Term 3 Week 5 (22/8/2025)
What is On?
Tuesday 26th August - DIO Athletics Carnival- Coffs Harbour
Thursday 28th August - Stage 1 Parent Information Evening (see below for details)
Saturday 30th August - First Holy Communion-St James Church, Yamba
Wednesday 3rd September - Zone Soccer and Netball Carnival S3- Yamba
Friday 5th September - Father's Day Breakfast 7am -9am (ticketing to come)
Tuesday 9th September - Public Speaking School Finals in hall
Wednesday 10th September - Colour Fun Run- Stage 3 Fundraiser
Wednesday 17th September- Netball School Cup Finals- Lismore
Friday 19th September- Touch Football Gala Day S2 & S3
Monday 22nd September - Public Speaking Finals in Coffs
Tuesday 23rd September - Book Parade - New Date see below
Wednesday 24th September- DIO Netball & Football Finals - Grafton
Thursday 25th September - Last Day Term 3 for Students
Friday 26th September - Staff Professional Learning Day - Curriculum - Pupil Free Day
Term 4 2025
Monday 13th October - First Day Term 4 for Students and Staff
Monday 3rd – Friday 7th November - Stage 3 Camp- Canberra
End of Year Final Awards Assembly - Thursday 11th December - Yamba Bowling Club 10:00 – 11:00am
Tuesday 16th December - Graduation Dinner
Wednesday 17th December - Last Day Term 4 for Students and Staff
Dear Parents and Carers
Dear Parents and Carers,
As Ms Dawson is currently busy conducting enrolment tours, I’m excited to be your guest blogger for Week 5! We have had quite a few enrolment tours for Kindergarten 2026, but we still have a few spaces left if you know of anyone who would like a spot in our 2026 Kindergarten classes!
It’s been another big week at St James! We kicked things off with Play J’s on Tuesday morning. It was wonderful to connect with both new and current families. The session was a great success, and we’ll continue running Play J’s every Tuesday from 9:00–10:00am. Everyone is welcome!
We also had a blast at our school disco! It was so much fun watching the kids show off their dance moves, groove to some new tunes (K-Pop was a hit!), and sparkle in their glittery, glowing outfits.
Today, we held our first Little J’s transition morning. Can you believe it's that time of year already? The children were so calm and settled as they enjoyed activities like planting seeds, home room play, and climbing fun on our adventure playground. We can’t wait to watch our Little J’s grow, learn, and start building a strong sense of belonging here at St James.
Looking ahead to next week, we have Dio Athletics on Tuesday. We wish all of our competitors the very best of luck!
Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the long-awaited sunshine!
Warm regards,
Alanna Cason
RE News
First Holy Communion
On Saturday 30th August, 12 of our students will celebrate their First Holy Communion at St James Catholic Church. This is a very special milestone in their lives and one they have been preparing for with great effort and enthusiasm.
We are very proud of the way they have worked towards this day and the commitment they have shown. A big thank you also to their families and teachers who have supported them along the way.
Congratulations to Maeve, Mila, Ivie, Leah, Cruz, Lola, Declan, Dolly, Finn, Cleo, Molly and Poppy.
Renee Howland
Assistant Principal Mission
Sport News
Athletics
The Diocesan Athletics Carnival will be taking place next Tuesday in Coffs Harbour. We have a number of students from St James who have qualified to represent Clarence Zone at this carnival. Good luck to Jake, Jensen, Ella, Ralph, Iyla, Remi, Elsie, Ralph, Lily, Finn, Leah, Chase and Lenny.
Soccer
Good luck to Ashton who is travelling to Ballina next week to compete at the NSW PSSA Soccer Championships. Ashton has been selected as Goalkeeper for the Polding team. An amazing effort to reach this level and we look forward to hearing how things go next week.
Book Week
Book Week News
What a spirited week we've had at St James, even without our much-loved book parade!
A true highlight was welcoming local author Amy Louise Tucker to our S1 and Kindergarten classes. The children were absolutely enthralled by her brand-new book, and their thoughtful questions about her writing journey and the publishing process were very informative.
Our annual Book Fair also proved a resounding success! Students delighted in discovering exciting new reads and beloved classics, all at fantastic prices. Even better, the school will benefit from this event, with proceeds going toward enriching our library with fresh titles.
Early Stage 1 turned their classroom sessions into a captivating experience by inviting staff and teachers to become “Special Guest Readers.” From funny tales to reflective stories, each reader shared a piece of their heart, and the students eagerly looked forward to returning each day for a new reading friend.
All in all, it’s been a massive week, abundant in stories, engagement, and community spirit. We look forward with growing anticipation to our book parade at the end of term.
New Book Parade Information!
Date: 23/09
Time: 9.15am
Where - Big top
Kind regards
Alanna Cason
Parent Information Evening - Stage 1
Long Way Home - Winners
The Long Way Home judges have chosen their list of stories to be published this year.
We’re delighted to let you know the judges have picked stories from our school to be published in Stories from the Clarence Valley 2025 – Heart of Gold later this year.
The stories are by:
Ella
Jensen
Ralph
Declan
Fionn
Remi
Ashton
Nixon
Congratulations! And thank you to every student who wrote a story. Anyone who wrote a story should be proud.
The book will be launched on 9th December at Grafton Regional Gallery. The winning story will be announced at the launch. We’ll keep you posted. Contributing authors will receive a free copy of the book.
Judges for the Primary School Section were Bundjalung consultant Janelle Brown, Jess Wood from Grafton Book Warehouse and Claire Aman.
Well done St James students.
Lisa Dougherty
ES1 News
We are very lucky this term to welcome Miss Piper Richardson into the Kindy classroom! Miss Richardson is joining us from Notre Dame University in Sydney, as she completes her final profession practicum before graduating. Miss Richardson has been leading the way in English, teaching us about verbs and adjectives, and how using these in our writing makes it so much
In Maths, we have been learning to tell the time on both analog and digital clocks! We know that an analog clock has a big and small hand, whilst a digital clock has a colon (:) followed by two 00’s! We say “o’clock” when telling the time. We are also working really hard on forward and backward counting!
This week, we had our special visit to Saint James Catholic Church. We celebrated Mass with Father Roland and then went on a tour of the Church to locate all of the special signs and symbols we have been learning about in our lessons. We were lucky with the weather and also managed to squeeze in a picnic lunch and play at Lions Park!
In Music/Dance (Creative Arts), we are learning about different music and dance styles from around the world. This week we had a go at dancing the Flamenco from Spain, and we moved our hips to a traditional dance from the Cook Islands. We are loving our ‘Music Studio’ investigation space… I bet you can almost hear us from home!
Attendance
Health
Birthdays
William 27/8, Mrs Forde 27/8, Nellie 1/9, Mrs Towner 1/9, Miss Mooney 2/9, Harvey 5/9