FINAL CALL FOR ALL LIBRARY BOOKS TO BE RETURNED ASAP PLEASE

Please return all take home readers as soon as possible

Please note that weekly Parish mass times will now be located each week on our School Hours / Timetable page in our newsletter.

Prayer

Second Week of Advent

God of Peace,

As we light the second candle of Advent, we are reminded of Your promise of peace.

We ask You to calm our hearts and minds amidst the busyness of the season.

May we prepare a place for Your Son, Jesus Christ, in our lives with joy and anticipation.

Lord, we pray for peace in our hearts, peace in our homes, and peace in our world.

Help us to reflect Your love and to share it with others, especially those in need of comfort and hope.

As we journey closer to the celebration of Christ’s birth, fill us with the light of Your truth and the hope of Your salvation. Make us instruments of Your peace, bringing reconciliation where there is division and healing where there is hurt.

We trust in Your promises and look forward with faith to the fulfillment of Your kingdom. Come, Lord Jesus, and reign in our hearts forever.

Amen.

Advent

On Sunday 1st December, we commenced the Church's season of Advent, which begins the cycle of the Liturgical Year and focuses on the coming of the Lord. The first weeks offer a vision of the future, looking to the end of time when Christ will come again. The final weeks point more specifically to the birth of Christ. Christ, the promised one, is awaited with joyful expectation. The First Sunday of Advent follows the final Sunday of Ordinary Time and the season concludes on Christmas Eve.

The celebration of Advent takes place on the four Sundays prior to Christmas, follows four weekly themes; hope, peace, joy and love and ends on Christmas Eve.

During Advent, we remember our reason to hope; we are assured in a most overwhelming way that God always keeps his promises; for on that first Christmas, He sent his only Son Jesus, the long-awaited fulfilment of God's promise of salvation. Jesus was not born into comfort and security.

Christmas mass times, St Michael's Church

We welcome all our families to attend any of the mass times over the Christmas period at St Michael's Church. What a great opportunity for our children to experience the wonder of Christmas at mass on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day!

Tuesday, 24th December 2024

4:00 pm Christmas Eve Mass

6:30 pm Christmas Eve Mass

10:30 pm Carol Service

11:00 pm Mass of Christmas Midnight

Wednesday, 25th December 2024

10:30 am Christmas Day Mass

Wednesday, 1st January 2025

10:00 am Mass, The Solemnity of Mary Holy Mother of God

End of Year Events

We are now coming towards the close of the 2024 school year and we invite families to be a part of our celebrations in the coming weeks.

Monday 9th December - Year Six Assembly, 2.35 in the hub (3.15pm finish)

Thursday 12th December - Family Carols night from 5.30pm (Tennis Courts). BBQ from 4.30pm

Friday 13th December -

*9am - Thank You Morning Tea - We invite families to come to the hub and share a PFA / School Thank You morning tea. For any way that you have supported our school and community in this past year, we are truly grateful and we urge you to come along and spend some time with us to celebrate with a cuppa and a chat.

*10am - End of Year Mass - All classes will attend mass together to show gratitude for the year and families are welcome to join us.

Tuesday 17th December - Year Six and Staff Departing - Farewell Ceremony, 2.30pm in the Quadrangle. We farewell our Year Six students who are venturing to their Secondary Schools and staff who are leaving St Michael's School.

Wednesday 18th December - Any Year Prep - Year 5 Students Departing - Farewell assembly at 8.50am in the Quadrangle.

Meet the Teacher

On Tuesday 10th December the students will spend a little bit of time meeting their 2025 classroom teacher. The idea of this session is to get to know their teacher and the children who will be in their class the following year. They will also be situated in their 2025 room for this session. We know that this can sometimes raise some anxiety for some children and we do our best to support the students through these times. As noted previously, the organisation of students in classrooms is a deeply considered task at St Michael's School and often very complex. We appreciate parent support during these last few weeks of school to work with you and your child in looking at the positive aspects of change in our lives. Feel free to come and speak with us about any advice we can share with you.

2025 Staffing

Naturally by this stage of the year, the staffing for the following year would be finalised and ready to publish in our newsletter. As Eloise and I have continued to work on recruitment this week, we aim to release the staffing schedule for 2025 by Monday 9th December via Operoo. Thank you for your patience at this time!

We can inform you that Miss Caitlin O'Donnell will be taking one of our Prep classes in 2025. Caitlin took part in the final Prep transition session that took place yesterday and is greatly looking forward to teaching Prep again. The placement of our second Prep teacher is yet to be determined.

St Michael's Carols Night

A reminder that we will commence the Carols event from 5.30pm instead of 6pm. The PFA will commence serving sausages from the BBQ from 4.30pm if you wish to avail of these - further details will be available. See you there with your picnic rug and your Christmas colours!

Just a reminder that this is an alcohol free event under Child Safety regulations as children will be present. Thank you for your understanding.

St Michael's Christmas Raffle

Join our Christmas Raffle and you could win one of our AMAZING 6 prizes with a total value of over $1200! Come and see them in our school office.

Best part? All funds go towards building a veggie garden for the kids - let’s grow something great together!

Winners announced next Thursday 12th December at Carols.

Cans for CARITAS

Since the beginning of this year, Anna & Claire Rorke have been diligently collecting cans and bottles from around their neighborhood to collect the money to donate the proceeds to Caritas. Can you believe they've already collected over 4090 cans and bottles?! That translates to an amazing $409 raised so far! A big shout-out to Ethan Tran for helping with the collections too!

This money will be used to support Caritas Australia's programs that help women build better futures for themselves and their families. You can learn more about their incredible work here: https://www.caritas.org.au/news/media-releases/caritas-australia-appeal-focuses-on-supporting-women-to-build-better-futures/

Hands on Concert

This week our students who participate in the instrumental program with Hands On Music during the year held a performance for fellow students and families. It was wonderful to see the incredible talent across the student body and the confidence of our students in their performances. From the piano to the guitar to the beautiful singing voices of our children, it was a pleasure to observe. Thank you to Jennifer Capon and her talented staff for the work that you do with our children.

Congratulations Jess Brekalo

We congratulate one of our former St Michael's students, Jessica Brekalo, who is in Year 7 at Avila College. Jess received four awards, one for academic excellence which is awarded to the top 10% of the year level, plus top score in year 7 for science, music and French. We are so proud of you, Jess. We love hearing about how our former students are going.

Student Reports

We are currently finalising our student reports to be ready for parents on Thursday 12th December. You will be able to access student reports through the Nforma portal, as has been done in the past. Any issues with this please contact Mrs Eloise Ellis for login details.

I thank and congratulate our staff on the many hours that have gone into student reports. The collation and analyzing of student data, along with the individualised comments that our staff labour over, takes many hours of hard work. Please speak to your child's teacher about any aspect of the report.

2025 Prep Final Transition Session

This week we held the final transition session for the 2025 Prep students. They have all been assigned Year Five buddies and spent time with them yesterday in their 2025 classroom. We have appointed Miss Caitlin O'Donnell as one of our Prep teachers for 2025 and are currently recruiting for our second teacher, which will be announced as soon as possible.

After time with their 2025 class, the students accompanied their buddies into the hub to greet their parents, whereby they opened their St Michael's School bag to the many delights and surprises within. At the end of today's session, all the Preps enjoyed an ice cream in the carpark before we farewelled them until February next year.

I wish to thank the staff for their amazing work and the time that has gone into the preparation of this year's transition program - Ally Panas, Erica Cremer, Lou Story, Sue Carmichael, Eloise Ellis, Elise Rimington, Sam Isaacson, Emma Quinless, Ray Hickey, Jess Casey. It's a huge undertaking each year and we couldn't do it without everyone's input and cooperation.

TheirCare Summer Holiday Program

We are so excited that TheirCare will be offering a Summer Holiday program at St Michael's School! Here is the first glimpse of the program. Hard copy fliers are on their way!

St Michael's PFA News

PFA NEWS: