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

Holy Thursday Reflection

My Most Precious Lord Jesus, 

this night You gathered with Your Apostles to share with them Your last meal.  

But this was no ordinary meal.  

This was the gift of Your most Sacred Body and Blood, 

soon to be broken and poured out on the Cross for the salvation of the world.  

Allow me, dear Lord, to spend this night in prayer and meditation with You.  

After the meal, You invited Your Apostles to join You, 

to stay awake 

to keep vigil

as You prepared for what was to happen.  

The Apostles fell asleep, leaving You in Your bitter agony alone.

I accept Your gentle invitation of love, dear Lord, to spend this night in vigil with You. 

Lord, tonight I ask that I can stay with you, to help you through what is to come.

I pray that I can be brave for you.

You have given me courage in my life to face many challenges, I hope I can remain with you in this greatest challenge you face.

Your love for me is true and perfect in every way. 

Help me to know your love, to embrace it and allow it into my life.

Help me to be brave with you as you make this vigil and to love you with all my heart.

I trust in you, Lord Jesus.

Amen

Source: www.mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers  

Holy Week Mass Times

All families are invited to attend all our upcoming Parish Masses and services:

Holy Thursday 28 March, 7pm - Mass of the Lord's Supper

Good Friday 29 March, 10am - Stations of the Cross; 3pm - Passion of the Lord

Holy Saturday 30 March, 7.30pm - Easter Vigil

Easter Sunday 31 March, 9.00am & 10.30am mass

We wish all our families a joyous, safe and happy Easter Season

Thank you

A huge thank you to our PFA in their efforts to prepare raffle tickets, disseminate these to families, gather and wrap the Easter baskets and be present on the day to celebrate and enjoy our time together. A special thank you must go to Therese Molnar and Laura Sonego who led the organisation this year. 

School Calendar

More dates have been added to the school calendar. Please check our Term Dates page to enter these dates into your family calendar.

Reminder 

This week our families were sent a short survey from the School Advisory Council regarding people's thoughts about our current school uniform. The survey will be open until Wednesday 17th April and we would greatly appreciate it if you could complete it. Thank you in anticipation! 

SAC Survey

School Enhancement Session

On Saturday 20th April, 9-11am, we will be holding our next School Enhancement Session.  This is the end of our first week back next term. Our focus will be some gardening and some cleaning of areas around the school. An Operoo will be issued to families shortly so please come along and join us.

Holy Week Prayer/Reflection Sessions

This week all our classes celebrated the special events of Holy Week in daily prayer sessions which focused on each event. Each of the prayers were prepared by one of the year levels s a focus point for others to use in prayer. We heard stories from the bible, listened to songs about the events of Holy Week and reflected on Jesus' journey at this time. 

Today's Holy Thursday prayer focused on the Prayer in the garden of Gethsemane and the Stations of the Cross. We were encouraged to think about others and how we can love and support them, as Jesus did for us. 

Thank you to all the staff for their preparation of the various prayers and particularly to Mr Ray Hickey who coordinated the daily prayers and brought us together today as a community.

ANZAC day public holiday and St Michael's Closure Day

A reminder to all our families that in the second week of next term, ANZAC day will be the Thursday of that week (25th April) and we will be holding a closure day on Friday 26th April. Please ensure you have these dates in your diary.

Updated Medication Authority Forms

Recently the Melbourne Archdiocese has released updated Medication Authority Forms for all Catholic Schools. It is now required that these new forms are used for medication in place of the previous forms. Attached here is the most updated form with the St Michael's Logo inserted. We ask families, over the next term, to update medical authority forms. Any medication that is required to be administered to St Michael's students, onsite, at excursions or on camp, needs to be accompanied by one of these forms. The form is attached here for you to view, can be made available in the school office and will be made available through Operoo. 

Important notice regarding Operoo Notifications

We have received feedback from a few families within the St. Michael community regarding notifications from Operoo. It appears that some of these notifications may not be reaching your inbox and could potentially be flagged as spam. We understand that this can be frustrating, especially given the importance of timely communication.

The issue arises because Operoo operates as an independent domain, and webmail systems often apply firewalls to protect users from spam. Unfortunately, this can sometimes result in legitimate messages being filtered out unintentionally.

If you are experiencing this issue, we recommend trying the following steps to ensure you receive our school’s Operoo notifications:

1. Check Email Settings: Take a moment to review your email settings. Look for any filters or blocks that might be affecting Operoo emails. Adjust these settings as needed to allow Operoo notifications to come through.
2. Add Operoo to Your Contacts: Adding the Operoo email address to your contacts list can help prevent it from being flagged as spam. Please add the following address: admin-au@operoo.com 
3. Mark as “Not Spam”: If you find an Operoo email in your spam folder, select it and mark it as “Not Spam.” This action will help train your email system to recognise Operoo communications as legitimate.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience as we work to improve the delivery of Operoo notifications. If you continue to experience issues, please reach out to our support team for further assistance.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Kind regards,

Jordan Lo Ricco

SCHOOL FEES & LEVIES – 2024

Thank you to all those families who have paid their school account, or who continue with their 2024 payment plan. There are still some families who have not yet responded with a payment or made arrangements for a payment plan. If you have not done so already, please return the completed Payment Commitment Options form to the office as soon as possible.  Please contact Kathy Muhllechner if you would like to arrange an alternative payment plan –kathym@smashburton.catholic.edu.au

Any information regarding school fees and concessions that may be available, please see Mrs Kathy Muhllechner in the school office on Mondays, Tuesdays or Friday. 

 Boroondara Photograph Competition 2024

This exciting exhibition is taking place again in 2024. Students are encouraged to submit photos that celebrate people, places, spaces, and the natural environment in Boroondara. All young people who are of school age (up to age 18 on 1 January 2024) are eligible to enter if their photos are taken in Boroondara.  You may recall one of our Year 6 students from last year, Jasmine Place, entered this competition and was awarded "Highly Commended" for her photo, 'Guinea Pig Picnic'. To see Jasmine's entry and to find out how to enter, go to https://www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/boroondara-arts/whats/online-exhibitions/2023-exhibitions/celebrate-boroondara-online-exhibition Best of luck!

School Dates

Please check the Term Dates page as more dates for Term 2 have been added

PLEASE NOTE: Five/Six G and One/Two B - Assembly dates have swapped since last week. Please see changes here and make this change in your home calendars.

Hands on Music

Hands On Music is a company St Michael's has been using for some time.  If you wish for your child to learn an instrument this year, please make contact with Jen Capon via email: handsonmusic.j@gmail.com or phone: 0402 910 330