From the Principal

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

Prayer

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

May my horizon this day, Lord,

not be so foreshortened that I notice little.

Instead, open my eyes

 that I may see afar and above

 as well as in front and beneath me.

Lead me to keep my life in perspective and balance 

and discover that the thread of your presence 

is interwoven through the events and people of this day.

Amen

Parent Help

Our school community often relies on support and assistance from parents, and I am genuinely moved by the willingness of so many parents to participate in the life of the school.  Recently, so many parents have covered the new readers, assisted on excursions, helped out at Enhancement Sessions and assisted in classrooms. It really does take a village and the input of many hands to build the vibrant community that we have at St Michaels.  In recent newsletters, there has been a request for assistance for some upcoming PFA events - the Father's Day Stall, School Disco and Major (Parent) Event, and I'd like to give you an update on each of these events.

I am very grateful to Jasmine Perera for offering to lead the School Disco this year.  Jasmine has met with myself and the PFA to be given a full briefing of the steps for running the event and is pulling together a committee now.  I am sure she would appreciate some additional help, so please let either myself or Jasmine know if you are able to assist.

We still need parent help to run the Father's Day Stall.  While the Stall is held at the end of August, the catalogues from which gifts are selected are already distributed, and to secure the best gifts, we need to act now!  We need at least four parents to run the stall. Please contact me if you can assist.  There are comprehensive notes from previous years to guide you and the PFA will assist you also.

The final event - the major social and fundraising event for parents is scheduled for mid October.  We have a fantastic idea for the event, and anticipate a really fun evening, but we do need about eight parents to assist in setting up the Hub and running the evening.  If you can assist in even a small way with this event, please let me know asap.

If you are able to help in any small or large way with any of these, email me NOW at aherbison@smashburton.catholic.edu.au. Thank you!

Mrs Charlotte Allan

Charlotte Allan

We congratulate Mrs Charlotte Allan (Science teacher and Student Wellbeing Leader) who has recently accepted a teaching position at St James' School, Vermont, to commence in Term 3. Charlotte has been with St Michael’s School since 2014, starting as a graduate teacher. During her career so far, Charlotte has taken on various leadership roles, including Year Level Leadership, Positive Behaviour Support, Learning Diversity, Student Wellbeing and has also taught in specialist areas such as Digital Technologies and STEM. Charlotte will be taking on a classroom position at St James’ School for a Year One class, two days per week. Whilst we are sad to see Charlotte leave St Michael’s, we know that she has so many amazing skills to share with a new school and we wish her every happiness in this new challenge.

As she transitions to a new school, Charlotte will remain with St Michael’s for the first couple of weeks of Term 3 to support in the transition of a new Science teacher and Student Wellbeing Leader.

Wellbeing Wagon

At our assembly last week, the Student Representative Council (SRC) presented the St Michael's Wellbeing Wagon. They have been working on this during the term and officially wanted to launch it when we were all together. Hopefully you have read about it in the Wellbeing News section of our newsletter. The children have been greatly enjoying the activities and the SRC leaders and their friends have done an amazing job in the organisation of materials. Well done!!

Preparing for Kinder Kids

Our Year Four students once again this week have made a special treat for our upcoming Kinder Kids session. They busily worked all afternoon on Tuesday to create a lemon slice as well as made bookmarks to welcome the Kinder Kids to our school. Today our Year Five students prepared by selecting the Picture Story books we will read as the children arrive, before we head out for some outside games. We're really looking forward to welcoming out Kinder communities this Friday!

Student Reports

Student Semester 1 reports will be made available through the nForma portal on Monday 24th June. Parents will be sent details about how to access your child's report through Operoo next week. Parent / Teacher / Student Conversations relating to Semester 1 progress will be held on Thursday 25th July, after the Term 2 holidays.

Resource Smart School

St Michaels is pleased to announce it is now a ResourceSmart School! ResourceSmart Schools is a free program offered by Sustainability Victoria that supports Victorian schools to embed sustainability across the school facilities, community and curriculum, while saving resources and money for the school. Since 2008, more than 1,600 schools have participated in the program. Together, they have:

• saved more than $60 million on bills
• planted 5.2 million trees
• saved more than 74,000 tonnes CO2e greenhouse gas emissions
• diverted 168,000 cubic metres of waste from landfill
• saved 1.8 million kilolitres of water.

With the support of Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning (EASL), we will be building on sustainability practices at St Michaels, and look forward to making positive change!

Child Safety Code of Conduct

You will notice that you have received an Operoo notification regarding an updated adult Child Safety Code of Conduct, which we are asking all parents to please sign. From the commencement of 2024, this updated Code of Conduct has been issued through the Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools. It now covers all 11 standards, 4 more than the original standards had in place. We ask that all parents please read and acknowledge that they will abide by the new code through this Operoo form. This will be a requirement for all parents wishing to be parent helpers or be onsite during school events, going forward. We appreciate that it's another thing that needs your time and consideration, however it is essential that all families are aware of the ways in which we work towards safety for our children. Thank you for your understanding.

For further reading about the Child Safety Standards please visit the CCYP website here.

St Michael's Events

Have your say!!

If you haven't already, please take a few moments to respond to the Fun Events Survey we currently have running. This way the school and PFA can work smoothly together to create a calendar of events to best fit our school community. Many thanks in advance! Click here to respond: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NF37ZBG 

Grandparents & Special Friends' Day

Traditionally this day is held at St Michael's on the 26th July, the Feast of St Ann & St Joachim, the grandparents of Jesus. We are currently preparing the details for this day and we ask that you invite the Grandparents or special friends in your family to please keep this day free. Details to come!

Friday 2nd August - School Disco

The DJ has been booked and the Hub will be ready for the Disco of the Year!! 

Dig out your party shoes and practise your dance moves, St Michaels' Students will be partying on Friday 2nd August. 

The Disco will commence at 5.30pm for the Prep to Year 2 session until 6.45pm.

The Year 3 to 6 session will run from 7pm until 8.30pm.

AFL Mid Season intake

For any parents interested in arranging for their child to enter AFL Auskick mid season, see details below for a club near you.

Hoop Time Year Five/Six 

Hoop, Hoop, Hooray!

Yesterday, the 5/6 Hoop Time competition was held at Nunawading Stadium.  We entered three teams - Boys All Stars, Girls All Stars and a Mixed Future Stars team.  The games were fiercely competitive and I was very impressed with the great sportsmanship and resilience displayed by all our players.  The Boys All Stars began with a nail biting win - a thrilling 7-6 final score.  The All Star Girls lost their first game but fought back to make the Grand Final against Camberwell South Primary School.  Camberwell South has twice as many students as St Michaels and had entered six teams into the competition. Their top team were all very tall and talented Grade Six students, but the grit and determination of our All Star Girls was absolutely fantastic. The Future Stars played their hearts out and never gave up, coming very close to a win in a couple of their games against strong opponents.

I'd like to thank Mr Lo Ricco for organising our participation in the event; Anthony Squire, Stephen and Therese Molnar for coaching our teams, the many parents who showed up to cheer and score and especially our wonderful students for their enthusiastic efforts.  I am already looking forward to next year!

Congratulations to Anna Rorke in 5/6 for her recent participation in the National Junior Basketball Championships with her Waverley Falcons U12 Division 1 team.  The National Junior Championships is an invitation only event, so just to be selected to participate is an achievement in itself,  and they came 6th - an absolutely outstanding achievement.    

Well done Anna! 

TheirCare Out of Hours Care

St Michael's School Year Six, 1983 Reunion

In 1983, the top five songs were:

The 1983 Grade 6 class at St Michael's Primary School were superstars too and it's time for a 40 year reunion!!  

So if you, or somebody you know, was a Grade 6 graduate of St Michaels, Ashburton in 1983, we would like to hear from you to organise a reunion to reflect, celebrate and make fun of each other!  Contact Gian Sberna (gian.sberna71@gmail.com) or John Bresolin (johnbresolin78@gmail.com) to let us know if you'd like to join us to relive the days of awesome music, questionable hairstyles and past glories.