Term 1 Week 1 Wednesday 27th January
Our Prayer This Week
From the Principal
Dear parents and members of our community,
Welcome back to what we are all hoping is a more settled school year this year. We hope families had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year's celebrations with family and friends. We are looking forward to the children returning to school this Thursday for an opportunity to build relationships and establish strong work routines for the rest of the year.
School Beginning
The school year begins today, Wednesday the 27th of January with a school closure day for staff to prepare for the term ahead. Current restrictions have seen the cancellation of our usual HCSN mass due to the large numbers of staff gathering in one place. Instead, we will hold our own liturgy at school as a staff and complete the compliance requirements needed at the beginning of each year.
Students will return to school for normal classes on Thursday 28th of January. We have delayed our testing days to Thursday 4th and Friday 5th of February as there are some families still away and some children are often still in holiday mode for these days. There will be an opportunity to book a time for your children through PAM later this week.
2021 Swimming
As the pool was not open until late December, we were not able to commence our swimming program then. This year we will have an intensive two weeks of swimming before our combined swimming sports. The days are as follows:-
Monday 1st of February - 2pm
Tuesday 2nd of February - 2pm
Wednesday 3rd of February - 2pm
Monday 8th of February - 2pm
Tuesday 9th of February - 2pm
Wednesday 10th of February - 2pm
Thursday 11th of February - 2pm
SWIMMING CARNIVAL Friday 12th of February
We would greatly appreciate parent helpers to make the sessions successful and safe.
Children will need to bring bathers, underwear, goggles (If you have some), towel, all in a sturdy swimming bag.
School Office
Our school office will be unattended tomorrow the 28th of February. If you have any immediate issues, we will try to help but any general enquiries will need to be held over to Friday when Jane is back in the office. Thank you.
Timetable change
As we move down the path of restructure of our curriculum, we have now found a need to alter the timetable of learning on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
We will now have a 2 hour literacy block for Reading and Writing from 9am to 11 am. After play at 11:30am we will have a 30 minute Spelling lesson and Numeracy will be run from 12 noon to 1pm. All other areas of the curriculum will be conducted after lunch.
School Governance
We welcome Fr Michael McKinnon as the pastoral leader of the parish and the school and look forward to his contribution to the life of St Colman's. We hope he feels very welcome to our community and enjoys his time with us.
As discussed last year the governance of schools in the Ballarat diocese was transferred from the parish priests to the new DOBCEL company on the 1st of January this year. This will see little change in the day to day operation of the school but it will see a streamlining of policy and greater consistency in management across all our schools.
Welcome Ben
We would like to welcome Ben Catley to St Colman's as our trainee for this year. Ben was a student at Mercy Regional College and is looking forward to completing his Certificate 3 in Education Support Officer this year. We hope he finds his time with us to be rewarding and enjoyable.
Parents Cuppa
We would like to invite our five new families to St Colman's to a cuppa and a chat tomorrow morning in the staff room. Any existing parents who wish to join us are welcome to share their wisdom about the day to day running of the school.
Holiday Birthdays
Harley Pickford 17th December
Maddi Cameron 21st December
Pippa Barr 31st December
Isabella Dolling 10th January
Gus Carmody 31st January