Term 1 Week 4 Monday 3rd February 2025

Acknowledgement of Country

From the Principal

Key Dates:

TERM 1 2025

Wednesday 19th February- Foundation Rest Day

Friday 21st February- Swimming Program Day 1

Monday 24th February- Hockey in Schools visit

Tuesday 25th February- Swimming Program Day 2

Thursday 27th February- Swimming Program Day 3

Friday 28th February- Swimming Program Day 4

                                                 Division Swimming

Monday 3rd March- Swimming Program Day 5

Tuesday 4th March - Shrove (Pancake) Tuesday

                                           - Parent Teacher Conversations

Wednesday 5th March- Ash Wednesday

Friday 7th March- F-6 Athletics Carnival @ Terang Rec Reserve

Monday 10th March- Labour Day Public Holiday

12th -24th March -  National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing Yr 3 and 5

Thursday 13th March- LEHP Visit (Lions Club free vision screening)

Wednesday 19th March- School Advisory Council Meeting @ 6:30pm

Thursday 20th March- Billy Bush Band Family Night

Wednesday 26h March- School Photos

                                                - Mercy Regional College Open Day

Friday 28th March- Mercy Regional College Taster Day

Tuesday 1st April- Division Athletics Carnival

Friday 4^th April- Term 1 ends at 2:15

Term 2 2025

Monday 21st April - Easter Monday
Tuesday 22nd April – Student-free day; Structured Literacy
Wednesday 23rd April – Universal Positive Behaviour Support/SWPBS 
Thursday 24th April – Southern Zone collaboration day regarding DOBCEL 10 year Strategic Plan
Friday 25th April- ANZAC Day

Monday 28th April- Students return for Term 2

School Closure Days for 2025

28 January – Student-free day; first day of term one
22 April – Student-free day; Structured Literacy
23 April – collaboration with St Mary’s Ararat, St Thomas’ Terang and St Patrick’s Camperdown re:
                       Universal Positive Behaviour Support/SWPBS 
24 April – Southern Zone collaboration day regarding DOBCEL Strategy 2035 - ‘Pursuing fullness of life for all’
8 August – Student-free day
31 October – Student-free day
3 November – Student-free day
19 December – Student-free day; last day of term four

In addition to these days and other Public holidays, St Colman's takes the Local Government Area recognised holiday of Warrnambool Cup Day, which this year is on Thursday May 1st.

A Friendship Blessing

Creator God, as Pilgrims of Hope, we pray for one another along the journey of 2025 using this reflection;

May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where
there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold in you.
May you be brought into the real passion, kinship, and affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them;
may they bring you all the blessing, challenges, truth,
and light that you need for your journey.
May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your anam ċara.

Amen

Adapted from Anam Cara: A Book Of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue

In the Celtic tradition, there is a beautiful understanding of love and friendship. One of the fascinating ideas here is the soul-love; the old Gaelic term for this is an anam cara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul and cara is the word for friend. So anam cara in the Gaelic world was the ‘soul friend.” In the early Celtic church, a person who acted as a teacher, companion, or spiritual guide was called an anam cara - John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

May we all be and find an Anam Cara as we experience everything 2025 brings

Our Lady of Mercy Parish News

The Bishop of the Diocese of Ballarat, Bishop Paul Bird, has made the following announcement regarding the appointment of a Parish Priest to our Parish.

Hello Everyone,
Following consultations over the past few weeks, I am pleased to announce an appointment to the parishes of Camperdown, Timboon and Hampden. This appointment is in view of Fr Neville Stanislaus’ forthcoming move to Gariwerd Parish. From March 1, 2025, Fr George Kuruvila Koorumullumpurayidam MST, currently Co-Pastor of the Western Border Parish, will become Parish Priest of Camperdown, Timboon and Hampden.

I thank Fr George for his current service and his willingness to take up the new assignment.

God bless you all.

Bishop Paul.

Parish Priest – from March 1, 2025
Fr George Kuruvila MST (resident in Camperdown).
Fr George will also be Parish Priest of Camperdown & Timboon Parishes from March 1, 2025.

Interim Visiting Priest 
Fr Jim McKay

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

NAPLAN 2025

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. Please see attached flyer for more information or follow the link below for an online version. This year, the NAPLAN test window starts on Wednesday 12 March 2025 and finishes on Monday 24 March 2025.

Swimming Program

St Colman's provides their students with an intensive Swimming Program at the beginning of each school year. All students will be walked to the Mortlake Outdoor Pool for five lessons conducted by fully qualified swim teachers from Jayson Lamb’s Splash Factory.

Our Swimming Program commences this Friday 21^st February.

Other dates are:

Tuesday 25^th Feb

Thursday 27^th Feb

Friday 28^th Feb

Monday 3^rd March

Children will need to bring their bathers, a towel and goggles on each of these days.

All parents are invited to come and watch and if you are willing to help with organising our youngest students after their lesson, please let Shandell know that you can help.

Lesson times are as follows:

Yr F-2- 12:30pm

Yr 3-6- 1pm

Student Leadership at St Colman's in 2025

St Colman's Produce Garden

Vegies for Sale- Gold coin donation

Specialist Timetable for 2025

Below is the Specialist timetable for Term 1. All children need to wear their sports uniform each Wednesday and return their library books on their classes nominated day.

Swimming Carnival

What a wonderful day we had at our swimming sports with St Thomas’ last Friday! The students all did an incredible job with Gold House taking out first place.

Special congratulations to Imogen Barr, Steff Van den Heuvel, Archie Dale and Jack Allen who were age champions! A huge thank you to Brianna Barr for the incredible amount of work she puts into preparing this carnival. It ran seamlessly! Thank you also to the staff and parents who helped set up and run the events as well as the families who came along to cheer on our kids.

Swimming Sports 2025

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School Advisory Council

We are grateful to our SAC members for 2025 for their ongoing support of our school.

Jo Wallis (Chair), Alison Greig, Zion Palmer, Sophie Allen, Rachel Baulch, Danielle Kenny, Georgie Price, 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 1; Feb 12th and March 19th

Term 2; May 7th and June 11th

Term 3; Aug 6th and Sept 10th

Term 4; Oct 22nd and Nov 26th (AGM)

Welcome Picnic, Open School & Bush Dance

Our first school community event of the year will be held on Thursday 20th March starting at 5:00pm.

After the success of our STOMP dance party last year, we have decided to hold another dance night to kick start our year, this year with a Bush Dance theme. We will welcome the Billy Bush Dance team during the day and they will teach the students some dances to perform for you that night and they will also get you up for a boot scoot as well.

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. Our next session will be Friday 28th February.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD WITH YOUR FRIENDS WHO HAVE PRESCHOOL 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  the school.

SchoolTV Wellbeing Platform

The Wellbeing Barometer survey has become an essential resource for schools, providing valuable insights into youth mental health and wellbeing. By capturing community concerns and understanding the nature of these challenges, schools are better positioned to support families, foster meaningful conversations, and strengthen relationships.

As part of an ongoing longitudinal study, this survey plays a pivotal role in tailoring support for students and their families. It offers a comprehensive view of students’ experiences, challenges, and achievements over a 12 month period.

By participating in this survey, your school can identify areas of strength, uncover potential concerns, and pinpoint opportunities for early intervention. The survey’s findings enable a deeper understanding of young people’s lives, supporting a more tailored approach to improving mental and emotional wellbeing.

Our Weekly Award Winners

Michael Grose Parenting Toolbox- Click on the link to read the article: "How to help your child succeed at school"

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support

At St Colman's, we are excited to be using a  positive behaviour acknowledgement system, inspired by the School-wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) framework. This evidence-based approach helps schools improve social, emotional, behavioural, and academic outcomes for students from Foundation to Year 12. Our new system will focus on promoting and rewarding specific behaviour expectations within our school community.

Here's how it works:

1. Staff members will distribute RAFFLE TICKETS to students demonstrating the targeted positive behaviour.
2. These tickets will be collected in a large jar and counted weekly.
3. Progress will be tracked on a barometer displayed in our school foyer and pictured above.
4. School-wide rewards will be offered at various milestones, with a grand prize when we reach 1000 tickets.

To ensure student engagement, our Student Representative Council will help determine the focus behaviours and rewards for our "BEHAVIOUR BLITZ" initiative. At their most recent meeting the Junior SRC decided on the following rewards;

250 tickets= Movie and popcorn afternoon

500 tickets= Hot chip lunch at Tea Tree Lake

750 tickets= Casual clothes and free time afternoon/ rotation games 

1000 tickets = Day trip to Lake Pertobe.

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

Junior Student Representative Council (SRC)

At the end of last year, we announced our Junior SRC representatives for each classroom. This was a new initiative for St Colman’s in 2024 and was incredibly successful. I look forward to working with this year's Student Leadership team to continue our work on ensuring that 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- Charlotte and Ivy

Social Justice Leader: Steff

Junior Reps- Rocky and Kyra

Middle Reps - Leo and Izzy

Senior Reps -Sadie

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. 

The SRC is also responsible for Toastie Tuesday, which starts again tomorrow.

COMMUNITY NEWS

Lunch Orders

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

Menu and 2025 price list below 

Birthday Wishes

Out of School Care

A reminder that during 2025 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.