Term 2 Week 6 Monday 29th May 2023

Our prayer this week

From the Principal

Key dates for the Diary

Term 2

Tuesday May 30th- Shandell, Rosie and Bridget to visit Camperdoen College to watch Structured Literacy in practice

Friday June 2nd - Little Colman's Playtime 9-10:30am

Monday June 5th- Kinder visit to St. Colman's

Tuesday June 6th- Structured Literacy professional learning- Janet to attend

Friday June 9th - Little Colman's Playtime 9-10:30am

Monday June 12th - King's Birthday Public Holiday

Tuesday June 13th - Parent Support Group meetings

Thursday June 15th - School Advisory Council meeting

Friday June 16th - Little Colman's Playtime 9-10:30am

Thursday June 22- Whole school excursion to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Lighthouse Theatre Warrnambool

Friday June 23rd-Little Colman's Playtime 9-10:30am

                                      End of Term 2 @ 2:15pm

Monday July 10th - First day of term 3

                                       - Dental Van at Saint Colman's for two weeks

Friday July 21st- Annual Trivia night and Major Raffle Draw

School Closure Dates 2023

Term 3: Tuesday 22nd August (Literacy)

Term 4: Friday 10th November (Catholic Social Teaching) NB change of date

Confirmation

We congratulate Archie, Gus, Zoe F, Sadie, Adia, Remy and Ivy and their families on the work they have completed in order to prepare for this special day in their Christian life. 

Covid Information

As we have had quite a few reported cases of Covid 19 within our community, it is timely to remind ourselves of COVID Safe arrangements. We will be encouraging greater vigilance with our hand washing procedures at school.

Although there are no mandated isolation arrangements, the following is strongly recommended:

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.

If families require RAT kits, please contact the school office.

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, however we will continue to do this informally.

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.

Playgroup at St Colman's

Little Colman’s Playtime is designed for babies and pre-schoolers and will be held for four Fridays in June (June 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd) . We are blessed to have a qualified and experienced Early Childhood educator as Chair of our SAC and Lily has kindly volunteered to run these sessions in June, which will utilise our art room and playground. We encourage you to spread the word about this initiative as it presents as a wonderful opportunity to create a further visible presence in our great little community. If you know somewhere that we could place a poster advertising our playgroup, please let me know and I will send you one. If you would like to help in any way please contact Lily or myself.

Major Raffle

We are officially launching our school’s major fundraiser this Thursday. Last year the raffle raised almost $10,000 for our school and we would love to do the same again this year.

This year all families will be rostered on to sell tickets at community ‘hot spots’.

Clarke’s Café - Fridays 11-2pm

Bate’s Supermarket - Saturdays 10-2pm

WVLX (Saleyards)- 1^st and 3^rd Thursdays of most months (15^th June, 6^th & 20^th July) 9am -1pm

If you have a preference of where and when you would like to be rostered on, please contact the office ASAP as we are in the process of creating this roster.

Term 2 Classroom Information

Please read on to find out what is happening in our classrooms this term.

Lunch Orders

A reminder that as of the start of Term 2, LUNCH ORDERS are only available twice a week on Monday and Friday.

St. Colman's Community Garden

We are so grateful to local community member, Marie Varley, who has volunteered to work with our students each week to re-establish our neglected community garden. This week the Seniors and the Junior students will be spending some time getting their hands dirty!

You can help by donating any of the following items needed for this project.

• Used soft drink bottle (1.25 or 2 Lt)
• Any herb or vegetable seedlings
• Old carpet off cuts, door mats or hessian bags
• Old plastic pots
• White plastic that can be cut up and used as name tags (for example, ice-cram containers).

St. Colman's Enrolments

Changes to eating times

We began our trial of changes to eating times last week. Initially, we were only going to do this three days a week, but from an organistaional perspective we need to run it every day. We will then be able to report back at the next SAC meeting (Week 8) if we want this to go ahead permanently. Please discuss these changes with your children and we would welcome your feedback as this 'experiment' continues.

8:55- School bell

10am - Fruit and Brain Break

11am- Bell- Children take their lunch boxes to UCA and then go and play

11:20- Music- All children sit in UCA and eat LUNCH

11:30- Bell- in class and learning

1pm- Bell- Children take their lunch boxes to UCA and then go and play

1:35- Music- All children sit in UCA and eat AFTERNOON SNACK

1:45- Bell and in class and learning

3:15- School bell

Enrolments at MRC

Are you enrolling your child to attend our sister school, Mercy Regional College in 2024? If so, please note that enrolments are now due.

Mercy Regional College is committed to giving every student a fair chance to receive a Catholic education. The College offers a number of scholarships to support student learning and assist with tuition, fees and levies.

If you would like further information on accessing financial support or any other part of the enrolment procedure, please contact College Registrar Ms Nicole Darcy:
T. 03 5593 2011
E. office@mercy.vic.edu.au

A live link is avaliable on the Mercy website.

Wonder Recycling Rewards for Schools

This year we are participating in this program that will raise reward points that can be cashed in for sporting equipment for our school. Ask all your friends, neighbours and family members to save their bread bags and bring them to school and put them in the big white box at the front door at school. All bread bags (including muffins and wraps) are accepted. These bags are then returned to Wonder to be responsibly recycled.

So let's get recycling!!

Footy Tipping

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

Tassie Devils has hit the lead on 68 points with six others right behind on 67 points. 

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. 

Weekly Award Winners

No weekly awards this week due to Network Day. However, we will be celebrating reaching our whole school target of Dojo points. The reward is Fun Friday and this Friday all children will be participating in fun activities grouped in their house colours.

We will start a new target this week of 150 points. Children who are seen to be living our school core values of Welcome, Learn, Care and have Faith will be rewarded with a Dojo point.

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

Standard 1:  Organisations establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 1, St. Colman's must, at a minimum, ensure:

1.1    A child’s ability to express their culture and enjoy their cultural rights is encouraged and actively supported.

1.2    Strategies are embedded within the organisation which equip all members to acknowledge and appreciate the strengths of Aboriginal culture and understand its importance to the wellbeing and safety of Aboriginal children and young people.

1.3    Measures are adopted by the organisation to ensure racism within the organisation is identified, confronted and not tolerated. Any instances of racism are addressed with appropriate consequences.

1.4    The organisation actively supports and facilitates participation and inclusion within it by Aboriginal children, young people and their families.

1.5    All of the organisation’s policies, procedures, systems and processes together create a culturally safe and inclusive environment and meet the needs of Aboriginal children, young people and their families.

NCCD

Please read the attached information sheet for parents regarding NCCD.

Our Lady of Mercy Parish Bulletin

Community News

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.

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.