From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers

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

Prayer 

On Wednesday this week we celebrated the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. This week, let us pray his prayer as we navigate the many challenges in our homes and our world today.

St Michael's School Production

We look forward to seeing everyone at tonight's performance of An Aussie Adventure. Please take time to review the last minute reminders sent on Operoo this morning. We also remind parents that no photography will be allowed during the performance. Families may take photos before and after the performance of their own children in the spacious foyers available. The school has hired a videographer for the evening and recordings of the full performance have been made available through the DVD/USB order forms sent home last term. Please ensure these are returned to the school office no later than Thursday 12th October. Spare order forms are available from the school office if required.

Some photos of rehearsals today just to whet your appetite...

Staffing changes Term 4

We are sad to announce that Mr Paul Mitchell will not be returning to St Michael's School this term.  Paul has worked in Five/Six B since Term 2 this year. Paul will unfortunately be taking personal leave for private family health reasons for the remainder of this year.  We are enormously grateful to Paul for his work with the students and the staff throughout the last two terms and wish him all the best for his future in education.  

Replacing Paul will be Mrs Erica Cremer, who returns from parental leave this term. Erica will take over Mondays and Tuesdays in Five/Six B, with Ms Katrina Balzat continuing on Wednesdays to Fridays. Erica taught in a casual relief capacity in 5/6B during Term 3 and we're delighted to have her back on board at St Michael's School.

Also, we wish to congratulate Mrs Rachael Lo Ricco, who is now expecting her second child early in 2024. Rachael has worked in a variety of roles at St Michael's School since starting here, this year as Religious Education Leader and Maths Leader. She has been a huge support to me as I began my journey here at St Michael's and is always on hand to support any staff member with her in-depth knowledge and experience. We wish Rachael and Marcus Lo Ricco, along with their daughter Maya, well with the addition to their family in the new year. Rachael will return for the start of 2024 for the first few weeks before taking official parental leave.

Lecky the Therapy Dog

You may recall last term we had a visit from Lecky the Therapy Dog at St Michael's School. Due to the popularity of the visits and the keen interest of students, Lecky will be visiting each Tuesday this term as we've been able to secure a little bit of wellbeing funding to make this happen. With the right training, dogs like Lecky can help to improve students' social and emotional skills, behaviour and overall wellbeing. Lecky and her owner / trainer, Lee Hunt, will be timetabled to be in every class throughout the term and parents will be able to greet Lecky on Tuesdays before school in the quadrangle.  We look forward to having her with us. 

Online Safety Information for Parents and Carers

The Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS) has sent information to principals highlighting online sessions which are provided by the eSafety Commissioner for parents and carers. These sessions are designed to help you understand what our children are doing and using online and how we can best keep them safe. I highly recommend you take advantage of this free webinar to keep yourself abreast of the latest information. Please note, you will need to register for this so please get onto it quickly.

St Michael's Parish, Excelsis Choir Concert

If you haven't already heard this amazing choir, it's well worth the time to attend the concert, being held here in our own St Michael's Church. Book online for tickets and be quick as they will sell out quickly! Click the image to access the link.

2024 Planning

As we are now in term 4, we will planning for the 2024 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. 

2024 Classes - Placement of Students - This work takes many weeks of consideration 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 requests for friendship groupings
• 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.   

To support the placement of our children we ask each child to name five classmates with whom they work well.  Children will be reminded to consider children from their current class and from other class settings.  Classes will then be structured with the aim to have each child with at least one nominated friend.  However, if the class teacher feels that the choices are not in the best interest of the child then the child will be asked to nominate others.  

We note here that sometimes children's choices with regards to friendships change and may not be in line with who parents believe their child might select.

With approximately 22 children in each class, each child is provided with 21 opportunities to either further develop existing friendships or the opportunity to develop new friendships.  

To be highly successful participants in our social, school and future working environments it is a most important skill to create new friendships each year and not to be reliant on the same close friendship/s each year.  We make every effort to support our children by providing them with supportive environments but at the same time we wish for some form of challenge so that our children can further develop personal life skills by negotiating new friendships. 

As detailed above, there is a significant level of care that goes into establishing the best learning environments, along with social interactions, for our children.     

Parent Requests - Meeting with Leadership

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 2024 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. 

‘Teacher Requests’ -  One thing I ask of parents at this time of year is to please be mindful of making requests based on teachers they would like their child to have. We are blessed at St Michael's to have a highly skilled and enthusiastic staff team and we are confident that all teachers will meet the needs of your children. This makes an already complicated process even more challenging. As a staff, making the decision about the right teacher and his / her style for your child is already a part of the process. We will do our best to create a complete learning environment that best suits the needs of your child.

Students Departures/Future Numbers:

If your child/children (Grade Prep-5) will not be returning to St Michael’s in 2024 I ask that you please email me to let me know. This information is essential as we plan for 2024 class structures.

Food at St Michael's School

Earlier this year our Student Representative Council noted the amount of rubbish often left in our quadrangle and as a staff team we discussed this last term. As one measure of reducing this, St Michael's students will now be given more time for eating inside their classrooms. Should students not finish what they need to eat in time, they are still welcome to take food outside, but will need to do so without any wrappings. We hope this helps to reduce rubbish found in our playground, also ensuring we are doing our bit for the environment!

School Closure day- Monday 6th November

We wish to advise our school community that Monday 6th November will be a school closure day.  This day is allocated for staff, in consultation with Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) to undertake assessment and reporting obligations and also meets the schools obligation to provide staff with time in lieu, a requirement under the new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.  The introduction of time in lieu allocation for staff is now in place for all Catholic Schools throughout the Melbourne Archdiocese. Please note that the following day, Tuesday 7th November, is the Melbourne Cup Day public holiday. 

Extend has been made aware of this date, if you wish to book your children in for care.

School hats

Given the warm weather we have had in recent weeks, we will be requiring that children have their hats everyday in Term 4. If not, they will be asked to play only in undercover areas for their own health and safety. Please ensure your child has the correct school hat. 

Jump Rope for Heart at St Michael’s!

We’re skipping through the term!

Jump Rope for Heart is well underway and it’s great to see so many children out in the playground skipping with smiles on their faces. 

We have already raised $218 of our $500 goal.

It’s not long until our Jump Off Day in Term 4 so keep on practicing those tricks! And don’t forget to share your online fundraising page with friends and family to raise money for a great cause!

Still need to sign up online? It’s easy just follow this link and enter your details. www.jumprope.org.au/parents