Dear Parents,

Welcome to Week 6.  It is amazing how quickly our term has gone by, with lots of exciting things happening. Today we celebrated a wonderful opportunity for our parents to visit our school and participate in our students' Mathematics lessons. We hope you enjoyed the experience and the opportunity especially to meet with other parents and our staff. I will share more insights about the day in our next newsletter. Thank you for all the arrangements you would have needed to make to be here. We greatly appreciate your support. 

THANK YOU TO OUR PARENT HELPERS AND YEAR 6 HELPERS

A huge thank you to the parents who helped out today with providing food for the picnic, cooking the bbq, preparing the sausage rolls and organising the disco. Our students and staff are very grateful. Thank you to our wonderful Year 6 students who prepared hot dogs for the students. You did an amazing job.

We have also had some amazing parents who have helped us over the past week install significant items into our school. Thank you to:

• The Horder, the Whipp family and the Bartolo family for constructing our new garden shed. This shed will house our students' environment tools as well as toy equipment.
• The Rigoli family who dug the long jump pit for us
• The Bartolo family who provided the sand for the long jump pit
• The Flocco family who provided sand for the sandpit. 
• The P&F committee who have had lots of events to plan for over the last few weeks.   

(This is very apt for the theme of our day today)

Dear God,

May we, through your blessings,

add goodness to the world,

subtract sadness from our lives,

multiply Your good news,

and divide Your gifts and share them with others.

Amen

ANNUAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN- MATHEMATICS

Each year, schools across our diocese develop plans to improve areas in the curriculum in order to support our students. Last year we focused on writing skills. This year, our focus is on Mathematics, in particular number and problem solving. Today, you would have seen examples across the school of strategies used by the students to solve mathematical problems and calculations. 

Our smart goal for 2023 is for all students to improve in the area of number and problem solving. 

Our staff development day this term was based on this area and we continue to develop as a staff, our skills and understandings, particularly with the new K-2 Mathematics curriculum that commenced this year. 

Our other major goal for this year is for the students to improve in Religious Literacy.

CHANGES TO GOING HOME ARRANGEMENTS

This week we have had a couple of instances of children attempting to change their going home arrangements for the afternoon, such as catching a different bus or leaving with the parents of a friend. Pre-arranged/organised changes are fine but with younger children particularly, it would be appreciated if the classroom teacher was made aware of the change. Please remember that unplanned / last minute changes to going home arrangements have the potential to cause great stress for parents and staff, and therefore that is why we ask that this does not happen. Thank you. 

CONFIRMATION

Last Saturday, students from Year 6 at St Michael's joined together with other members of the Corpus Christi Parish to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  During the ceremony Bishop Brian called on the Holy Spirit to develop in each person many gifts and fruits that will help them follow the example set for us by Jesus so many years ago. 

We are very appreciative of the children from the Liturgy Group who attended the ceremony to lead the singing and to Mrs Mitchell and Mrs Prentice for all the preparation that they put into the program and Mass. 

CANBERRA EXCURSION THANK YOU

Recently on Friday 12th May, Year 5 and Year 6 travelled to Canberra. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy. We visited the Museum of Australian Democracy, the Electoral Education Centre, Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion, the Australian Government contributed funding of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER) program towards these costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion. This contribution was very much appreciated.

KINDERGARTEN ENROLMENT 

Our Kindergarten Enrolment meetings have commenced for all of the families who have applied to St Michael’s for Kindergarten 2024. Our Year 6 leaders have been wonderful representatives of our school, showing our families around our beautiful school.  We do have a lot of applications again this year, which is wonderful to see.

CALENDAR EVENTS THIS WEEK

TONIGHT

Tonight is the P&F Disco. Students are to arrive at 5:30pm with a parent. Parents will need to sign their child in AND out of the disco. Can all students please bring a water bottle with them. Thank you to the Year 6 parent helpers who are helping with the disco tonight. 

4TH JUNE- STAGE TWO MASS AT STA CHURCH- 5 PM

All students and their families, especially from stage 2 (Years 3 & 4) are invited to attend Mass on Sunday night. This is a combined schools Mass. 

8TH JUNE- CORPUS CHRISTI FEAST DAY MASS

This Thursday, 16th of June, our two Corpus Christi Parish schools, being St Michael’s Mittagong and St Thomas Aquinas Bowral, will join together to celebrate Mass for the Feast Day of Corpus Christi. It will be a wonderful celebration. Mass commences at 9:30am at St Thomas Aquinas Church.

​​Following Mass, the students and staff from both schools will go back to St Thomas Aquinas School for morning tea and playtime. Thank you to the staff of STA for providing a healthy morning tea for us all.

12TH JUNE- KING'S BIRTHDAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY

 No school on this day

22ND JUNE- NETBALL GALA DAY

We have entered teams in the Western Region Netball Gala Day taking place this term on Thursday 22nd June (Week 9).  We have entered a team in the 10-B and 12-B age groups. 

REPRESENTATIVE HONOURS

This week Caleb (Year 6) has been representing St Michaels and MacKillop in the NSWPSSA Hockey Championship at Tamworth. Games were played throughout this week. Caleb’s team were playing in the Grand Final today. We wish him well. From the games we have been able to watch live streamed, the team has been playing really well.  

ONGOING ILLNESS 

Recently, we have had a number of students across the school who have needed to go home because they are unwell. We have had ongoing flu, colds and some covid cases. If your child is unwell please remember that they will recover more quickly with rest. Some children are being sent to school unwell which only leads to further school absence and loss of learning. I appreciate all the support you have been giving our staff and students in relation to this. Take care everyone x

CROSS COUNTRY SINGLETS

A few children who participated in the Diocesan Cross Country on Tuesday 23rd May are yet to return the school running singlet that they used on the day. It would be appreciated if these singlets could be returned by Monday of next week so that we have a full set to use next year.

Thank you for your ongoing support of our school community. It was so wonderful to see you all today.

Have a lovely weekend.

God bless.

Katrina West

Principal

St Michael’s Mittagong