Mission and Religious Education

Mission and Religious Education

Mission 

Congratulations Alice

Congratulations Alice Coker on making your First Reconciliation this week on Wednesday 18 October. This was a very important day in her faith life and it was lovely that she was able to celebrate the sacrament with her family, classmates and some of their family members. 

 Crazy Sock Day - Socktober Fundraiser For Catholic Mission

Today we had great fun wearing our craziest socks to school and raising money for Socktober, the official fundraising campaign for Catholic Missions held each October. The theme for this year’s Socktober campaign is Kicking Goals For Good in 2023 and Timor-Leste is the focus country. Today we raised $140.00 toward supporting children in Timor-Leste to have a brighter future. 

This morning we made sock balls out of waste materials and closed the sports shed for the day and the students played with the sock balls they created. Limiting play to the use of balls made from scrap materials provided our students with some understanding of what playing sport may be like in some of our poorest countries and to appreciate how lucky we are to have so many fun toys and great sports equipment to play with.

Thank you to everyone who donated socks and other materials to make our sock balls. A special thank you to Delma Sneesby who read about our sock ball activity for Socktober in the Manilla Express and generously donated a large bag of scrap material for us to use to make our sock balls. Delma is very happy that she has found a home for the smallest of her scrap pieces of material.

Friday Mass

Today our Kindergarten students led our whole school Mass by providing actions to enhance everyone’s understanding of the First Reading, taking up the offertory and leading the movements for our final hymn, Light the Way. Well done Kindergarten and it was lovely to see so many family members and friends joining our Eucharistic celebration. 

Our next Friday Mass will be celebrated on 17 November.

All Saints Day 

On Wednesday November 1 we celebrate All Saints Day and will be attending the 9.30am Parish Mass. On this day we celebrate the lives of all of the saints known and unknown.

All Souls Day 

Thursday November 2 is All Souls Day. On this day we remember and pray for all those who have died.

First Eucharist

Jack Aurisch and Jack Kenafick will receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time on Sunday November 5, at the 8.30am Parish Mass. Please keep both of these boys in your prayers, as they prepare for this very special time in their faith lives.

Living Well, Learning Well - Pastoral Care and Wellbeing 

Legends of the Light Shine and Our Mini Vinnies / Catholic Earthcare Work

Our Legends of the Light Shine focus for this week is ‘Sustainability’. At St Michael’s we are growing in our awareness of how we can live more sustainably. Each class has their own veggie garden and last week each class planted a variety of seedlings which they will care for throughout the term and enjoy eating the tasty produce.

Thank you Misty and Erika

Thank you to Misty and Erika Shepherd who came into school during the school holidays and tidied up our native garden area around the birdbath defining the pathway with pavers, rocks and stones. It looks really great and still has that natural Australian bush feel to it, that we are building on, to promote our understanding of biodiversity and sustainability.

One of our resident bearded dragons especially enjoyed your handiwork!!

Kamilaroi Environmental talk

Our thanks to Paul Moxon who spoke to us today about how the Kamilaroi people cared for Country, in our local area. It was really interesting and informative and provided us with further insights into how we can care for the environment and live more sustainably. Mr Moxon had a number of artefacts to show us and talked to us about the bush tucker that the Kamilaroi people ate. He also explained more about how the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People used the bush tucker plants we are growing in our Bush Tucker Garden.

Catholic Earthcare Network Meeting - St Michael’s Presenting

Each Term Caritas Australia’s Catholic Earthcare holds a Zoom Network Meeting, with representatives from Catholic Earthcare Schools across Australia. At these meetings we are updated with new resources and updated information and one Catholic Earthcare School gives a presentation explaining their earthcare initiatives. This is a great opportunity for schools to learn from one another and to support each other. This term on Monday 30 October St Michael’s has been asked to present the work we are doing in this area to Caritas Australia’s Catholic Earthcare Team and Catholic Earthcare Schools across Australia. We are very excited to share the great work we are doing here at St Michael’s.

Families interested in joining the Catholic Earthcare Household Community can do so by signing up on the Caritas Australia Catholic Earthcare site.

Recording Light the Way

This year the St Michael's students have been learning a beautiful song called Light the Way. The words of this song reflect our school motto, "Let Your Light Shine" and encourage us to light the way through our positive words and actions. We have decided to record this song to promote and celebrate who we are as a school community. We will put the clip on our school website and Facebook Page and we also plan to edit the recording to include the children singing and clips of our wonderful students at school lighting the way through their positive actions, especially around our environmental work. Our thanks to Andrew Chinn the author of Light the Way who has given us permission to record his song and use it on our website.

To record Light the Way, on Tuesday 31 October all students from St Michael's will travel to McCarthy Catholic College, Tamworth to use their auditorium for recording. StreamU a local recording company will professionally record the students singing and afterwards Darryl Martin will assist us with the editing process. Students on our records without media consent, are still able to participate by joining in the singing, as their voices will be indistinguishable and blend with those of the other students and they will be placed in a position where they will not be filmed.

Lunch will be provided but students will need to bring their own recess and a water bottle. Our thanks to McCarthy Catholic College who are putting on a sausage sizzle for us.

We have applied for an Arts Grant from the CSO, therefore there is no cost for this day.

The timetable for the day is as follows:

• 9.15am: Depart Manilla
• 9.45am: Arrive at McCarthy Catholic College - short break
• 10.30am: Commence Recording
• 12.30pm: Lunch
• 1.30pm: Pack Up 
• 1.45pm: Depart McCarthy Catholic College
• 2.15pm Arrive Manilla

This is a very exciting opportunity for us to experience recording a song and will cover a number of our Music and Dance Outcomes from the Creative Arts Syllabus and to celebrate who we are, a small school with a big heart where everyone is encouraged and supported to let their light shine.

“Let Your Light Shine” support others to let their light shine and remember “We Shine Brighter Together”

Jacquelene Cronin

Assistant Principal - Mission

“Let Your Light Shine” support others to let their light shine and remember “We Shine Brighter Together”