TERM 2 WEEK 2

Dear parents and caregivers

Welcome back to Term 2. It has already been a busy and very productive start to the term and the students have settled in really well to their Term 2 learning. 

This is our first newsletter for our Term 2 and I apologise in advance as it is a particularly long newsletter, however, it contains lots of important information for all parents. 

ANZAC DAY

Thank you for the wonderful support of our student and staff representative group at the ANZAC Day March last week. We had over 60 students walk with our school and I know there were a lot of other students who were there representing their families or other community organisations. On our first day of Term 2, Year 6 led us in a special ANZAC liturgy at school. It was an important time to remember all those in our families and community who have served our country  over the past as well as the present and we truly honour their dedication and service as well as their support and care of others. We will remember them… Lest we forget

Photos from this event can be found on our St Michaels Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=611958377615388&set=pcb.611959274281965

EASTER LITURGY

Last Friday, our Year 6 students and Mrs Mitchell led our school in a special liturgy to celebrate Easter and to share with us the message of God’s love for all. Thank you to the parents who attended our liturgy. I am sure you would agree, that the children shared the joy of Easter to all who were present. I also share with you today a special Easter message from our Diocese of Wollongong Director of Schools, Mr Peter Hill.

DIRECTOR’S EASTER MESSAGE

​​Welcome to Term 2. I hope you were able to find time to rest and renew during the student vacation period and especially over the Easter Triduum. There is a reason this period is the high point of the Liturgical Year as we recall the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and we look to the joy, new life and possibilities faith in the risen Lord brings.  

As a consequence of being an Easter people, we are hope-filled people. Every school is a sacrament of hope.”

ST MICHAEL’S PRIMARY ANNUAL SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2023

On Monday 24th April, our staff participated in a whole day Professional Development day reviewing one of our Annual School Improvement plan areas and that is in Numeracy. 

Our student learning goal throughout this year is for all students to improve in the area of number and problem-solving as a major focus. Other areas of the Mathematics curriculum will of course, be covered as well. 

During the day we discussed ways we could work with our students on improving growth mindset in Mathematics; effective practices for teaching Mathematics and strategies for expanding students' awareness and knowledge of a variety of problem solving/challenging maths skills. Later this term, we will have an opportunity to share with parents and caregivers at school, the students' journey in their mathematical learning. See information below. 

The second area of our Annual School Improvement Plan is based on Faith Formation in the Catholic Tradition. Our goal is that by the end of 2023, students will improve in Religious Literacy. The teaching staff, supported by Mrs Mitchell and myself will be planning ways to support student understanding and awareness of areas of our religious education curriculum and we are currently planning and undertaking RE “Sense” activities from concept areas such as: Liturgical Seasons;  Old Testament Stories ;New Testament Stories ; Main people from the Old Testament and New Testament; Parts of the Mass; Sacraments; Celebrations; Saints; School charism and history; Mission areas and community groups. 

Religious Education storytelling is an important way we can highlight stories from our tradition.

PARENTS- SAVE THE DATE………FRIDAY 2ND JUNE……….11:00am-12:30 pm

On Friday 2nd of June we are going to celebrate WORLD PARENTS DAY!

We will be holding a picnic lunch for parents to share with their children and after the picnic, we will have open classrooms, so that the parents can visit their child or children’s classrooms and participate in some Mathematics activities. As mentioned previously, Mathematics is an area of focus for our school this year and we thought this would be a great way for you to see what is happening in Maths in the different year groups. 

The plan will be:

P&F parents are going to cook a sausage sandwich bbq and also provide pancakes to staff and parents for free. You can choose either the sausage on a roll or pancakes for lunch. A big thankyou to one of our families who has a child in Year 6 for donating buns and pancakes and to the P&F for paying for the rest of the BBQ items. Also a big thank you in advance,  to all the parents who are willing to help with this bbq. Please let Krystle Kearney or Melissa Bartolo know if you can help. 

The Year 6 students and Mrs Mitchell (and hopefully some other kind helpers) will make hot dogs for the students. This will be a Year 6 fundraiser and the students will pay if they would like a hot dog. They can of course bring their own lunch. 

We will provide Tea, Coffee and hot chocolate to the adults.

The picnic lunch will commence at 11am. All parents can sit with their children to share lunch with them. 

We will then have classroom visits at 11:45-12:30pm.

The idea will be to have some mathematics activities happening for the parents to either watch or more likely, participate in with their child. You may see some challenge maths or other areas of problem solving /number etc. Ideally it will be great if you can help your child investigate the maths problem or activity.  

World Parents Day hopefully will be an annual event for parents to come to the school and G Day of course, already part of our tradition at St Michaels is for our grandparents. 

I truly hope that you will be able to take part in this special event. I am looking forward to seeing you, so please save the date. 

CONGRATULATIONS CALEB

Last term Caleb in Year 6 was selected to represent the Wollongong Diocese in the MacKillop hockey trials to be held in Canberra this week.  We congratulate Caleb on this achievement and we have received further information today that Caleb has made the MacKillop Team. Amazing Caleb-congratulations.

FAMILY PHOTOS

I am going to be setting up a FAMILY WALL Display to welcome visitors to our school including our new prospective Kindergarten 2024 families. We are missing quite a few family photos. If you haven’t sent in a recent family photo for our wall, can you please do so ASAP. I don’t have many photos of our Kinder 2023 families or Year 1 Families and some of the photos I do have are four years old. You can email a digital copy to me at westk01@dow.catholic.edu.au or send in a photo and we will scan it and return it back to you. 

P&F BBQ

Thank you to all our parents for supporting the P&F bbq, especially the mums and dads who came to bbq and made the sausage, fish or vege rolls. Thank you also to the parents who donated items of food for the fundraiser. It definitely was a yummy treat for all and a lovely way to end our first week.

P&F MEETING

At our P&F meeting today, it was decided that we will definitely go ahead with planning for a St Michael’s Trivia Night in Term 3. We will need to have a team of parents to coordinate and plan for this event. If you can help in any way with organising, decorating, providing prizes, being the Trivia leader (we have the questions just need an enthusiastic Trivia MC) can you please contact one of the following parents: Michelle Bennett, Sheridan Burgess or the school office. 

This event will be a fun way to gather as a community as well as raising funds for our students. Thank you in advance for your participation and support of this event. We will be selling tickets for tables of 10, so start gathering your table groups. Individuals and couples are most welcome to join tables as well. A great way to meet others in a friendly and happy atmosphere. 

We are currently looking at it being on a Saturday night in August- Date to be confirmed. 

MOTHER’S DAY STALL

The P&F have their Mother’s Day stall next Thursday 11 May. Can students who are purchasing gifts please bring a plastic bag with their name on to place the gift inside.

Thank you. 

SHED

Thank you to Mr Horder for laying the foundation concrete slab for our playground shed. We now need to build the shed, so that we can house the students' playground toys during weekends and holiday periods. It is only a small shed, so it shouldn’t take too long to construct. If you are able to help with building the shed or know of someone who could help us with this, can you please contact the school office. Thank you. 

CANTEEN COMMENCES WEEK 4

Year 6 will commence the Friday Afternoon Tea Canteen in week 4 as next week they are on their excursion in Canberra. If any parents would like to send in cakes or slices for the canteen, they can do so on a Friday. I know the students really love them. Please remember though- no nut products. Thank you. 

IMPORTANT EVENTS NEXT WEEK

Thank you for your continued support of our school.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Best wishes and God bless.

Katrina West

STAGE THREE PARISH MASS THIS SUNDAY AT 5PM

This Sunday Year 5 and Year 5 are celebrating a parish Mass along with the stage 3 students from St Thomas Aquinas. All students and their families at St Michaels are invited to attend, especially our Stage 3 students. 

Mass commences on Sunday at 5pm.

CONFIRMATION

Please keep in your prayers all the students and their families who are preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Confirmation will be held on Saturday 27th May

Thank you. 

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

Our Athletics Carnival will be held next Wednesday at Eridge Park. Students will travel to the park by bus from our school. At the end of the carnival, parents may take their children home. There will be no canteen on the day, so students need to bring their lunch etc however the P&F will be holding a cake stall. All details in the COMPASS Event. 

If you can help out in the carnival, please contact our school office. Thank you. 

DIOCESAN CROSS COUNTRY

The Diocesan Cross Counrty has been postponed to the 23 May. 

MATHS PROBLEM

Each week, Mr Tuckwell is giving our staff a fun maths problem to solve. I’ve shared our latest two problems with you. See if you can find the answer.

PROBLEM ONE

Place plus (+) and / or minus (-) signs in between the digits    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9    so that the answer becomes 100.

For example

12 + 34 + 5 + 6 7 - 8 – 9 = 101. Close but not the right answer

123 + 4 + 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 = 102   Close but not the right answer!

Note:   There is more than one possible answer.  

Can you also find an answer using only 3 operations?

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 = 100

PROBLEM 2

Four people come to a river in the night. There is a narrow bridge, but it can only hold a maximum of two people at a time. They have one torch and, because it's night, the torch has to be used when crossing the bridge.

Person A can cross the bridge in 1 minute.

Person B can cross the bridge in 2 minutes.

Person C can cross the bridge in 5 minutes.

Person D can cross the bridge in 8 minutes.

When two people cross the bridge together, they must move at the slower person's pace. The question is, how can they all get across the bridge safely at night if the torch lasts only 15 minutes?

For example,

Person A and Person C could cross together (this would take 5 minutes)

Person A could bring the torch back alone (this would take 1 minute)

Person B and Person D could cross together (this would take 8 minutes)

Person B could bring the torch back alone (this would take 2 minutes)

Person A and Person B could cross together (this would take 2 minutes)

In theory they’re all across the bridge now but it took longer than 15 minutes so the torch would have burned out before they were all across. So this is not a correct solution.

Can you find a way for everyone to cross without the torch burning out?

WEEK 3

Sunday 7th May - Stage 3 Parish Mass 5PM

Mon 8th May - Stage 3 First Aid

Wed 10 May- Athletics Carnival at Eridge Park

Thu 11 May- Mother’s Day stall 

Fri 12th May - Canberra Excursion (Stage 3)

WEEK 4

Sun 14 May- Mother’s Day

Thurs 18th May - Kindergarten Fundraiser

WEEK 5

Tue 23 May- Diocesan Cross Country Carnival

Fri 26 May - National Sorry Day

Sat 27 May- Sacrament of Confirmation

WEEK 6

Sat 27 May - 3 June - National Reconciliation Week

Fri 2nd Jun - World Parents Day Picnic/BBQ and class visits

Fri 2nd Jun- P&F disco TBC

WEEK 7

Mon 5 Jun - World Environment Day

Thur 8 Jun - Corpus Christi Feast Day- school has Mass with STA at Bowral

WEEK 8

Mon 12 June - King's Birthday Holiday

WEEK 9

Thurs 22 June - Netball Gala Day

WEEK 10

Wed 28th June - Year 4 Fundraiser

Fri 30 June- Term 2 Finishes

Book club is due 10th May

The P&F are going to have a cake/treat stall at the Athletics Carnival next Wednesday. They are asking for donations of cakes, slices, treats etc for the stall, similar to what was donated for the Cross Country Stall.

If you are able to make something for the stall, that would be wonderful.

Donations can come into the office on the day (or day before) the carnival or if you are attending the carnival, you can bring them on the day. They are also looking for some helpers for this stall on the day.

Thank you for your support of this day.