Term 1 Week 2(09/02/2024)
- What is On?
- Dear Parents and Carers
- Teaching and Learning News
- RE News
- Pastoral Care and Wellbeing
- Community Conversation #6
- Stage 1 News
- S1 learning about the history of surfing in Yamba... can you help?
- Term Dates
- Child Protection Legislation
- Are your details up to date?
- School Zones are back in force
- Do you need a bus pass?
What is On?
Stage 3 Leadership- Yamba Cinema (check COMPASS for a permission)
Tuesday 13th February⋅5:30 – 7:00pm - Welcome Back BBQ
Link below for booking so we buy enough sausages!
https://forms.gle/
Wednesday 14th February⋅10:30 – 11:00am - Ash Wednesday Liturgy in hall
Thursday 15th February- Sports commences- S2 and S3 Surfing, S1- Swimming
Friday 16th February- Sport commences for ES1 (Kindy will still do their sport on Friday!)
*Monday 19th February- Zone Winter Sport Trials- Netball- Woolgoolga
*Tuesday 20th February- Zone Winter Sport Trials- Soccer- Grafton
*Wednesday 21st February- Zone Winter Sport Trials- Rugby League- Coffs Harbour
Tuesday 20th February - Beginning School Mass at Church 12pm. All welcome!
Monday 26th February 2024 - Zone Swimming Carnival -Maclean
March
Friday 1st March 2024 - Dio Swimming Carnival-Macksville
Friday 8th March 2024 -Dio Winter Sport Trials
*Monday 11th March- Zone Winter Sport Trials- Rugby Union- Coffs Harbour
Wednesday 27th March 2024 - School Cross Country
Thursday 28th March - Holy Thursday Liturgy
April
Wednesday 3rd April 2024 - Polding Swimming-Sydney
Monday 8th April 2024 - Zone Cross Country
Thursday 11th April – Friday 12 April 2024 - PSSA Swimming
Thursday 11th April- Last day Term 1, 2024 for students
Friday 12th April 2024 - Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day
*Further information will be sent home with students eligible to trial for the Winter Sports closer to the trial dates.
Dear Parents and Carers
This week we welcomed our newest learners. Such a fine group of learners, eager to become readers and writers, singers and dancers, throwers and catchers and ideas people. Such lovely friends and happy children on the playground. A great start by all.
Today we met with our Student Leadership Team to plan the year ahead. Our School Captains and Sport Captains had great ideas and we know that they will support you, your children, the staff and our school, just in the manner in which they built their meeting norms.
These norms (written by the team) are
If we work as a team:
We will be organised and on time
We will respect others and their ideas
We will listen to understand and ask questions if needed
We will try to compromise
I think we are in good hands! If you join us for Mass on the 20th February you will see these children and all Year 6 receive their Leader's Badge.
On Tuesday, while the BBQ is on please take the time to visit the learning spaces of your children. On the walls, highlighted in yellow, are the class agreements. This shows how each class have negotiated their focus on learning and working together. These are the classroom norms.
These are also in your parent letters which I will upload today. All of these letters are important and worth reading. They answer questions such as “Who is teaching my child?” “What does learning look like?” “When is library? How do I get involved in the learning?” and many more which you do not need me to list here!!
Please check COMPASS for these letters after reading the newsletter!
Best wishes for the week ahead
Ann
Teaching and Learning News
Over the next 2 weeks, your child will participate in a mathematical interview with one of our trained teachers. Whilst this sounds very formal, it is a very relaxed and low pressure discussion with your child in order to collect invaluable information and data that allows teachers to plan learning experiences targeted directly to the needs of their learners. The Mathematics Assessment Interview (MAI) is undertaken by every student in our diocesan primary schools at the beginning of each year and assists schools to additionally identify individual growth across years. If you have any questions regarding this process, please feel free to contact the school for further information.
Kind Regards
Alanna Petersen
Assistant Principal - Teaching and Learning
RE News
Our Beginning School Mass will be held on Tuesday 20th February at 12pm at St James Catholic Church, Yamba. All families are warmly invited to attend and celebrate with us.
At the conclusion of the Mass, Year 6 students will be presented with their Leaders badges and presented to the school community.
Next Wednesday 14th February we celebrate Ash Wednesday and the first day of the season of Lent. We know that Lent is a special time to prepare ourselves for Easter. By thinking about our lives and making changes with God’s help, we can become better people.
On Ash Wednesday Christians receive a cross of ashes on their foreheads. God’s people have used this powerful sign for hundreds of years. The cross of ashes tells friends and neighbours that we know we are not perfect. We sometimes break the law of God. We hurt other people. We act selfishly. On Ash Wednesday we tell God and each other that we are sorry and we want to be more like Jesus. We will be having a short liturgy in our school hall at 10am to distribute the ashes to the students and staff. You are more than welcome to join us.
Sacrament Dates
Confirmation- Monday 17th June 2024, 5pm at St Mary’s Church, Maclean.
Reconciliation- TBA
First Holy Communion- TBA
The order of Sacraments in the Lismore Diocese is:
Baptism, Confirmation (Year 3), Reconciliation (Year 4), First Eucharist (Year 4)
If you need more information regarding Baptism for your child, please contact the Parish Office in Maclean on 6645 1188 (Open Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday 9am-1:30pm).
If you would like your child to receive any other Sacraments, please contact Mrs Howland at school. For your child to receive any of these Sacraments they must first be Baptised.
If your child has received the Sacrament of Confirmation last year, they will be invited to receive Reconciliation and First Communion this year. All preparation is completed at school as part of Religion lessons.
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me at school.
Renee Howland
Assistant Principal - Mission
Pastoral Care and Wellbeing
Pastoral Care & Wellbeing
Anxiety can be crippling for some kids. They can get terrified of the dark, or they don't want to go to school or the thought of exams makes them fall to pieces. And symptoms like a racing heart and negative thoughts can be really scary for little kids as well as teenagers.
The link below is a podcast where parenting expert, Maggie Dent talks to psychologist Karen Young from heysigmund.com about how to help your child tackle anxious moments and what you can do if you think your child has anxiety.
Do you have an anxious child?
And here’s some other places you can find information and help:
Your GP
Youth Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
Reach out https://au.reachout.com/
Parent help line 1300 30 1300
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
Lifeline 131114
Community Conversation #6
The first #CC of 2024 has been held. At this gathering the discussions centred around how friends raising and parent engagement might look in 2024. All are welcome, all the time!
In the pipeline and in the planning are family games night, various parent information evenings with impressive speakers booked!
If you would like to be involved in the next conversation keep an eye on the newsletter for CC#7 date.
We want to save the date in Week 8 but we haven't got the date yet!
Remember babysitting and pizza dinner provided.
Stage 1 News
Stage 1 has started 2024 with a bang! Students and staff have spent the first few days getting to know each other. We painted self portraits, read a beautiful book called “Our Class is a Family” and had fun with the challenge of “2 Truths and Lie”. Miss Imeson has been teaching us some wonderful songs and the students have even created a Stage One Class Agreement. These are a set of rules that are completely designed by the students to help our class learn best. You will see these displayed on our walls.
The Year 2 students enjoyed explaining to the Year 1 students how the investigation spaces work in the Stage 1 room. The students decided they would like the Dramatic Play area to be a ‘St James School’. So keep an eye on Instagram to see the students using this space!
We can already see lots of new friendships forming and we can’t wait to see the adventures that unfold in our exciting learning journey this year!
Investigations Stage 1 Style
S1 learning about the history of surfing in Yamba... can you help?
This term as part of our learning in History in Stage 1, we will be learning about the History of Surfing in Yamba. If any parents have any artefacts e.g photos/ images or articles that they are willing to share with Stage 1, it would be most appreciated.
Mrs Hollington
Term Dates
Term 2, 2024:
Monday 29th April 2024 - Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day
Tuesday 30th April - First Day Term 2 for Students, 2024
Thursday 30th May - Proclaim - Pupil Free Day
Thursday 4th July - Last day Term 2, 2024 for Students
Friday 5th July 2024 - Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day
Term 3, 2024:
Monday 22nd July - First Day Term 3, 2024
Thursday 26th September- Last Day Term 3, 2024 for Students
Friday 27th September 2024 -Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day
Term 4, 2024:
Monday 14th October 2024 - Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day
Tuesday 15th October - First Day Term 4, 2024 for students
Wednesday 18th December - Last day Term 4
Child Protection Legislation
Under Child Protection Legislation any parent or community member undertaking volunteer work or working with children must complete a Working With Children Check. Please consult the principal to ascertain that you have a current WWCC before you seek to work with children. All parents must sign in using the " Whose on Location?" in the office or using the QR code. The Child Protection Policy and Procedures 2020 and the DLCSL Code of Conduct is fully implemented across the diocese. Please take time to review this document and this is available at the front office, on our website for your review and is available upon request through email.
Are your details up to date?
And now for those who do not read or speak Latin!
Moved house? Got a new phone?
If your details need updating please check in COMPASS and make the changes !
School Zones are back in force
https://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/stayingsafe/schools/flashinglights/index.html
School Zones are back in force for 2024. Please check the link above if you are not sure of the guidelines. At 40km an hour around Saint James when the zones are in force you could potentially read the signs as you drive but that would be terrible advice. Can I instead encourage you to hit the link and check the times and days for NSW schools?
Do you need a bus pass?
Our Kiss and Drop lines have not be very busy this week and the bus lines have been very busy. This prompts my reminder.
Please check the status of your child/ren's pass as these are required to travel on Busways buses to and from school. I received a list this week from Busways with the names of children who have bus passes, it was not an exhaustive list.
Can I encourage you to check online to ensure your child/ren are ready for the new year. Saint James does not have a role in the process as it is online. I googled "free school bus travel NSW" and this is the link. https://transportnsw.info/school-travel-apply