Term 4 Week 11 Monday 12th 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

Loving God,
As we wait this Advent, we know you are with us: ever-present friend whose love lights up even the darkest places.
As we wait this Advent, we also pray: for all in our human family who feel the love that comes from caring for others.
Loving God, help us share your love.
Amen

The fourth Sunday of Advent is this coming Sunday.

From the Principal

Dear Families,

We have made it to Week 11. There are a number of tired and sick people around our community, so please take care and go gently this week. The main events this week are listed below with more details available in the newsletter. 

• End of Year Celebrations is Tuesday 13th December at 5.30pm.
• Reports will become available today, Monday 12th December.
• Thursday Grade 4/5/6 Fun Day- students to wear sports uniform please. 
• The final day for students is Friday 16th December. Please note it is a 3.15pm finish. Students to wear sports uniform please (Somer's Roadshow in the morning)
  
• 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-tomorrow night

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 is available below for catering purposes, please let us know if you have any dietary requirements. This will be supplied by the school, families can BYO drinks. 

Please RSVP using the link below

Mortlake Christmas Carols

St Colman's have been invited to sing at the Mortlake Community Christmas Carols on Friday night. It would be great if as many children as possible could attend. 

The carols begin at 6pm. 

If you are able to attend please RSVP via the link below. 

Semester 2 Reports

Teaching staff have been working hard to provide accurate reports for each child that reflect their learning during the second half of the year. 

These reports will be released via PAM today. If you have any issues accessing these reports please contact the office. There are no formal parent/teacher conversations scheduled for this term, but if you would like to speak to your child's teacher please feel free to make contact with them. 

Music News

On Tuesday 29th November, 10 music students gathered together in the art room to perform for family and friends.  There were a few nerves but considering most of the students had never done a concert of this type before, they all did a great job!  Well done to Jack Allen, Milana Herry, Sadie Wardlaw, Liam McKenzie, Charlotte Allen, Lacey Killen, Alex Lehmann, Remy Herry, Billie Carmody and Arlo Herry.  Thank you also to the girls who gave up part of their lunchtime to help me set up, and thank you to all the parents who made time to come and watch their students play after three years of not being able to do this!  And thank you to Stacey and the other teachers at the school for letting me take students out of class to learn how to play music.

INSTRUMENTAL STUDENTS NEEDED - Next year I will have space for several students to start music lessons.  The main instruments that students can learn are guitar and piano, but lessons are also available on violin, flute, recorder, ukulele, clarinet and trumpet.  If you would like some more information, please message me on 0417559235 and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Melanie Pocknall

Instrumental Music Teacher

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Help needed- care of chickens

A big thank you to those families who have been taking care of our chickens and ducks over the weekend. We're in search of some families to help care for them over the summer. Frank will check in on them on Monday and Tuesdays. 

If you are able to volunteer for a week (Wednesday-Sunday) please contact Stacey principal@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au We only need 6 families! 

Week 1- 21st- 25th December

Week 2- 28th Decemeber- 1st January

Week 3- 4th - 8th January

Week 4- 11th-15th January

Week 5- 18th-21st January

Week 6- 25th-29th January

Award Winners

Congratulations to our award winners this week- Will, Gus, Spencer, Ryan, Billie, Mason, Xavier, Lacey, Millie, Cooper, Blair, Jack and Scarlett. 

Congratulations also to those students who have completed both the MacqLit and MiniLit intervention programs. These small group interventions, run by Jenny Stapleton and Brianna Barr, are research based interventions that help boost the literacy skills of students. Each student has worked very hard and the results that they have achieved are very pleasing. Well done! 

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday this week to Hayley, who has the luck of being our last birthday for the year. 

We also wish Isabella a happy birthday, she'll be our first birthday in 2023. 

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. 

Out of School Care- Holiday Program

A reminder that in 2023 we will have access to Out of School Care, supplied by TheirCare, at Mortlake College. Registration is made via the TheirCare website. https://theircare.com.au/

Children will catch the bus to and from Mortlake College to St Colman's. Any child that is not currently a bus traveller will need to fill in a form to travel on the bus. 

Please contact the school to obtain this form. 

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.

For Sale- Guitar

Interested in learning guitar?

This Ibanez acoustic guitar is in excellent condition and has had minimal use. The guitar and case were originally purchased for $480 and we are asking for $200. 

If you are interested, please contact the school. 

Key Dates for the Diary

Term 4

13th December- Graduation and end of year celebrations

                               - Mortlake College Transition

15th December- Senior class fun day to Warrnambool. Sports uniform please. 

16th December- Last day for students. 3.15pm finish

                                   Mortlake Community Christmas Carols 6pm

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

Proposed School Closure Dates 2023

Term 1: Tuesday 14th March (Literacy)

Term 2: Monday 24th April (Compliance)

                  Friday 5th May (ReLATE, wellbeing)

Term 3: Monday 14th August (Catholic Social Teaching) 

                  Tuesday 22nd August (Literacy)

Term 4: Friday October  20th (ReLATE, wellbeing)

Mortlake Christmas Carols

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

Power training

Our Lady of Mercy Parish News

CFA - Property Preparation

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.