Filter Content
- Principal's Message
- Spiritual Reflection
- Religious Education News
- 120 Years of St Columbkille's
- PB4L Focus
- P&F Updates & Coming Events:
- Professional Learning - Staff
- Enrichment
- Annual Improvement Plan (AIP)
- Spotlight on Reading - What does the Research say?
- SCC Sport
- Donations - Playground Equipment
- Library News
- Life Education Van
- Year 6 Graduation Fundraiser
- P&F Meeting
- Tell Them From Me Survey
- Student Attendance
- Parish Bulletin
- Wollongong Running Festival
Dear Parents and Carers,
We have definitely begun to feel the cooler temperatures and just in time for our school uniform change over to winter uniform that occured this week. All students are required to be wearing the full winter uniform. I thank all parents and carers for ensuring our students are in the correct uniform each day.
As you are aware, we are in a transition period between the previous and new school uniforms. This transition period will finish at the end of 2024, with the expectation that all students are wearing the new school uniform from 2025. Consideration will be given to Year 6 2025 as they will be in their last year at St Columbkille's.
Today was Mrs Susan Smyth's final official day with us. We wish Mrs Smyth all the very best with the new journey ahead and look forward to seeing her back at St Columbkille's in a casual capacity down the track.
Mrs Perre and myself have completed many of our Kindergarten 2025 interviews. It is always lovely to meet new families, gain feedback from our exisiting families and welcome back parents who attended St Columbkille's as students. Our Core Value of Community truly resonates during this time.
Take the time to be truly present over the next few weeks and take care of yourself.
Warm regards,
Maria Disibio
Acting Principal
Laudato Si Week
Our Enviro Ninjas have been busy this week educating classes about being "stewards of creation."
Our Year 3 "Patch" students have been busy in the garden and looking after all of God's creatures.
Botanic Gardens Day
Plant yourself at Wollongong Botanic Gardens from 10am this Sunday 26 May for a Botanic Gardens Day smorgasbord of free, nature-focused tours, talks and activities. Pioneered right here in Wollongong, the national day celebrates the role of plants in our lives and the work botanic gardens do to conserve and protect for future generations. Our Wollongong Botanic Gardens Curator, Felicity Skoberne, has promised an overgrown program for nature lovers young and old. For more information click on the link below
National Reconciliation Week
From the 27 May-3rd June, Australians celebrate National Reconciliation Week. The theme for 2024 is "NOW MORE THAN EVER." During class lessons students will have the opportunity to learn more about this topic, as well as be a part of two zoom learning opportunities about Indigenous authors and Coomaditchie artwork.
120 Year School Celebration
On Friday 7th June @ 9.15am St Columbkille's will celebrate both the feast day of our saint, Saint Columbkille, along with the 120 year anniversary of our school. Preparations are underway for our special mass, will be led by Father Anthony and our school band, the Cobras. We will also acknowledge those students receiving the annual St Columbkille award, for demonstrating an understanding and commitment to their faith.
Sacramental Update
Enrolment forms must be returned as soon as possible if your child is making their Confirmation (Year 6), First Holy Communion (Year 3) or First Reconciliation (Year 2). These forms may be collected from the office.
Parish/Family Mass
Last Thursday evening we were able to celebrate a Liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion in place of our usual Mass. Thank you to Ms Ah Tong, Miss DeFrancesco and those Stage 2 students who read and were a part of this celebration. Our next get together will be on Sunday 9th June at St Columbkille's Church commencing at 9.30am.
In preparation for this celebration, we are asking any multi-generational families (grandparents, great grandparents, parents) of our school to reach out and support us in celebrating. This could be through:
- sending in of photos of your days at school (grandparents, great grandparents). This may be used for display around the school and/or the slides during the Mass.
- volunteering to speak to the school community about what your time at St Columbkille's was like.
If you are able to help in either of the ways listed above, please email Mrs Christine Perre as soon as possible: perrec01@dow.catholic.edu.au
Mrs Christine Perre
Acting Assistant Principal
Thanks
Sarah Foster - P&F
We are very fortunate to be able to offer a variety of Professional Learning opportunities to our staff, with the aim of improving student learning and wellbeing.
Professional Learning that our staff have or will engage with this term, either at school or through the Catholic Education Office, include:
* Collaborative Planning Sessions - teachers are released from class to work with their grade partner and myself to analyse Spelling Assessment Data and plan for teaching and learning
* New K-2 and 3-6 Curriculum - ongoing professional learning is provided to staff in order to unpack the new Mathematics and English syllabuses to ensure we are providing evidence based experiences for all of our students
* 3-6 Curriciulum Advisor Days
* Early Career Teacher Days - focusing on practice and pedagogy
* Early Career Teacher Mentor and Mentee days
* Instructional Coach Day - exploring coaching methods
* PB4L Network Meetings - behaviour management processes and procedures
* Lamplighters & Alight for the World - Staff Spiritual Formation
* High Potential Gifted Education
* Kinder SPOT Training
While staff are released from class for these Professional Learning opportunities, our priority is consistency for our students. Routines, procedures and learning remain consistent in our classes K-6.
Mrs Christine Perre - Acting Assistant Principal
Enrichment - Week 4
This week, students in Years 5 and 6 who nominated to be involved in the STEMMAD and Arludo competitions, spent time fine tuning their ideas, as well as exploring the design process.
Year 4 students who had expressed an interest in Coding, moved on from the MBots in order to further their skills using Tynker.
The Kids News Short Story Competition finishes at the end of this month, so keep your entries coming in. Details are found on the Kids News Website, along with the parent Consent form that is to accompany entries. Students can also ask me for a printed copy if needed.
I have taken some additional art works up to The Diggers to add to our display, in preparation for our visit on the 24th June.
Next week is Reconciliation Week, and we will participate in an online enrichment opportunity called The Art of Place, run by the Museum of Sydney, which focuses on the artists in our local area from Coomaditchie.
The ICAS assessment opportunities are run during August this year. Please see the attached letter for details.
Michelle Lace
Leader of Enrichment
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
Today's spotlight is on the fifth of the 'Big Six' keys to reading...Fluency.
Reading fluency refers to the ease with which children read. When reading aloud, fluency is affected by accuracy, rate and expression. To assist children to practise reading fluently in the early years of school, teachers often ask them to read easier or familiar books aloud. This gives children the opportunity to read confidently as they automatically and accurately recognise words, read at a rate that sounds more like spoken language, and use a range of expression, intonation, pauses and rhythm.
Fluency makes oral reading lively and allows the author’s message to be communicated clearly. Reading fluently gives young readers confidence in their own ability as readers and helps them to be interested and motivated, and to enjoy reading.
Families can support their child at home with their Fluency knowledge by:
- Reading and rereading favourite books.
- Reading aloud with emotion in English or your first language.
- Inventing sound effects when reading.
- Using different voices to indicate the characters and narrator.
- Changing your volume, tone and pace as you read different parts of a book; perhaps slowing down at a scary bit or speeding up at a tense point.
- Listening to audio books together with your child.
- Reading the decodable home reader (K-2) or other texts each week. Re-reading the same text ensures a child is able to confidently read with increasing fluency.
See our next newsletter for the next 'Big Six'... Comprehension.
Mrs Christine Perre- Acting Assistant Principal
Sport News – Mackillop Winter Trials
On Friday the 10th May several students travelled to Canberra to attend the Mackillop Winter Trials as part of the Wollongong Diocesan Open Rugby League Team. The weather was a little cold, but the boys all enjoyed some great rugby league throughout the day. Congratulations to Sid Landow, Hudson Bennett, Kade Bloom and Nixon Breakspear on representing our school as part of the Wollongong Diocesan team. Well done boys.
Colleen Kipp - Sport Leader
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.
Other donation items could include:
• Board or Card Games for Wet Weather Breaks
• Buckets and spades for the sand pit
• Tea sets
• Blocks or Lego
If you have an item and you aren't sure if it could be used, please email Mrs Stephenson.
Thank you to Bulli Tennis Club for donating tennis balls to St Columbkille's.
Mrs Melanie Stephenson - Acting Middle Leader
The Life Education Van will visit St Columbkilles Primary School. Sessions will be held from Wednesday 29 May to Tuesday 4th June 2024. The students will attend set lessons for each class and will be learning about Health and Development.
Please note the online ordering for merchandise will be closed on Monday 27 May. Orders will be delivered to school if purchased before this date, (postage is only charged if parents opt to have items delivered to their private address).
Our Term 2 P&F Meeting will be held on Friday 31 May from 1:30pm to 3pm in the School Library.
The main focus of the meeting with be the School Fun Day planning.
All parents and carers are welcome to attend.
As part of our commitment to school effectiveness and to assist with our School Cyclic Inquiry, St Columbkille’s will participate in an online survey called Tell Them From Me® (TTFM®).
This survey will gather feedback from students, parents/carers, and teachers on various aspects of school life, student engagement, and teacher-student interactions.
The survey is anonymous and should take about 20 minutes to complete. You can access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device using the following URL: http://tellthemfromme.com/3qkyd
The closing date for the survey is Friday 24 May 2024.
Thank you in advance for your participation.