Term 2 Week 8 Monday 3rd June

Acknowledgement of Country

From the Principal

Important Dates:

Term 2 2024

Wednesday 5th June-10:30 am- Juniors going to Story Time at the Mortlake Library

                                              6:30pm  - School Advisory Council meeting in Staffroom

Friday 7th June- SZ Principal's Meeting- Janet to attend

Monday 10th June- King’s Birthday Public Holiday

Tuesday 11th June- Parent Support Group (PSG) Meetings

Friday 14th June- Lion King performance @ Mortlake College

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 students to attend)

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

Term 3

Monday 15^th July- Pupil Free Day- Religious Education; staff professional learning day.

Tuesday 16^th July- Pupil Free Day- Structured Literacy; staff professional learning day.

Wednesday 17^th July- Students first day back at school for Term 3

                                           - Jenny Stapleton Long Service Leave (4 weeks)

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

Advocacy for Catholic Schools

Recently, the Allan Labor Government announced a $400 School Saving Bonus for all school students in government schools regardless of income, but only for Health Care Card holders in Catholic schools.

This is deeply unfair.

We believe the payment should be means tested for all students or apply to all students.

It should not be based on which school you attend. 

This policy punishes families for choosing to send their children to a Catholic school.

Our school, St Colman's and the peak body, the Victorian Catholic Education Authority, are working hard to oppose this policy and we need your help.

We need to show the Victorian Government that punishing families who choose a Catholic school is unacceptable.

Please consider contacting your local Member of Parliament to express your concern.

Our school’s local member is Emma Kealy MP (Nationals Member for Lowan) and they can be contacted by calling (03) 5382 0097 or by emailing emma.kealy@parliament.vic.gov.au

A template letter is attached below to assist you with making your voice heard. 

Thank you for your time in advocating for your family and our school.

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

Staffing News

We welcome Brooke Collins to St Colman’s this week as she commences her role as our trainee Learning Support Officer until the end of the year. Brooke completed two weeks work experience earlier this term and her passion for continuing to work in the area of supporting and developing our students potential was evident.

In other staffing news, Rosie O’Connor is taking long Service Leave for the last two weeks of this term. She will be replaced in the classroom by Michael McKenzie, whilst Shandell Moloney will assume Rosie’s Assistant Principal duties.

I am also taking some Study Leave and will be away for the last week of term as I commence a 3-week Study Tour on the DOBCEL Ireland Spiritual Heritage Pilgrimage celebrating 150 Years of the Diocese of Ballarat. As both Rosie and I will be away for the last week of term, Shandell Moloney will be your go to person if you have any queries or concerns.

STEAM News

In Term 2 in the Senior and Middle classes, we have continued to build on our knowledge of air and how objects fly through the air.  We experimented with symmetry and discovered that in order for an object to fly it must be symmetrical. Next, we explored different types of kites to invent or prototype, choosing materials that were best for our kites. Finally we explored tessellations and discovered squares, triangles and hexagons are the only shapes that tessellate. We have created our own tessellations and used these to decorate our kites.

Kite Fun

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Middles Excursion to Warrnambool

What a glorious day it was last Tuesday when the Middle Class went on their excursion! The students enjoyed the performance ‘How to Catch a Star’ before lunch at Lake Pertobe. We finished the day with an animal experience at the Cudgee Wildlife Park! The children learnt so much about Australian native animals and loved being able to hold and feed them.

Cudgee Wildlife Park and Lake Pertobe

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Juniors visit to Mortlake Library

Our Junior class will be walking down to the Mortlake Library again this Wednesday to particiapte in Story Time. They will be leaving school at 10:15 if you would like to walk down with them. Alternativley, you are more than welcome to meet us there!

Weekly Award Winners

Congratulations to our Weekly Award winners who were recognised for their amazing work during last Friday's assembly.

Student Representative Council News

Our SRC introduced Toastie Tuesdays earlier this year. They charge 50c to toast the students’ sandwiches. They decided that 50% of the profits will go to a worthwhile charity and the other 50% would be spent on playground equipment. With the money raised so far, we have donated to The Smith Family education fund and we have purchased a giant Connect 4 for them to enjoy.

AFL 9'S Footy

Last Wednesday was a great day out for the Middles at the AFL9s in Noorat. As a group they won four out of their five games and showed great sportsmanship. Well done to our captains Gus, Archie and Sadie for their leadership and organisation!

Year 5/6 Tri-Sports

Last Thursday, our Senior students travelled to Camperdown to participate in the local CDSSA Tri-Sports. We entered a team in both football and netball and Steff joined with his peers from Mortlake College in their soccer team. Everyone had a great day of healthy competition and excellent sportsmanship. Thank you once again to our sport co-ordinators Nicole Moulden and Brianna Barr for organising this wonderful day.

Tri- Sports

Mud Kitchen

Thank you to Ron and Gordon from the Camperdown Men's Shed for delivering their hand crafted Mud Kitchen to our school today. The kids love it!

A huge thank you to the Hexham Wind Farm Community Fund for providing the funding grant which was used to purchase the mud kitchen and other play equipment that will be used by not only our students but also our visiting pre-schoolers during Little Colman's Playtime.

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 next week, Friday June 14th.

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.

School Counselling at St Colman's

We welcomed Rachael Main into our school community as our Pastoral Care Chaplain a few weeks ago. Rachael has slotted into her role with ease and is already building connections with our students and working with them to build their social and emotional intelligence.
In addition to these one-on-one sessions, Rachael is also going to be conducting whole class and small group sessions that will help to develop various social skills, team building, resilience and problem-solving skills in our students.
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 or Janet.

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

Positive Parenting Series

The National Academy of Sciences defines four major responsibilities necessary for good parenting. These include: maintaining a child's health and safety; promoting a child’s emotional wellbeing; instilling a child’s social skills; and preparing a child intellectually.

There is no such thing as a perfect parent, but arming yourself with the right information is a good start!

This week's focus article is on Respectful Realtionships.

Respectful relationships promotes respect and gender equality and helps students learn how to build healthy relationships. It prepares students to face challenges by developing problem-solving skills and building resilience and confidence." Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

Birthday Wishes

We wish our Year 3 student Isabella a very Happy 9th Birthday for this Friday. We hope she has a wonderful day and the year ahead is full of fun and happy surprises!!

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 9: Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 8 St Colman's must, at a minimum, ensure:

9.1    Staff and volunteers identify and mitigate risks in the online and physical environments without compromising a child’s right to privacy, access to information, social connections and learning opportunities.

9.2    The online environment is used in accordance with the organisation’s Code of Conduct and Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy and practices.

9.3    Risk management plans consider risks posed by organisational setting, activities and the physical environment.

9.4    Organisations that contract facilities and services from third parties have procurement policies that ensure the safety of children and young people.

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

• • DOBCEL Digital Technologies Policy & Agreement and Code of Conduct are endorsed by the Governing Authority.
  • Staff participate in an annual refresher training that includes social media training in relation to online conduct. 
  • Staff are also reminded of online conduct through their training on the Reportable Conduct Scheme. 
  • The Child Safety Risk Register is regularly reviewed and updated by the School Leadership to identify and address any applicable risks. 
  • All contractors are inducted into the school and they complete an online induction through Passtab. They are also identified and provided insurances, WWCC and ID. All contractors sign off on the Code of Conduct. 
  • At the beginning of each year, as part of our Learning to Learn curriculum, the children talk about and record their ‘Five Trusted Adults’. These are adults that they feel they can speak to if they are worried about something and may include teachers, extended family members, older siblings, as well as parents.
  • In 2024, our students will take part in eSafety lessons. These are presented by the eSafety Commissioner and focus on different topics that help to keep children safe while online.
  • We introduced child safety slides, in all classrooms and learning areas. These slides outline, in child friendly language, what child safety looks like at St Colman’s. They are discussed at the start of the year with the children and are on display in all classrooms so that they can be referred to frequently.
    

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.

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.