Term 3 Week 6 Monday 19th August 2024

Acknowledgement of Country

From the Principal

Important Dates:

Term 3

Thursday 8, 15, 22 and 29th August- Gymnastics in Warrnambool

Wednesday 21st August- Emergency Off Site Evacuation Drill

Monday 26th August- Book Week at St Colman's

                                             - MRC Discovery Day

Wednesday 28th August- Father's Day Breakfast

Thursday 29th August- Book Fair and Parade 

Friday 30th August- 3/4 Hooptime in Terang

Mon-Tues Sept 2^nd-3^rd- Year 3/4 to Warrnambool

Thursday  5th September- Major Raffle Drawn

Monday 9th September- Middles to visit Aberlea

Friday 13th September- Grade 5/6 Excursion to Budj Bim

16th - 20th September - Meals on Wheels

Tuesday 17th September - Bell's Shakespeare at Mortlake College

Friday 20th September - Footy Colours Day 

                                                  - Term 3 ends

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

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

Book Week at St Colman's

This year’s Book Week theme is ‘Reading is Magic!’ and national Book Week takes place this week. However, Book Week at St Colman's will be celebrated next week, Monday 26th- Friday 30th August.

As is  the tradition at our school, families are invited to purchase one of this year's CBCA short-listed books for our library. All purchases made for the library will have a label placed inside them acknowledging the family who has made the generous donation. These books are on display in the school's corridor. Pop in and have a look.

Our Book Fair will be set up from Monday, 26th August, 2024. Everyone will be invited to peruse the items on display until Friday, 30th August. Students will be encouraged to write a 'wish-list', which they will take home and discuss the possible purchase with their families. Purchases can be made on the day of the fair, Thursday 29th August, or at any stage after that until they are packed away on Friday 30th August. Payment needs to be made at the time of purchase.

On Thursday 29th August (Week 7) we will hold our annual Book Week Dress Up Parade from 9:15am. This will be followed by a day of book related learning activities.

Father's / Special Person's Day Breakfast

You realise the year really is slipping by when it is time to celebrate Father's Day. Our school community provides a basic breakfast free of charge, but please RSVP for catering purposes!

Vinnies needs your help!

St Vincent de Paul-Terang Mortlake Conference are looking for people to help them with delivery of food hampers and IGA vouchers in and around Mortlake. It is a voluntary position and would require you to be an associate member of SvdP . This means you can deliver goods etc but does not require you to attend meetings.
At the moment, we are servicing Mortlake from Terang but it would be so much better and easier to have someone on the ground in Mortlake.

If you, or someone you know, would be interested in this voluntary role within Vinnies and, in turn, helping some vulnerable members of our community, please make contact with Bernadette McKinnon.

Phone: Bernadette McKinnon 0400 926220
Email: tarabrae@bigpond.com

Uniform Update

After discussions with our student body and consultation with our School Advisory Council, we are going to introduce a new uniform item, a navy blue puffer vest with our school logo in gold on it. These vests are selling for $50 each and are completely optional, however, children will only be able to wear these vests and not other puffer vests that they may have.

If you would like to order one for your children please place your order via the link below. The cost will be invoiced to your school account. If you have difficulty accessing this order form, please ring the office to place your order.
Knox is wearing one below, however, the sample doesn't have the logo on it. Sizes seem to be fairly accurate, so if you child is regularly a size 10, I would suggest that, or one size up, is the size you need to order.

Our next order will be placed next Monday, August 26th, so please place your order by Friday August 23rd.

Second hand Uniforms

We have collected a selection of 'pre-loved' school uniforms that are available to ALL members of our school community. These items are free of charge, but it really is the 'luck of the draw' if the item you want is there or not! You are always welcome to come into the office to have a look at what is available.

Also, if you have any unused uniform items that you no longer need and are in good condition, please consider donating them to the second hand pile. All pre-loved items can be left at the office. Thank you!!

Hooptime

We congratulate our Year 5/6 students on their fantastic efforts at Hooptime in Terang last Friday. Thank you to Brianna Barr and Mrs O'Connor for coaching them and to Pippa Barr for being our umpire.

St Colman's Footy Tipping

One week to go and the race for first prize couldn't be hotter.

We have three tipsters sitting on 129 points; The Wardlaw family, Angela and Josh J will all need to put some serious thought into their selections for the final round.

A reminder that you will not be eligible to receive a prize if you haven't paid the entry fee by the end of the school day this Friday.

80% of the money will be shared among the first three place getters, and the other 20% will be shared among the top three primary aged students.

St Colman's Annual Major Raffle

Our major fundraiser for the year, our school raffle, has got off to a flying start and sales are going along well.. 

Thank you to our parents Jo Van Den Heuvel, Alison Grieg and Deb Moloney who have already braved the cold to sit at Clarks and Bates' and sell tickets to the community

The "Local Loot Draw" will take place at school on Thursday 5th September 2024.

First Prize        $3000 in vouchers supplied by Mortlake businesses

Second Prize   $1000 Neighbourhood Benefit EFTPOS card supplied by Acciona                         

Third Prize       $500 voucher supplied by Bates IGA Supermarket Mortlake

Last year the raffle raised almost $10,000 for our school and we would love to do the same again this year. All money raised will go into upgrading our current playground.

This year all families will be rostered on to sell tickets at community ‘hot spots’. It is anticipated that you will be able to commit to at least one ticket selling session, however, if you can't make the time you have been rostered for please arrange a swap with someone else or let the office know so that someone can be arranged to go in your place. Thank you.

Tickets are available to be purchased from the Try Booking link below.

Clarke’s Café - Fridays 11-2pm

Bate’s Supermarket - Saturdays 10-2pm

WVLX (Mortlake Saleyards)- 1^st and 3^rd Thursdays of most months (1st and 15th August and 5th September) 9am -1pm

The success of the raffle relies upon the support of everyone within our school community.

Tickets are available to be purchased from the Try Booking link below.

Emergency Evacuation Drill

This Wednesday, August 21st, we will be holding an Emergency Evacuation Drill. During this time we re-enact what would take place during an actual emergency when we would need to evacuate our Church. Please discuss this with your child if you think they need pre-warning about this.

Story Time

Mrs Moloney and our Junior Class will be walking down to the Library this Wednesday to join in on Story Time. Parents and carers are welcome to join us!

Playgroup at St Colman's

We look forward to welcoming back our local pre-schoolers every second Friday, with our next session being held on Friday August 30th.

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.

Congratulations to these wonderful student whose achievements were acknowledged at our last assembly.

SchoolTV Wellbeing Platform

Eating Anxiety

Dealing with a child's eating anxiety can be both perplexing and distressing for parents. It's a challenge that requires a delicate balance of empathy, patience, and consistent strategy." Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

Click on the link below if you are interested in learning more about supporting children with eating anxieties.

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).

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

St Colman's has an ongoing commitment to implementing all 11 of the Child Safe Standards .

Standard Number 2 asks all schools to ensure:

Children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

Watch the clip below if you would like to see an overview of this standard. If you have any suggestions about how we could better in bed this standard into our school community please let us know.

Moyne Shire and Warrnambool City Council are joining forces to create a shared Youth Strategy. This exciting collaboration will guide our activities with young people over the next five years. We invite all community members, particularly young people to participate in the development of the Youth Strategy. Your input is crucial in creating a plan that benefits everyone. Stay tuned for updates on how you can contribute to this important initiative.

Together, we can create a brighter future for our young people! If you would like to have some input intot he future direction of this strategy, click on the QR Code  below.

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.