8 April 2025

Our Mission @ SJM

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

Quote

“Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring”- St Catherine of Sienna.

Principal’s Message

As we wrap up the first term of the school year, I would like to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone in our school community. It has been an incredibly successful start to the year, and none of it would have been possible without the hard work, dedication, and support of each of you.

To our students – thank you for your enthusiasm, your commitment to learning, and your positive attitudes. You’ve shown great growth both academically and personally, and it has been a joy to watch you thrive.

To our teachers and staff – your tireless efforts, creativity, and passion for education have made a profound difference in the lives of our students. Your commitment to fostering a supportive and nurturing learning environment has not gone unnoticed.

To our parents and guardians – thank you for your ongoing support and involvement in our school community. Your partnership is invaluable, and it plays a crucial role in helping our students succeed and grow.

As we head into the second term, let’s continue to work together, inspire one another, and make this year even more memorable than the last. I look forward to the exciting opportunities ahead and am proud to be part of such a wonderful community.

Wishing you all a restful break and looking forward to the next chapter of our journey together.

Annual School Visit

Last week, we had the privilege of hosting our annual school visit, and what a wonderful experience it was. The event brought together members of our school community, including members of the Catholic Schools Maitland-Newcastle, Diocese, to witness the incredible work happening within our classrooms.

Throughout the day, visitors had the chance to tour the school, interact with students and teachers, and observe the engaging learning activities that are taking place across all grade levels. It was inspiring to see the enthusiasm and creativity that our students bring to their education, and the dedication of our teachers who foster a dynamic and supportive learning environment.

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who participated and helped make this event a success. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive, and it’s clear that our school is making a real difference in the lives of our students.

A special thank you to our staff for their hard work in preparing for the event, and to our students for their exemplary behaviour and enthusiasm. We look forward to continuing this tradition of excellence and community involvement in the years to come.

Thank You Staff

We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to Mrs. Mel Marco for stepping up and taking on the 5G class this term. Her dedication and professionalism have made a real difference in the students' learning experiences, and we are so grateful for her commitment to the class.

As we look ahead to Term 2, we are excited to welcome Mr. Sean Sweeney as the new teacher for 5G. We are confident that Mr. Sweeney’s passion for teaching will bring a fresh and exciting energy to the classroom, and we look forward to seeing the continued growth and success of our 5G students under his guidance.

Holy Week Reenactments

A heartfelt thank you to all of our students who participated in the Holy Week reenactments this week. Your dedication, passion, and thoughtful performances brought these important moments of faith to life, and we are so proud of how each of you contributed to making this a meaningful experience for everyone.

One key lesson that emerged from these reenactments was the importance of showing dignity and respect for every person, each and every day. The way we treat one another, both in big and small ways, has the power to create a positive and supportive community. Let’s continue to carry this message with us as we move forward: to be kind, compassionate, and respectful, just as we are called to do in our faith.

Thank you again to all our students for your hard work and dedication. You truly made this Holy Week special.

Mr Aaron Moon
Principal

Assistant Principal

What an amazing term of learning we have had at SJM for Term 1. Students have settled well into class routine and are working hard to improve learning goals.

Planning on going away on holidays during the school term 

Planning an extended holiday during the year (more than 10 school days), you are required to apply for the leave and have it approved by the principal. Please contact the office for the appropriate form to be sent home. The approval of this leave usually is not an issue, but we need to follow the process and keep your approval on file. Once the leave is approved, we then supply you with a certificate for that leave, that you can produce if asked why your child is not at school. If your holiday is less than 10 school days, please just email your child's teacher to let them know when you will be away.  

Medication

If your child needs to be on long term medication, then it is your responsibility to complete the appropriate forms; please see the admin staff for details. Medication will be administered only if specific written instructions are supplied. If your child is on short term medication such as antibiotics, then we deem the child to be unfit to attend school and they should not return until the course of medication has been completed.   

Medication such as aspirin, Panadol and Nurofen will not be administered to any child. Parents are requested not to give such medication to the children to bring to school as it can be misused.  The school has an EpiPen and an asthma Ventolin puffer and spacer for emergencies. Parents are requested to send along the child's own medication with written instructions in the form of a plan from a medical practitioner.  

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day this year falls on the last Saturday of the school holidays. 

This is an important day in Australia as we remember the sacrifice that so many gave for our continued freedom. St James' is proud to always have a strong representation at the local ANZAC Day Service. We look forward to seeing lots of students at the main service marching to represent our school and remember those who fought and those who continue to commit to our armed forces today. 

Students should gather in Market Street in Simpson Park near the Cenotaph from 9am. There will be a bollard with our school name on it for us to meet at. This is usually toward the end of the school's section of the parade (out the front of Arthurs Takeaway). The march will commence at 10am and students will walk with the staff present on the day. Students will then sit in our allocated section of Simpson Park for the ceremony. Teachers and staff will remain with the group until all students have been collected. 

When school returns for Term 2, there will be a whole school ANZAC Liturgy. This will be held on Tuesday the 29^th April at 10:40am. All are welcome to attend.

School Uniform 

Due to the change in weather, our transition from Summer to Winter uniform will start from Week 1 Term 2 until the end of Week 2. Please ensure that your child is in either Summer or Winter uniform and not a mismatch of both. At the beginning of Week 3 all students at SJM will be required to wear Winter Uniform.   

Reminder that hats and jackets are for outdoors.  

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday 

May you light continue to shine brightly for all to see.

Mrs Jane Jacobs
Assistant Principal

Religion

This week our students busily prepared for & performed our Holy Week reenactments. The students have worked incredibly hard on their part of Jesus journey. Thank you to all the families who joined us for these reflections.

We have also just moved past the 5^th Sunday in Lent. The raising of Lazarus explores the rich symbol of new life and has for centuries been used in connection with Christian initiation. It is assigned to the Fifth Sunday of Lent in Year A but can always be chosen for the 5^th Sunday in Lent.

The Year C Cycle offers us, however, a powerful story that we need to hear. In these days of internet and social media, everyone has a forum where they able to express an opinion, and they do! Often their judgements are extremely prejudicial. Knowledge of the facts or the background of an event seems to be completely unnecessary. Innocent people are trolled mercilessly. We need to hear the humbling message: Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.
​
Lent urges us to look to forgiveness and reconciliation which in turn will lead us to the Sacrament of Penance. As we lead into Easter and Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection may we remember the ultimate sacrifice he made for us. May we as a community continue to show care, compassion and understanding of others.

If families have a Project Compassion box, they can bring in it would be greatly appreciated. This money goes to families less fortunate to support them to have clean drinking water and facilities we too often take for granted.

Mrs Lauren Gehrig
Religious Education Coordinator

Merit Awards

Class News

Kindergarten

During the past 2 weeks, Kindergarten students have learned that the sound at the beginning of the word ‘mouse’ is represented by the letter ‘m’, the sound at the beginning of the word ‘seal’ is represented by the letter ‘s’, the sound at the beginning of the word ‘tiger’ is represented by the letter ‘t’ and the sound at the beginning of the word ‘ant’ is represented by the letter ‘a’. When introducing these graphemes (letters), we begin by matching them to the sounds made when speaking. The children learn about the ‘feel’ of the sound in their mouth as sounds are distinguished from each other by the placement and action of the teeth, lips, and tongue during articulation. When introducing a new sound, the children practise making that sound over and over. They look at the teacher making the sound and at each other, checking for the position of their mouths, tongues, and teeth. They hold their hands in front of their mouth to feel if there is any air coming out; they hold their nose to see if that makes any difference to the sound; they place their hand on their throat to see if there is any vibration. All these activities are designed to help the children to distinguish between sounds that are very similar, for example, /n/ and /m/. Both sounds are nasal, but one is made with the lips apart and the other is made with the lips touching. Now that the children know a vowel sound, they will begin blending sounds together to read a word, eg /m/  /a/   /t/. This is when it gets very exciting!   

It has been lovely to see each child’s baby, toddler, pre-school and school photos as the children constructed their timeline, as part of our History unit. Many children have also brought special items of significance to school. We have had a range of items from teddy bears, military medals, a hat belonging to Pop, and a hand-knitted cardigan worn at family baptisms. The children showed great pride and knowledge about why some things are special and important in their lives. 

As this is our last newsletter before the end of term, we would like to wish you and your family a happy and Holy Easter.

Mrs Smith (KG) & Miss Maher (KM)

Stage 1

What a fabulous term we have had, it has been a great start to the year.

In English the students have been developing their writing skills, remembering a capital letter, developing their handwriting and starting to use a variety of punctuation. We love building our vocabulary to extend our writing, learning some new and interesting adjectives. We have enjoyed listening to stories from Australian authors and learning how the author entertains, informs and persuades us to like new topics. These texts have inspired Stage 1 to develop their curiosity and develop their knowledge of the world. 

We develop our reading skills daily, reading to ourselves, a friend and the teachers. The students are learning about comprehension while reading, asking questions, retelling the story and can recall the main idea. It is amazing to watch and listen to their reading growing every day.

Kind Regards,

Mrs Mitchell (1G), Mr Sabotic (1M), Mrs Ballard/Miss Pritchard (2G) & Mrs Threadgate (2M)

Stage 2

3G, 3M, 4G, 4M and their teachers can not believe we are in Week 11 already! This first term of 2025 has absolutely flown by. We have learned, laughed, and had fun whilst completing many exciting and challenging activities in Stage 2 this term. We are all looking forward to much deserved Easter break, coming back refreshed ready for Term 2.

We tirelessly practiced our Holy Week reenactment as a Stage. Students demonstrated impressive reflection and respect whilst doing their best to reenact an important event during Jesus’ final week on Earth before his crucifixion. We really enjoyed sharing our hard work with you during Holy Week.

We would like to congratulate Baylan from 3M and Zaine from 4M for the inspiring courage they showed when competing at our Regional Maths Bee at St. Joseph’s Primary School, Denman, on Tuesday of Week 10. Congratulations boys, we are so proud of your efforts!

Our congratulations don’t stop there, with special mention to those Stage 2 students who qualified for Regional Cross Country. These students were: Mack, Arlo, Eddie, Mikayla, Liam, Alisha, George, Dominic, Isla, Brady, Ruby, William B, Jayden, Micah, and Peyton. We wish these students luck when they compete at Regionals on Thursday, 10^th April.

Well done to all who participated in Cross Country last week!

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s classroom teacher if you have any questions.

See you in Term 2!

Miss Stephenson (3G), Mrs McLennan (3M), Mrs Gavin/Mrs Jacobs (4G) & Miss Cooper (4M)

Stage 3

Stage 3 have been very busy this fortnight working hard to achieve their learning goals as the term draws to a close.

We hope you enjoyed our Stations of the Cross & Resurrection performances during this weeks Holy Week. Students put in a great deal of work during practice over the last couple of weeks & performed exceptionally. Students in Stage 3 will also be running the ANZAC liturgy in the first week of Term 2, on Tuesday the 29^th of April.

In English, Year 5 are finishing up the text, ‘The Wild Robot’ by Peter Browne, and will conclude the unit by writing their own narrative centred around a robot. As a grade, students have explored building up tension and problems within a story, and how to add a relevant resolution to tie in the themes, messages and key elements of their text. Year 6 is also finishing the second half of the term's focus, on informative texts. Students have been exploring the ‘Wave Hill Walk off’, and the different perspectives and context of the event through different texts. This in turn explores how the readers background and knowledge can alter the information given or portrayed to suit different audiences.

In Creative Arts, students have wrapped up their macrame project, which saw them explore the art of knot tying. Students used this skill to create a leaf/feather. Students will then finish off the unit with a pom pom making activity, which will be turned into an Easter bunny, fitting right into the upcoming holiday. In Geography, students are wrapping up their knowledge on Papua New Guinea, and will have the chance to showcase their knowledge by creating a PowerPoint display on Papua New Guinea’s culture, food, language, climate, etc.

Students also still have access to Maths Online, which they can utilise at home. Maths Online provides video walk throughs of different topics to enhance and refresh students’ knowledge. They can then use this to complete set tasks allocated to them by their teacher. Altenatively, there are two options ‘Timetables’ and ‘Speed skills’ which students can attempt to master; focusing on multiplication, addition, subtraction and division.

We would also like to thank Mrs Marco for having 5G for the entirety of Term 1. Thank you for helping us to grow, learn and thrive in our first term of Year 5!

Mrs Marco (5G), Miss Becus (5M), Mrs Gehrig/Mrs Somerville (6G) & Miss Dafter (6M)

What’s on in the Library

Special Thanks

A special thanks to Mrs Lisa Melichar, for sharing the wonderful children’s book that she wrote, with our infants’ students. The book, ‘There is Time’, was created with artist Lisa Kennedy. The students were delighted to hear Lisa share her book and the ideas behind its creation and publication. In Lisa’s words, “Our book helps young readers develop awareness around time and how they choose to spend it. It's a gentle, engaging way to encourage children and families to focus on what truly matters to them.”

If you would like to purchase a copy of this beautifully created book, please visit the link below.

A special thanks to Mrs Cassandra Green (Grandmother of Annalee Mills), for covering the Stage 2 readers. Your generosity and assistance were greatly appreciated.

Borrowing Days

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

Tuesday: Kinder and Year 1
Wednesday: Years 2, 3 and 4
Thursday: Years 5 and 6

Please feel free to contact the library if any problems/concerns arise during the year.

lisa.wilson@mn.catholic.edu.au  or 65433094

Happy Reading!

Lisa Wilson   
Teacher Librarian

 Nadene Douglas
Library Assistant

Community Notices

St. James’ P & F Association

P&F Committee Contacts