St. Columba's Primary School
NEWSLETTER | TERM 3 | WEEK 1 | 21 JULY 2022
From the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back to what looks like being a very challenging term due to the rise in Covid within the community. I hope everyone was able to enjoy a well-deserved break over the school holidays.
I have sent home a letter today, via email to all families from the Executive Director of Catholic Education regarding students wearing masks to school. Please note that at this stage it is still only a request and is not a mandate from the Health Dept.
We have a very busy term ahead with our students participating in the Performing Arts Festival, the Feast Day of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop and our school Athletics Carnival.
A reminder that with the cold weather, students may wear black gloves and scarves to school and girls may also wear black or dark green tights under their dress.
Please note that the P&F meeting has been rescheduled to Tuesday, 9 August to enable Siobhan Allen, Executive Officer for Catholic Schools WA (the Parent Body for Catholic School P&Fs) to be in attendance to talk about the role of the P&F, it's functions and the new processes that will come into effect from the start of 2023.
A reminder, students will finish this term on Wednesday, 21 September.
God Bless
Allen McMahon
Principal
Important dates
Friday, 29 July - Assembly 3W
Monday, 1 August - Performing Arts Festival Year 1
Wednesday, 3 August - Performing Arts Festival Year 2
Friday, 5 August - Pyjama Day (gold coin donation)
Merit award winners - Week 2
Year 1G - Nicholas, Henry
Year 1W - William, James. M
Year 2G - Noah
Year 2W - Arthur, Caroline
Year 3G - Leah
Year 3W - Miles
Year 4G - Valentine, James
Year 4W - Bonnie, Denim
Year 5G - Annabelle, Matthew
Year 5W - Milani, Maya
Year 6G - Nanditha, Ben
Year 6W - Tiago, Isabella
Vinnies Winter Appeal
The Vinnies Winter Appeal is this term's Catholic Charity Fundraiser the school will support.
This year Vinnies have asked us to collect sleeping bags and blankets, ensuring that all items donated are in good clean condition.
With the help of the wonderful P & F this fundraiser will run for the first 3 weeks of Term 3 (Thursday 21 July – Friday 5 August), culminating in a Pyjama Day (gold coin donation) on Friday, 5 August.
The P & F will distribute a washing basket to all classes and we encourage students to bring in blankets and sleeping bags to donate to those who need them. Students can bring these to school and place in the baskets for collection.
P & F representatives will empty the baskets at regular intervals and store the items for donation.
We thank parents in advance for their support of this charitable initiative.
St Columba's Parent and Caregiver Survey (PaCS) – Parent & Caregiver Voice
We are currently collecting information to help us make informed decisions about how we can improve our school. The aim of this process is to build and maintain a positive school climate in which your child/children will flourish. To help us in our efforts, we are inviting you to respond to the Parent and Caregiver Survey (PaCS), developed at Curtin University. Your response will provide us with the information and foundational focus points that we will use in planning our school improvement efforts.
Your confidentiality
To protect your confidentiality, the PaCS is completely anonymous, there are no names attached to the data and there is no way for us to access your individual response. All responses go directly to NSI, where the results are analysed and aggregated into feedback reports. NSI is bound by a Code of Ethics and follows strict professional conduct.
Use of the data
NSI will aggregate all responses and provide us with a comprehensive feedback report. To enable us to target our decision- making, we may be provided with information based on your background information (e.g., are you the mother, father or caregiver). To protect your anonymity, we will only be provided with this information when responses from four or more people fall within any given category.
How to complete the survey
Parents go to www.NSIPartnerships.com.au and enter the code SCPACS in the Start Questionnaire field.
Using the information above, you will be taken to our school’s PaCS where you will be asked to respond to statements that ask about your perception of different aspects of the school climate. These statements are about practices that may take place in our school, and we ask that you indicate how often you feel each statement takes place. All statements require your response.
The PaCS will ask you to indicate whether you are responding once for all of your children or if you are responding separately for each child. If you decide to respond once for all your children, you will not be asked to tell us what year level each child is in.
The survey will close on Friday 5 August (end of Week 3) and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.
If you require more information or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or the NSI Team. Email: jesse.yock@cewa.edu.au or NSITeam@NSIPartnerships.com.au
Your time and consideration are appreciated, and we look forward to working with you to improve our school.
Bishop’s Religious Literacy Assessment
At the request of the Western Australian Bishops, Year 3 and Year 5 students in Catholic schools across Western Australia will take part in The Bishops' Religious Literacy Assessment (BRLA) from the week commencing Monday 25 July in Term Three. The assessment will be accessible to students only online.
Students enrolled in Year 3, and Year 5 who are following a regular classroom program will participate.
The Year 3 BRLA Assessment will take place on Thursday 4 August.
The Year 5 BRLA Assessment will take place on Wednesday 3 August.
Friday 5 August is the catch up day for all BRLA Assessments.
Students will have the opportunity to participate in a practice test and familiarise themselves with the test environment in the week preceding the assessment.
The Nature and Role of the BRLA
The Bishops' Religious Literacy Assessment is a large-scale, standardised assessment that consists of Religious Education (RE) tests developed and marked by the Office of Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA). The purpose of the BRLA is to measure student learning of the content in the RE curriculum. Formal school and student reports are produced by the Office and will become available to schools in Term Four.
The BRLA provides a ‘point in time’ snapshot of student performance in RE. Students’ knowledge and understanding of the content of the RE curriculum is assessed using a combination of multiple choice, short and extended response items. Students’ faith is not assessed. The use of the BRLA complements the school-based assessment programs in RE.
ICAS Online Academic Competition - register by Monday, 1 August
ICAS is an online academic competition that is designed to assess students’ higher order thinking and problem-solving skills. At St Columba’s we will be offering the Maths competition in 2022.
Each assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for recognition and development. Every student who participates will receive a printed certificate and an online results report. Top performers will be eligible for medals.
Enrolment - we welcome new families
Help Catherine reach her fundraising goal - so close!
St Columba's parent Catherine Stokes will be sleeping out in the cold later this month to raise money for Vinnies Australia to provide crisis accommodation, food, healthcare, counselling, education, employment, and support to find a permanent home for thousands of people who experience homelessness. If you would like to help ensure Vinnies Australia can continue to be there, providing support services to get people experiencing homelessness back on their feet, please donate to the link below:
P&F News
Welcome back everyone!
On behalf of the P&F, I hope everyone had a lovely school holiday break. A few exciting announcements from me to share:
BASKETBALL
For those of you that signed up for basketball, you should have received an email from the P&F regarding your enrolment. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
BIG EVENT FOR THE CHILDREN
This term, I am excited to announce that the children will be participating in COLOUR RUN! The event will be held on the last day of Term 3, Wednesday 21 September.
More information to come.
FRIEND-RAISER EVENT FOR THE ADULTS
I am excited to announce the P&F will be hosting a “Night in White”. Think Dîner En Blanc, St Columba’s style. The event will be held on Saturday evening, 5 November so please keep this date free. I better start looking for something white to wear.
We have a big term ahead of us, with lots of wonderful P&F initiatives. Watch this space!
Thanks,
Hayley Mitchell
P&F President
Dads of St. Columba's Footy Tipping 2022
Hello St. Columba’s Families,
Footy Tipping information will be updated in the Week 2 newsletter.
Regards,
Todd Dawson
Scholastic Books
Every child deserves access to quality and affordable books, and Scholastic Book Club offers great prices with Value Books as low as $3 on every issue of Book Club. Best of all, if you order on Issue 5 you can select FREE BOOKS!
Place your Issue 5 order on LOOP to select up to 3 FREE BOOKS. To qualify all you have to do is spend over $30 and you can select 1 FREE book, or spend over $50 and you can select 2 FREE books or over $70 and you can select 3 FREE titles from a special online list. The list will display after you create your order and head to the checkout. See www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP for more information.
Did you know that 20% of your Book Club order goes back to our school in Scholastic Rewards? These Rewards are redeemed on Books and Educational Resources which helps stretch our budget further.
Entertainment Books
The year starts from the date of purchase of your Entertainment Book.
Bricks 4 Kidz - Term 3
School Term Dates
Term 2: Wednesday, April 27 to Friday, 1 July 2022
Term 3: Tuesday, 19 July to Wednesday, 21 September 2022
Term 4: Tuesday, 11 October to Friday, 9 December 2022
Pupil Free Dates
Term 3: Monday, 18 July, Thursday, 22 September and Friday, 23 September (Catholic Day)
Term 4: Monday, 10 October 2022
Sacrament Dates
Reconciliation: Saturday, 12 November at 10am
St Columba's Catholic Primary School
Email: admin@stcolumbassp.wa.edu.au
Website: https://www.stcolumbassp.wa.edu.au/
Location: 30 York Street, South Perth WA 6151, Australia
Phone: (08) 6436 9500
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Education/St-Columbas-Catholic-Primary-School-South-Perth-173160579973945/