25 October 2017

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Welcome to Term 4 which again promises to be a productive and busy Term, with many significant upcoming events.

The College held the annual Athletics Carnival in Huonville today. It is wonderful to see such great participation and encouragement of others by our students; the results will be published in the next newsletter.

Congratulations to our students, for being SunSmart. This term we have had a fantastic response to wearing hats. We encourage students to also access sunscreen which is located in classrooms and the office. Thank you to parents for supporting us in protecting your child against the sun. Next week is uniform transition week, students are no longer required wear to ties and primary girls may wear the summer tunic (stockings optional).

I would like to draw your attention to our upcoming Twilight Fair, only nine days to go. An event such as this takes careful planning and there are many activities, varieties of food, different stalls and entertainment on offer. The Fair promises to be a wonderful event for everyone. The College is seeking donations and assistance from volunteers for the event, please see the information in this newsletter on how you can help. All students should be in attendance and we encourage family members and friends to join us for a great night!

St James Catholic College Student named as Tasmania’s best

ICAS Competitions 2017 – Gold Medal Winner!

On the back of Monica Robbie’s Gold Medal awards in 2014 and 2015 for being the top Tasmanian performer in the ICAS Spelling and English competitions and Maximilliane Taylor’s Gold Medal in Writing in 2016, Monica has again won Gold this year in BOTH English and Mathematics for 2017! This is an incredible achievement in a competition that caters for the brightest and best students around Australia.

The International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) are independent skills-based assessments with a competition element. Over one million student entries are accepted from over 6,300 schools in Australia and New Zealand annually. In addition, students from over 20 countries including Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the USA participate in ICAS each year. More information about the students who participated in this testing can be found in this newsletter.

College Fair

Volunteers

The College is currently seeking volunteers to help setup and oversee different stalls. If you can assist, please contact the College Office via phone: (03) 62951 541 or email: stjames@catholic.tas.edu.au

Fair Raffle

This College Fair Raffle has some excellent prizes to be won including:

• Bicheno by the Bay Holiday vouchers
• Pennicott Boat Cruise voucher
• Duggan’s Gravel and Concrete voucher

These are only a few of the great prizes on offer!

Tickets are $2 each and available from the College Office. We ask that families please return all raffle books (sold or unsold) by Wednesday 15 November 2017. Additional raffle books are available from the College Office. The raffle will be drawn on Monday 20 November 2017 and winners published in the Huon News on Wednesday 22 November 2017.

Donations

Items are also being sought for the following stalls:

• Craft 
• Second-hand book  (donations can be left in Year 2).
• Tambola jars & lucky dip 
• Plants/vegetables
• Chocolate Wheel prizes

It’s spring and time for a little spring cleaning. Years 5 & 6 are collecting unused (but in decent condition) toys to be used as prizes for the Fair. If you have any teddy bears/tonka trucks/toy cars/dolls etc that you could donate as prizes we would greatly appreciate it. Donations can be left in Year 5 & 6.

All other donations can be left at the College Office. Thank you for your support!

SJCC Recipe Book

Now is the chance to pre-order your copy of the 2017 College Recipe Book! For just $10, the book features over 50 recipes used in the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program at the College. These recipes have been tried and tested by the students and the colourful book would make a great Christmas or Birthday present.

To order now, please visit:

The book will also be available for viewing and pre-ordering at the Fair, don’t forget to stop by the stall to secure your copy!

General Notices

Holiday Notice

2017 School Fees and Levies

Thank you to everyone who has settled or has arrangements in place for 2017 School Fees and Levies. There is no doubt that families place a high priority on obtaining a quality education for their children and many families make sacrifices to meet their financial obligations to the College. If you require a confidential conversation with the College Business Manager: Mrs Kelly Du Bois please contact her via the College Office (03) 6295 1541 to arrange an appointment.

Parent Survey

Book of Life

Canteen Bandanas

Name this bear!

To raise money for our College, Year 1 and Year 2 are selling raffle tickets to find this bear a home. Each time you enter you can nominate a name for the bear. The winning name and ticket will be randomly drawn at the school fair. Tickets are 50c each for one name or $1.00 for three names. Available from Year 1 before 9:00am or in the College office from recess onwards.

Congratulations

Will Clifford and Noah Denny have played for the University under 15 Premier League. Will played in the Premier League in 2016 and this is Noah's first year on the representative team. Both boys played well against the North Hobart Demons and individual results will be published in the near future.

Canteen Volunteers

The Canteen needs volunteers! If you can assist, please contact the College office outlining your availability. To work as a volunteer with vulnerable people (including children) anywhere in Tasmania each volunteer requires a current Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) Registration. To apply for registration please visit:

Kindergarten Enrolments

SMS Absence Notification

Is your child unwell? Need to contact the College Office? The College accepts SMS absentee notifications. Please SMS: 0488 863 246 with your child's name, year and reason for absence. Please save this number in your phone for future reference.

Contact/Medical Details Update

If any student contact and/or medical details have changed since the return of the 2017 forms in Term 1, please contact the College office to update. If you have previously supplied the College with an Epi-Pen and/or other medication; which may have since expired, a replacement is required.

College Uniform Shop

The College Uniform Shop has moved and is now located within the College the shop is open (term-time only).

• Monday’s 2.30pm until 3.30pm
• Wednesday’s 2.30pm until 3.30pm

Orders can be placed via phone or email. Ordered items can then be collected from the College Office or sent home with students. A copy of the current uniform price list can be found here

Call for Cardboard!

This term the Year 1 and 2 students are taking part in the Cardboard Challenge. If you can donate any cardboard items the students would be very grateful, donations can be left in Year 1 and 2.

What’s been happening at SJCC?

ICAS Participants

The teachers at the College selected the students who participated in the assessments as they were achieving well in that subject area. The assessments themselves are extremely challenging and to be selected was a commendable achievement. Each student receives a certificate and a detailed analysis of how they performed. It also gives percentile rankings compared to all the other high achieving students across Australia. We congratulate the following students for their participation:

I am pleased to announce that a number of our students performed exceptionally well gaining Merits (top 45% in Australia), Credits (top 35% in Australia), Distinctions (top 10% in Australia), High Distinctions (top 1% in Australia) and /or the Gold Medal (top student in Tasmania). Considering that usually only the most gifted students participate in this competition the following results are even more note-worthy. We congratulate:

Secondary Students

• Monica Robbie: High Distinction English (Gold Medal), Distinction Mathematics (Gold Medal), Credit Writing
• Maximilliane Taylor: Distinction English, Credit Writing
• Callum Robbie: Distinction English, Credit Writing
• Luke Ashlin: Credit Science, Merit Mathematics
• William Geeves: Credit Science, Merit English
• Chloe Bott: Credit Writing
• Jin Ju Redding: Credit Science
• Thomas Reed: Merit Science
• Philip Nichols: Merit Mathematics

Primary Students

• Anika Jones: Credit Mathematics, Credit Spelling, Merit English
• Maiya Jones: Credit Spelling, Credit Writing
• Matthew Schmidt: Credit Spelling
• Isabelle Menzies: Credit Science
• Jesse Cowen: Credit Spelling

By any measure, the results by our students are extraordinary!

Brett Tanner Deputy Principal

Sport Science Excursion

Last Friday, the Year 9/10 Sport Science class travelled to “Redbanks” and had the opportunity to participate in a mud run. In class students were required to develop a detailed training plan and undertake training in class time to prepare for the event.

Tinkering

We have been tinkering in our Kindergarten, last Monday we decided to pull apart a motor!

What is tinkering? In its classic sense, tinkering is about puttering around with electronics or machines, but in this more up-to-date definition, tinkering is about playing with materials and figuring out how just about anything can be assembled.

Tinkering is about hands-on experiences, learning from failures, and unstructured time to explore and invent. And through the processes of exploration and invention lies the potential for innovation.

Parachute fun

In the last week of term, the Kindergarten to Year 2 students had the opportunity to explore the importance of music and movement. In music, students used a parachute to explore this topic and had lots of fun.

Community Notices