St Michael’s School Advisory Council

TERM 3 SAC MEETING - THURSDAY 7TH AUGUST 7 PM

If you would like any matters raised on your behalf at the Term 3 SAC meeting, please contact one of our SAC members listed below.

St Michaels School Advisory Council

(Stand-in) Chairpersons report

Term 3 Meeting

Welcome to Term 3 2025.

Having participated in various iterations of St Micheal’s school boards and advisory councils over the past nine years it was truly encouraging to see that so may of the new faces that attended the Advisory Council AGM in term one have continued with subsequent meetings. It’s important the council has a diverse range of experiences and views, and I’d like to thank new and existing members of the school advisory council for their ongoing contribution.

Topics discussed at the Term 3 Advisory Council meeting.

Student Safety

Following disturbing media reporting of serious incidents involving a childcare worker, our out-of-hours care provider Their Care have reiterated their commitment to child safety including:

All staff have a working with children check (or education department equivalent) and meet legal qualification requirements
All staff have a national criminal history check
All staff complete mandatory training and induction
First aid officers are always on site

Their Care have also initiated a new ‘Red Flag” program to help children, families and staff to recognise, call out and act regarding unsafe behaviour.

Any concerns with student safety should be bought to the attention of the school, but if parents have concerns they wish to address directly with Their Care they can by

Phone: 1300 622 163 or
Email: redflag@theircare.com.au

NAPLAN 2025

Congratulations to our year three and year five students and the staff at St Micheals for achieving statistical mean results at or above state and nation statistical means in all areas of assessment. This result was largely driven by significant improvements in the lower half of student scores; this tightens the bell curve and pushes the statistical mean score for the school higher. The results are an endorsement of the changes in teaching practices (e.g. phonics) and ongoing staff development programs implemented at St Michaels. The Advisory Council looks forward to the upward trend in NAPLAN results continuing.

I’d also like to call out the anonymous year five student whose Grammer score was actually off the chart. Well done!

Vision of Engagement

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) have provided details for their Vision of Engagement program which tackles classroom behaviour and school attendance. The initiative links in with the previously published Vision for Instruction which focuses on teaching and learning practices in the classroom.

A preliminary assessment suggests broad alignment of existing student engagement practices at St Michael's with the requirements of the new engagement program. Going forward St Michaels will be required to demonstrate alignment via an annual action plan reported to MACS, supported by MACS surveys, attendance statistic and engagement letters.

St Michaels Primary School – School Review

The school is currently reviewing the findings and preparing responses to the recent school review. As mentioned in the previous chairman’s report this process is run every four years by external parties outside state or catholic education. Thank you to all those you participated in the process and provided feedback.The assessor was very positive of the schools welcoming culture, it’s inclusivity, and visible and approachable leadership. The review also highlighted strong community wellbeing and growing community engagement. Pleasingly, the areas for improvement (including building staff capacity and Communications / Engagement) were all previously identified by school leadership and are works in progress.

With regards to communications, just a reminder.

Communications with your Teachers are best facilitated via Class Dojo or direct conversation in the school yard at drop off or pick up
Communications with the school admin are best facilitated via email or phone
Class Dojo users, please consider giving you teachers some feedback by commenting or hitting the like button

New Building Works

The demolition phase of the new building works are nearing completion and works to date are on schedule. The next phase of construction involves pouring the foundations of the steel frames for the new walkways connecting the recently completed classrooms with the original school building on both levels, providing better student flow around the building.

As always, any feedback from the school community is welcomed by school leadership. However, should you wish to remain anonymous on any matters please feel free to raise them with members of the School Advisory Council and we will ensure they are discussed.