Dear friends of St James Catholic College,

Last week I had a lovely parent of a child in our early years compliment the school on the fact that we had coordinated vision assessments here at school. As a result a specialist had found that this student had a slight deficiency in their sight which was leading to regular headaches. As a result of this school-initiated intervention, the child is now getting glasses and a learning plan that reflects how we can modify the classroom to best suit her learning.

Firstly, it was so lovely to hear a compliment about the work we're doing. Most of the time people like me hear nothing which makes me think, “Well, at least we must be doing a good job because no one's complaining!” On a few occasions we do get the odd feedback about how to do things better, but rarely do you get unsolicited gratitude. That made my week!

It also highlights to me how, as the school, we can work with families and professionals, beyond our boundaries, to create good outcomes for the children. Receiving an assessment for a child leads to them either accessing resources beyond our school or giving the school extra finances to provide support within the school. Sometimes adults are a little bit hesitant to have their children assessed. It can come across as a judgment, but it is not. 

The experience I had over the week highlights to me the wonderful staff we have here at the school that will broach difficult conversations with families not out of judgement but through care and concern for the child.

May we continue to thrive as a learning community that values each other and, in the way highlighted above, puts our children at the centre of good outcomes.

SCHOOL CLOSURE 

From time to time, due to extreme weather or other unforeseen circumstances, school may need to be cancelled for the day.  Please be aware of how this happened and how it is communicated:

In a nutshell, Mrs Elizabeth Radnidge and Mr Joe Sandric call the weather/incident by 7am, Joe makes the decision then contacts other colleges in our region, Mr Brett Tanner contacts staff via email and text by 7.15am, Mrs Sharlene Duggan contacts families via compass and text by 7.15am and Joe contacts buses.

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; however,
• 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.

TIMBER

Our Primary students are having great fun on our Adventure Playground making forts. Here are some of the lads with timber they are going to use to make their next construction.

Do you have any spare timber you wouldn’t mind donating to us for use in the Adventure Playground?  If so, please get in contact with me.

Joe Sandric

Principal