St Colman's School - Home Hill eNewsletter

Acknowledgement of Country

We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land the Birri-Gubba Juru people and pay our respects to the elders past, present and future for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Indigenous Australia.

Principal & Teaching and Learning Update

Another term has flown past and it won't be long before we will see the Christmas decoration out at the shops. In the newsletter we have included a draft calendar for Term 4 - please note Year 6 Graduation and School Concert dates.

Thank you to all our teachers who have been conducting Three Way Conferences this week. It is wonderful to see so many parents and students attending and setting educational and social goals for the next term.

Next term we willl be having our Swimming Water Awareness program on Friday and then our Swimming Carnival will be held on Thursday 10th November (Week 6 Term 4). The success of this program is dependent on parents assisting. Notes will go out next week please consider just offering a few hours assistance.

Prep 2023 Interviews have commenced and it is wonderful to meet the new preps and their parents. Our Connecting Prep sessions will also be commencing next term. This is a program to get our 2023 preps ready for big school. It is also a time when families that are not sure if St Colman's is the right place for their child can experience our wonderful school.

These are sessions for the children to meet their class friends and teacher

Monday 10th October 9am – 11.15am (Please pack Morning tea, fruit, drink and a hat)

Monday 17th October 9am – 11.15am (Please pack Morning tea, fruit, drink and a hat)

Monday 24th October 9am – 1.30pm (Please pack Morning tea, fruit, lunch, drink and a hat)

Monday 31st October 9am – 1.30pm (Please pack Morning tea, fruit, lunch, drink and a hat)

Monday 7th November 9am – 3.00pm (Please pack Afternoon tea, fruit, lunch, drink and a hat)

Monday 14th November 9am – 3.00pm (Please pack Afternoon tea, fruit, lunch, drink and a hat)

Monday 21st November 9am – 3.00pm (Please pack Afternoon tea, fruit, lunch, drink and a hat)

Staffing Announcement

With mixed emotions, we would like to announce that Mrs Siobhan Walsh (Prep Teacher) has been successful in gaining a transfer to Southern Cross Primary Townsville, commencing 2023.

Siobhan has been a wonderful teacher at St Colman’s School since 2019 and has offered a great deal to the school. There will be an opportunity in Term 4 to thank Siobhan for all her work at the school. The new prep teacher will be announced in Term 4 Week 1. We wish Siobhan and her husband Brendan all the best in their new adventure in Townsville.

Teaching and Learning

At the end of each term students are re tested for their reading age, sight word knowledge and also their writing development. This enables teachers to continue to plan for your child’s abilities and ensure that they are being challenged to continue to grow. This term we will also be PAT testing. PAT testing is in the area of Maths and Reading. The testing is on online and takes approximately 60 minutes. Students in Year 2 - 6 complete the testing.

Last Friday St Colman's School staff joined with St Francis School Ayr for our Reflective Practice Day. The focus for the morning was Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum, the changes, the reasons for the changes and an outline of how it will be implemented.

As part of the day we began our focus on developing Reading and writing through quality literature and teaching practices. Teachers examined new rubrics that will be used across the schools to help develop quality writing. Teachers will begin to look at Mentor texts next term. Mentor texts are written pieces that serve as an example of good writing for student writers. The texts are read for the purpose of studying the author's craft, or the way the author uses words and structures the writing. The goal is to provide students a model they could emulate in crafting their own piece.

Class Assemblies

Year 3/4 - Week 9 - Friday 9th September
Prep - Week 10 - Friday 16th September (Part of Grandparents Day)

Father's Day Celebrations

Due to a large amount of our dads working during the crushing we have realised that most will be unable to attend a Father's Day breakfast. To still celebrate our wonderful dads and the importance they are in our life we would like to host the following for them:

Friday 28st October (Week 4 Term 4)

5.30pm - Pizza and drinks ($5 per person)

6.30pm - Disco ( Dad can stay and chat or dance or come back to pick up the kids)

7.30pm - End of disco pick up time.

Have you RSVP for Grandpaprents Day ?

Next Friday Number are required NOW

Religious Education News

This Thursday we celebrate the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne.

At our last whole School mass we focused on Two Great Marys - Mary MacKillop and Mary the Mother of Jesus. Mary Mackillop was the founder of the Sisters of Joseph who started many of our schools in Australia. She has been declared Australia's first saint.

These two women remind us of the importance of love and how these two women stood strong in their faith overcoming obstacles in front of them.

At our mass we also brought up inspirational quotes from Mary Mackillop and have left these in the church to help others gain strength and wisdom from them.

Book Week

Congratulations to Thea Woods who was the winner of our Book Week Raffle. Thank you to all families that supported our BookFair. A huge thank you to Mrs Pont for all her work with the Book Fair. The school was able to purchase over $500 worht of books from the fairs takings.

Prep Community Walk

Recently the Prep students went on their community walk with their class buddies. They enjoyed locating all the different yet important services we have here in Home Hill. They thought it was great being able to call Mrs Gibson back at school to let her know they were having fun.

Sports News

Congratulations to Zachary Dale who competed in the North Queensland Trials in Townsville last week. Zachary participated in 800m and 200m. Zachary achieved a wonderful result of 4th in 800m breaking his personal best of 2 minutes 42 seconds. This is a wonderful achievement.