From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers

If you are keen to assist with helping in the classroom and have not undertaken a Parent Helper Session in the last two years please see the details here in our Literacy News section of this newsletter.

Ashburton Festival - St Michael's Cake Stall

What a truly amazing day we had for the 2023 Ashburton Festival!! Much needed after a hiatus for the last three years. It was wonderful to see so many locals with family and friends enjoying their day together in our local community and all of our St Michael’s families drop by to visit at the cake stall. A huge thank you to all the families for your generous donations of cakes, slices, biscuits, cupcakes and lollies which helped make the stall so successful. The snow cones section, which saw an incredulous line of at least 10 metres all day, was a huge success too.

Thank you to the PFA members for your consistent efforts in making this happen, and a special thanks to Trevor Jenkins for your coordination of the cakes and abundant energy throughout the day! See more here from our PFA.

Prep Rest Days

Next week, Wednesday 8th March, will be the final week of Wednesday rest days for our Prep students. From Tuesday 14th March (Monday is Labour Day Public Holiday) Prep students will attend school every day.

Prep and Buddy BBQ

Last week we held our Prep and Buddy families BBQ to bring together these families and meet each other. New families had the chance to meet their buddy families and all had the opportunity to socialise together. Thank you Chamara Somaratne for agreeing to help us with the cooking on the night!! 

Reading with Miss Ally

This week we visited Rowen Street Kindergarten at their temporary site at Parkville Primary School to visit the four year old kinder children. It was great to meet the teacher and support staff and chat to the children. Miss Ally brought along the book "Wombat Stew," to read to the children and we had a delightful afternoon together. We look forward to arranging a time to visit the other four year old group in the next few weeks. Many children who attend Rowen Street Kindergarten attend St Michael's School so we look forward to seeing them at our transition sessions this year.

Late Photo Orders

A busy day was had today with school photos being taken. If any parents have late orders, please refer to the follow communication from Advanced Life with regard to placing your orders.

St Michael's Library Updates

This year the Library has moved! It’s now in between the Hub and the Staffroom. 

Our Term One Library focus for junior students is on exploring our range of fictional authors, while our senior students are learning to navigate the Dewey Decimal System. Each week students are encouraged to borrow books to take home and to borrow a book for the classroom to use during silent reading time. Please ensure that your child brings their library bag each week. 

Library Schedule:

Wednesdays: Year Three to Year Six classes

Thursdays: Year Prep to Year Two classes

From Week Seven this term (9/3/23) the library will be open between 3:30-4:00pm each Thursday afternoon for families to browse and borrow books together. 

In addition, each Wednesday the Library will be open during the second break for students who wish to read or enjoy quiet activities indoors. 

Use the link below to browse our school collection. 

https://smashburton.librarysolutions.com.au/SmartLibraryWeb/SmartSuite.html

If you have a question or would like to request or reserve particular books to be brought home, please email the Librarian, Rosie Ashburner.  rashburner@smashburton.catholic.edu.au

Can you help??

We need some helpers to move approximately 12 student tables from upstairs (Student Wellbeing space) to the dungeon (under the Junior building). Are you handy and capable of helping with this task?? Our plan is to undertake this task on Friday 10th March, 2.30-3.30pm. This date and time are negotiable, dependent on when people can help out. If you are able to help, please email me at aherbison@smashburton.catholic.edu.au and let me know of your availability on this date. Thank you!

Staff Professional Learning

This week, one of our staff professional learning meetings was dedicated to revisiting our approach to Positive Behaviour Learning. This approach has existed at St Michael’s School for some years now and this week was a great opportunity to review how this works and aid the new staff understanding the process. We are fortunate to have Mr Roland Wans from the Melbourne Archdiocese of Melbourne as our coach in this area. Roland visits St Michael’s a minimum of twice termly to meet with the leadership team in this area and then works with the whole staff. Our aim is to be consistent in implementing the positive behaviours approach and aim to use the same language and processes across the school in all classes, specialist lessons and on the playground. This approach links with our SMASH expectations, which is a major focus at the beginning of the school year. Thank you to Miss Sam Isaacson who has led us in this area and expanded on the process for parents here.

Basketball Courts - Victory Boulevard

Just a reminder to families not to park on the school basketball courts in the mornings please. Whilst we acknowledge when you are in a rush this seems like a good choice, I ask that you please do not do this as students access this entrance to come into school. It is vital that we do everything we can to ensure the safety of all our children and families on the St Michael’s site so please seek alternative parking spaces if you are running late.

Assemblies

Assembly dates for 2023:

St Michael's Open Days 2023

HAVE YOU ENROLLED YOUR CHILD FOR PREP 2024? If you have a child ready for Prep 2024, we encourage you to please put in an enrolment form as soon as you are able. This will help us with organisation purposes. Please see Kathy Mullechner in the school office or ask for one to be sent home.

If you know anyone looking for Prep 2024, please encourage them to visit St Michael's. Tours are available throughout the following dates, however please let your neighbours, family members, friends know that I am happy to take tours at an arranged time that is suitable for them and my diary! 

Fliers below were made available at the Ashburton festival cake stall last Sunday. If you would like to take one to a friend, relative or neighbour, please drop into the school office and collect a few or email me at principal@smashburton.catholic.edu.au and I will send some home for you!