Principal's Post

Dear Parents of St Columba’s,

St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal

It’s great to see so many donations already for our Annual St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal. Please check your item is in date as expired items cannot be accepted. The final date for donations will be Friday 8 December. Donations can be left in the baskets in each classroom.

Class Lists 2023

Teachers and the leadership team have spent much time ensuring classes are allocated in the best interest of our children. 

Many aspects are considered in creating a class list such as having a mix of gender and learning, social and emotional needs. In addition, consideration is also given to students with a disability. Teachers are very mindful of allocating each student to a class with at least one other student they have a strong, positive connection.

A great deal of thought goes into generating class lists and staffing throughout the school so that all students can be in a safe and thriving environment. Please trust that the environment your child is moving into has been carefully selected.

Class lists will be released to students on Monday 4 December. This is our Transition Day where students will move into their next classroom to meet their teacher for 2024. The lists will be placed outside classrooms at the end of the day. We request parents to not take photographs of the class lists.

End of Year Edu Dance Concert

You would have received my previous correspondence regarding parking for the Edu Dance Concert.

Further to this, please note our playgrounds will not be supervised this evening and we request parents to not allow their children to play on the playgrounds so everyone can enjoy the concert.

2024 School Dates

In last week’s newsletter, I announced the 2024 Term Dates and Pupil Free Days. If you missed this, please refer to the newsletter for last week.

Annual Community Meeting

Last Wednesday evening we held our Annual Community Meeting. At this meeting, we announced members of the Catholic School Advisory Council (CSAC) and Parents and Friends Executive (P&F).

I extend my thanks to retiring members of the CSAC and P&F Committee for their contribution to the school. Thank you for your tireless efforts in supporting the direction of the school and creating a vibrant and supportive community.

• Alex Wright – on the CSAC since 2018.
• Tanya Armstrong, Simonne Moretta and Bea Humphries – P&F Executive since 2021.

2024 CSAC

Caroline Webb has been accepted onto the Catholic School Advisory Council from 2024. Congratulations and thank you Caroline for stepping into this role.

The CSAC for 2024:

Greg Armstrong (Chairperson), Claire Sardelich (Secretary), Stephanie Juszkiewicz, Drew Carruthers (Treasurer), Caroline Webb, Fr Andrew Albis, and Gina Burns.

2024 P&F

I received one nomination for the position of Treasurer and have accepted Leston De Mello into this position.

Unfortunately, no other nominations were received.

Our P&F ensures there are friendship and fundraising opportunities for the whole community. Some examples include catering at events like our Swimming and Athletics Carnival, the School Disco, and allocating funds to playgrounds and classroom resources.

Your child benefits directly from the efforts of the P&F. The school will need to co-opt P&F Executive Members for 2024 and will call again for P&F nominations prior to the 2024 Annual Community Meeting for 2025.

In gratitude

Gina Burns
Principal

P & F News

TERM 4 Events

• End of Year Concert – We will be holding a sausage sizzle at the end of the concert for those that don’t want to go home and cook dinner.
• Christmas Raffle – We would like to do a Christmas Raffle that is more activity based for school holidays rather than toy based. If anyone has any contacts or ideas for prizes, please contact your class rep.

Love to contribute to our schools fundraising efforts?

Consider the St Columba’s P&F at your next Containers for Change deposit.

Simply scan the QR code below, download the app and add the member number to your profile.

The P&F fund would be so grateful for your contribution to further aid in the students resources and equipment.

Entertainment Memberships

Online memberships are available again this year. Memberships can be purchased online.

https://www.entertainment.com.au/orderbooks/83589g

Any questions or queries, I can be contacted via email gtarmstrong@iinet.net.au

Tanya Armstrong

Chair P&F

Library News

We are very keen to see all library books returned before the end of the year.  

So…

Take a look in your school bag

Take a look under your bed

Take a look in the back of the car

Search high ⬆️  and low ⬇️ for any books to be returned (even if you’ve had them a long time!)

The library has lots of books needing covering.  If you can help by taking a small number of books home to cover,

please advise the library. Your help is greatly appreciated by staff and students.

Rita Cuthbert – Library Officer – Library - the original search engine

Pastoral Care

Award Winners

MERCY AWARDS – Term 4

PP Green – Archie Raynor
PP White – Clara Fuller

1 Green – Aurora Cameron
1 White – Oscar Harris

2 Green – Oliver Minchin
2 White – Jacob Hofmann

3 Green – Maya Katich
3 White – Gianna Krishnan

4 Green – Milana Zachar
4 White – Olivia McShanag

5 Green – Olivia Harris
5 White – William Armstrong

6 Green – Audrey Lawes
6 White – Kalani Brammer

Religious Education and Curriculum News

From our Year 1 Classes:

In Year one, we have been learning that Catholics read the story of the birth of Jesus in the Bible at Christmas time. We know that God gave the Bible to people so that they can learn about God and God’s love for people and the world. God gave people the greatest sign of love: the gift of God’s Son, Jesus.

We loved working in small groups to create the most amazing art pieces that showed each park of the nativity story.

From our Pre-Primary Classes:

This week in Pre-Primary we have been consolidating our mathematics skills of subtraction, addition and sharing.

Community Notices

Dear Parents & Guardians,

We have been advised by Kapture Photography that all Portraits, Class and Special Groups taken this year are still available for purchase.

Please visit www.kapture.com.au using our school code 98KBCR

Classifieds