Dear Parents and Friends,

Thank you for the wonderful support you have given to our school over the past few weeks, helping the students settle into their school routines and participate in the events we have held so far this year

We are halfway through Lent and I thought I would share with you a few special thoughts from some of our students about Lent and Easter:

What is lent? 

“Lent is about getting ready for Easter” (Madelyn in Kindergarten)

“Lent is about putting the beautiful purple cloth on our tables” (Sophia In Kindergarten)

“Lent is about being kind” (Lillian in Kindergarten)

“Lent is a special thing when to get a special cross on your head and that’s Ash Wednesday” (Ben C in Kindergarten)

“To be like Jesus” (Ryan in Kindergarten)

“To be kind to others and help people” (Audrey  in Kindergarten) 

“When people trip over we help them in Lent” (Maisie  in Kindergarten)

“Lent is about giving up something we like” (Leura in Year 2)

“Lent is about to be kind to others” (Emreen in Year 2) 

“Purple is the colour of Lent” (Eva in Year 2)

“During lent you have to give up something for 40 days and it is very special that you give up something that you love. Our family gave up KFC for Lent” (Elijah Year 2)

“During Lent you need to be kind, like helping someone when they fall over” (Shiloh Year 2)

“When it's the end of 40 days of Lent, Jesus rose back from the dead at Easter” (Romeo Year 2)

How are you inspired during Lent?

“Lent inspires me to talk to God more so I can pray” (Nixon in Year 4)

“Lent inspires me to stop eating lots of food and think of others” (Eli in Year 4)

“Lent inspires me to be more kind” (Ollie in Year 4)

“Lent inspires me to be like Jesus”(Grace in Year 3)

“Lent inspires me to be kind to others” (Camilla in Year 3)

“Lent inspires me to help the poor” (Archie in Year 3) 

“Lent inspires me to pray more and love God and be closer to him” (Oliver in Year 5)

“Lent inspires me to help people each day, so that they feel good and I feel good” 

(Will F in Year 4)

“To be closer to God by praying and also I can give to people less fortunate” (Indiana Year 5)

“Lent inspires me to change” (Isabelle in Year 6)

“Lent inspires me to give to lots of people including the oppressed” (Charlotte in Year 6)

“Lent inspires me to help people who are needy” (Mason in Year 6)

“Lent inspires me to sacrifice things for others” (Sophia in Year 6)

“Lent inspires me to give up something and try to do new things” (Caleb in Year 6)

“Lent inspires me to be adventurous and help the oppressed” (Layla in Year 6)

What does Lent inspire you to do? 

CROSS COUNTRY CARNIVAL

Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who came to support our school at the Cross Country Carnival last Friday. We were all so proud of the students' great participation and the fantastic sportsmanship and encouragement  they showed. 

Thank you to Mr Tuckwell for organising the carnival and  a big thank you to all the staff and parents who helped with the carnival. Final results and notification of those students who will be representing our school at the Diocesan Carnival, will be given soon. 

ST PATRICK'S DAY

Year 2 will be hosting their St Patrick’s Day Fundraiser on Friday the 17th March to raise money for St Vincent de Paul. All students will wear Green Mufti and bring a gold coin as a donation. 

ST JOSEPH'S DAY

Sunday the 19th March, is 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 to be held on Friday 24th March. All are welcome to celebrate Mass with us at St Michael’s Church Mittagong at 9:30am.

NAPLAN

Between Wednesday 15th March – Monday 27th March, which is Week 8 to Week 10 of this term, students from Year 3 and Year 5 will participate in NAPLAN online assessments. This is an assessment “window”, and therefore over the course of the nine days the NAPLAN assessments will be delivered when timetabling and staffing is most suitable.  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 27th March (for most assessments).

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.  The students have practised completing similar activities in their classroom recently. There is also a “Public Demonstration” site which simulates the NAPLAN experience.  This site can be accessed by going to the following address:  https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site

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 and Week 10,  we will 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. 

SCHOOL ENROLMENTS- ESPECIALLY KINDERGARTEN 2024

A reminder to those families who are intending on applying for Kindergarten 2024, that application forms need to be handed into the school office as soon as possible. If you know of a family who is wanting to apply, please let them know to contact our school office for an application form or go to our school website to download the application.

Thank you for your continued support of our school. It has been a great start to the year. 

PARENTS AND FRIENDS 

On Friday 24th February, we held our first Parents and Friends Meeting for 2022.  Thank you to all those who attended. It was a great meeting and we were able to plan for  lots of P&F events this year.

Firstly the 2023 P&F Committee are as follows. Thank you to the ladies for taking on these roles: 

President/Secretary: Krystal Kearney

Treasurer: Melissa Bartolo

Co-Treasurer/Signatory: Katrina Bartone

Social Media/P&F Facebook page:  Krystal Kearney

Class Coordinators:

Kinder: Sheridan Burgess 

Year 1:  Emilie Sivak & Krystal Kearney

Year 2:  Helen Saunders 

Year 3:  Katrina Bartone

Year 4: Melissa Bartolo & Krystal Kearney

Year 5:  Teresa Catania 

Year 6:  Liz Martinovic

FUNDRAISING IDEAS FOR 2023

New Fundraising ideas: 

Trivia Night - idea raised and still to be finalised- proposed date Term 3 

Colour Run : 27th October TBC 

Responsibility for known P&F events: COORDINATORS plus helpers

Cross Country- 10 March- Melissa Bartolo

P&F BBQ - 28th April (first one)

Mothers Day Stall- Thur 11 May :     Helen Saunders 

Father’s Day Stall Wed 30 Aug:  Katrina Bartone

Easter Raffle: Helen Saunders.  

Disco:  (Early Term 2 and Term 4 early November) Vanessa Tasker & Katrina Bartone. 

Fri 2nd June is the first disco

World Parents Day BBQ- Melissa Bartolo and Katrina West

PJ Movie night:   (Term 3) Year 1- Emilie Sivak - date to be advised

GDAY morning tea- Fri 1Sept: Kindy - Sheridan Burgess & Rachel Rossi

Gday photo booth:   Krystle Kearney to organise / be the photographer with a good camera. Background from Office Works. Krystle will need another helper for recording names etc.

Trivia Night:Term 3- Family and Friends Trivia Group Organising Committee  needs to be formed- Date to be advised

Colour Run -Liz Martinovic and Yr5 & Y6 parents

Next meetings:  

Term 2- Fri 5 May

Term 3- Fri 21 July 

Term 4- Fri 14 Oct- 

and as need arises.

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 will receive a book of 10 raffle tickets to sell.  Money and unsold raffle tickets are to be returned by the 4th April.  The raffle will be drawn on the 6th April 2023. 

Can all donations of Easter eggs, easter baskets etc be sent in to the school office by FRIDAY 24TH MARCH

WRAPPING OF THE EASTER EGG PRIZES 

The P&F are calling for support to help wrap the raffle prizes on Wednesday 29 March at 9am.. Please let Helen Saunders know if you can help. 

Thank you for your support.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

God bless,

Katrina West

Principal

Term 1  

17th March   St Patrick's Day – Year 2 Fundraiser- GREEN MUFTI

24th March Whole school Mass - St Joseph's Feast Day 9:30am SMM Church

27th March   Year 3 – Fundraiser

6th April Holy Thursday

7th April Good Friday

Term 2 

25th April ANZAC Day

26th April ANZAC Day Liturgy 

7th May Stage 3 (combined school mass)

18th May Kindergarten St Vincent De Paul Fundraiser

24th May Mary Help of Christians

8th June Corpus Christi Feast Day

28th June Year 4  St Vincent De Paul Fundraiser

Beginning of the Year Mass

Project Compassion

Thank you to everyone who has donated coins to Project Compassion money boxes over the last three weeks. Year 6 hosted a Hot Dog Day today Tuesday 14th March and funds raised will go to Project Compassion. A very big thank you to everyone who purchased Hot Dogs and especially to Caron Welstead and Lana Jones for the donation of the Hot Dog Buns. 

Thank you for your continual support to others in need.

St Patrick’s Day

On Friday the 17th of March, our school will celebrate the Feast day of St Patrick. Year 2 will raise money for St Vincent De Paul. Students are allowed to wear GREEN MUFTI in exchange for a gold coin donation. 

St Joseph’s Day  Mass

Sunday the 19th, is the Feast day of St Joseph.  Our school, St Michael’s was founded by the sisters of St Joseph’s. As a school, we will celebrate our connection with St Joseph and the sisters with a school Mass on Friday the 24th of March at 9:30 am. All are welcome to attend.

CORPUS CHRISTI MITTAGONG/BOWRAL PARISH

Mass Times

Weekend Masses

​Saturday Vigil - 5:00 pm

Sunday - 8:00 am 

Sunday - 9:30 am

Sunday - 5:00 pm 

Weekday Masses

​​Tuesday - 8:00am

Wednesday - 8.00am

Thursday - 8.00am 

Friday - 8:00am​

COMPASS TIPS - student absences

Entering absences using COMPASS

Parents are asked to log their child absences via the COMPASS Parent portal on the morning of the absence prior to 9am.  When logging the absence please give reasons in the comments section giving a brief description for the absence E.g. Doctors Apt, Illness type, etc.

COMPASS TIPS - Events/Excursions Permission

Events, Consent and Payments

Your child will be attending excursions / events throughout the year and parental consent is often required. In order to make this process easier, Compass collates and lists anything that requires consent and/or payment in the Action Centre.

Log into Compass on the Parent Portal via the schools website for each excursion to approve the consent and make a payment (if applicable) online by the due dates. 

When you access the Action Centre you can view events requiring consent/payment.  You can view details of upcoming events by clicking the "Events"  tab and selecting the event you wish to view.

For further information about COMPASS go to the COMPASS guide for parents link below

A guide for parents & families - Compass Education

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB

Book club orders are due 15th March 2023.  A reminder that we do NOT accept cash for book club orders.  All orders are made online via the LOOP system. Details below.

2023 Premier's Reading Challenge

The Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely.  All students in Years 3 - 6 will be registered to take part. The Premier’s Reading Challenge closes on the 18th August 2023.

You can search our Library catalogue to see all the available books by clicking on the link below. https://oliver.dow.catholic.edu.au/smm

Happy reading

Mrs Linda Sewell

Literacy training course for parents of Kindergarten and Year 1

Please see the following information about a literacy training course for parents offered by Willow Health