Term 1 Week 8 Monday 18th March 2024

Acknowledgement of Country

From the Principal

Important Dates:

TERM 1 2024        

Monday March 18th- NAPLAN Testing Period-Numeracy and Cacth up sessions

Tuesday March 19th- NAPLAN Testing Period- Catch up sessions

Friday March 15th and Monday 18^th - Parent Support Group Meetings

Tuesday 19^th March- Lions Eye Health Program screening at St Colman’s

Wednesday 20^th March- MRC Open Day

Thusrday 21st March- World Harmony Day- Wear orange

Friday 22^nd March – Regional Swimming Horsham

                                        - MRC Taster Day- 11:30-2:30 (Year 5/6's to attend)

Tuesday 26^th March – District Aths Carnival

Wednesday 27^th March- School Photos

Thursday 28^th March- Holy Week Prayer Service and Easter Raffle drawn.

                                                Term 1 ends at 2:15

Term 2 2024

Monday 15^th April- Term 2 commences- Jane Lee on LSL for 4 weeks

Wednesday 24th April St Colman's Cross Country

Thursday 25th April - ANZAC Day

Friday 26th April - Student Free Day- Staff Professional Learning in Wellbeing 

Monday 29th April - Catholic Education Week

                                         - GRIP Student Leadership Day

Tuesday 30th April- Open Day

2024 School Camps (with St Thomas’ Terang)

Sept 2^nd-3^rd: Year 3/4 Warra Gnan Coastal Camp, Warrnambool

Nov 13^th-15^th: Year 5/6 Dunkeld Adventure Camp

School Closure Days for 2024

Term 2: Friday 26^th April- Wellbeing

Term 3: Monday 15^th July- Religious Education; Re-contextualising the Scriptures.

                Tuesday 16^th July- Structured Literacy

Caritas Project Compassion

During the Lenten Season, we ask all our families to raise money for the Caritas Project Compassion. Each family will bring home a money box today and they are asked to fill the box with coins. These coins are then returned to school and used in the Class Money Line competition held on the last day of this term. The class with the longest coin line will win a hot chip lunch.

All the coins are then forwarded on to the Caritas Australia team, where they will use the money raised to support their charitable works.

The money line will be held next Thursday, March 28th, so it is time to start returning your Project Compassion boxes to school.

Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Survey

Every five years all Catholic primary schools in our diocese complete the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Survey. 

The Catholic University in Leuven was commissioned by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) to design a process and tools, based on sound research, to accomplish the goal of understanding our current Catholic identity and where the school community might like to see itself in the future.

The ECSI Survey is a key element of this process and I write to request your participation. The online survey gathers responses from students in Years 5 and 6, all staff and a representative sample of parents.

You are asked to complete the survey online; it may take up to an hour to do so. Attached is a letter of explanation and a set of instructions. Your child will also bring home a copy of this information today. In order to get an accurate picture of how our school community sees our school, it is essential that as many of you as possible complete the survey. Please find some time in your busy lives to sit and reflect upon our Catholic Identity and complete the survey.

Go to; http://www.ecsi.site/au/user/

Enter the password: Ghj654

Click on NEW USER

Our school Access code is: (case sensitive): mpUWYb

Many thanks in advance for taking the time to do so!

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

Harmony Week

Harmony Week is the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds.  It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.
Inclusivity, diversity, empathy, belonging and culture — are all themes that will be discussed throughout Harmony Week at St Colman's. I am sure you will all agree that these are all things we want to be inspiring in kids.
Harmony Week will culminate on Thursday March 21st, which is considered Harmony Day. Children can wear orange on Thursday to show their support of the diverse backgrounds and abilities that make up our classrooms, our school and the broader community in which we live.

NAPLAN 2024

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit each year. It is the only national assessment all Australian students have the opportunity to undertake.

Our Year 3 and 5 students have displayed greast positivity and determination to do their best over the past four days and most of them completed their final NAPLAN test this morning. Well done to you all!!

We now just have the job of 'catching up' any students who were absent over the four days that we conducted the tests.

Talk to your teacher  if you have any questions about your child doing the tests. For more information on NAPLAN, visit nap.edu.au.

March 18^th- Numeracy

Yrs. 3 and 5 both at 9:30 am

Catch Up session at 10:15

District Athletics Carnival

Next Tuesday, eight of our students will be representing our school at the District Athletics Carnival in Camperdown. Students need to find their own way there with the first event being the optional 1500m run. If your child has nominated to take part in the 1500m, they will need to be at Frederick Street oval before 9am. A note was sent home last week to all children who will be participating.

Best of luck to the students who made it through to this competition:
Will C, Phoebe D, Alex L, Imogen B, Gus C, Archie D, Eloise D and Zeke P. 

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.

Please note that the Juniors will be having Library on Wednesday in line with the rest of the school.

MUSIC LESSONS AVAILABLE

We’re off to a good start this year with ten students learning piano or guitar!  However, I have up to three more spots available for students who want to learn a musical instrument this year.  Students in prep-2 have 20 minute lessons while the older students have 30 minutes.  They can choose from piano, guitar, recorder, flute, violin, clarinet, trumpet, ukulele and saxophone.  If you’re interested, please text me on 0417559235 and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Melanie Pocknall
Instrumental Music teacher

Shaping Tomorrow Together

Last Tuesday night a great group of parents, students and staff met in our library with Tony Dalton to talk about our vision for St Colman’s School. I thank those people that gave up of their time and for being so willing to share their opinions with the group. Your insights are vital in creating a SHARED vision of how our school will prosper and grow. Our next step in this process is to have Tony work in collaboration with our School Advisory Committee at their next meeting in early Term 2.

The Easter Raffle is back!

After the huge success of the Easter Raffle last year, it is back! 

All families are asked to donate an Easter gift (egg, book, chocolate etc) and sell raffle tickets for $1 each. All donations will be given away as prizes, so the more donations we receive, the more prizes we will have. Raffle tickets have been sent home with the eldest in each family.

Please drop your donations off at the office ASAP.

The raffle will be drawn at our final school assembly for the term (Thursday March 28th).

School Photos

Scheduled for next Wednesday 27th March 2024

Your child has been given their personalised order form. Use this form to order your photo package. You can either place the money in the envelope or order and pay online. Please write the online order reference number on the envelope. 
Family envelopes are available from the office if you wish to have siblings in a photo together.

End of Term/ Easter Celebrations

The end of Term One is only 9 school days away. We will finish the term on Thursday March 28th at 2:15pm. Throughout that day we will be holding several events of significance.
Children will need to bring back their Project Compassion boxes to use the coins in the Money line. The class with the longest line will be rewarded with hot chips for lunch on the first Friday back next term. 
Children will be finalising this term’s RE Unit on HOPE with a visit from inspiring guest speaker Ben Harkin. Ben visited our school last year and inspired our students with his incredible story of resilience and message of never giving up HOPE.
After recess we will commence our Easter events, see flyer below. Everyone is welcome to attend. Children can wear casual clothes on this day.

School Advisory Council (SAC)

We would like to introduce you to our SAC members for 2024.   

Jo Wallis (Chair), Alison Greig, Michelle Lehmann, Zion Palmer, Sophie Allen, Rachel Baulch, Danielle Kenny, 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.

This year we will hold our meetings Wednesday of week 3 and week 8 each term starting at 6:30pm.

The dates are;

Term 2: May 1st and June 5th

Term 3: July 31st and Sept 4th

Term 4: October 23rd and Nov 27th (AGM)

Transition into Secondary School

With strong enquiries for enrolment into Year 7, 2025, families of Mercy Regional College’s Catholic feeder schools are encouraged to register their interest and attend several key dates in their transition program.

See images below for further information.

MRC Information Sessions

Playgroup at St Colman's

We look forward to welcoming back our local pre-schoolers every second Friday, with our next session being held the first week of Term 2, Friday April 19th.

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.

SCHOOL NURSE VISIT

Each year our Foundation students have the opportunity to have a FREE health and wellbeing check conducted on them by the visiting School Nurse. If you would like your Foundation child to have this check, please complete either the online questionnaire or request a paper version from Shandell. 

Lions Eye Health Program

Each year, St Colman's is lucky to be part of the Lions Eye Health Program (LEHP). Trained volunteers from the WARRNAMBOOL LIONS CLUB will visit us on March 19th to conduct FREE vision screening tests on our Foundation, Year 3 and Year 6 students. However, they will test other children who have identified as demonstrating vision concerns.

Over 80% of what children learn is processed through their eyes. Untreated eye conditions can affect a child’s development. It is estimated 1 in 5 children in Australia have undetected vision problems. Screening can help identify children who require further examination by an optometrist.

The individual screening takes just a few minutes to perform. There is no physical contact made with the child and no eye drops are administered. Individual reports will be sent to parent/guardians. If a vision problem is detected, this will be written on the child’s result sheet and you will be encouraged to seek a further eye assessment with an eye health professional. 

If you would like your child to participate in this vision screening program, please complete the attached permission slip and return to the office TOMORROW MORNING.

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).

SchoolTV Wellbeing Platform

This week's feature article explains the importance of promoting Harmony Week with our students.

SPECIAL REPORT: Celebrating Harmony Week

"Harmony Week is all about celebrating the fact that Australia is one of the most multicultural countries in the world. Our diversity is a great strength and helps us do things in different ways, reduce discrimination and accept difference." Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

Weekly Award Winners

Congratulations to all of the students who received an award at our Assembly last Friday. Students who demonstrate consistent excellence in displaying our school core values of Welcome, Learn, Care and Faith are acknowledge with an award.

Keep up the amazing work you are all doing!!

Birthday Wishes

No student birthdays this week but happy birthday to any members of our community who are a celebrating birthday this week. 

We send you many blessings on your special day and throughout the year. 

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

The Child Safe Standards

The Child Safe Standards (the Standards) are compulsory minimum standards for all Victorian schools to ensure they are well prepared to keep children and young people safe and protect them from abuse.  provides the framework for child safety in schools.

Standard 2: Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture

In complying with Child Safe Standard 2 St Colman's must, at a minimum, ensure:

2.1    The organisation makes a public commitment to child safety.

2.2    A child safe culture is championed and modelled at all levels of the organisation from the top down and bottom up.

2.3    Governance arrangements facilitate implementation of the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy at all levels.

2.4    A Code of Conduct provides guidelines for staff and volunteers on expected behavioural standards and responsibilities.

2.5    Risk management strategies focus on preventing, identifying and mitigating risks to children and young people.

2.6    Staff and volunteers understand their obligations on information sharing and record keeping.

How are we implementing this at St Colman's (SCM)??

• Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy implemented and communicated to school community via SAC and is available on the school website. 
• Child Safety & Wellbeing is a standing item at all staff meetings
• Commitment to child safety is signed at the entry and around the school and through social media. - Admin
• Child Safety Risk Register reviewed to meet all 11 Child Safe Standards, includes actions for implementation.
• The Child Safety Risk Register has been endorsed by the SAC on 4 April 2023.
• All Child Safety policies are available on the school website. 
• Record Keeping and Privacy is included in annual Staff Induction completed each year. 
• Mandatory Reporting Training is completed by all staff annually. Evidence of completion is provided to the School Leadership. 
• School Principal, Risk & Compliance Officer and the Child Safety Officer review and monitor the risks related to Child Safety and Wellbeing on a regular basis each term. 
• Volunteers, Contractors and CRT are inducted on Child Safety, privacy and recordkeeping responsibilities annual through Passtab and on commencement of employment. 
• Leaders, staff and volunteers are supported, guided and trained to understand, respect and value Aboriginal culture and to understand the importance of this to the wellbeing and safety of Aboriginal children
• Risk Management is done well through preparing off site planning and risk assessments. 
  

If you have any questions about our implementation of this Standard, or have a suggestion about how we could be doing this better, please contact  our Child Safety Officers; Janet Cain and Rosie O'Connor.

Our Student Representative Council will be co ordinating our partnership with Cooinda Terang to become a collection point for Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic).

We will be collecting all eligible empty drink containers and then returning them to the CDS collection point at Cooinda. The 10c raised from each return will go back to the SRC. They will nominate various charities to support as well as using 50% of the funds to upgrade school resources.

So please start collecting and sending in your empties. 

Most aluminium, glass, plastic and liquid paperboard (carton) drink containers between 150mL and 3 litres are eligible. You can keep the lids on, we recycle them too. The easiest way to know if your drink container can be returned is to look for the 10c mark on the label, often located near the barcode.

You can help in two ways:

1. The first is by far the simplest. Just return your empty eligible containers to the tubs in the corridors at school.
2. If you have a large amount of containers to deposit, you may wish to take them to a Container Deposit Depot and return them yourself. Please download the CDS Vic West App (instructions below). When you return your containers, nominate St Colman's School Mortlake as the charity you want to donate the money to.

Please note, that as we are in partnership with Cooinda Terang, our preferred deposit depot is their Reverse Vending Machine located at 49 Dow St Terang.

Their Care- School Holiday Program

Auskick and Net Set Go are back

Camperdown Theatre Company

Mortlake Community Market

Toastie Tuesday

Lunch Orders

LUNCH ORDERS are only available twice a week on Monday and Friday.

Menu and price list below

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

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.