WELCOME BACK TO ST MICHAEL’S MITTAGONG

This past week, we have welcomed back to school our students, staff and families. The students were very excited to see their friends and share their holiday stories. Thank you to all our parents for helping prepare our students for the start of school. 

We welcome to our school community the following new families: the Anzures family;the Carney family; the Cater family; the Crowney family; the Delamont family; the Fairall family; the Gates family; the Hart family; the Hayes family; the Henson family; the Kennedy family; the Lyons family; the Martin family; the Montanari family; the Plokstys family; the Reeves family; the Reyna family; the Sloan family and the Toor family. Thank you for choosing to join our wonderful St Michael’s School community. 

We also welcome all our Kindergarten students who start this week on Thursday. They have been very excited to visit school for their Best Start Assessment sessions. 

WELCOME TO OUR NEW STAFF
This year, we welcome to St Michaels, Mrs Alyssa Williamson (Year 5 Teacher); Mrs Mary-Lynn Lane (Diverse Learning Needs Coordinator); Mrs Laura Wilson (Specialist Support/SPLICED teacher). We also welcome Mrs Carola Murnane and Mrs Kristie Faavae in the roles of School Support Officers. Carola and Kristie have worked at St Michaels in a casual capacity. This term they will be joining our staff to support students in the classroom. Below you will find a list of all our St Michael’s Staff for this school year and the roles that they have in our school. 

STAFF AT ST MICHAEL’S MITTAGONG 2021

Principal	Mrs Katrina West
Assistant Principal	Mr Richard Tuckwell
Religious Education Coordinator	Mrs Rebecca Mitchell
Middle Leader	Mr Nathan Sherry
Classroom Teachers
Year 6	Mrs Rebecca Mitchell; Mrs Kelly Anderson
Year 5	Mrs Alyssa Williamson
Year 4	Mr Nathan Sherry
Year 3	Mr Andrew Nash
Year 2	Miss Louise Campbell
Year 1	Ms Christine Brogan
Kindergarten	Mrs Bernadette Bourke-Nash
Instructional Coach	Mrs Kelly Anderson
Diverse Learning Needs	Mrs Mary-Lynn Lane
Specialist Support	Mrs Sue Adams
	Mrs Janine Webb
	Mrs Laura Wilson
Creative Arts – Music	Miss Keva Abotomey
Creative Arts – Visual Arts	Mrs Sue Adams
PDHPE	Mr Richard Tuckwell
Senior School Support Officer	Mrs Rachell Berrell
School Support Officers	Mrs Hilda Townsend
	Mrs Jennine Toohey
	Mrs Linda Sewell
	Mrs Carol Davies
	Ms Emma Storry   Mrs Carola Murnane   Mrs Kristie Faavae

PLAYGROUND UPDATES
Over the holidays we had some great changes happen to our school playground:- 

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, 130 Years Commemorative Garden.
Thank you to Mr Tuckwell and Mr Nash, who planted our Mary MacKillop Bottlebrushes in the garden near the Stage 2 classrooms. These will be a beautiful addition to our school with the added focus of the plants honouring our first Australian Saint, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop

who was the foundress of the Sisters of St Joseph, who established our school in 1891.  Our school is celebrating 130 years of establishment this year- a very special celebration.

Prayer Space
Thank you to Mrs Mitchell and her husband for cleaning up our prayer space and placing the staff reflection pavers and the students prayer stones in the garden. Our updated prayer space is now a very special place for our community to sit in and spend time reflecting. Throughout the school, the students can find our staff reflection pavers, which have special quotes from St Mary of the Cross MacKillop upon them.

New Playground Activity Structure
Thank you to Matt and Brent, grandfather and dad of Archie (Year 1) and to Mr Tuckwell who installed our new piece of playground equipment. The students are absolutely loving playing on this equipment. Thank you to Scott, dad of Brohdi (Year 6) and Axel (Year 2) and Aaron, dad of Jace (Year 3) and Kobi (Year 5) for assisting with the painting of this equipment.  

Playground Markings
We also had some great new playground markings painted on the asphalt and Library verandah. These will be used to develop the students gross motor and sensory skills, whilst they are having fun manipulating and playing on the spaces. 

Nature Playground and Outdoor Education Space
During the last week of Term 4 2020, our Nature Playground and Outdoor Education Space was completed for the students to play on. They have really enjoyed the space and this area continues to be a focal point in our playground. This year we would like to add plants and groundcovers to the playground. If anyone can assist us with this, we would greatly appreciate your support. A huge thank you to the Federal Government for the Local Schools Community Grant of $10,000 towards this space. 

STUDENT CARLINE DROP OFF AND PICK UP
For the beginning of this year until further notice, we are still under NSW Covid 19 restrictions and unfortunately parents and other family members are unable to come on site apart from the times you will have appointments or office inquiries. Last week, there were exceptions made for parents with students in Year 1 and Year 2, to come onto the playground to assist their child if required. This week and next week, only Kindergarten parents are able to come onto the school site. If your child is feeling anxious in the morning, and some do after being at home for a long period of time, by all means, come with them to the school office and we can help them with their start to the day. 

KINDERGARTEN ARRANGEMENTS 
For all our Kindergarten drop off and pick ups, we are going to use the gate between the school hall and office- This is the gate we used for Kinder Orientation. Could parents and Kinder students please meet in the paved area near the gate, on Thursday at 8:45am and sign in using the QR code that will be placed at the gate. Mrs Bourke-Nash will be there to greet the new Kinder students and take you down to the Kindergarten Room. We invite the Kindergarten parents to visit our Kindergarten room and meet the support staff that will be assisting your students this year. The following days, Kinder parents are able to walk their child to the classroom and then depart at bell time. The “Kindergarten” gate will be open each day at 8:40am. For afternoon pickup, can the parents of the Kindergarten students remain at the gate and we will bring the students to you for pick up. Pick up for Kindergarten students for the first 7 days (Week 2 and Week 3) will be at 2:30pm. We hope this will allow a smooth transition to school. Some Kindergarten children will be catching buses with their siblings or leaving the school with their siblings and arrangements will be made to accommodate this. 

NEW PARISH
On the 1st January 2021, the Catholic Parish of Mittagong, and the Catholic Parish of Bowral, became a new Parish called:

Corpus Christi Parish, Mittagong-Bowral

Fr Sean Cullen is the Parish Priest and our two churches within the parish are St Michael’s Mittagong and St Thomas Aquinas Bowral. Corpus Christi Parish, Mittagong-Bowral is a part of the Wollongong Diocese. Mrs Mitchell has explained the significance of the new logos for our Parish in her RE news.

FUNERAL MASS FOR ARCHBISHOP PHILIP WILSON RIP

Archbishop Philip Edward Wilson former third Bishop of Wollongong (ordained on 10 July 1996) passed away on 17 January 2021.

Last night a Memorial Mass was held at St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral Wollongong. We take this opportunity to remember all of the wonderful things Bishop Wilson did for our Diocese of Wollongong. May he rest in peace. 

SPECIALIST LESSONS INFORMATION TERM 1 2021

May everyone have a wonderful 2021 school year. 

Best wishes,
Mrs Katrina West
Principal