Dear Parents and Carers,

On Tuesday the 8th August we celebrated the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop in a number of ways and finished with a Prayer Service on Tuesday afternoon. Mary MacKillop is Australia’s first saint. Mary started a school in a stable in Penola, South Australia where she set about educating poor children from the bush. She founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites), a congregation of religious sisters that established a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australasia with an emphasis on education for the rural poor.

The Principal’s Conference I attended in Hobart has provided some great networking opportunities and it was great to see that the Tasmanian Catholic schools are also taking the Science of learning through their school system. They, along with the Canberra Goulbourn Catholic Schools are beginning to implement the Science of Reading which we began implementing in 2022. The programme is proving to be highly successful and we will be teaming up with two other WA Catholic Schools in the staff only week at the end of the year, to further our knowledge through PD with Lorraine Hammond, who is well known in Science of Learning circles.

Our Book Fair was an outstanding success and Mrs La Rosa is to be commended for her work involved in organising the event. It will now become an annual event for the school.

Congratulations to the Robocup team over the weekend. The results can be found in this newsletter.

Today we farewell Mrs Sadowski who is leaving the school to work in a different role with the Literacy Group MultiLit. We wish her well and thank her for her wonderful service to the school and we wish her well in her new role. However, we will still see her around in her new role and as a parent. We also welcome Mrs Gemma Tsang who will replace Mrs Sadowski. Mrs Tsang brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the school and will be a great addition, and support, to our staff.

God bless and keep safe.

Allen McMahon

Principal

The Feast of the Assumption is one of the most important feast days of the year and a Holy Day of Obligation on the official Roman Catholic Church calendar.

By tradition, the holy day is observed every August 15th. This year, the Feast of the Assumption occurs on Tuesday, 15 August 2023.

According to Roman Catholic theology, Mary was "assumed body and soul into heavenly glory" several years after her son, Jesus, ascended into heaven.

Students will learn about this important Feast Day in their Religious Education classes this week at their developmentally appropriate level.

A huge congratulations to Year 6 students, Emma B and Ciara H who won the Line Rescue, Aiden B and Matthew H were second in the Maze competition and our Year 5 students Valentina O, James M, Ari S and Toby L won the Onstage Performance Novice for the whole competition.

A big thank you to Ms Burnett for overseeing the event and all the parents that attended and helped throughout the day.

Creating a culture of Wellbeing allows all students and staff at St Columba’s to flourish.

We are exploring the move to a long-term sustainable wellbeing plan at St Columba’s, where wellbeing is about who we are and what we do. Wellbeing needs to be embedded across the whole year, rather than a focus week each term.

We are partnering with the P&F who have nominated two parents to assist us with the ‘parent voice’ when making decisions in this space.

There are already many exciting things happening in the Wellbeing sphere as the school looks to review and consolidate its wellness strategies and practices for staff, students and parents.

Students are still welcome to wear their sports uniform for the duration of Week 5 and there will still be no Homework. This is a great opportunity to use the extra time for some personal wellness activities.

The Vinnies Winter Appeal has concluded for 2023. Thank you to everyone who was able to donate clothing items, as well as monetary donations for St Vincent de Paul. Last Friday the initiative finished with a Pyjama Day for all classes. In total we raised $493.55 - What an amazing effort!

St Vincent de Paul has collected the clothing to take to those in our local community who need them. What a great way to live our motto, “Charity & Peace” in the real world.

The Altar server’s Ministry is a unique one in the Catholic Church. Other than priests and deacons no-one else is allowed to so closely play a part in the preparation of the Eucharist. Your participation as an Altar server is special, you will do things that others will never do. You will learn things that others will never know. You will see the mass in ways that others may never see it. Above all, you will do it all for the Honour and Glory of God.

Please note that Altar servers are only scheduled for one Mass per month.

The training is open to those children who have received their first holy Eucharist and are interested in Altar serving at St Columba’s Parish.

Training sessions will begin from Saturday, 19 August 2023 at 3:30pm in the Parish Centre.

Children should be accompanied by a parent/guardian to all training sessions.

Please use the link below for expression of interest or contact Alice Mativavarira 0452 557 526 for more information.

Calling all Dads and Father Figures,

You are invited to the Father's Day Breakfast Event, run by our P & F Team, on Wednesday, 30 August from 7:30-9:00am in Kalyara Mia (Undercover Area).

This event is for dads and father figures who have children in Kindy to Year 6. (Pre-Kindy Dads will have a separate event. Class teachers will send communications regarding this.)

The P & F will provide a sausage sizzle and small selection of other items. #yesplease

We ask Dads (or mums on their behalf) to reply to our Expression of Interest form below to allow the P & F to ascertain numbers for catering purposes. We ask for this to be completed by COB Friday 18 August.

We are excited to be able to offer this community event for our dads and father figures.

Regards,

P & F Team

The cards will be $16.00 per pack, with $5.00 from every pack going to the P&F.

Ordering is open until the end of August.

Term 3: Monday, 17 July to Thursday, 21 September 2023

Term 4: Monday, 9 October to Friday, 8 December 2023

Term 3: Friday 22 September

Term 4: None

Reconciliation: Saturday, 11 November at 10am