Term 3 Week 3 Monday 24th July 2023

Our Prayer this Week is a Prayer of Gratitude

From the Principal

Key dates for the Diary

Term 3

Monday July 24th- Kinder visit to St Colman's

                                         Filming of promotional video   

                                          Staff online Sounds Write training- week 1                 

Tuesday July 25th - Filming of promotional video

Thursday July 27th - Bell Shakespeare perfoemance at Mortlake College

Monday 31st July- Staff online Sounds Write training- week 2

Friday 4th August- Yr 5/6 All Stars Hooptime

Monday 7th August- Staff online Sounds Write training- week 3

                                          - Reconciliation begins

Friday 11th August- Yr 5/6 Rookies Hooptime

Monday 14th August- Staff online Sounds Write training- week 4

Friday 18th August- Yr 3/4 All Stars Hooptime

Monday 21st August-BOOKWEEK- Dress Up and Book Fair

                                           - MOW all week

                                           -Staff online Sounds Write training- week 5

Tuesday 22nd August- School Closure Day- Structured Literacy PL for staff

Friday 25th August- 3/4 Rookies Hooptime

Monday 28th August- Staff online Sounds Write training- week 6

Friday 1st September- Father's Day Breakfast

Wednesday 6th September- Sacrament of Reconciliation

Friday 15th September- Last day of Term 3- Footy Colours Day

2023 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) 

School Camps 2023

Year 3/4 Camp to Sovereign Hill September 12th and 13th

Year 5/6 Camp to Melbourne November 22-24 

Promotional Video

This Monday and Tuesday we will be filming a new promotional video for our school. If you have a look at the current one a lot has changed since it was filmed so an update is required!

Kevin Cummins, Marketing & Comms Officer with the Catholic Education Office, Ballarat, will be creating the video and we all need to do our bit to ensure we demonstrate the best aspects of our school while he is here filming.

We have been advised to showcase both of our uniforms on the video. Therefore, tomorrow (Tuesday) children can wear the correct sports uniform (including the correct St Colman’s sports shorts with the school logo).

Thanks!

Annual Trivia Night

Thank you to all the people who attended our Trivia Night on Friday night. It was a fun night! 

A huge thank you to Rob Herry for being out host for the evening. He did an incredible job! Sponsors for the evening were; The Mortlake Roadhouse, The Mortlake Pharmacy, Macs hotel, Clarke's Cafe, Goldsworthy Home Hardware, Mortlake Post, Yellow Tail Nursery and Richie's IGA Camperdown.

Thank you to Rosie for organising the donations for the Auction, Nicole for helping out with the scoring and to all of our staff for setting up the room for the night. Our school raised about $1000.00 on the night. Which, on top of the raffle profits, brings the total raised to about $10,500.00! Which is just amazing for a small school community of only 29 families!

Congratulations to the winning table on the night; Trivia Newton John.

Bell Shakespeare

Staff and students will be attending the Bell Shakespeare production of Just MacBeth at Mortlake College on Thursday this week. Exploring the story of Macbeth through the eyes of Andy Griffiths’ much loved characters and, according to their website, “this hilarious and irreverent take on Shakespeare’s classic tragedy will have students and teachers in stitches!”

As the show starts as close to 9am as we can arrive, we ask that all students arrive at school before 8:50 on Thursday. We are organising with Coles to have a bus back here by 8:50 to take us over there. We will walk back to school after the show.

NAPLAN Results

Year 3 & 5 NAPLAN results will be sent home this week, and we have much to celebrate!!  Please keep these results in a safe place as a copy is required when enrolling at a Secondary School.

Student achievement in NAPLAN is reported using new proficiency standards for each assessment area at each year level. The standards are set at a challenging but reasonable expectation of what students know and can do at the time of testing. There are 4 proficiency levels: 

• Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing. 
• Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing. 
• Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
• Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

The video below gives a detailed description of how to read your child's results.  For more information obout the skills and understandings students were required to demonstrate at the time of testing, parents can click on the link below.

Aberlea Visit

Last Monday our Senior students had another visit to Aberlea. Students and residents enjoyed their time together making crafts and playing games with balloons. There are many positives that come out of these visits for everyone, most importantly for our students, is the opportunity to reach out to the wider community and recognise the importance of showing care and compassion to others.

Aberlea 17th July

Language other than English Survey

At St Colman's we strive to work together with our families to provide a rich and comprehensive language program (LOTE – Language other than English). We are reviewing and interested in parent and student voice in the language (LOTE) that is taught at St Colman's. Teaching a second language is mandatory in Victorian schools. We have received several requests to consider the teaching of Auslan (Auslan is the sign language of the Australian deaf community) instead of French and we are curious if this would be the preferred option of our school community.

Please click on the link below to access the survey. It would be great to discuss the survey questions with your child(ren) before completing the survey. We value your feedback. Thank you!

Term 3 Classroom Information

See attached document highlighting what is happening in our classrooms this term.

Free to a good home!

We have two 4-drawer filing cabinets and one 3-drawer filing cabinet that we no longer use or need. If you would like one, it is all yours!

Please contact the office to arrange pick up.

Wanted- boxes

Mrs Kennedy is about to commence a construction unit in her art classes. She is asking parents to collect and drop off boxes they may have that are shoe box size or smaller, as we will be using them for a box construction project.

Playgroup at St Colman's

We have been delighted by the success of Little Colman's Playtime and we are extremely grateful to Lily Convery-Oborne for her passion and commitment in getting this little initiative up and running. Due to the popularity of this playgroup, we have decided to make this a fortnightly event, and the next session is THIS FRIDAY.

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 either the school or Lily. 

WE WILL NEED TO PURCHASE SOME GAMES AND EQUIPMENT FOR OUR PLAYGROUP. HOWEVER, WE WONDERED IF YOU HAD ANY OLD TOYS AND GAMES THAT YOUR CHILDREN HAVE GROWN OUT OF AND THAT YOU NO LONGER NEED. IF SO, WE WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE THE DONATION OF ANY PRE-SCHOOL TOYS AND GAMES, INDOOR OR OUTDOOR, THAT ARE IN EXCELLENT USED CONDITION.

Lunch Orders

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

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.

Wonder Recycling Rewards for Schools

THIS HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL THE END OF JULY. LET'S TRY AND FILL ONE LAST BOX.

We have already filled and returned three boxes of bread bags. This equates to approximately $500 in reward points that we will be able to cash in for sports equipment. What an amazing effort by you all!! Thank you!

Birthday Wishes

Spencer and Zoe F are both celebrating a birthday this week. Happy Birthday to you and any members of our community who are celebrating their birthday this week!

Many blessings to you on your special day and throughout the year. 

Footy Tipping

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

The lead is changing weekly and this week sees Methodical Flame back on top after scoring a perfect round of 9, equal with Stacey Atkins  on 117 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. 

Our Lady of Mercy Parish Bulletin

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

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 7:  Processes for complaints and concerns are child-focused.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 7, St. Colman's must, at a minimum, ensure:

7.1    The organisation has an accessible, child-focused complaint handling policy which clearly outlines the roles and responsibilities of leadership, staff and volunteers, approaches to dealing with different types of complaints, breaches of relevant policies or the Code of Conduct and obligations to act and report.

7.2    Effective complaint handling processes are understood by children and young people, families, staff and volunteers, and are culturally safe.

7.3    Complaints are taken seriously and responded to promptly and thoroughly.

7.4    The organisation has policies and procedures in place that address reporting of complaints and concerns to relevant authorities, whether or not the law requires reporting, and co-operates with law enforcement.

7.5    Reporting, privacy and employment law obligations are met.

NCCD

Please read the attached information sheet for parents regarding NCCD.

Community News

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.