Principal's Update - 17th August 2022

Welcome

Dear Families,

We take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt thanks and praise for everyone's efforts in ensuring the success of our first concert in three years. The blood, sweat and tears were certainly real behind the scenes... however, the delighted smiles of students, audience members and teachers remind us that these opportunities for children to shine and showcase talent surpass the tiredness. We thank our staff for once again demonstrating St Columba's spirit of going the extra mile for the students in our care. We hope the Circuit Breaker Weekend was a wonderful chance for families and staff to recharge their batteries in readiness for the final five weeks of the term.

Father's Day Celebration - Friday 2nd September

We would like to invite fathers and special people in our lives to join us for a fun afternoon on Friday the 2nd. Guests will be welcomed onsite at 1:30 pm at the Gregory Street entrance via the top gate to meet the students. From there, we will walk over to the church for a Liturgy beginning at 1:45 pm. After the liturgy, all guests are invited to join us at Mark's Reserve for a kick of the footy or to just spend some time together, returning back to school at 3:00 pm. We ask that, where possible, children remain at school until 3:15 pm.

Student Led Conferences

In Week 9 of this term, we will be hosting our student-led conferences here at St Columba’s on Monday 5th & Tuesday 6th of September. Bookings for the student-led conferences will become available shorltly via PAM. We will send a notification when this is ready to book.  

The student-led conferences form an essential part of our reporting process. Alongside SeeSaw, general communication and formal semester reports they provide important  information for our parent community about how students are going in their learning. The focus of student-led conferences is around developing assessment capable students, that is, students who are able to identify and discuss their learning goals, efforts towards these and their achievements. These are essential skills for successful learners to be able to develop and carry with them. Whilst students will have prepared some of their thoughts for this discussion, it can be valuable for parents also to have some prompting questions ready to go. Some suggestions for prompting you may like to use are:

• Can you tell me more about…?
• I was excited/proud to see that you….
• What did you find challenging with this task, term, or activity?
• What was your goal? Did you achieve it? Why/Why Not?
• What is something we can do together at home to support your learning?

Book Week Dress Up Parade

Our annual Book Week Parade is set for Monday 29th August. We look forward to seeing the children's favourite book characters come to life through their chosen costumes for the day. We are also excited to announce that the Author of the popular picture storybook 'Mallee Sky' Jodi Toering, will facilitate writing sessions will all classes that day.

Cover Up Gear

We suggest students who intend to play on the top courts bring along some old tracksuit pants and tops to wear over the top of their clothes at break times and bring a plastic bag to store them in their school bags. 

We also continue to look for donations of second-hand uniforms, sizes 8-12, particularly sports pants and long trousers to cater for these wet weather days.

The timeline for the resurfacing of courts is unknown at the moment, particularly with the difficulties in securing companies to complete the works, along with the escalation of costs in materials. We are working hard to secure a contractor prior to the end of the year. Fingers crossed.

Important Dates for Term Three

Kind regards,

Bambi Afford & Shaun Mohr
Co-Principals