Dear Families,
As a community, we have settled straight back into the routines of school life. Well into February and we have achieved so much in the short time back. Last week, we gathered as a whole school for Ash Wednesday Mass and were joined by dozens of families and parishioners. It was heartwarming to see the church filled with a true sense of community.
We held our first assembly for 2024 and welcomed our special guest the Hon. Darren Braund to present Molly Flanagan her ‘Young Citizen of the Year’ award from the Australia Day celebrations. It was also a nice touch to have Darren present both Amelia Smith and Henry Braund with their school captain badges.
Our SRC (Student Representation Council) were announced, and the process will begin with class meetings and gatherings with Miss Caitlin Roads who will lead the SRC meetings every few weeks. Congratulations to Poppy Craggs, Hudson Forbes, Eddie Player, Elle Matthias, Zoe Holland, Fletcher Hughes, Allie Hughes, Beau Parsons, Zander Skinner, and Amirah Kemp.
NAPLAN
The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual assessment for students in Years 3, 5, and 7. In 2024 St Columba’s Memorial will be completing these assessments online.
To prepare for the assessment, all students in Years 3, 5 and 7 will participate in a National Coordinated Practice Test on Monday 26th February. The purpose of the practice test is to check and prepare our platform, in readiness for the online testing in March 2024. Please be aware student performance will not be assessed for the practice test.
All students will require headphones that are wired (not blue tooth e.g. air pods) for the practice test and NAPLAN online.
Having looked over our data collection, it is pleasing to see students in previous years achieve a high level of achievement across the four tests. A reminder to all, NAPLAN is a nation-wide assessment tool to compare how schools are functioning more so than how Individuals are performing.
If you have any queries about your child partaking in the tests, please come and see me.
Communication
A reminder to all families around the direct communication needed to be had with School office. I ask that all issues or changes with St Columba’s bus arrangements please direct them straight to Nicole Redman or Margaret Grainger in the front office. Conversations with bus drivers makes it difficult to ensure the messages get to the right staff. All other government bus inquires, or changes need to be directed to our front office whereas any bus pass enquiries need to go to Yorketown Area School.
All absenteeism must be directed straight to the front office on 8852 7700. After hours, please leave a message.
Sports Day
Sports Day is in two weeks (Wednesday 6 March). The past few weeks and upcoming weeks, the students have many practices ensuring they are prepared for the event. We will again hold the day at the Yorketown Football Oval and begin the day at 9:00am. We will conclude the day a little later than usual but have all things wrapped up by 1:30pm. All family members are welcome, and we will have siblings and parent races. Buses will drop students to the oval in the morning from 8.30am however you will be required to collect your child at the conclusion of the event.
The Parent & Friends committee met last week and have already organised lunch to be ordered the QKR app. If you would like to help on the day, please reach out to our P & F group or alternatively contact the front office. Teachers will need helpers throughout the day to help with activities in measuring, recording, and organising. Please see your child’s teacher if you can help them directly on the day.
Student Free Day
A scheduled Student Free day is on Friday the 8th of March. Staff at SCMS will be completing professional development on site on that day, focussing on Literacy, first aid and other compliance courses expected within the Teachers Registration.
Morning Care
Thankyou to the families who have needed to reach out to staff to ensure supervision for their children before 8:30am. A reminder that as a Duty of Care we cannot offer supervision for any of our students prior to 8:30am. I encourage you to speak to your child’s teacher if you need occasional supervision.
With the school year in full swing I look forward to continuing to head into a busy time with staff, students and the wider community as we approach significant school events and Easter.
God Bless
Luke Buchanan
R.E. News:
Hello!
Last week we started Lent with Mass on Ash Wednesday. Thank you to the Year 3/4 class in helping to lead us for this and especially to Fr Dean Marin for travelling over from Adelaide to say Mass for us. Fr Dean spoke about Lent as a time for reflection and renewal and looking at the ways in which we sometimes let God, ourselves and others down and how we can better ourselves to be the best version of ourselves. As always, the three pillars of prayer, fasting and giving, are the ways in which we can do this. In this newsletter you will see information for Project Compassion and how it helps those in need. By now you should all have your money boxes for the fundraiser in which you can donate cash, but below is a QR code if you wish to make a donation online to our school campaign. Thank you for your generosity.
In great news for our Parish/school community, Fr John Mbaraka arrived back to Yorketown this week. We are overjoyed with the news that he is back home with us and look forward to seeing him around the school, for school masses and most especially for our Sunday Mass. Please make sure you say hello to him if you see him and for those new to our community to introduce yourselves to him. He will be so thrilled to meet you all and also to see all the building works completed.
Have a great weekend and week ahead.
God Bless,
Miriam Honner
APRIM
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Last week, the receptions eagerly participated in their first mass service. They were so excited and paid attention so well! Learning to make the sign of the cross and genuflecting before sitting in the pews might seem like small actions, but they're significant steps in teaching children about respect and kindness. These little gestures help them understand the importance of showing reverence in a sacred place like a church. Moments like these help our little ones grow and learn about faith and their relationship with God.
Over the past few weeks, the Year 1/2 class have been developing positive mathematical mindsets and practicing their counting skills. In English, we have been practicing our spelling, learning about recount writing and exploring procedural texts. This collage of photos shows students’ engagement and enthusiasm to all learning opportunities in our classroom!
The Year Three and Four Class are off to a fantastic start in their HASS learning this term. We are focusing on the geography and geology of our land. We are working towards a greater understanding of Sustainability and study the relevance and integration of Indigenous plants within our Australian environment!
Students have been constructing enclosures for animals of their choosing, ensuring that each enclosure fulfills the specific needs of the selected animal. They researched regarding factors such as water depth and preferred vegetation to create an optimal habitat. Following the construction of their enclosures, students will present them alongside a booklet highlighting the enclosure's features and providing comprehensive information about the respective animal.
We had a great day yesterday on our Year 6/7 leadership retreat! All students took part in various activities and reflections. Thank you to Mrs Honner for organising fantastic activities for us, which had a strong focus on the virtues of courage and resilience. The conversations set students with strong intentions for the year ahead. As a group we created a prayer that will become the school prayer, which we are really proud of and looking forward to seeing in our school.
I am not only testing children who are moving through the 30 levels of PM Testing, to establish a suitable level of reader for these students, but I also work with the strong readers to discuss the progress these independent readers are making. These discussions are called Literature Interviews. I have been working quite closely with the Year 3/4 class, and during their Library lesson I sit with one of these advanced readers, choosing a quiet corner, and ask them about their reading choices. Sometimes these students, although very competent, may be reluctant readers, and are not making any reading choices at all. Then our discussion settles around their interests and any books that reflect those interests. They will explore some of the suggested titles and we might read together to whet their appetite. More often these students have a deep love of reading and can talk at length about what their text is about, the characters, the plot, the setting, the life-lesson presented. Here are some great quotes:
Zoe: ”I love Wolf Girl because she shows courage, compassion and that she won’t give up, no matter what.”
Kylie: “My novel is about FRENEMIES: her friends changed but she didn’t”.
Cylus: “I think the Harry Potter movies are violent, graphic and beyond my years, but I want to give the novels a chance and see if they are better”.
Michael K: “I love reading because I feel like I am in the book with the characters, but I am invisible”.
Fletcher: “I love books based in history because I remember lessons I have had but I get so much detail”.
When children express their thoughts, their minds can really grasp their deep thinking.
Regards,
Mandy Thompson
We listened to “Humpty Dumpty en el pared” and practised some new vocabulary. We cut and completed a puzzle of Humpty – putting him together again with some tiritas (bandaids).
We have been learning new vocabulary for our “Mi Casa” topic. In this task we drew our dormitorios (bedrooms) and labelled the furniture and items in them.
The Green Space continues to be a hive of activity across all year levels, and it was lovely to see plenty of visitors on the Welcome Picnic night.
There have been a quite a few new reception students exploring the garden, asking fantastic questions and joining in with jobs like watering and digging potatoes. A big group of students were thrilled to be harvesting this season's potato crop, we look forward to cooking and sharing them soon - some of you might've heard some amazing potato stories at home!
The 3/4 class has visited the space during lesson time, learning about how we can all help to care for the natural environment, and how we can use native ingredients in cooking. The year 5 class has also visited the Green Space in their design and tech lesson, we created a list of guidelines for working safely in a garden environment, we have also planted seeds so that we can observe their growth and development across the term.
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