Principal's Update - 1st November

Welcome

Dear Families, 

The term continues to fly by with many exciting events and activities planned for our students and community alike. Whilst the end of the year brings excitement, it can also bring some anxiety and sadness, with change being the only constant.

Our Year Six & Foundation students and families have begun the transition programs to their new schools and look forward with great anticipation to what 2024 will bring.

Here at St Columba’s, we continue to work together to plan our class groupings and staffing arrangements for 2024. This continues to be a work in progress, with many parts of the Tetris puzzle to be completed. Watch this space.

Thunderstorm Asthma & Allergies

With the change of seasons, the prevalence of thunderstorm asthma is on the rise. As a school, we will continue to monitor the weather forecast daily for possible risks and adjust accordingly. The Vic Emergency App is also a great guide in these circumstances. It is advised to avoid being outdoors during any thunderstorm, especially during the winds that precede them. Students are asked to take their preventative medication as directed, even if symptom-free. Please ensure that student asthma plans are updated and children are reminded to seek support if they develop symptoms.

SAC Meeting

Our Term 4 School Advisory Meeting will be held tonight, Wednesday 1st November, at 5:30 pm.

We take this opportunity to thank all of our SAC members for their continued support and contributions to our school. We also thank the various subcommittee members for their enthusiasm and tireless efforts in ensuring our St Columba’s community remains connected and vibrant. We take this opportunity to thank Anna Ormrod in her role as SAC chairperson. We are currently in the process of discernment for new members and will appoint a new SAC chair early next year.

Christmas Carols

This year, our School Community will celebrate the end of the 2023 school year with an afternoon of Christmas Carols on Thursday 7th December. 

Each year level has been invited to perform a Christmas Carol to delight our audience, along with some festive songs also sung by our amazing school choir.

The afternoon will commence at 2:30 p.m. and conclude at 5:30 p.m. At this stage, we are planning to have a few refreshment vendors and a stall to sell Christmas Cards designed by our students, along with a raffle.

We are hopeful to host this wonderful celebration here at school on our top courts as we have done in the past. We are waiting for our builders to confirm the arrangements for their commencement of works onsite. As always, we have a Plan B, just in case.

Parent School Relationship Code of Conduct

We kindly request your participation in fostering a positive school environment by signing into PAM to review and sign the Parent School Relationship Code of Conduct. This important document outlines the expectations and guidelines for maintaining a respectful and cooperative partnership between our school and our valued parent community. 

Your commitment to upholding these standards ensures a harmonious and supportive educational experience for all. 

Please log in to PAM and complete this process as soon as possible. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated in creating a conducive and collaborative school environment for the benefit of our students. 

Thank you for your support.

Structured Literacy

Structured literacy, as the name implies, takes a more explicit, systematic approach to the teaching of literacy, focusing on the act of decoding, phonics and fluency, which leads to comprehension. Tasmania has recently legislated that all schools must move to an approach based on structured literacy over the next three years, and other states have similar works on the way. The approach has been used with great success in the Catholic Diocese of Canberra with their Catalyst project and within the Ballarat Diocese with a group of pilot schools known as the SunLit Project. St Columba’s has been researching and investigating this model of literacy learning throughout the year, with a number of school visits and staff undertaking additional study through Latrobe Uni, SPELD and working with the Ballarat READ group.

Cognitive Science in the Classroom

Alongside this work in literacy, we have been looking at best classroom practices and what some of the implications of recent advances in cognitive science mean for the classroom.  Whilst we are still in the early stages of this project, it is already having an impact on our thinking and discussions around learning. An additional element for our school is how these new findings and understandings can align with our school’s vision of Engage, Empower and Inspire. Many of the schools moving to a structured literacy model have a much more traditional approach to education and classroom design when compared to ours, and our existing work in this space is something we are very conscious of not losing as we move forward. We want High-impact learning approaches whilst also being Learning Progressive and holding on to the importance of play and experiential-based learning that is central to our beliefs. This is an ongoing piece of work for staff that we will explore in more detail at the upcoming closure days in November.

Recent Referendum

Whilst individually, we have a range of beliefs in this space, our school’s message is based on the teachings of the church and the safety and rights of young people. 

Please refer to Bishop Gauci’s statement from the recent  Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference.

We pray…

May the Spirit within us
Be a source of healing and consolation
May the Spirit within us strengthen us when we feel weak,
Warm us when we are cold-hearted,
Bend us when we are stubborn
Move us when we are uncaring
Guide us in the way of love.
May we allow the Spirit within
To empower us in all we do.
Amen

Important Dates for Term 4

Kind regards,

Bambi Afford & Shaun Mohr
Co-Principals