St Colman's School Mortlake eNewsletter

Our prayer this week

Reconciliation Week

Be a Voice for Generations. National Reconciliation Week 2023 - National Reconciliation Week 2023

Let us pray

Creator Spirit,
All creation once declared your glory,
Your laws were honoured and trusted,
Forgive us our neglect as our country approaches the most critical moment in its history.
Listen to our prayer as we turn to you,
Hear the cry of our land and its people,
Just as you heard the cry of Jesus, your Son, on the Cross.
Help us to replace our national shame with true national pride by restoring the dignity of our First People whose antiquity is unsurpassed.
May our faith and trust in you increase.
Only then will our nation grow strong and be a worthy place for all who wish to make their home in our land.

Amen.

© Elizabeth Pike, September 1997
Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Melbourne.

From the Principal

Dear St Colman's community,

We have certainly been blessed with some lovely winter sunshine these past few days, it makes it hard to believe that we are almost at the end of our first semester for the year.

There has been, and continues to be, a lot going on in our small school community lately. Last Friday we welcomed about ten children and their mums to our first Little Colman’s Playtime and this morning the children from Mortlake Kindergarten had their first school visit to our Junior Room. Enrolment period is an exciting time in any school community as we start to make plans for the 2024 school year.

Read on to find out what else is happening in our school community. It is always a good idea to familiarise yourself with the key dates section of the newsletter. Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions, concerns or suggestions you may have.

Have a great week.

Kind regards,

Janet

Key dates for the Diary

Term 2

Monday June 5th- Kinder visit to St. Colman's

Tuesday June 6th- Structured Literacy professional learning- Janet to attend

Friday June 9th - Little Colman's Playtime 9-10:30am

Monday June 12th - King's Birthday Public Holiday

Tuesday June 13th - Parent Support Group meetings

Thursday June 15th - School Advisory Council meeting

Friday June 16th - Little Colman's Playtime 9-10:30am

Thursday June 22- Whole school excursion to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Lighthouse Theatre Warrnambool

Friday June 23rd-Little Colman's Playtime 9-10:30am

End of Term 2 @ 2:15pm

Monday July 10th - First day of term 3

- Dental Van at Saint Colman's for two weeks

Friday July 21st- Annual Trivia night and Major Raffle Draw

Meals on Wheels Roster

Week beginning; 21st August and

30th October

School Closure Dates 2023

Term 3: Tuesday 22nd August (Literacy)

Term 4: Friday 10th November (Catholic Social Teaching) NB change of date

Covid Information

As we have had quite a few reported cases of Covid 19 within our community, it is timely to remind ourselves of COVID Safe arrangements. We will be encouraging greater vigilance with our hand washing procedures at school.

Although there are no mandated isolation arrangements, the following is strongly recommended:

It is strongly recommended that students:

● Who test positive for COVID-19 should stay home and isolate for five days.

● Should not attend school after five days if still symptomatic.

● Who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school.

Where students become symptomatic at school, they should:

● Be collected by their parents/carers.

● Undergo testing for COVID-19.

It is strongly recommended that staff:

● Who test positive for COVID-19 should stay home and isolate for five days.

● Should not attend school after five days if still symptomatic.

● Who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school.

If families require RAT kits, please contact the school office.

COVID-19 reporting requirements.

The Department of Health recommends that a person who tests positive for COVID-19 should inform those with whom they have recently been in contact, including their workplace, school and household.

Schools no longer have to alert their school community of positive cases, however we will continue to do this informally.

Face masks.

Staff and students who wish to wear a face mask should be supported to do so, and schools should continue to make face masks available for staff, students and visitors.

The Department of Health recommends that masks should be worn by a person who is a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 when leaving home.

Additionally, the department recommends that masks should be worn by a person who has COVID-19 for 10 days after a positive test when they need to leave home.

Playgroup at St Colman's

Our very first Little Colman’s Playtime session was held last Friday. We were delighted to see so many happy toddlers enjoying their time here. Lily did an amazing job organising painting activities as well as indoor and outdoor play. Please spread the word and, hopefully, we can have even more parents and toddlers here this Friday.

Little Colman's Playtime

Major Raffle

We are officially launched our school raffle and ticket sales are off to a great start with 36 tickets sold on the first day. Last year the raffle raised almost $10,000 for our school and we would love to do the same again this year.

This year all families will be rostered on to sell tickets at community ‘hot spots’.

Clarke’s Café - Fridays 11-2pm

Bate’s Supermarket - Saturdays 10-2pm

WVLX (Saleyards)- 1^st and 3^rd Thursdays of most months (15^th June, 6^th & 20^th July) 9am -1pm

If you have a preference of where and when you would like to be rostered on, please contact the office ASAP as we are in the process of creating this roster.

Buy Tickets

Flying Fox

Our flying fox is back in action after receiving some much-needed maintenance work. We are incredibly grateful to former St Colman’s student Tom Woodhams who fixed the flying fox free of charge. If you are in need of any engineering work, please consider supporting Tom at:
Tom Woodhams Engineering

19 Albert St, Warrnambool

Ph:55613838

Term 2 Classroom Information

Please read on to find out what is happening in our classrooms this term.

Term 2, 2023 Information

Lunch Orders

A reminder that as of the start of Term 2, LUNCH ORDERS are only available twice a week on Monday and Friday.

St. Colman's Community Garden

We are so grateful to local community member, Marie Varley, who has volunteered to work with our students each week to re-establish our neglected community garden. This week the Seniors and the Junior students will be spending some time getting their hands dirty!

You can help by donating any of the following items needed for this project.

Used soft drink bottle (1.25 or 2 Lt)
Any herb or vegetable seedlings
Old carpet off cuts, door mats or hessian bags
Old plastic pots
White plastic that can be cut up and used as name tags (for example, ice-cram containers).

St. Colman's Enrolments

Changes to eating times

The changes to our eating times have been in effect for three weeks. I am sure that you have received feedback from your children about this by now, so please report that feedback to the the school or to a member of our SAC. That way we will have informed opinions as we discuss whether to continue with these times or not.

8:55- School bell

10am - Fruit and Brain Break

11am- Bell- Children take their lunch boxes to UCA and then go and play

11:20- Music- All children sit in UCA and eat LUNCH

11:30- Bell- in class and learning

1pm- Bell- Children take their lunch boxes to UCA and then go and play

1:35- Music- All children sit in UCA and eat AFTERNOON SNACK

1:45- Bell and in class and learning

3:15- School bell

Enrolments at MRC

Are you enrolling your child to attend our sister school, Mercy Regional College in 2024? If so, please note that enrolments are now due.

Mercy Regional College is committed to giving every student a fair chance to receive a Catholic education. The College offers a number of scholarships to support student learning and assist with tuition, fees and levies.

If you would like further information on accessing financial support or any other part of the enrolment procedure, please contact College Registrar Ms Nicole Darcy:
T. 03 5593 2011
E. office@mercy.vic.edu.au

A live link is avaliable on the Mercy website.

Mercy Live Enrolment

Wonder Recycling Rewards for Schools

This year we are participating in this program that will raise reward points that can be cashed in for sporting equipment for our school. Ask all your friends, neighbours and family members to save their bread bags and bring them to school and put them in the big white box at the front door at school. All bread bags (including muffins and wraps) are accepted. These bags are then returned to Wonder to be responsibly recycled.

So let's get recycling!!

Footy Tipping

Our Footy Tipping Competition is up and running and we have 35 registered entrants.

We have TassieDevils, MadBombers and JohnFlynn29 all sitting on top on 72 points.

Entry fee is $20 adults and $10 school aged children and is due to be paid ASAP

If you haven't already done so, please pop into the office to pay for your entry.

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.

Weekly Award Winners

Congratulations all students who received an award at our weekly assembly last Friday. Remember, you are all most welcome to join us at the assembly, starting at 2:50 in the Undercover Area.

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

Standard 2: Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 2, St. Colman's must, at a minimum, ensure:

2.1 The organisation makes a public commitment to child safety.

2.2 A child safe culture is championed and modelled at all levels of the organisation from the top down and bottom up.

2.3 Governance arrangements facilitate implementation of the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy at all levels.

2.4 A Code of Conduct provides guidelines for staff and volunteers on expected behavioural standards and responsibilities.

2.5 Risk management strategies focus on preventing, identifying and mitigating risks to children and young people.

2.6 Staff and volunteers understand their obligations on information sharing and record keeping.

NCCD

Please read the attached information sheet for parents regarding NCCD.

NCCD Information.pdf

Our Lady of Mercy Parish Bulletin

Bulletin_4th_June_2023.pdf

Catholic School Parents Victoria Update

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/

Search for Mortlake College P-12

Community News

Change of Details

Notification Form

It is important that our records are kept up to date for contact, census and funding purposes. If you have a change of address, phone number, email address, occupation or similar, please notify the school office as soon as possible. This form provides a quick and easy way to let us know.

First Name *

Last Name

Email *

Please detail changes *

Term 2 Week 7 Monday 5th June 2023