Term 4, Week 10

Friday 9th December 2016 Dear Parents & Carers, Last night was a wonderful celebration of community as we came together and shared Christimas carols and BBQ tea. Thank you to all those families who supported this event and to the children for leading us in such beautiful singing. As Christmas draws closer we keep in mind those in our community who will find this season challenging. Our school community supports others at this time of year through a number of initiatives. In the school office at the moment is the Giving Tree and the mounting pile of gifts is testament to the kindness and generosity of our school community. As is the large collection of Hampers filled with Christmas goodies being put together for members of our parish who are isolated or unwell. These initiatives are particularly important in the life of a Catholic school. Our commitment to social justice issues is one of the touchstones of our Catholic identity and how we make our faith real, alive and meaningful. This will be our final newsletter for 2016. I thank you all for your support over the last year and wish all families a very happy and holy Christmas. I look forward to working alongside you in 2017.

“May you be blessed with …. The spirit of the season, which is Peace,

The gladness of the season, which is Hope, The gift of the season, which is Joy

And the heart of the season, which is Love.”

Last Day of School The last day of school for all children is next Friday December 16th. Please note that school finishes at 3.15pm. The school office will be open until 12.30 on Tuesday 20th December.

DIARY DATES

Mon 12th December Green House (Donegal)

only Casual Clothes Day

Tue 13th December

Prep Excursion to Sovereign Hill

Wed 14th December

12.00 Final School Mass Parent Helper Shared

Lunch Student Reports sent home

Thurs 15th December

Gr3/4 excursion to Eureka Swimming Pool

Graduation Liturgy/ Supper

Fri 16th December

Gr1/2 Major League/Inflatable World Gr5/6 Lake Excursion 3.15 Students finish

Mon 30th January 2017

Staff Resume

Tues 31st & Wed 1st Feb

Student testing days

Thurs 2nd & Fri 3rd Feb

Staff PD days

Mon 6th February

All students start Term 1

Farewell At the end of this year we farewell a number of staff members; Jo Macdonald, Sylvia Doust and Sam Harrison. Jo joined our school community earlier this year replacing Rachel Martino in the 5/6 Learning Community. Jo has brought considerable experience to our school community and an openess to work in collaboration with others as part of a close knit team. Jo has also assisted with the Mini Vinnies group and has worked hard to enhance out Catholic Culture. Sylvia returned to St Columba’s as a Learning Support Officer this year after a period of leave to focus on her own artwork. It has been a great opportunity for our students and staff to tap into her wealth of creative talents. Sam joined our school community mid way through 2015 and has assisted Shane in ICT classes for the last 18 months. Sam brings a wealth of knowledge and skills in ICT and a willingness to assist wherever needed. We thank Jo, Sylvia and Sam for their service and commitment to our students and school and wish them every happiness and success for future endeavours. We also farewell our grade 6 students and Zac Proccocino, Charlie Sergeant- Crowe, Lily Cielo and Freya Bennett and wish them all the very best at their new schools.

Welcome Next year we welcome three new Learning Support Officers to our school community; Tony Davis, Angela Hayward and Margery (Marge) Crosier. Tony, Ange and Marge have spent considerable time in our school this year, either completing placement or volunteering in the learning communities. We also welcome back to St Columba’s Rachel Martino from a period of leave. It will be wonderful to have Rachel back with us again.

Condolences Our deepest condolences to Maree, Luke, Isla and Esther Cooper and their family on the death of Maree’s father Trevor Jeffreys last Sunday. House Captains 2017 Congratulations to the following students who have been chosen by the students and staff as leaders of their House Groups for 2017: Gold (Iona) Meg Maher and Will Middleton Green (Donegal) Darby Drew and Poppy Kingdom-Pearce Blue (Argyle) Chiara Basilio and Logan Clark Red (Clonard) Charlie Richardson and Breeanna Jeffrey Great Results in Learning & Teaching Over the last few weeks teachers have been completing end of year testing and analysing the results to better map the growth of our students. At this week’s staff meeting we reflected on the year that has been; investigating some of our data profiles in Literacy and Mathematics. One of the big celebrations for staff is the significant growth made by our students across all year levels. This can be put down to the hard work of the students and their teachers, providing engaging learning experiences that are

targeted to individual students needs. In our ‘inhouse data’ we saw a minimum of 70% of students achieving target goals and in most cases 90-100%.

One of the other measures we use to identify the impact of our teaching and programs is known as effect size. This is a standardised measure allowing us to compare the impact of what we are doing to other possible programs. An effect size of 0.4 is considered a full 12 months of learning growth. This is an average measure of the cohort and doesn’t represent individual students achievement. The table below shows the effect sizes for the 2016 school year.

By tracking and analysing this data we are able to identify what is currently working well for our students and which areas we need to develop. It also greatly informs our intervention programs, providing early identification of any learning challenges in order to provide targeted support, as well as recognising those students operating at the top end of their levels in order to engage them in learning tasks suited to their needs. The Development of Collaborative Skills in an Open Learning Environment Our school’s masterplan and design brief identified a number of critical areas related to the learning environment including; -The learning environment is supportive and productive, -The learning environment promotes independence, interdependence and self-motivation, -The classroom is a place suited to a wide range of dispositions. We have worked with the architect to ensure these are brought to life in our new buildings.

A recent report from the World Economic Forum (2016) identified the top ten work skills of the future as; Complex problem solving, Critical thinking, Creativity, People management, Coordinating with others, Emotional intelligence, Judgment and decision-making, Service orientation, Negotiation and Cognitive flexibility. These match similar reports from the OECD and other organisations.

Working in a collaborative environment strongly supports the development of many of these critical skills. It does this by allowing us to design learning experiences that connect not only with the mandated curriculum, but the behaviours and dispositions that are so important to success in future life. Rather than attempting to teach social skills and teamwork in abstract, artificial settings students are actively engaged in the process and it becomes an integral part of the success of their learning tasks. Developing these skills in a scaffolded, teacher supported environment affords students the opportunity to take risks with their learning and, through reflection unpack the impact their own decisions and judgements have on themselves and their peers. It also teaches students what it means to work in an environment where you are dependent on the various skills of the group for success and the importance of negotiation and delegation. Literacy Testing Dates for 2017 The two Literacy Testing dates for the beginning of 2017 will be Tuesday 31st January and Wednesday 1st February. This will apply to all students including our Preps for 2017. All testing will take place in your child’s classroom with their 2017 teacher. Please make sure that you have made a booking using the attached booking form. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact Chris in the office.

Change to our School Canonical Administrator Fr Adrian McInerney will be retiring as parish priest of Ballarat East in January. Fr Peter Sherman has been appointed to be Parish Priest of Ballarat East from January 25, 2017. With Fr Peter’s move to Ballarat East, the parishes of Ballarat North and Wendouree will be vacant. Bishop Paul is currently inviting expressions of interest in the roles of Parish Priest for the Parish of Ballarat North and the Parish of Wendouree. The new appointments will mean changes in the Canonical Administrators for both St Columba’s and OLHC schools. We congratulate Fr Peter on his new appointment.

Reading Numeracy

Year 2 0.47 0.83

Year 3 0.66 0.53

Year 4 0.71 0.54

Year 5 0.62 0.34

Year 6 0.62 0.62

School Reports Semester 2 school reports will be sent home with children next Wednesday 14th December. Please make the time to sit with your child and celebrate their successes from this year. Kris Kringle This year we will not be organizing Kris Kringle in Learning Groups with the students. Instead we are encouraging our students to focus on the Christmas message of giving to those in need. Families are encouraged to support our school’s Giving Tree. End of School Mass and Parent Helpers Thank You Lunch Next Wednesday 14th December we will celebrate the 2016 school year through Mass. All parents, grandparents and friends are invited to join us in this celebration at 12 noon in the St Columba’s Church. Following Mass will be a Parent Helpers Thank You Lunch. We invite ALL parents (grandparents, friends ….) who have assisted the school and the students in any way this year to come along and share lunch with the staff to thank you for your generosity and support. The lunch will be held in the staff room at 1pm. Please RSVP via the Caremonkey email. The school would not be able to function as it does without the help and support of parents and friends of the school. Help is given in so many different ways, and we would like to acknowledge and thank all those who have supported us. Please pass on this invitation to grandparents, and friends who have assisted. Australasian Problem Solving Mathematical Olympiad Congratulations to all of our participants in the Maths Olympiad team. Mr and Mrs Forrest were very impressed with the effort and significant gains made by these students when working on challenging maths problems. We wish them all the best and hope that they continue to challenge themselves in this area of the curriculum.

Well done to: Angus Murnane - Top 20% and Top Individual Score for St. Columba’s

Thomas Smart - Top 30% and Special Achievement Award

Billy Burton - Top 40% and Honourable Mention

Remi Currie - Top 40% and Honourable Mention

Ben Mornane - Top 40%

Bella Clark - Top 50%

Lachlan Jolly - Top 50%

Participation Jarrah Bowman Antonella Hayward

Cailin O’Hehir Oliver Huf Elliott Rees Anna Cronin

Jaime Sergeant-Crowe Rosie Todd

Callan Shillington Emily Severino

Olivia Black Tess Palmer Nic Procaccino Harry Chapman

Chiara Basilio Riley Rees

Darby Drew Padraic Murphy

Stephanie Mornane Kaitlyn Clark

Charlotte Walter

Kim Butler Principal

R E News Advent As a Catholic School we are a community, which celebrates our Catholic Story and traditions and recognise Christ is at the centre of our lives. An Advent Prayer for the Fourth Week of Advent God of Love, Your son, Jesus, is your greatest gift to us. He is a sign of your love. Help us walk in that love during the weeks of Advent, As we wait and prepare for his coming. We pray in the name of Jesus, our Saviour. Amen. Carols Last night we celebrated the end of the year through our community carols evening. This involved the children from our school and members of the parish. This was a great community gathering linking our parish and school groups as belonging to one St. Columba’s community. I thank all of the children and staff for the work that has gone into preparing this event. A special thanks to Ruth Hackwill for providing the backing music and for preparing the programme. We would like to thank Paddy Ryan, Principal from Our Lady Help of Christians for allowing us to use their hall and facilities due to the inclement weather. Also we need to extend a special thanks to Stephen and Jodie Darbin for so generously donating all of the bread from their Baker’s Delight shop. This was greatly appreciated. We would like to acknowledge the volunteers from the Ballarat East Rotary Club who stood in the cold to cook the food for the barbeque.

Godly Play in the Parish Godly Play sessions will be taking place at the 10am Sunday Mass starting on December 4th and continuing for the following three weeks of Advent. It takes place that the Sunday morning 10am Mass in the Church foyer. The children from the ages of 4-12 years are invited to take part. There will be a cuppa after Mass so please bring a plate to share after Mass.

Mini Vinnie’s News We would like to acknowledge the students from Grades 3 to 6 who volunteered their time to join our Mini Vinnie’s group this year. It has been a very positive way for us to raise funds for those in need and also link with our parish St. Vincent de Paul group. We have raised funds for our local St. Vincent de Paul Conference group as well as Caritas Australia, Catholic Mission and the Ryder Cheshire Foundation. We have continued to assist the funding of educational cost for five students from the Philippines through the St. Vincent de Paul Assist a Student Fund. We are so proud of the way the children interact with the residents from Hailey House. The children have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of visiting Hailey House and it is wonderful to see the children forming relationships in such a positive way. We would like to extend our appreciation for all of the Grade 6 students who have been a part of this group this year. We would like to acknowledge those who held a leadership position for 2016 particularly Georgia Dridan as President, Brodie Bull as Vice President, Meg lkstrums as Secretary and Emerson O’ Gorman for Treasurer. Special thanks to Hannah Streulens, Hannah Ryan, Tess Tigchelaar, Molly Fredericks, Sienna Hoiles, Zoe Marios, Grace Goad, Rose Murnane, Shae Cronin, Zara Hayward, Phoebe Buck, Isabella Wallis, Kiera Speechley, Keely Watt, Savannah Kennedy, Olivia Kennedy, Ella Barlow, Abby Blee, Sadie Woods, Macy Donaldson, Charlotte Doherty, Abbey Britt, Blake Dridan, Olivia Black, Anna Cronin, Charlotte Walter, Leonora Duffy, Antonella Hayward and Violett Wood. Thanks to Rachel Martino for preparing the children to perform carols for the residents on Monday. It was a very special gathering. We look forward to continuing the visits in 2017. Mission Efforts We are very fortunate to belong to such a generous and giving community. Thank you very much for all of those families who have contributed items for the Christmas hampers. These are being prepared to be given to members of our parish who are unable to attend mass and receive communion from a member of our parish Ministers of the Eucharist. Graduation Liturgy-Thursday 15th December at 6pm Alison Thorpe - REC

Japanese News – Eric Wilson

Japanese Assistant Teacher at St Columba's!

Can you help?

We are very excited to welcome an assistant Japanese teacher to St Columba's School in 2017. This will be an exciting opportunity for our students to learn even more about Japanese language and culture in their second year of learning Japanese.

Shoichiro Niwa Sensei is a university student from Osaka who is keen to improve his English while helping others with Japanese. He will be sharing his time between St Columba's School and St Alipius School. Niwa Sensei will arrive at the beginning of February next year until December but he needs a family or two who would be willing to host him during his stay. School will provide a weekly payment to help cover accommodation and meals.

Please let Erica Sensei know if you are interested in hosting for a term or more throughout 2017. Thank you.

Erica: ewilson@scballarat.catholic.edu.au

Parents and Friends On behalf of the school community I would like to take the opportunity to thank Megan Bourke for her time, commitment and effort over the last 2 years as she steps down as chair of the P&F committee. With big shoes to fill I am very excited about 2017 and being able to work with our committee to raise funds to support our school and to continue to support the culture of the St Columba’s community. If you have any questions or input or are interested in being involved in the committee, please contact one of the members below; Janet Smith - 0402 835 936 Tash Bryant - 0429798966 Tam Warland - 0418 213 298 Kim Hughes - 0409 002 000 The first P&F meeting for 2017 will be held on Monday 13th February 6.30pm at North Britain Hotel. All Welcome. Book Club Our school has managed to run a very successful book club this year as we were unable to host a book fair due to space limitations with the renovations. During 2016, 4 book club catalogues went home and we managed to earn our school a total of $2,207.60 reward points. This is a fantastic effort and was only possible with the support of our families who purchased scholastic books. Book Club works on a reward system, 20% of purchases come back to the school in the form of reward points. Each point = $1. These rewards are then used by the school to purchase resources for our learning communities. We hope all the children have enjoyed book club and choosing titles they enjoy. We look forward to continuing with book club during 2017 - Happy Summer Reading.

5 cent challenge winner Donegal (Green house) have won the 5cent challenge, with a total of: $211.45, Iona (Gold) $153.10, Clonard (Red) $149.40 and Argyle (Blue) $109.90. A total of $623.85 overall. All the children from Donegal house only, will celebrate their win with a casual clothes day on Monday 12th December. Thank you to everyone that helped raise all the 5 cent coins.

Uniform Shop Roster The uniform shop will be open on Wednesday the 14th December for the final time this year. You can leave an order at the office and it will be filled ready for you to collect be the end of the week. Volunteers for Wednesday are: Janet Smith & Megan Britt

Icy Pole Volunteers for Friday the 16th December are: Rebecca Jolly & Lisa Warland

Sustainability News A big thank you to all of our 2016 Environmental Reps for all of their hard work this year! They have monitored our waste by counting our wrappers each day, encouraging “No Packet November” and being a part of EnviroWeek. They have learnt a lot about how worm farms can help our environment and given up some of their time to be able to care for our new worm farms across the school. Our junior enviro-reps also helped to complete a waste and litter audit, taking photos and looking for places where rubbish is most common in our school as well as the types of rubbish we are creating.

Thank you so much to Shae Cronin, Ted Smith, Stephanie Clark, Zac Procaccino, Jacob Britt, Enna Rinaldi, Milla Kingdom-Pearce, Ashton Trainor, Charlie Richardson, Olivia Black, Charlotte Walter, Lachlan Jolly, Will Middleton, Phoebe Godbold, Finn Haupt, Blake O’Brien, Eden James, Max Kinniburgh, Sophie Huf, Ava Taylor, Ben Rivett, Maryellen Rogers, Archie Todd, Lachlan Rowe, Scarlet Lawlor, Eddy Weyers and Logan Munro.

Worm Farms - holiday help wanted! Would you like to take care of your Learning Community’s worms over the holidays? Please see your teacher if you:

- Have a shady spot for them to sit (they can’t be in the sun!)

- Will be away no longer than 4 or 5 days at a time (they can survive without food a couple of weeks but not

water, especially in Summer).

- Have a small amount of fruit, vegetable and garden scraps that you can mush up and feed to the worms

weekly.

- Water must either be sat in an open bowl for 24 hours or so to rid chemicals, or tank water is fine.

They are VERY easy to care for, just need to stay cool and damp in the warm weather. No Packet November Well done to all of the students who made such an effort to bring wrapper free lunches for the entire month of November. Looking at our record sheets about one third of all who counted brought zero wrappers every day! Let’s keep these great habits in place for 2017. Annual Report We have achieved many things this year! Please see the Environmental Education tab under “Teaching and Learning” on our school website to see our annual review. Compost Our worm farms are lots of fun and we have learnt a lot this year about how they can care for our earth. However we do have a huge amount of food scraps that they cannot keep up with. If you are handy and have a solution for a composting system at our school (easy for kids, handle a lot of fruit, easy to turn and put onto the garden) we would LOVE to hear from you. If you can help us out at the start of next year please contact me at ksiebring@scballarat.catholic.edu.au thanks for a great year everybody! Kelly.

Arts News At assembly this week we recognised the children in each class who took on an Arts Representative position in 2016. We thank them for their input and leadership throughout the year.

LG1 Hannah S & Dellah J

LG2 Eliza J & Taj B

LG3 Liam H & Macy D

LG4 Alexandria G & Darcy C

LG5 Roy G & Jarrah B

LG6 Stephanie M & Jack D

LG7 Bridget M & Ethan Y

LG9 Beth P & Asha C

LG10 Rex B & Agatha M

LG11 Abbey D & Grace G

LG12 Billy D & Alyssa B

LG13 Grace V & Bea M

LG14 Eamon C & Lily K

Regent Multiplex Arts Awards For the second time this year, St. Columba’s received movie awards/prizes from the Regent Multiplex Cinema. These were generously donated by the Regent to promote and encourage Visual and/or Performing Arts within schools. On this occasion the children from Grades 3 – 6 were invited to nominate themselves or friends to receive these awards. We received many nominations so it was very difficult to select the winning candidates. At assembly we presented three students with Regent Multiplex prizes for excellence, Jaime Sergeant-Crowe, Roy Gilbert and Lachlan Jolly. Congratulations to these students. We encourage them to continue to strive for excellence and follow their passions in the Arts.

LOST PROPERTY We have a large number of woollen jumpers, rugby tops, tracksuit pants in lost property along with drink bottles and lunch containers. We have set a table up in the office and encourage families to have a look if your child has misplaced anything. Lost a size 8 woollen jumper named Angus Muller. If found please return to LG 9 or the office. Lost two woollen jumpers named Bella Miller size 6. If found please return to LG10 or the office.

Junior Learning Community News – Prep

PREP COMMUNITY Many thanks to our volunteers who assisted with our Excursion to the Zoo. It was a wonderful day. We now look forward to our final Excursion to Sovereign Hill on Tuesday. Please make sure you have accepted your child to attend via Caremonkey. Next week, we will begin our clean up - we ask for volunteers to assist with this whenever you are free. We have compiled a fantastic list of jobs which is displayed on our communication board please feel free to add your name to the list. :) If you would like to babysit our worms for the holidays please let us know. All dot books must be returned to school by Tuesday so we can get these repaired and sorted. PHOTO OPPORTUNITY FOR LAST DAY: If you would like a final end of year photo of your child, we will set up the lightbox sign in front of the cubby. This will be there all week. Thank you all for what has been an exciting and fun filled year for all!