SAC

St Michael’s School Advisory Council

Chairperson’s Report

Term 2 Meeting

Welcome to term 2 2025. It was great to catch up with old and new SAC members on Thursday, 13 May 2025, for our meeting.

Over the course of the evening, we discussed a number of things:

Explicit Teaching is a teaching strategy, although not new, is something that MACS, through its 2030 vision for all its Catholic schools, wants to ensure the future of teaching is evidence-based and provides flourishing learners. This rollout of teaching will occur over a number of years; however, in 2025, St Michael's will concentrate on three goals, which have been identified through a number of assessment tools, like NAPLAN and other indicators of student ability. These goals are:

(1) To improve student achievement in mathematics, particularly in multiplication for years 5 and 6;

(2) To improve student achievement in mathematics, focusing on fluency in counting and place value by the end of years 1 and 2, and;

(3) To improve student achievement in writing, particularly in sentence structure and punctuation in years 3 and 4.

For further information on why and the strategy for how this will be achieved, reach out to Denise and/or class teachers via Class Dojo.

Class Dojo was another item we spent time on. As mentioned above, it is the St Michael's electronic forum to provide information about educational programs, your child’s work progress, and all the different programs and events that are being organised for all our children. If you get a chance, please make sure you spend some time scrolling through the posts and either “like them and/or “comment” on them. All connections help to provide feedback to teachers on what content they provide.

Some of the other great supporting programs that are being rolled out for students are the GRIN (Getting Ready In Numeracy), social skills groups and the bystander education for children program. These programs are offered to different students throughout their schooling at St Michael's.

You may have noticed a message from Denise regarding the commencement of stage 1 of the new building works. The commencement date will be in June 2025. The school is already preparing for the upcoming works, with lockers being moved and any excess furniture being placed in storage. The building that has the library/art room, music room, and undercroft will be boarded up to complete preliminary works to place new classrooms on top of the building. The children’s playground on the westside will be demolished and off limits, as that section will be used as access for the builders. To ensure children still have access to physical activity space, the basketball court at St Michael's Church and the park across from the school on Flemington Road will be utilised. The builders have indicated that this first stage will take just over a year.

Also happening in June is the school review. This occurs every 4 years. External reviewers are utilised to complete the review. The 2 areas covered are educational processes review and the governance/OHS and compliance review. Denise and her team have been preparing for the review for some time and I’m very confident that we will come through with flying colours.

I hope everyone has a great 2nd term and that the upcoming winter isn’t too cold and wet enough that our farmers, especially those in the western region of Victoria, move out of drought conditions.

Joe Greco

Chair

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.

2025 SCHOOL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Chairperson: Joe Greco, parent of Antonina (3/4CA)

joe.greco@exemail.com.au

Secretary: Angela Flint

angela.flint@smnthmelbourne.catholic.edu.au

Principal: Denise Hussey

denise.hussey@smnthmelbourne.catholic.edu.au

Parish Priest: Fr Nicholas Pearce

nicholas.pearce@cam.org.au