WELCOME BACK

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to Term 2. I thank everyone for your very positive start to the term, especially with the children participating in remote learning. I looked through each of the class Seesaw pages today and yesterday and I could see some really great learning happening. 

A big thank you to our wonderful staff for the many hours they have spent over the holidays, preparing for the remote learning platforms and all the other things they need to do to get ready for a new term. I really appreciate all they do for our students.

Thank you also, to you, our fantastic parents who have needed to adjust to working from home and supporting your children with their learning. Please don’t hesitate to contact our office, if you have any questions about the software or logging into sites. Our St Michael’s Remote Learning Site is the place to go to for assistance on websites and other interesting facts. The link to this page is:

https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/smm-home-learning/home

SOME “HOUSEKEEPING” ITEMS FOR WHILST THE STUDENTS ARE OFF SITE

• Please make sure that you have collected your child’s learning pack from our office foyer this week. All children K-6 have a pack to work on at home and the learning from this pack, commences this week.
• Each morning before 10:30am, one parent from your family needs to log in your child/children’s attendance to school- either working remotely or onsite as an essential worker's student. Attendance is logged in on the GOOGLE form that is located on your child’s Seesaw page or in the link sent yesterday on COMPASS.   This is very important, as it is the official roll. If you have not recorded this information, your child will be marked as absent. If you are having difficulties  with this, please contact our school office ASAP.
• For Week 1 and Week 2, all children should be working remotely unless they have no other option. This is a Government requirement. Students that are here onsite, are those children with parents who are essential workers and are working on a particular day. If your child does attend school for this reason, can we ask that they bring all of their Term 2, Week 1 and Week 2 Learning packs, stationary items and drink bottles with them, as a few students came today without any    
  equipment for learning.

Details regarding what the learning platform will look like in our Diocesan Catholic Primary Schools after Week 2, will be sent to parents as soon as the details are finalised. The Principals have met with the CEO over the past two days and a final plan is being organised.  By the end of the week, you should have a better idea about the structure of Week 3 onwards. I thank you for your patience with this.

A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
I saw this message over the weekend and I thought that it was very appropriate. I am so proud of the way our children are handling this very strange world they have been suddenly immersed in. A special “shout out” to all of them.

PRAYERS
Earlier in the week, I shared with you the very sad news, that Fr Sean’s mother had passed away last Friday night. Fr Sean has advised us that the funeral for his mother
Joy Cullen, will be held tomorrow, Wednesday 29 April 2020,  at 1.00 pm in St Thomas Aquinas Church, Bowral, followed by the burial at St John’s Catholic Cemetery, Campbelltown.

While attendance at the funeral is restricted, your prayers for Joy and the members of the Fr Cullen’s family at that time, would be greatly appreciated.

YEAR 6 SPORTS T-SHIRTS
The Year 6 sports shirts have arrived and can be collected from the school office.  Thank you to Mrs McCarthy for her help in organising.

P&F MOTHER’S DAY STALL
A great tradition that we have had here at St Michael’s Mittagong, has been a P&F Mother’s Day Stall. Unfortunately, due to our remote learning situation, our students are not here to purchase a gift. The P&F will very kindly offer an opportunity later in the year, for our students to do something for their mums. Thank you for your understanding with this situation this year.  I’m sure all our dads will do a great job helping the children do something nice for their mums this coming Mother’s Day. 

ANZAC DAY
Another great tradition that we missed this year, was our annual ANZAC Day March. I have seen some wonderful photos of children honouring the day in many ways. I hope all our families had an opportunity to reflect upon the many people who have served our country to make our lives so special, and to thank those who continue to serve our country today.

I have shared a couple of photos here below of our students making special ANZAC day wreaths and sharing the day with their families. If you have any photos of your commemoration at home, please email our office and we will post them on our Remote Learning Site.

Thank you for your continued support of our staff and students at St Michael’s Mittagong.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Best wishes,
Mrs Katrina West
Principal

PRAY SCHOOL

With remote learning in place, the Catholic Education Office has been working hard to help deliver different ways to incorporate religious education. I would like to give you a sneak peek into one of the new ways religion can be taught to your children remotely.

“Pray School” is an exciting show that has been designed for children to learn about God and the Gospels in a colourful and meaningful setting. The program covers special days as well addressing the curriculum content. As each episode is be made available, they will be added the classes Seesaw page. Congratulations to our CEDoW RE team for a great initiative.

Please take some time to watch the sample: https://youtu.be/59GMYA21HNE

HOLY WEEK VIDEOS
As we entered into Holy week this year, we had to be creative on how we celebrated the most important week in the Churches calendar. Over the Holy Week various events in Jesus life took place and we chose to celebrate these events with short video clips. These clips were loaded to the schools Facebook page and the classroom Seesaw page. I hope that everyone has had the opportunity to watch them. The last clip told of the events that surrounds Easter Sunday and was retold by all the staff at St Michael’s, including Fr Sean. Please take the time to view this clip.

MASS SERVICES ONLINE
Due to COVID – 19 Mass and liturgy services will be posted online through the Parish YouTube channel. I encourage you to still participate in Mass by viewing them online.

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7S6wrESEOUqrF9Ppp7mDvg

PARISH FUNDRAISING
“MEGA RAFFLE” tickets can still be purchased.  First prize is a HONDAJAZZ, valued at over $20,000 (supplied by Southern Highlands Motor Group).  Tickets on sale now, $10.00 per ticket. Tickets can be purchased via https://www.raffletix.com.au/ccsh.  The raffle will be drawn later on in the year. Thank you for your continual support in this challenging time.

Rebecca Mitchell
REC

Happy Birthday to the following students who celebrated a birthday this week:

Evie M, Abbey R and Maddison D