From the Principal

PRAYER

Peaceful God,

We pray for peace and harmony in our school and throughout our community. 

Help us to treat one another with kindness, respect and understanding.

May we celebrate our differences, listen to one another, and always choose compassion over conflict. Give us the courage to stand up for what is right, to forgive when we are hurt, and to reach out to those who may feel alone.

May our school be a place where everyone feels safe, valued, welcomed and included. 

Guide our words, our actions and our choices so that we may bring peace to those around us.

May we work together to build a community filled with friendship, respect and hope.

Amen.

Dear St Michael’s School families,

ST MICHAEL'S BIENNIAL ART SHOW

We are incredibly excited as we make our final preparations for the 2026 Art Show, a much anticipated event every second year here at St Michael's. Each time I wonder how we could possibly match the previous art show's level of excellence. Again we look forward to a wide range of skills as well as artforms. We look forward to welcoming you to our special event from 2.30pm in the quadrangle (weather permitting). Our Year Six Art Leaders will welcome you before officially opening the show. Again we will have sausages and drinks for sale during the afternoon. Thank you to Paul Klooster (Ashburton Meats) and to TheirCare for their sponsorship of the refreshments this year. Looking forward to seeing you there!!

ALL sausages are Gluten Free and GF bread will be available.

SAUSAGE IN BREAD $3.50 each

DRINKS $3.00 each

COMBO 1 sausage in bread and 1 drink $6.00

TAP & GO PREFERRED

FATHER'S DAY STALL

Another successful Father's Day stall was had this week at St Michael's School. Our children have been decorating their bags over the past two weeks and entered the stall with great excitement to be greeted by our wonderful helpers!! Thank you to all the parents who assisted in arranging the gifts and being present for the whole time to help the children with their selections!

REMINDER ~ Annie on Long Service Leave

Just a reminder to all families that I will be away on Long Service Leave from Monday 7th Septembr until the end of Term Three, the final two weeks of this term. Mrs Eloise Ellis will be in the Acting Principal role during this short time. Should you need, please make contact with Eloise at eellis@smashburton.catholic.edu.au or through the school office. I look forward to returning fresh and ready at the commencement of Term Four.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR

What an amazing Book Fair held this week, yet again, provided through Scholastic and ably led by many of our parent volunteers, whitout whom we could not hold this. The Book Fair always holds something for everyone and offers such a great range of reading material to suit all needs. As a school, we were able to select over $400 worth of books from the Book Fair selection to go into our library, with each class selecting their favourite book to add. Thank you for your support!!

BOOK WEEK PARADE

Thank you to ALL for the incredible efforts you went to this year in helping the children make their costumes for the Book Week parade! Not only was there a great range of book characters represented, I was amazing at the number of students who participated this year. I loved seeing the creativity expressed in the outifts which were worn with pride and confidence for the parade. Well done everyone!!

A VISIT FROM NINO EARLY LEARNING CENTRE

This week our Year Five students welcomed children from Nino Childcare to visit St Micheal's School. Thank you Mr Kickey for reading a story to the children, a Book Week story of course, Dear Broccoli. We reflected on our favourite fruits and vegetables and then spent some time drawing and reading together. It was wonderful to have their company and we look forward to visiting them soon.

DO YOU KNOW A FRAMER???

Do you know someone who can frame a donated footy jersey for our school? We have had a donation of a jersey from the Melbourne Football Club that needs framing. We are in need of someone who is able to frame it for us to auction at our Gala Event at low cost or no cost. If you know someone who can assist please make contact with Annie Herbison in the school office.

ART OF THE WEEK

Thank you to our Year Six Arts Leaders for making the arrangements each fortnight for our Art of the Week competition.

THEME: Book Week

ARTWORK DUE:  Thursday 3rd September to be presented at assembly on Friday 4th September.

SAVE THE DATE!! - SATURDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER

All families are invited to be part of this year's Father's Day celebrations on Saturday 5th September at the Burwood Reserve. Thank you to the Ashy Redbacks for hosting this event again! Be sure to complete the EOI that went to families through nForma this week.

TIME TABLE ROCKSTARS

At St Michael’s School, we are continuing to strengthen students’ multiplication fact fluency across Years Three to Six. Being able to recall multiplication facts efficiently and accurately is an important part of developing confidence and fluency in Mathematics. We want our students to not only know their multiplication facts, but also understand the strategies and relationships that help them work out facts they may not yet know.

In the next few weeks we will be launching a new platform for our students to assist with this goal. This platform is called Time Table Rockstars.

The accompanying letter gives a fuller explanation of mathematical fluency and it also shares a link with parents to give you an idea of how the platform works. The letter also describes the importance of using a range of card and dice games which equally support these skills. 

GARDENING

Thank you to the students from Five/Six G who last week planted more of our Everlasting Seeds we purchased last year. We're looking forward to seeing the garden bed along Morotai Ave spring up with colour again soon!!

PLANNING FOR 2027

As we begin planning for the 2027 school year, it is important that we have the most up-to-date information regarding student enrolments for next year.  By gaining an indication of student numbers for the 2027 we can set overall class structures, forecast staffing allocations and negotiate with the school's finance partner our 2027 school year budget figures.

I therefore ask that you please email me at principal@smashburton.catholic.edu.au if your child will not be returning to St Michael’s School in 2027.  Parents are also welcome to make time to meet with me in the coming weeks.  

Thank you for your assistance in helping us plan effectively for the year ahead.

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we learn, play, pray, work and gather. 

We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and we honour the ongoing cultural, spiritual and educational contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.