From the Principal

Dear St Michael’s School families,

Prayer after receiving 

First Eucharist 

Thank you Jesus for your life

Thank you Jesus for the Eucharist

Thank you Jesus for my family

Thank you Jesus for my friends

Thank you Jesus for the 

good times

Thank you Jesus for my challenges

Thank you Jesus for 

being with me

Thank you Jesus

Amen 

This prayer was shared with the children who received their First Eucharist last weekend.

SACRAMENT OF FIRST EUCHARIST

Last weekend we shared two beautiful celebrations of the Eucharist with many of our Year Four families. I take this opportunity to thank Fr Darien, Deacon Malcolm, Ray Hickey, Des Harding, Rachael Lo Ricco, Laura Dzanowski and James McIlroy for their preparation of the children and the work in putting together these sacred celebrations. Thank you to all the families who participated and for your support of the children during this process.

ST VINCENT DE PAUL'S WINTER APPEAL

I extend a HUGE thank you to so many families who have dug through cupboards and added a few items to their shopping lists and donated to this very special cause. Tomorrow we hold the Feast of the Sacred Heart mass with all our classes attending, during which your generous donations will handed over to the Vinnies volunteers to share with needy families in our community. You are still welcome to donate tomorrow morning if you wish or donate online as well: vinnies.org.au 

Special thanks to our Social Justice and Wellbeing student leaders who have gathered items from classes and will help arrange them to go to the church tomorrow.

REMINDER - Monday 21 July Closure Day

The first day of Term 3 we will be holding a staff professional learning day, which will be a closure day for the students. This first school day for the students in Term 3 will be Tuesday 22nd July. 

PARENT / TEACHER / CHILD LEARNING CONVERSATIONS (P/T/C/L/C)

As notified in previous communications, student academic reports will be made available to parents on Monday 30th June through the NForma portal. New families, we recommend you review your login details to Nforma so you are able to access these easily. Please also check the Step-By-Step Guide that was emailed to you this week.

Access to booking your P/T/C/L/C times will be available Tuesday next week, also via Nforma. Students need to be present at these meetings to discuss their learning goals with you and the classroom teacher. This year, P/T/C/L/Cs will be held in children's classrooms (Three/Four R will be upstairs next to Three/Four G), not the hub as has been done in the past.

TERM THREE STAFFING UPDATE

I appreciate this year has been a year of a few staffing changes which, at times, has been challenging for staff, parents and students. I also acknowledge the incredible resilience shown by the students as we have all managed these changes and the commitment and support of the incredible staff in their roles. I thank you for your patience and ongoing support of St Michael's School and look forward to more settled times as we approach Semester Two.

Prep B

This week I am pleased to inform you that we have secured excellent replacement staff for Prep B. Whilst we are sad to see Adriana Corso leave and we wish her well, we have been fortunate in securing Miss Stephanie Drew (Monday to Thursday) and Mrs Lyn O’Brien (Fridays) for the remainder of the school year.

Stephanie Drew has undertaken some casual relief teaching at St Michael’s School last year and has taught in a leave replacement position in a Year Two class at Caulfield South Primary School for Semester One. She comes highly recommended to take on our wonderful Prep children and we all look forward to working with her as the year progresses. Lyn O’Brien returns to St Michael’s School after having taught here as a classroom teacher and as a casual relief teacher. Lyn is highly experienced and has a close connection with our school already so we are pleased to have her back on staff.

Performing Arts

We are incredibly grateful to Alannah Morris who has filled the Performing Arts role this term when Emma Quinless took parental leave. Alannah now moves on to undertake work in a regional area of Australian, as part of her VISA and we wish her well and hope she returns for CRT work with St Michael's School. Mrs Deanna Imbriano will take on Performing Arts during Term Three, as a support to Jess Fary in our preparation for the biennial production. Whilst Jess will lead the work on the production, Deanna will take classes to conduct additional practice sessions of class items. 

Learning Diversity and Student Wellbeing

Commencing Term Three, we welcome Mrs Chloe Hickey to the St Michael's staff. 

Mrs Hickey will be working in Three / Four R each Thursday and she will be replacing Mrs Quinless in the Student Wellbeing Leadership role and Mrs Sam Isaacson in the Learning Diversity Leadership role, as they will both be on parental leave. We are incredibly fortunate to have Chloe's level of skills in both teaching and these leadership areas.

We wish Sam Isaacson all the very best on her family journey and look forward to lots of visits from her and baby Isaacson soon!

Year One / Two Level

As the term comes to a close, I know that students in One/Two R will be sad to see Miss Catriona O'Donoghue finish her time with them, as will the staff! Catriona will be undertaking some travel during the latter six months of this year but we are pleased she will be continuing to take on CRT work at St Michael's School when she's in Melbourne. Miss Katelyn Struthers will replace Catriona in One/Two R for the remainder of the year and Mrs Rachael Lampe returns from her travel to One/Two G. We are looking forward to hearing about Rachael's travels through the Camino de Santiago.

Five/Six G

In Term 3 we also welcome back Miss Jess Casey after her travels and long service leave. Miss Kate van Sebille has replaced Jess for much of this term and has been a wonderful addition to the Year Five/Six team. We are grateful for Kate's work with the class and we wish her well as she also heads off to travel. We look forward to Kate also taking on some CRT work at St Michael's later this year.

GRANDPARENTS & SPECIAL FRIENDS - FRIDAY 25TH JULY

We hope you have contacted your grandparents and special friends about the upcoming date which they need to keep free?? Our students will be creating special invitations for their GP and SP that will come out next week, however the main times of the day are listed for you here to share. If you are able to donate any cakes, biscuits or slices for the afternoon tea, this would be greatly appreciated.

If you have family photos of your child with Grandparents and / or Special Friends to share on the slideshow, please email these to Ray Hickey at rhickey@smashburton.catholic.edu.au. PLEASE SEND THESE NO LATER THAN FRIDAY 4TH JULY.

1.00 pm  Afternoon Tea in Hub for visitors

1.35 pm  Visitors move to classroom for activities

2.40 pm  Everyone moves to Church for Prayer Liturgy

2.50 pm  Prayer Liturgy commences

3.20 pm  Everyone returns to school (please note that students will need to go to their own classroom before the bell rings to end the day)

3.30 pm  HOME TIME 

STUDENT ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING

Next Monday parents will have access to their child's Semester One (Terms One and Two) academic report through the Nforma Portal. Details about navigating the portal have been emailed to you this week.

Once you receive the report, please take the time to review the checklist statements that teachers have considered carefully both in writing and assessing. We understand that many parents go straight to the "dots" as this is a graphical representation of your child's achievement. However I caution parents that this is not the full picture of your child's achievement of the whole semester's work. The true progression your child has made is very difficult to translate to you in this one "dot". The checklist statements and any additional statements that may be added to your child's report, together with student work samples and discussions with your child's teacher are what can provide a much fuller picture of their progress.

It is also important to note the significance of where the "dot" is placed. When the dot is within the year level column (blue shaded section) the reporting program will state ‘At Standard’. However, if the dot is to the left within the column, this indicates your child’s learning is 6 months below the St Michael’s benchmark, even though it states ‘At Standard’ The criteria for assessment changes from year to year and should never be viewed as a scope and sequence from one year to the next. Hence the reason why it is essential to have discussions with your child's teacher to get the full understanding of how they are progressing.

2025 NON-GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS CENSUS COLLECTION NOTICE

The Australian Government Department of Education (the department) would like to advise all staff, parents, guardians and students (where applicable) that it will collect certain information about your school, its staff and student body as part of the non-government schools census collection (the census).

PREP EXCURSION

Last week our Prep students visited Rippon Lea estate in Elsternwick as part of their Term Two History Inquiry Learning. They learned about the past lives of a Melbourne family in the 1800s. 

During this experience, the students had the opportunity to take on the role of children of the mid-1800s; playing, working, and exploring in hands-on activities. They explored the Rippon Lea Estate as guests of the Sargood family, discovered differences in daily life, investigated past toilets, and learned some of the rules of etiquette. Students also had the opportunity to discover the impacts of changing technologies on people’s home and work lives from the 1800s to today. A wonderful, engaging experience for our young minds!

CONGRATULATIONS ST MICHAEL'S NETBALL TEAM

We take this opportunity to congratulate Anna R and Annabelle S from the Meteors St Michael's Netball Club for their valiant win in their grand final last weekend! Many of our students play netball with the Waverley District Netball Association, which now enjoys quite a long and proud history.

For more information about the club and how to join, go to https://stmichaelsnc.com.au/

ADVANCED PSYCHOLOGY BLOG

St Michael's School has partnered with Advanced Psychology with a psychologist working onsite weekly. This link takes you to a blog with podcasts / webinars that deal with a variety of topics which might be of interest to parents and teachers. 

https://www.advancedpsychology.net/blogs