St. James School, a fully accredited 3 PK -8 located in Highwood IL, has been providing a quality education for over 85 years.
Particularly during this time of change and challenge, Catholic schools provide long-term benefits to the nation's youth: a high-quality, faith-based education that will continue to pay dividends for years to come. Families and communities can count on Catholic schools to instill in students the faith, knowledge, morals and discipline that will enable them to fulfill their future roles as committed citizens, productive employees and effective leaders.
At St. James School all students are given an opportunity for educational excellence and religious formation in the Catholic intellectual tradition and challenged by a curriculum of the highest caliber in a safe, loving, family centered environment.
Please click
St. James Catholic School is pleased to announce recently released Stanford Early Achievement Test results scored our Kindergarten students in the 98th Percentile for the 2009-2010 school year.
A pretest given in the fall scored the class in the 83rd percentile, an excellent score. Maintaining that score would be a success; to increase to the 98th percentile is extremely successful. According to statisticians from the Archdiocese of Chicago it is a “remarkable feat” as it becomes increasingly more difficult to move even 1 percentile point the higher students rank on the scale.
In the 2009-10 school year, St. James implemented the Rowland Reading Program, a core reading program for pre K through 2nd grade students. Built on systematic phonics, the program combines reading, writing, spelling and grammar to teach children how to read with the goal of creating fluent readers by the time they leave the primary grades. The Rowland Reading Program has designated St. James School a “Super School”. A super school implements the reading program in Pre K through 2nd grades, receives training, coaching and support from the Rowland Reading Foundation. Volunteer “Super Tutors” are trained to provide meaningful support. St. James scored the highest in the nation among schools using this program. St. James scored in the top 2% of all kindergartners nationwide.
If you are interested in learning more about how your child(ren) can build a solid reading foundation as well as experience educational excellence, please call the office today at 847-432-2277.
St. James Parish is celebrating its centennial with events scheduled all year long. We hope you will join us for the celebration which will include the annual Parish Gala, an all-school reunion (June 2012), a Mass with Cardinal Francis George in September 2012 as well as many other events during the year.
We would love to use pictures that you may have of the church/school from the last 100 years. Please drop them off at the rectory marked with your name and phone number so they can be returned once we scan them. To view the list of events, please click here . We look forward to seeing you at the events.
We are gearing up for an ALL SCHOOL REUNION for St. James School June 22-24, 2012. This event will be part of the parish centennial celebration. We want to contact as many alumni as possible. If you are a St. James School Alum, or know someone who is, please send us an e-mail at
Over the last 100 years many couples have been united in Holy Matrimony at St. James. We invite everyone to come back and renew their wedding vows on the Sixth Sunday Ordinary Time Vigil Mass at 5:30 p.m. where after Communion a Wedding Vow Renewal Prayer will be said. In order to plan accordingly for refreshments, please RSVP to the parish office at 847-433-1494 or to stjames134@yahoo.com.
+++++> If you would like to share your wedding pictures (please include your name, year of wedding, place, and phone number), please e-mail them to lbernardil@comcast.net or drop them off to the parish office by Tuesday, Feb 7 to be scanned (photos will be returned to you).