Principal Message – Week 9 Term 2

This week’s newsletter will be the last one for this term. I am sure that all families are looking forward to the two-week break. Holidays, either as time away or time at home, are a chance to step away from everyday life and reconnect with the people we love and with ourselves. In fact, it has been shown that a simple break not only helps build families' relationships with each other but also improve children's learning and behaviour in school. Being able to step out of the routine, and away from technology, is a good and healthy thing; revitalizing and energizing us to take on whatever lies ahead.

There is no such thing as a quiet term in schools anymore and this term was no exception. Throughout the term our children have been involved in all sorts of activities in and out of the classroom. We’ve participated in Cross Country, the Year 5/6 interschool winter sports program, Reconciliation Week, Camp for our 5/6s and Confirmation. We celebrated 105 years of our School and St Columba’s Feast Day with a beautiful Mass and wonderful morning of fun activities. Our children have excelled in the HOLT District Cross Country and the Netball Lightening Premierships, coming in second and first place respectively! Our 1/2s have been on their first excursion for the year to Fed Square Ian Potter Gallery and celebrated with their parents, using yarning circles, their learning from their Unit of Inquiry on families. Our 3/4s headed off to St Mary’s College and met real life archaeologists. Our 5/6s visited the Museum, were privileged to see the amazing Royal Exhibition Dome and headed off to the Botanic gardens. And our Preps have become very keen naturalists, heading out into the community on their walks each week to gather data in nature, out and about in the local area.

Just to add to this Running Club goes from strength to strength, Be Kinder Day was a hit in Elwood village, we collected over 170 books for Sacred Heart Aged Hostel residents, Literacy Open Learning Morning was a great success, Mother’s Day saw a big turnout and the Staff vs Year 6 netball games were a lot of fun. We also launched our very successful Tooltime at lunchtimes with over 40 children learning to make a bird box from scratch! Yes, we did it all sawing, hammering, sanding! And we cannot forget the Musical. Rehearsals are very much underway and next term it’s going to go really ramp up as we head towards September and Opening Night.

Like I said schools are busy places. This is only a snippet of what your child has had the opportunity to be involved with and does not include all the learning opportunities they have had over the course of this term with their teachers.

Semester One reports went home this week and I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did. What excites me when reading reports is that I get a real insight into each child at St. Columba’s and the progress they are making academically, social emotionally and as learners. What stood out for me is the significant achievement and progress of all children. As parents I believe you would agree there has been remarkable progress from the day your child first walked through the gate six months ago. Our children have all done exceptionally well, and I expect their gains, in the second half of the year, in all areas of the curriculum will continue.

I feel very proud of all the children at St Columba’s. Not just due to their academic achievements but also the resilience, adaptability, and flexibility they have demonstrated and developed this semester. The ability to adjust to the change and being able to respond quickly to changing ideas, responsibilities, expectations, trends, strategies, and other processes are key 21st Century skills. Whilst the future is uncertain and will have its fair share of challenges, I believe these skills will be just what our children need and are therefore worth developing and nurturing. I am confident that our children are gaining these necessary skills and will be future fit, ready to tackle whatever lies ahead.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff for their thorough preparation of the reports. With assessment, report writing, and illness, this time of year for teachers has been an extremely stressful and busy time. However, as always, the staff at St. Columba’s go about it in a most professional manner. The teachers are looking forward to discussing your child’s progress further at parent teacher interviews next term.

As we head into the term 2 break, I thank you, our families once again for your support throughout this term. I feel very proud of our ‘Little school with a big heart’ and believe that we have as a community continue to faithfully enact the spirit of our motto this semester.

I wish you all very pleasant break and look forward to seeing you at the start of term 3, ready for what is going to be a very exciting term for our school community.

Stay safe and well over these holidays.

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