From the Principal

Dear St Michael’s School families,

PRAYER

Prayer for Those in Need

Loving God,

We pray for all people who are cold and hungry, poor or oppressed.

Wrap those without shelter in Your warmth and protection.

Provide food and comfort for those who are hungry.

Bring hope to those who are struggling and strength to those who feel alone.

We pray for those who face injustice, hardship and fear.

Help us to see Christ in every person and to respond with kindness, compassion and generosity.

May we be willing to share what we have, speak up for those in need, 

and work together to build a world where all people are treated with dignity and love.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Last Friday, our school community gathered to celebrate a beautiful Mass for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our focus was on the immense love that Jesus shares with us and how we are called to generously share that love with others through our words, actions and service within our community.

We are incredibly grateful for the many donations of non-perishable food items and essential supplies that were contributed to support the work of Vinnies. These generous donations will make a real difference to local families experiencing hardship. A special thank you to Louis, who was able to join us to receive the donations and share how our Vinnies members work to distribute these items to those most in need within our local community.

We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the children's choir, whose beautiful singing provided a wonderful conclusion to our celebration. Their talents helped make the occasion even more prayerful and memorable.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this celebration such a meaningful expression of faith, generosity and community. Thank you once again to Father Darien and Deacon Malcolm for making our celebration so prayerful and to Mr Ray Hickey for leading us all and his wonderful preparations.

PARENT / TEACHER / CHILD CONVERSATIONS TERM THREE

Our Parent / Teacher / Child Conversations will be held on Wednesday 29th July, from 1.30pm. School will finish on this day at 1pm and child minding will be available at TheirCare should you need. 

As communicated earlier this year, after Term One teacher and parent-only meetings, the children will be present for the Term Three meetings. Students will attend the beginning of the meeting for up to five minutes, during which time they will take part in the discussion about their learning for Terms Three and Four. Following this, parents will have at least five minutes of time with the teacher alone for further discussion.

We encourage all families to book a meeting time through nForma. Booking times will be made available on Wednesday 24th June to secure your times. Please look out for these next week.

We look forward to working together to support your child's continued growth and learning.

STUDENT LEARNING PORTFOLIOS

On Friday 26th June (final day of term two) your child's Learning Portfolio will be sent home, which has the writing piece from Term One that you have already seen. This term the student learning portfolio will also contain two more work samples to show your child's learning:

• A writing sample from Term Two  - this sample will be accompanied by an assessment rubric indicating the areas in which the work demonstrates achievement below, at, or above the expected standard. A reminder that this is only one piece of writing from earlier in the term and may not fully reflect the Semester One Report Progression Point (dot point).
• A Maths sample from Term Two - this will be one example of your child completing a Maths task from some time during this term. It will contain teacher feedback about the finished piece of work. Again, this one sample will not be fully reflective of your child’s Semester One Report Progression Point (dot point).

The learning portfolio will be accompanied by an updated letter. We ask parents to please take time to read through the letter as it details what to expect from the work samples. As the year progresses we will increase the number of student work samples that will go home.

Please note: Student Academic Reports will be available through the nForma portal next Wednesday 24th June

HOOP TIME 

Our Year 5/6 students had a fantastic time participating in Hoop Time last week. Throughout the day, students proudly showcased their basketball skills, determination and teamwork while competing against other schools. All students represented our school with great sportsmanship and enthusiasm, supporting one another both on and off the court. It was wonderful to see the confidence, resilience and teamwork on display throughout the competition. A special congratulations to our girls' team, who achieved an outstanding result by finishing second overall in the round-robin competition. Their excellent teamwork, communication and basketball talent were evident in every game they played.

We are incredibly proud of all our students for the way they represented our school and look forward to hearing about our Year three/four team results next Tuesday.

Special thanks goes to the parents who helped in training the students during their playbreaks in the weeks leading up to the event and Mr Lo Ricco for his coordination.

FRIDAY 26TH JUNE - WORLD CUP DAY

On the final day of term, 26 June, we wish to take the opportunity to celebrate World Cup Day. This is an opportunity to join in the World Cup festivities and finish the term on a high. We welcome students to come to school on the final day of term dressed in the colours of their chosen country if they wish. This could be their country of origin or the country they are supporting in the World Cup. On this day we may watch some of the Australia v Paraguay match and we'll look to hold fun, class-based shoot-outs during the day.

BOOK WEEK 2026

This year the Children's Book Council of Australia's (CBCA) Book Week Theme is Symphony of Stories. This wonderful image has been specially created for Book Week by author, illustrator and composer, Matt Ottley. At St Michael's School, we will hold our Book Week Parade on Monday 24th August, 9am and we invite children to come dressed as any book character they would like. Our focus for Book Week is always for children to delve deeply into the books and characters that they love and hopefully learn a little about other children's interests as well.

BOOK CLUB ORGANISER

St Michael's is incredibly grateful to Therese Molnar for the donation of her time and effort to Book Club. Her passion for reading and desire to make it such an exciting time for our children shone through in all she did. Thank you Therese!

GRANDPARENTS & SPECIAL FRIENDS' DAY

We wish to give you official and advanced notice of our Grandparents Day celebration for this year so that you can prepare your families. This year we will invite Grandparents or Special Friends to celebrate with us on Friday 7th August, from 1pm. For more information about this day please see Ray Hickey's message in our Religious Education 

As we have tried to work around many competing dates in the calendar, this has meants we have needed to make some changes to assembly dates. 

TERM 3 ASSEMBLIES - Date changes - please see our 2026 Assemblies page in this newsletter and note the changes to Term 3 assemblies around Grandparents and Special Friends Day.

At this stage assemblies in Term 4 remain the same.

80TH ANNIVERSARY GALA UPDATE

WOW the Gala Dinner is now SOLD OUT!!! What a fabulous result!! Looking forward to seeing you all there on the night in your black tie with a touch of GOLD!

See more details about what the committee has been up to and who our wonderful sponsors are on our 80th Anniversary Gala Event page. 

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: Extinct Animals

ARTWORK DUE:  Thursday 25th June to be presented at assembly on Friday 26th June

KINDER KIDS

See you TOMORROW at Kinder Kids! Our Year Fives are eagerly awaiting your arrival!

PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION SURVEY

Earlier this year, many of you completed a survey for our PFA to give us some feedback about how we are going and what we can do better! Check out some of the detailed feedback on our St Michael's PFA News page.

GARDENING THIS WEEK

What an effort from our Five/Six G class who did some fabulous weeding of garden beds last week. This has been great preparation for future planting. You've done the hard yards so we can continue to expand our veggie garden - thank you!!

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

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.