St Columba's Gazette - Term 1
Welcome
We are excited to announce the Introduction of St Columba's first Term Gazette. Our little Gazette is a celebration of each term and some snippets of the amazing events and learning that our students have participated in thus far.. We hope you enjoy this publication and will bear in mind it is in its infancy. We hope it will grow into something truly memorable.
Foundation Learning Community
The start to our school journey
We are so incredibly proud of all of our Foundation students and the wonderful start that they have all had to school. We have been busy learning about the routines and structures of school, learning lots of new things in Literacy, Numeracy, Investigations, Religion and in our Specialists, and we have all made some lovely new friends and connections within our school community.
Excursion to 'Pick Your Own Sunflowers'
On March the 11th the Foundation Community went on their first excursion to 'Pick Your Own Sunflowers' in Dunnstown, to link to our Smart Spelling word of the week 'sun'. We had a great time learning about sunflowers and how they are grown, however, we think the bus trip was the highlight!
Palm Sunday performance
On Friday 8th of April, the Foundation Community performed 'Sing It! Hosana!' to mark the events in Holy Week. Students dressed up in costumes from Jesus' time and had a fabulous time singing and performing actions.
My New Gallery
Year 1/2 Learning Community
Recount Writing
One of our major focuses during writing time this term has been recounts. We have been learning about all of the elements that go together to create an interesting and informative recount. These elements include Title, Orientation, Events and Ending. We drafted, edited and published a recount about our long weekend. See some examples in the photo gallery.
Sports Day
On Thursday 8th April, the 1/2 community enjoyed taking part in School Sports Day at Llanberris Reserve. They participated in discus, shot put, vortex, long jump, relay and sprints. It was wonderful to see the sportsmanship on the day with the students cheering each other on. Thank you to all of the parents who helped out on the day.
Holy Thursday Liturgy
The 1/2 Community was entrusted with retelling the events of Holy Thursday for the final liturgy of Term 1. LG 4 & LG 6 told the story of the Washing of the Feet through the singing of My Blessing Falls on You by Drew Lane and Andrew Chinn, and through liturgical movement. LG 3 & LG 5 used an echo mime by Rina Wintour to show the events of the Last Supper. This was a beautiful reflection and lovely way to celebrate the end of Term.
My New Gallery
Year 3/4 Learning Community
In Week 8 the Grade 3s and 4s went on an exciting adventure to Log Cabin Camp in Creswick. The two days with a one night sleepover were filled with lots of activities that pushed us out of our comfort zones, great opportunities to make some new friends and not much sleep at all!
The ¾ Learning Community came together to unite as one to form friendships and know the strength of teamwork to design bridges to go over a 20cm river. The children designed, planned and built their creations. Once built, they tested the bridge by using the weight of a full 500ml drink bottle to see if it was strong enough to hold the weight! There was lots of success, lots of trial and error and most importantly lots of fun!
In the 3&4 Learning Community literacy rotations, our children are starting to explore four rich texts. In one of the rotations, to help them create mood and emotion in their writing and to help them understand this better we warmed up the room, had it smelling like a freshly baked biscuit and then of course had a little taste.
Early in Term 1 the children in the 3&4 Learning Community invented and drew their dream cars as part of the 2022 Toyota Dream Car Competition. Some inspirational designs included cars including ‘Mini Marshmallow Maker’ that shoots marshmallows into the air and ‘The Life Saver’ which cleans air pollution and rubbish from the ocean.
My New Gallery
Year 5/6 Learning Community
What a term!! It was fantastic to have a full term at school with lots of action-packed adventures together. Our grade 6 students have begun to show their leadership skills and the grade 5 students have stepped up and settled into the senior end of the school.
After a very disruptive (and somewhat boring) year in 2021, it was exciting to look forward to a camp experience. In mid-April we headed off to camp at Kangaroobie (near the 12 Apostles). We had so much fun at the beach and at the mouth of the Gellibrand River, getting involved in farm activities (consolidating our learning about reproduction), canoeing, and completing many challenge activities (involving water and mud). At the camp, we experienced the amazing ‘gaga pit’ (see the photo in the gallery) and then dressed up for our disco.
The teachers surprised us with their choice of dress and were equally impressive with their classy moves. DJ Hugo and the T-birds made the disco a night never to be forgotten and Sandy (and the Pink Ladies) dazzled.
In preparation for our camp, we researched volcanoes, the 12 Apostles and the Loch Ard shipwreck and then presented our findings to the community. This helped us to understand the geographical and historical importance of the region we visited.
Here is a list of some other wonderful celebrations from term 1 in the 5/6 community:
- Some grade 6 students celebrated their sacrament of Senior reconciliation.
- The Eureka school swimming carnival was a success.
- Sports day went flawlessly and demonstrated true leadership from our house captains and wonderful sportspersonship throughout the event.
- We shared several buddy lunches for our grade 5 students and their foundation friends. These are always special moments to be celebrated.
- The SWPB leaders have been organising and running a celebration for affirmations with a disco for the red house.
- Maintenance leaders have been keeping our schoolyard safe, neat and tidy.
- Our voice leaders and sports captains organised the whole school Caritas walk raising $980 for project compassion.
- Choir recommenced and preparation for the concert started.
- We enjoyed some special Sports Fun Days-kindly organised by Mr. Lynch
We entered a community and two individual art projects for the Central Highlands Water - Begonia Festival Competition. We were thrilled when Aurelia won and was presented with her prize and a $150 voucher for the school to use at Formosa Nursery.
Overall, Term 1 has been a marvellous start to the 2022 year. The 5/6 teaching team has been enhanced with the introduction of new staff, Nathan Jeffrey and Hugo Papst, and we are already looking forward to Term 2 and an injection of new experiences and learning opportunities.
My New Gallery
Performing Arts
Concert
Save the date... we’re pleased to confirm our school concert will be held of the 11th August, 7pm at the Wendouree Performing Arts Centre. Saint Columba’s will be ‘Going to the Movies’. We’re so excited to be finally having a whole-school concert and celebration. More information, including details about purchasing tickets to follow next term.
Choir
Congratulations to Lilia Grumley and Matilda Pitt who have been elected Choir Captains and to Lily Kolotelo and Londyn Askwith who will be vice captains in 2022. We have a very large group of children from Grades 3 – 6 who have been attending choir this term as a trial. A PAM note will be sent out early next term to confirm members who would like to sign up for the remainder of the year. Members are required to attend Thursday rehearsal sessions (1.35 – 2.10pm) and represent the school where possible. We hope to sing in the Royal South Street Competition and our school concert later this year.
Instruments
The Grade 5/6 children have begun to learn ukulele this term, as part of their Performing Arts lessons. The children have been introduced to 5 chords. They’ve been working hard to improve their skills. The Grade 3/4’s are learning to play the recorder and so far most children can play the notes B, A and G. Children are encouraged to add coloured bands to their recorders when they have demonstrated particular skills. Well done Grade 3/4’s.
Ruth Hackwill
My New Gallery
Physical Education Highlights
It has been an incredibly busy term for sport at St Columba’s.
We had a swimming carnival for 24 of our grade 3-6 students. With a special mention to Henry who won his event and went on to compete at the regional finals.
Our students have been exposed to a number of different clinics including hockey, soccer and AFL.
Thirty three students have been selected to represent our school at the Catholic Cross Country Event early next term.
Finally we finished with our Schools Athletic Carnival yesterday. Thank you to everyone who helped out and attended on the day. It was wonderful to see the smiles on so many of our students' faces and for some it was their real opportunity to shine.
As a school we will continue to provide as many different sporting opportunities as possible to foster our students' love of Physical Education. I look forward to families ongoing support.
Wayne Lynch
My New Gallery
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