Dear Families,

It is so lovely to have you all back at school ready for all that term 2 will bring.

I hope that you all had a happy and enjoyable holiday break. The term ahead brings with it many wonderful opportunities for families to engage in their children's learning, so I encourage to participate in all the activities that you possibly can because when we learn alongside our children that is when they learn best.

Closure Day - FRIDAY 26TH APRIL

St Michael's School will be closed on Thursday 25th April, ANZAC Day, as it is a national public holiday. There is no holiday program on this day.

St Michael's School will be closed on Friday 26th April.

This is a Time In Lieu Day (TIL) for all staff. As part of the 2023 Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, it was deemed that staff could only be asked to work a 38-hour week and that all hours required to work above that would need to be returned to staff as Time In Lieu. On many occasions St Michael's staff work beyond their 38-hour requirement, Camps, family events, staff meetings, professional learning requirements, and Sacramental programs. This day will pay back some of this time to our staff but I know that many of our staff will spend time on this day doing online professional learning courses, begin their report writing process, and prepare learning tasks for the children in their classes.

Thank You

During the holidays I visited Toni Williams' family and spent time with her mother Levaine and sister Natalie. Although they are still deep in grief and missing Toni terribly they are beginning to move forward and get their lives back on track. Toni's mum was very keen to pass on her thanks to all our community for their prayers and thoughts on the passing away of Toni.

Please read her letter .

Baby News

Congratulations to:

Kareena and Walston, parents of Dominique Martis (1/2D), on the birth of their baby girl, Brielle.
Tonia, mother of Jacob Ly (3/4G), on the birth of her baby boy, Jasper.
Jolene and Luke, parents of Geen (3/4T), Bila (3/4S) and Jirrayn (1/2KF) Mateariki on the birth of their baby girl, Elizabeth.

Polaris Villadolid (3/4G) became an Australian Citizen over the holidays, this is very exciting news for Polaris and his family. Congratulations Polaris.

ANZAC DAY

Anzac Day is our day of national commemoration.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces became known as ANZACs. ANZAC Day is a commemoration of the anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli, Turkey on 25 April in 1915. It is traditional on Anzac Day to wear a sprig of rosemary. Rosemary has particular significance for Australians on Anzac Day as it grows wild on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

You can purchase items that commemorate ANZAC Day from our front office, all proceeds go to the RSL, an organisation that supports women and men who have served Australia in the armed forces.

Winter Uniform

As we are now in term 2 children are expected to be in full winter uniform but as our weather can be unpredictable families can choose for their children to remain in summer uniform until the beginning of Week 3. A reminder that children can not wear a mixture of summer or winter uniform, it is to be one or the other.

The uniform shop will be open earlier next Tuesday to provide time for families to purchase all the winter uniform requirements they need.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is our first whole school event for Term 2 so I encourage you to read all the information regarding our celebration of this day in the Community News section of this newsletter.

Denise Hussey

(Principal)

'The most simple thing I can do is to be good today but better tomorrow'

Catherine McAuley - Mercy Sisters Foundress

All students attending St Michael's Primary School have the right to feel safe. The care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people is a fundamental responsibility of all within our school./

Prayer