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. 

God our Father,

We give you thanks and praise for fathers young and old.

We pray for young fathers, newly embracing their vocation;

may they find courage and perseverance

to balance work, family and faith in joy and sacrifice.

We pray for fathers around the world

whose children are lost or suffering;

may they know that the God of compassion

walks with them in their sorrow.

We pray for men who are not fathers

but still mentor and guide us with fatherly love and advice.

We remember fathers, grandfather, and great grandfathers

who are no longer with us

but who live forever in our memory

and nourish us with their love.

Amen

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.

Date edit

Traditionally we hold Footy Colours day on the final day of Term 3. This year, as we will be holding a full dress rehearsal of the production on the final day of term (Friday 15th September) at school. Therefore, our footy colours day will be held on Thursday 14th September!

Science Week at St Michael's

This week our Science Room was open at lunch times for some Science Fun!  Students had the chance to investigate specimens using microscopes, used torches and mirrors to make light travel,  used dish soap, water and glitter to observe the reaction and created structures using only play-dough and buttons. 

During Science Specialists classes the focus was using hands-on materials to learn and engage with Science. The Preps created elephant toothpaste. The One/Twos created their very own animal or insect focusing on the external features that will help it to survive. The Three/Fours made bird feeders out of milk cartons to continue learning about native birdlife. The Five/Sixes wrote up and completed a growing grass seed experiment in different conditions. 

We had a whole School Science Quiz and the winners were 1/2B, 5/6B and 5/6G! See if you know the answers to some of  the quiz questions we completed. 

1. True or False? A male platypus is venomous 

2. What does a female spider wasp usually do with a captured huntsman spider? 

3. In Australia what animal is most likely to kill? 

4. What animal has the greatest recorded bite force? 

The Mad Science Show in-school learning experience yesterday focused on air, electricity and fire. Giant smoke vortices, levitating beach balls, flying toilet paper, flour fireballs and hair-raising electricity were all part of the experience. Here is what some of our students had to say:

‘I liked the smoke, and I thought it was very cool when Lisa made an electricity spark.’ -Massi 

‘She put fire on the tea bag and it floated up in the air, that was good.’ -Darragh 

‘Lisa used a hair dryer to float ping pong balls in the air.’ -Billy 

Glen Iris District Track & Field Carnival

The Glen Iris District Athletics Carnival will be held on Wednesday 6th September at Bill Sewart Reserve in Burwood. St Michael's students in Years three, four, five and six will be competing in the many events on offer, such as the hurdles, high jump, long jump, triple jump, discus, shot put and various running events, including the 1500m distance run. Our recent school athletics event gave the opportunity for students to show their skills in many of these events. Students can only participate in two of the events at the district level and we wish all our students well in advancing to the following level. Good luck next week!!

Boroondara Library Service Wurundjeri Storytime

As part of Book Week, the Boroondara Library Service held an online storytime event, which 3/4G took part in during their visual arts lesson. The students listened to the book Looking After Country with Fire and learned about Wurundjeri culture, Woi-wurrung language and Dreaming stories. The students then made leaves and used nature to show their connection to the land on which we live. Thank you Miss Fary for allowing us to be part of this event. 

For your information, the Boroondara Library service also has a Literacy and Reading Resources page for families. Click on this link to view it or go to https://www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/libraries/services to find out more.

St Michael's School Production

Tickets for our performance, An Aussie Adventure, were released through TryBooking this week. Please go to the link here: AN AUSSIE ADVENTUREto book your tickets. At this stage you are only able to book 6 tickets per family and you do not need to book for your St Michael's child who are in the production. More tickets will be released once time has been given for all families to book their initial tickets. Thank you for your understanding!

Ample parking is available at the venue. We still require 4-5 people to take responsibility for ushering cars through the carpark for easy organisation. Please email Annie at aherbison@smashburton.catholic.edu.au if you can do this job on the night. You will be shown what to do and you will also be able to watch the show. 

Costumes: We are seeking the donation of about 8 baseball caps (which we are going to incorporate into costumes, so non-returnable) for the school production.  Any colour, any pattern.  If you have any available, please drop to Kathy or Louise in the school office.

Please note 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 will be available for purchase after the event.

School hats

As the weather is warming up and we get closer to the warmer months, it is worth noting that the UV rays on some days will be higher. We strongly encourage students to be wearing school hats on these higher UV days. Please note, school hats will be required during playtimes in Term 4. 

Kinder Kids Reading Session

What an amazing attendance we had last Friday morning at our last Kinder Kids Reading Session in the Library. Many of our soon to be Prep students for 2024 were warmly welcomed by staff and Year 5 students and enjoyed the story reading time and fun activities before finishing off with a delicious treat made by our Year 4 students! 

2023 School Fees

Thank you to all families who have paid their 2023 school fees and those who are up to date with their scheduled payments. This is a reminder, if you have not paid your fees and levies to please contact Kathy Muhllechner to make and arrangement to do so.  

Jump Rope for Heart kicks off this term at St Michael’s!

 Jump Rope for Heart is the Heart Foundation’s primary school skipping challenge that helps kids move more, have fun and raise funds for lifesaving research and programs.

This year we’ve got an audacious goal to see our student Heart Heroes at St Michael’s to log 40 hours of skipping throughout the program! Register your child online, so they can receive the full benefits of the program and participate in online fundraising, simply follow the link below to get started. www.jumprope.org.au/parents

Students will be skipping throughout the term during break time, during this time you can share their online fundraising page with family and friends to help raise money for this great cause.

We will hold our school Jump Off Day in Term 4, this will mark the end of the program and is a chance for everyone to come together to skip and show off their newly learned skills.

Thank you for supporting the Jump Rope for Heart program!

Parking on Top Courts

We remind families that the top courts are not for parking when dropping off or collecting students. Many of our students walk through the courts on their journey home and in order to keep them safe, we ask that you do not park there after school. Thank you for your cooperation.