Dear Community of St Columba’s School,
As we approach the end of this term, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for your ongoing support throughout the past months. It has been a journey filled with learning, growth, and countless achievements.
All our families and students have now received their Mid-Year Reports. Students, I have read your reports this semester and I am immensely proud of your hard work and commitment to your studies. I hope you can all take this holiday as a chance to celebrate your accomplishments and return next semester with renewed energy and curiosity.
Appointment of Music Teacher for Years 4-6
This week we farewell Mrs Mary-Jo Masmanian as she embarks on her new journey. Mary Jo, or Mrs Mazz, we want to express our deep appreciation for the impact you’ve made during your time here at St Columba’s School. Your music and hymns have truly brightened our liturgical celebrations and brought an extra spring to our steps each day. While we’re sad to see you leave, we’re also filled with excitement for your new chapter at Steiner Parkerville. May God continue to guide and bless you every step of the way.
Next term we welcome Mrs Karen Gonsalves into the role of Music Teacher for Upper Primary. Music for students in Years 4-6 will now take place on Wednesday and Friday.
Choir will now take place on Wednesday morning only.
P&F Fundraisers – Cookie Dough and Wine
This week, we received a generous delivery of cookie dough and wine for the families of St Columba’s. Hopefully there was a little something on offer for all families. These sales play a vital role in supporting P&F donations that benefit resources throughout the school.
With over $4,700 raised to support our school, it’s evident that our community not only loves cookies and wine but also values supporting our educational initiatives.
I extend my sincere thanks to our P&F and the Cookie Dough and Wine Sub Committees, as well as to all the parents who dedicated their time to assist with distribution this week. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Upcoming events:
- Friday 28 June is a Pupil Free Day. The school is closed where staff are undertaking professional development. Our OSHC is open for Vacation Care.
- Monday 15 July : Term 3 commences for both staff and students.
Our calendar has been updated on our School Website. As a parent, you are now able to select various events and select these to transfer automatically to your own digital calendars. Please remember that last minute additions or changes can occur, and you should continue to refer to the calendar.
Wishing everyone a joyous holiday filled with happiness, memorable moments and hopefully a little warmth by the fire or the cosy indoors, enjoying a cookie or two. We look forward to welcoming everyone back for the next term, ready to continue our journey of learning and discovery together.
In gratitude,
Gina Burns
Principal
Uniform Shop
JFE have advised that their showroom, located at 85 Guthrie Street, Osborne Park, will be closed Monday 1st, Tuesday 2nd & Wednesday 3rd July, for stock take
They will be open as normal from the 4th of July.
eSafety – The eSafety guide
We have been sharing different resources of the eSafety Commissioner website over the past few weeks. One of the resources on the website is the eSafety guide. It includes a list of common social media, games, apps and sites that children and adults may be accessing. The guide shares how to protect your personal information and report harmful comments on these platforms.
P & F News
MID-YEAR WRAP UP
THANK YOU KIDS, PARENTS, RELATIVES, STAFF AND CLASS REPS — It’s been a really successful term of fundraising at St Col’s! With your help and support, the Cookie Dough challenge raised $3388 for our community. A big shout out to the amazing Bec Wilkey who ran the fundraiser, including the team of handy parent helpers on doughlivery-day to make sure families received their orders. Also finishing up was the recent HayShed Hill Wine drive, lead by super woman Nikki Staveley which raised $1440! Both these recent fundraisers go towards upgrading the external ECE play area and playground cubby.
Early next term, we kick off with the Mid Year Raffle extravaganza! The amazing prize lists will be published after the holidays with ticket purchase details included – keep your eyes peeled!
The P&F team has been so thrilled to see the community really making a solid effort to raise funds for the School. We look forward to friend-raising and raising funds for the kids, over the second half of the year with your help.
Thank you so much families,
St Col’s P&F Group
HOLIDAY FUNDRAISING FOCUS
Entertainment Book Offer
LAST CHANCE FOR THE JUNE OFFER — Purchase any Single City Membership before Thursday 27th June and receive a bonus upgrade to Multi City, unlocking over 15,000 offers in 20 cities across Australia and New Zealand. And the best part? 20% of every Membership purchased is donated to supporting our fundraising efforts. Join today and help us make a difference. Order here: https://subscribe.entertainment.com.au/fundraiser/83589g
Containers for Change deposits
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, 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.
ADD TO YOUR DIARY
P&F Upcoming Events for your calendar:
- 27th June — PJ Day / Gold Coin
- July/August — P&F Raffle (prizes drawn Term 3, 2nd August)
- 20th September — Whole School Subway Order Lunch Day
- 18th October — School Disco
NEXT MEETING
The next P&F meeting will be held on Tuesday 6th August at 7pm in the School Library. If you have any agenda items, please send these through to your Class Rep. We hope to see as many new faces as possible.
Library News
Join your child for the Premier’s Reading Challenge 2024.
Unlock the magic of reading. There are prizes to be won, fun to be had, and stories to uncover.
Details at:
https://www.premiersreadingchallenge.wa.edu.au/parents-and-families
Make sure you join: ST COLUMBA’S SCHOOL
USED BOOK SALE
Used Books (from the Library) Sale for students and families. Money donated will be used to purchase new and up to date resources for the school library.
On sale outside the library – Before school, recess, lunchtime and after school.
Gold coin donation.
The library is open every morning before school:
All students are welcome from 8:15am
Pre-Kindy and Kindy students must be accompanied by Parent/Carer until 8.45am
The library is a calming and quiet place, making it the perfect spot for students to have a smooth and calming transition in the morning.
Students may also like to return and borrow books before school.
Looking forward to seeing you the library.
We need your help.
We have 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
Happy Birthday to:
All our students and staff who will be celebrating birthdays over the holidays.
A message from Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care would like to pass on their heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all our school community for your participation in the weekly Wednesday Raffle for the past semester.
Thanks to all your beautiful contributions this past semester Pastoral Care has been able to welcome new babies, help families where we were needed the most, bring a little cheer to our sick and injured in the school community, help remember those we have lost in our families and, of course, celebrate those we love through our Mother’s Day Raffle!
The Term Three Roster is out and should be in the classroom windows this week.
Don’t forget that if you think we can help or bring a little cheer to someone in our school community to please email the admin so that a message is passed to us. All our little packages are loved by our families and students and we would hate to miss someone who is in need.
Again, thank you, we cannot do what we do without you!”
PASTORAL CARE WEEKLY RAFFLE
Tickets are 3 for $1 (maximum of 3 tickets per child).
We are always looking for Volunteers to join the Pastoral Care Team. If you can spare a little time on a Wednesday morning after drop off, you can find us in the Church meeting room just as you enter from the basketball court.
WEEKLY RAFFLE ROSTER
TERM 3
Week 1 – 17 July – NO RAFFLE
Week 2 – 24 July
Week 3 – 31 July
| Kindy Green | Week 2 – Addison Kain Week 3 – Austin Hohnen-MacDonald |
| Kindy White | Week 2 – Brigid Murphy Grace Week 3 – Caolan Meenan |
| PP Green | Week 2 – Hugh Murphy Grace Week 3 – Adam Tuma |
| PP White | Week 2 – Akira Romeo Week 3 – Arden O’Reilly |
| Year 1 Green | Week 2 – Ada Marie Week 3 – Archie Raynor |
| Year 1 White | Week 2 – Annabel Paulus Week 3 – Cillian Tierney |
| Year 2 Green | Week 2 – Aiden Snodgrass Week 3 – Alliah Parker |
| Year 2 White | Week 2 – Adam Nguyen Week 3 – Thea O’Reilly |
| Year 3 Green | Week 2 – Mia Paulus Week 3 – Aston Raynor |
| Year 3 White | Week 2 – Aimee Alexander Week 3 – Arthur Oliveira |
| Year 4 Green | Week 2 – Alexander Lilleyman Week 3 – Aleksander Tuma |
| Year 4 White | Week 2 – Amelia Wilkey Week 3 – Cherubim Vu |
| Year 5 Green | Week 2 – Agnes Zoou Week 3 – Alana Raj |
| Year 5 White | Week 2 – Aisling Poulsen Week 3 – Raffaele Parker |
| Year 6 Green | Week 2 – Alberto Yanez Del Gesso Week 3 – Annabelle Ong |
| Year 6 White | Week 2 – Abraham Lawes Week 3 – Seraphim Vu |
Award Winners
MERCY AWARDS – Term 2
PP Green – Samuel Smith
PP White – Margot Juniper
1 Green – Frankie Wilson
1 White – Maxeen Li
2 Green – Elliott Bonnett
2 White – Adam Nguyen
3 Green – Jenson Kootje
3 White – Felix Juniper
4 Green – Alessandro Balla
4 White – Luca Marrapodi
5 Green – Lana Ly
5 White – Hunter Sardelich
6 Green – Alexi Brammer
6 White – Bianca Balla
Religious Education and Curriculum News
From our Pre-Primary classes :
In Pre-Primary, we have been discussing the special gift of the Holy Spirit. Just like the disciples, we are so excited to receive the Holy Spirit and let it guide us towards the right path to Jesus’s way of life. We can use it to live how Jesus did, by making good choices such as: being patient and kind, show good manners and share, and include others. In this activity, we sorted some of our daily choices and decided whether it was a decision we needed help from the Holy Spirit, or not.
From our Junior Music classes :
This semester has seen our junior music classes sing, dance and play a variety of instruments, all whilst exploring the musical elements of music such as rhythm, pitch, dynamics and tempo.
Our Kindy students have not only been learning lots of new songs and dances, but have also been playing a variety of percussion instruments such as the triangles, drums, castanets and maracas.
In Pre-Primary, students have enjoyed composing their own body percussion rhythms as well as learning a well-known song on the boom whackers.
The Year One students have had a great time playing our brand new glockenspiels this term whilst the Year Two students were busy composing their own rhythms to play on the keyboards.
From our Senior Music Classes :
We have had an amazing year in Music so far – with huge leaps of progress being made in music comprehension (listening and understanding) and music production (singing/playing). The foundations of singing in Solfege were laid down, and I am proud to say that the St Columba’s students took this new method in stride – producing outstanding results by the end of Term 1!
Rhythm practice was also a priority, and we did this with clapping, beat circle dictation and student led practice/developmental activities. They might have thought they were just singing and playing games, but the Year 3-6s worked hard and absolutely achieved their musicianship potential this Semester.
Next Semester will see a new teacher take over, and the students will be moving on to more instrument-based music skills. I am confident that the foundations we covered in Terms 1 and 2 will serve them well as they tackle the challenges of Ukelele, Xylophone and Piano.
