Principal’s Message Week 1 Term 1 2020

Welcome back to what is going to be a very exciting year for our school.

I hope despite the very difficult summer conditions you have been able to spend quality time with your families and are feeling somewhat refreshed and ready for the 2020 school year. I know for some of our families the fires were very close either to themselves or family and we are grateful that our community is safe.

Over the course of the term and year we hope to be able to work with the children to help contribute either financially or through expressions of gratitude to the bushfire relief program. More information about this will be distributed over the coming weeks.

It has been a wonderful calm and settled start to our school year. This week is Wellbeing Week and the focus has been on developing relationships and building a strong sense of connectedness and community spirit. At St Columba’s we place a great emphasis on the development of children’s Social and Emotional skills. Our Wellbeing weeks are specifically designed to reinforce skills of resilience, empathy, relationships, positive emotions, mindfulness and healthy lifestyle, all of which help to create a greater sense of connection and belonging and are essential components in the learning process.

This week and over the coming weeks the children will have multiple opportunities to engage with not only their fellow class members but with children and staff from all levels. At our school every child knows all the other children in the school and each staff member knows each child by name. Our very successful St Columba’s Kids wellbeing program will continue in 2020 thus helping to establish from the outset a strong sense of belonging and connectedness to our school and to peers.

It is a very exciting year for our school as we work towards implementing the first stages of our Strategic Directions. Next Tuesday 4 February we will facilitate a meet and greet evening along with directions for 2020 information session. Please see below for further details. This replaces our parent exchange evening and will give you the opportunity to meet with the teachers within the classroom context and hear firsthand from staff classroom procedures and expectations for your child’s year level.

We warmly welcome our new families to St Columba’s and I hope that 2020 is a wonderful year of community spirit and learning for all in our community.

FAQs

For further information regarding school procedures and any general questions and answers please refer to the school website www.stcolumbasprimary.org/faqs/ All current information regarding the school can be found in this location.

Important Dates

Please check the Dates to Remember section in this newsletter. Parents may like to place these dates in their diary in relation to the 2020 school year. The calendar is also available on our website: www.stcolumbasprimary.org/calendar/

Events for Term One

Meet and Greet Information Night

Start time 6:00pm for the Junior school (Prep-2) in classrooms with teachers

6:30pm Directions information session in the hall for ALL PARENTS

7:00pm for the Senior school (Year 3-6) in the classrooms with teachers

Your first class newsletter for the year will be distributed on this evening during your session with the classroom teachers. This will be an opportunity to meet the classroom teachers and learn about the day to day organization of the classroom and learning experiences for the term.

Beginning of the School Year Mass

To mark the beginning of the school year we will celebrate as a school, Mass on the morning of Friday 7 February at 9:00am. We warmly invite all families to join us in this celebration

Parent Open Learning Days

Families are the first educators of their children and they continue to influence their children’s learning and development during the school years and long afterwards (Family School Partnerships Framework).

As parents, you engage in your child’s education in many ways in the home, the community and at school. At St Columba’s we believe family school partnership are vital and we are always looking for opportunities in which to assist you to engage in your child’s learning both at home and at school.

This year we will once again be hosting parent open learning days. The first of these will be held Friday 7 February 10:00am after Mass.

We invite you to come along to experience and participate in your child’s classroom learning experiences.

We look forward to sharing our school life with you.

Interschool District Swimming

The Interschool Swimming sports will take place on Friday 21st February at Oakleigh Swim Centre. A team to represent our school will be selected following the Grade 3-6 swimming trials which will be held on Thursday 6th February at MSAC. A letter was sent home with the children on Wednesday. If you require a copy please email Sharelle Braithwaite sbraithwaite@scelwood.catholic.edu.au

Open days for enrolment

We have four Open days - Monday16 March, Tuesday 24 March, Thursday 16th April and Tuesday 20th April. This is a chance for new and existing families to view the school while it is operating. Our annual Teddy Bear Picnic for Prep 2020 will be held on the morning of 3 March.

Sibling enrolments for 2021

I would ask that parents who have a child commencing Prep in 2021 to please enrol their child by the end of February so we can see how many places will be available to new families for 2021. Enrolment forms can be downloaded from the website or collected from the school office.

School Photos

Please note School photos this year will be taken on Tuesday 21 April, Term 2.

Parish Education Board

The first PEB meeting will be on Tuesday 11 February at 7:00pm in the staffroom.

Only those who are part of this committee may attend. The PEB acts as an advisory body to the parish priest and principal on matters relating to the education of the children of St Columba’s.

Parents and Friends Association

The first PFA meeting will be held Monday 17 February at 7:15pm in the staffroom. Any parent is welcome to attend this meeting as the committee deals with the social and fundraising arrangements for the year. The PFA are currently looking for parent representatives for 2020. I urge any parent who would like to participate and assist in the life of the school to refer to the callout in this newsletter from the PFA for further information.

Assemblies

Assembly is held at 9:00am on Friday mornings in the hall. Parents are invited to join us for this weekly event. Class awards and birthdays will be celebrated at each assembly. At assembly each year level has a chance to share their learning. Listed is the schedule:

Feb 7 – Mass and presentation of school leaders

Feb 14 - Year 3/4

Feb 28 - Year 1/2

March 13 – Year 5/6

March 27 – Prep

Parish News

Sacraments

This term the Year 3 children will be receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation. As part of the journey all children making their reconciliation for the first time will need to attend one of the preparation masses in Saturday 29 Febraury - 6:00pm or Sunday 1 March - 9:00am.

There will be a Family Reconciliation night on Monday 24 February 6:30pm. It is important that the children receiving the sacrament and their parents attend this night.

The sacrament of Reconciliation will be held on Saturday 21 March 10:00am and 4:30pm, Monday 23 March 5:00pm and 7:00pm. Further details will follow.

Parish Level Mass and Combined Class Mass for term one

The year 5/6 children and their families will have their Class Parish Mass on Saturday 21 March at 6:00pm. We invite all families to attend this celebration.

The Yr 1/2 children will have their combined class mass at 9:00am on Monday 23 March Fr John will celebrate the mass in the classrooms with both classes. Parents, grandparents and siblings are warmly invited to participate in the mass.

FlexiBuzz

In 2020 FlexiBuzz will be the main platform used by the school to send out information.

FlexiBuzz enables us to send out important messages, newsletters, alerts and notices.

Please ensure that you have access to this app on either your phone or personal device.

Instructions for installing FlexiBuzz

St Columba’s is using FlexiBuzz to communicate with you on everything that is happening at school.

Download the app, subscribe to a communication group and get alerted on news, events and more. Please note you need to subscribe to your communication groups in order to receive notifications. Please ensure you subscribe to your child/children's classroom group, you can do this by selecting the parallel lines at the top of the newsfeed then add/removing the boxes relevant to the information you wish to receive. Come into the office on Friday and see Julie if you are having any issues.

Sport News

Year 3-6 Swimming Trials