Dear Parents and Carers, 

I hope the Easter long weekend provided you with the opportunity to enjoy the company of family and friends, complete some of your favourite activities and time to sit and be with God. 

This April marks 120 years since the opening of the first school building in Midgley Street by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our students will acknowledge this in classroom lessons and as a school community we will celebrate this milestone in conjunction with St Columba Day on Friday 7 June. 

Congratulations to our Project Compassion Easter Raffle winners:

Kindergarten 2025 enrolments are now due.  If you or someone you know has a child who will start Primary School next year, please complete the online enrolment before the end of Term 1. Interviews with Mrs Perre and myself will commence in Term 2.  

EASTER SEASON

To celebrate Easter is to remember that Jesus still lives and walks among us. The tomb is empty; Jesus is alive!

Easter lasts for a total of 50 days, from Easter Sunday until the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, Mary, and the first followers of Christ. This year, 2024, Easter was on March 31 and runs until Pentecost Sunday, May 19. 

HOLY WEEK CELEBRATION

Our annual Holy Week pageant once again showed the significance, wonder and awe of the final days of Jesus' life on earth. Our staff and students showed reverence and humility in the songs and actions, readings and role-playing. Thank you to those parents, grandparents and families who were able to join us for this solemn event. It is our faith, which we proudly proclaim as Catholics and Christians.

PROJECT COMPASSION GIVING

A huge thank you to everyone who helped with our fundraising efforts for Project Compassion. From both our classroom money boxes and Easter egg raffles we raised an amazing $1191.25. The Caritas organisation will use our donations to help many people in need throughout the world. The generosity of the St Columbkille's community is incredible, thank you all.

SACRAMENTAL UPDATE

Father Patrick and the Sacramental Team met yesterday to discuss the updates to the Sacramental programs for 2024. Year 6 will make their Confirmation, Year 3 their First Holy Communion and Year 2 their First Reconciliation. If your child is not in these grades and were unable to be a part of the sacraments last year, please let me know. Enrolment forms will be sent out early in Term 2.

ANZAC DAY 

An Anzac Day commemoration will be held at school on the first day back after the holidays, Monday 29th April. This short acknowledgement will form part of our morning assembly on Balawarri (our Front Cement area).

MOTHERS DAY CELEBRATIONS

SAVE THE DATE: Our Mothers Day liturgy celebration and morning tea will be held on Friday 10th May at 9:15am. 

Have a wonderful holiday break beginning next Friday!

Mrs Jo Herring - Religious Education Coordinator

Our 2024 Annual Improvement Plan (AIP) has been centred around Domain 6: Leading Systemic Curriculum Implementation with our goal being: Students will demonstrate growth in spelling through evidence-based assessments. 

In the coming weeks, we will be finalising our 2024 AIP Goal and considering recommendations from our recent Cyclic Inquiry to determine our next priorities. 

Mrs Christine Perre

Acting Assistant Principal

Its been such a busy term, with NAPLAN preparation, Chess Club, MBots, Motion Capture and Writing with the State Library. Next Term promises to be even more exciting with the following options being offered to Years 4-6:

STEM MAD

Arludo Game Design

ICAS Competitions

Art & Craft enrichment with Illawarra Diggers

Writing Competition

School based Digital Design 

Chess Club

MBots

Earlier in the Term we were entertained with a 'News Report' from Ciara and Abbie (Year 6), and linked to this newsletter you will be able to see a 'News Report' from Rosalie and Jessica (Year 6). I look forward to working with more of our budding News Readers next term.

Michelle Lace

Leader of Enrichment

Cross Country News Report

Over the last few weeks, our teachers have had the opportunity to engage in Professional Learning in the areas of Spelling and the new 3-6 Syllabuses (Mathematics and English). Our teachers have taken a 'deep dive' in to each syllabus, discussing the requirements of each, as well as the research that underpins them. In order to improve student outcomes, we must first build teacher knowledge and capacity in relation to the new Curriculum. A big thank you to our staff for your engagement and commitment to improving your own knowledge and skills and the learning for our students.

We are all life-long learners!

Mrs Christine Perre- Acting Assistant Principal

Today's spotlight is on the third of the 'Big Six' keys to reading...Phonics.

Phonics builds on phonological awareness (see our last newsletter).

During phonics lessons at school, students learn to connect the sound (phoneme) to the letter of the alphabet or group of letters that is used to represent it (grapheme).

Families can support their child at home with their Phonics knowledge by:

• Teaching your child to write their name. Use a capital letter at the beginning and lower case for the rest of the letters. You could write it for them and let them trace it, copy it, make it from play dough or draw it in sand.
• Point out words and letters when reading together. ‘There’s the letter S, it says sss for snake. Can you see the M that says mmm for Mummy?’
• Encourage children to find the letters in their name or the names of family members and in other places such as books, signs, product packaging and shop windows.
• Point out different fonts, different ways to write the same letter, when reading and in your local environment.

See our next newsletter for the next 'Big Six'...Vocabulary. 

Mrs Christine Perre- Acting Assistant Principal

The Parent-School Partnership Framework is available in six additional languages to help support you and your family. 

The Framework is available in Vietnamese, Hindi, Nepali, Malayalam, Tagalog and Arabic. They are all available for download from the below link:

Students will wear their full winter uniform from Monday 20th May (Week 4, Term 2). 

Please refer to our Uniform Policy below for further details on the specific uniform items. 

The new all weather jacket is now available for purchase from our supplier:

Mrs Christine Perre- Acting Assistant Principal

• reading (including reading diary/log)
• revision of number facts (eg number facts, number recognition, friends of 10, times table facts)

The following suggested time limits are inclusive of daily reading:

• Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 (Kinder, Year 1 & 2) - up to 15 minutes
• Stage 2 (Years 3 & 4) - up to 25 minutes
• Stage 3 (Years 5 & 6) - up to 45 minutes

Please find attached our Homework Policy.

If you have any questions, please speak with your child's class teacher. 

Mrs Christine Perre- Acting Assistant Principal

Focus Celebrate achievements of self and others respectfully

At St Columbkille’s we strive to continually support and improve academic and social outcomes for our students utilising the PB4L (Positive, Behaviours for Learning) framework. This week the PB4L focus is on showing respect by celebrating achievements of self and others respectfully and remembering our school’s core values of being Respectful, Responsible and Safe being practised and observed. 

When celebrating the achievements of self and others, students should.... 

We’re looking at updating our equipment on the school playground. If you have any matchbox cars or miniature monster trucks that are in good condition, that you no longer use or need at home, we would appreciate the donation.

Also if you are a member of a tennis club or know someone who is, could you kindly ask if they have any tennis balls to donate. Our students would love to use these to play handball.  

Other donation items could include:

• Puzzles, Board or Card Games for Wet Weather Breaks

• Buckets and spades for the sand pit 

• Tea sets

• Blocks or Lego

• Basket or Soccer Balls

If you have an item and you aren't sure if it could be used, please email Mrs Stephenson.  

Thank you to the McKevith family, Noah and Hudson Boater's Grandmother, Mrs Pascoe and the Menghi family for donating equipment.

Mrs Melanie Stephenson - Acting Middle Leader

On Friday the 22^nd of March, St Columbkille’s held their annual school Cross Country at Ziems Park. The weather was perfect and the students had a very busy day of running and tabloid activities. A huge shout out to our parent helpers who did an outstanding job throughout the day and to staff who supervised the students at their various activities. We also had our sport captains and other Year 6 leaders running the tabloid activities and from the feedback I received throughout the day, they did an amazing job. The following students will be representing our school at the Diocesan Cross Country on Tuesday 7^th May at: “ Willandra “  Cambewarra:

Amelie Andary, Clare Potter, Florence Atkinson, Nova Forest, Ella Dorney, Opal Duggan, Zara Erven, Elodie McKluskey, Mackenzie Sims, Sophie Coughlan, Andie Lucchitti, Harper Harrison, Max Britton, Bodhi Powell, Blake Sorenson, Luca Jurjevic, Beau Jorgensen, Kaylan Pons, Jed Bell, James Andary, Wilfrid Welch, Harry Esteves, Eden Saweris, Toby Galvani.

The following students are our Cross Country Champions for 2024:

12 Boy: Harrison Esteves

12 Girl: Sophie Coughlan

11 Boy: Jed Bell

11 Girl: Zara Erven

10 Boy: Luca Jurjevic

10 Girl: Nova Forest

8/9 Boy: Max Britton

8/9 Girl: Amelie Andary

The winning House for 2024: Mackillop

 Colleen Kipp - Carnival Co ordinator

................................................................................................................

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT 

Congratulations to Sophie Coughlan in Year 6 for competing at the Mackillop Swimming Trials on Wednesday. Sophie represented St Columbkille's and the Wollongong Diocese with pride. Well done Sophie!

As you know from previous newsletters the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge has already begun and closes on Friday 23rd August. Your child/ren will have received a letter with instructions for logging into their PRC Reading Record together with their Username and Password in order to record their books. You can email me for these details if your child/ren mislaid their letter.

We are going to be encouraging all students to take part in this wonderful initiative as it’s achievable for every one of them. The aim of the challenge is to encourage a love of reading for pleasure whilst experiencing quality literature.

Below is a table displaying the number of books students need to read and log to complete the challenge.

PRC book lists can be found on the PRC website - https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html 

For Kindergarten to Year 2 students, books can be read to them. 

PRC listed books may be read by teachers in the K-2 years. I will ask teachers to notify me if so and I will put these in the newsletter so parents can check if their child has logged the book in their individual reading record. (Please do not worry if you are not able to do this).

Our library books which are on the PRC lists are labelled to aid selection and I will also be putting tubs of books together for easy access. We need to make this reading challenge as accessible as we can for our students.

Our collaborative challenge is getting students to log into the PRC site to complete their reading record. I will be giving regular reminders in the newsletter as well as discussing supportive strategies for students with teachers.

Please see the PRC website for books lists, tips and further details.

If you have any queries please contact me direct on CarrollK03@dow.catholic.edu.au

WriteOn Competition 2024

The annual WriteOn 2024 opened on 25th March. This competition gives students the opportunity to become published authors and develop skills in writing to express their ideas.

It is open to students in Years 1 to 6. Students compose an imaginative text of up to 500 words, using the image as the stimulus.

Each year, winning entries are published in 'The Best of WriteOn' anthology. These books can be purchased from the NESA shop. 

This year the competition is held in association with the Art Gallery of NSW. The new stimulus image, courtesy of the Art Gallery of NSW is ‘The railway station, Redfern’ (1893) by Arthur Streeton:

Scholastic Book Club

Thank you to all those people who have made orders through our Book Club for Issue #2. Orders closed at the end of last week and I’m expecting them to arrive at school next week. Issue #3 will arrive early next term.

As always, thank you for supporting this initiative and helping to inspire a passion for reading in our students!

Mrs Carroll’s Musing

Over the years, I've encountered countless assertions about the complexity of the English language and its role in literacy struggles. But is English truly as convoluted as portrayed?

Spelling, undoubtedly, holds societal importance. Errors in signage, posters, or official documents evoke reactions ranging from mild amusement to outright dismay. Society demands impeccable spelling, yet the reality is that no individual possesses mastery over every word in the language. To aid in this pursuit of perfection, dictionaries and spell checkers exist. However, they present their own challenges. It's rather ironic that consulting a dictionary requires a basic grasp of the word's spelling. As for spell checkers, while helpful, they're not infallible – capable of identifying non-existent spellings but often overlooking misspellings of valid words used in the wrong place.

The English language has a rich and complex history that has significantly influenced how words are spelled. Here's a brief outline of its origins:

• Old English (5th to 11th century):

• Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon, was the earliest form of the English language.
• Words were primarily derived from Germanic roots, with influences from Latin, Norse, and Celtic languages.
• Spelling was largely phonetic, meaning words were spelled as they sounded.
• The writing system was based on the Runic alphabet initially, then transitioned to the Latin alphabet.

• Middle English (11th to 15th century):

• Middle English evolved from Old English after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
• French influence introduced many new words into the language, leading to a more diverse vocabulary.
• Spelling conventions began to shift, incorporating more standardised forms influenced by French spelling norms.

• Early Modern English (15th to 17th century):

• The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century led to increased standardisation of spelling.
• Influential works such as William Shakespeare's plays helped solidify many English words' spellings.
• Spelling reforms began to occur, but there was still considerable variation in spelling among different writers and regions.

• Modern English (17th century to present):

• The Great Vowel Shift in the 15th to 17th centuries led to significant changes in pronunciation, which affected spelling.
• Samuel Johnson's "A Dictionary of the English Language" in 1755 was influential in standardising English spelling to some extent.
• Despite attempts at spelling regularisation, English retains many irregularities due to its diverse linguistic influences and historical development.

Throughout its history, English spelling has been influenced by various factors, including phonetic changes, cultural interactions, technological advancements, and efforts at standardisation. As a result, English orthography (the knowledge of how words are spelled, their structure and meaning) reflects a complex tapestry of linguistic evolution, contributing to the challenges learners and spellers face in mastering its intricacies.

In collaboration with my colleagues, I've devoted extensive time to delving into the latest neurologically informed and scientifically backed methods for teaching reading to students. Many of you may already be familiar with the recent adjustments to the NSW curriculum aimed at supporting these evidence-based approaches. However, it's essential to recognise that literacy encompasses more than just reading; it also encompasses writing and spelling.

Spelling, in particular, distinguishes itself from reading and writing. While reading involves interpreting words already written, spelling requires active engagement in recalling and arranging letters to form words accurately. This distinction is evident in spelling competitions like spelling bees, where participants must not only identify letter names but also maintain the correct sequence of letters within a word.

However, perhaps the most crucial aspect of literacy instruction is ensuring that words are never taught in isolation. This underscores the foundational importance of fostering oral language skills through meaningful interaction, especially during early stages of language development. I cannot stress this enough. When teaching students in the classroom you can see the difference in how they are able to spell words when they understand their meaning. 

To illustrate this point, I'll share an experience from my work with students in our Infant years, where we focus on early literacy intervention programs. Recently, we've been introducing simple three-sound words following a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. One word we encountered was 'ram.' Surprisingly, none of the students were familiar with the term, and they struggled both to spell it orally and in written form. While they were proficient in individual letter sounds and could sound out the word, blending those sounds into the whole word posed a challenge. Furthermore, they found it difficult to retain the word in their memory, hindering their ability to recall it during subsequent lessons. To address this, I provided context by explaining what a ram is, showing them a picture of a male sheep, and prompting them to recall any personal experiences with rams. Additionally, I incorporated the word into a short story, connecting their learning to real-world experiences and enhancing their understanding and retention.

Therefore, when children begin school, they are set up for literacy success if they have a solid understanding or good knowledge of oral language.

Engaging in conversations with our children lays the groundwork for their literacy journey, as oral language proficiency serves as a cornerstone for future reading and writing success.

Here are some simple yet effective ways parents can engage their children in conversation to support their oral language development:

• Ask Open-ended Questions: Encourage your child to share their thoughts and opinions by asking questions that require more than a simple "yes" or "no" answer. For example, instead of asking, "Did you have fun at school today?" try asking, "What was the most exciting thing that happened at school today?"
• Share Stories: Take turns sharing stories about your day, interesting events, or fond memories. This can spark conversations and provide opportunities for your child to express themselves.
• Play Word Games: Engage in word games like "I Spy," where you take turns describing objects in the environment for the other person to guess. This not only encourages vocabulary development but also promotes communication skills.
• Mealtime Conversations: Use mealtime as an opportunity for family discussions. Ask about their favourite parts of the day or something they're looking forward to. Discuss topics of interest or share interesting facts.
• Read Together: Reading aloud with your child is not only beneficial for literacy skills but also encourages conversation. Pause during the story to ask questions or discuss characters, plot points, and themes.
• Explore Nature: Take walks or spend time outdoors together and encourage your child to observe and describe their surroundings. Ask questions about what they see, hear, smell, and feel, fostering observational and descriptive skills.
• Create Art Together: Engage in creative activities such as drawing, painting, or crafting, and encourage your child to describe their artwork or explain their creative process.
• Encourage Reflection: Help your child reflect on their experiences by asking questions like, "What was challenging about today?" or "What are you proud of accomplishing?"
• Listen Actively: Give your child your full attention when they're speaking, demonstrating that you value and respect their thoughts and feelings. This encourages them to express themselves more freely.
• Be Present: Make time to simply be with your child without distractions, allowing natural conversation to flow and fostering a strong parent-child bond.

By incorporating these strategies into daily routines, parents can create a supportive environment that nurtures their child's oral language development.

Until next time from the library - best wishes to you all.

Katrina Carroll, SCC Librarian

The Corrimal Branch of the RSL is celebrating its annual ANZAC Dawn Service on Thursday 25th April, commencing at 5:30am. Our school has been invited to attend this significant local event in honouring those men and women who have served, and indeed continue to serve, our nation so proudly.  
We would like as many students as possible to come together as a group to represent our school community in the ANZAC Day Dawn Service. 
 

Details:

• Date: Thursday 25th April, 2024
• Gather: 5:20am March- 5:30am Service will commence at approximately 5:45pm
• Where: Corner of Collins St and the Princes Highway, Corrimal
• March: From the above assembly point, down the Princes Highway to ANZAC Grove,
  where the official ceremony and wreath laying will take place
• Dress: Full School Winter Uniform
• Duration: Approximately one hour
• Supervision: Mrs Disibio & Mrs Perre

Please complete the permission on Compass in 'Events'. 

CatholicCare's Fostering Futures program are seeking separate forever homes for two boys, Lachlan* aged 11 years and Jacob* aged 9 years.

Lachlan is a happy, loving boy who would like a family who can take him to the park to ride his scooter, kick a football around or push him on the swing. An ideal carer for Lachlan is someone who can help him find his feet in new surroundings.

Jacob has a strong connection to his Samoan heritage. He loves to play Pokemon on his Nintendo Switch and watch superhero movies. He enjoys swimming, soccer and basketball. Your consistency and stability will help create an environment that is loving, predictable and somewhere Jacob feels safe.

There is a critical shortage of foster carers at the moment and Lachlan and Jacob have both been waiting for a long time for their forever homes. They are currently living with a roster of staff who are meeting their basic needs, but like all kids they deserve a home where they feel safe, secure and loved.

CatholicCare have over 30 years' experience helping carers give vulnerable children a loving home and a brighter future. Carers receive comprehensive support including training, regular case worker support and career allowance for the child's day-to-day financial needs.

If you can provide a safe and supportive home for Lachlan or Jacob, or kids like them, we'd love to hear from you. Please call 0418 783 956 or email fosteringfutures@catholiccare.dow.org.au for more information and we will support you every step of the way.