Term 2 Week 5 Monday 13th May

Acknowledgement of Country

From the Principal

Important Dates:

Term 2 2024

Monday 13th May- Jane returns from leave

Friday 17th May-Division Cross Country

Sunday 19th May- St Colman's Parish Confirmation @ 9am

Wednesday 22nd May- National Simultaneous Story time (Juniors to visit Mortlake Library)

Friday 23rd May- SRC- Come as your Future Self Dress up Day (gold coin donation)

Tuesday 28th May- Middles excursion to Warrnambool

Wednesday 29^th May – AFL 9’s; Years ¾ to attend

Thursday 20th May- Tri Sports in Camperdown

Friday 7th June- Division Tri Sports

Monday 10th June- King’s birthday Public Holiday

Friday 14th June- Parent Support Group (PSG) Meetings

Monday 17th- Friday 28th June- Rosie on Long Service Leave (Mick McKenzie to replace her)

Tuesday 18th June- Kinder visit to our school.

Monday 24th- Friday 28th June- Janet on leave

Monday 24th- Friday 28th June- NAIDOC Week

Monday 24^th June – MRC Taster Day (Year 6’s to attend)

Friday 28th June- Final day of Term 2 (early finish @ 2:15)

2024 School Camps (with St Thomas’ Terang)

Sept 2^nd-3^rd: Year 3/4 Warra Gnan Coastal Camp, Warrnambool

Nov 13^th-15^th: Year 5/6 Dunkeld Adventure Camp

School Closure Days for 2024

Term 3: Monday 15^th July- Religious Education; Re-contextualising the Scriptures.

                Tuesday 16^th July- Structured Literacy

Our Lady of Mercy Parish News

WEEKEND MASS TIMES
ST THOMAS’ TERANG
Saturday 6.00 pm
Sunday 10.30 am
ST COLMAN’S MORTLAKE
Sunday 9.00 am

150th Anniversary of the Diocese of Ballarat – Formation

In preparation for the Diocesan Assembly in November 2024, there will be formation sessions held around the diocese with a focus on leadership and governance. In 2023, Bishop Paul asked parishes to focus on leadership in their local communities, either by forming or developing further a parish council or leadership team according to local circumstances. The Diocesan Assembly will bring together representatives of the leadership teams in parishes, schools and Catholic organisations to consider how we might develop leadership and governance in our communities in the future. The formation opportunity is for Parish Leadership Team/Parish Councils/Parish Teams, School Leadership Teams/School Advisory Councils, Catholic Organisations Leaders. An invitation is also extended to people who have leadership potential and who would like to participate. Leadership teams are invited to nominate others who might benefit from this experience. Fr Justin Driscoll will facilitate the formation sessions. Further details on the format will follow.
If you wish involved in this the dates are: Swan Hill - June 12; Robinvale - June 13; Horsham - July 28; Colac – July 30; Warrnambool - August 25; Ballarat - October 20.

Middles Excursion to Warrnambool

Our Middle classroom is busy planning an excursion to Warrnambool on Tuesday May 28th. The students will enjoy a live Australian Chamber Orchestra performance of the story book How to Catch a Star at The Lighthouse Theatre followed by a visit to the Cudgee Wildlife Park on their way back to Mortlake. Parents will soon receive a notification via PAM to complete permission forms.

Juniors visit to Mortlake Library

Our Junior class will be walking down to the Mortlake library on May 22nd to join in their celebration of National Simultaneous Storytime. Once again, keep a look out on PAM for a notification that there are permission forms to be completed.

Online Platforms to Support Learning

We have had several inquiries from parents regarding Apps or computer programs that they could be using to support their child's learning at home. Below is a recommended list from our Teaching and Learning Leader, Shandell Moloney.

Our School Garden

With our volunteer gardener, Maree, recovering from surgery, we are looking for some parents who may like to volunteer some time to work alongside enthusiastic students in nurturing our garden. We are hoping to start a Garden Club, where children will volunteer to work with parents a couple of times a month in the garden.
Last week, three of our parents, Jo, Alison and Georgie, met to start this process. They believe that one Garden Club a month would be enough to keep the garden ticking along. They are still hoping for a few more volunteers so that parents would only need to commit to a couple of sessions each year. If you are an avid gardener and would like to support our Garden Club please let us know.

District Cross Country

Well done to the following students who represented St Colman's at the District Cross Country in Noorat this Friday.

12/13 year old- Will, Mason and Phoebe 

11 year old- Dom, Steff and Imogen

10 year old- Gus, Archie and Hayley

9 year old- Eloise

Congratulations to Imogen who has qualified to go on to the next level; which is the Regional Cross Country event being held this Friday in Warrnambool. Best of luck, Immy!!

Traineeship Position at our School

Unfortunately, Piper Jarvie is unable to complete her traineeship with us this year, therefore, we are advertising for her replacement. If you know of someone who would be perfect for the role, please pass on the following information to them.

SRC Dress-up Day

Our Junior School Representative Council are organising a dress up day, the theme being Come As your Future Self. Children are being encouraged to think of what they would like to do when they grow up and come dressed as that person. A gold coin donation is being asked and the funds raised will go to the Smith Family charity. They work extensively with Australian children in families and communities where we know it’s harder for them to fully participate in their education without some help. We would like to think that ALL children in Australia could have the same opportunities to achieve their childhood aspirations. 

At The Smith Family, we believe that education is one of the world’s most powerful change agents. That’s why we focus on helping young Australians to overcome educational inequality caused by poverty.

As a national, independent charity, every day we work with thousands of children and their families to help them unlock better futures for themselves.

Education has the power to change lives and break the cycle of disadvantage.

School Advisory Council (SAC)

We would like to introduce you to our SAC members for 2024.   

Jo Wallis (Chair), Alison Greig, Michelle Lehmann, Zion Palmer, Sophie Allen, Rachel Baulch, Danielle Kenny, 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.

This year we will hold our meetings Wednesday of week 3 and week 8 each term starting at 6:30pm.

The dates are;

Term 2:  June 5th

Term 3: July 31st and Sept 4th

Term 4: October 23rd and Nov 27th (AGM)

Playgroup at St Colman's

We look forward to welcoming back our local pre-schoolers every second Friday, with our next session being held this week, Friday May 17th.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD WITH YOUR FRIENDS WHO HAVE PRE SCHOOL AGED CHILDREN. EVERYONE IS WELCOME!!!

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.

Our Award Winners

School Counselling at St Colman's

We welcome into our school community Rachael Main, who joins us our School Counsellor. Rachael will be working with our students each Monday.

Student counselling helps children and teenagers to better manage social and emotional issues, supports improved mental health, and reduces the likelihood of them engaging in risk taking behaviour. 

School counselling is private communication between a counsellor and a student. Speaking to a counsellor allows students to discuss their social and emotional issues in a safe, non-judgemental and non-threatening environment.

Our School Counsellors can support students to:

• develop strategies for dealing with issues of concern
• find ways of managing and reducing stress and anxiety
• deal with issues that may be getting in the way of their educational participation, or that are impacting on their friendships and other relationships
• address issues resulting in depression, eating disorders, behavioural problems or poor sleep

Having a student counsellor in your school can also help your school community better respond to sometimes challenging issues such as self-harm, bullying, depression, anxiety and risky behaviours.

If your child was previously accessing the services of our school counsellor, Grace, they will continue with Rachael. If you think your child would benefit from this service, please speak to your child's teacher.

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support is: A multi-tiered framework for establishing the social culture and behavioural supports needed for a school to achieve behavioural and academic outcomes for all students. For the next two weeks at St Colman’s we are working with our students on developing effective learning habits that will set them up for success throughout the year ahead. During that time, all staff will be reinforcing the behaviour expectations as set out in our Behavior Matrix (below).

SchoolTV Wellbeing Platform

SPECIAL REPORT: School Refusal
School refusal is a complex issue as there’s rarely a single cause. It may be linked to separation anxiety, worries about leaving home, a phobia, depression, social problems or learning difficulties. It can start gradually or happen suddenly.  Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

Birthday Wishes

No student birthdays this week.

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

The Child Safe Standards

The Child Safe Standards (the Standards) are compulsory minimum standards for all Victorian schools to ensure they are well prepared to keep children and young people safe and protect them from abuse.  provides the framework for child safety in schools.

Child Safe Standard 6:  People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 6 St Colman's must, at a minimum, ensure:

6.1    Recruitment, including advertising, referee checks and staff and volunteer pre-employment screening, emphasise child safety and wellbeing.

6.2    Relevant staff and volunteers have current working with children checks or equivalent background checks.

6.3    All staff and volunteers receive an appropriate induction and are aware of their responsibilities to children and young people, including record keeping, information sharing and reporting obligations.

6.4    Ongoing supervision and people management is focused on child safety and wellbeing.

How are we implementing this at St Colman's (SCM)?

• Recruitment Policy has been communicated to the SAC and is available on the school website/SIMON portal for staff. 
• Passtab maintains a direct link for WWCC’s. VIT registration is recorded through Passtab. 
• All volunteers, CRT and contractors are inducted through Passtab 
• All staff receive annual Child Safety training 29/1/2024.
• Code of Conducts are stored and managed through Passtab. 
• SAC members receive annual Child Safety training and new members are inducted by following the SAC Advisory Guidelines. 
• Responsible persons sign a Fit and Proper Person Dec every 3yrs. 
• All recruitment ads have a statement in relation to the requirements and meeting the Child Safe Standards. 
• All position descriptions set clear expectations in relation to child safety and wellbeing. 
• Recruitment process included Child Safe screening and referee checks. 
• All recruitment ads have a statement in relation to the requirements and meeting the Child Safe Standards. 
• Position descriptions for Teachers & LSO’s and all school staff set clear expectations in relation to child safety and wellbeing. 
• Recruitment process included Child Safe screening and referee checks. 
• The school uses the standard recruitment letters of appointment provided by the central office. 
• Complaint Handling Policy has been communicated to all staff and the school community. It is available via the school’s website.
• Record keeping and Privacy are included in the annual staff induction sessions.
• Mandatory reporting training / NCCD training covers reporting obligations and record keeping.
• All recruitment policies are followed
• Supervision duties are constantly viewed to ensure child safety and wellbeing through daily planners and communication. 

Our Student Representative Council will be co ordinating our partnership with Cooinda Terang to become a collection point for Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic).

We will be collecting all eligible empty drink containers and then returning them to the CDS collection point at Cooinda. The 10c raised from each return will go back to the SRC. They will nominate various charities to support as well as using 50% of the funds to upgrade school resources.

So please start collecting and sending in your empties. 

Most aluminium, glass, plastic and liquid paperboard (carton) drink containers between 150mL and 3 litres are eligible. You can keep the lids on, we recycle them too. The easiest way to know if your drink container can be returned is to look for the 10c mark on the label, often located near the barcode.

You can help in two ways:

1. The first is by far the simplest. Just return your empty eligible containers to the tubs in the corridors at school.
2. If you have a large amount of containers to deposit, you may wish to take them to a Container Deposit Depot and return them yourself. Please download the CDS Vic West App (instructions below). When you return your containers, nominate St Colman's School Mortlake as the charity you want to donate the money to.

Please note, that as we are in partnership with Cooinda Terang, our preferred deposit depot is their Reverse Vending Machine located at 49 Dow St Terang.

Mortlake Library News

Toastie Tuesday

Lunch Orders

LUNCH ORDERS are only available twice a week on Monday and Friday.

Menu and price list below

Out of School Care

A reminder that we continue to have access to Out of School Care in 2024, supplied by TheirCare, at Mortlake College. Registration is made via the TheirCare website. https://theircare.com.au/

Search for Mortlake College P-12

AngliCare Energy Assistance

As part of Anglicare Victoria’s FREE Energy Assistance Program, they provide assistance with energy bills to support Victorians to:

• Talk to their energy retailer and get help with debt
• Access extra financial support
• Check they are receiving eligible concessions on their bill
• Find and move to an affordable energy plan
• Understand bills and fix any possible errors
• Support your child's education with free internet at home

They can provide immediate assistance for clients who are struggling to pay for their gas or electricity bills to prevent disconnection to their property!

The follower two flyers provide further details.

NCCD

Please read the attached information sheet for parents regarding NCCD.