Dear Families,

“School refusal is a complex issue as there’s rarely a single cause. It may be linked to separation anxiety, worries about leaving home, a phobia, depression, social problems or learning difficulties. It can start gradually or happen suddenly.”

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

Though many children will refuse to go to school at some stage in their lives, school refusal is very different to truancy. It is a more serious condition than separation anxiety and often stems from a child’s anxiety about school. They may be worried about their school work, interacting with other kids, dealing with teachers, playing sports or being away from family. School refusal is a behaviour that can also be accompanied by sadness or depression, physical symptoms and social isolation. This condition is equally common amongst boys and girls, from all socioeconomic groups and across both primary and secondary levels.

Below are some articles from our SCHOOL TV RESOURCES that are extremely well written and beneficial for all families.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE AND LINKS BELOW TO ACCESS THE RESOURCES

Understanding School Refusal: What parents need to know at back-to-school time

School Refusal or Social Phobia? A mother's Story

Kids Matter: Understanding School Refusal

Family Communication Streamlined at Columba

Recently all families would have received a PAM (Parent Access Module) invitation through email this week from the SIMON platform team. This invitation was sent a little prematurely however that is okay as we were moving into PAM over the next 3-6 months. PAM is the parent portal for Columba's communication platform, SIMON. All school in the Diocese of Sale now use SIMON to record students attendance, write reports, create permission slips for excursions etc.

Parents are asked to follow the link in this email to set up a password. Please keep a record of this password somewhere safe! As the school has moved on to the SIMON platform your child's report will now be emailed to you via this system...please sign up! If you require a paper copy of your child's report please email the office over the coming weeks.

PAM is a new parent portal through which parents will be able to

Access their children's reports
Get updates on their child's visits to sickbay
Allow parents to log absences and check absences
Send and receive permission forms for school events
Book parent-teacher meetings
and much more

PAM will replace Operoo in 2023 and the SZ APP has already replaced SKOOLBAG.

This will mean that Columba will have streamlined our online communication processes and will be using three ways to communicate with families

direct email to staff accounts
Schoolzine emails, SZAPP, Newsletter and School Website (all through Schoolzine)
PAM (Parent Access Module)

The feedback we have received from families over the last 6 months has been that they would prefer to have simple and effective ways to keep up to date with their child's progress at school. We know that between PAM and Schoolzine we will be able to provide this.

Thank you for your ongoing support and patience as we work to improve and streamline our communication with home.

Take care

Andrew Greco

Catholic Education Week 2022

‘Spread the Good News’

Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Sale will celebrate Catholic Education Week from May 27 to June 3, 2022. Catholic Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the ethos of Catholic schools and highlight the inspiring life of Catholic schools today. The theme for 2022 is 'spread the good news'. ‘Go out into the world and spread the Good News to all creation’, from the Gospel of Mark 16:15

Click on the link below to view

Celebrating Catholic Education

National Simultaneous Storytime at Columba

West Gippsland Cross Country

Congratulations to everyone who represented Columba at the cross country on Tuesday. Every Columba kid ran their heart out and did us all proud!

Shining Light Award

This week Neive Jameson received the Columba Shining Light award for 'Having the courage to include others when they needed a friend. You helped others feel included and feel like they belong to our school.'

This award is awarded by the school principal on recommendations from staff or when he sees someone acting in a way that is shining a light on them and the whole school. Well done Neive!

Columba_Shining_Light.pdf

Columba_Shining_Light _pdf 180.57 KB

Teacher Values Awards

A big congratulations to all our award winners this week. This week's awards were for those students who showed perseverance while at school. We also thank all our Grade 6 Values Captains for giving their awards to our Cross Country competitors. They picked students who never gave up and gave it their best effort. Well done everyone!

FUSE CUP has begun!

ESPORTS at Columba

The FUSE CUP has officially begun at Columba with 8 students competing in our first round of our Esports competitions. At lunchtime on Thursday 26^th May, 8 students competed in two rounds of competition to see which students were the fastest carts in our Mario Kart Mushroom Cup. We had four students go through to the next round

Mia Greco

Chad Carlsen

Zaleah Saunders

Eilish O'Hara

The FUSE CUP Esports competition will continue to run each Thursday during lunch for 5/6 students. The winners of our Mario Kart Fuse Cup will play off in a grand final at assembly in term 3 and have been invited to Ivanhoe Grammar to compete against 50 other schools in the Mario Kart ESPORTS Competition in late August.

We are very excited for what a great opportunity The Fuse Cup will be for our students. We know that our students are gifted in so many fields, and that gaming is a passion for some of them in their free time. The Fuse Cup gives many of our students the opportunity to represent the school in a competitive arena, many the only time they will have that opportunity. We know that The Fuse Cup will help students improve communication and coordination in a team, but most importantly, we know that by creating opportunities for students to take part in co-curricular activities will boost their self-efficacy and in turn, their success at school. Whether students are participating in a chess club, the footy, or netball team, results have shown that students who are involved in co-curricular activities are more engaged in their school community, and thus their education.

One thing is for certain, at Columba we know that group activities facilitated and delivered by an education provider in a formal setting (be they online gaming or frisbee golf) bring people together. When students work together, the results are the same as any other team activity – the students participate with their peers in mind. Emotional skills, such as compassion and good sportsmanship, are acquired in these settings and more importantly, Esports is a team sport that any student can get involved in.

For more information on The FUSE CUP, please read the flyer which includes

DOWNLOAD FLYER HERE

Or visit their website https://www.thefusecup.com.au/

SCHOOL FEES

Term 1 & Term 2 fees are now due and payable.

School Fees - Urgent reminder

Over the next few days, we will be sending reminders to families asking them to please pay their school fees. We have many families that haven't paid fees for Term 2 and many that haven't for the year. If you are needing support paying your fees or would like to pay direct debit or in installments, please contact the office and speak with Jan Buza. Either 56295933 or finance@bunyip.catholic.edu.au. We will work to accommodate all families.

Columba Day

Thursday 9th June 2022

Each year our school community comes together to celebrate the feast day of

our patron saint, St. Columba of Iona. We are very excited that this year we are able to celebrate this important day together, at Church. On Thursday 9^th June, the children from Prep to Grade Six will be travelling to St Joseph’s Iona, to celebrate Mass. Parents and parishioners are most welcome to join us at Iona with Mass beginning at 9.45 am.

As part of the day’s celebrations, the students will have a special pizza and fruit lunch and participate in activities focused on Columba. (Students who do not wish to have pizza should bring their own lunch on the day.)

Please complete the permission on Operoo, for this day as soon as possible.

MARIST-SION COLLEGE PRODUCTION

This year Marist-Sion College students present…

Thursday 2nd June to Saturday 4th June

Marian Theatre Marist-Sion College

Tickets $30 Adults & $25 Senior/Students

If any families would like to purchase tickets to the event please visit the following link https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/902041

Changes to Rapid Antigen Test Surveillance Program

As of Monday 23rd May, there have been changes to the provision of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) in schools for the remainder of Term 2, 2022.

From Monday 23 May 2022, there will no longer be a recommendation for students to undertake twice weekly RATs on school days.

However, RATs will continue to be distributed to families as they have been throughout this school year for the remainder of this Term. The next supply will be sent home today, Friday 27th May.

The ongoing supply of RATs to families in our school will ensure that parents, guardians and carers will have them should they need them if their child(ren) is a household or household-like contact or if their child(ren) has COVID-19 symptoms.

Students who are identified as household or household-like contacts will continue to be required to adhere to additional safety measures, including wearing a face mask when outside of the home and receiving a negative result using a RAT on at least five (5) days out of the seven (7) day close contact period, to attend school.

Families must continue to notify the Department of Health and the school if their child(ren) returns a positive RAT result. Additionally, you should inform the school if any of your children are household or household-like contacts.

School Pickup

Over the last 2-3 weeks we have had reports to the school of Columba people showing frustration to others during pickup times. This has been directed at other people picking up children and our road crossing staff. I ask that we all remain calm and patient during pickup time. The Columba and Crossing staff work very hard to get all the students safely in cars or walking home as quickly as possible without putting our students in danger. Please stay courteous to our crossing staff as they too are trying to keep our children safe at a very busy time of the day.

Teaching Religious Education at Columba

Each term through Religious Education we focus on a particular area of the Diocese RE Curriculum, 'To Live in Christ Jesus’. This term the theme is all about celebrating, as we explore our way through the Sacramental Church Strand.

Catholics believe that the Sacramental Church celebrates, in symbol and ritual, Christ’s saving presence for those who respond in faith. Therefore, we teach the story of the Catholic Church and the meaning, symbolism, richness and rituals of Sacramental celebrations.

Your children may look at the different types of celebrations that happen in the Church and compare these to celebrations within your own families. This may include the joy of a new baby, a family member coming to visit, a graduation or another special occasion. Our senior students are also starting to explore celebrations from other faiths, comparing and contrasting these to Catholic traditions.

If you are interested in reading more from our Religious Education Curriculum, please follow this link. To Live in Christ Jesus

Travelling Family Prayer Bags

Each family is going to be invited to gather together and pray. A travelling family prayer bag will come home with students over the term. There will be instructions and items in this bag that may help you with this.

If you have any questions, that your child can not answer, then please talk to the class teacher or email Kelly Lucas at klucas@bunyip.catholic.edu.au