Term 1 Week 3 Monday 14th February
Our Prayer This Week
Gracious God,
Thank you for the many blessings that we have in our lives.
Thank you for our families, friends and our school community.
Help us to be mindful that not everyone is as fortunate as we are. Amen
From the Principal
After two big weeks of swimming it's great to settle into a more 'normal' week. Thanks to everyone for your support of our swimming programme. The children were fantastic. Please keep an eye out for information about our swimming carnival for Grade 3-6 children on Friday. There's lots happening, so please take time to check all of the updates in our newsletter, including information about our first school closure day for the year, RATs and the first SAC meeting of the year.
Best wishes, Stacey Atkins
RATs
Our next allocation of RATs have arrived. These will be sent home with children today so please check your child's bag. A reminder you are encouraged to conduct a RAT twice a week on school days. This testing creates another layer of protection around our community. Any positive results must be reported to the school.
School Closure Day
Throughout the year, the staff at St Colman's engage in 6 school closure days to engage in professional learning.
The first school closure day for this year will be Wednesday March 16th. During this day we will be engaged in Emergency Management training and completing a number of online training modules that we are required to complete.
Information in regards to other school closure days will be confirmed as soon as possible.
Sacraments 2022
This year there will be one parent information evening for all children celebrating any of the sacraments.
This will be held at St Thomas' Church on Wednesday 23rd February at 7pm.
Children in Grade 3 or above are invited to celebrate the sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Eucharist.
Any parents of children who have not celebrated these sacraments in Grade 4, 5 or 6 are also invited to attend the parent night.
Reconciliation: Wednesday 30th March
Sacramentof Confirmation: Sunday 5th June at 9am Mass.
Sacrament of First Communion: Sunday 20th November
If you have any questions please contact Stacey at school.
More help needed
Thank you to the Faust, O'Brien, Camplin and Baulch families for offering to help out with the our chickens on the weekend. It would be great to have a couple more families to share the load.
If you are able to help please email Stacey principal@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au or contact the office. It is hoped that we can get enough support so that families only need to commit to once a term.
Thanks also to the Van den Heuval family for offering to help with the farm. If anyone is interested in helping with other aspects of the farm we'd love to here from you too.
Swimming Carnival this Friday
This Friday we will be joining with St Thomas' in our annual swimming carnival. This year, only Grade 3-6 students will be participating. Prep, 1 and 2 students will be staying at school.
Permission for this event will be circulated via PAM. The timely response of parents and carers to these permissions is very much appreciated and is one step that we take to ensure the safety of the chidren.
Unfortunately, we are not in a position to have a BBQ on this day, so children will need to pack their lunch.
COVID SAFETY
In line with current COVID protocols, any spectators will be required to check in and consider social distancing.
Brianna is currently preparing the entries. Events will be 50m and 33m in length and cover each of the strokes. If parents have any preferences for which events their child participates in please email Brianna before Wednesday. bbarr@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au.
Helpers
Thank you to those people who have already offered to help at the carnival. More details will be circulated later in the week. More help is always appreciated. Please contact Brianna or the school if you can assist.
Spectators are welcome but please BYO chair or picnic rug.
A big thank you to Brianna for all of her organisation.
School Advisory Council
This term our School Advisory Council will meet on the evenings of Thursday 17th February and Thursday 17th March.
This week's meeting will be held at school, Thursday night at 7pm.
An agenda for Thursday's meeting will be circulated to our SAC members via email.
School Connection
A message from Clare Jehu, our school pastoral care worker.
Benefits of a strong parent-school relationship
As a parent, you know your child better than anyone else. Your child’s teachers will want to get to know your child also.
When a strong and respectful relationship is developed with your child’s school and teachers, you’re in a good position to give them the information they need to help your child get the most out of education. You and your child’s teachers can work together to support your child’s learning and wellbeing.
When everybody is working together in the best interests of your child, he/she is likely to reap academic and social benefits, like:
- a positive attitude towards school
- positive social and relationship skills
- regular school attendance
- positive school results
- a sense of wellbeing
- school completion
- progression to post-secondary education like TAFE, university or apprenticeships.
How to build a strong parent-school relationship.
You can build a parent-school relationship in several ways:
- Be involved in the school community in whatever ways you can.
- Become an active member of the Parents and Friends Association
- Assist with learning and sporting programs, excursions and extra- curricular activities.
- Talk informally with teachers at school drop-off and pick-up times.
- Phone the school to book an appropriate time to have a formal discussion with your child’s teacher.
- Go to parent-teacher interviews and parent meetings.
- Check the school website, noticeboard, and emails regularly.
Creating a relationship with your child’s school is a two-way process. You can ask the school and teachers for information or feedback, and you can also share your child’s special events or achievements outside school.
Talking positively about school and its staff sends a message that you value education and are interested in your child’s school.
Adapted from raisingchildren.net.au
COVID Reminders
Please find following, an extensive letter outlining the current COVID arrangements. This will remain here in case you need to refer to anything. Some key points include things we are doing to protect our community:
- Mask wearing for all staff and Grade 2-6 students is compulsory. It is highly encouraged for all other children. Students must provide their own masks.
- Masks are required for ALL children who travel on a bus.
- Visitors must check in via the QR code and be vaccinated.
- RATs have been delivered with each member of the community being invited to test themselves twice a week. The school must be notified if there is a positive case. The school will inform the community if there is a positive case. Head to this link for a video on how to conduct a RAT. https://youtu.be/AyrggazYk_0
Please contact me at school if you have any concerns or queries. The new school mobile number is 0409 539 167.
Reflection
What makes you happy? This seems to change. Last week, when the weather was warm, it was getting into the pool. Sometimes it's being surrounded by friends and other times it's finding a quiet moment to yourself.
In Sunday's Gospel, Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount, which is a well know Gospel. Jesus talks about things that make us really happy – forever. He said:
God will bless you people who are poor. God’s kingdom belongs to you!
God will bless you hungry people. You will have plenty to eat!
God will bless you people who are crying. You will laugh!
God will bless you when others hate you and won’t have anything to do with you.
God will bless you when people insult you and say cruel things about you, all because you are a follower of Jesus.
This doesn’t sound much like happiness or a blessing to us, does it? Maybe Jesus means that people who have to rely on God and trust God because they don’t have other things that we think might make us happy, are blessed and can be happy because they know God loves them.
This week, perhaps we could all think about the things that make us really happy and take a moment to be grateful for that.
Noorat to Terang Fun Run
Please see the attached flyer for the Annual Noorat to Terang Fun Run. It would be great to have some of our students participate in this event. You can either walk or run the 5.92km.
Enter online here.