Dear Parents and Carers,

We are looking forward to catching up with our grandparents this Friday 4^th November at 12pm in the Church. We are so happy to be finally welcoming back our community!

Don’t forget our 40^th birthday celebrations- Saturday 19 November 11am-2pm. Here’s hoping by later in the month the weather will begin to pick up. Thank you to all our families involved and to the staff and Community Council for their generous support, it will be a great day to welcome back special friends to our school community and celebrate 40 years of authentic education for all. Please see the update from our recent Community Council meeting included in this newsletter.

Assessment and Reporting

CE has advised that there will not be an expectation for teachers to write comments on reports at the end of this semester. At St Michael’s we strongly value the opportunity to meet with parents and chat about how the student is progressing. A conversation with parents certainly provides more depth and opportunity to discuss strengths and challenges. Sometimes, with older students it is also appropriate for the student to attend the meeting to help set goals and expectations. We believe it is a parent choice at the end of the year to decide if a meeting with the teacher is warranted. For this reason, we will not set up links and a formal booking process.

Reports will be sent home digitally via the COMPASS App parent portal on Monday 28 November. Parents are welcome to email/call teachers to arrange a meeting time that is mutually agreeable. We have sent the reports home earlier this year to allow the Year 5/6 families time to meet before Camp in week 9 (December 5-7) Understandably, teachers will be wanting to be with their own families after 2 nights away at CAMP.

Year 6 Graduation

This is a special time for Year 6 students and their families and is always celebrated with a liturgy and special event. Year 6 Graduation will be celebrated with a Liturgy at 5:30pm at St Michael’s Church- all family and extended family members are very welcome. Afterwards, it is tradition that parents and the graduate attend a special event- (COVID-19 has impacted somewhat in the last 2 years). This year we have made early bookings based on Catholic Education Advice to outsource the event. Year 6 families will be receiving further information shortly. Thank you to our Community Council who support our Year 6 families by paying for the meals of graduates. This is greatly appreciated.       

Kinder Orientation 1

A warm welcome to all our new and returning families for Kinder 2023 who will join us on Thursday 3 November from 9:15am-10:30pm, this will be the first of 2 Orientation sessions.

School Fees

As mentioned in the newsletter last week, a note will come home today via COMPASS with updates for 2023 School Fees and the Fee schedule approved by the School Community Council. Thank you to all our families who support us by paying school fees. In last week’s newsletter I mentioned how some fees are set by CE and how other fees ensure the school covers costs for stationery, furniture, maintenance, IT, assets, etc. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.   

We value the support of everyone in our wonderful St Michael’s Community.

Many Blessings,

Judy Egan

Community Council Corner

Community council met virtually on the 25^th of October for the penultimate meeting for 2022, a quorum of six were present with several apologies.  Several topics were covered, most notably the Council finance, where a request was made to Community Council to assist with funding for some maintenance work on the Greenhouse and also assistance with Year 6 graduation celebration, both were approved by the Council.  Council also discussed the expected intake of student for 2023 and the implications for the school at a broader level.  Council was briefed on the renewed school fees for 2023 and the associated cost challenges the school is facing, which is reflected in the revised fees.  The Council was excited to discuss the upcoming 40^th Anniversary celebration and were incredibly grateful for the generous support of staff, families and local community to the event.  The Community Council will meet for the final time in 2022, in November.