News
Junior Primary News
The Year 1/2’s have been learning about the liturgical season of Advent. They created their own Advent wreath with recycled materials, then brought it home to interact with for the lead up to Christmas. The students learnt what each candle represents and the purpose of the Advent wreath. It was wonderful to create something so special this Advent season.
Senior Primary News
Yesterday our class hosted a market at school, in which I was part of the Coastal Crafts stall, where we sold a variety of things including earrings, keyrings, plants, and bookmarks. We had a busy day full of sales and sold the majority of our stock by the end of the day. Our profit ended up being around $314.70 for the day, and we are so happy that all of that money goes to Vinnie’s, to help other people in need - Jade
I was in the group Coastal Crafts, and we had a very successful day on Wednesday. Overall, our group managed to make over $300 for Vinnies, and sold almost all our stock. The other stalls did very well too. I was extremely happy about the outcome of the day - Jada
Yesterday, on the 7th of December 2022, the 5/6/7 class hosted a Market Day for the younger classes, Teachers/eso’s and for the parents. There were 8 stools in total, set up around the school. Out of the stools there were Barbeque Bros, Coastal Crafts, Bullet Boys, Lollie Lads, Sorbet, Fresh Lemonade, Car Wash, and the Origami group. All of the groups had made a profit by the end of the day, and all the profit went to Vinnies. My group was the Barbeque Bros which went extremely well, and we completely sold out of snags by the end of lunch. Overall, it was a great experience, and day - Angus
Reception News
For maths, we have been focusing on equal sharing. One of the activities we did for this was listening to the storybook 'The Doorbell Rang' and reenacting what happened by sharing paper cookies equally with each person who rang the doorbell. We then wrote sentences describing how many equal groups of cookies there were as a class for each new visitor in the book. They loved this activity!
Library News
Please keep returning any Library books your child may have at home as stock taking will begin on Tuesday.
A big Thank You to all students and parents for your ongoing support in the library this year. May you all have a Happy and safe Christmas.
Julie Anderson
Spanish News
Flamenco Dance involves singing (Cante), guitar playing (Toque), dancing (Baile), hand clapping (Palmas), and finger snapping (Pitos). Another important aspect is foot stomping which has 3 different parts, depending upon which part of the foot is used; the heel (called Tacon), the ball of the foot (Planta), or the whole foot (Golpe). To be expert at this dance takes many years of hard work!
Regards,
Mandy Thompson
Catholic Interschool Sports Day
Friday 25th November was an early start for 20 students heading to the Bridgestone Athletics Venue in Salisbury.
All whom participated represented SCMS with great sportsmanship and their willingness to persist through the heat was inspiring.
Students were well organised and participated at their highest level, some achieving personal bests.
Many highlights on the day but a massive congratulations to Lukas Rowe who has competed in the Open Boys 1500m for the past 4 years. The first year being when he was only in Year 1 resulted in him coming 4th, Year 2 = 3rd, Year 3 = 2nd, and this year in Year 4 he came 1st!
Sam Phasey jumped a huge 146cm in High jump and Tahlei Coombe had an outstanding effort in the Shot Put placing 1st. All students brought home ribbons of all places and were very excited to hear that the Year 4 Girls took out their aged group for the day, the overall boys resulted in 2nd place and the girls in 4th.
A massive thankyou to all the officials and parents that helped make the day run smoothly.
Regards,
Suzie Harvey
Middle Primary News
Our Year Three and Four class absolutely loved participating in all of the Gymnastic classes! We really practised and extended our skills!
Principal's Report
Hi all,
As we come to the end of Week 6 we enter the Church season of Advent, a time of spiritual preparation for the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.
Whether you are religious or not though this time of year always feels like a time of preparation. We are preparing for the end of one year, and the start of the other. It’s a time of hope and optimism, and often that starts from the inside.
At this time of year, I’m often reflective on myself as a leader and our school as a whole? What did we get right? What can we do better? What are we doing well?
What’s going on with the build?
The toilet block is coming along very nicely and is well on track to be completed by the end of this term ready for the school year. On Monday there will be a crane on site to relocate the Sports Shed back to fit snuggly in next to the new toilet block. This will give us line of site from the playground all the way through to the back of the Green Space.
There has been some delays with the new R-2 building as we await the shipment of steel. This has put the completion of this building back around a month. We are now looking at a handover date of around the end of February/Early March for this building.
Staffing
As you may have seen we’ve had some exciting staff announcements. We welcome Al Murdock to our school to teach Spanish. Al is so excited to join our community and was blown away by the support she received through our Facebook post last Friday. It’s important to acknowledge the important culture that Mandy Thompson has set through the teaching of Spanish at our school, and she is delighted to have Al coming in to continue this subject here at SCMS.
Another announcement that I am delighted to share with you is to welcome Caitlin Roads to our school as an Upper Primary Teacher. Caitlin will be working alongside Emily Rowe in the upper primary and will be our Year 5 homegroup teacher. She was an outstanding applicant and has a real passion for teaching in the upper primary.
I can now finalise our class structure and teachers for next year
Reception – Miss Jorja Warwick
Year 1/2 – Miss Phoebe Watkins
Year 3/4 – Mrs Angela Grigoras-Oates & Mrs Amy McPhail
Year 5 – Miss Caitlin Roads
Year 6/7 – Mrs Emily Rowe (4 days) Mr Scott March (1 day)
Spanish – Mrs Alison Murdock
Literacy Leader of Learning & Music – Mrs Mandy Thompson
APRIM – Miriam Honner
Kind Regards,
Scott March
RE News
Hello!
Today we had our final whole school mass for the year. We reflected on the upcoming season of Advent (which begins this Sunday, the 27th), a time of preparation for Christmas. For many of us, this time of year is filled with so much busyness. End of school year presentations, staff Christmas shows, sporting events, present buying, family gatherings etc etc and it can become quite overwhelming. I read this quote the other day about Advent and it has me wanting to pause and remember all the goodness that surrounds me.
“It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope. Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence.” Pope Benedict
I hope that you too will get the chance to pause and reflect on the goodness in your own lives and to live in hope and joy of the one who loves us beyond measure. Here on this link you will find some great ways of celebrating Advent at home! HOW TO CELEBRATE ADVENT AT HOME - The Hope-Filled Family (thehopefilledfamily.com)
Lastly, I want to thank the year 3/4 class for their initiative to do a ‘Can Drive’ for St Vincent de Paul for those people who are finding it tough, especially this time of year. Part of the Church’s mission is to help those who are in need and to have our students do this is great to see.
God Bless,
Miriam Honner
Nut Free Policy
With lots of new faces around the school it is a perfect opportunity to remind families that St Columba's is a nut free school. This is extremely important with a number of students with allergies. Products that contain nuts include Peanut Butter, Nutella, fruit and nut bars, chocolate and any other products that have nuts listed in their ingredients. This does not include products that contain the warning “may contain traces of nuts”.
In addition to this, children should not be bringing food to share with other students without prior communication with the class teacher. Families are required to communicate with their child's teacher 1 week prior to a special event i.e. birthday, if wishing to bring in food. An ingredients list is then required with any food brought in for community events and/or baked goods to share with the class. The school encourages alternate treats for students to celebrate birthdays at school i.e. stickers instead of lollies and confectionary.
If you have any questions, please contact the school.