Dear Parents and Carers,

Ash Wednesday signifies the season of Lent - a time of  prayer, service and reconciliation. Throughout Lent we take the time to consider how we serve, support and care for the most vulnerable in our lives.

"Lent is a time for reconsidering our feelings, for letting our eyes be open to injustice, to open our hearts to those suffering" Pope Francis

The Year 6 Excursion Stanwell Tops Conference Centre, was a wonderful experience for both our students and staff. We have enjoyed a number of challenging and difficult activities, team building and leadership opportunities, along with time to enjoy the beautiful surrounds. Thank you to Year 6 parents to enabling their children to participate in the three day excursion and our dedicated staff - Mrs Barratt, Mrs Gaffney, Mrs Tyrrell, Mrs Lace and Mrs Finney for their time and support in ensuring the Year 6 camp was such a great success.

This year, Catholic Schools Week (CSW) will be held from 28 February - 6 March. The theme for 2021 is ‘Faith in the Future’. This theme is shared with dioceses across the country as together we celebrate 200 years of Catholic education in Australia.

As we pause this week to reflect on the precious gift of Catholic education, we remember the contributions that preceded us and that we continue to build upon as a school community. Since the very first Catholic school was established, countless children and young people who benefit from the dedication and commitment of parents and staff in our Catholic schools.

The week is designed to be a lively celebration and shared with members of our parish and the wider Catholic community—all in a COVID safe way. Our school is planning a number of activities that showcase our wonderful learning opportunities and the accomplishments of our students. As Catholic Schools Week is celebrated during the second week of Lent, we will also focus on the ways that our school supports the more vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our wider community.

Listed below is a schedule of events for the week that families, parents and friends are invited to attend:

• Monday - CSW Morning Assembly Prayer Visual Arts activities  - School of the Future

• Tuesday - Open Classroom Evening for Parents (Year 1, 3, 5)

• Wednesday - Open Classroom Evening for Parents (Year 2, 4, 6)

• Thursday - Mufti Day, P&F Surprise & Year 6 Tabloids

• Friday - CSW Liturgy - World Day of Prayer Award Assembly – CSW Student Awards

ASH WEDNESDAY & LENT

On Wednesday, St Columbkille’s celebrated Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent which is a time of prayer, fasting and penance. These small steps in our faith journey lead us back to God. For the next 40 days we prepare for the celebration of the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter. We begin this journey together as God’s holy people.

St Columbkille’s Church has the Diocese of Wollongong LENTEN Program available for $5, if you would like to purchase.

Each year the Caritas organisation asks schools, parishes and the community to stand in solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable communities, to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. This year challenges us to venture into a new experience of compassion and is taken from the invitation of St Oscar Romero to “Aspire not to have more, but be more.”

Each class has received a Project Compassion Box where students can donate their loose change. There are also boxes available from school. If you would like one, please let me or the school know. Our Year 5 Mini Vinnies Leaders will be organising some other fundraisers to help us give generously to Project Compassion in 2021.

YEAR OF ST JOSEPH

To mark the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, Pope Francis has proclaimed a “Year of St Joseph”, running from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021.

Joseph is a wonderful model for Christians as we live in the world. The Word of God spoken in the Scriptures guides us, but many times we have to apply that Word in everyday situations where we must see the reality around us, decide what God desires us to do and then act courageously, justly and with compassion. Joseph shows us how to be persons of the Word of God, whether it is written in books or in the face of God’s creation, unfolding in history.

SACRAMENTAL INFORMATION

Preparation for the Sacraments of Confirmation, Reconciliation and First Holy Communion will be predominantly via remote learning. The online enrolment forms can be found on the parish website www.corrimalparish.org.au along with all additional information and dates.

N.B. No enrolment forms will be processed after the 17 March.

Confirmation Dates: Thursday 10 & Friday 11 June 2021

First Reconciliation: Wednesday 1 September – 9:30am to 11:30am

First Holy Communion Dates: 20 & 21 November 2021

Joanne Herring - Religious Education Coordinator

Congratulations to the following students:

Principal's Awards

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Award 

1B - Nova Forrest

2B - Lachlan Donachy

3G - Harper Harrison

6G - Zahli O'Hara

School Medallion

4B - Luca Calmasini, Sonny O'Brien

6B - Christian Villella

Our annual Swimming Carnival was held on Monday at Corrimal Swimming Pool. It was wonderful to see over 70 students compete in the events on the day. Thank you to Mrs Kipp for her work and effort in organising the carnival and to the parents for their ongoing support and for volunteering their time on the day.

Swimming carnival presentation of ribbons will be held at this Monday's morning assembly.

Congratulations to Hamish Dorney (Year 6 Blue) who has been selected into the Australian Football League (AFL) Diocese representative team.  Hamish will now compete in Wagga Wagga at the MacKillop selection trials. We wish Hamish all the best.

Angolo Italiano

Ciao! Counting in Italian in many classes has been the focus in the past fornight. Stage 2 have been looking at Italian food and Stage 3 have been creating digital Fact Files on Italia.  Ask your child/ren what their focus has been and get them to share their learning with you.  

Year 6 participated in the virtual launch of the Caritas Australia: Project Compassion. We were part of over 100 schools throughout NSW.

Project Compassion’s quote this year is “Aspire to not want more, but to be more”. People around the world every year at lent demonstrate love, faith and generosity.

You can be a part of this amazing group of people by giving to project compassion so Caritas Australia can help more people like Jamila from Bangladesh. She fled her country of Myanmar because of a bombing and shootings. She is now a 21 year old mother to her 8 month old daughter and carer for her mother. Here is one of her quotes “for the first time in my life, in the camp, I felt cared for and accepted.”

There are many stories like this on the caritas website - https://www.caritas.org.au

 Tom, Alex, Aliza and Indy  - Leaders of Faith

In celebration of Catholic Schools Week, themed "Faith in the Future" and to allow our students to showcase their learning environment, our Year 1, Year 3 and Year 5 classrooms will be open on Tuesday 2 March between 6pm and 6:45pm and the Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6 classrooms will be open on Wednesday 3 March between 6pm and 6:45pm.  This is an opportunity for parents and carers to be introduced to their child’s teacher/s, to take a look around the learning environment and to engage and celebrate in the learning already achieved. 

With your child as your tour guide, feel free to attend at any time between 6pm and 6:45pm on the designated days. 

We look forward to seeing you. 

Parents of Kindergarten students will have the opportunty to meet with their child/ren's teacher to discuss the Best Start results during Week 6.  These appointments can be made via Compass. Compass bookings are now open.    

Mrs Maria Disibio - Assistant Principal

Our first P&F meeting will be held on Tuesday 16 March at 7pm in the Library. It will be our Annual General Meeting - all parents and carers are welcome to attend.

Enrolments for Kindergartern 2021 are now open.  Come into the Office to pick up an enrolement form or simply download a copy. Remind your family and tell your friends. 

Enrolment Packages 

The St Columbkille's Instagram and Facebook accounts have been posting photos of our students and staff enjoying their learning experiences. The accounts will continue to feature photos of our celebrations, news and events. I encourage you to follow our account - @stcolumbkilles.corrimal to view our posts thus far and so you can look out for future posts.  Our Instagram posts are also reflected in our Facebook page, so if you prefer, follow us on Facebook. Our Facebook page is also accessable via the link on the left hand side of this Newsletter.  

If you haven't already done so, I strongly encourage you to download the Compass App. Within the Compass App you will find the St Columbkille's Parent Calendar which can be viewed from the homepage or by selecting the calendar icon in the menu. The Parent Calendar can also be viewed in our Schoolzine newsletters. It is located on the lefthand side of the page.  

Links to both the latest version of our newsletter and social media posts can also be located via our school website. 

The SZapp (Schoolzine) 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.    

During Week 4 and 5, students Year 1-6 participated in the Commonwealth Bank Start Smart program as a means of teaching our students money smart and numeracy skills. It’s never too early to teach children the value of money. Research indicates that it is crucial to develop financial literacy skills from an early age. The Start Smart Primary program teaches these skills in a way that students can understand and enjoy. It was developed with a panel of leading specialists in primary education, cognitive development, instructional design and financial literacy.  Take this as an opportunity to talk to your child/ren about ‘being clever with their coins.’

Maria Disibio

Assistant Principal

 Friday, 5 March 2021 is Clean Up Australia Day for schools.

Following Pope Francis call to environmental activity in his encyclical Laudato si’,
St Columbkille’s will lend a hand to this important environmental national event.  Each class has been designated an area of our school vicinity to “clean up”.

Parents are asked to supply the children with gardening gloves (if possible) or rubber gloves for the day.

The children will clean up their allocated area during the day, under the supervision of their teacher.

AREA ALLOCATION

• Years KB & KG - Infants Playground

• Years 1B & 1G - Area around church and Parish Centre

• Years 2B & 2G - The front cement and Passive plays areas. 

• Years 3G & 3B - Area surrounding hall.

• Years 4B & 4G - The paddock area including the area north of the cyclone fence.

• Years 5B & 5G - Laneway and Coxs Lane between laneway and highway

• Year 6B           - Footpath on Princes Highway

• Year 6G           - Midgley Street

Permission for your son/daughter to pariticopate in the event is to be given via Compass.  

What is The Big Vegie Crunch?

Did you know that only around 6% of Australian children eat enough vegetables? To help our community do their bit to improve this number, our school will be taking part in The Big Vegie Crunch (part of Vegetable Week) at 10am on Thursday 18 March.

Primary schools across NSW will be joining together to break the record for the most students crunching vegetables:

• 50,260 students crunching simultaneously (2018 record)
• 14,991 students crunching at other times over Vegetable Week (2019 record)

What can you do to help?

• Pack a container of vegetables (not fruit this time) for your child to eat on Thursday 18 March.
• Remember to keep serving up the vegetables at home and in your children’s lunchboxes. Check out the UP THE VEG at Home resource for ideas

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:

No dog are permitted on the school premises, for any reason, as we have a student in our school that has an Anaphylaxtic reaction to dog fur/hair. 

Additionally, we have a number of students allergic to a variety of foods including nuts, eggs and fish.  We ask that you refrain from sending these items to school. 

We thank you for your understanding of this very serious matter.  

Drivers are being urged to take extra care and slow down with school zones back in force from today.

Minister for Transport and Roads Andrew Constance said while most students were returning to the classroom later in the week school zones are enforced from the first day of term.

“The 40 kilometre an hour school zones have been switched on this morning with the official start of the school year. As we see students start returning to the classroom after a disruptive 12 months, we really need everyone to be extra vigilant.

“While some schools have a pupil free day, drivers need to remember school zones are now active. We all need to slow down and stick to that reduced speed limit.

“It’s also really important to remember the rules apply around school buses. When you see those flashing lights on the back of the bus remember to keep an eye out for children. By law it’s a requirement to drop down to the 40 kilometre an hour speed limit,” Mr Constance said.

Transport for NSW Deputy Secretary for Safety,Environment and Regulation,Tara McCarthy, said two children have died in school zones in the last two years. 32 have been seriously injured in active school zones between 2015 and 2019.

“Although school zones are one of the safest places on the NSW road network, we know children can be unpredictable around roads so we need everyone to be attentive and watch out for children,” Ms McCarthy said.

The NSW Government has implemented numerous safety initiatives to improve the visibility of school zones such as signage, road markings and flashing lights.

The Government is also investing an extra $18.5 million to provide 300 new School Crossing Supervisors, offering more protection for children and improved visibility of crossings for motorists

Higher fines and demerit points also apply to certain driving and parking offences committed within school zones.