St James’ believes in providing opportunities for all students. Not only do we strive for excellence in education, we also want to help all students to succeed socially. We have a well-developed playground that includes a sports field, passive play areas and mud kitchen. We also provide opportunities to develop other non-academic skills and social interactions.

CREATIVE ARTS

St James’ offers students in Year 3 to 6 the opportunity to join the school band run by Darren Ward on a Monday. Our school also encourages students to audition for the Diocesan performing arts ASPIRE program.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Students at St James’ are actively involved in activities to develop public speaking skills as part of the English curriculum. Our school takes part in the Central Region Public Speaking Competition for Kindergarten to Year 6. Skills are explicitly taught and practised before semi-finalists from each class are selected to participate in stage playoffs in front of stage-based audiences. Two finalists per stage are determined using the same topic under competition conditions. Speeches are prepared at school on the day of competition.

At competition level:

• Speakers in ES1 and S1 present a prepared speech only
• Speakers in S2 and S3 present two speeches - a prepared speech and an impromptu speech.

We recognise that public speaking is a life-long skill and the ability to communicate clearly, effectively and confidently with an engaging presentation style can never be underestimated.

ENVIRONMENTAL

The Environmental Stewardship Team is an educational and innovative way for students to discover and investigate the natural world and build a healthy respect and understanding for nature, nutrition and the environment. Students are supported to prepare the soil, plant seedlings, cultivate and tend the plants and pick produce to be used in the school canteen or in cooking activities.

St James’ also offers students the opportunity to maintain our aquaponics garden and lovingly care for our grounds.