Term 3 Week 10 (25/9/2025)
What is On?
Monday 13th October - First Day Term 4 for Students and Staff
Wednesday 15th October- Jubilee Mass Maclean, 10:20am- all welcome
Tuesday 21st- Year 4 Retreat Accendere
Thursday 23rd October - Surfing Sport S2 & S3 begins
Monday 3rd – Friday 7th November - Stage 3 Camp- Canberra
Friday 28th November - Little J's Graduation
Tuesday 2nd December - Just a little bit of fun for Christmas
End of Year Final Awards Assembly - Thursday 11th December - Yamba Bowling Club 10:00 – 11:00am
Tuesday 16th December- Potential Final Mass
Tuesday 16th December - Graduation Dinner
Wednesday 17th December - Last Day Term 4 for Students and Staff
Structural Change
As you may already know our syllabus documents reverted to year by year in 2024 in English and Maths. In line with this, staff began teaching the children in these subjects in year groups as the syllabus documents required . As a result and due to a change in the diocesan structural guidlelines for class sizes, we have begun to transition to single classes, in shared spaces. This will continue into 2026 where some subjects will be taught by a class teacher and others will remain connected.
To faciliate this and to support the settled learning environments for all students we are beginning to process of changing the stage spaces to individual classrooms which are still flexible for some KLA learning.
The beginning of assigning a staff member to each year was part of this process and will continue into 2026. Some of the walls will begin to be erected within the coming months and by January we should have a slightly different structure in the school.
Please come and chat if you would like to find out more.
Dear Parents and Carers
Why would we not finish the term the way it has been since July... when the term started.
A lovely week which started with 4 students competing in Coffs Harbour in the Public Speaking competition on Monday. Tuesday featured the Book Week parade and book week activities. Wednesday saw children out to play soccer (football for the purests!) and coming second. We finished the week with on Thursday being a school assembly where we celebrated "all things learning" to end the term. Today the staff have been learning about the new syllabuses in Science and Creative Arts. 18 years in teh making we are a bit excited to have a new CA syllabus!
This week we received the keys to the new classroom and the furniture will begin to arrive in week 1 next term. A big and exciting time for us as a school. We are planning a showing early in Term 4. Keep an eye out for an invitation.
Our Little J's and Play J's are growing in confidence and connection as the term comes to a close and we look forward to the next chapter in their journey.
I have included the new traffic rules again in the newsletter and hope that all are safe in the new term with the use of Carr's Drive.
Thank you for your continued support of all things community and learning at Saint James.
Have a wonderful break from lunch boxes, lost socks and dirty uniforms.
Ann
Sport News
Netball
Last week our mixed Netball team travelled to Lismore for the Netball NSW Schools Cup Regional Finals. In very warm conditions the team played some great Netball to win 4 out of their 6 games with both losses being by only 2 goals. This placed them 3rd in the pool and equal 5th overall out of the 14 teams competing on the day. A great effort to reach this level. Well done.
Athletics
Congratulations to Jake who has qualified to compete at the NSW PSSA Athletics Carnival after placing 3rd in the Senior Boys 1500m at the recent Polding Athletics Championships. Jake will travel down to Sydney early next term to compete against the best runners from across the State. Good luck!
Soccer
Well done to our Stage 3 Soccer team who competed at the Diocesan Soccer Finals in Grafton on Wednesday. The boys won through to the finals after winning the Clarence Zone Carnival earlier in the term. On Wednesday they played their Semi Final against St Carthages Lismore, and after a thrilling game that went into extra time, they came out on top and won their way through to the Final. This brought them up against a very strong St Finbarrs, Byron Bay team. After a tight tussle St Finbarrs came out on top winning the Final 2-0. This was a great effort from our team to finish as runners up, the best result our school has ever achieved in this competition. Well done to the team on this fantastic achievement.
Surfing
Next term Stage 2 and 3 students will be participating in a Surfing program for their weekly Sport activity. The cost for this program has been covered by a Sporting Schools Government grant that we were successful in obtaining. All the information about the program is on Compass, so please read the details and make sure your child has permission to attend before the program kicks off in Week 2.
Public Speaking Competition- Results
Congratulations to our four finalists; Slater, Poppy D, Molly and Anthony who participated in the Coffs Clarence Region Public Speaking Competition in Coffs Harbour on Monday. Each of them delivered outstanding speeches, with Anthony achieving first place in the Year 3 section and Poppy securing Runner Up for the Year 5 section. A heartfelt thank you to our amazing families for their support, which is crucial for the success of these events. Well done to our finalists!
Renee Howland
Coordinator
School Awards Assembly
St James' Award – Sarai
Principal's Award - Fletcher
Values – Lily, Iyla, Dolly, Kingston, Lila, Alessia, Lachlan
Sport – Jake, Duke, Jake, Mila, Stella, Sofia, William
Achievement – River, Silka, Dean, Sage, Charlie, Evelyn, Kade, Charlotte, Frank, Lily
Encouragement – Pearl, Skye-Leeah, Chase, Kai, Parker, Archer, Lachlan, Everly, Poppy, Ned, Archer
Book Week was worth the wait...
Such amazing costumes and great parading from all. A lovely thing to do as the term winds down.
CVC Carr's Drive plan
This Information for Parents and Carers has been provided by CVC. This new plan is coming into action by the Clarence Valley Council after the school holidays and will be patrolled by council rangers.
From the start of next term, you will notice new line marking on Carrs Drive. These changes are being introduced to improve safety for students and families.
- Yellow Line = No Stopping
The yellow line means vehicles cannot stop along this section of road at any time. This prevents queuing in the marked area and ensures drivers have clear sight distance when exiting the kiss-and-drop zone. - Arrive After the Bell
To reduce congestion, please arrive at the school zone after the bell. Arriving too early creates unnecessary queuing on Carrs Drive. - How Kiss-and-Drops Should Work
The kiss-and-drop zone is designed to function like an airport drop-off/pick-up: - Stop only long enough for your child to get in or out safely.
- The continuity line C1 is how far out you can safely pull on departure without interacting with the traffic.
Council did suggets a "go round option if your children are not ready" which I have not included but I am sure that if families work quickly to load we can work with council on improving the safety on Carr's Drive.
Just a reminder. Our school bell goes at 3:10pm. This is dismissal time from classrooms meaning it is when it must dismiss for our legal operations as a school in NSW.
Attendance
Birthdays
Billy 28/9, Mrs Commerford 28/9, Miles 30/9, Hayley 30/9, Rudy 1/10, Mr Lee 3/10, Molly 7/10, Miss Imeson 8/10, Frank 11/10, Lily 12/10, Matteo 14/10, Daisy 18/10, Luca 20/10, Sarai 21/10, Letty 21/10, Liv 24/10