Dear Parents and Carers,

In these challenging times, both personally and professionally, I would like to thank you for your ongoing support, sense of calm and patience, along with the positive mind-set that has been evident throughout our school community - we will see this through together. Our students, staff, paretns and grandparents have been outstanding in their response to following Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong (CEDoW) protocol and procedures, and I thank them for their continued efforts.

'The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members'

CEDoW has launched a new COVID-19 Information Centre on its website. It is the best place to find the latest information about CEDoW's systemic response to COVID-19.

Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong continues to receive advice from NSW Health, the Department of Education, Catholic Schools NSW (CSNSW), and other agencies to ensure our processes and plans are in line with best practice and the latest expert advice.

At this stage, there has been no direction from government or CSNSW to close any schools, except in response to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis in a student or staff member. All CEDoW schools, including ours, continue to operate as normal, subject to the directives outlined on the link below via the COVID-19 Information Centre. www.dow.catholic.edu.au/covid19

We will continue to provide you with updates if the situation changes and as soon as new information becomes available.

As stated in a Compass alert earlier in the week, please refer to the information below re: Health and Cleaning Protocols

• Additional cleaning - cleaning will be upgraded to daily for high touch areas including desks and door handles - please ensure desks have nothing on them at the end of each day
• Hand sanitiser will be used in all classrooms following eating, returning form the playground and toilets.
• Hand pumps and sanitiser have been ordered for each individual classroom, MD Hall and Library
• Ensuring that we are modelling good practice to our students.

For further and updated information please refer to the NSW Government - Health website link: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au

Harmony Week celebrates Australian multiculturalism which is an integral part of our national identity. It is about inclusiveness, respect, dignity, belonging for all Australians regardless of cultural background. These key characteristics of Harmony Day support and promote our own school vision’ Learning together, shaping futures’ and our Core Values of Community, Celebration, Respect, Responsibility, Learning and Faith.

Outlined below are some some interesting facts about Australia’s diversity:

• nearly half (49%) of Australian were born overseas or have a least one parent who was
• we identify with over 300 ancestries
• since 1945 more that 7.5 million people have migrated to Australia
• apart from English, the most common languages spoken in Australia are Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, Filipino, Hindi, Spanish and Punjabi
• more than 70 indigenous languages are spoken in Australia.

Our P&F Executive for 2020 has been finalised. I would like to congratulate Nicky Bishop on accepting the position of President and welcome to the team - Rosie King, Kelly Saveski, Kirsten Immens and Pina Martelozzo. Thank you for accepting their respective roles with our school.

President: Nicky Bishop Vice Presidents: Sarah Foster and Pina Martelozzo

Secretaries: Kirsten Immens and Kelly Saveski Treasurer: Rosie King

Thank you to Melissa Docherty for her work as secretary throughout 2019. Mel's support of the P&F and students has been greatly appreciated and will be missed. To Wayne Rohoseink, who has provided 6 years of wonderful service to our school community as P&F President. Thank you to Wayne for his leadership and support of the P&F, along with the numerous improvements to our school including the ongoing grants for school production, ICT, literacy resources and grade excursions, air conditioning in the MD Hall and the building of our natural playground in the paddock. Other events have included the overseeing of many discos, Fetes and social events. A sincere thank you from St Columbkille's.

With our Award Assemblies and Class Celebrations currently postponed, it is important that we continue to affirm the wonderful work of our students across the week. Commencing next Friday afternoon, class teachers (within their classrooms) will give out Core Value and Merit Awards and I will present Principal, Mary MacKillop Awards and St Columbkille's Medallions to students within their respective classrooms.

Enjoy the next couple of weeks, during this time of Lent - pray, give, serve and continue to look after one another.

Take care

Mr Brad Colquhoun - Principal 

4^th Sunday in Lent

This weekend the gospel reading from John reminds us of the blind man who is able to see once more. Put yourself in the blind man’s shoes. What am I blind to? In what ways can I open my eyes to God? We could pause for a moment that we might go into the world like the man healed by Jesus, eyes wide open to see where we might exercise the healing power of the Lord of the Gospel.

St Therese Relics

The relics of St Therese and her parents, St Louis and St Zelie Martin, have arrived at St Columbkille’s Catholic Church. Many classes have already visited the church to pray with these relics, and each child has received a prayer card to be taken home. Unfortunately, the procession to be held this Friday afternoon was not able to go ahead, however if you have time the opportunity is there to view these special relics.

Government and Church Directives for attending Events or MASSES 

After considering the recent advice from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and direction from the Federal and NSW Governments, the following measures will be in place, effective Saturday 21 March 2020:

• • No public Masses will be celebrated in the Diocese of Wollongong.
  • All faithful in the diocese will be dispensed from the obligation to physically attend Mass on Sundays. However, parishioners can honour their Sunday obligation by participating in a time of prayer within the home, reading the Scriptures, or watching Mass on television/online (canon 87 §1 , canon 1248 §2).
  • Mass will continue to be said privately by priests throughout the diocese on behalf of the faithful on a daily basis.
  • Churches will, as far as possible, remain open for private prayer.
  • For further infomration please visit https://www.dow.org.au/covid-19/ 

(Please note government and church directives are ever changing in relation to managing the risk of the Coronavirus).

Cancellation/Postponement of Events Due to COVID-19

Lenten groups – Cancelled

Paschal Meal – Cancelled

Last Wednesday of the Month at St Columbkille’s (Luncheon Club) – Cancelled until further notice

First Saturday of the Month at St Columbkille’s - Cancelled until further notice

Morning Tea’s and Supper’s at St Columbkille’s - Cancelled until further notice

Bishop’s visits to both parishes postponed

Movie screening of “The Shack” (Sacramental enrolment night) - Cancelled until further notice

Sacramental Program Information

Enrolment forms have been sent out by the school this week as our first enrolment night was unable to go ahead. If your child has missed out on an enrolment form, they can be picked up from the school office. Please hold onto these forms and keep an eye out for updates as to when the Sacramental Program will resume.

Resources

CAtHFAMILY is a great resource for families to use at home. It brings you a selection of activities, prayer rituals, crafts and recipes for free from the website. A weekly interactive experience with a two-minute animated reflection on the Sunday reading, questions to stimulate discussion, a simple activity and prayer. Families in the diocese are encouraged to utilise this resource at home to share faith with kids. Visit www.cathfamily.org

Faith Circles is a free small group resource. The weekly Faith Circles resource is available for free to download. It features all the “how-to” information you need as well as reflection questions for the Sunday Gospel and accompanying prayer points. It is available to download at www.faithcircles.dow.org.au or have it sent to you each month via email subscription.

Mrs Joanne Herring - Religious Educaiton Coordinator 

Please keep in your prayers and thoughts the Harris Family. Mark Harris - father of Jamie and grandfather to Ben and Natalie, is extremely unwell at this time. Jamie has asked use to pray to St Barbara, the Patron Saint of Miners, during this most difficult time. Your prayers for Mark would be greatly appreciated.

Diocesan Time Trials at Corrimal Pool

On Monday 9 March a number of students from St Columbkilles competed in the Diocesan Time Trials at Corrimal Pool.  From these students the following have qualified to attend the Mackillop Swimming Championships at Sydney Olympic Park at Homebush last Wednesday.

Maddison Wood, Bailey Mitchell – Individual events

Bailey Mitchell, Levi Huggins, Paxton Stewart, Taj Bloom – Junior Boys Relay

Well done and congratulations to all students who attended the trials!

Diocesan Sport

On Friday 6 March a number of students trialed for the Wollongong Diocesan Teams in a variety of sports. Congratulations to Noah Smart and Lucy Baggio who were successful in gaining selection in the boys and girls Soccer team respectively. Well done!

Unfortunutley at this stage, all Diocesan and MacKillop trials have been postponed and/or cancelled.

Mrs Colleen Kipp - Leader of Sport

The NSW Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) has strated.  Challenge entries are now open.  The PRC student site is available again this year! Students can search for books to read, add books to their reading logs, and track their progress throughout the challenge. You can find the site at https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/studentExperience.html#/. The final day for student entries is Friday 28 August.  Start reading and start recording! 

Enrolment packages - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LHwPLISl8HYk4CC0GxTGaY-NLKSiMeLb/view

School Banking will be paused from close of business today until the start of Term 2 at this current time.

Please see the attached document for further information.

Thank you for your understanding.

The SZapp App linked to our Schoolzine Newsletter is available to download from the App and Play Store.  Downloading the App will provide you with another form of communication.  In addition to the latest and archieved newsletters, the App includes links to our school website, our social media pages, school calendar and more, plus it also contains contact us facitlities.   

Simply download the App from the App or Play Store to your device, select the region, enter and select our school name and login using an exisitng email address.  

The newsletter and alerts will continue to be sent via Compass.  The SZapp will just provide information via a different forum, which you may find easier to use.  

Please contact the School Office, if you have any questions. 

Maria Disibio - Assistant Principal

We ask that you please claim your child’s lost clothing, lunch and drink bottles from the lost property baskets in the Basement before the end of term.  Unclaimed items with no name labels will be washed and either placed in the clothing pool or donated to charity. 

Thank you in advance. 

As you would be aware a number of our students have food allergies to nuts, eggs, fish and shellfish.  In keeping these students safe from food reactions including anaphylaxis, we ask that you take great care when packing lunch boxes for your child/ren school each day. 

We ask that you pack:

No raw nuts (nut muesli bars)

No nut products (peanut butter, Nutella, coconut water)

No nuts in cooked items

No raw eggs

No cooked eggs (egg sandwich, egg in a salad, egg based mayonnaise)

No meringue 

No raw fish

No raw shellfish

No cooked white fish, salmon or shellfish 

Items that are OK to include in lunchboxes are:

* tinned tuna

* egg within cooked foods (cakes, biscuits, quiche or zucchini slice) 

We ask all who consume these foods to wash hands thoroughly after consumption and to ensure that they do not share their food with others.

The following website, ‘Kids with Food Allergies’ contains a number of recipes that are as free of many different food allergens as possible.  If you struggle with what to pack your child, this site is worth a browse.

http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/page/recipes-diet.aspx#res

Also, just a reminder that NO dogs are permitted on school grounds as we have a student very allergic to dogs. 

A new edition of the NSW Police Legacy Child Safety Handbook is now available online. The current edition has been updated with digital/online safety, light rail safety, metro train safety, dental health, diabetes. 

The Child Safety Handbook App has also been produced by NSW Police Legacy and includes everything we need as a community to protect our most valuable and vulnerable resource – our children.  From preventative measures at home to safety outdoors, from cyber safety to dealing with peer pressures, this App is a resource for every family and school community. The app can be downloaded via the Apple store, Google Play or Amazon Kindle.

Link to the digital handbook - NSW Police Legacy Child Safety Handbook

Here is also a link to the childsafetyhub.com.au website with assets that can be used - http://nsw.childsafetyhub.com.au/downloads/