Dear Parents,

Welcome to the 2025 school year. I hope that you had a safe and relaxing holiday enjoying special times with family and friends. It has been wonderful to welcome back the children and staff. We particularly welcome our new families and teachers who have joined the St James’ community. We know that you will find the school welcoming and inclusive and will very quickly feel an important part of our wonderful community. All of the children have commenced the school year with enthusiasm and energy and are to be congratulated on transitioning with ease into their learning and routines in the classrooms and across the playground. I am grateful to the very dedicated and highly professional staff who invest so much care and enthusiasm into their students - they are truly amazing! A warm welcome to our newly appointed Learning Support Assistants over the holidays for Term 1, Shannon Bromilow, Natalie Filo, Ellie Hibbert and Donna McRae. We hope they enjoy their time at St James’.

Welcome to our new students across the grades; Harry Year 6, Alex Year 5,  Evie Year 4 and Emma and Alexander Year 3. We particularly welcome and recognise our newest students to St James’, our 2025 Kindergarten cohort.

I commend and thank the Kindergarten parents for doing such an outstanding job preparing your little ones for their first days at school. We look forward to sharing many happy moments with you over the course of this year. Throughout this year we look forward to encouraging our students by providing quality learning, witnessing our Catholic faith through liturgy and action and by growing as a faith filled school. I particularly look forward to this amazing year ahead where we all strive to be the best that we can be and remember that Christ is central to all that we do living our school motto of, “In Faith we Learn”. Our priority is always to collaborate with our parents as you are the primary educators of your children, and it is only in partnership with you that we can achieve great outcomes for your children.

Over the holiday period, significant progress has been made on our building works. Demolition of the Library block has been successfully completed, clearing the way for the new Learning Hub and classroom spaces. A new drainage system has been installed, ensuring improved infrastructure and efficiency for the site. Inside, fresh wall coverings and new carpets have been fitted, in many of our classrooms. Painting works were completed on the Admin building and new PB4L signage has been installed throughout the school. These improvements mark a major step forward in our ongoing school improvement and development.

St James has adopted a Whole School Approach to bring about positive behaviour; Positive Behaviour for Learning [PB4L]. This approach has a strong emphasis on teaching appropriate behaviours and providing systems of support to bring about these positive behaviours. 

PBL is focused on proactive strategies for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviours to create positive school environment. The aim of Positive Behaviour for Learning is to actively teach and reinforce desired behaviour while implementing consistent, reasonable, mostly positive intervention to address challenging behaviours. Preserving and building child’s self-esteem and image as well as encouraging self-monitoring of behaviour are vital components of the positive approach.

Attention is focused on creating and sustaining primary (Tier 1 school-wide), secondary (Tier 2 classroom), and tertiary (Tier 3 individual) systems of support that are focused on improving academic and behaviour results for all students.

The following diagram illustrates the multi-level approach offered to all students in the school. These group depictions represent systems of support offered for children:

This year we will be focusing on refining and improving our PB4L framework and procedures. You will receive more information on our changes and inclusions this year. Exciting times ahead!

Some exciting events happening this term. On Wednesday 19^th February 5:00pm-7:00pm we will holding our Welcome BBQ for all our families. Please see the below flyer.

On Thursday, 6^th March 4:30pm-6:30pm we invite all new enrolling families and students to an Open Night at our school. This is a good opportunity for families considering enrolling at St James’ to meet the staff and student leaders. More information will be available in our next Newsletter.

Wishing you a wonderful start to the school year,

Mrs Sonya Boslem
Principal