19 July 2021

Newsletter Articles

Our Mission @ SJM

St James’ Primary School community excel in education through living and learning in Christ.

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Principal’s Message

Welcome back to the St James’ School Community for Term 3.

I do hope you had a great holiday. I took three of my kids to Bega and had a lovely time visiting the Bega Valley. It is definitely nice to get away from time to time.

I had my second Pfizer vaccination last week and actually became quite unwell with severe cold and flu symptoms, hence why I didn’t return to school until Thursday. Apologies for my absence.

As I had those symptoms I undertook a COVID-19 test, this one being my fifth. It is really important that if your child/ren are unwell please keep your child at home. Please take them for a COVID-19 test, as I did, and send that negative result to us via email before your child returns. We have also been advised that students who have visited Greater Sydney should not be at school. Please refer to the NSW Public Health advice for more information.

Please also note that if your child has a medical condition, like asthma, you can go to the doctor and asked for a medical clearance. I am happy to accept these, in place of constantly having to go and get COVID-19 tests due to those symptoms.

COVID CHANGES to SJM

You would’ve seen the note re: changes to the SJM community. I am sorry about these, but please know that we are following the direct instructions of NSW Health, Catholic Schools NSW and the CSO Diocese of Maitland – Newcastle to keep our community safe.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate in contacting me.

Food Allergies

A reminder that we are a nut free school. We have many students who are allergic to many different things including eggs and nuts.

Please note for this reason we have a policy that we do not share foods at SJM. This includes food between children. It also includes not sharing cakes or any food for birthdays.

At times, when classes have class parties, these are carefully monitored by the teacher to ensure all children are safe.

Thanks, in advance, for your support of this policy.

The Cancellation of Activities

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions a number of planned activities have been cancelled or postponed. We apologise for this.

• Year 6 Volunteering @ Red Door – cancelled until further notice.
• Year 6 @ St Nick’s - cancelled until further notice.
• Term 2 Reward – Postponed as the OBSTACOOL crew are from the Central Coast. Stay tuned for a new reward soon.
• CPR for Stage 2 & Stage 3 – postponed until further notice.
• ASPIRE – postponed until later in the year.
• NAIDOC Celebrations – Postponed until restrictions ease.

I encourage you to keep an eye on Facebook, COMPASS or the calendar on Schoolzine for any changes.

Religion

Last weekend (10-11 July) was the Sea Sunday Appeal. During a Sea Sunday, the church prays for all who live and work at sea. Most seafarers are absent from their local faith communities and families for months on end in order to provide for their loved ones. During the current pandemic, most have not been allowed to disembark, which has had a significant impact on their mental health. The national Sea Sunday Appeal is for Stella Maris, Apostleship of the Sea, and the official maritime agency of the Catholic Church which supports seafarers both practically and spiritually. As Newcastle is a major port, the Diocese commends this cause to its parishioners. Donations may be made via the Stella Maris website: at the following link: Sea Sunday Appeal – Donate.

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week Gospel discusses the pressures that people find in their lives. It may be found in the ever-growing pace of life or an innate competitiveness, but pressure and stress have become a part of daily life for most people. Although he may never have used the words ‘stress’ or ‘pressure’, Jesus knew all about the demands of ministry with other people. When the disciples returned from their first efforts away from Jesus he knew that they needed some time out to debrief, to pray and to re-energise themselves. He ordered them all into a boat and they headed for a lonely place where they could be by themselves and rejuvenate. Jesus recognised the importance of taking time out. If you are engaged in a vocation or ministry that sees you meeting the needs of others, you need some time out to reflect on your experiences; time to hold those people up to God in prayer; some time to make sense of your work and the interactions you’ve shared; time to simply recharge your batteries so that you can once again give fully of yourself. Unfortunately, when Jesus arranged for himself and the disciples to have some time out, the crowd anticipated where they were going and actually beat them there! When the disciples arrived at their lonely spot, they were once again overwhelmed by the crowd. However, Jesus recognised the demands of the crowd as being more urgent than the demands of the disciples and himself. He took pity on them – he was moved by compassion – and responded to their need.

Have you thought? Prayer and reflection

Jesus demonstrated how important it is to engage in times of quiet prayer and reflection. When you expend a lot of time and energy in the service of others it is essential to reflect on those experiences, to learn from them and consider what you’d do differently next time. It is also important that any ministry that seeks to be based in the message of Jesus can only remain so if it is fuelled by prayer. Only through prayerful dialogue with God can we learn what God desires for us. (Reflection by Greg Sunter- Liturgy Help)

Laudato Si

At the end of Term 2, the staff participated in professional development ‘Living Laudato Si’. Our presenter, Alice Carwardine, explained her owned journey of living Laudato Si and how small changes that were made and are continued to be a part of her everyday routine has changed the way she interacts with God’s creation. Small ways that we can start to change our use of earthy resources are to grow your own veggies, compost fruit and vegetable scraps and in turn goes back into the veggie garden, reduce plastic waste by reusing containers, wrapping sandwiches etc in beeswax paper, recycling, buying things second hand and really thinking about a particular item to decide whether you really need it or not.

Pope Francis asks us: 'What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up? (160)' - How would you answer this question?

What else could you do at home to help live Laudato Si?

Do you have a compost bin at home? Try and collect waste food and scraps from your vegetables to be used as compost.

Make home-made presents for friends and family and try to find recyclable wrapping paper or reusable bag to gift them in.

Are the products you buy environmentally friendly as possible? How many products can you switch to be zero waste?

Could you eat less meat at home and help your parents cut the vegetables? Maybe explore some vegetarian recipes.

If you would like some more information about Living Laudato Si with Alice Carwardine

Mrs Jane Jacobs
Religious Education Coordinator

Assistant Principal

Thank you to everyone who has worked really hard to ensure we have had a great start to Term 3. It has been great to hear about so many holiday adventures … and most of them happened at home! I encourage everyone to stay safe and follow any directions regarding COVID restrictions. We will do our best to keep you informed, and we appreciate your co-operation. Thank you for always being such a great school community!

COVID Authority and Method for Transportation forms

Unfortunately with the outbreak of COVID in Greater Sydney during the holidays, we have been forced to look again at our processes if we are asked to close the school due to a report of COVID close contact. Last week we sent home a note to all families asking for the details of those adults who would have permission to pick up the children in your family from our school if we find ourselves in the position that we need to close the school due to a COVID report. Thank you to all those families who have already returned their note. If you have not done so already, can you please complete and return the note to school tomorrow. We need this information ASAP so that we can ensure the safety of all students if we need to send everyone home.

Pupil Free Day

We have booked in a Pupil Free Day for Tuesday 17 August. At this stage, the day will go ahead, as we are booked in to complete this professional learning via Zoom. We ask that you make alternate arrangements for your children on this date, as all staff will be attending this important professional learning opportunity. On this date, we will be working with Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey, who will guide us through processes and practices to develop an effective writing program here at SJM. We will be working with other schools from the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, as they join with us on our Zoom link.

SJM Curriculum Review

Over the coming weeks, SJM will take part in our annual curriculum review with the Catholic Schools Office. It is called a Curriculum Focus Day, and it is an opportunity for our school to look at our policies and procedures and ensure we are staying updated with the CSO requirements. Each term, we look at the units of work being taught in classrooms for each of the key learning areas, as well as our school’s assessment and reporting processes. We also look at the timetable for each class to ensure we are teaching the correct number of hours and minutes for each of these key learning areas. Even though we look at each key learning area each term, each year the CSO chooses two key learning areas that were are asked to submit evidence for to show that we are compliant in all these areas. This year, they have chosen Mathematics and Personal Development, Health and Physical Education. We have all of our evidence ready to submit and look forward to sharing our achievements with our colleagues at the CSO.

Life Education Van

We will have Healthy Harold visiting our school in the Life Education Van. Lessons will be taking place inside the van, staring on Thursday 5 August and finishing on Wednesday 11 August. We will provide a timetable for class visits a little closer to the starting date. Please add these dates to your calendar and avoid making any plans on these dates, as the students will be disappointed if they miss out on their turn in the van. Unfortunately, we cannot allow students to make up their lessons with another class, as numbers inside the van are limited. As in the past, we will send home a merchandise order form, which will allow you to purchase small items from the Life Ed Van shop. Details for this order form will be available closer to the date. We can’t wait to see Healthy Harold again!

Winter hygiene

As we continue with the cooler weather, I remind everyone of important winter hygiene practices, including nose picking and disposing of tissues into the bin. It would be great if you could work with us, by having a chat with your children about the importance of hygiene and the potential spread of germs if we don’t keep our hands clean. We are encouraging lots of hand washing or use of hand sanitiser here at school, so please build this into your conversation and remind your child that this is an important part of the process to keep everyone well.

Illness and absences

Just a reminder that we ask you to keep your child at home if they are unwell. We have lots of students coming to school with coughs and colds, as well as complaints of tummy aches and headaches. If you know your child is unwell, please do not send them to school. We ask that you keep your child at home until they are well enough to return to school. Our COVID safe practices still require you to have a COVID test administered if your child is displaying those COVID type symptoms, and provide us with a copy of the negative result before returning to school. If your child has a tummy bug, we ask that you keep your child at home at least 24-48 hours after the symptoms have ceased. If your child is absent due to illness, we ask you to add the attendance note via Compass, or call or email the school to let us know so that we can add the attendance note for you.

Shannon Hall
Assistant Principal

Primary Coordinator

Welcome back to Term 3! I hope you and your family enjoyed a positive, safe and well rested break. Although things are feeling a little uncertain again, and we are facing new changes and challenges… we have lots of exciting things ahead this term.

GROW YOUR MIND

This term, we will be focusing in the COPING strand of the Visible Wellbeing SEARCH Framework. Having the resilience to cope with adversity is an essential life skill. Coping can be thought of as being able to balance the demands of life with the resources we have to manage those demands, and being able to bounce back when we get thrown off balance. It is the perfect strand to focus on this term.

Learning the BOUNCE BACK Acronym…

Do you stop yourself from trying something just in case it isn’t perfect?

Well newsflash, nobody is perfect – not you and not others.

Everybody has faults and weaknesses, just as everybody has skills and strengths. Focus on the good things!

Celebrate your qualities, and celebrate others. Sometimes it is the fear of not being perfect that keeps us at the bottom of our growth mindset tree, instead of at the top, where we really want to be.

The meaning behind the BOUNCE BACK acronym:

Bad times don’t last. Things always get better.
Other people can help if you let them.
Unhelpful thinking makes you feel more upset. Don’t just dwell on the negatives.
Nobody is perfect – not you or others.
Concentrate on the positives.
Everybody experiences sadness, changes, hurt, failure and rejection sometimes. They are a normal part of life.
Blame fairly – how much of what happened was because of you, others, bad luck or circumstances?
Accept the things you cannot change (but try to change what you can first).
Catastrophizing exaggerates your worries.
Keep things in perspective.

Jump Back Up July

This month's theme is all about resilience and understanding how we can build skills that will help us to bounce back. We can't always predict or control what life throws at us, but we can build a range of skills and nurture our resources to help us respond flexibly, effectively deal with challenges, recover more quickly and even learn and grow as a result.

Good for Kids, Good for Life

POS ED Book Club:

Hope is a Verb: Six steps to radical optimism when the world seems broken

By Emily Ehlers

When the world feels uncertain, we need hope, humour and meaningful action.

Hope Is a Verb is the ideal handbook for anyone freaked out about the state of the planet. Illustrator and activist Emily Ehlers offers a cheerful six-step process that reframes the current global mood as an invitation to a better future. Be inspired to examine the stories you tell yourself, live in alignment with your values, realise your true agency and take both individual and collective action. For those of us feeling adrift, Hope Is a Verb points to a world of opportunity and promise.

Thought of the week:

Stay safe, calm and kind.

Miss Eloise Hand
Primary Coordinator & Lead Teacher of Positive Education

Class News

ES1

Welcome back to Term 3, the best term of the year! The students have made such a lot of progress this year and they are now on the cusp of writing independently. It is a very exciting time for both students and teachers! This term, the students will be looking closely at the illustrations in picture books. The students will learn that images are used for a purpose – so the students will be encouraged to understand the purpose – and to recognise the different styles and techniques used by illustrators and graphic artists to achieve that purpose. There will be lots of talk about how the illustrators have shown emotion, how they have shown movement and how they have shown magic, as this is our theme this term. There will be lots of magic in the air in Kindergarten!

Mrs Donna Smith and Mrs Jane Jacobs

Stage 1

Welcome to Term 3.

This term will be another learning filled busy time. Stage 1 will participate in the spelling bee, maths bee, speeches and a visit from Healthy Harold.

This term the learning areas will have the overarching theme of weather and seasons. Students will investigate the impact of weather on humans and living things and how we impact the environment. We will explore the symbols, colours and patterns of seasons to create images, collect data and develop our understanding of the Aboriginal perspective.

We are looking forward to fun filled term.

Miss Emma Beletich, Mrs Mary Ballard, Mrs Trishelle Threadgate and Miss Jane Boyle

Stage 2

Welcome back to Term 2!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents and carers who were able to attend the Stage Two Assembly during the final week of Term Two. We are very proud of the students and the way they presented themselves.

We thank Ms Harris for her time in Stage Two and now we welcome Ms Clement. 3G are already loving having Ms Clement and are looking forward to a wonderful end of year together.

Stage Two students continue to rotate between classes for HSIE-Geography, Science and Technology and Creative Arts this semester.

Library borrowing continues to be on Thursdays and Sport will return to Thursdays too.

Look out for your Flat Stanley’s ready for you to send off on an adventure! For more information ask your child about Flat Stanley.

Mrs Katrina Clement, Mrs Jane Dengate and Mrs Donna-Maree Watt

Stage 3

Welcome back to term 3. Stage 3 have responded positively to the COVID 19 changes that were put in place over the holidays. The programmes this semester are packed with enriched learning opportunities that we hope the students will enjoy and learn from. In English the students will be reviewing the use of apostrophes, commas, quotation marks, exclamation marks and question marks in grammar and introducing our study novel, ‘Misery Guts’ by Morris Gleitzman. In Mathematics we will be working on multiplication and division 2 (sub strand of Number and Algebra) where the focus will be on estimation when multiplying, rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100, 1000, BODMAS and working with the formula, speed x time = distance. In Religion, we will be looking into the meaning of prayer through asking others and through self-reflection. The focus in HSIE this semester will be history where we will study Australia as a nation beginning with identifying primary and secondary sources. In Creative Arts the students will be learning the techniques of collage while in Science the students will look at Living things and how they adapt to survive on this ever changing planet. PD/H/PE will look at growing and changing over time and sport will focus on kicking a ball correctly (ie coordinating arms, legs and connecting with the ball on the top of the foot).

Mrs Rebecca Harrod, Mrs Jane Harris, Mrs Clare Collett and Miss Lauren Osborne

Sport

School Athletics Carnival

A modified athletics carnival was run on Friday 11th June on a very cold day. A big thank you to the students and parents who braved the cold on that day to compete in our carnival.

The winning house was Pheasants
Junior Girl Champion Abi Large Pheasants
Junior Boy Champion Mitchell Chapman Pheasants
11yr Girl Champion Abbie Wright Kookaburras
11yr Boy Champion Elijah Bristow Pheasants
Senior Girl Champion Izabelle Latham Kookaburras
Senior Boy Champion Toby Large
Regional Athletics Team

Regional Athletics

On Friday 18th June, 38 students travelled to Singleton for the Regional Athletics Carnival. The students competed with sportsmanship and we have 16 students progressing to the Diocesan Athletics Carnival on Wednesday 28th July at Glendale.

Cross Country

A massive congratulations to Kai Thompson who progressed from the Diocesan Cross Country team into the Polding Cross Country Team on Thursday 16th July. Unfortunately, due to Covid restrictions this event has been postponed to a date to be announced.

Touch Football

Congratulations to Toby Large who was selected in the Polding Touch Team. Toby will participating at the State carnival on Tuesday 10th August until Thursday 12th August at St Marys.

Rugby League

We will be continuing with our Rugby League preparations in the hope that Covid restrictions will allow us to attend our carnivals.

Under 7, 8 and 9 year teams will be participating in a mini gala day held in Muswellbrook on Thursday 19th August

Under 10s, Opens and Girls Tackle will compete at the Bryan Kirkland Carnival on 2nd September at Cook Park Singleton.

Training days starting Week 2 of Term 3

Monday Girls League Tag
Tuesday Under 9s and 10s
Wednesday Under 7s and 8s
Thursday Opens
Friday Girls Tackle.

A date for League tag carnival will be announced soon.

Learning Support

Anxiety – what is it and how is at affecting our kids?

Many people – including children, experience some form of anxiety from time to time. Sometimes anxiety is easy to identify and understand, like when a child is nervous before an exam.

At other times though anxiety can be more difficult to detect and often looks like something else entirely.

There are many different kinds of anxiety, which is one of the reasons it can be hard to detect in children. What they all have in common though is that anxiety “tends to lock up the brain,” making school hard for anxious kids.

At the moment some our students are experiencing increased anxiety due to the current COVID 19 restrictions and mask wearing recommendations. This may be true for children who may not usually experience fear or anxiety on a regular basis

It is important that we talk to our children about these current changes in our community and what it means for them. Children to need to feel that they are safe at home, at school and in the community.

There are many strategies we can use to help students manage their anxiety at school. If you are concerned at all about your child please contact their classroom teacher.

Library News

Borrowing Days

Please encourage your children to return their library books, on their borrowing days.

Tuesday – Kinder
Thursday – Years 1 and 6

Book Week

Book Week 2021 will be celebrated from the August 21st-27th (Week 7). This year’s theme is ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’. The students will experience a variety of the Children’s Book Council of Australia shortlisted books, throughout the term, and respond in various ways.

Please watch this space for Book Week events. Please note: there will not be a book character parade this year, as this is a bi-annual event.

Book Fair

Our annual Scholastic Book Fair will be held during Book Week. Children will peruse an array of books and complete a wish list.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

Just a reminder that the Premier’s Reading Challenge finishes on Thursday 12th August. If your child is partaking in this important challenge, please ensure they are meeting the requirements. Remember the list of challenge books is available on the website.

Happy Reading!

Lisa Wilson
Teacher Librarian
Nadene Douglas
Library Assistant

St. James’ P & F Association

P&F Committee Contacts

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