and Amayah D.
Important Information
This year St James will be using two main platforms of communication with our families - PAM and Schoolzine.
To ensure that you keep up to date with what is happening with your children and within the school please ensure that you have access to these platforms and are familiar with their uses.
If you require assistance with accessing or setting up these platforms, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.
From time to time it will also be necessary for emails and text messages to be sent.
Schoolzine App Installation Instructions:
This is an app that you have on your phone and allows for easy reading of the newsletter, as it customises to the screen and translates into many languages if required.
Please click the link below for the instructions on installing the app on your phone.
https://www.schoolzine.com/
As part of the installation, you will be required to enter the following 4 digit passcode -
3675
Please do not hesitate to contact the school office if you have any questions or queries.
Accessing PAM Instructions:
Please use the below link to access your PAM account.
https://pam.stjamesnng.catholic.edu.au
The user name is the email you have provided to the school and if you have not logged on previously, you will be able to set a password.
If you require your password to be reset, please contact the school office.