Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been a productive and successful fortnight at St Michael's! We have completed our 2025 Annual Improvement Plan Review, celebrated strong student results and started the groundwork for our 2026 priorities. In addition, our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families have been connecting with educators to write cultural plans for their children,

to ensure values, beliefs, heritage and creative expression are acknowledged.

📊Review of our 2025 Improvemen Plan📊

On Wednesday last week, I travelled to St Joseph's Quirindi with Leah Summerell and Amanda McNair to present a comprehensive review of our 2025 Annual Improvement Plan. We met with colleagues from Armidale Catholic Schools, St Xavier's Narrabri, St Joseph's West Tamworth and the host school to deliver our year-in-review presentation. Our review highlighted, amongst others, significant achievements in the following key areas:

Guided Reading Excellence: Our area of greatest influence has been our Guided Reading sessions. All students from K-6 are participating in high-quality, research-based daily reading instruction aligned with the NSW English Syllabus standards. A huge thank you to Leah Summerell for her exceptional coordination of this vital learning activity. In addition to the graded K-6 guided reading sessions, every child reads one-on-one with an adult during the school day. This ensures continuous, individualised reading practice and support for all students, every single day they are at school;
Strongest Attendance in Four Years: Attendance has been a major highlight! Our student attendance data is currently at its highest level in four years, demonstrating a reduced amount of unexplained and general student absenteeism. The importance of school attendance is fundamental to a student's academic success, social development and future opportunities. Every day in school is a building block in education and consistent attendance ensures students don't fall behind. Thank you to Cathy Shepherd and Bron Newton for their diligent daily and weekly follow-up on this critical aspect of schooling.

🌟 Mini Michael's Program: A Huge Success!🌟

We were also thrilled to celebrate the outstanding success of the 2025 Mini Michael's Program! Amanda McNair has worked tirelessly in the Early Years Learning space, ensuring our 2026 Kindergarten cohort is fully prepared for "Big School."

This program does more than just prepare students—it transforms a potentially stressful event into a well-managed, long-term process that promotes a positive start and sets the foundation for a successful educational journey. It has also proven to be a fabulous community engagement initiative, which we eagerly look forward to continuing in 2026.

Well done to all involved in Mini Michael's 2025!

✅ Standardised Testing: Strong Initial PAT Results✅

Last week, students in Years K-6 completed standardised testing in Reading and Mathematics using the ACER Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT). These tests measure student improvement over time and benchmark attainment against age-level peers.

The initial correlation of data here at St Michael’s has already revealed some fabulous individual results as well as strong overall grade results! This data is invaluable for tracking student growth. Thank you to Leah Summerell for coordinating the tests and initiating data discussions with our class teachers.

The most significant impact of regular attendance, is on learning and academic outcomes, which is demonstrated in our PAT results:

Continuous Learning: Lessons and concepts are cumulative; missing even a few days can create knowledge gaps that make it increasingly difficult for students to grasp subsequent material;

Higher Test Scores: Research consistently links high attendance rates to higher performance on standardised tests and better overall A-E grades;

Graduation Rates: Poor attendance patterns, especially in the early years and middle school (Years 5 - 8), are a strong predictor of high school dropout. Students with high attendance are far more likely to complete their Year 12 education.

✍️Looking Ahead to 2026: Writing and Community Engagement✍️

As we move towards 2026, we are establishing, amongst others, two clear priorities for the school:

Renewed Focus on Writing (K-6): We will be implementing the Diocesan initiative, Writer's Insight, across the school. This program, which we are currently successfully trialling with Stage 3, provides a consistent, Diocese-wide approach to the teaching of Writing. It allows for ongoing assessment and targeted feedback for both staff and students, to inform both student performance and teacher practice;

Sustaining Community Engagement: The new school year will also see us prioritise further strategies to sustain and strengthen family, parish and community engagement in school life, building on the success of programs like Mini Michael's.

🌟Survey Success: Our Best Results Yet! 🌟

A huge thank you to the parents/carers and our Years 4, 5 and 6 students who completed the recent satisfaction surveys. We are delighted to report that the results of both the Parent and Student Satisfaction Surveys are the best they have been since Armidale Catholic Schools started tracking this data in 2017. This achievement is a wonderful affirmation of the hard work of our staff and the strong partnership we share with you, our St Michael's families. Thank you for the trust you place in us every day.

One key item from the Parent Survey didn't score as highly as others: the statement "The school has explicit, clearly communicated school-wide goals for improvement."

We want to address this directly. As we develop the 2026 Annual Improvement Plan, your input on how we communicate these goals is crucial. We genuinely welcome your comments on how we can make our school-wide improvement priorities clearer and more visible to you. Please share your feedback directly to myself (bunderwood@arm.catholic.edu.au) or feel free to speak with me next time you're in.

🥭 Fundraiser Success: Thank You to Our Key Coordinators🥭

We're still celebrating the success of the Mango P&F Fundraiser!

While we already shouted out the amazing organisational work by Kate Holden, we must give a huge second round of applause to Bron Newton in the office. Bron did a fantastic job coordinating all the payments, sending out those helpful reminders and keeping everyone up-to-date.

A sincere thank you to both Kate and Bron for all the hard work they do behind the scenes to make these essential events run so smoothly!

🎄 P&F Christmas Party & Community Fun Night!🎄

Mark your calendars! Our next fantastic community get-together is the P&F Christmas Party on Friday, December 5th, commencing at 5:00 p.m. at the Manilla Golf Club.

Join us for a wonderful evening packed with festive fun:

🎅 Santa's Arrival: Meet the Big Man himself!
🌭 Sausage Sizzle Dinner: Simple and delicious food for all.
🏃 Colour Run: Fun for all ages, big and small!
🎁 Chocolate Wheel: Spin to win some great prizes.
🥤 Refreshments Available: Drinks to purchase for all!

A huge thank you to our dedicated P&F Committee—Jessica Calcutt, Katie Agnew, Emma Coombes, and Ashlee Long—for coordinating this fabulous event! We are genuinely looking forward to a wonderful evening.

🗓️Footwear and Sock Uniform Policy 🗓️

This is a friendly reminder to all families about our daily uniform requirements for socks and shoes:

Socks: The uniform requirement for every day is navy blue school socks, available for purchase at the uniform shop. Orders can be placed via COMPASS or alternatively our uniform shop is open Thursdays and Fridays for over the counter sales.
Shoes:
- Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday: Students must wear black school shoes.
- Wednesday and Friday: Students may wear joggers.

Enjoy a great week,

Bronwyn

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