From the Principal

St Michael's Movie Night

Book your tickets to the St Michael's movie night, tomorrow night 6pm!

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

Prayer 

Staff Changes in 2025

It is with sadness but also some excitement that we farewell Mr Michael Stent from St Michael’s school at the end of this year. Michael has been with St Michael’s for the past three years and has taught a variety of age groups in that time. He has also supported the weekly Running Club, organised and attended Year Five/Six camps, taken part in Bike Education with the students and has always been so ready to lend a helping hand with any event that we are running. I have always been so grateful when Michael has offered to help set up the hub or drag out the BBQ to help out!

Michael will now be taking some time to embark on a new and different adventure, involving travelling and teaching overseas. These sorts of experiences can be both enriching and transformative, offering young teachers professional development as well as personal growth.

While we’re sad to see Michael leave, we’re thrilled for the journey that lies ahead for him. We know that he will bring his skills to new classrooms and no doubt learn so much from teachers and classrooms around the world.

We thank Michael for his wonderful contribution to St Michael’s School and wish him every happiness for the future.

It will certainly be an emotional end of year as we also farewell Mrs Katrina Balzat as a classroom teacher. Katrina currently works three days per week in a Year Three / Four classroom and next year will be taking time to support her own children with their studies as well as focus on a rebuild of their family home.

Katrina has given 5 years of dedication, creativity, and inspiring energy in our school community. She is tenacious with new learning, always wanting to hone her skills with new programs and always willing to share her journey and new knowledge generously with others in her team and on staff.

I have been so appreciative of Katrina’s attention to detail in her planning and assessment and her diligence in finding tasks that best suit the children’s needs in her class. She has gone to all lengths to uncover what a student needs and works hard to produce programs that can work for individuals. 

We thank Katrina for her dedication and sharing of knowledge and wish her well with her many projects for 2025. Fortunately we will still have Katrina on our Emergency Teacher list for 2025 so will continue to see her around the school!

Twilight Sports

A reminder we will be holding our Twilight Sports event next Wednesday afternoon, departing St Michael's School at 2.30pm with our classes to walk to Warner Reserve. If you have notified us that you are accompanying us to Warner Reserve, please arrive at school no later than 2.25pm. Please ensure your child has their school hat and water bottle at school on this day. Twilight Sports will conclude at 5pm and students will be dismissed from Warner Reserve after reporting to their classroom teacher. Drinks and sausages are available for purchase at the grounds.

Cultural Awareness Week

As part of Cultural Awareness Week next week, in Mandarin sessions on Monday and Tuesday, Miss Luo will be focusing on birthday celebrations around the world. In China, children eat noodles on their birthdays as they symbolise long life. In Mandarin this week, classes will be hand making and tasting noodles with some toppings to make them delicious. Thank you Miss Luo for this fabulous experience.

Growing in awareness and understanding of different cultures in our society instills in children values of respect, curiosity, and compassion that help children grow into responsible, globally aware adults. It helps to reduce prejudice and stereotyping, strengthens identity and self acceptance, enhances social skills and curiosity and fosters a sense of inclusivity and justice. We look for opportunities in everyday discussions to highlight different cultures and practices in our world.

Uniforms update

Families will now be aware of the upcoming changes to school uniforms as per various newsletter communications. After further consultation with the community and subsequent conversations through the School Advisory Council, the following decisions were also made:

• Due to it's popularity, the legionnaires hat will remain on the uniform list and continue to be available through the uniform shop.
• Blue socks will also be phased out of circulation and white socks will be worn with academic and sports uniforms. We ask please that these are plain white socks, no pictures or logos.
• A note about the tracksuit pants; these can be work with both the academics as well as the PE uniforms tops. The style of these pants is designed to be suitable for both uniforms.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the parents for your input into these updates in our uniforms. A special thank you also to the members of the School Advisory Council and Shelly Davies and Cheryl Wee for their ongoing work in this area.

Congratulations St Michael's Basketball talents!

We congratulate our students who this week have displayed their astonishing basketball prowess! Over the weekend, Anna R’s Waverley Falcons Under 14 Team became premiers of their division at the southern peninsula tournament with Anna awarded Most Valuable Player (MVP).Chloe and Olivia D’s U14 Waverley team were runners up in their division, and Annabelle S, and Sophia L's U14 team almost made it into the grand final - missed it by 1 point!

Well done to Anna R, Chloe D, Olivia D and Annabelle S who came runners up in the Casey 3x3 tournament earlier in the season also.

Incredible effort by all and we're so proud of the way they continue to show perseverance and enjoy their sport so much!

2025 Classes Planning

As many will be aware, we are now fully in planning mode for the 2025 school year with the many considerations this requires. I am sure you can appreciate that this is something the staff spend a great deal of time and energy in doing. Placement of students into classes takes many weeks of consideration, professional discussion and deliberation with the following in mind:

• The social and academic distribution of the children within the same level across classes
• A gender balance in each class
• Children’s friendship groupings and their individual needs
• Specific placement of siblings and children with individual needs, inclusive of emotional, learning, physical and behavioural needs
• The social needs of children including the working relationships of all children and the desired separation of children who do not have a positive social or learning influence on each other
• An awareness of teachers in the previous academic year.

As you can appreciate, a significant amount of time and care goes into these arrangements. We are aware that some parents may have valid reasons to have input into the placement of their children for the forthcoming year. 

Should there be numerous requests from parents then the ability for staff to make positive and professional judgements for the best learning environments for our classes is compromised.  Given this, if parents have any relevant information that you believe is essential to the grade placement process, I invite you to make contact with Eloise Ellis eelliss@smashburton.catholic.edu.au or myself, Annie Herbison aherbison@smashburton.catholic.edu.au to share your thoughts for the 2025 school year.  We will evaluate all requests and make a professional judgement on the placement of the child in question. Please note that the final decision must rest with the school in the interests of providing the best scenario for all students. 

Prep 2025 - Parent Information Session

We remind our parents who have children commencing Prep in 2025 that we will be holding a social evening / information session TONIGHT, 14th November, from 7.00-8.30pm in the hub. This is a parent only meeting and light refreshments will be served. See you there!

Seesaw App 

When was the last time you checked your child's addition to Seesaw? This app is used as a way of communicating to you what your child is learning and how they are progressing. We also love to communicate what is happening in your child's class throughout the week so that you can have conversations about their learning, enhancing their understanding further. 

About Real Life, Sex Education Session

This session is now being held NEXT WEEK on November 21st. Please note it is an ONLINE session only. Please see the details of age groups and how to register in our  Wellbeing News Section.