In our first week back we celebrated our College’s birthday, the feast day of James the Great, also known as James, son of Zebedee.  He was one of the apostles of Jesus. 

In fact James is described as one of the first disciples to join Jesus. The synoptic gospels state that James and John were with their father by the seashore when Jesus called them to follow him.  James was one of only three apostles whom Jesus selected to bear witness to his transfiguration. He was also the first apostle to be martyred (Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12, verse 2). Saint James is the patron saint of Spain. 

Gracious God, 

We remember Your servant and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that You will pour out upon us that spirit of self-denying service by which alone we may have true authority among others; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

Amen.

Staffing Changes

• Carol, our Thursday and Friday counsellor, who left us at the end of Term 2 will be replaced by Felicity Massey.  Felicity will join the College on the 11^th August, and we know everyone will extend a warm welcome to her.      

From The State P&F

CSPA, or the Catholic Schools Parent Association of Australia, has the following 2022 Parent Survey on Student Wellbeing and Learning:

Have your say on what matters regarding the wellbeing and learning of your child. For example, has COVID or your partnership with the school affected your child’s wellbeing and learning?  If you are a parent or carer with a child in a Catholic school, CSPA would love to hear from you.

Click on the survey link and share your feedback to assist CSPA in reporting to the Federal Government and Catholic education. Your feedback will remain anonymous.  Click here for CSPA Parent Survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2022CSPAParentSurvey  The survey may also be accessed via the CSPA website.

CSPA also plans to interview national reference groups of ‘similar’ parents, e.g. parents who have a child with disability; parents from remote and isolated settings; parents of boarding school students; parents from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; and others.

Year 7 and Kindergarten 2022 Enrolments

Have you enrolled your child for Year 7 or Kinder 2023? Do you have friends, relatives, neighbours, work colleagues who may be looking to enroll their child in Kinder next year? If so, please contact our school office as soon as possible to request an enrolment form and package.

In fact, please pass on the invitation to families of any school aged children to enquire about enrolling at our fine college. 

Primary Bus Lines 

Our Leadership Team was becoming concerned that towards the end of term primary students were arriving late to the MPC to be marked off buslists. Of course, this is an issue of our duty of care to have accurate records of the students who are on each bus each night.

We wish to suggest the following change of routines to mediate.  We will trial this for the next two weeks and seek to gain feedback:

• All primary teachers will have their students packed and move towards the MPC by 3.00pm.
• All primary classes will be in the MPC by 3.05pm.
• At 3.05pm all primary students will be seated in their bus lines.
• The walking home, being collected by family, or going to the bottom car park line of students will have their designated teacher walk them out of the MPC.
• The Huonville bus students go out to their spot with their duty teacher.
• Each of the bus lines will be ticked off the list and dismissed in the usual way

AJASS Principal's Cluster Meeting 

On Monday we hosted Principals from Victorian, South Australian and New Zealand Josephite Colleges that, like St James, were founded by the Sisters of St Joseph.  The Principals met in our library.  At the start of the day they went to our Kinder classroom to be with our 'pirates' for prayer and later our Year 7 students took them around the College.  A great day was had by all!

Some Key Events & Arrangements this Term 

• Monday 8^th August is Mary of the Cross Feast Day. All secondary students and staff will have a Morning Lineup with a Liturgy to honour Mary MacKillop at 9:00am. Primary staff and students will travel to Ranelagh, and be joined by the students from Sacred Heart Geeveston, for a Mass commencing at 11:00 am and then activities at the Huonville PCYC.
• The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated on Sunday 14^th August at the 9.30am Mass at Ranelagh.  We will have a preparation retreat day for the candidates celebrating this Sacrament on Thursday 28^th July from 9:00am-3:00pm.
• Monday the 15^th August we will begin the celebrations of Catholic Education Week with prayers at our usual Monday Morning Lineups.

Attendance 

I ask families to attend to their children’s attendance. 

As you would be aware, the attendance we take each day is a legal document.  Just so you know, in the first 10 minutes of each secondary lesson or at the start of the day for primaries, the roll is marked carefully and correctly.

 I ask families three things in particular:

• Send your students to school. Attendance is the best determinate of educational success.
• Don’t send your child to school if she/he is sick.
• If your child is not at school, please notify the school of their absence.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.  We very much appreciate the support of the overwhelming number of families in this.