Dear Parents and Carers,

As we approach the final weeks of Term 2, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your ongoing support and involvement in our school life.

A special thank you to the many parents and carers who joined us for our recent Parents Day. It was truly heartwarming to see so many families spending time with their children in the classroom, engaging with their learning, and being part of our school community. A big thank you to the parents and staff who helped prepare lunch on the day.

PARENT FEEDBACK

We are especially grateful for the thoughtful and encouraging feedback you shared about our renewed Vision, Mission and L.I.F.E Values. These statements are a reflection of who we are as a Catholic school inspired by Christ—growing in faith, learning from wisdom, and serving with kindness. Your support affirms the importance of this shared direction, and we are excited to continue bringing our values of Love, Integrity, Faith and Empathy to life in every aspect of our school.

Thank you for walking alongside us as we nurture the hearts and minds of our students.

CORPUS CHRISTI FEAST DAY MASS AT BOWRAL

This Friday, our school will be attending the Corpus Christi Feast Day Parish Mass, a special celebration where we join with our other parish school, St Thomas Aquinas, to honour the sacred feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. This is a beautiful opportunity for our Parish Priest, Fr Sean, students, staff and parishioners to come together in faith, to deepen their understanding of the Eucharist, and to witness the strength and unity of our wider Catholic parish community. 

After Mass, we will be walking to St Thomas Aquinas School where the students will have the opportunity to share morning tea together and play. We hope this shared experience will inspire our students to learn more about our parish schools and continue to strengthen connections with St Thomas Aquinas students. The students will be provided with a snack and drink for morning tea and then will return to school via bus at 12pm. We will have lunch back at school for our second break. Year 6 will not be opening the canteen this Friday due to the Feast Day activities. 

All students are to wear their full school winter uniform and they will take their hats with them.

SPECIAL LITURGY FOR MS CHRISTINE BROGAN

As mentioned yesterday in the letter I sent home to all families, I announced that Ms Christine Brogan will be embarking on a well earned Long Service Leave for Term 3 and Term 4 2025 and then retiring from full time teaching at the end of the year.

Christine is a dedicated teacher and member of the St Michael's Mittagong school community. She has worked in Catholic Education for 45 years, 32 of those years here at St Michael’s Mittagong. Over the many years, Christine has witnessed the learning, growth, engagement and enjoyment of students from their Kinder days to their completion in Year 6 and beyond. Over the past 32 years of teaching at St Michael’s Primary, Christine has fostered family and community engagement and she has valued the critical role parents and community play in a student’s success. Her enthusiasm and collaborative approach has encouraged and strengthened parents’ partnership with her in their children’s education. Christine fosters inspiring relationships with her students and her colleagues and she has always kept staff and student wellbeing at the core of her work. She has shown great kindness, care and compassion towards all students, staff and the wider school community. Christine has achieved a career of outstanding service to the students, staff and families of our school.

We will miss Christine greatly and wish her all the very best in the next part of her journey. Christine will be going on Long Service Leave commencing Term 3. 

I invite all current families as well as past students and families to a special Liturgy on Thursday 3rd July at 9am to celebrate Christine’s 32 years at St Michael’s Mittagong.  

On this day also, students will be able to wear mufti clothes and they will be participating in some fun games in our middle session of the day to celebrate the joy Ms Brogan has given to all of us here at St Michaels. 

God has blessed our school community with many years of your service Ms Brogan. 

You have been our guide, our co-worker, our teacher, our friend. 

With joy and sadness we mark and celebrate the ending of your ministry as a full time teacher with us. 

We pray that God continues to enrich your life with many blessings.

STAGE 3 CONGRATULATIONS

I just wanted to let you all know how proud we are of our Year 5 and Year 6 students. There have been a couple of events where they have been led in learning by outside agencies and the presenters have been so affirming of our students and letting myself and the teachers know how as a group, they have been one of the best student groups they have worked with. A couple of weeks ago I received this lovely email from the National Electoral Education Centre in Canberra.

To the Staff and Students of St Michael’s Catholic Primary School,

Thank you for your visit on Thursday 15th May to the NEEC. We would like to thank you especially for your exceptionally well-behaved students showing such high engagement levels with our House of Representatives program demonstrating their enthusiasm and passion for learning. You were all awesome, and we felt you should be made aware of this.

Kind Regards

Stephanie Newman | Electoral Educator, National Electoral Education Centre

Communication, Education and Engagement Branch

Australian Electoral Commission

This Wednesday, we had a team from Unleashing Personal Potential deliver a workshop day for our Year 5 and Year 6 students on Aspire Higher Leadership and they said to me that this group was one of the best groups they had ever worked with since they had been running the program. 

As parents, you should be very proud of your children and we thank you for your support. We are definitely very proud too!

REPORTS AND PARENT TEACHER MEETINGS

In response to the NESA curriculum changes over the past two years in English and Mathematics, the  Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong made significant modifications last year to student semester reports for Primary schools to better reflect your child's academic progress at key points throughout the year and provide parents and carers with a clear picture of their child’s strengths and areas for improvement in specific subject areas. Our diocesan school reports are the ones we use to report on your child’s progress throughout the year. Tomorrow afternoon, the reports will be released in COMPASS and we will send you a news feed message to let you know when this happens so you can access the report for your child and be able to review them prior to your meeting with your child’s class teacher. Kindergarten parents have been meeting with Mrs Bourke-Nash this week and all Year 1- Year 6 teachers will be meeting with parents over the next week. 

 DIOCESAN REPORT FORMAT

All Kindergarten students receive a written report in Semester 1 and Semester 2 with a three-point grade scale used to report student achievement using the following performance descriptors:

○ Thorough 

○ Sound 

○ Basic

Students in Year 1 - Year 6 will continue to receive semester reports twice a year with a five-point grade scale used to report student achievement using the following performance descriptors:

○ Extensive 

○ Thorough 

○ Sound 

○ Basic 

○ Elementary

YEARS 1-6 ACHIEVEMENT DESCRIPTORS

KINDERGARTEN ACHIEVEMENT DESCRIPTORS

KINDERGARTEN ENROLMENTS 2026 COHORT 

Our Kindergarten Enrolment meetings have concluded for the families who have applied to St Michael’s for Kindergarten 2026. Our Year 6 leaders have been wonderful representatives of our school, showing our families around our beautiful school.  If you know of any other families who may have missed applying, can you please  let them know to contact our school office. Those families who have applied, will hear from us next week. All Diocesan schools will be sending out details in regards to enrolment on the same day for consistency. It was really lovely to meet our new school family members and 2026 Kinder students.

P&F DISCO

Today we are sending home a note to let you know that the P&F are holding a school disco on the last day of this term, Friday 4 July, commencing at 5:50 pm  to 7pm. The P&F are looking for volunteers to help in the evening. Please contact our school office if you can help.

PIZZA DAY

Thank you to all of the parents who helped with ordering and delivering  pizzas for the students on Wednesday. It was very much appreciated by all of the student community.

LOWES UPDATE

Lowes have received our uniform from Whytes and are working through getting the supplies ready for the Campbelltown Lowes Store. It will be ready in about 2 weeks, so hopefully everything is set up for the holidays. I will let you know when it is definitely ready to purchase either in store or online as soon as we get the details. Thank you for your support of this. 

ASSEMBLY THIS FRIDAY

We will be having our Week 8 Assembly this Friday at 2:15pm. Our Athletics Carnival  presentations will occur at this assembly

Have a wonderful  rest of the week everyone. Stay safe and warm!

God bless,

Katrina West

Inspired by Christ, we are empowered!