Dear Parents and Carers, 

Hope that you are well and have enjoyed your week.

Last Monday 8 August was the feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Mary was a resilient, hard-working and dedicated woman of faith who saw a need and always actioned a response.

“Never see a need without doing something about it.”

This day was celebrated with Mass in the MD Hall with Fr Anthony, our students, staff, parents and grandparents. St Columbkille's, founded in 1904, embrace the traditions and beliefs that are inspired by the charism of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph. 

 

For the remainder of the term, Mrs Pascoe will be supported in the office by Mrs Sumner on Monday to Wednesday and we welcome back Mrs McDonald to SCC on a Thursday and Friday. We wish Ms Caires all the very best both personally and professionally moving into the future. All the very best, Enia.

At Monday morning's assembly, we acknowledged Jeans for Genes Day. Our guest speaker was Lauren McCann. Lauren highlighted the importance of this day and was supported by her baby daughter who is the Jeans 4 Genes Day ambassador, Layla, Darcy Quick (Kinder Blue) and Lauren's parents. Lauren, Layla and Darcy were featured in the lllawarra Mercury and on WIN News.

Thank you for the SCC school community for supporting Jeans for Genes on Wednesday and donating generously to raised $560.75 for ongoing research and Ms Finlay-Joseph for organising and coordinating the event. 

It has been wonderful to celebrate, participate and compete in so many different activities and events already this term. Excursions to Canberra, Symbio and The Rocks, Sporting events including NSW Fustal, Rugby Union and League finals, Cross Country, Athletics, the return of school disco's and reopening of The Patch. Thank you to P&F, Bishop, Kelly Saveski, Sarah Foster and a host of parents who supported such a  successful night of fun, dancing and laughter.

Have a brilliant couple of weeks. Stay well, safe and enjoy your weekend.

Take care

Brad Colquhoun - Principal

Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop / Year 5 visit to Mary MacKillop Place

St Columbkille’s reverently commemorated Mary MacKillop’s feast day last Monday, with prayers from our Year 6 Leaders of Faith as well as Father Anthony leading the Mass. It was a lovely celebration with the students singing beautifully and receiving a prayer card to remember and live out Mary’s important sayings. Special thanks to Mrs Perre and Mrs Leonard for organising our beautiful Mass.

Our Year 5 students are lucky enough to be visiting Mary MacKillop Place next Thursday 18^th August.

National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day

A number of students were involved in a activities to celebrate National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day last Thursday. Kinder Gold drew pictures and wrote sentences about their connection to country and Kinder Gold cooked a special damper. Thanks to Mrs Griggs for her organisation in celebrating this day.

Feast of the Assumption

On Monday 15^th August Years 5 & 6 will celebrate this feast day with our parishioners in St Columbkille’s Church. We remember Mary on this day, as she was taken up to heaven both body and soul. We continually pray to our mother Mary in heaven in times of need and for her guidance.

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Pope Francis has established 1 September as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, encouraging the Catholic community around the world to pray for our common home. The day is inspired by Pope Francis' landmark encyclical Laudato Si’, which calls on "every person living on this planet" to care for our shared Earth. “Listen to the voice of creation” is the theme and invitation of this year’s Season of Creation. In his message for the World Day of Prayer 2022, Pope Francis calls us to use the season to "cultivate our ecological conversion” and to pray together in “the great cathedral of Creation”. He warns that we are reaching “a breaking point" and must act decisively so that "we and future generations can continue to rejoice in creation’s sweet song of life and hope." This day leads us into the Season of Creation which occurs for the whole month of September.

4 Blue will lead us in acknowledging this day at the award assembly in Week 8.

Friday Masses

Father Anthony is once again leading Mass with our grades each Friday. A couple of grades will be attending each week and you are most welcome to join us in celebrating the Eucharist. This week is Kinder and their Year 6 buddies, and the following Friday will be Years 1 & 5.

Family / Parish Mass

Thank you to all those who were involved in, or attended, our Family/Parish Mass last weekend. It was a lovely celebration on the Sunday morning. Our next date will be Sunday 4^th September (Father’s Day).

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Our Year 3 students have begun their journey towards celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation. Workbooks are being completed and it will be lovely to see these students as our weekend Masses.

Joanne Herring- Religious Coordinator

The Assumption of Mary

On Monday 15 August 2022 we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption - our Catholic belief that Mary was taken, body and soul, to enjoy eternal life. In celebrating this feast, the Church recalls how Mary’s life on earth ended - an apparent perfect ending to a perfectly lived life of grace and so in honouring her passing, we also honour her living.

What do we learn from Mary through the living of her life?

In a real and powerful way, Mary shows all of us what it means to live a life totally alive in Christ with an undivided will to participate in God’s purpose for her and for the world. Mary demonstrates a complete freedom and intention to place herself without reservation at the service of Christ and God’s kingdom. Her freedom to say ‘yes’ and respond to God’s call is unconditional and does not need to see the future outcome before trusting. Mary embraces God’s call and choice of her and needs nothing more to commit.

In the fullness of her faith and womanhood, Mary shows us that faith does not separate us from the world but actually makes us more open to and connected to it. With her ‘yes’ given in the mess of life’s circumstances, the midst of precariousness and unrecognised relationships or domestic life and poverty, she stands in solidarity with the poor and the victims of oppression, of gossip, of exclusion; with all those who, like her, have had to hold a dead child in their arms or flee their home for protection or asylum for their families.

This woman of Nazareth shines for those who always believe that God is in the mess and even in the darkness of suffering and death.

Mary shows us a glimpse of how the life of grace makes us more human and that in God’s presence we become completely ourselves; fully alive in body and soul. On this feast we celebrate her unique role as a true disciple of Jesus.

In Mary’s assumption, we stand on the promise that we can each make a difference in this world.

As you celebrate this Feast of the Assumption, how will you take up God’s invitation without having to know the outcome or the future?

A true expression of faith!

On Tuesday 9th August, representatives from St Columbkille’s gathered at the South Coast Diocesan Athletics Carnival. The students braved the cold and rain to compete in 100, 200 and 800 meter track events including the relay, as well as the field events.  It was a very successful day with many ribbons won by the athletes. St Columbkille’s was awarded the school category for 11 Years Boys.  Additionally, we won the following age champions.

The following students will be progressing to the time trials on Tuesday 16th of August at Beaton Park:


Amelia RutledgeSonny O’BrienRandy O’BrienBailey MitchellAva CooperAndie LucchittiHaize HumphriesSam Raschilla

Senior Boys Relay Team: Sonny O’Brien, Randy O’Brien, Bailey Mitchell, Haydon Sharmon.Senior Girls Relay Team: Amelia Rutledge, Harper Briscoe, Ava Cooper, Olivia Ryan.Junior Boys Relay Team: Harrison Esteves, Nixon Breakspear, Jed Bell, Sam Raschilla.


Good luck to all competitors, St Columbkille’s is very proud of your efforts.


Adelaide O'Connor- Classroom Teacher

Indigenous Literacy Day 

St Columbkille’s is participating in the 2022 Great Book Swap, to raise funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. 

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation is a national book industry charity working with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities across Australia. They are Community-led, responding to requests from remote Communities for culturally relevant books, including early learning board books, resources, and programs to support Communities to create and publish their stories in languages of their choice. 

If your child would like to participate in the event, we ask that they bring a favourite book to swap, and a gold coin to school on Wednesday 7 September. 

More information will be sent home about the event next week.

Aimee Griggs- Year 3 Classroom Teacher

Week 7 - Tuesday 30 August transition to Summer uniform begins.  Students can wear winter or summer uniform weather depending, but not wear a mix of summer and winter uniforms.  

Week 8 - Monday 5 September all students wearing Summer uniform.

Friday 2 September

9:00am P&F Father’s Day Stall

1:00pm Father’s Day Luncheon

2:00pm Seated and start - Liturgy and Award Assembly

Pupil Free Day - Monday 29 August

Our Teacher Professional Planning Day will focus on Writing Pedagogy. Writing is one of our School Improvement area for 2022.  Mrs Perre and Vanessa Taylor (CEDoW) will be leading and supporting our staff throughout the day.

As you can see from the photo below, our lost property basket if over flowing with jackets, pants and hats!  All these items have no names or no name of current students.  If you think your child's jacket, hat or pants could be in this basket, please come in and search through it.  The lost property is housed in the Basement.  

We recommend not taking your child on holidays during the school term in order for your child to receive the most out of their schooling.

Any parent requesting leave for their child for (5) or more consecutive days is required to complete an Application for Extended Leave Form.

The form is available at the School Office or can be downloaded from the school website.

To ensure approval before the leave takes place, we require the completed form lodged at Student Services a minimum of 2 weeks before the Leave commences. 

Thank you.

Welcome to Cancer Council’s Healthy Lunch Box website Term 3 update. Here’s what is new …

New Recipes:

• Blueberry oat muffin – a delicious and handy snack for the lunch box or after school
• Balsamic baked vegetables - a great way to add veg to your kid’s dinner

New Blogs:

• Label reading made easy – our top tips on how to make healthier choices when at the supermarket
• Is fresh always best? – with the price of fresh fruit and veg increasing, we answer the question whether frozen or canned fruit and veg are good alternatives to fresh produce

Nutrition Snippets for newsletters:

Have you seen our Nutrition Snippets?  Nutrition Snippets are bite-sized nutrition tips, facts and recipes designed to be used within newsletters. 

Schools can sign up to receive our FREE Nutrition Snippets (5 snippets every 5 weeks of the school term) by emailing the following information to healthylunchbox@nswcc.org.au

• Name:  
• Role:  
• Organisation:  
• Preferred email address:  
• How do you hear about the snippets:   
• Do you want to receive the snippets in PDF (with hyperlinks), JPEG format, Social Tiles?  

For any feedback or for more information on the Healthy Lunch Box website please contact healthylunchbox@nswcc.org.au

Kind regards,

Nina, Korina and Jane

Nina Tan | Senior Nutrition Project Officer

One of the advertised acts is made up of a teacher (Jenna Hogan) at Holy Spirit College, current students (including my Georgia) and an ex-student collectively known as "Spirit" (please see photo). It would be supportive and celebratory if it could be advertised  as recognition of one of our Catholic school communities i.e., Holy Spirit College Bellambi, being asked to perform in a Wollongong City event to be held at Wollongong Town Hall. As the attached flyer says, it is "...an evening showcasing the very best of Illawarra's outstanding musical talents..."