IONA 16

Welcome Back to Term 4

It’s been such a positive start to the term with a great feeling of energy and enthusiasm as students launch themselves back into their studies.

On Saturday 8 October, between 3.00pm and 5.00pm, we will be hosting a general reunion, and also officially opening and blessing our new archival display ‘Heart of Columba’. In reaching the significant milestone of 125 years, the ‘Heart of Columba’ will allow us to share the history of the College with the broader community, to capture the story of the College, and the contribution from so many people over 125 years. All are welcome.

I take this opportunity to offer a few reminders from the letter that went to families on Monday 3 October.

UNIFORM EXPECTATIONS

We appreciate the support of parents as we strive to maintain our high expectations regarding the College uniform and grooming requirements.  Over Term 3 we were managing an increasing number of students with regards to nails, fake eye-lashes, and wearing the College Blazer to and from school.  The College Uniform and Grooming requirements can be accessed via this link.  We will follow our normal procedures where students repeatedly find it difficult to follow stated expectations.  I would like to express my gratitude to the families who have supported us in following through on our expectations and procedures.

ATTENDANCE

Attendance letters providing an update regarding your child’s attendance for Terms 1 – 3 will be distributed shortly. These letters are purely informative to support you to monitor your child’s attendance and to be in dialogue with us if you have concerns about attendance issues.

PARENT CONSULTATIONS

The parent consultation workshop scheduled for 25 July was postponed and will now take place online from 11.00am on Thursday 13 October.  The workshop will run for approximately one hour and depending on the number of attendees we would like to seek your feedback regarding our Child Protection materials, our draft Parent Code of Conduct, and our Strategic Directions Planning.  If you have some time to spare and are keen to provide your feedback, we warmly welcome your involvement.  Please indicate via this form if you are able to attend the scheduled workshop.  A google meet link will then be shared with you.

CELEBRATION OF EXCELLENCE EVENING

After attempting to host this event in 2020 and 2021, we are very pleased to be holding our Celebration of Excellence Evening this year on 1 December from 7.00pm in the Multi-Purpose Centre.  This is our opportunity to share student success and excellence in learning, leadership and community involvement with families and the staff community.  More details about this event will be forthcoming in the first few weeks of Term 4.

Last Weeks for Year 12 Students

On your behalf, I would like to extend our prayerful support to our Year 12 VCE and VCAL students as they come to the end of their secondary school studies.  Many of our students will be preparing for their VCAA exams, others are completing units and projects to satisfy the requirements of VCAL and VET units.  We wish them well on this next phase of their life’s journey and look forward to celebrating their graduation in October.

Year 12 Exit Survey for Students and Parents

As part of our ongoing commitment to continuous improvement, we believe it is critical to seek each students’ and parent/legal guardians’ opinions on a range of issues relating to the College. Your feedback is very important to us as we continue to build a successful school and strengthen our reputation as an ‘educator of choice’.

As such, we have engaged the professional services of MYP Corporation (MYPCorp) to undertake a strictly private and confidential School Results Survey on our behalf. The survey, which was emailed to all students and parents on Monday 3 October, should take approximately 10-15 minutes and will need to be completed online by Friday 14 October 2022.

Please note that this survey will be confidential. The College does not have access to your individual responses. We will be provided with a summary of collated results only.

Can I please encourage every student and parent to complete the survey as your feedback is always valued and appreciated.

Thank you for your assistance in helping to shape the future direction of St Columba’s College.

Celebration of Excellence Awards Evening

Our awards are focused on acknowledging and celebrating the students who have excelled in one or more of the three pillars of the College Learning, Teaching and Wellbeing Framework – Learn, Engage, Connect. Based on the Framework, our awards recognise student achievement in all areas of College life – academic, social justice, community and leadership.

We look forward to inviting you to our Celebration of Excellence Evening on Thursday 1 December. The evening will commence at 7.00pm. The families of students who are the recipient of an award will receive a personalised invite to this evening in late November.

When Sylvia Carson is sent off to her reclusive, absent–for– 20-years, outcast aunt, she expects her summer to be boring, devoid of fun or adventure and haunted by the stories her family has told her over the years about the woman who took off at 18 and never came back. The last thing she expects is to be introduced to a world of magic, monsters and danger, where one mistake could cost her the world. Coincidentally, Sylvia has already made that mistake.

On Tuesday September 13th , Year 11 VCAL students, in association with Sophia library and teaching staff, held a Great Book Swap in Gayip Biik. The event was held in collaboration with Indigenous Literacy Day, to raise much needed funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. They provide literacy education and resources to over 400 remote communities around Australia. The event was a great success with many students and staff participating. This made it possible to reach our goal of raising almost $300, and we are so grateful to everyone who donated their time, money and books to make the event a success. If you would like to make a direct donation, please click on the following link https://edu.greatbookswap.org.au/stcolumbasgreatbookswap

Thank you on behalf of Sophia library staff

The Melbourne’s Writers Festival was located in the city, where multiple famous authors from around Australia came and talked about their books and answered multiple questions from readers in the audience from different schools. It was a great day, and I even got to meet one of my favourite authors, Vanessa Len. Each author talked about their newest/first books, Rhiannon Wilde; Where you left us, Vanessa Len; Only a monster, Tobias Madden; Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell and CS Pacat; Dark Rise. We had an opportunity to buy some of their books after each of the authors finished their part. This year’s festival was also on Ambition, and I believe that they showed that really well. I really enjoyed going, and think that overall it was a great experience for education.

Minami McCartney, Year 7

The Melbourne Writers Festival was a fun and inspirational excursion for all year levels. Multiple speakers spoke to us; Rhiannon Wilde, Vanessa Len, Tobias Madden and C.S. Pacat. All just released a new book. Every author was super friendly and engaging and you just wanted to keep on listening to the stories they had to tell. We got to buy some of the books that were by the authors. I bought ‘Only a Monster’ by Vanessa Len. She sold it on me by her description about the book and overall the personality of her. This is her first ever book to be written and a very good book too. The day was so much fun and full of excitement and I am very happy that I got to be a part of it. 

Carla Potenza, Year 7

Application for Enrolment for Year 7 2024 have now closed.

If your daughter is currently in grade 5 and you have not submitted an application form, please do so as a matter of urgency.

Click HERE to access the application form.