Principal's Update - 15th August

Welcome

Dear Families,

The past week has been blessed with beautiful sunny weather turning our school grounds into a vibrant and cheerful place. We are thrilled to announce that our building works have been successfully completed, and the excitement is evident as the Year 3 students move into their brand-new space. The new classrooms are bright, spacious, and filled with the promise of fresh beginnings and exciting learning opportunities. We can't wait to see the students thrive in their new environment, and we are grateful to everyone who contributed to making this wonderful upgrade a reality.

School TV

In each Principal's update, we will be featuring a topic from SchoolTV, a valuable wellbeing resource designed to support you in navigating the challenges of modern-day parenting. This award-winning platform helps build relationships, foster connections, and break down barriers, guiding you toward better mental health and wellbeing for young people. SchoolTV is an excellent tool for initiating conversations on topics that can sometimes be awkward or difficult to address.

SchoolTV topics are organised into a series of comprehensive resources, featuring interviews with leading youth wellbeing experts and researchers from around the world. Each topic provides hours of relevant and practical information, along with a curated collection of resources from key organisations. These resources include informative fact sheets, articles, apps, books, podcasts, websites, and videos—all conveniently gathered in one place for easy access.

We encourage you to explore these topics as they are introduced in our updates.

Please use the link below to explore our first topic covering youth mental health.

The State of Youth Mental Health

Student Led Conferences

Student Led Conferences begin next week. You can access this through your PAM login and selecting parent Teacher Interviews. Below is some information around Student Led Conferences at St Columba’s;

Student-led conversations at St Columba's School are an opportunity for students to meet with their parents/guardians and classroom teachers to discuss their learning journey. These conversations are designed to:

• Empower students to take ownership of their learning.
• Foster a reflective mindset in students.
• Celebrate achievements and progress.
• Set and discuss future learning goals and targets.
• Strengthen the partnership between students, parents, and teachers.

The structure of the conversation typically includes and introduction, an outlining of goals and targets, celebration of achievements and identification of next goals alongside a reflection on the current year. This process will take different forms in different year levels to reflect students current capacity.

For Parents:

1. Understand the Process:

• Familiarise yourself with the structure and purpose of the student-led conversations.
• Prepare to listen actively and supportively.

• Review any materials sent home prior to the conversation (eg. SeeSaw).
• Think about questions or topics you might want to discuss with your child.

Parent Helper Induction

Our parent/classroom helper’s induction course is for anyone interested in volunteering within the school. This is a great opportunity if you have the capacity to support student learning and see the day to day running of the school. For anyone interested please complete the documents in the links below . Helper's must hold a valid Working with Childrens Check and present it on signing in when onsite.

The Code of Conduct and the Application will need to be printed, signed and returned to the office.

Sovereign Hill Excursion Drop Off Details

For the upcoming Year 5 and 6 Sovereign Hill Excursion, we request that parents drop students off from 8:20 am onwards at the venue. This is necessary due to the difficulty and expense of hiring a bus, compounded by the local bus runs' schedules. To accommodate early drop-offs, Shaun will be available to supervise students at Sovereign Hill, ensuring their safety and engagement until the excursion officially begins. For those dropping off at school, Bambi will provide supervision, ensuring all students are well taken care, assisting families. 

School Disco

Last Friday evening's Olympic Themed Disco was a resounding success, bringing together the school community for a night of fun, music, and celebration. The event was filled with energy and excitement as attendees embraced the Olympic spirit, donning creative costumes and dancing the night away. This fantastic event would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our incredible volunteers, whose efforts in planning, decorating, and coordinating made the night truly memorable. 

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed their time and talents to make the disco a smashing success!

Sustainability Fundraiser

Place orders online by the 25th of August using the code STCOL  

Orders will be delivered to the office on Monday 26th August with 30% of all orders coming back to the school. https://theboocollective.com.au/

Book Week 2024

With our 2024 Children's Book Week theme; ‘Reading is Magic’, we're celebrating reading stories and their amazing power to transport minds. We are encouraging kids to be curious about the wonders in our world. It is a positive and affirming message for our young people. The magic of reading also lies in its power of enticement; a good story provokes conversations. Talking about the stories with others connects the reader with other readers. Wrapped around all of this are the "tricks" and skills of our amazing writers and illustrators, as they use all their powers of language and illustration to engage the reader in this world they are building.

To celebrate Book Week, we encourage all of our young readers to participate in our annual Book Week Dress Up Parade on Friday 23rd of August at 9:00 am. The venue for this event is weather permitting. We celebrate this week each year to encourage students to be avid readers and enjoy the adventures and learning we gain from reading. Children are already planning how to bring their favourite book characters to life by choosing costumes ready for the big parade.

Fathers Day / Andrew Chinn

Our Father’s Day Stall will be held  on Monday 26th August. Gifts are $5 each and need to be paid via Quickcliq or cash on the day.

On Friday the 30th of August, Australian religious songwriter and singer, Andrew Chinn, will be visiting our school to share his songs with our children. Andrew’s songs, such as “These Hands”, “Rainbow”, “An African Blessing” and “Rise Up!” are used in classrooms and liturgies around Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. 

We invite any fathers, grandfathers or special father figures to join us for this celebration at the Church, at 1:45 - 3:00. 

Right to Disconnect

Upcoming changes to legislation have emphasised the importance of the right to disconnect, underscoring the need for employees to have uninterrupted personal time outside of work hours. In light of these changes, and in line with our already existing policy around this, our school is committed to supporting this initiative for the well-being of our staff and parents. While we understand that emails/SeeSaw may be sent at any time, we ask for your support in scheduling messages to be sent within standard working hours, and refraining from sending them outside of these hours whenever possible. This practice ensures that everyone can maintain a healthy work-life balance and respond to communications within the designated 48-hour response time during working days.

Irish Spiritual Heritage Pilgrimage

I am eagerly preparing for the upcoming Spiritual Heritage Pilgrimage to Ireland, led by Fr. Justin Driscoll, which will commence during the final week of this Term. This meaningful journey will take Principals from our Diocese along with Leaders from our local Catholic Education Office to significant spiritual sites, including Baggott Street in Dublin, where the Sisters of Mercy began their service, Loreto House, as well as locations linked to the lives of St. Patrick and St. Brigid. While Shaun has chosen not to participate at this time, I am taking Long Service Leave to enable my participation and am looking forward to immersing in the rich spiritual history of Ireland. Following the pilgrimage, I will extend the journey to Scotland during the holiday break to walk in the footsteps of St.Columba, deepening the connection to the region's sacred heritage.

International Day of People With Disabilities

We are seeking enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers to join our working party to support the planning and organisation of International Day of People with Disability, celebrated on December 3rd. 

This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to an important cause, helping to promote awareness, understanding, and inclusion of people with disabilities within our community. 

Volunteers will collaborate on various tasks, including event planning, outreach, and coordination to ensure a successful and impactful event. Your involvement will make a significant difference, and we welcome individuals with diverse skills and backgrounds. 

If you are passionate about advocacy and making a positive impact, we would love to hear from you!

Please complete the attached application. Expression of Interest Form 

Sustainability

Ballarat City Council is piloting a fantastic program where you can recycle your soft plastics!

Participating households will be supplied with a special orange collection bag, that can be filled with many of your soft, scrunchable plastics (chip packets, etc), and then placed inside your yellow recycling bin. 

This program is limited to 10,000 households. If you’d like to register your house, please visit https://www.ballarat.vic.gov.au/property/waste/recycling-ballarat/ballarat-soft-plastics-collection-pilot-program

Important Dates - Term 3

Important Dates - Term 4