Term 4 Week 10 Monday 5th December

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.

Our Prayer this Week

Joyful God,
As we wait this Advent, we celebrate Jesus’ good news: a message of life and healing that transforms even deep sadness into joy.
As we wait this Advent, we also pray: for all in our human family who have been unfairly treated because of their status or situation.
Joyful God, help us share your joy.
Amen

The third Sunday of Advent is this coming Sunday.

From the Principal

Dear Families,

Welcome to week 10! Things are not slowing down as we head towards the end of term, so please go gently over the next two weeks. 

Currently, our Grade 3/4 students are on camp. I'm sure there will be plenty of stories when we return home tomorrow. 

There is a lot of information about upcoming events in the newsletter, so please take note . 

Some big things that are happening:

• Transition day is this Friday for our 2023 students.
• End of Year Celebrations is Tuesday 13th December at 5.30pm.
• Reports will become available Monday 12th December.
• The final day for students is Friday 16th December. Please note it is a 3.15pm finish.
  
• The Mortlake Christmas Carols is Friday night, December 16th. It would be great to have as many children as possible there to sing our Christmas songs. 

Kind regards, 

Stacey

End of Year Celebrations

We look forward to celebrating the 2022 school year as a community on Tuesday 13th December!  The evening will begin at 5:30pm with a mass, we ask all students to wear full school uniform. Following this, our graduation ceremony will begin and we will have farewells to staff and families including Tim Bourke who will be returning to officially farewell the community. We will then have some carols from the children, they are welcome to bring Christmas headbands or Santa hats for this part. The formalities will conclude with an invitation to BBQ dinner back at school. A survey will be sent out for catering purposes, please let us know if you have any dietary requirements. This will be supplied by the school, families can BYO drinks. 

Transition to 2023

With only 2 weeks left of school we are beginning to prepare for 2023.

Our 2023 foundation students have been visiting on Fridays between 9-11. It is great to see their confidence growing as they make new friends and learn about life in the Junior Room. 

Important dates

* Whole School Move Up Day - Friday 9th December

All students will go to their new classes for 2023. Janet and Bridget will also be at school on that day. 

* MRC Transition Day- Tuesday 6th December

* Mortlake College Transition Day- Tuesday 13th December

Congratulations!

Well done to Charlotte, Archie and Bella who have successfully completed MiniLit with Ms Stape. They have worked very hard all year. Well done team. 

Christmas Art- Come and Try

A big thank you to all the family members who came along and participated in our Come and Try Christmas Art day. Thanks to Mrs Stephanie Kennedy for her organisation of the day. The children were certainly very pleased to have a number of special visitors in their art class. 

Happy Birthday!

It's Noah week this week! 

Happy birthday to both Noah A and Noah M. We hope you enjoy your special days. 

Library Books

Could you please check at home for any school library books?

Miss Stape would like for them to all be returned by the end of this week please. 

Relay Carnival success

Will, Zoe, Cooper and Alex competed in the Western Country Region Relays yesterday and did really well.

They all had a great day and enjoyed competing.

Well done!

Out of School Care

Want to find out more about TheirCare and what that will look like for our students? An information session will be held via Zoom on Wednesday 7th December at 6pm.

Join Zoom Meeting at the following link.

https://zoom.us/j/92595119105?pwd=WTNyajlVOTNQYUNkYm9mMDRMalRwUT09

Meeting ID: 925 9511 9105 Passcode: 1hx2P4

New PAM accounts

In 2023, all parents will be given a new PAM account. Instead of having one account per family, each parent will have their own account. In preparation for this, you need to login to your current PAM account and complete the survey that has been created which asks for your email addresses as this is what you will use to login to your new account. If you are having difficulty accessing the survey, please try going to our website and clicking on the PAM tab up the top or contact Jane at the office.

Key Dates for the Diary

Term 4

5th and 6th December- Gr 3/4 Camp to Halls Gap

6th December- Global transition day (MRC and Mortlake College)

7th December- TheirCare information session, 6pm

9th December- St Colman's Transition Day

13th December- Graduation and end of year celebrations

                               - Mortlake College Transition

16th December- Last day for students. Mortlake Community Christmas Carols

Advance Notice: First day of 2023 for students will be Monday 30th January

Mortlake Christmas Carols

Save the date! We're hoping to have a group of students to sing on the night. 

Our Lady of Mercy Parish News

CFA - Property Preparation

Warrnambool Surf 'T' Surf

The 40^th Annual Warrnambool Surf T Surf Fun Run/Walk event is once again being run on Sunday the 8^th of January 2023.   This correspondence is to let you know that we have an exciting opportunity for Primary Schools in the form of a Primary School Challenge. Our aim is to encourage young children to get out and be active with the added benefit of potentially raising funds for your primary school.    Winner of the Challenge will have the most participants registered under your team’s name across all 4 fun run events. The events being 10km run, 6km run, 6km walk and 3km Lap of the lake.  The prize is $1000 donation to the winning school.   

Register using this link to be counted in the St Colman's team. 

https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=47978&G=165630

COVID Reminders

New settings are now in place. 

Most settings are changing from must to highly recommended.

For example, you must stay home when testing positive is changing to, it is highly recommended that you stay home.  

Changes to COVID-19 isolation requirements.

It is strongly recommended that students: 

• Who test positive for COVID-19 should stay home and isolate for five days.
• Should not attend school after five days if still symptomatic.
• Who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school.

Where students become symptomatic at school, they should: 

• Be collected by their parents/carers.
• Undergo testing for COVID-19. 

It is strongly recommended that staff: 

• Who test positive for COVID-19 should stay home and isolate for five days.
• Should not attend school after five days if still symptomatic.
• Who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school.

COVID-19 reporting requirements.

The Department of Health recommends that a person who tests positive for COVID-19 should inform those with whom they have recently been in contact, including their workplace, school and household. 

Schools no longer have to alert their school community of positive cases. 

Face masks.

Staff and students who wish to wear a face mask should be supported to do so, and schools should continue to make face masks available for staff, students and visitors. 

The Department of Health recommends that masks should be worn by a person who is a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 when leaving home. 

Additionally, the department recommends that masks should be worn by a person who has COVID-19 for 10 days after a positive test when they need to leave home.