Term 1 Week 11

Dear SCMS community,

Last Wednesday, I woke up in the darkness to an early alarm to greet the 3/4/5 students in the car park as they began their journey into Adelaide for their dance and movement excursion. The excitement from the students made the early start all the better. Looking on the staff calendar, I am amazed at what the staff have been able to manage and provide.

As we close in on the end of the term it’s important to reflect. Schools are incredibly busy places and while some days are tougher, more challenging than others, the good days, are why we are in this profession. I’ve been blessed to have such a wonderful first term at St Columba’s filled with many good days and am completely indebted to the support of the staff, students, and families for making this my family’s new home.

Parent /Teacher Interviews

Thank you to all families who met with staff in the Parent / Teacher Interviews. These were critical to ensure transparent communication between families and educators. These conversations aren’t ever in isolation, and I encourage all families to have regular communication with teachers and staff regarding their children throughout the year.

Leadership Team

One of the priorities I had when arriving at St Columba’s was to establish a Leadership team. I would like to officially welcome Amy McPhail on the team with her new role as Inclusive Education Coordinator. Amy has been a staff member at St Columba’s for several years now and will this year complete her Masters of Inclusive Education. She has the responsibility for implementing differentiated and/or adapted educational programs for students with disabilities and specific or additional learning needs. At the heart of her work will be the responsibility for fostering and maintaining the inclusive nature of the school.

Over the holidays an additional member will join the leadership team as ‘Leader of Learning’. Mrs Mandy Thompson has held this role recently and Mandy now focuses her role as Literacy Coach and working in the Data and intervention of students in Literacy. The Leader of Learning will have an important role in delivering a 'whole' school approach to improved Curriculum, Pedagogy and Reporting of educational outcomes for St Columba’s Memorial School students.

Beginning of Term 2, our leadership team will consist of Myself, Miriam Honner (APRIM), Amy McPhail (Inclusive Ed Coordinator) and (TBC) as Leader of Learning.

This is a vital step in ensuring adequate decisions and dialogue occur around strategic direction.

I also thank Mandy Thompson, Julie Anderson and Jorja Warwick for undertaking two days of training this term in the area of Dibels Assessments. Dibels is a set of procedures and measures to assess the acquisition of Literacy skills. We look forward to these assessments being rolled out across the school this year.

Our school has been represented beautifully throughout the term by our students at events such as: sports day (interschool and our own) and various SAPSASA tryouts. Our students’ artwork was displayed in the Ardrossan Art display with 2 students being award 1st Prize Tanner Caudle and 2nd prize Molly Stockings.

A reminder the last day of Term 1 will be Friday 12 April and students will be dismissed one hour earlier than usual that day. Buses will run at 2.00pm. Our students may wear casual clothes that day and I ask that they pay a gold coin donation that will go to Project Compassion. This is a fundraising effort by Caritas Australia to support the great work they do across the world helping many disadvantaged people. Term 2 begins Monday April 29.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone for welcoming myself and my family into the school community this term. We say goodbye to one of our hard-working ESO’s Alice Johnson as she leaves for Canada early in Term 2 for a working trip and hope to see her back later in the year with many stories to share.

I look forward to seeing what Term 2 will unfold in this wonderful school and to see our students continue to flourish.

Wishing you all a safe and well-deserved holiday break.

Luke Buchanan

Hello! 

Happy Easter! After 40 days of fasting and penance we are so thankful to have 50 days of feasting and celebrating. I hope that over the next few weeks of the Easter season you can find time to pinpoint the things you are grateful for and take the time to reflect on and enjoy those blessings in your life 😊 Today we continued our celebrations at school by having our last whole school Mass for the term. It was a beautiful way to end the term and reflect on the truth of Easter and how its triumph and joy becomes our triumph and joy. Thank you to all the parents and friends who joined with us at Mass and also at the morning tea.  

Lots of exciting things are on the horizon for Term 2 and even Term 3. We ask for now that if you have any large boxes that you keep them aside for a special project. We look forward to sharing these with you then. For now, have a very joyful, safe and restful holiday break.  

God Bless, 

Miriam Honner 

APRIM

Lilly - For being an excellent listener during lessons and group activities.

Pippa - For challenging her maths learning by having a go at skip counting by 2s.

Jedd - For demonstrating a positive attitude towards all learning opportunities and for always trying his best. Keep up the great work!

Isabelle - For your enthusiastic participation in all learning opportunities, and for being an excellent role model to your peers. Keep up the great work!

Archer - Congratulations on your focus and enthusiasm in learning, especially in the area of Mathematics.

Maddison S - Congratulations on all that you do. Your effort and enthusiasm is outstanding. Well done with your improved skills throughout reading and writing tasks.

Archie P - For consistently arriving at school with a smile, demonstrating a positive attitude towards tasks without complaints, and consistently completing them.

Willowmiena - For consistent practice in reading and progressing to a higher-level reader.

Gabriela - For working hard to continue growing in Mathematics. Gabriela shows dedication towards understanding new concepts and tackling challenging problems.

Fred - For demonstrating a growing sense of self-assurance particularly in Mathematics. Fred works hard to understand new concepts and continues to make consistent progress in his learning.

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In Maths, the Receptions have been learning about subitising. Subitising means knowing how many are in a collection immediately without counting them one by one. We have been practising our subitising skills through many different activities in the classroom.

This term the Year 1/2 class have been exploring procedural texts. Over the term, we have learnt about the purpose, structure, and language features of procedural texts. Students were eager to use their knowledge of procedures to create their own fairy bread recipe. What a fun way to finish off our procedure writing unit, well done 1/2s!

On Wednesday the 3^rd of April, the Year 3/4/5 students travelled to Adelaide to participate in a Dance Geometry workshop held at the Dunstan Playhouse in the Adelaide Festival Centre. We then drove to CirKidz at Bowden to engage in a circus skills class. 

The students eagerly walked along the River Torrens taking in all Gather Round festivities as we made our way to the Festival Centre.  It was fantastic seeing all the students engage in different shape related activities during the workshop, including choreographing their own shape dance. 

The class had lots of fun at Cirkidz learning to be acrobats. The trampolines and the trapeze were favourites amongst all the students. Everyone had an amazing time and were keen to go back for another excursion.

Year 6/7 students complete their first essay! 📝 Exploring essay structures and delving into the brilliant novel of Sharon M. Draper's 'Out of My Mind' to dissect how ideas are masterfully conveyed in texts 📚🌟

Last week we had our first choir assessment with the Director of the Catholic Music Festival, Denise Rothall. 

She was very impressed with our practices and dedication to performing at the Festival Theatre in September. We can't wait!

How lovely to finish the term with some cooler weather. Term one has seen lots of learning and production out in the garden, and now with the change of seasons it is nice to see the ground come to rest before our winter cropping gets into full swing.

We have planted around 300 cloves of garlic, the garlic that we have been cropping for many years came from a parishioner, and has been a fixture in the St Columba's school gardens for many years. We always remember to plant the garlic area around Easter, and harvest around Christmas time.

The entire junior primary school has had a busy time in Ecology lessons learning and exploring in the green space, the 1/2 class planted a huge potato crop together, and the Receptions have built an amazing bug hotel. The year five class created some delicious organic pumpkin soup and native herb bush bread in the last week with ingredients straight from our garden, and we sat together at a table and shared the meal together with Mr Buchanan as our special guest.

The 3/4 class saw their native 'pigface' (Gargalla/Karkalla in Nharangga) journey from cuttings right through to healthy plants that are now planted in the border across from the 3/4 classroom - have a look next time you're in!