Term 1 Week 11 Monday 3rd April 2023

A Prayer for Holy Week

From the Principal

Key dates for the Diary

Term 1

Monday 3rd April  Jane Lee starts Long Service Leave

                                      AFL Positive Start Clinic- Children to wear Sports uniform

                                       MRC Taster Day- Seniors to attend

Tuesday 4th April District Aths in Camperdown

Wednesday 5th April- Foundation children attend school on Wednesday

 Thursday 6th April Last day of Term 1- Assembly, Will's Great Shave, Easter raffle drawn and Easter Egg hunt @ 12:15

Term 2

Monday 24th April School Closure Day for staff to complete online Compliance Modules

Tuesday 25th April ANZAC Day

Wednesday 26th April - First day of Term 2

                                                Parent Sacramental meeting 3:30 at St Colman's Church

Friday 28th April - St Colman's Cross Country at 11:30am

Monday 1st- Friday 5th May-Meals on Wheels

School Closure Dates 2023

Term 2: Monday 24th April (Compliance)

                  Thursday May 4th Warrnambool Cup Holiday

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

                  Tuesday 22nd August (Literacy)

End of Term Arrangements

This Thursday sees Term 1 drawing to a close. As is always the case on the last day of term, school will finish ONE HOUR EARLIER than usual. Therefore, school will end at 2:15pm on Thursday.

The first day of Term 2 for students will be Wednesday April 26th, as Monday is a School Closure Day and Tuesday is ANZAC Day. Students will wear winter uniform from the first day of term 2.

Helpers Needed

We are calling for voulnteers to help out in the following ways:

1. We need several people to help 'basket up' our Easter donations into prize packs. Depending on how many people help out this should only take 30-60 minutes.  We will organise a day and time around whatever is most convenient for the volunteers.

 2. We are rostered on for Meals on Wheels for the week Monday 1st -Friday 5th May. We would love some new volunteers to help with this. We will try to partner new helpers with old helpers so that you can do it together and enable new people to learn the ropes from veteran helpers!!

Please contact the office if you are able to help out.

District Athletics Carnival

We wish Gus, Rosie, Zac, Imogen, Will, Cooper, Alex, Noah McK and Billie all the best as they represent St Colman's at the District Athletics Carnival in Camperdown tomorrow, Tuesday. Anna Bourke, Brianna Barr and Olivia Glossop will be over there helping on the day as will many of the children's parents. Have a fun day!! Go St Colman's!!!

ANZAC Day March

St Colman's School community is honoured to take part in the local ANZAC DAY each year. All members of the school community are invited to participate. We all gather at the Mortlake Post Office at 9:45am as the March commences at 10am. Students are asked to wear their school uniform. Our school leaders will place a wreath at the memorial on our behalf.

Holy Week Liturgy and School Celebration

Last Tuesday 28th March, our school community participated in a couple of special celebrations. We began by participating in a Holy Week service with Fr. Gary at the church and then returned to school with Fr Gary and officially blessed and 'opened' our Undercover Area.

We then unveiled the commissioned artwork that the children completed last year with local Indigenous artist Emma Stenhouse. Unfortunately, Emma was unable to join us, but Sara Church from Acciona was there. 

This new mural ensures our school entrance looks bright and welcoming, but more importantly, it tells a story of our community and provides a connection between our school and the country on which we learn and play.

Young Leader's Day

Last Monday, I had the pleasure of taking our school's young leaders, Billie, Spencer and Noah to Melbourne so that they could experience Young Leader'as Day at the Melbourne Convention Centre. The three children were a pleasure to take away for the day and they represented your school with great pride and enthusiasm.

Here is Noah and Spencer's report from the day.

 Young leaders day

On Monday 27th of March at 5:45 am Ms Cain picked up  Billie, Spencer and me from our houses. Once we were in Camperdown we picked up Mr Mack who was coming along with us. Once we were in Melbourne we started to see a lot of traffic, it was horrible. Finally we arrived at the humongous stadium, The Melbourne Convention Centre, where we would meet…

: Nazeem Hussain

: Amanda Johnstone

: Robert Dipierdomenico (Dipper)

: Candy Hertz

We got photos with Robert (Dipper) and Nazeem. Nazeem even had his own book ‘Hy-larious Hyena’. 

I got one of his hilarious books, he even signed it for me.  

It was a wonderful day spent with around 4000 other students. 

By Noah Mckenzie

Young Leader's Day 2023

Shaving Will's Mullet

This Thursday, children are encouraged to wear casual clothes and bring along a gold coin donation for Will's shave for the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal. If you would also like to make a donation, please click on the link below. Will has already raised in excess of $3,500, which is an amazing effort. Well done Will!!

Will’s baby cousin Jacob was recently diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Jacob is 7 months old and has spent more time at the Royal Children’s hospital than he has with any of his extended family. Will wanted to be able to help out and raise some money towards the hospital that has saved the lives of so many kids, including our precious baby Jacob. So on Thursday the 6th of April Will is shaving his mullet which has become his absolute pride and joy.

2023 Sacramental Program

Our Lady of Mercy Parish is implementing some changes to our Parish based Sacramental program that will take effect this year.

As of this year, all three sacraments (Confirmation, Reconciliation and First Communion) will be celebrated by children in Year 3. However, our Sacramental Program has been greatly affected by Covid-19 for the past two years. This means that there will be children in Years 4, 5 and 6 who will also need to celebrate some, or all, of these three sacraments.

A COMPULSORY parent/carer meeting will be held on Wednesday 26th April at either 3:30 in Mortlake or 7pm at St. Thomas’ Terang, so please keep this date free. More information will be has been sent to families and copies of those letters are below if you haven't received them yet.

All children who have been baptised are welcome to participate in the Sacramental Program. If this is something you think you may be interested in, but your child isn't Baptised yet contact Janet to discuss your options. We have had several children baptised during school masses in the past and this may be something you wish to consider.

Unwanted School Uniforms

At the end of last year we were looking for a solution as to what we should do with our old school uniforms. Jane has signed up to a company called ‘Wornup’ who collect old school uniforms and put them to good use for schools in need.  If you have any of the old, out dated uniforms at home please drop them off at school so they can be passed on to this company.

We are also keen to start up a Second Hand Uniform cupboard at school for families who are currently suffering financial hardship to access. If you have any uniforms or shoes that your children have outgrown and that you no longer need, please consider donating them so they can be given to families in need within the school community.

Lions Eye Health Program (LEHP)

Tomorrow, Tuesday April 4th, we will welcome back members of the Warrnambool Lions Club who will be conducting FREE vision screening tests on our Foundation students.

​Members of the Lions club have been specifically trained to perform 4 vision screening assessments including:

1. Visual Acuity - using a Lea 3m -15 line Symbol Chart
2. Colour Vision - using a Quick 6 - Basic Colour Screening Book
3. Depth Perception - using a Stereo Fly Screening Tool
4. Spot Vision Screener - State of the art portable machine designed to screen for Myopia (near sightedness), Hyperopia (far sightedness), Astigmatism (blurred vision), Anisometropia (unequal refractive power), Strabismus (eye misalignment) and Anisocoria (unequal pupil size). 

All children in Foundation will have the opportunity to be tested. However, if your child isn't in these grades and you have concerns about their vision, please complete the attached form and return it to school ASAP and they will be screened also.

Easter Raffle

Thank you to all the families that have donated something that will be given as a prize in the raffle and sold your raffle tickets. If you are yet to bring in your donation, please do so by the end of this week. All raffle tickets need to be returned to school by Wednesday April 5th.

The raffle will be drawn at our final school assembly for the term (Thursday April 6th at 12:15)

Project Compassion

During the Ash Wednesday mass, Father Gary spoke of the importance of using Lent as a time to help those less fortunate than ourselves. He encouraged us to get behind Caritas' Project Compassion. As a school we have Project Compassion boxes in all of our classrooms to encourage children to donate money and we will also be supporting Project Compassion through several fundraising initiatives. 
One of these ideas is to sell Zooper Doopers each day for 50c. Our Year 6 school leaders will be selling them daily and all money raised will go into the Project Compassion box.

2023 Footy Tipping Competition

It is not too late to jump on board and support this community project.

Our Footy Tipping Competition is up and running and we have 35 registered entrants.

I think we should just wrap the season up now!!! I'm on top of the tipping competition and Geelong Cats are on the bottom of the ladder!!! Doesn't get much better than that! 🤣

Entry fee is $20 adults and $10 school aged children and is due to be paid ASAP

If you haven't already done so, please pop into the office to pay for your entry.

School Advisory Council

We would like to introduce you to our SAC members for 2022-2023.  Lily Convery-Oborne (Chair), Jo Wallis, Alison Greig, Michelle Lehmann, Jo Dolling, Zion Palmer, Sophie and Nick Allen, Rachel Baulch, Rosie O’Connor (School rep), Janet Cain (Principal) and Fr. Gary Jones (Parish Rep)

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. 

Introducing our SAC Members

Each week we will profile a member of our SAC and this week we will profile Rachel Baulch.

My name is Rachel Baulch and I am mum to Scarlett, year 2. Shaun, Scarlett and I moved to Mortlake from Geelong at the end of 2020. I work part time at Clarke’s cafe and enjoy spending time with family and friends on my days off. This is my first year being part of the SAC, I find it a great way to be more involved within the school community. It’s also a great opportunity to voice any concerns or ideas of myself or from other parents within our school. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the SAC and look forward to the chance to get to know more of the families at our school. 

🎂 🥳 Happy Birthday 🥳 🎂

 Happy Birthday to Cooper F and Alex L, who will be celebrating their birthdays during the holidays. We hope you enjoy your special day!

MRC O'Keefe Campus Open Afternoon

Our senior students attended a Taster Day at the O'Keeffe Campus this morning, where they got to experience some fun learning activites.

Mercy Taster Day

TMFNC Auskick and Net Set Go

Out of School Care

A reminder that during 2023 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/

Many of our students have already begun to use this program and the feedback from both parents and children has been overwhelmingly positive. Everything has run seamlessly so far, so if you are considering sending your children to Before or After Shool Care, you can be assured that this program is extremely easy to utilise.

Their Care also offers School Holiday Programs. See flyer below for some fun holiday activites to keep your kids busy!!

Feel free to contact the office if you have any questions about accessing TheirCare or use the contact details at the bottom of the flyer to contact them directly.

St. Colman's School is a Child Safe Community

Child Safety Officers

Janet Cain and Rosie O'Connor are our Chuild Safety Officers.

Contact them on:

Phone: 55992285 or 0490539167

Email: jcain@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au or roconnor@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au

Child Safe Standard 6: People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 6, St. Colman's must, at a minimum, ensure:

Recruitment, including advertising, referee checks and staff and volunteer pre-employment screening, emphasise child safety and wellbeing.

Relevant staff and volunteers have current working with children checks or equivalent background checks.

All staff and volunteers receive an appropriate induction and are aware of their responsibilities to children and young people, including record keeping, information sharing and reporting obligations.

Ongoing supervision and people management is focused on child safety and wellbeing.

NCCD

Please read the attached information sheet for parents regarding NCCD.

Our Lady of Mercy Parish Bulletin