Welcome back to everyone for the 2025 School Year.

It has taken a little bit of time to settle into the new year as we persevere without a Library space. This situation will continue to provide challenges in the short term but we are confident in our plans to deliver worthwhile outcomes for our students.

Library borrowing has now recommenced and will be done weekly.

Please note that Primary classes (Year 3 - Year 6) will do their Library borrowing on Mondays. Infant’s classes will do their borrowing on Thursday's (Kindergarten to Year 2).

Students can borrow books for a two-week period and must have a designated Library Bag to borrow. Students who retain books for longer than the two-week period will not be allowed to borrow until the books are returned.

Please note; Books that are lost or damaged will need to be replaced or paid for.

The 2025 Premiers Reading Challenge will commence soon.

Key dates for students in K- 6 at St James;

The Challenge opens next Monday 24th February 2025. 

The Challenge closes for student entries Friday 22 August 2025.

2024 was a great year for St James' Primary School Kotara South as we smashed our participation numbers and received a fantastic 147 Completion certificates for our students. This included a number of Gold and Platinum certificates for completing consecutive challenges over 4 and 6 years. This was double the record breaking effort of 78 achieved in 2023.

We look forward to exceeding the 2024 record in 2025.

An initiative that commenced in 2024 with Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 will assist with our students continuing to complete the certificate requirements and then qualifying for the gold and platinum certificates.

As Teacher Librarian, Mr Coleman has undertaken to read 15 of the required 30 Premiers Reading Challenge Books to his students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2. The list of the books read will be sent home to parents so that they can be added to the PRC completed book list provided to each student. Parents of these students need to read the additional 15 books to their children and add them to the book list to qualify their child for the participation certificate.

This joint effort will result in every student qualifying for a Premiers Reading Challenge Certificate over the first three years of their schooling here at St James.

Students will then need to complete the reading challenge in Year 3 to qualify for a Gold Premiers Reading Challenge Certificate. Two more years of completing the Premiers Reading Challenge Certificate will result in the awarding of the Platinum Premiers Reading Challenge.

We are particularly keen for our new families in Kindergarten and the wider school to embrace this fantastic opportunity to assist in developing their children’s literacy skills.

Throughout the year we will once again have a number of Library based events like Book week, The Book Fair and the National Simultaneous Storytime. We look forward to your active support with these endeavor’s.

Looking forward to another great year.

The St James Library Team,

Mr Coleman

Mrs Churches

Mrs Farley