Columba Catholic Primary School Acknowledges the Bunurong Peoples’ of the Kulin Nation as Traditional Owners and Custodians and pay respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging.  

Columba acknowledges the Bunurong’s continuing relationship to the land and waterways and respects that their connection and spiritual identity are maintained through ancient ceremonies, songlines, dance, art, and living culture.

We pay tribute to the invaluable contributions of the Bunurong and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Elders who have guided and continue to guide our work.

Dear Families,

Please be aware that there is important information in this newsletter

- Parent Conferences are open for bookings. See below for the booking link

- Register for the on-line safety Webinar for parents

- Attend the Columba Expo on Wednesday evening.

Term 1 will finish on Thursday.

We have an early finish time of 2:25pm.

School will commence in term 2 for all students on Monday 15th April.

I ask that all families have a safe and restful school holiday break.

This weekend, I do ask that the question 'What is Easter?' be a full conversation around the celebration of the Easter Bunny - see origin story here, but also the connection to our Christian Faith and the story of Jesus.

Easter for the Catholic Church is like the AFL grand final. It is THE most important time in the Churchs' calendar. If you can, please take time to explain this to your children and acknowledge the Catholic Traditions around Easter. Even better, Father Avinash would love to see you at Mass over the Holy weekend in between the yummy chocolate egg eating.

Tale care everyone, I hope to see many of you at the Expo on Wednesday.

Take Care

Andrew Greco

Principal

______________

Caritas

Project Compassion

For All Future Generations

If you have a Project Compassion box donation, please return it to school before the end of the term. Thank you.

Your generous support can help change lives today - and For All Future Generations.

To participate in Project Compassion, you can use the donation box sent home with students to put coins and cash in or make a direct donation online.

https://www.caritas.org.au/project-compassion/

_________________________________________

https://stjosephsionamaryknoll.com.au/

current_bulletin_March_24th_2024.pdf

current_bulletin_March_24th_2024 _pdf 2.22 MB

Last assembly for Term One

A whole school assembly

will follow our liturgy at 12 PM

on Thursday 28th March.

_______________

Last Friday we celebrated

Inspiration

Today we celebrated

Generosity

Well done to all our Award Winners!

Each fortnight we focus on one of our school values: Respect, Fairness, Generosity, Inspiration, Perseverance. We model and look for opportunities to teach our students values that underpin the way we believe we should live and interact with others and with our world.

_______________

Family Conferences

BOOK NOW!

https://columbacpsbunyip.schoolzineplus.com/view-session/31

All Family Conferences will be held at school in your children's classrooms on

Monday 22nd April and Tuesday 23rd April

Please book your conference/interview using our portal. We ask that all families be proactive in making time to see their child's teacher, as it will be a perfect opportunity to discuss your child's learning and some learning goals for the remainder of the year. You may receive contact from the school asking for your attendance.

Students are welcome to attend the conferences if that is the preference of the parent.

Please book asap especially if you have more than one child to ensure your meeting times are similar.

Please register for this LIVE EVENT!

Cyber Safety for children has never been more important.

Columba works hard to educate our students and Inform and Empower have been and continue to be a wonderful resource for our school.

Please make time to educate yourself on how you can help your children stay safe!

Parent Survey - Please help us Chance to Win Gold Class Vouchers

Survey Instructions HERE
FLYER FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SURVEY

WIN

Please complete the survey for your chance to win a Gold Class Voucher for 2 Adults.

To enter, email me a screen shot of the Thank You page (last page) of the survey. A name will be drawn at random from a hat.

Re: Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Survey 2024

I write to invite you to participate in the ECSI survey which will assist us in better understanding how our Catholic Identity is expressed in work and practice here at Columba Catholic Primary School.

The Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, was commissioned by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) to design a process and tools, based on sound research, to accomplish the goal of understanding our current Catholic identity and where the school community might like to see itself in the future.

The ECSI survey is a key element in this process and I write to request your participation. The online survey gathers responses from students in Years 5 and 6, all staff, and a representative sample of parents.

This survey is only available through the project website and you are asked to complete the survey online. Please refer to the attached ‘ECSI Survey Instructions for Parents’ which provides instructions and login details.

It may take you up to an hour to complete the survey. Try not to get caught up in the questions, simply respond intuitively. Your responses to this survey are guaranteed to be kept anonymous.

If you have any questions, please contact me through the school office.

Thank you for your consideration of this request and for your anticipated participation.

Survey Instructions HERE

LUNCH ORDER CHANGE

As of Thursday 21st March, both

SOY SAUCE & TOMATO SAUCE

will be available to order on the lunch orders.

Please note that the school will no longer be able to provide sauce to students. If it isn't ordered they will miss out.

We are holding our BIG EASTER BONAZA Raffle again this year.

The Raffle will be drawn on the last day of term 2, Thursday 28th March

Thank you for all the donations!

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets can be purchased on-line HERE

or

Using Paper tickets that were sent home today

If you have bought tickets on-line, please be assured that your name is already in the draw! You do not need to buy them again or fill in the tickets unless you want to sell more.

If you would prefer to sell/buy physical tickets and you found the online system tricky, you now have paper tickets that you can purchase/sell and send back to school to put in the draw.

If you need more tickets, please pick some up from the office.

PURCHASE EASTER RAFFLE TICKETS ONLINE HERE

___________________________________

Car Parking Guidelines ALL Families

It has been brought to my attention that currently the school car park is becoming a potential hazard during

Morning Drop off

and

After school pick-up.

I have also been contacted by many, offering suggestions on how we can upgrade the car park so that is more user friendly and safer for our students. As a school, we have plans for upgrading the car park long and short term, however we require time to do this.

The best way we can all make the car park safer is to use it better.

Below are a set of guidelines that I know will help keep the car park safe, while we wait for the upgrades to take place.

COLUMBA CAR PARK GUIDELINES for

Morning

GATE A&B - 10 second drop off

At GATE A&B, parents are not to leave their car parked in the drop off zone (see diagram below). Parents using this zone must use it as a kiss and drop zone - 10seconds MAX If you need to leave your car or get your children sorted and it is going to take longer than 10 seconds, please park outside of the drop off zone and walk your child into school (orange box area)
Any car leaving the car park MUST leave driving forward, no car should reverse.
Patience and courtesy are compulsory.
Under no circumstances should anyone drive into the Car park Exit.
Be mindful of cars waiting to drop off their children, it is unsafe for any car to be waiting out on Hope st

After School

Any car leaving the car park MUST leave driving forward.
After 3:20pm NO CAR IS TO REVERSE FOR ANY REASON
Patience and courtesy are compulsory.
Under no circumstances should anyone drive into the Car park Exit.
As the weather dries the grass, staff will be encouraged to park on the grass areas marked on the map to allow more car parks for parents.

Below is a diagram/visual to help everyone understand the expectations. It is also an attachment below

Gravel_Carpark_Parent_Directions.jpg

As always I ask that all parents collecting their children are patient and courteous. If you feel someone needs help in following the guidelines, approach them calmly and let them know, often it just takes a friendly reminder.

Also if we do our best to set the standard for others through our actions, others will follow.

I also ask that parents consider an alternate option for pick-ups. It could be

- parking at the Koolangarra Park and walking up to collect your child

- parking along Webb St and walking up to school to collect your child

- parking along Princess st and walking up to school to collect your child

While I understand this is not possible for all families due to time pressures after school, if you are able to utilise the surrounding streets and are willing to walk, this would also take pressure off the main car park.

I hope these directions help and please be assured that we are always working to provided the best possible resources and facilities we are able to for our students and the Columba Community.

Regards,
Andrew Greco
Principal