Dear Families,

Victorian Schools Garden Awards

Last week, I was privileged to attend the Victorian Schools Garden Awards, which was held at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. Schools from different sectors across regional and

metropolitan Victoria were in attendance.

I attended with the stars of our garden work, Chloe Harper, Dylan Mehegan, our Sustainability Leaders, Isabella Tan, Sam Jugo, Evelyn Van Rensburg, and Abigail Jugo, as well as our gardening guru Rachel Phelan.

Rachel has worked throughout the year with this group of children to reconstruct our front garden, implement our composting program, and, in general, bring a bit of greenery into our community.

Rachel put in the time and effort during her holiday break to enter St Michaels into this competition, and although we didn't win the big one, we won a Regional Award, and with that came a $350 voucher to assist us in continuing to 'greenify' our school.

Congratulations to you all, and thank you for improving our school environment. We all look forward to bigger and better gardening achievements in 2025

St Michael's Staff News

We will be sad to say goodbye to our departing staff, Sarah Nicol, Indi Kuhaupt and Tameka Lewis, and the following staff at the end of this year.

Hayley Cassar Hayley has served St Michael’s well over the past 3 years. This year she completed her Bachelor of Education which is a fantastic achievement and will take up a position at Parkville College Hayley has a special interest in teaching children from disadvantaged backgrounds and will be a valuable asset to her new school, we wish her well.

Cheryl Dwyer Cheryl joined us in 2023 to focus on supporting our New Arrival children who came to Australia with little or no English, at the time we had numerous children who had recently arrived as refugees from Ukraine. She has worked closely with them and their teachers to assist in their English acquisition and also in learning how school works in Australia. The funding for Cheryl's program has finished, and sadly we will say goodbye to her.

David Whimpey David is our Speech Pathologist who currently works 1 day per week, he will be taking a year's leave in 2025 for family reasons.

Each of these staff members has served our St Michael's community with professionalism, dedication, passion, and great care for every child. We thank them for their years of service and wish them well in their new adventures.

We welcome with excitement the following staff to our school for 2025:

Rita Arrigo: Rita joins us as our Literacy Leader, working 4 days per week. She is currently working at Queen of Peace Catholic Primary School, Altona Meadows, as their Literacy Leader.

Samantha Smith: Sam joins us from St Anne’s Primary School, Sunbury. She is an experienced teacher with a passion for Discovery and Inquiry based learning and will be one of our classroom teachers.

Dianne Caspersz: Dianne will join us as a classroom teacher, she is an experienced teacher and we look forward to working with her.

Taliesha McCarty: Taliesha will join us as a classroom teacher. She returned from travelling the world early this year and has spent the year doing casual relief work in varying schools.

Alessia Chamberlin: Alessia will join us for 2 days per week as a classroom teacher. She has worked on many occasions here at St Michael’s as a Casual Relief Teacher.

Vicky Austin: Vicky will join us as a Learning Support Officer 3 days per week, she completed her Education Support Staff qualification early this year and has been working at St Michael’s this semester doing relief work.

Misty Hall: During this semester Misty has worked at St Michael’s as a relief LSO. She is currently completing her Bachelor of Education Degree and will join us for 2 days per week as an LSO.

Sam Beg: Sam joins us as our new Administration Officer working 5 days per week. She has worked in an administration role in both primary and secondary schools and joins us from Annunciation Primary School, Brooklyn.

Gabby Paul: Although Gabby has decided to step back from the classroom to travel in 2025, her traveling time does not start until April; she will step into the PE role for term 1.

I am proud and pleased to announce our St Michael’s 2025 STAFF

2025 Leadership Team

Principal: Denise Hussey (4 days) Angela Flint (1 day)

Deputy Principal: Angela Flint

RE: Hang Cao (3 days)

Wellbeing Leader: Angela Flint

Learning & Teaching Leader: Lauren Doherty (4 days)

Literacy Leader: Rita Arrigo (4 days)

Numeracy Leader: Sonia Baba (3 days)

Diversity leader: Lyn Nelson (3 days)

Digital Technology Leader: Claire Mathieson (1 day)

Community Leader: Fiona Dunne (1 day), Sarah Nicol (Maternity Leave)

Discovery/Inquiry P-2 Leader: Tahlia Bogg (1 day)

2025 Class Groups

Prep

Prep S: Samantha Smith (4 days), Alessia Chamberlin (1 day)

Prep D: Dianne Caspersz

Year 1/2

Year 1/2D: Diane Ortisi

Year 1/2G: Georgia Foley

Year 1/2L: Lucinda Goring

Year 1/2SF: Stephanie Taylor (3 days) Fiona Dunne (2 days)

Year 3/4

Year 3/4C: Claire Mathieson (4 days), Alessia Chamberlin (1 day)

Year 3/4S: Susan Plant

Year 3/4T: Taliesha McCarty

Year 5/6

Year 5/6N: Nathan Fitzgerald

Year 5/6EH: Ezza Ramsay (3 days) Hang Cao (2 days)

Year 5/6 support teachers: Tahlia Bogg (4 days), Ezza (1 day)

Children’s Class Group

The composition of these class groups has been carefully considered, including enrolment numbers, academic needs, and social-emotional needs at each level. On Step Up Day, to be held on Tuesday, 10 December, families will be informed of the class their child will be in.

Specialist Staff

LOTE- Japanese: Pippa Murray (3 days)

Music: Stacey Cheeseman (3 days)

Physical Education: Gabby Paul (3 days)

Visual Arts: Luisa Vivarelli (3 days)

Intervention

Literacy: Anne Draper (4 days)

Numeracy: Sonia Baba (2 days)

Learning Support Staff

Prep: Tilly Dixon, Courtney Barrett

Yr 1/2: Diluka Wasali, Nadi Qaqoz, Ash Burton, Nataliia Plakhta, Vicky Austin

Yr 3/4: Beck Cassano, Michael Jeffrey, Leanne Sali, Misty Hall

Yr 5/6: Rachel Phelan, Tracey Norman-Burnie, Lette Pirotta, Sol Musk

Administration Staff

Office Manager: Michelle Scheggia

Administration Officer: Sam Beg

The composition of these class groups has been carefully considered, including enrolment numbers, academic needs, and social-emotional needs at each level. On Step Up Day, on Tuesday, December 10, families will be informed of the class their child will be in.

2025

Term 1: 29 January - 4 April (refer to school schedule below for children's start date)

Term 2: 22 April - 4 July

Term 3: 21 July - 19 September

Term 4: 6 October - 16 December

Week 1 2025

Monday 27th January:

Australia Day Public Holiday

Tuesday 28th January:

St Michael's Staff Begin

No formal classes

TheirCare Vacation Care is available

Wednesday 29th January:

Parent-Teacher Introduction Meetings Prep - Year 6 Families

No formal classes

TheirCare Vacation Care is available

Thursday 30th January:

Prep Children begin school

Year 1 - Year 6 individual assessment meetings

No formal classes for Year 1-Year 6 children

TheirCare Vacation Care is available

Friday 31st January:

Prep Children at school

Year 1 - Year 6 individual assessment meetings

No formal classes for Year 1-Year 6 children

TheirCare Vacation Care is available

Monday 3rd February:

All children attend school: 8:45am - 3:25pm

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.

Learning News

Prep L