Dear Families,

School Closure Days - THURSDAY 9TH MARCH & FRIDAY 10TH MARCH

HOLIDAY PROGRAM AVAILABLE - PLEASE BOOK WITH YLV

School Closed - MONDAY 13TH MARCH - LABOUR DAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY

NO HOLIDAY PROGRAM IS AVAILABLE

On both Thursday and Friday, St Michael's School will be closed so that all staff can attend the Annual St Michael's Staff Professional Learning Conference.

On Thursday our staff will be working with Dan Petro. to support our staff in strengthening our Behaviour Management processes.

Dan Petro is a behaviour analyst and director of Behavioural Resources Australia Pty Ltd where he utilises his extensive professional history of developing positive behaviour support and intervention programs. For over 30 years, Dan has provided professional services in two distinct settings: education/family support, and the public safety/emergency services sector. This offers him a unique scope of experience to apply client needs. Originally from California, Dan's clients have included families, school districts, education departments, human service organisations, and public safety/emergency services agencies. His academic degrees include a Bachelor’s in Behavioural Science, and a Master’s in Counselling Psychology.

Dan has provided evidence-based professional services in over 200 Australian schools and organisations over the last decade. Regardless if developing a program for an individual student, a classroom, or an entire school, Dan utilises a customised approach with an emphasis on increasing the child's independence, including training adults in the use of positive behavioural supports for effectively preventing and responding to behaviour of concern situations.

On Friday our staff will attend the Jewish Museum in St Kilda.

Here we will explore the story of the Jewish Jesus and the connection between the Jewish and Catholic faiths.

I look forward to sharing our learnings with you in a later newsletter.

School Picnic

It was very disappointing to have to cancel our School Picnic on Tuesday night due to the rain. We hope to be able either re-schedule the picnic to later in the term or we will have a special sausage sizzle lunch for our children to enjoy. We will inform you of the details as soon as possible.

Prep Classes

Our 2023 Prep children have settled into school and now join us for each day of the week. We congratulate them on a fantastic start to the year and look forward to watching them blossom over the coming weeks and months.

Lent

We are now in the season of Lent, a time for self-reflection, prayer, and thinking of how we can help those less fortunate than us. At St Michael's we are supporting the Caritas Project Compassion Campaign which strives to raise much-needed funds to help alleviate poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity in the most vulnerable and marginalised communities in the world. Each class has a Project Compassion Box in the classroom and there is one placed at our office. We encourage our family and our children to bring their small change and gold coins to place in their boxes so as a school we can show we care for those less fortunate than ourselves.

Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to Ahana Yr 5/6G, Chloe Yr 5/6A, Parker Yr 5/6G, and Isabella Yr 5/6A who represented our school at the recent District Swimming Sports Carnival.

They travelled to the East Keilor Swimming pool and competed against children from schools throughout the northern suburbs. They were very excited and represented our school with great pride. Although they did not make it to the next level we are very proud of them, well done!

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Thank you to the parents who came along to our School Advisory Council Annual General Meeting, it was very pleasing that they took the time to come along to volunteer their support for our school and their children.

Please go to our SAC page for more information.

St Michael's Open Day

Our Open Day is on Tuesday 14th March. On this day we welcome families who are interested in joining our school in 2024 or beyond. I ask you to encourage family and friends who may have children starting school in 2024 to attend this event to see our school in action. If you have a child starting school in 2024 I ask you to collect an enrolment from the office or download it from our website and submit it as soon as possible.

If you live locally and own a business who know a business that would happily display our advertising poster, please collect copies from our office, your help in advertising our school would be much appreciated.

School Fees

Families have all received their School Fee Invoices for 2023 and I thank the families who have begun their payment schedule. The school's preference for payment is either direct debit or bank transfer payments. If you need assistance or would like to discuss your payment plan please chat with Michelle in our office. Families who have a Health Care Card are eligible to apply for a Concessional Fee. In order to apply for this you must make an appointment to see me as soon as possible.

Pre-Loved (Second Hand) Uniform Sale

Please go to our Community news section to read about our upcoming Pre-Loved Uniform sale.

Denise Hussey

(Principal)

'The most simple thing I can do is to be good today but better tomorrow'

Catherine McAuley - Mercy Sisters Foundress

All students attending St Michael's Primary School have the right to feel safe. The care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people is a fundamental responsibility of all within our school.

Prayer

Third Sunday of Advent