Term 3 Week 5 2023 (18/08/2023)

What's On?

Wednesday 23rd August - Reconciliation- in Hall

Friday 25th August - Book Week Parade - Dress up

Saturday 26th August - First Holy Communion- St James Church Yamba, 5:15 – 6:15pm

Monday 28th August - Mary MacKillop Performance, 1:45 – 2:45pm

Tuesday 29th August - Public Speaking Competition- School Final 

Thursday 31st August- Pie Drive  - more details to come.

September

Friday 1st September - Fathers Day Breakfast, 7:00am

Wednesday 6th September - Zone Soccer Netball Carnival  

Monday 11th September - Public Speaking Competition Finals- Coffs Harbour 

Friday 15th September - Touch Footy Gala Day 

Thursday 21st September - Last day of term 3 for students

Thursday 21st September - Colour Run Stage 3 Fundraiser  

Friday 22nd September - Staff Development Day

NSW PSSA Rugby

Levi will be away all next week  as a member of the Polding Rugby Team.
He trains Sunday & Monday and competition days are Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday.

Check in SPORT News below for all the details. 

Dear Parents and Carers

Another week of WOW at Saint James BUT we had a Sacrament with Bishop Greg...

A beautiful night on Tuesday at the Confirmation with Bishop Greg who had one message.

"You need to make sure your children know that they are loved."

That is the job of school and most importantly all parents.  

Nothing more to say really.

Have a lovely weekend

Ann

Sport News

Basketball

Over the last 2 Mondays Stages 2 and 3 have had the opportunity to be involved in the Lower Clarence Basketball Gala Day. The day is all about fun and introducing the kids to Basketball in a friendly environment. All the kids enjoyed the days and it was great to see the improvement from the beginning of the day to the end. Well done to all.

Athletics

The Diocesan Athletics carnival was held in Coffs Harbour on Tuesday this week. St James had 16 students competing as part of the Clarence Zone team on the day, which is the largest team we have had for a number of years. Everyone who was involved in the day performed well. There were a number of exceptional results (listed below) and we had 4 students qualify for the Polding Carnival. Congratulations to Henry Miller, Aidan Ribeiro, Jake Seivers and Iyla Towner who will all head to Sydney at the beginning of next term to represent the Lismore Diocese at the Polding Athletics Carnival. 

Zone Soccer and Netball Carnival

St James will be entering teams in the Clarence Zone Soccer and Netball carnivals to be held in Yamba on Wednesday 6th September. The carnival is for Stage 3 students with the winning school from each Zone progressing to the Diocesan Finals to be held in Grafton at the end of the term. Mrs Hancock and Mr Dougherty will be organising the teams in the coming week.

Rugby Union

Good luck to Levi O’Shea who is playing in the Polding Rugby Union team at the NSW PSSA Rugby carnival in Camden, beginning next Tuesday. Levi will be competing against the best 12 yr old Rugby players from across the State at the 3 day carnival. It's a great achievement to reach this level and we wish him all the best. 

For those Rugby fans interested in watching the games, you can search for the NSW School Sport Unit on Youtube and follow the link to the PSSA Rugby carnival. Levi’s games on Tuesday are at 9.20am, 11.35am and 1.50pm. Good luck Levi!

Sport Dates 2023

Zone Soccer Netball Carnival - Wednesday 6th September

Touch Footy Gala Day - Friday 15th September

Term 4

Polding Atheltics - Friday 13th October  

Dio Summer Sport Trials -Friday 24th  November - Lismore

RE News

SACRAMENTS

Confirmation

We had a group of 12 students who received the Sacrament of Confirmation on Tuesday evening at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Maclean. Bishop Greg officiated the ceremony and talked of the importance of ‘love’ for our children and for children to ‘...know they are loved’. Confirmation completes the first Sacrament of initiation, Baptism. These students will receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation and First Communion next year.

First Holy Communion & Reconciliation

Next week we have a group of 14 students who will be receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesday 23rd August, followed by First Communion on Saturday 26th August. These students have been preparing for this Sacrament all term with their class. These are the final Sacraments of initiation. Students will receive Reconciliation from Father Nicolas, prior to First Communion. Eucharist is unique among the sacraments as it is at the heart of our faith. For Catholics, the Eucharist, or Mass, is the most powerful way we encounter the real presence of Jesus Christ. 

The Sacrament of First Communion will be held in St James Church, Yamba on Saturday 26th August.

The order of Sacraments in the Lismore Diocese is: Baptism, Confirmation (Year 3), Reconciliation (Year 4), First Eucharist (Year 4). All preparation is undertaken at school.

For your child to receive any of these Sacraments they must first be Baptised. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me at school.

If you are interested in your child/ren being Baptised, please contact the Maclean Parish Office on 66451188 Mon/ Wed/ Fri 9am-2pm to book an appointment with Father Nicolas.

Renee Howland

Assistant Principal Mission

Sacrament Dates 2023



School Awards Assembly

St James' Award -Eamon MAWN 

Principal's Award -Hope HOMEWOOD, Lola BICE, Ivie STAPLETON

Be Your Best Self -Letty TIERNEY, Louis COLLINS, Maeve MORTIMER, Luca ESPAG, Hayley LONG, Mignon ESPAG

MJR -Ori SALISBURY,  Grace JAMES, Cadence TAYLOR, Sailor SHORT

Sports -William BROPHY,  Billy PLAYNE, Lily GILL, Rashad RICE

Achievement -Fletcher PETERSEN,  Leah SCANLON, Mila STAPLETON, Siaan LLOYD-SMITH, Jack DRAYTON, Lola DOUGHERTY, Levi CAVANAGH

Encouragement -Hendrix PERRY, Aiden JOHNSON, Sebastian BECKWITH, Rhys JOHNSON, Vivian PERRY, Autumn ENNS, Heath STOWE

Student of the Week -Ella VERSTAPPEN, Lennox DOUGHERTY, Noah NIXON, Jacob TRIGGS, Lucee-Mae KNOX, Isabel DUCKETT

PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION 2023

2023 marks the second year of the Clarence Schools Public Speaking Competition. The first round of speeches will be held in classrooms next week, with 5 students selected for our school competition in the hall in Week 7. This competition is open to students in Stage 2 and Stage 3. 

One speaker from each grade will be selected to take part in the Clarence Schools Public Speaking Competition at St John Paul College on Monday 11th September. Finalists from Mary Help of Christians Sawtell, St Augustine’s Coffs Harbour, St Francis Xavier Woolgoolga, St James Yamba, St Mary’s Bellingen, St Joseph’s Maclean, St Joseph’s South Grafton, St Mary’s Grafton, St Mary’s Bowraville and Mount St John’s Dorrigo will be competing.

We are looking forward to hearing these speeches and seeing the creative ideas that these students will share with us!

ES1 News

Sounds Write

Early Stage 1 students have been making connections between sounds and the way we represent those sounds. The skills of segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation are fundamental to being able to use the alphabet code efficiently in fluent reading and spelling. Our Sounds Write program which teaches these skills takes place during the Early Stage 1 English time. Mrs Dougherty has loved being able to teach the Sounds Write program while Miss Haines is on her World Youth Day trip.

Mrs Dougherty

AP Teaching and Learning