Term 3 Week 4 Monday 11th August 2025
- Acknowledgement of Country
- From the Principal
- Key Dates:
- 5/6 Hooptime
- Bunnings BBQ
- Our Major fundraiser; Local Loot Raffle
- Cinderella
- Insight SRC
- Book Week at St Colman’s – Let’s Celebrate 80 Years of Stories!
- Tables for Sale
- Father's Day Breakfast 5th September
- 2026 Enrolments
- Awesome Award Winners
- Winter School Uniform
- School Wide Positive Behaviour Support
- School Advisory Council
- Michael Grose Parenting Toolbox
- SchoolTV is available to support you!
- St. Colman's School is a Child Safe Community
- Lunch Orders
- Playgroup at St Colman's
- Out of School Care
- AngliCare Energy Assistance
- NCCD
Acknowledgement of Country
St Colman’s acknowledges the Girai wurung people as the traditional owners of the land on which our school stands and we respectfully recognise elders both past and present.
From the Principal
Dear St Colman's community,
Welcome to Week 4 of Term 3!
This week, St Colman’s is proud to participate in Bullying No Way Week – Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative for schools.
Throughout the week, each classroom will take part in daily discussions using resources from Kids Helpline and the Bullying No Way website, focusing on kindness, respect, and standing up for others.
Special Event – This Thursday
On Thursday, students can wear casual clothes and are encouraged to dress as their unique selves in line with the 2025 theme: “Be bold. Be kind. Speak up.”
Students will travel by bus to Camperdown to watch Mercy Regional College’s performance of Cinderella.
Upon returning, we will join the national Kids Helpline’s Largest Anti-Bullying Lesson, connecting with schools across the country.
As the message for this year reminds us:
“It takes courage to spark change. Bullying is everyone’s responsibility. It takes a community to be brave and address bullying behaviours within and beyond the school gate. Students can be bold, kind, and take a stand to support others. We want a community where everyone belongs, differences are celebrated, and bullying is never accepted.”
We invite students, families, and our wider community to join us:
Be bold – say something.
Be kind – support someone.
Be proud – take a stand against bullying.
Please read on to discover what else is happening in our school community. Remember to check the key dates section of the newsletter to stay up to date.
As always, feel free to contact me at any time with any questions, concerns, or suggestions.
Kind regards,
Janet
Key Dates:
Term 3 2025
Monday 11th August- Feast of the Assumption Mass @ 12pm
Thursday 14th August- MRC Production of Cinderella @ 11:30
Friday 15th August- 5/6 Hooptime at Terang
- Little Colman's from 9am
- Assembly @ 2:45pm
Monday 18th August- Friday 22nd August- Book Week
Friday 22nd August- Book Week Fair and Parade
Wednesday 27th August- Sacramental celebration lunch
Friday 29th August- 3/4 Hooptime at Terang
- Little Colman's from 9am
- Assembly @ 2:45pm
Sunday 31st August- Sacrament of Confirmation at 9am
Monday 1st September- MRC Discovery Day (visit for Year 6's)
Friday 5th September- Father's Day Breakfast
Friday 12th September- Little Colman's from 9am
- Assembly @ 2:45pm
Trivia Night and Raffle Draw
Thursday 18/ Friday 19th September- Yr 3/4 Sovereign Hill Camp
Friday 19th September- Term 3 ends at 2:15pm
Monday 6th October- Term 4 commences
Wednesday October 8th - Friday October 10th- Yr 5/6 Melbourne City Camp
School Closure Days for 2025
31 October – Student-free day- Structured Literacy
3 November – Student-free day- First Aid Training and Assessments
19 December – Student-free day; last day of term four
Catholic School Culture
Exploring the Meaning of The Feast of the Assumption
The Feast of the Assumption is honoured each year of August 15th. Our school attended a Parish Mass this afternoon to celebrate this special Feast Day with Father George.
This celebration is important because it honours Mary’s unique role and her deep faith, and it reassures us of God’s promise of eternal life for all who follow Him. The belief in Mary’s Assumption—her being taken up body and soul into heaven—holds deep meaning for Catholics and inspires faith in everyday life in several ways:
Hope Beyond Hardship: The Assumption reminds believers that life doesn’t end with death; rather, it points to a future with God. In the face of suffering, uncertainty, and loss, this belief offers hope that love and faith transcend death, encouraging Christians to view earthly challenges in light of an eternal destiny with God.
Role Model of Faith: Mary’s life exemplifies humility, trust, and obedience to God. Her Assumption is seen as God’s affirmation of these virtues. For everyday believers, she serves as a model—her journey inspires them to cultivate similar virtues, to trust God’s plan, and to surrender worries, knowing they are not alone on their journey.
Encouragement to Persevere: The Assumption inspires perseverance, especially during trials. It is a constant reminder to “keep eyes on the prize,” as faithfulness in this life leads to sharing in Mary’s glory in the next. It helps believers deal with setbacks and maintain perspective.
In essence, belief in Mary’s Assumption fosters hope, encourages virtuous living, and reassures the faithful that everyday struggles are part of a larger, hopeful journey toward union with God.
5/6 Hooptime
This Friday, our Year 5 and 6 students will be travelling to Terang to participate in the Rookies Basketball Competition against St Thomas', Mortlake College, Terang College and Timboon F-12. Information, including a drawer and canteen pric list has been sent home with the students and all other details are available on PAM. Please login to your PAM account to give consent for your child to participate.
Bunnings BBQ
Yesterday at our Bunnings BBQ, we were blessed with lovely sunshine that brought lots of hungry shoppers out!
A HUGE THANK YOU to the parents, friends and local businesses who supported this fundraiser for our school. We managed to raise about $1600.00. A wonderful result! Thank you!
Thanks to the following people who gave up part of their weekend to work at the BBQ;
Jo Van den Heuvel, Georgie Price, Grant & Sarah Cameron, Lily Convery-Oborne, Nick and Charlotte Allen, Elli Weatherly, Kylie Addison, Anna Bourke (and her sister Narelle), Belinda Atkins, Shandell Moloney, Alison Greig and Andrea Bassett.
Thank you also to Clarke's Cafe for donating the onions and Zion Palmer & Brendan Bouchier Mortlake Butchers for donating 10kg of sausages and to our school families that were unable to help out on the day but gave a cash donation. A wonderful community effort!!!
Our Major fundraiser; Local Loot Raffle
The St Colman's School Online Raffle is back for another exciting year! Once again, we’re proud to present the ever-popular Local Loot Draw, featuring fantastic prizes generously supplied by a wide range of Mortlake businesses in the form of vouchers and gift cards.
Tickets are still only $25 each and there are 400 tickets available, therefore the odds are excellent for the three valuable prizes.
Families are asked to support our school's major fundraiser in the following ways;
* Buying a ticket (or tickets)
* Selling tickets to family and friends
* Fulfilling your rostered time to sell tickets at several community places (see roster below).
Thank you for your wonderful support in past years. We hope you’ll join us again in making this year’s raffle another huge success!
Cinderella
This Thursday we will all be travelling by bus to the Camperdown Theatre Royal to watch Mercy Regional College's production of Cinderella.
We look forward to seeing the students' of MRC shine!! We encourage all of our families to go and watch one of the three shows!
Permission needs to be granted via on PAM for your child to attend.
Insight SRC
Last week, every family in our school received and invitation from Insight SRC to complete a survey about your child's school.
As part of our commitment to continuous school improvement, St Colman's will once again be participating in the Insight SRC survey process. This valuable tool gathers feedback from teachers, students, and a selection of parents to help us better understand our school’s strengths and areas for growth.
We strongly encourage you to participate, as your feedback will help guide our planning and review processes leading into 2026. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to influence the goals and future direction of our school. We greatly appreciate and rely upon the honest feedback from our families.
Book Week at St Colman’s – Let’s Celebrate 80 Years of Stories!
From Monday, 18th August, we’re diving into one of the most exciting weeks of the year – Book Week! This year is extra special as the Children’s Book Council of Australia celebrates its 80th Book Week with the theme “80 Years of Stories.”
As part of our tradition, we invite families to help grow our library by purchasing one of this year’s CBCA Shortlisted Books. Each book will include a special label honouring the family who kindly donated it – a wonderful way to leave your mark on our school’s story! You’ll be able to see these beautiful new books on display in our school corridor – so pop in and see what’s new.
📖 Book Fair – Wednesday 13th to Friday 22nd August
Our Book Fair will be open from Wednesday, 13th August, filled with treasures for book lovers of all ages! Students will create their own “wish list” to take home and share with their family.
🎭 Dress-Up Parade & Book Fair Day – Friday 22nd August
Get ready for one of our favourite events of the year – our Book Week Dress-Up Parade starting at 9:15am! Students (and maybe even parents!) can dress as their favourite book characters and join the fun.
After the parade, the Book Fair will be open for purchases. Items can be bought on the day or any time before the fair is packed away on Monday, 25th August. Payment will be required at the time of purchase.
Once the parade wraps up, our students will enjoy a full day of book-themed adventures, exploring stories, characters and creativity in fun and engaging ways.
Let’s make this year’s Book Week a celebration of imagination, reading, and the joy of stories! We can’t wait to see the colourful costumes, happy faces, and the shelves of our library grow.
Tables for Sale
We have 9 of these red topped tables available for sale for only $10 each. Perfect for a cubby or play room. Please contact the office and arrange your own pick up. Thanks
$9 per table.
Father's Day Breakfast 5th September
2026 Enrolments
Awesome Award Winners
Junior | Evie Anderson Kyra Hannabury | Using her counting up strategy when finding the difference in maths Including the conjunction ’and’ to connect her sentence when writing. |
Middle | Zeke Pyers Japnoor Chahal | Wonderful improvement in timetables fluency Hard work pays off- reading with such clarity and confidence! |
Senior | Adia Charlotte Sadie | For her amazing start back to school For showing kindness and respectful behaviours towards everyone at all times For her consistent start to term 3 |
Art | Hailey Leo Immy | A great effort in drawing her favourite part of her holiday! Concentrating and focusing on his Young Portrait Prize! A wonderful portrait for her Young Portrait Prize! |
Principal | Kyra H and Hailey G | Respecting our environment and working hard to keep our school clean. |
Winter School Uniform
The weather has turned, and the long-anticipated rain has brought a burst of cold weather with it. This is a timely reminder that we expect all children to wear the correct school uniform. We believe our uniform—and how we wear it—reflects our school and demonstrates our pride and sense of belonging to the St Colman’s community. There are also quite a few second-hand jumpers and jackets available if you need them.
Boys’ Winter Uniform:
Navy blue rugby school jumper or navy-blue school jacket
Navy blue polo shirt (short or long sleeved)
Grey cotton drill trousers or shorts
Navy blue socks (Crew length)
Girls' Winter Uniform:
As above with the inclusion of the option to wear;
Navy skirt and navy tights
Navy cotton drill trousers
We have noticed our girls in particular being out of uniform as they return to school this term. Please refer to our list above for the correct winter uniform. Girls should only be wearing cotton drill trousers or the navy skirt and tights option. Unfortunately, jazz pants and leggings are not acceptable.
The trousers are available from Target for $16 in a variety of sizes. Link below.
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support
During the first half of the year, we have been working to enhance our implementation of the SWPBS program.
School-wide positive behaviour support (SWPBS) is a framework that helps schools create positive, safe, and supportive learning environments. It's an evidence-based approach that focuses on preventing behavioural issues by teaching and reinforcing positive behaviours in all students.
SWPBS helps schools to:
- increase respectful and positive behaviour
- strengthen social and emotional wellbeing
- reduce classroom disruptions and increase learning time
- build positive, respectful relationships between students and staff
- create safe, orderly, and supportive school environments.
A major component of this has been to develop a matrix outlining the positive behaviours that we expect to see in different areas of our school. This is on display in the foyer for everyone’s reference. Different aspects of it are displayed in different learning environments as a reminder of student expectations. It has been wonderful to have students, staff and parent representatives contribute to its development. Please take the time to discuss the matrix with your child/ren.
We are grateful for the huge amount of work our MHWL, Narelle Marsden has done over the last six months to really invigorate and strengthen the positive behaviour support structures we have in place at St Colman's.
Our new Behaviour Blitz focuses on recognising and rewarding children who demonstrate respect by following adult instructions.
School Advisory Council
We are grateful to our SAC members for 2025 for their ongoing support of our school.
Jo Wallis (Chair), Alison Greig, Zion Palmer, Sophie Allen, Rachel Baulch, Danielle Kenny, Georgie Price, Rosie O’Connor (School rep), Janet Cain (Principal).
These people are the voice of the parish and parents in the school. If you have any questions or anything that you would like raised please contact one of these people.
The SAC meets twice a term and we thank these people for agreeing to be a part of this group that provides an essential link between the school and its families.
The dates are;
Term 3; Aug 6th and Sept 10th
Term 4; Oct 22nd and Nov 26th (AGM)
Wellbeing
This week we will commence our second group of the Peaceful Kids 5 week program for the junior students. Children will engage in mindfulness, breathing and meditation activities which incorporate positive thinking and emotional regulation strategies. The previous group enjoyed the opportunity to share their feelings with others and many took the opportunity to enhance their learning by practising their meditation activities at home.
All students across the school have now commenced the Peaceful Classrooms component of the program. This includes similar activities in a structured, whole-class setting. These sessions will be conducted by the classroom teachers and focus on being mindful, understanding how the mind works and regulating our emotions. Please ask your child to share with you what they have been learning in this area.
Also beginning this week, students will have the opportunity to participate in lunchtime “Wellbeing Club” activities on Tuesdays with Mrs. Marsden. These sessions are optional for students, but provide the opportunity to socialise with others in a calm, structured environment. The focus is to build social relationships, encourage conversation between students across the school and enhance student emotional literacy. This week we will commence with mindful colouring. This will be held in the library, or on a picnic rug in the sunshine if the weather permits. We look forward to offering a variety of activities throughout the term, all with a wellbeing focus.
This week we will commence our second group of the Peaceful Kids 5 week program for the junior students. Children will engage in mindfulness, breathing and meditation activities which incorporate positive thinking and emotional regulation strategies. The previous group enjoyed the opportunity to share their feelings with others and many took the opportunity to enhance their learning by practising their meditation activities at home.
All students across the school have now commenced the Peaceful Classrooms component of the program. This includes similar activities in a structured, whole-class setting. These sessions will be conducted by the classroom teachers and focus on being mindful, understanding how the mind works and regulating our emotions. Please ask your child to share with you what they have been learning in this area.
Also beginning this week, students will have the opportunity to participate in lunchtime “Wellbeing Club” activities on Tuesdays with Mrs. Marsden. These sessions are optional for students, but provide the opportunity to socialise with others in a calm, structured environment. The focus is to build social relationships, encourage conversation between students across the school and enhance student emotional literacy. This week we will commence with mindful colouring. This will be held in the library, or on a picnic rug in the sunshine if the weather permits. We look forward to offering a variety of activities throughout the term, all with a wellbeing focus.
Narelle Marsden
Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader
In today’s world, life presents many challenges, and being a parent or carer is certainly among them.
If you are finding any aspect of parenting or caring particularly challenging right now, or if you would simply like some advice, please refer to the attached flyer for available support. You are also very welcome to reach out to us at school for a conversation—we’re here to listen and explore ways we might be able to assist. If you have a specific need or concern, please let us know, and we may be able to arrange sessions that could also benefit other members of our school community.
We are grateful for the ongoing support of CatholicCare Warrnambool and our school counsellor, Rachael, who is available for appointments with you each Wednesday.
Surviving and Thriving in the Cyber World
Michael Grose Parenting Toolbox
SchoolTV is available to support you!
Parenting is a learning journey, and with a little help from SchoolTV, you can engage in meaningful conversations with your child on topics that may sometimes feel awkward or difficult to address. SchoolTV covers a vast range of topics, each featuring interviews with leading global experts and a carefully curated selection of resources from key organisations. We encourage you to explore and utilise this platform, as it serves as a valuable tool in building relationships, fostering connections, and deepening understanding. By breaking down barriers, it helps pave the way towards better mental health and wellbeing for young people. To stay informed about the latest topics, we also recommend signing up for ‘Get Alerts’. This feature ensures you receive updates as new content becomes available, and you can easily register through the link provided within each topic. Parents and caregivers play a crucial role in shaping a young person’s life, and SchoolTV is here to support you in nurturing confident and informed parenting. Explore SchoolTV today!
Free Digital Literacy Webinar with
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg and Dr Susan McLean
We would like to invite parents, carers, grandparents, educators and school leaders to attend an exclusive webinar supporting primary and secondary students.
This exclusive, one-off event is fast approaching and we’d love to see your families benefit from the insights of two of Australia’s leading experts, Susan McLean and Dr Michael Carr-Gregg.
They will share invaluable insights on how to empower young people to navigate the online world safely and responsibly.
WEBINAR: Digital Media Literacy & Safety (Part III)
DATE: Wednesday, 3 September 2025
TIME: 7:30 pm
Topics in this webinar include:
- New Social Media Regulations
- Digital Footprint and Reputation
- Screen Time and Brain Development
- Parental Controls
St. Colman's School is a Child Safe Community
Child Safety Officers
Janet Cain and Rosie O'Connor are our Child Safety Officers.
Contact them on:
Phone: 55992285 or 0490539167
Email: jcain@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au or roconnor@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au
COMMUNITY NEWS
Lunch Orders
LUNCH ORDERS are only available twice a week on Monday and Friday.
Menu and 2025 price list below
Playgroup at St Colman's
Our fortnightly Playgroup is ready to start again. We look forward to welcoming back our local pre-schoolers every second Friday. Our next session will be this Friday August 1st, 9:30am to 11am. Morning Tea provided
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD WITH YOUR FRIENDS WHO HAVE PRESCHOOL AGED CHILDREN. EVERYONE IS WELCOME AND IT IS FREE!!!
The ongoing commitment to this project will require support from other members of the school community. If you are willing to help out by going on a roster to help organise Little Colman’s, please contact the school.
Out of School Care
A reminder that during 2025 we have access to Out of School Care, supplied by TheirCare, at Mortlake College. Registration is made via the TheirCare website. https://theircare.com.au/
Search for Mortlake College P-12
AngliCare Energy Assistance
As part of Anglicare Victoria’s FREE Energy Assistance Program, they provide assistance with energy bills to support Victorians to:
- Talk to their energy retailer and get help with debt
- Access extra financial support
- Check they are receiving eligible concessions on their bill
- Find and move to an affordable energy plan
- Understand bills and fix any possible errors
- Support your child's education with free internet at home
They can provide immediate assistance for clients who are struggling to pay for their gas or electricity bills to prevent disconnection to their property!
The follower two flyers provide further details.
NCCD
Please read the attached information sheet for parents regarding NCCD.