Included this week:-
- Welcome to Term 2
- Congratulations
- Uniform
- NAPLAN
- UNSW (ICAS) Science, Maths and English Competitions
Welcome back from what I hope was a happy and safe time for your family.
I’ve had the pleasure over the last two days of working alongside our Religious Education Leaders, Shane and Torie along with staff from ACU and KU Leuven’s Professor Reimund Bieringer. We have been exploring ways to transform religious education through the use of scripture. These two days, whilst not ideal timing, were highly informative and will help shape a lot of the work we continue to do around providing a Catholic education in an increasingly secular world. One of my key take aways from Professor Bieringer was around the normativity of the future; the importance of looking at Gospel stories and exploring not just their historical context, but also looking at the message it holds for our present and the future we wish to build. Taking this a step further what actions are we then called on to bring that future to life?
This term promises to be another exciting one for St Columba’s we have a number of key events and opportunities for our staff, students and families. In the coming weeks we have our 5/6 camp as well as hosting a WLA study tour in the 1/2 community. This is an incredible recognition of the effort staff have put into their learning and teaching and a valuable chance to not only showcase our school but also reflect on our practice. There are two closure days this term (check the dates section) one is to allow staff to attend the Hawker Brownlow teaching and learning conference in Melbourne. This is an annual event that hosts international speakers some of whom we have worked with previously. Staff will be attending a variety of sessions on various topics including cultivating creating, embedding formative assessment and reflective thinking. The second closure day is continuing our work from last year looking at how we work as collaborative teams and make use of our open learning spaces to best support student learning.
I’ve had the pleasure over the last two days of working alongside our Religious Education Leaders, Shane and Torie along with staff from ACU and KU Leuven’s Professor Reimund Bieringer. We have been exploring ways to transform religious education through the use of scripture. These two days, whilst not ideal timing, were highly informative and will help shape a lot of the work we continue to do around providing a Catholic education in an increasingly secular world. One of my key take aways from Professor Bieringer was around the normativity of the future; the importance of looking at Gospel stories and exploring not just their historical context, but also looking at the message it holds for our present and the future we wish to build. Taking this a step further what actions are we then called on to bring that future to life?
This term promises to be another exciting one for St Columba’s we have a number of key events and opportunities for our staff, students and families. In the coming weeks we have our 5/6 camp as well as hosting a WLA study tour in the 1/2 community. This is an incredible recognition of the effort staff have put into their learning and teaching and a valuable chance to not only showcase our school but also reflect on our practice. There are two closure days this term (check the dates section) one is to allow staff to attend the Hawker Brownlow teaching and learning conference in Melbourne. This is an annual event that hosts international speakers some of whom we have worked with previously. Staff will be attending a variety of sessions on various topics including cultivating creating, embedding formative assessment and reflective thinking. The second closure day is continuing our work from last year looking at how we work as collaborative teams and make use of our open learning spaces to best support student learning.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Erica and Tim Hare on their marriage over the holidays, we wish them both every happiness in their life together and welcome Erica back from her honeymoon.
Uniform
With the changes in weather over the next two weeks students may wear the most appropriate uniform for the weather. From week 3 onwards full winter uniform is expected of all students. All students are required to wear full winter uniform for School Photo Day, Thursday 26th April including woollen jumper.
NAPLAN
NAPLAN is not too far away, the message from the school to students is this is no different to any other assessment that we do on any other day of the year and shouldn’t be a stressful time. Should you have any concerns or wish to withdraw your child for any reason can you please make contact with their homeroom teacher
UNSW (ICAS) Science, Maths and English Competitions
These competitions have been so popular in the past years, we are giving the students in Years 2-6 the opportunity to participate (on a voluntary basis) in the UNSW competitions for Science, Mathematics and English.
These International Competitions are best suited to our most capable students.
Following the competition, students will be awarded certificates related to their performance. These certificates could include: Participation, Credit, Distinction or High Distinction in accordance with their level of competency. Feedback will also be given outlining areas of strength and challenge.
Children will all be supervised here at school and the competitions will be held on the following dates:-
Science - Tuesday 29th May
Maths - Tuesday 31st July
English - Tuesday 14th August
All entries must be to the school office by no later than Friday 27th April (no late entries can be accepted). Please return payment of $9.90 per competition in an envelope and state your child’s name, year level and which competition/s your child will enter.
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