Principal Message 25th August 2023

Dear Families,

I need to acknowledge how busy school world is at the moment. Sports Days, Crazy Hair, Book Week, Drumming, Crazy Socks, the list goes on. Thank you to all families for supporting us with these events. As a parent of three, I know how much thought needs to go into these days, our want as parents being we want our kids to be happy and be part of the fun.

I just want to remind everyone of the purpose of these events. The purpose is to teach children the importance of giving, generosity and thinking of others. One of our school values and house colour is GENEROSITY, which is names after Fred Hollows.

Fred Hollows restored sight to thousands of people around the world and trained countless eye doctors to do the same. He believed everyone, rich or poor, has the right to quality, affordable eye care. His work lives on today through The Fred Hollows Foundation.

Like Fred, the mission of the Catholic Church is to help those in need. To stand up for those that cannot stand up for themselves. Through all our fundraising for many wonderful causes, we know we are helping our students and community continue to think of others and help those in need. To think of people beyond ourselves and our own family.

“An authentic faith – which is never comfortable or completely personal – always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better than we found it.”

(Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium)

One of the fundraisers thorugh which we have the opportunity to give and think of others is our footy fundraiser. For the rest of this term, Columba is holding a footy fundraiser to raise monies for the school and nominated charities. Students may bring any loose change to contribute to their footy team's collection.

*Please note: we do not want students bringing in their pocket money. Instead, you may decide to negotiate for a small job to be done at home for your child's donation eg, children might set the dinner table, clean up toys, walk the dog etc.

In the last week of term, we will hold a footy day where students can wear their football team's colours. We will tally up the monies raised for each team and announce which team has raised the most! Parents are welcome to come along and cheer on your team. This will be on Friday 15th September 9:15am GO SAINTS!

Take care

Andrew Greco

Principal

Important iPad Information

Change for 2024 BYOD

Currently, Columba facilitates a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) iPad program for students in grades 3-6. While this has worked for many years, we have identified that this model is not a sustainable moving forward.

In 2024, Columba will no longer require grade 3 (current grade 2) students to purchase and bring their own device to school. The school will purchase and supply each child with a device for use at school, that will exclusively be their own and only be used by them from grades 3-6. The device will stay at school and be managed by the school.

After consultation with staff, the decision has been made to use Chrome Books as the device of choice, which is a change from iPads. This will ONLY affect the 2024 grade 3 students and will not affect the 2024 grade 4-6 students, who will continue to use their own iPads in the classroom. By 2027 however, all students in grades 3-6 at Columba will be using Chromebooks, which will be managed by the school and remain at school.

I am hopeful that this is a welcome change for families, being that it means our current grade 2 families will not need to purchase an iPad for the 2024 year for use at school. It also means that the school can further enhance the security of our systems, while allowing students to continue to develop their skills and knowledge in the on-line and tech world.

If you have questions or feedback on this change, please contact me by phone or email.

principal@bunyip.catholic.edu.au