Week 2, Term 2

Good and Gentle God,
We pray in gratitude for our mothers and for all the women who care for people. You who became human through a woman, grant to all mothers the courage they need to face the uncertain future that life with children always brings. Give them the strength to live and to be loved in return, not perfectly, but humanly. Amen

Dear Parents and Friends,

Welcome to the Week 2 Newsletter. I hope all mothers, grandmothers and motherly figures who have motherly roles had a wonderful Mother’s Day yesterday and were well looked after. It has been terrific to have the students cheerful faces back in the school. Last week we welcomed Mrs Walkington back from her one week of long service leave. We also welcomed Mrs Gaynor Growden who will teach Music during Term 2. Towards the end of the term she will begin to prepare students for the major production. Mrs Growden replaces Mrs Wurst who is taking ten weeks of long service leave. Last week, we welcomed two student teachers to St James. Minnesota Cheriton is a 3rd year student from UNISA who began her placement in the Yr 1/2 Class with two lead in days. She begins her placement in Week 3 and conclude on 22nd June. Annabel Honan is a 1st Year student from UNISA and her placement is in the Yr 5/6 Class. She will visit for five weeks each Thursday then complete a one week block in Week 6. We hope they enjoy their time at St James and we look forward to the contributions they will make.

We have had a few students away due to COVID and family members becoming infected but all have recovered, thankfully. Thank you to the families who chose to keep their children away who were family close contacts, it helps to stop the spread. Please continue to inform the school if your child contracts COVID or becomes unwell and keep them home. Hopefully in the next few weeks more COVID restrictions for schools are eased and we can return to some more normality.

This week we celebrate Catholic Education Week. It is a special week in our calendar as we recognise what is distinctive and the excellence of what Catholic Education has to offer. 

Welcome to the new newsletter format!  We hope you enjoy it and it's smart phone compatible. Please note – all future newsletters and bulletins will now be sent in this electronic format and we will no longer be sending home hard copies of the newsletter. Thank you for your understanding and patience as we navigate our way through this new format.

Jamestown Community School have advised us that they will have two Student Free Days this term - Monday 16th May (Wk 3) and Friday June 24th (Wk 8). There will be no buses running on these days. St James students will need to make their own arrangements for travel to and from school.

 All students and parents are welcome to meet at Memorial Park, next to the War Memorial at 8:15am for Walk to School Safely Day. The walk to school takes about 15-20 minutes. Staff will supervise students walking to school. Parents are welcome join us too. There is no registration—just meet us at Memorial Park. St James is participating in this event one  day early due to the school closure day on the following day.

Year 3 and 5 students will take part in NAPLAN this week from Tuesday to Friday. NAPLAN provides parents with a snapshot report of how their child is performing compared to national standards. The results also assist our school to celebrate what students are doing well and to plan future lessons to improve student achievement. If any parents have queries about NAPLAN, please contact the Principal.

Last week a letter regarding a quick RAA survey was sent home about student safety whilst travelling to and from school. We kindly remind parents to complete the survey. This is part of the process of lobbying for a school crossing at the front of the school. Click here to access this survey.

YCS stands for Young Catholic Students. YCS provides opportunities for Yr 6 students to maintain links with the Sisters of St Joseph and it is open to Catholic and non Catholic students. Sr Kerry Keenan rsj who is based at Clare visits us regularly. She runs YCS gatherings for our Yr 6s and local Yr 7-9 secondary students and provides pastoral and spiritual support as well as links to the Church.  The dates for YCS are on the parent calendar. The NET youth leadership ambassadors will be visiting each session this term. They have been a hit with those students who attend. The next YCS is on 18th May at 3:15pm.

The thoughts and prayers of the St James Community are with the following families on the passing of their loved ones:

The Malone & Pammenter family on the passing of Vincent Malone on the 4th of May. Vincent was grandfather to Tom & Will Pammenter.

The Kitschke Family on the passing of Peter Kitschke on the 4th of May.

As part of our fortnightly newsletter, please keep an eye out for wellbeing tips from The Resilience Project or the eSafety commissioner. This week, we have included a snippet from the article ‘Why it’s good for children to be bored’. Click Here for the full article.

Making the most out of boredom

Giving children opportunities to see just how inventive they can be by allowing them to come up with their own boredom busters, can turn out to be quite magical. While parents and carers can help provide a framework for their imaginative play, kids should be empowered to drive the creativity. 

If you need it, check out the ideas below to help get them started:

· Encourage kids to explore the space they’re in. This could be your home, the backyard, the park – wherever you are. If they’re stuck on what to explore, try suggesting a hunting expedition. What objects can they find in that space? A feathery one, a green one, a fluffy one, an object that starts with “A” and so on.

· Give kids some masking tape and prompt them to create a race track or town roads on the floor. Add a few matchbox cars, blocks or Lego to the mix and this could provide hours of imaginative play.

· Pull out a couple of old cardboard boxes when boredom hits, along with drawing materials or decorations and let imaginations run wild — from creating a rocket, car, plane or just a colourful space to play in.

Help little kids, or simply encourage bigger kids, to set up a cubby. They could use big sheets and some chairs to play houses, neighbours, camping or whatever they can dream up.

As a follow on from the building a cubby suggestion, if you don’t follow Jimmy Rees on social media, try searching for his “The guy who decides school holidays” for a little parenting giggle.

God of blessing, God of life,
We thank you for the gift of our mothers, and all those who are like mothers to us. We place them in your loving care and trust that you will give them all that they need for life.
Amen

Mothers Day

A very happy Mother’s Day for yesterday to all the mother figures in our school community. We hope you were all spoiled on your special day. A big thank you to the Year 1/2 Class who led us in a beautiful liturgy last Friday morning to celebrate this occasion. 

Gospel Value - Peace

For the first 3 weeks of term we have a focus on the Gospel Value of peace. An appropriate value to focus on considering the turmoil that is happening overseas at the minute. There are many ways to look at peace-

Inner peace – learning how to calm oneself, coping with anxieties and fears, enjoying silence and becoming more reflective. Peace between each other in school – making and keeping friends, sorting out arguments, making compromises, letting go of hostile feelings, building bridges and learning how to listen to each other. Peace in the community – respecting differences, listening and talking with those who hold opposite views to you, honouring each other and finding common ground. Peace in the world – working for peace and peacekeeping, ending wars and talking not fighting. Peace with God – which is about forgiveness, a new start, being reconciled to God;    Christians believe that this is where it all must start for true peace be found both inside ourselves and between each other.

Easter Season

I hope all families were able to enjoy the Term 1 holiday break, spending time with family and appreciating what is really important in their lives. Although the main events of Easter are past (and what a wonderful job our students did of recreating these events!), we are still in the special season of Easter. This season lasts 50 days leading up to Pentecost. We remember that Jesus is the light of our world and we continue to strive to work hard to be Jesus’ disciples every day.

Sacrament Dates for your Diary

6 of our Year 3’s will celebrate First Reconciliation this Term. The following dates apply to these families.

PARENT/CHILD Meeting- Tuesday 17th May at 6.00pm (Term 2 Week 3) in the Learning Centre

FIRST RECONCILIATION- Tuesday 24th May at 6.00pm (Term 2, Week 4) Parish church

13 of our Year 5/6’s will celebrate Confirmation this term. The following 2 dates apply to these families.

PARENT/CHILD Meeting- Tuesday 7th June at 6.00pm (Term 2 Week 6) in the Learning Centre

CONFIRMATION- Friday 1st July at 6.00pm (Term 2, end of Week 9) Parish church

Catholic Education Week 

This week we celebrate ‘Catholic Education Week’ for 2022 across all schools in South Australia. CEW is an annual event that promotes the distinctive mission of Catholic schools. This year our theme is ‘Who is My Neighbour’. When we think about our neighbour we often think of those who live next door to us. During this week, we will be called to think about those seen and unseen neighbours, the neighbours close by and those far away, those we turn to and those we may turn away from, and we will be called to action to help our neighbour – a call to ‘go and do likewise’. Below are the activities planned for the week ahead.

Mon- CEW Classroom Prayer Service and reflection on being good neighbours.

Mon + Tues- Simultaneous ‘Neighbourly act of Kindness’. Each school in the Port Pirie Diocese will take part in a community act of kindness. St James students in buddy classes will be making ‘Thinking of You’ cards for the aged care residents of Belalie Lodge and the Symonds Wing at the Jamestown Hospital.

Wed- ‘A Touch of Green’- Children are invited to wear a touch of green for a gold coin donation. The colour green was chosen to fit with our Term 2 theme of being good neighbours to creation and all proceeds will go the Caritas Australia’s Ukrainian Appeal (A ‘Prayer for Ukraine’ prayer card has also gone home today for each family).

Thurs- Annual Port Pirie Diocese Switch Off Day. We go without electricity for a part of the day to reduce our carbon footprint.

Fri-  Yr5/6 CEW Liturgy @ 12.30pm under the Learning Centre Pergola (All friends and families are invited to attend).

Many Thanks, Jed Sutter   (REC)

Please click here to find our up to date parent calender which contains the main events this term. Please note dates and events may change.