Principal's Update - 1st September

Welcome

Dear Families,

This week marks the beginning of the Season of Spring. We are filled with excitement and hope as nature shows us gentle signs that Winter is behind us and the weather is starting to improve. We anticipate new beginnings as Term 3 draws to a close and our final term of the year is just around the corner.

The school has been a very busy place this year, and our students have been extremely fortunate to be able to attend a variety of excursions, participate in sporting activities and attend many incursions, especially after the past few years, which have been so challenging.

Book Week Dress Up Parade

This week, we celebrated ‘Book Week’ with our annual parade on Monday. This year’s theme was Dreaming with Eyes wide open. Seeing the children's favourite book characters come to life through their chosen costumes for the day was wonderful and a credit to families. Families had clearly gone to a great deal of trouble as had our teachers, with some amazing costumes across the school. We also welcomed visiting author of the popular picture storybook 'Mallee Sky' Jodi Toering, to facilitate writing sessions with all classes that day. She was absolutely blown away by the participation of students during the day and also the excitement of the Book Week Parade. She encouraged all students to be authors and read extensively to support their writing.

Foundation to Year Two also enjoyed viewing a visiting Book Week presentation in the afternoon. All in all, our entire school enjoyed this year’s theme and we continue to encourage students to be avid readers and enjoy the adventures and learning we gain from reading.

Father's Day Celebration - Friday 2nd September

We would like to update you on the planned events following the Father's Day Liturgy tomorrow, Friday 2nd September at 1.30pm. As per the original plan please enter via the top gate on Gregory Street to collect your child/children from their family group line. 

We will no longer be attending Mark's Reserve after the liturgy, instead Father's/Special guests are invited to come back to school. The students will line up in Family Groups on the basketball courts to meet their Family Group teacher before heading inside. The Fathers/Special person can join them in the line and accompany them to their family group classroom for an afternoon activity and treat. 

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. 1:15 pm - 5:00 pm. Bookings are now available via PAM.

The student-led conferences form an essential part of our reporting process. Alongside SeeSaw, general communication and formal semester reports 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?

Posi Socks

St Columba’s will be participating in a program this year to support our students in developing positive routines. The Posi Socks program aims to set children up for a successful future whilst also providing support directly to the broader community!

Putting socks on in the morning is one of our most common routines. By combining this with positive reinforcement written on the socks, we hope to help our students explore new habits and develop a routine to start each day positively. 

The students will also be participating in 21 days of lessons and activities to keep their mindsets positive.

To develop this routine, our students will purchase a pair of Posi socks, and on top of that, for each pair of socks purchased,  a pair of socks will also be donated to someone in need within our community. 

For every participating student, $1 will be donated to the St Vincent de Paul Society. We ask each child to pay $10 for the program's cost, their socks, and the socks to be donated. This program will start at the beginning of Term 4, but to cover the production of the socks, we are asking for payment ASAP. Orders and payment will be available via QuickCliq shortly.

2023 classes

We will also begin the process of staff appointments and class lists in the coming weeks. If you have any information you feel may impact placement for your child, please contact us at principal@scballarat.catholic.edu.au. This relates to academic, family and social-emotional considerations. Please be aware we do not accept requests for specific teachers or social groups, nor can we promise, given the complexity of 330 students to place that we can accommodate every consideration.

Important Dates for Term Three

Important Dates for Term Four

Foundation Transition Sessions

Foundation 2023 Storytime

Kind regards,

Bambi Afford & Shaun Mohr

Co-Principals