Term 1 Week 2 Monday 5th February 2024
- Acknowledgement of Country
- From the Principal
- Important Dates:
- A back to school Prayer
- Our Lady of Mercy Parish News
- Beginning of Year School Mass
- Student Leadership at St Colman's in 2024
- Welcome to our new staff
- Specialist Timetable for Term 1
- Structured Literacy Project
- School Wide Positive Behaviour Support
- Welcome Picnic
- Playgroup at St Colman's
- SchoolTV Wellbeing Platform
- St. Colman's School is a Child Safe Community
- Lunch Orders
- Birthday Wishes
- Out of School Care
- Terang & Mortlake Health Service Health and Wellbeing Newsletter
- 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 back to another exciting school year! We hope you had a restful and enjoyable break, filled with wonderful experiences and memories. As we embark on this new school year together, we look forward to a year of growth, learning, and success.
Our dedicated staff have been hard at work preparing for another successful year of learning, and this obvioualsy contributed to how seemlessly all students settled back into their classes.
For our families, your ongoing commitment to our school community is truly appreciated. Your support is the foundation upon which our school's success is built. We are a family, and together, we create an environment that fosters learning, respect, and collaboration.
This school year holds the promise of new opportunities, challenges, and achievements. Let's embrace each moment with enthusiasm, curiosity, and a commitment to excellence.
Our school's newsletter comes out each Monday and contains lots of information that you will find useful. They are sent out digitally via email or can be accessed via the Schoolzine app or on the homepage of our website. You will notice that this year, the information in our newsletter is under five headings - Catholic School Culture, Learning and Teaching, Wellbeing, Community Engagement and Leadership and Stewardship - which are considered the important characteristics highly effective Catholic Schools focus on. All the work we do at school with staff comes under these headings too.
Read on to find out what else is happening in our school community. It is always a good idea to familiarise yourself with the key dates section of the newsletter. Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions, concerns or suggestions you may have.
Have a wonderful week.
Kind regards,
Janet
Important Dates:
TERM 1 2024
Wednesday 7th February- Foundation Rest Day
Monday 12th- Friday 16th February- Meals on Wheels
Tuesday 13th February- Opening School Mass
Wednesday 14th February - Ash Wednesday
- Foundation Rest Day
Thursday 15th February- School Advisory Council meeting 6:30pm
Friday 16th February - St Colman’s & St Thomas’ Swimming Carnival @ Mortlake Pool
Wednesday 21st February- Foundation Rest Day
Monday 26th February – STOMP Dance Class Day 1
Tuesday 27th February – STOMP Dance Class Day 2
Wednesday 28th February – STOMP Dance Class Day 3
- Foundation Rest Day
Thursday 29th February – Division Swimming Warrnambool
Friday 1st – Thursday 7th March- F-6 Swimming Program
Monday 4th March – STOMP Dance Class Day 4
Tuesday 5th March – STOMP Dance Class Day 5
5:30: Family Picnic and STOMP Dance presentation
Wednesday 6th March – Foundation Rest Day (FINAL ONE)
Friday 8th March- St Colman’s and St Thomas’ Athletics Carnival @ Terang Rec Reserve
Monday 11th March- Labor Day Public Holiday
Wednesday March 13th- March 25th- NAPLAN Testing Period
Thursday March 14th-March 15th- Parent Support Group Meetings
Tuesday 19th March- Lions Eye Health Program screening at St Colman’s
Wednesday 20th March- MRC Open Day
Friday 22nd March – Regional Swimming Horsham
Tuesday 26th March – District Aths Carnival
Wednesday 27th March- School Photos
Thursday 28th March- Term 1 ends at 2:15
Term 2 2024
Monday 15th April Term 2 commences
School Closure Days for 2024
Term 1: Tuesday 30th January- Structured Literacy
Term 2: Friday 26th April- Wellbeing
Term 3 Monday 15th July- RE
Tuesday 16th July- Structured Literacy
A back to school Prayer
Our Lady of Mercy Parish News
WEEKEND MASS TIMES
ST THOMAS’ TERANG
Saturday 6.00 pm
Sunday 10.30 am
ST COLMAN’S MORTLAKE
Sunday 9.00 am
Beginning of Year School Mass
Our Beginning of the Year School Mass is on Tuesday 13th February at St Colman’s Church at 11am. As Father Gary continues to recover from his recent surgery, we welcome Father Jim McKay who will be leading this Eucharistic Celebration for us. All families are asked to join together in celebrating our beautiful school and the new year. Our newest students will be welcomed and our Student Leadership Team, listed below, will be presented with their badges and formally commissioned during this mass.
Student Leadership at St Colman's in 2024
School Captain | Ivy Wardlaw |
School Captain | Mason Dale |
Social Justice Leader | Alex Lehmann |
Gold House Captain | Phoebe Draffen |
Blue House Captain | Xavier Camplin |
Red House Captain | Will Cameron |
Senior Room SRC Reps | Charlotte Allen |
Middle Room SRC Reps | Zoe Frances |
Archie Dale | |
Junior Room SRC Reps | Patrick Greig |
Layla Furness-Tuffnell |
LEARNING AND TEACHING
Classroom Information
Each term we will create an information flyer informing you with the curriculum content being covered in each of the three learning hubs at St Colman's. This document also contains the contact details and guidelines for communicating with all staff.
Welcome to our new staff
We have a number of new staff commencing with us in 2024. We welcome the following staff and look forward to them engaging with our school community and contributing to the education of all our students.
Michelle Blain will be working as a Learning Support Officer on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Piper Jarvie is our 2024 Trainee and will be working in a variety of roles with the school.
Ms Nicole Moulden is returning to St Colman's and will be teacher Health/Phys. Ed and STEAM.
Specialist Timetable for Term 1
Below is the Specialist timetable for Term 1. All children need to wear their sports uniform and return their library books.
Health/Phys Ed (Ms. Moulden) | STEAM (Ms. Moulden) | LOTE/Library (Ms. Cain and Miss Stape) | |
Juniors | Wed 11:30-1pm | Tues 1:45-3:15 | Thurs (Term 1 only ) 2:15-3:15 |
Middles | Wed 9:30- 11am | Tues 11:30-1pm | Wed 12:30, 1:45-2:15 |
Seniors | Wed 1:45-3:15 | Tues 9:30- 11am | Wed 11:30-12:30 |
Structured Literacy Project
We are thrilled to announce that our school - along with many others - has joined the Diocese of Ballarat's Structured Literacy Project. In 2024 we will be taking the further steps towards a renewed, evidence-based approach to Literacy instruction through participation in this award-winning research partnership with La Trobe University.
The Sciences of Reading and Learning tell us that a systematic, explicit approach to the teaching of the alphabetic code and the grammatical rules that underpin written English offers our students the best chance at becoming confidently literate. The approach we are strategically adopting is called Structured Literacy, which is the approach endorsed by the International Dyslexia Association, the International Literacy Association and the Australian National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy.
Our whole staff group will be working closely with the Structured Literacy team from the Catholic Education Office over the next few years, to learn more about the principles, elements and characteristics of a Structured Literacy approach with our first school closure last Tuesday dedicated to learning. We will strive to keep you updated on the progress of this important project, but for now you may wish to watch a short video (link below) from the DOBCEL Structured Literacy team to find out more.
Attached is important information regarding the collection of data for the research project. If you do not wish for your child/children’s data to be used in the study, you may opt out by:
1. Printing, completing and returning the attached form.
2. Requesting a hard copy form from the office.
3. Emailing your completed form to the office at admin@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support is: A multi-tiered framework for establishing the social culture and behavioural supports needed for a school to achieve behavioural and academic outcomes for all students. For the next two weeks at St Colman’s we are working with our students on developing effective learning habits that will set them up for success throughout the year ahead. During that time, all staff will be reinforcing the behaviour expectations as set out in our Behavior Matrix (below).
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Welcome Picnic
Our first school community event of the year will be held on Tuesday 5th March starting at 5:30pm.
Highly regarded Melbourne-based dance company STOMP Dance Co, will come to our school each day for a week and teach our students four- to-five dance routines. The week of dancing will culminate on Thursday night with an outdoor concert that will showcase all they have learnt during the week.
More details will come out soon, this is just a 'save the date' for what should be a fun night for our kids and their families.
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, starting next Friday February 16th.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD WITH YOUR FRIENDS WHO HAVE PRE SCHOOL AGED CHILDREN. EVERYONE IS WELCOME!!!
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 either the school or Lily.
WE WILL NEED TO PURCHASE SOME GAMES AND EQUIPMENT FOR OUR PLAYGROUP. HOWEVER, WE WONDERED IF YOU HAD ANY OLD TOYS AND GAMES THAT YOUR CHILDREN HAVE GROWN OUT OF AND THAT YOU NO LONGER NEED. IF SO, WE WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE THE DONATION OF ANY PRE-SCHOOL TOYS AND GAMES, INDOOR OR OUTDOOR, THAT ARE IN EXCELLENT USED CONDITION.
WELLLBEING
SchoolTV Wellbeing Platform
This year, our Diocese has partnered with School TV to bring a range of helpful resources to families from a variety of experts, such as Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. There will be videos, interviews, fact sheets, articles and more.
This award-winning resource helps build relationships, foster connections, enable understanding and break down barriers to navigate a pathway towards better mental health and wellbeing for young people. It can assist in starting conversations on topics that are sometimes awkward or difficult to tackle.
Below is a link to an introductory page. You will soon be able to access our school's landing page through a link on our website.
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
Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement
In line with Child Safe Standard 9: Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed, all students and their families will be asked to read, discuss and sign the attached document; Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement.
The measures to ensure the cyber-safety of St Colman's School are based on our core values. To assist us to enhance learning through the safe use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), we are now asking you to read this document with your child(ren) and sign the final page and return it to school. It is essential that all children understand not only their RIGHTS as technology users, but also their RESPONSIBILITIES to be safe and vigilant when using technology.
The Agreement was discussed with all students in class today and they should have brought a hard copy of this document home with them today.
LEADERSHIP & STEWARDSHIP
Junior Student Representative Council (SRC)
At the end of last year, we announced our Junior SRC representatives for each classroom. This is a new initiative for St Colman’s and it is hoped that this committee will help the student’s at our school feel more connected and provide them with a greater voice in the organisation of some aspects of our school.
These students, along with our two school captains, will comprise our Student Representative Council for the year.
School Captains- Ivy and Mason
Junior Reps- Patrick and Layla
Middle Reps - Archie and Zoe F
Senior Reps - Charlotte
They will meet with me each term and discuss issues and/or concerns raised by themselves and their peers. We will brainstorm and plan how we can raise awareness of Social Justice concerns in our community and wider world. As well as organise fundraising events for charities and fundraising for school resources and equipment etc.
Our first SRC Meeting will be this Friday. Prior to this meeting each of our reps will hold a class meeting, where they will seek ideas and feedback that they can take to the meeting.
On the agenda for this meeting is what ‘THEME’ days we will hold throughout the year. We also need to come up with alternative suggestions for outdoor resources that we can purchase to promote physical health and wellbeing amongst our students.
COMMUNITY NEWS
Terang Junior Domestic Basketball registrations are now open!
We welcome new and returning players to follow the link below, to register NO LATER than Tuesday February 20th.
Season will commence Friday 1st March, 2024. BLACK or NAVY Shorts ONLY, strictly NO pockets or NO footy shorts allowed.
There will be NO LATE registrations accepted past the cut off date of February 20th, 2024. Any queries please message TOBA page, Stephen Vaughan or Kym Grundy.
Terang Olympic Basketball Association commitee
Lunch Orders
LUNCH ORDERS are only available twice a week on Monday and Friday.
Menu and price list below
Birthday Wishes
Happy Birthday to our student, Gus who celebrated his 10th birthday last week.
Many blessings to you on your special day and throughout the year.
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/
Search for Mortlake College P-12
Terang & Mortlake Health Service Health and Wellbeing Newsletter
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.