Term 2 Week 10 Monday 17th June

Acknowledgement of Country

From the Principal

Important Dates:

Term 2 2024

Monday 17th- Friday 28th June- Rosie on Long Service Leave (Mick McKenzie to replace her)

Tuesday 18th June- Kinder visit to our school.

Monday 24th- Friday 28th June- Janet on Study Leave

Monday 24th- Friday 28th June- St Colman's celebrating NAIDOC Week

Monday 24^th June – MRC Taster Day (Year 6 students to attend)

Friday 28th June- Final day of Term 2 (early finish @ 2:15)

Term 3

Monday 15^th July- Pupil Free Day- Religious Education; staff professional learning day.

Tuesday 16^th July- Pupil Free Day- Structured Literacy; staff professional learning day.

Wednesday 17^th July- Students first day back at school for Term 3

                                           - Jenny Stapleton Long Service Leave (4 weeks)

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

                Tuesday 16^th July- Structured Literacy

The readings for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B are filled with images of growth. The first reading tells of planting a shoot on a mountain, which then becomes a shelter for the birds. And in the gospel Jesus tells the parable of the mustard seed.

So on the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, the readings focus on faith, growth, and humility. The messages show God's power to nurture and transform lives, encouraging us to trust and follow Him.

Our Lady of Mercy Parish News

We welcome Fr Jim as our Parish Priest - as of 1st July until the end of the year. Bishop Paul will make long term appointments later in the year. 

WEEKEND MASS TIMES
ST THOMAS’ TERANG
Saturday 6.00 pm
Sunday 10.30 am
ST COLMAN’S MORTLAKE
Sunday 9.00 am

Staffing News

Rosie O’Connor is taking Long Service Leave for the next two weeks. She will be replaced in the classroom by Michael McKenzie, whilst Shandell Moloney will assume Rosie’s Assistant Principal duties.

I am also taking some Study Leave and will be away for the last week of term as I commence a 3-week Study Tour on the DOBCEL Ireland Spiritual Heritage Pilgrimage celebrating 150 Years of the Diocese of Ballarat. As both Rosie and I will be away for the last week of term, Shandell Moloney will be your go to person if you have any queries or concerns.

Miss Stape will be taking Long Service Leave for the first 4 weeks of Term 3. She will be replaced for two days a week by Mrs Kath Townsend. Some of you may have already met Kath or recognise her as she has been doing some relieving roles at our school throughout the year.

Juniors visit to Mortlake Library

Positive Partnerships

Please find below information about an upcoming free Government funded autism workshop in Colac for parent/carers. The close location of this workshop, provides a wonderful opportunity for members of our school community to access excellent professional support and guidance on living with. and caring for, neurodivergent children.

Please note, diagnosis is not required to attend the workshop, therefore this could be a great opportunity for families who may be exploring a diagnosis.  Grandparents, kinship carers and other family members welcome.

Student Representative Council News

Just a reminder that Toastie Tuesday is a fundraising initiative of our Junior School Council. Please remember to include $1 with each toastie and write your child's name on the outside of the toastie wrapper so they get the right sandwich returned to them. If there is no money included, your child's sandwich won’t be toasted!

After the success of the pizza day a few weeks ago, our young MasterChef SRC reps will again be making and selling delicious ham and cheese pizzas this Friday for a cost of $3 each. As with all SRC fundraisers, 50% of sales will go to a nominated charity whilst the other 50% is used to purchase school resources selected by the students. An order form will be sent home today (Monday). All orders need to be placed by Wednesday so that ingredients can be purchased.

School Advisory Council (SAC)

We are grateful to our SAC members for 2024 for their ongoing support of our school.

Jo Wallis (Chair), Alison Greig, Michelle Lehmann, Zion Palmer, Sophie Allen, Rachel Baulch, Danielle Kenny, Rosie O’Connor (School rep), Janet Cain (Principal).

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 3: July 31st and Sept 4th

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

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 back, Friday July 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 Counselling at St Colman's

We welcomed Rachael Main into our school community as our Pastoral Care Chaplain a few weeks ago. Rachael has slotted into her role with ease and is already building connections with our students and working with them to build their social and emotional intelligence.
In addition to these one-on-one sessions, Rachael is also going to be conducting whole class and small group sessions that will help to develop various social skills, team building, resilience and problem-solving skills in our students.
If your child was previously accessing the services of our school counsellor, Grace, they will continue with Rachael. If you think your child would benefit from this service, please speak to your child's teacher or Janet.

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

Positive Parenting Series

The National Academy of Sciences defines four major responsibilities necessary for good parenting. These include: maintaining a child's health and safety; promoting a child’s emotional wellbeing; instilling a child’s social skills; and preparing a child intellectually.

There is no such thing as a perfect parent, but arming yourself with the right information is a good start!

This week's focus article is on Respectful Realtionships.

Respectful relationships promotes respect and gender equality and helps students learn how to build healthy relationships. It prepares students to face challenges by developing problem-solving skills and building resilience and confidence." Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

Birthday Wishes

No student birthdays this week.

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.

Child Safe Standard 11: Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children and young people.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 11 St Colman's must, at a minimum, ensure:

11.1  Policies and procedures address all Child Safe Standards.

11.2  Policies and procedures are documented and easy to understand.

11.3  Best practice models and stakeholder consultation informs the development of policies and procedures.

11.4  Leaders champion and model compliance with policies and procedures.

11.5  Staff and volunteers understand and implement policies and procedures.

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

• Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy implemented and communicated to the school community via SAC and is available on the school website. 
• Commitment to child safety is signed at the entry to the school. 
• 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 and in child friendly version. 
• All staff, volunteers, CRT’s and contractors sign the Code of Conduct annually through Passtab. 
• Staff participate in an Annual Induction training that include Child Safe Standards, Mandatory Reporting and various supporting policies are covered. ie: Complaints Handling Policy. 
• Recruitment processes followed as per the Recruitment Policy, which is available to staff and the whole school community via the school website. 
• The school has a designated Child Safety Officer. This role is promoted to staff and is included in several related Child Safe policies. 
• Child Safe is a regular agenda item at SAC and leadership meetings. 
• All adults working with our students must hold a valid Working With Children Check (WWCC) or Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) registration. These are just a few examples of the many ways in which we meet this standard.

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.

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 we continue to have access to Out of School Care in 2024, 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.