Columba Catholic College Newsletter Volume 26 No. 7 - 25th May 2023
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Dear Columba Families,
As we head into the second half of the term there are so many wonderful things to share and to celebrate as a community here at Columba.
Learning is at the centre of our mission. Being in the classroom is the most effective way for students to learn and grow. A gentle reminder to all families as we head into the winter flu season that if your child is unwell, please keep them home. Students are unable to fully engage in learning when they are not feeling their best. We also need to ensure the safety and wellbeing of your child, our student body and our staff. We appreciate your ongoing support with this matter.
Last week we celebrated National Boarding Week. The theme was The Patchwork of Boarding. Students participated in a range of activities including a formal dinner, wellbeing activities, a Boys' Boarding vs Girls' Boarding MKR Challenge and Staff vs Student Softball game. I would like to give thanks to our residential staff, students and families. Residential life is unique. Without the ongoing partnership that exists between the College and our families, we couldn't continue to provide the opportunities to our students that we do. Thank you.
Last weekend the students of the Columba Cattle Club commenced their annual show circuit with the Malanda Cattle Camp. Special thanks to Sonia Wood and our team of dedicated parents and staff for their commitment to our students. The students learnt lots of new skills and built confidence across the three day program.
On Wednesday we joined over 2 million students from around Australia by participating in National Simultaneous Storytime. This event is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. This year we read the book The Speedy Sloth by Rebecca Young and Heath McKenzie. Special thanks to Mrs Paula Smith for organising this event for us and to the Year 6 students at St Mary’s for embracing this opportunity to bring the story to life so beautifully through their performance of the text.
Tomorrow is National Sorry Day. It is a day to acknowledge the strength of Stolen Generations survivors and reflect on how we can all play a part in the healing process for our people and nation. While this date carries great significance for the Stolen Generations and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is also commemorated by Australians right around the country.
Friday also marks the start of National Reconciliation Week and the theme for 2023 is Be a Voice for Generations. In the coming week we will recognise the importance of National Reconciliation Week with liturgies, activities and conversation to raise awareness of the importance of working in partnership with each other to benefit all members of our community. I thank each of you: our students, our families and staff for your commitment to the ongoing journey towards reconciliation.
Tomorrow night members of our community will gather at the Arthur Titley Centre for the 2023 Catholic Debutante Ball. Debutantes and their partners have been preparing for the last few months with the support of Miss Brooke Stevenson, Miss Lara Burns and Mrs Tonya Burgoine. We look forward to celebrating this important event and to welcoming Bishop Tim Harris and Father Emmanuel who will both be joining us to celebrate the occasion.
All the best for the fortnight ahead.
Many blessings,
Melissa Turner
PRINCIPAL
FROM THE DEPUTY PRINCIPAL - SM CAMPUS
We are halfway through the term and the St. Mary’s campus has already celebrated many events and are preparing for others.
At the beginning of this term we came together as a community to commemorate ANZAC Day at the Dawn service and the ANZAC Day March. Our school community came out to support this event and we were extremely proud of our students who marched for the school or community groups to remember those that gave their lives for our country.
The Country Music concert and dress parade was a wonderful morning for our students as they shared their gifts and talents in song, poetry and dance. With our best country dress we paraded for the judges and this year there were some very clever props accompanying our students. Later in the day we paraded with the school float and it was great to see so many of our students join the parade. This year the Columba float placed third in the school float competition. A big thank you to those that supported the making of the float; especially Mr Whitby, Mr Paxton, Ms Wood and Mrs McIntosh.
Our Mother’s day liturgy, led by our prep students, was a heartwarning celebration and recognition of the special role mothers play in loving and caring for our children. After the liturgy, many of our mums and grandmothers were able to visit classrooms where students shared activities with them before joining a lovely morning tea. Thanks go out to our Year 6 Canberra trip fundraising group who organised the mother’s day stall. Some fantastic gifts were on sale and I know our mums would have been feeling very special receiving these on their day.
Season 2 sport is Touch football this term. We have been fielding a boys and girls team over the last three weeks, apart from a forfeit, our girls remain undefeated. We wish both our teams good luck as they play their final games over the next two weeks. During the past few weeks we have sent a number of students to Charters Towers trials in a range of sports, including AFL, Rugby League, Tennis and Softball. It has been a great experience for our students and we wish Molly and Bridie in Year 6 all the best with their selection in the NQ trials next month.
Our choirs have been coming together at lunch times on Tuesday and Thursday since the beginning of term. Miss Ward is preparing our choirs for Eisteddfod and if the lyrical sounds floating from the dining hall on these days sre any indication we are in for a treat when they perform next term. For audience preparation we will have our choirs perform at assembly in the weeks leading up to their event. On music, instrumental piano lessons will start in two weeks. Expressions of interest have been taken from students and notes to parents will be forwarded early next week.
Fundraising for the Colour Fun Run has been very exciting. Students have raised $10,000 in the lead up to the Founders' Day event. One atttraction has certainly been the opportunity for those reaching money targets to slime a staff member! We still have a way to go with our target of $20,000 so I encourage you to jump online and register if you have not already done so. There will be a VIP tent on the day for the highest money raisers and I know some students are really keen to be in the tent and have all the treats on offer.
Cattle Club had a very successful trip away to the Malanda Show on the weekend. Four students from St. Mary’s went away with the team and all students are to be commended on the showing and handling of their cattle. They look forward to the upcoming shows in Winton and Cloncurry over the coming weeks.
Mrs Smith has been preparing our Reader’s Cup team over the last few weeks. They meet regularly in the library to discuss the books and pose questions that they might be asked at the reading challenge. There are two teams of students from Years 5 and 6 this year. The team challenge will be held in Townsville on 13 June. We wish them well and thank Mrs Smith for all she does in preparing our students each year for this event.
We are very busy with all the activities happening across the campus this term. It is great to see so many of our students sharing their gifts and talents.
Joanne Andrews
DEPUTY PRINCIPAL - SM CAMPUS
YEAR 5 NEWS
Year 5 have had an action-packed term 2 so far. We had a good time practising our Country Music festival performance, spreading kindness in the classroom, and engaging in fun learning activities.
We have been working on building strong relationships with one another in the classroom, by giving out class shout outs each week. These motivational messages lift our spirits and make our class a wonderful place of learning.
Speaking of learning… we have discovered what the Solar System is all about in Science, how to identify figurative language in English, how to add and subtract fractions in Maths, and how important exercise is for our body and mind in Health.
We are looking forward to the Colour Fun Run happening in Week 8. We hope to raise enough money for our school, and who knows? We might even get to slime a teacher!
Carmen Labuschagne
YEAR 5 TEACHER
YEAR 4/5 NEWS
In our classroom we are focusing on the sense of community and what it means to belong to one as we study this concept in Religion, HASS and English. Together we have made the connection of how belonging to a community invites us as individuals to believe in something larger than ourselves and our own individual perspectives. Breaking down this concept and exploring it across these different subjects invites us to build a strong connection with one another and work together as a class in unison.
In Religious Education, we have explored how Christian communities have been shown throughout stories and letters written in the Bible to be in relationship with God, others and creation. Recently, we read St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians and took note of how we treat one another as Christians in our community. We brainstormed as a class which values we are to uphold as Christians in our school and around Charters Towers according to St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians.
As a class we were able to demonstrate to our buddy class what it means to truly be in community with one another based on the values we wrote about in Religion. Year 4/5 students met with our Year 1 buddies a few Fridays ago to play games and gently lead the younger students through outdoor activities on the oval. Our class took this time to share how following rules and playing fairly connect our communal bonds. Most of the Year 4/5 students made the connection that they were teaching rules to the younger students similar to the rules we have been discussing in HASS: rules pertaining to our safety and the importance of playing fairly and respectfully with others.
The idea of what a community is and how we work together as one, has even shown up in our English lessons. This term our focus for English has centred around the writing process and why it’s important to prewrite, draft, offer feedback, edit and revise together. We have broken down the importance of working through these stages in groups, as a way to encourage one another along the way as we write.
It’s been really wonderful to see how the theme of community can turn up in these different areas of our learning and unite us as a class. As we move through the next few weeks we will continue to support each other and draw on the values and qualities we outlined that unite Christian communities such as ours. With the support of one another we will get through the term and do so in a very connected and loving way.
Samantha Heiskell
YEAR 4/5 TEACHER
YEAR 4 NEWS
Year 4 have been doing a fantastic job this term in English. We have been looking at how people use persuasive language and devices in advertising to make it more engaging and encourage you to buy their products. Everyone in Year 4 can easily remember the different types of persuasive devices using this acrostic poem.
The class will use these devices to persuade the class to buy a bike that they have created! We are all really enjoying this English unit, especially when the advertisements we have been reading are so exciting!
In mathematics, we have finished off our mapping assessment - where we looked at how to use compass directions on a map to find our way, and also to give accurate directions to locations. Now that we have finished that off, we have begun looking at telling time on analogue and digital clocks, as well as working out the elapsed time.
The class has found that sometimes we get a little tripped up when it comes to worded maths problems, especially when they include extra nonsense information to trick us! To try and fix this, we have begun learning the CUBES strategy - Circle the numbers, Underline the question, Box in the key words, Eliminate the extra information, and Solve and check.
For Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS), we are learning about the importance of rules and laws in society. These kids are all over why we need to have rules and laws - and we have found that they can all be summed up into these two statements - Be Safe and Be Respectful.
Lastly, in our science classes we have been focusing on how different materials are best suited for different jobs… like chocolate cannot be used as a cooking pot, and metal wouldn’t make very comfortable clothes! We will then be exploring how Indigenous Australians used different natural materials for clothing, weapons, and art - such as ochre. After this we will then test ochre mixed with different liquids to find if we can find a better suited mixture for some of the traditional uses.
Kara Dawson
YEAR FOUR TEACHER
IN THIS EDITION OF SCHOOLTV - RAISING GIRLS
Raising girls in today’s modern world can be a difficult path for parents and carers to navigate. These days, girls are transitioning to puberty a lot earlier than they used to and the physical, psychological and emotional changes they experience are challenging. As a result, by mid-adolescence, girls are twice as likely to develop mood disorders more so than boys.
Some parents and carers may feel uncertain about how best to support their daughter through the ups and downs of adolescence and how to keep the lines of communication open. With the rise of social media and technology, mental health difficulties in girls are increasing as often they are faced with online images that make it difficult to see themselves as acceptable. Ensuring a daughter’s opinions are heard and her views listened to, will go a long way towards making her feel loved and supported as she tries to establish her own identity.
In this edition of SchoolTV, adult carers will attain a clearer picture of what girls are wanting from their adult carers and how best to support them through adolescence.
We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SchoolTV and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact the Guidance Counsellor for further information or seek medical or professional help.
Here is the link to the Raising Girls edition of SchoolTV,
Aleesha Watson & Sarah Smith
GUIDANCE COUNSELLORS
RESIDENTIAL NEWS
Dear Residential Families,
The last two weeks have been a very busy one indeed for our boarding students. National Boarding Week commenced last Saturday which is a special time for us to acknowledge the wonderful contribution that boarders, their families and our residential staff make to the life of our Columba community.
The week kicked off with a formal dinner, which of course included a special cake for dessert; another highlight, which also involved delicious food was the annual, and highly competitive Columba My Kitchen Rules where, under the watchful eye of Mrs Burns and Mrs Jarmey, students worked long and hard to prepare a wonderful menu of steak, salad, potatoes and a chocolate dessert. Mrs Turner, Mrs Peck, Ms O’Sullivan and I were very fortunate to be able to sample all that was on offer as the judging panel, and it was very difficult to determine winners. After intense scrutiny, and enough food to last a week, the boys were crowned this year’s champions.
Another highlight was the softball match which brought the week’s celebration to a close last Sunday. A big thank you to Mrs Burns, Mrs Jarmey and their teams for all their great work in making boarding week such a special time for our boarders.
Clare Stead
ACTING DEPUTY PRINCIPAL - PASTORAL/RESIDENTIAL
SECONDARY INTERSCHOOL FORMAL
FLEXISCHOOLS
