Dear Parents

As we conclude Week 7 of our new academic year, I am so proud of the students, staff and parents for their participation in the wonderful events we have been able to share together. A big thank you to all our parent community for supporting the recent St Michael’s Swimming and Cross Country Carnivals. The students had a lot of fun participating in the many events and they definitely enjoyed the support given by the parents and grandparents, especially the opportunity to sample the wonderful cakes, slices and lollies provided by the parents. 

Thank you to our staff for all the preparation that went into these events, especially Mrs Anderson (Swimming Carnival Coordinator), Mrs Whipp (Western Region Swimming) and Mr Tuckwell (Cross Country Carnival Coordinator).  

Our Kindergarten classes are now firmly part of our St Michael’s Community. Our other classes too, have settled into the routines of their new classes. It was wonderful to see all the parents at the ‘Meet and Greet’ afternoon recently and I hope that this gave you an insight into the year ahead for your children. Yesterday you were  given information about the upcoming Parent/Teacher meetings in Weeks 9, 10 and 11. Please refer to COMPASS to book into those meetings.

LENT

We are halfway through Lent and I thought I would share with you a few special thoughts from Pope Francis in his address last week.

In his message, Pope Francis recalls that Lent "is time to act, and in Lent to act also means to pause. To pause in prayer, in order to receive the word of God, to pause like the Samaritan in the presence of a wounded brother or sister" because "love of God and love of neighbour are one love".

The invitation consists, then, of "to pause in the presence of God beside the flesh of our neighbour.  For this reason, prayer, almsgiving, and fasting are not three unrelated acts, but a single movement of openness and self-emptying, and he adds that "to the extent that this Lent becomes a time of conversion, an anxious humanity will notice a burst of creativity, a flash of new hope".

Referring to the synodal journey in the Church, Pope Francis suggests that Lent is also "a time of communitarian decisions, of decisions, small and large, that are countercurrent," that change people's daily lives, such as, "the ways we acquire goods, care for creation, and strive to include those who go unseen or are looked down upon."

"I invite every Christian community to do just this: to offer its members moments set aside to rethink their lifestyles" to evaluate and improve their contribution to society, the Pope writes. 

 

On Monday, Mrs Mitchell and I joined with other Principal’s, Religious Education Coordinators and Clergy, to listen to a day’s presentation from Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP. Fr Timothy was the Master of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) from 1992 until 2001 in which role he travelled to every continent (bar Antarctica), founded Dominican Volunteers International and played a key role in helping to establish the Franciscan-Dominican representative offices at the United Nations. 

He was the Spiritual Advisor to the recent Synod held in the Vatican. Like Pope Francis, his message to us all was to value our friendships, as we learn from each other and to live in hope. Let this Lent be a time for all of us to reach out in hope and friendship to all.

ST PATRICK'S DAY

Year 2 will be hosting their St Patrick’s Day Fundraiser on Monday 18 March to raise money for St Vincent de Paul. All students will wear their school uniform with a touch of green, such as green socks, green ribbons, green shoelaces etc and bring a gold coin as a donation.

ST JOSEPH'S DAY

On Friday, 22 March, we will be celebrating the Feast day of St Joseph. As our school was founded by the Sisters of St Josephs, we will celebrate our connection with St Joseph and the sisters with a school Mass. All are welcome to celebrate Mass with us at St Michael’s Church Mittagong at 9:30am.

NAPLAN

This week our classes in Year 3 and Year 5 began their NAPLAN assessments and this will continue through to next week.  If students happen to be absent on a day when an assessment is delivered, they have the opportunity to participate in a “catch-up” session before the 25 March. 

The Assessment Schedule is as follows:

Wednesday 13th March – WRITING (Year 3 and Year 5)

Thursday 14th March – READING (Year 3 and Year 5)

 Monday 18th March – CONVENTIONS OF LANGUAGE (Year 3 and Year 5)

 Wednesday 20th March – NUMERACY (Year 3 and Year 5)

NAPLAN consists of four separate assessments: Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy.  For Year 3, the Writing Assessment is on paper. All other assessments for Year 3, and all assessments for Year 5, are now conducted online.  We thank all of our staff for the wonderful support they will provide the students in navigating this assessment. 

PARENT/TEACHER MEETINGS 

Over Week 9, Week 10 and  Week 11,  we will be holding our Parent/Teacher meetings for Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. These meetings are a great opportunity for you to discuss with your child’s class teacher anything that they may need to know about your child. For some children who are receiving extra support through specialised programs, the teachers will go through the personal plans for those programs with you. We  are looking forward to seeing you. To book an appointment time, please see COMPASS. 

SCHOOL ENROLMENTS - ESPECIALLY KINDERGARTEN 2025

A reminder to those families who are intending on applying for Kindergarten 2025, the online application form needs to be completed and sent to the school office as soon as possible as we are commencing interviews for sibling families this term. If you know of a family who is wanting to apply, please let them know to either contact our school office  or go to our school website to access the online application or follow the link   

STEM EDUCATION

Yesterday,  we sent home a resource list for items we are collecting for our STEM programs. If you happen to have any of these items at home or even at work, that you no longer need or can collect for us (such plastic bottle tops, cardboard cylinders, paper items, newspapers etc) we would be very grateful. We are not asking for you to purchase any of these items. We will, though, be very grateful for anything that you think will help our programs.

If the children's grandparents, family and friends can help in any way with this equipment, that will be wonderful too.

P&F EASTER RAFFLE

Thank you to those who have already sent in easter egg donations for our Easter Raffle.  We are still accepting easter donations for our raffle prizes.  The more donations we receive the more prizes to be raffled.  All families have received a book of 10 raffle tickets to sell.  Money and unsold raffle tickets are to be returned by Friday 22 March.  The raffle will be drawn on Thursday 28 March. 

Can all donations of Easter eggs, easter baskets etc be sent in to the school office by FRIDAY 22 MARCH

WRAPPING OF THE EASTER EGG PRIZES 

The P&F are calling for support to help wrap the raffle prizes on Wednesday 27 March at 9am.

Thank you for your support.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

God bless,

Katrina West

Principal