Dear Community of St Columba’s,
At the conclusion of this week, Assistant Principal, Mr Niall Kehoe will be on leave until the commencement of Term 4. Bon voyage, Niall! We wish you all the best as you head off on your travels. Enjoy the well-earned rest, warmer weather, family time, and the opportunity to swap school emails for sightseeing. We look forward to seeing you in Term 4.
During this period, Miss Sarah Lombardo and Miss Breanna Filocamo will share the role of Acting Assistant Principal. Miss Kiera More will also assist in the temporary role of Upper Hub Leader. We congratulate Sarah, Breanna and Kiera on these appointments and thank them for their willingness to take on these leadership responsibilities in support of our school community.
Consent for Excursions
There has been an update recently to CEWA School Excursions Procedures and Guidelines. Schools must ensure that parental consent is obtained for offsite activities (excursion). Please note for our upcoming Faction Carnival and further excursions, parents will be notified via SEESAW of details and within this will be a link for you to provide consent. Thank you for your support as we navigate these changes.
Celebrations
Congratulations to Bayswater Tennis Club’s Orange Ball Pennants Team Juliana Versaico, Zara Fantoni, Xander De Souza & Zahan Xerxes (Bayswater PS). They had an outstanding season making it all the way to the Grand Final!
We love hearing the achievements of our students outside of school. Please share these with us.
Pre Kindy and Kindy 2028 Enrolments
We are excited to announce that enrolments for Pre-Kindy and Kindy 2028 are now open.
If your child was born between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, they are eligible to commence Kindy in 2028. As places are in high demand, we encourage families to submit applications as early as possible.
Younger sibling details are not automatically transferred through our administration system. To ensure your child is considered for enrolment, please complete an application form and return it to the school office. We would hate for any current family to miss the opportunity to secure a place for their younger child, so please submit your application at your earliest convenience.
For further information or to obtain an application form, please contact the school office, 9208 2700
Are you leaving?
While we are always sad to farewell families from our St Columba’s community, we understand that circumstances and family plans can change.
To assist us with planning for the 2027 school year, we kindly ask that you notify the school by 4 September 2026 if your enrolment arrangements will be changing and your child will not be returning in 2027.
Please advise us by emailing admin@stcolsbays.wa.edu.au or contacting the office on 9208 2700.
Thank you for your assistance and support, which helps us plan effectively for the year ahead.
Upcoming Events:
- Friday 21 August: Pupil Free Day (School and OSHC Closed)
- Monday 24 August: Catholic Day/Pupil Free Day (School and OSHC Closed)
- Tuesday 25 August: Year 3 & 4 Jumps and Throws Day
- Wednesday 26 August: Year 5 & 6 Jumps and Throws Day
- Friday 28 August: Book Week Parade at 9.00 am
In gratitude,
Gina Burns
Assistant Principal's Updates
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
SEMESTER TWO IEPs
Revised IEPs have now been sent home for families to read, sign and return to either the classroom teacher or reception. Your prompt response to this is very much appreciated. Please don’t hesitate to contact the classroom teacher, or myself, if you have not received your updated IEP, or have any questions or concerns about the IEP.
UR STRONG FRIENDOLOGY NEWSLETTER ITEM
5 REASONS KIDS DON’T SEEK HELP WITH TRICKY FRIENDSHIPS
We’ve discovered through our URSTRONG program that sometimes children don’t always open up to their parents when they’re experiencing challenging issues with friends. This article explores the reasons why and provides a few tips to open up the lines of communication with your child.
https://urstrong.com/5-reasons-kids-dont-seek-help-with-tricky-friendships/
SCHOOL PHOTOS
School Photos are scheduled for Monday 7th, Tuesday 8th and Thursday 10th September.
Flyers with details about online orders were sent home earlier this week. Please ask your child for the flyer so that you don’t miss out on placing your order.
Sibling photo orders must be placed before Midday, FRIDAY 4th SEPTEMBER.
Further information is attached to this newsletter.
Please contact the school office if you have any queries.
Mrs Leesa Vinciullo
APRE and Inclusive Education Coordinator
P & F News
Father’s Day – Save the Date:
Donut with Dad Father’s Day celebration on Friday, 4 September.
Join us for a special morning celebrating all the amazing dads, grandads and father-figures in our community.
Please click on the link below to register the number of people in your family attending, so we can make sure there are plenty of donuts to go around!
A coffee van will also be on site for coffee purchases.
RSVPs close 10pm Wednesday 26 August.
We are also looking for volunteers for the day – if you’re able to lend a helping hand.
2026 Book Week
St Col’s Book Week Costume Swap
Book week is fast approaching (Friday 28th August) & with the extra pressure of adding another item to the forever evolving to-do list… the P&F would like to initiate a “share/recycle album” to help the community and keep things simple and stress free! Chances are there are a few costumes worn only once gathering dust at the bottom of our kids drawers! Please use this Facebook link which will direct you to the St Col’s Community Book Week album to share pictures of costumes you may be looking to rehome and/or lend to another. Please get involved if you wish.
Costumes are not restricted to the theme.
Nathan, Nat & Shaun Could be Coming to Your School for Book Week!
This year for Book Week we have entered a competition for Nathan, Nat & Shaun from Nova 93.7 to attend the school on Friday 28th August for our Book week parade. Here is the link to register our school. The more people that register the more chance we have to win. The winning school will receive a $5,000 donation.
Nova – Nathan, Nat & Shaun Could Be Coming To Your School For Book Week!
CSPWA Newsletter
Welcome to the latest edition of our CSPWA eNewsletter!
Visit the link below to view your newsletter:
https://cspwa.schoolzineplus.com/enews?nid=75
Thanks,
The P&F team
Library News
2026 CBCA
Book Week
Symphony of Stories
Dates: 22 – 28 August 2026
Dress Up Day (Kindy-Year 6)
Friday 28 August 2026
All students Kindy to Year 6 are invited to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. The purpose of this event is to celebrate Book Week; therefore the focus is on participation rather than the costume.
Why not recycle a costume or put together something from home!
Please keep it simple and stress free.
Please note: Costumes are not restricted to the theme.
LIBRARY BOOK COVERING
The library has lots of new and exciting books needing covering so that our students can read them before the end of the year. If you can help by taking a small number of books home to cover, please call into the library Monday, Tuesday,Thursday or Friday. Precut covering for books is supplied. Your help is greatly appreciated by students and staff.
Rita Cuthbert – Library
(Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday)
Pastoral Care
Happy Birthday to:
The following students who will celebrate birthday’s in the coming week.
Ari McGrath KG
Noah Blake PKG
Gabriella Romeo PKG
Sophia Ward PPW
Hadley Winrow 1G
George Capellini 1G
Amelia Congdon 2G
Hugo Allison 3G
Eliza McGlue 3G
Kanishka Setty 3W
Arthur Oliveira 5W
Parker Connell 5W
Huw Humphreys 6G
Anzo Tan 6W
WEEKLY RAFFLE ROSTER
TERM 3
Week 6 – 26 August
Week 7 – 2 September
| Kindy Green | Week 6 – Addison MacIntyre-Martinz Week 7 – Blair Massam |
| Kindy White | Week 6 – Heath Marie Week 7 – Shane O’Callaghan |
| PP Green | Week 6 – Aston Lee Week 7 – Elise Lee |
| PP White | Week 6 – Stella Pavlovich Week 7 – Jack Payne |
| Year 1 Green | Week 6 – Austin Hohnen-MacDonald Week 7 – Sylvie Hurley Swiderski |
| Year 1 White | Week 6 – Violet Mulherin Week 7 – Tommy O’Donohoe |
| Year 2 Green | Week 6 – Zahlia Phillips Week 7 – Marie O’Callaghan |
| Year 2 White | Week 6 – Ava Sanders Week 7 – Pastoral care |
| Year 3 Green | Weel 6 – Ada Marie Week 7 – Luke Poletti |
| Year 3 White | Week 6 – Holly McMenamin Week 7 – Annabel Paulus |
| Year 4 Green | Week 6 – Ella Phillips Week 7 – Rohan Hurley Swiderski |
| Year 4 White | Week 6 – Celeste Mulherin Week 7 – Luciana Pulido Vargas |
| Year 5 Green | Week 6 – Alec Mather Week 7 – Mia Paulus |
| Year 5 White | Week 6 – Lachlan Stewart Week 7 – Oaklyn Payne |
| Year 6 Green | Week 6 – Jonathan Truong Week 7 – Cherubim Vu |
| Year 6 White | Week 6 – Luca Marrapodi Week 7 – Sera McDougall |
Class News
From our Year 2 Classes:
Amazing Animal Experts in Year 2!
This term in Writing, our focus is on informative writing, and our Year 2 students have been very busy becoming animal experts!
We have been exploring the features of non-fiction texts and learning how as authors we need to use technical vocabulary, factual sentences, headings, labels and diagrams to teach our readers new information.
We have also discovered that a diagram is different from a picture. To put our learning into action, we had lots of fun creating animals using playdough and then carefully labelling their different body parts. Of course, before we could add our labels, we needed to become researchers! We built our factual knowledge by reading informative books, watching documentaries, researching unfamiliar vocabulary and posing questions about our animals.
All of this learning is helping us prepare for our next exciting challenge — creating our very own informative books about an animal of our choice.
It has certainly been a busy term of reading, researching, creating and writing, and we cannot wait to share our finished books!
Student Achievements
CONGRATULATIONS
Bayswater Tennis Club’s Orange Ball Pennants Team had a fantastic Winter season, making it all the way to the Grand Final!
Throughout the season, the team showed incredible resilience, sportsmanship, and determination, while their ball skills and confidence grew enormously.
They faced Blue Gum, the top team on the ladder, in a closely contested Grand Final & gave it their all, finishing as worthy runners-up with a final score of 18 games to 16.
A huge congratulations to Juliana Versaico, Zara Fantoni, Xander De Souza & Zahan Xerxes (Bayswater PS) on an outstanding season. We are so proud of your efforts, teamwork & growth throughout the year.
Thank you to Coach Anthony & Jovan for their commitment & training to all the teams.
Looking forward to seeing what next season brings!
Community Notices
Parents, please note that enrolment forms will only come home to all kindy students and those students new to St Columba’s in 2026.
