Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the start of Term 4.

We received wonderful news last week from Catholic Education, Diocese of Wollongong in relation to our Transition to School program for Kindergarten 2021. This Tuesday, we will commence our Kinder program for the next 4 weeks. With numerous changes to previous transition programs due to COVID-19, our new students will have the opportunity to participate within 2 groups across 4 sessions. This will give our new students a sense of life at school with the support of our Kindergarten teachers for next year - Mrs Emmett Kinder Blue), Mrs Ilias (Kinder Support) and Mrs Herring (Kinder Gold).

Book Week enables our school community to celebrate quality Australian literature along with the opportunity to share shortlisted books with staff and students to further develop and foster a love of reading. Thank you for supporting us in celebrating Book Week today. It was wonderful to see staff and students alike, dressed up in recognition of this annual event.

Congratulations to Alessandra Ezquerro (6G) who was selected as a Year 6 finalist in the Catholic Education Christmas Art Exhibition and Competition. This is a fantastic accomplishment and we are very proud of her work. Aly will have her artwork displayed at Nortre Dame University, Sydney.

Thank you to Tom and Sophia Martinus and Tom's company - UniCivil for the giving of their time and expertise when installing the new basketball posts on the Front Cement during the Term 3 holidays. The students were particularly excited and have thoroughly enjoyed playing basketball during recess, lunch and for sport. Tom, we greatly appreciate your work and are extremely grateful for your generosity.

Mission Month

Last Friday, 16 October, St Columbkille’s celebrated a zoom liturgy to recognise October as Mission Month. Thanks to our Year 6 Faith Team for being a part of this celebration. In 2020 Pope Francis has asked us to focus on the country of Cambodia. All our prayers and monetary donations will help the Church provide shelter, food, education, and life fulfilling opportunities for children in need, especially those with disabilities. Our Year 5 Mini Vinnies group is in the process of organising a small event to help our school raise funds. Stay tuned for this announcement.

The Catholic Mission Church Appeal was held last weekend with many families already donating to the work of the Church in Cambodia. These donations will reach out to those who have been affected by disability and give them hope and support to live their lives. For more information head to https://www.catholicmission.org.au

October Month of the Rosary

In the Catholic Church, the rosary is one of the most cherished prayers. For Catholics, it is a powerful prayer of intercession to the Blessed Mother. Praying the rosary is promoted as a means of strengthening one’s faith, resisting evil, growing spiritually, and generally benefiting society.

If the rosary is not a part of your regular prayer life right now, here are five key things you need to know to get started.

1. We don’t have to pray the rosary all at once. We can choose to divide it up, saying just a decade or two at a time at different points throughout the day; on the way to work, in between meetings, while folding laundry or doing dishes.
2. We can pray it anywhere! The rosary is like a portable chapel we can keep in our pocket and pull out anytime, anyplace. Whether we have a sudden, urgent situation to present to God in prayer or we just want to fill some of our day with thoughts of God, all we need to do is pull out our beads and turn to the Lord in this prayer.
3. We can pray the rosary in different ways, customising it to fit the needs of the moment. We might focus on the words of the prayers, at other times, we might reflect on the mysteries of Christ’s life, his transfiguration, or his death on the cross, etching the Gospel on our hearts.
4. It’s easy to fit the rosary into your schedule. If an urgent need comes up in the day – I can say a quick decade right on the spot. In just two and a half minutes, I can offer a special gift to God – one decade of the rosary – for that particular intention.
5. Even if I’m not able to give the rosary my full attention, it’s still worth praying. I might not always be able to completely unplug mentally from the concerns of the day.. But offering God a decade or two in the midst of my daily life gives him something beautiful, even if I give it without my full, undivided attention. I’m giving God some space in my day and filling it with words of praise for him.

Sacramental Updates

Confirmation booklets were due back to school today. Please make sure they are handed in asap. First Communion online classes have commenced. The correct code to log on is rnzolxl, sorry for the confusion. As we draw closer to the celebration of these sacraments we continue to keep these children in our prayers. A reminder the dates are:

First Holy Communion: Saturday 21 November @ 3pm & Saturday 28 November @ 3pm

Confirmation: Thursday 5 and Friday 6 November @ 7pm (Liturgy)

N.B. All Sacraments will be celebrated in the St Columbkille’s Monsignor Downey Hall.

 

Solemnity of All Saints

The Feast of All Saints is a rich and beautiful tradition within the Church which occurs annually on the 1 November. It honours those who have died, it reminds us that we are part of a wider communion of holy people, and it affirms our faith in God’s loving fidelity to life. The Gospel reading for today is Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes. His teachings are all in some way directed toward the establishment of the reign of God. It is clear that each beatitude invites us to turn the standards of our world and our way of life upside down and inside out.

Solemnity of All Souls

The Feast of All Souls is celebrated the following day on the 2 November. This day is not a feast of sadness, but one of great hope and confidence. It invites us to entrust our dead to God, because we know that they are really God’s dead. We know that if we have loved them, God has loved them more. They are in God’s care, and like a good shepherd God will lead them to peace. (Dianne Bergant CSA). May we continue to pray each day, but especially today, for all those departed souls we have known and loved over the years, that they might pray for us that we never forget God’s saving love and live lives worthy of it. 

CatholicCare

CatholicCare is currently seeking male volunteers to join Community Visitors. A Community Visitor provides friendly companionship to an isolated older person through regular visits or phone calls to their home. Activities might include chatting about common interests, playing cards/chess/games or watching movies or sport together. All training and support is provided. If this interests you please contact Rebecca Miller: 0448930287

Ripples Episode

This week's Episode features Paige Bullen who currently works for Grief Care and prior to this was a Visual Arts Teacher. She is passionate about Visual Arts as a way of embodying and expressing difficult to describe experiences. The Episode is entitled "The Spirit takes Shape: When Art Embodies, Restores and Transforms". 

The links to this week's Podcast are provided below. 

PODCAST LINKS:

LINK TO PODBEAN: https://ripples.dow.catholic.edu.au

APPLE PODCAST LINK: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ripples/id1511337808 

LINK via CEDoW Learning Continuity Site: 

PARENTS: https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/clem-spiritual-formation/spiritual-formation/parents

Congratulations to the following students:

Principal's Awards

KB - Jacinta Auld, Brae Cooke, Opal Duggan, Patrick Lucchitti, Luka Scekic, Isla Stephen, Darcy Woods

KG - Amelie Andary, Beau Jorgenson, Izaijah Lozenkovski, Sebastian McIndoe, Xavier Switaj-Zwolinski

1G - James Andary, Lachlan Donachy, Kai Fletcher, Flynn Karhoff, Zali Mayo

2G - Adelaide Blacka, Ari King, Ciara Pons, Ivy Powell, Abbie Stenos

3B - Joshua Potter, Olivia Ryan, Christina Vu

3G - Thomas Docherty, Indira Lozenkovski, Laura Mannion, Joseph Molina

4B - Koby Potter, Zac Rosengren, Paxton Stewart

4G - Betty Barry, Ava Cooper, Angus Coughlan, Christian De Silva, Noah Gallo, Isabel Gerace, Jack Lawford, Cameron Ritz, Nate Russell, Levi Saweris, Payten Sims, Ivy Stewart

5G - Sophia Gualtieri, Quito Munoz-Letham, Chloe Nightingale, Zahli O'Hara

6G - Lucas Cooper, Isaac Fielding, Isabella Oliver

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Award 

1G - Elodie McLuskey

2B - Sabina Santillan

2G - David Asher

3G - Livinia McLuskey

4G - Jack Lawford

School Medallion 

3B - Nathan Noonan

4B - Riley Smith

Congratulations to all of our students who participated in the UNSW Global Mathematics and Spelling ICAS Assessment for 2020. A special mention to the following students for their outstanding results: 

Mathematics

Merit: Lauren Foster, Kayle Galaxidis, Sophia Gualtieri, Jake Mannion, Chloe Nightingale

Credit: Alissa Bishop, Juliet Ritz, Daisy Ann Smith, Claude Vincent, Isabel Gerace, Cameron Ritz

Spelling

Merit: Livinia Mcluskey, Lola Shaw 

Credit: Kayle Galaxidis, Aiden Heaton, Isaac Ayers

After such a long year with no school, diocesan or state level sport it was refreshing to hear some exciting news from one of our students. On Sunday the 11 of October Hamish Dorney (Year 5) competed in the State Cross Country long course championships. Hamish ran the U12 3km event & finished in 5th place. The top 5 places qualify for the NSW National team. Unfortunately the Australian Championships have been cancelled this year due to COVID-19, however this is such a wonderful effort and demonstrates that hard work certainly pays off. Well done Hamish, great job!

Mrs Kipp - Leader of Sport 

Our staff will undertake a series of professional learning opportunities over 2 days - Thursday 19 and Friday 20 November. This will include modules on:

• First Aid and Anaphylaxis training,
• Gratitude - Celebrating What is Right in Our World,
• Identifying and Appropriately Responding to Sexualised Behaviours in Students &,
• Social-Emotional Learning for students.

Semester Two Reports were published via Compass on Wednesday.  These reports are different to the Interim Reports distributed in Semester 1 and slightly different again to the regular Semester Reports.  Below is a rationale for these changes presented by the Wollongong Catholic Education Office. 

If your child is in Year 6 and not moving to a school within the Wollongong Diocese of schools, it is suggested that you download all reports, before the end of the year.  When your child is unenrolled from the system, you will no longer have access to Compass and the information contained within it.  

If you are still having issues downloading the Semester Two Reports, please contact the school.  

Maria Disibio - Assistant Principal 

Dear Parents and Carers.

You may be aware that CatholicCare recently conducted a survey with our parent community to assess the demand for the opportunity to provide an Outside of School Hours Care service (OSHC) for children on the school site at St Columbkille's.

We express our gratitude to the 41 families who participated in the survey, and further to an analysis of the results and consideration of factors determining the potential viability of a service, unfortunately a decision has been made not to commence with the delivery of OSHC for 2021.

CatholicCare, in partnership with Catholic Education, have a formal partnership and shared mission to provide childcare services across the Diocese of Wollongong for families in Catholic schools. CatholicCare's vision is to continue to expand OSHC services across the broader diocese, enabling them to support smaller services, like ours, over time. Given CatholicCare's commitment to the mission in supporting families, it has been determined that a further review of this decision will be undertaken during 2021 to reassess the possibilities for an OSHC service in 2022.

Thank you again to the families who contributed to the feedback in the survey and if you have any further question please contact the school office.

Michelle Ferrara - Executive Manager Children and Youth Service: CatholicCare

A reminder to all families and community members that dogs are not permitted on any of our school grounds unless they are assistance dogs. We have a student in our school that has an Anaphylaxtic reaction to dog fur/hair, hence this is for their safety and for the safety of all our community.