Term 1 Week 4 Monday 21st February

Our Prayer This Week

Forgiving God,

Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek. Help us to forgive those who have hurt us. To show mercy when we have experienced pain. To love those who have wronged us. 

Amen

From the Principal

It's hard to believe that another week has passed us by. Our swimming program has now concluded which means that we move into training for our upcoming Athletics Carnival. On Thursday we had our first SAC meeting of the year. During this meeting access to school reports via PAM was discussed as well as the possibility of a school social event later in the term. Stay tuned for further updates on both of these. An important notice in regards to the Sacraments also appears below. Please take the time to read this carefully and to make contact if anything is unclear. 

Have a great week, Stacey Atkins

Covid Update

We have been informed that four children who were present at the swimming carnival on Friday from St Thomas' have since tested positive to Covid-19. Parents of children in Grades 3-6 are asked to continue monitoring their child for symptoms and are asked to consider using the RATs provided. 

It looks like RATs are here to stay. Information will be shared when the next batch is ready for collection. Whilst we have been very fortunate so far, things could change and these RATs help to keep everyone in our community safe. 

We anticipate that QR codes for schools will be removed, however, we are awaiting official confirmation. 

A reminder to inform us if your child has tested positive or is a close contact. 

Swimming

A very successful swimming carnival was held last Friday. Thanks to everyone who was able to come along and support this event. 

Special thanks to Brianna Barr and Jenny Stapleton who took charge of a lot of the organisation of the day. Thanks also to James Krepp and James Dennis who helped to set up on the morning of the swimming carnival. Thanks to the other parents and friends who were able to assist on the day. We couldn't run these events without your help. 

Finally, congratulations to all the students who participated. They represented their team with pride and honour. Gold team were sucessful on the day (again!), blue second and red third.

An extra special congratulations to Natalie Krepp, Billie Carmody and Noah McKenzie who were their age champions. 

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Communication

To help create the most productive, safe and effective environment for the children at St Colman's could I please ask parents to adhere to the following protocols. 

If you need to get a message to your child during the day, have a query about the bus, require uniform or have any other messages could you please contact Jane in the office 03 5599 2285. 

This will ensure that other staff can focus on teaching.

If you would like to contact your child's teacher please consider sending them an email to arrange a time to speak with them. Now that we have had 3 weeks at school the teachers are more than happy to arrange a quick catch up to discuss how your child has settled into the year. 

Junior Room, Shandell Moloney smoloney@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au 

Middle Room, Maddie Tegelhuter mtegelhuter@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au

Senior Room, Rosie O'Connor roconnor@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au

Morning Reading

Prior to school each morning classroom teachers are committed to listening to children read. This is a routine that children are familiar with. 

The challenge with this is that it makes it difficult for parents to chat to teachers of a morning for a significant amount of time. Whilst our teachers are always available for important messages, if you require a lengthy chat please arrange a time to meet with the teachers. 

I am usually outside supervising the children before school if you need to speak to me before school. 

Sacraments 2022

This year there will be one parent information evening for all children celebrating any of the sacraments.  It is very important that this evening is attended.

Please complete the linke  Google Form if your child/children will be participating in 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. 

The School Bus

Parents are reminded that all children must have written permission to travel on the bus. If you require more information please contact Jane in the office. 

School Advisory Council Update

The School Advisory Council (SAC) met last Thursday night. The SAC performs a vital leadership role in our school. The SAC is an acknowledgement that it takes collective wisdom to lead a school community, as different people bring different life experiences and points of view.  The SAC are in a privileged position of being able to formulate and offer informed advice to the Principal.

The SAC is not concerned with the day to day management of the school. It is a representative body, bringing together in a formal way all parties connected with the  school.  

The SAC are called to be truly representative of what is best for the whole school community, putting the students at the heart of every decision.  A particular focus of the SAC has been the implementation of the new school uniform. This year we are hoping to have a particular emphasis on reengaging our community and school after the impact of the pandemic. 

This year the SAC members are:

Lily Convery-Oborne (chairperson), Stacey Atkins, Rosie O'Connor, Tamara Burt, Brianna Barr, Joanna Dolling, Alison Greig and Jo Wallis. 

The SAC members are very open to speaking to members of the community about our school and would love to hear from our community at any stage. 

Key Dates for the Diary

22nd February- Mayor for a Day visit from Damian Callinan

2nd March- Ash Wednesday

11th March- Sports Carnival

14th March- Long Weekend

16th March- School Closure Day 

23 March- Mercy Regional College Open Day

A message from Catholic School Parents Victoria

Parents of CSPV invite you each year to contribute your parent voice to various topics in education. We also seek your perspective so we can share resources, present webinars, events and other projects based on your needs as Catholic school parents.We invite you to complete the following survey to share what is most important to you now your children are back at school. We encourage you to share this with parents in your school community to gather feedback on pertinent issues in education for parents at this time. We will then discuss each of the responses for consideration as we plan for the year ahead. Thank you in advance for your response to our survey. Click here to complete the survey by Friday 11th March 2022. 

A reminder...

The St Colman's  community has been fortunate that we have not had significant staff numbers impacted by COVID such that we have continued to provide quality learning and teaching and student care. I remind families that this could change quickly and the school may be required to ask some classes or year levels to stay home if we do not have adequate staff numbers onsite. We hope that this is not the case, but if it does become a necessity, we will work hard to minimise any disruption.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to Piper and Ryan who both celebrate their birthdays on Thursday. 

Lost Property

Do any of these items belong to you? 

The jumper and blanket have been here since last year and the chair was left at the swimming on Friday. 

Love Our Enemies

When dealing with conflicts in the school playground things can be resolved pretty quickly. Normally a restorative chat and the exchange of 'I'm sorry' is enough to fix the problem and the children continue to play happily together. 

It's not always so easy for adults. Hurt can run deep and sometimes relationships cannot be repaired. 

In Sunday's Gospel, Jesus gives a difficult teaching. He tells the crowd to give to everyone who asks and expect nothing in return. He instructs his listeners to love everyone, and reminds them that even sinners love those who love them. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6: 27).
Jesus is talking about a love that is centered in respect and tolerance. We don't always have to like everyone we encounter in our lives, but it seems that respecting others is what Jesus was encouraging us all to do. Especially when it's tough. 

Mayor for a Day

Tomorrow, Damian Callinan will be visiting St Colman's in preparation for his show (see details below). We're all looking forward to giving him some input into what can be included in his show about being the Mayor of Mortlake. You too can have your say, please see a message from Damian below. Tickets to the show can be bought at the newsagency or online from the lighthouse theatre.

Gidday Mortlake Folk, it's Damian Callinan here. I’ll be performing ‘Mayor for a Day’ at the Mortlake Memorial Hall on Tuesday, February 22nd. To help me prepare for the show and learn about the town and your community, I'm asking locals to fill in one of these surveys. All you have to to do is answer the 10 questions and then click submit. It should only take you 10-15 minutes. Much appreciated.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/X3SXRNP

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.

Noorat to Terang Fun Run

Please see the attached flyer for the Annual Noorat to Terang Fun Run which will be held on Friday night. 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.

Auskick

Auskick kicks off in Mortlake on May 1st. Please see the flyer for details on how to register. Contact Jess Dennis on 0422 808107 for details.

Parish Bulletin

Mass is celebrated at St Colman's every Sunday at 9am. All welcome.