Term 1 Week 8 Monday 13th March 2023

Our prayer this week is for the homeless

From the Principal

2023 Athletics Carnival

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Key dates for the Diary

Term 1

Friday Feb 24th to March 17th Mrs O'Connor on Long Service Leave

March 15th-March 27th NAPLAN Testing Period

March 15th- Foundation children attend school on Wednesday

Friday 17th March-Pyjama Day

Monday 20th March Aberlea Visit- Middle room

Tuesday 21st March World Down Syndrome Day- wear ODD socks

                                            Parent Teacher Interviews- 3:30-5:30

Thursday 23rd March SAC Meeting @7pm

Monday 27th March Young Leaders Day, Melbourne

Tuesday 28th March School Photo Day

Wednesday 5th April- Foundation children attend school on Wednesday

 Thursday 6th April Last day of Term 1

Wednesday 26th April First day of Term 2

School Closure Dates 2023

Term 2: Monday 24th April (Compliance)

                  Thursday May 4th Warrnambool Cup Holiday

Term 3: Monday 14th August (Catholic Social Teaching) 

                  Tuesday 22nd August (Literacy)

Foundations to Attend Wednesday

Whenever we have a short week, it is always customary for the Foundation students to attend school on Wednesday for that week.

Therefore, the Foundation students will be at school on Wednesday March 15th and April 5th. Shandell will still be taking her Long Service Leave days and a CRT will be employed to teach the juniors on these two dates.

Staffing Announcement

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Angela Absalom to fill the Parental Leave Learning Support Officer position recently advertised. Angela comes to us with a wealth of experience in the nursing and disability sector and we look forward to welcoming her into our school community. 

Parent Teacher Interviews (PTIs) & Program Support Group meetings (PSGs)

Term 1 Parent Teacher Interviews will be taking place next Tuesday, March 21st from 3:30-5:30. These ten minute meetings with your child's teacher(s) are designed as a first term check in on how your child has settled into the year and talk about any concerns and goals for the coming term. 

Families of children who are on a Personalised Learning Plan are invited to attend a Program Support Group (PSG) Meeting on April 4th or 5th. These 20- minute meetings are held during the school day and will be with your child's classroom teacher and Janet (as Learning Diversity Leader). If you are required to atend a PSG you DO NOT need to attend a PTI as well. You will receive a text from the school if you need to book a PSG meeting time instead of a PTI. Any questions about this please contact Janet.

Please book your interview online through PAM, bookings will be open from Wednesday 15th March.

Easter Raffle

This year we ask all of our families to support our Easter Raffle. 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 will be sent home later this week. Please drop your donations off at the office. The raffle will be drawn at our final school assembly for the term (Thursday April 6th)

Aberlea Visits

As part of our Social Justice Program and community engagement activities, we will be commencing regular visits with the residents from Aberlea. These visits will provide the children with a valuable learning experience that can help them develop important social skills and build empathy for others. These visits are always appreciated by the elderly residents and helps decrease any feelings of social isolation they may be experiencing

The Senior students had their first visit last Monday and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We were so proud of how the students engaged with the residents and for the respect and tolerance that they showed to them.

“It was great to see the old people smile. They don’t get to see many people now that they are in a home, so it was great that we could visit them.” Billie C

“We played Tic Tac Toe with Joe Joe. He had lots of stories to tell us. He said that if he won the nurses told him he could have a glass of whiskey. When he did beat us they gave him a cup of tea instead.” Mason

The Middles will visit on Monday March 20th.

Unfortunately in these Post-Covid times all visitors to Aged Care facilities are mandated to produce a negative RAT before entering the premises. 

If you agree to your child’s participation in this activity, you can either give your child a RAT in the morning of the visit and write their name and date on the test and send it to school with them. Alternatively, we will do the RAT here at school before they go. Aberlea will provide us with saliva tests which are less intrusive than the nasal ones.

If you do not wish for your child to participate in these visits, please notify the office ASAP.

Seniors visit to Aberlea

NAPLAN 2023

NAPLAN is due to commence this week, with the first test being on Wednesday March 15th. Students in Grade 3 and Grade 5 participate in four tests in the learning areas of writing, reading, language conventions (spelling, punctuation and grammar) and numeracy.

Below is some information regarding NAPLAN for parents. If you have any questions regarding this please don’t hesitate to contact the school.

Pyjama Day

Friday March 17th is World Sleep Day. We are having a Pyjama Day to celebrate this day. Children can wear their PJs or any other 'loungewear' they feel comfortable in.

We are asking for a gold coin donation with all proceeds going to Melbourne City Mission to provide support to disadvantaged people in our community who have to sleep rough.

The 2023 Theme: Sleep Is Essential for Health

The theme for this World Sleep Day is Sleep is Essential for Health. Just like eating well and exercising, sleep is a behavior that is foundational to one’s physical, mental, and social well-being. However, sleep is not yet commonly considered an essential behavior for good health. World Sleep Day is an opportunity to promote sleep health alongside thousands of other sleep health professionals and advocates. When we all promote sleep health and #WorldSleepDay together, our combined effort is greater than the sum of its parts. Spread the word about sleep health on World Sleep Day, and help elevate the conversation around sleep!

Project Compassion

During the Ash Wednesday mass, Father Gary spoke of the importance of using Lent as a time to help those less fortunate than ourselves. He encouraged us to get behind Caritas' Project Compassion. As a school we have Project Compassion boxes in all of our classrooms to encourage children to donate money and we will also be supporting Project Compassion through several fundraising initiatives. 
One of these ideas is to sell Zooper Doopers each day for 50c. Our Year 6 school leaders will be selling them daily and all money raised will go into the Project Compassion box.

2023 Footing Tipping Competition

Please consider supporting this fun family and community activity!

Our Footy Tipping Competition is ready to go. This year we will be running the comp through the ESPN app/website. Please hop onto www.footytip.com.au to join the "St. Colman's 2023" competition.  Entry fee is $20 adults and $10 school aged children.

Details below but if you need help to regisiter please come into the office and see Jane or Janet for help.

DOBCEL Consultative Committee Leadership Vacancies

The DOBCEL Board provides opportunities for members of the diocesan education community, and others with relevant expertise, to participate in the mission of DOBCEL, to assist its governance and decision making and to inform faithful stewardship of the mission through DOBCEL Consultative Committees.

A range of vacancies exists across the DOBCEL Consultative Committees. These committees are an invaluable opportunity to ensure that the work of the Board and CEB reflects the needs of DOBCEL school communities right across the Diocese. Typically, the committees meet once each term for a duration of 90-120 Minutes. The opportunity exists to attend face-to-face or virtually.  For volunteers to the organisation, compensation for expenses is available. 

Opportunities exist for parents/guardians/carers with a child/children enrolled in a DOBCEL School to join one of the following; 

• Catholic Faith Community & Culture Consultative Committee
• Children & Young People Safeguarding & Wellbeing Consultative Committee
• Family and Community Engagement Consultative Committee
• Learning and Teaching Consultative Committee

In the event of multiple nominations, the Board will invite Consultative Committee members on the basis of the general balance of the committee, taking into account factors such as gender, diversity, skill mix, location, school size, etc.

For more information please contact Jo Mckee jmckee@dobcel.catholic.edu.au or speak with your school principal. Expressions of interest are open until Wednesday, 26th April.

Term 1 Classroom Information

Read the attached document to find out what is going on in your child's classroom this term

Health Education at St. Colman's

This year we have allocated 90 minute weekly lessons to Health and PE. These lessons will be conducted by Anna Bourke, where she will teach Health for 30 minutes and PE for 60 minutes each week. Janet Cain will be teaching the Middles their weekly health lesson. During the health lessons, we will be teaching from the DOBCEL endorsed document Fullness of life for All - Relationships and Sexuality Education F-6.

“Relationships and Sexuality Education is a key element in the education of the whole person and becoming fully human. Sexuality, which is a beautiful and sacred gift from God, is an integral part of our identity and affects all aspects of the human person. Therefore, all students have the right to high-quality Relationships and Sexuality Education that is relevant to their lives today, and to good educational foundations for them to negotiate the difficult terrains of current and future challenges of fostering and living good healthy human and sexualrelationships. The aim of this guidance is to support schools to:

• reflect on their existing Relationships and Sexuality Education provision;
• update their provision if and where appropriate, to ensure that it is relevant to their students’ lives today whilst engaging and dialoguing with the wisdom and guidance of the Catholic Tradition regarding relationships and sexuality education.
  
• to support compliance with Child Safe Standard 3 – Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken Seriously.” (FULLNESS OF LIFE FOR All Relationships and Sexuality Education F-6 Diocese of Ballarat)

As sensitive topics are covered and anatomical terminology will be used, your child may wish to discuss what they have learned during these lessons when they get home.

If you have any questions about this mandated curriculum area, please contact either Anna Bourke or Janet Cain

School Advisory Council

We would like to introduce you to our SAC members for 2022-2023.  Lily Convery-Oborne (Chair), Jo Wallis, Alison Greig, Michelle Lehmann, Jo Dolling, Zion Palmer, Sophie and Nick Allen, Rachel Baulch, 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. Our next meeting is Thursday 23rd March.

Award Winners

There were no award winners last week due to the Athletics Carnival being held on Friday. However, everyone who participated on the day was an award winner in my eyes!

Happy Birthday

We missed some birthdays last week. So happy belated birthday to Will, Xavier and Mrs Moloney for last week.

Happy Birthday to Blair who is celebrating his birthday this week!

Mercy Regional College Open Day

TMFNC Auskick and Net Set Go

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/

Many of our students have already begun to use this program and the feedback from both parents and children has been overwhelmingly positive. Everything has run seamlessly so far, so if you are considering sending your children to Before or After Shool Care, you can be assured that this program is extremely easy to utilise.

Their Care also offers School Holiday Programs. See flyer below for some fun holiday activites to keep your kids busy!!

Feel free to contact the office if you have any questions about accessing TheirCare or use the contact details at the bottom of the flyer to contact them directly.

Terang Mortlake Health Services Newsletter

St. Colman's School is a Child Safe Community

Child Safety Officers

Janet Cain and Rosie O'Connor are our Chuild Safety Officers.

Contact them on:

Phone: 55992285 or 0490539167

Email: jcain@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au or roconnor@scmortlake.catholic.edu.au

Child Safe Standard 4: Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 4, St. Colman's must, at a minimum, ensure:

4.1    Families participate in decisions affecting their child.

4.2    The organisation engages and openly communicates with families and the community about its child safe approach and relevant information is accessible.

4.3    Families and communities have a say in the development and review of the organisation’s policies and practices.

4.4    Families, carers and the community are informed about the organisation’s operations and governance.

NCCD

Please read the attached information sheet for parents regarding NCCD.

Our Lady of Mercy Parish Newsletter