From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers

Please note that weekly Parish mass times will now be located each week on our School Hours / Timetable page in our newsletter. 

Prayer for Spring

Father's Day / Special Friends' Breakfast

Last Friday, 2nd September, we celebrated our Fathers and Special Friends with a wonderful breakfast. Over 250 parents and children were in attendance for this special day and we're so delighted that our community could come together for this. A hearty breakfast of eggs & bacon sandwiches, sausages and sweet pastries was followed by some fun games and activities outside. Dads and Friends were invited to strut the red carpet with their children for a photo opportunity with our resident photographer, Louise Story. So many superstars came out on the red carpet that morning!! We finished the breakfast session with a prayer for our Dads and Special Friends before heading out for a coffee and to work. 

A special thank you goes out to the following for your support of this event:

• St Michael's staff who arrived early, set up the hub, cooked the food and lead the sporting activities
• Paul Klooster for donating the sausages and allowing us to use your BBQ!!
• Paul Beanland who donated all the pastries from Noisette Bakeries ~ delicious!
• Thymes Five, Joe Frank and Habitat cafes for their support in accepting our Dads and friends for a coffee on Friday morning!

School Closure day- Monday 6th November

We wish to advise our school community that Monday 6th November will be a school closure day.  This day is allocated for staff, in consultation with Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) to undertake assessment and reporting obligations and also meets the schools obligation to provide staff with time in lieu, a requirement under the new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.  The introduction of time in lieu allocation for staff is now in place for all Catholic Schools throughout the Melbourne Archdiocese. Please note that the following day, Tuesday 7th November, is the Melbourne Cup Day public holiday. Extend has been made aware of this date, if you wish to book your children in for care.

Footy Colours Day / Walk for Tiwi

Traditionally we hold Footy Colours day on the final day of Term 3. This year, as we will be holding a full dress rehearsal of the production on the final day of term (Friday 15th September) at school. Therefore, our footy colours day will be held on Thursday 14th September! 

Walk for Tiwi - On this day we invite students to bring a gold coin donation and "Walk for Tiwi" to support the restoration of St Therese's Church on Bathurst Island. You may recall my visit to Bathurst Island earlier this term, where the East Central Principals met with Sr Anne Gardiner who has been on Bathurst Island since 1953. Anne has worked closely with, and has become part of, the Tiwi community, supporting them to maintain their culture and language. Sr Anne was awarded the 2017 Senior Australian of the Year award for her work in this community. St Therese's Church refelcts the culture of the Tiwi people with their distinctive art works decorating the Sanctuary. It is in desperate need of restoration.

As a group of East Central Principals, we wish to support this community in being able to restore their church and invite our students to conduct a 2km walk on Thursday 14th September in honour of Sr Anne, and to bring a gold coin donation if they wish to put towards this worthy cause. We will map out a course around the school grounds for this event and invite students to walk as much of the 2km they are able to. 

Please feel free to speak to Annie about our Walk for Tiwi should you wish.

Welcome back Mrs Erica Cremer

Many parents will have seen Mrs Erica Cremer here at school this term. Erica has undertaken some emergency teaching work in various classrooms across the school during term 3. Next term, Erica returns from parental leave officially on Mondays and Thursdays. On Mondays Erica will provide support for teachers across all year levels on different days and on Thursdays she will replace Miss Sam Isaacson in Three / Four B. Sam will extend her Learning Diversity role in term 4 to three days per week. We welcome back Erica to the team!

Glen Iris District Track & Field Carnival

The Glen Iris District Athletics Carnival was held yesterday with many of our Year Three to Six students competing. It was tough competition in many of the events but St Michael's students persevered and put in their best efforts! 

Visit from a Therapy Dog

A few weeks ago, Lecke, the Therapy Dog, passed by St Michael's School with her owner, Lee. On Tuesday this week before school we had the privilege of another visit from Lecke and Lee and they dropped by to visit a couple of classrooms in the Junior school. Lecke made quite an impression and the students doted on her! We look forward to welcoming her back for another surprise visit next week.

Race3000

Next week, five of our Senior students have been invited to take part in a special event in the city of Melbourne. After being successful with their initial applications, a short persuasive essay as to why they should be chosen, students were selected to the RACE3000. This event requires deductive thinking and group problem solving abilities. Students will be required to race to various locations using the Actionbound App. Upon arrival at each location, students will be prompted to solve a problem in order to receive instructions to take them to the next location. Optional bonus questions will be posed along the way and all racers will aim to be first to arrive at the final destination after solving all the problems along the way. Let's hope they all make it home safely to tell us all the story!!

St Michael's School Production

Tickets for our performance, An Aussie Adventure, were released through TryBooking this week. Please go to the link here: AN AUSSIE ADVENTUREto book your tickets. At this stage you are only able to book 6 tickets per family and you do not need to book for your St Michael's child who are in the production. More tickets will be released once time has been given for all families to book their initial tickets. Thank you for your understanding!

Ample parking is available at the venue. We still require 4-5 people to take responsibility for ushering cars through the carpark for easy organisation. Please email Annie at aherbison@smashburton.catholic.edu.au if you can do this job on the night. You will be shown what to do and you will also be able to watch the show. 

Costumes: We are seeking the donation of about 8 baseball caps (which we are going to incorporate into costumes, so non-returnable) for the school production.  Any colour, any pattern.  If you have any available, please drop to Kathy or Louise in the school office.

Please note no photography will be allowed during the performance. Families may take photos before and after the performance of their own children in the spacious foyers available. The school has hired a videographer for the evening and recordings of the full performance will be available for purchase after the event.

FULL DRESS REHEARSAL FRIDAY 15th SEPTEMBER

Next Friday we will hold a Whole School Full Dress Rehearsal. Students are asked to bring their black pants/short or jeans/jean shorts (in their school bag) according to their year level requirements. All headpieces and tops will be supplied thanks to parent payments received over the last few weeks. 

School hats

As the weather is warming up and we get closer to the warmer months, it is worth noting that the UV rays on some days will be higher. We strongly encourage students to be wearing school hats on these higher UV days. Please note, school hats will be required during playtimes in Term 4. 

School Uniform Shop

Also, with the weather beginning to become warmer and the transition to the Summer school uniform in Term 4, please note the following dates and times regarding the school uniform shop.

The school uniform shop will be open on Wednesday 13 September from 8.30am to 9.30am. Any online orders must be placed by Monday 11 September to be delivered by Wednesday 13 September. Orders placed after the cut-off day will be delivered in Term 4. 

MACSSIS Surveys

Thank you to the families who have received and completed the MACSSIS survey. Only selected families would have received the survey by email. The survey assists us in allowing the community to have a voice to enable positive changes to our school. 

2023 School Fees

Next week we will be sending home Overdue Fee and Levy statements to those families who have not paid these yet. Please keep in mind there is just over one term remaining for 2023. Please contact Kathy to arrange payment or put a payment plan in place.  We thank you for your understanding and commitment to keeping up to date with payments.

Jump Rope for Heart at St Michael’s!

We’re skipping through the term!

Jump Rope for Heart is well underway and it’s great to see so many children out in the playground skipping with smiles on their faces. We have already raised $218 of our $500 goal.

It’s not long until our Jump Off Day in Term 4 so keep on practicing those tricks! And don’t forget to share your online fundraising page with friends and family to raise money for a great cause!Still need to sign up online? It’s easy just follow this link and enter your details. www.jumprope.org.au/parents

Parking on Top Courts

We remind families that the top courts are not for parking when dropping off or collecting students. Many of our students walk through the courts on their journey home and in order to keep them safe, we ask that you do not park there after school. Thank you for your cooperation.