Message from the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Special thanks to the wonderful parents who were able to attend our P&F AGM and General Meeting on May 23. Congratulations to the following committee members who were nominated for and accepted executive positions - Catherine Northey (President), Emma Coombes (Vice President), Amber Kenafick (Treasurer) and Jess Coker (Secretary).

We look forward to a year of wonderful decision making regarding the education of all students at St Michael's Manilla. The next meeting of the St Michael's P&F will be held on Tuesday June 13 commencing at 5.30 p.m. at the Manilla Bowling Club. We look forward to seeing you there.

Our Annual Improvement Plan is always front of mind at St Michael's. Staff are continually working together to improve not only their practice, but the learning outcomes of all students at St Michael's. This year, the new K-2 syllabus documents in Mathematics and English have been implemented into our K-2 learning spaces and the Yrs 3-6 documents are being trialled in our 3-6 learning spaces, ready for implementation in 2024. The MaST project (Armidale Diocese Mathematics Program) has been successfully implemented in our K-3 classrooms and is being capably organised and monitored in our school setting by Miss Summerell. Some teaching staff are trialling various evidence based pedagogical practices in reading and writing and feeding back to myself and Amanda McNair our Inclusion Support Teacher, regarding their effectiveness and possible implementation across our school. We have just about completed the first year of Spelling Mastery - a direct instruction graded spelling program targeting students in Years 1-6 and the students in these grades will undertake the placement test in coming weeks, for the next phase of the program to commence in Term 3. I look forward to seeing the progress of all students in Spelling over the last 12 months, as this is a targeted levelled program, designed to meet the spelling needs of every child in Yrs 1-6.

Semester 1 Reports will be issued on the last day of Term 2 - June 30. Parent/teacher Interviews will be offered in the first two weeks of Term 3 to discuss your child's progress with their class teacher/s. A COMPASS notification will be sent before the end of term to book a time, if you wish to clarify anything about your child's report and to touch base on learning goals moving forward.

Enjoy a wonderful week,

Bronwyn