TERM 2 WEEK 6 NEWSLETTER

Dear Families,

What a fantastic night we all had at the St Michael’s P&F Disco!! It was so wonderful to be able to see our families again at our school. Nearly every student at our school attended the P&F Disco. The students had such fun and the parents and staff really enjoyed being able to come together for a community celebration. For many of our students, this was their first disco at St Michaels, as covid restrictions had postponed our discos over the past two years. 

Thank you to the P&F organisers, especially Mrs Tasker and the Year 5 parents, who planned this disco and to our office staff who helped with administration and all the other staff members who attended the disco. If you go to our St Michael’s Mittagong Facebook Site and the St Michael’s Mittagong P&F Facebook site, you will be able to see some of the fun disco moves and highlights of the evening. If you are not a member of each of these sites, I highly recommend you joining, as many of our school activities and our online assembly are featured there each week.

https://www.facebook.com/stmichaels.mittagong

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stmichaelsmittagong.pandf

HOLY SPIRIT NOVENA

Image by Jen Norton

This coming Sunday, will be the Feast of Pentecost, which is the celebration of the Holy Spirit coming to the apostles and the birthday of our church. When I was reading about Pentecost, I found this special prayer, which is prayed by the Church over the period before Pentecost. It is a special novena. A novena is a prayer prayed over a period of time or a prayer that is repeated several times. Catholics have prayed novenas for many special reasons. This one is for preparing for the Holy Spirit. 

Considered the oldest and original novena of the Church, the novena to the Holy Spirit begins on the Friday of the 6th Week in Easter and ends on Pentecost Sunday. It originates in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, when the bewildered disciples and believers gathered together to pray and await the mysterious Advocate that Jesus promised to send after his ascension.

The Veni Sancte Spiritus prayer is a simple, but powerful prayer that asks for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and is one of the oldest prayers of the Church.

Veni Sancte Spiritus

Come, Holy Spirit, 

fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.

And you shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray. 

O God, Who instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His comfort and support.

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

WELCOME TO ST MICHAELS

Next week we welcome Mrs Jessica Peppin to St Michaels as our Senior School Support Officer. Jess is very excited to join our school community and I know you will all make her very welcome. A big thank you to our wonderful office staff, Mrs Townsend, Mrs Davies, Mrs Faavae and Ms Storry for managing our school office so well during this time of transition. We are very blessed to have such special people looking after us here at St Michaels. 

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

As mentioned earlier this week in a news feed, Eridge Park Athletics Field is currently closed by Wingecarribee Shire Council due to the wet ground conditions. It looks very unlikely that this situation will change in the short term therefore a decision has been made to postpone this Friday's Athletics Carnival. The new date and possible venue will be communicated as soon as it is known. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN SPORT

Congratulations to the following students who have participated in community and Diocesan events over the past two weeks. 

Gabrielle (Year 4)

Gabrielle participated in the Bowral Creek to Peak run and came Ist place in the Under 12’s female division with a time of 37:09. That is a fantastic time and a great achievement for Gabi. 

Ruby (Year 6)

Ruby won an Australian silver medal for national All Round Champion for Level 10 u/13’s at the Australian Gymnastics Championships. We are so proud of her, such a great reward for all her hard training and enthusiasm towards gymnastics.

Caleb (Year 5)

This week Caleb has been representing St Michaels and MacKillop in the NSWPSSA Hockey Championship at Tamworth. Games were played throughout this week. We will let you know how the team went in a further newsletter. From the games we have been able to watch live streamed, the team has been playing really well.  Congratulations Caleb on this great representative honour.  

KINDERGARTEN 2023 ENROLMENT INTERVIEWS

Our Kindergarten Enrolment meetings have commenced for all of the families who have applied to St Michael’s for Kindergarten 2023. Our Year 6 leaders have been wonderful representatives of our school, showing our families around our beautiful school.  We do have a lot of applications again this year, which is wonderful to see.

A reminder that we currently have a couple of places available in some of our classes, so if you know of anyone moving to the area, they are welcome to submit an application. Applications are available online through our school website, or they can contact our school office. 

COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC PARENTS NSW/ACT

Presented in partnership with the eSafety Commissioner

This Term 2 webinar offers tips about how to support young people to socialise, learn and have fun online safely. It explains how to access information, use technology safely and navigate new online platforms.

The presentation is designed for parents and carers of young people aged 5 to 12 years old.

It will cover:

• how to talk to young people about online risks on different social media platforms and games  
• how to help young people develop skills to protect themselves when they are online  
• where to go for help if things go wrong and how to access mental health support and information through eSafety.  

Wednesday 8 June 7.30pm - 8.30pm

Register here 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/715182158220149006

BOOK CLUB DUE WEDNESDAY 8TH JUNE

Just a reminder that Book Club orders are due back by the 8th June. The students received their Book Club brochures on Monday.

ASSEMBLY WEEK 6- 3rd June

Parents and carers are invited to join us each Friday from Week 6, 3 June at 2:25pm, for our Friday Afternoon Assembly. We will still be doing an online assembly each week, for the parents who are unable to attend the Friday afternoon assembly. 

Thank you for your continued support of our school community. I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead. 

Take care and God bless,

Mrs Katrina West
Principal

• 27^th – 3 June. Reconciliation Week
• 5^th June World Environment Day
• 16^th June Corpus Christi Feast Day Mass- SMM and STA celebrating Mass at St Thomas Aquinas Church Bowral.
• 17^th June Staff Spirituality Day
• 28^th June NAIDOC Week Liturgy
• 3^rd – 10 July NAIDOC Week (first of the school holidays

Confirmation

On the 21^st May, students from Year 6 at St Michael's joined together with other members of the Corpus Christi Parish to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  During the ceremony Bishop Brian called on the Holy Spirit to develop in each person, many gifts and fruits that will help them follow the example set for us by Jesus so many years ago. 

We are very appreciative of the children from the Liturgy Group who attended the ceremony to lead the singing.

Save the Date

On Thursday 9^th June, Year 3 will be raising money for the Maubara Orphanage with a Shiny Shoes and Happy Hair Day. This is a great way to remind students about keeping our shoes and hair clean and tidy while also helping those in need. Students will donate a gold coin for shoe cleaning, hair ribbons and gel for boys.

 

National Reconciliation Week 2022 theme is Be Brave. Make Change. and is a challenge to all Australians to make reconciliation. It is a challenge to individuals, families, communities, organisations and government—to Be Brave and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation so we can Make Change for the benefit of all Australians.

On Thursday 26^th May, St Michael’s school community recognised these events with a whole school liturgy led by Year 6.

World Environment Day

Each year on the 5^{th of} June we celebrate World Environment Day. This day is a United Nations Environment-led global event and is celebrated by thousands of communities worldwide. Since it began in 1972, it has grown to become a global platform for people from across the planet to voice their concerns for our planet and encourage others to help.

Most of all, World Environment Day is a day for everyone around the world to take ownership of their environment and to actively engage in the protection of our earth.

St Michael’s will gather on Monday the 6^th of June to participate in a liturgy. This is a great follow on from all the great discussion that occurred during Laudato Si Week.

Feast Day of Corpus Christi

On the 16^th of June, as a combined Parish, the two Parish schools will join to celebrate as one the Feast Day of Corpus Christi. It will be a wonderful celebration, and all are welcome to attend.

Corpus Christi Parish Mittagong-Bowral News

Listed below are some important school dates.  The school calendar is updated regularly and can be accessed via the school website and Compass parent portal.

Disco
Our school disco last Friday night was a massive success .

Thanks not only to our incredible team of volunteers, but each and every member of our school community who bought a ticket and came along making it such a fun event for the kids

Everyone did a fabulous job, made sure the kids were safe, did it all with a smile & even a little shimmy or two