Dear Parents/Carers,

We have had a very calm start to Term 4. We will be striving to continue this as we move through the term. As a staff, we work extremely hard to ensure our school environment is one that is organised, inviting and calm. We believe this is the most optimal conditions to allow students to learn and fulfill their full potential. I thank you in advance for your continued support. It is really appreciated by all members of staff. 

Canteen

This year I have been monitoring the canteen operating on a Friday. I have also taken feedback on board from parents via your PRNs and our Annual Survey.

As you know this is outsourced. I have recently met with this company and requested a few changes.

Lunch 'red foods' will be removed over the next few weeks from the menu. There will no longer be ham and cheese croissants, hot dogs, puppy dogs or mini pies.

Chicken, beef and vegetarian burgers will move to a 'green food' as the patties will be hand made. We will be introducing some new green options such as tabuli rolls, rice paper rolls and chicken snitzel burgers. There will also be a trial of sushi (although this will be in a limited capacity at first to determine how popular it will be). These items still need to be confirmed.

As always there are wrap and sandwich options with ham, tuna and salads and we will also look at providing an egg option for these. Nachos will continue as a green food option as will the neopolitana pasta.

There will be some amber foods that remain such as nuggets, sausage rolls, meat pies and pizza rounders.

I have also asked the company to look at moving ordering to occur via Qkr! instead of Flexischools to assist streamlining what apps we use at school for payment options.

I've requested photos of the lunch food that is being served so we can promote this via newsletter and facebook where you can see what the options are and what they look like. Like with other shops, in order to maintain these healthier menu items, we need them to be purchased to show demand. Towards the second half of this term we will be trailling a few new things to have a new menu ready for the start of the 2019 school year. Things are happening behind the scenes at present, so watch this space!

World Teacher's Day

This Friday in Australia we celebrate World Teacher's Day. A special day to say thank you to every teacher for all they do in educating the young minds of today to make a difference in the future. As it is Boorowa Carnival on Friday, as a staff group, we will celebrate on Tuesday next week. I thank all the teachers at St Michael's for their committment and passion to teaching and for making a difference in the lives of our students. 

SoundsWrite

Over the course of the year we have identified the need for a focus on Literacy across the school but particularly in the infant classes. We have focused heavily on reading this year and have allocated significant resources and staff to support the classes where this need is present. This has included myself listening to individual students read and supporting their development in this area. We are seeing pleasing results!

We have also identified spelling as an area of improvement across the school. The need to have a consistent approach has been identified and for this reason, Damien Webb, Jess Lewis and Laura Frogley, have been trained in SoundsWrite. In 2019, Jo Krippner and myself, along with the remaining K-2 teachers will be trained.

Sounds-Write is a quality first phonics programme. Its purpose is to provide us with a comprehensive system with which to teach reading, spelling and writing.  A very highly structured, multi-sensory, incremental and code-oriented, instructional approach to teaching children to read and spell.  It teaches all key elements of conceptual understanding, factual knowledge, and the three essential skills of blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation necessary for learning to read and spell and it does so on a daily basis until all children achieve the automaticity that underlies the fluency of every successful reader.

The Sounds-Write program teaches students to understand the way the alphabet code works. Very often, in the early stages of learning to read and spell, because of the complexity of the code, students will not be able to spell some sounds by using the correct spellings. However, the intent is that students taught using Sounds-Write will be able to write almost anything they want to write by using plausible (phonetic) spellings for sounds. In this way, students, teachers and parents can read anything the pupil has written.

Throughout, Sounds-Write promotes the use of multi-sensory engagement with the materials pupils are working with in a manner that is commensurate with the level and abilities of the children being taught. Visual, auditory and kinaesthetic activities are at all times combined simultaneously to promote learning.

In addition to being multi-sensory, the Sounds-Write program has pace and utilises an array of stimulating lessons and resources. It also enables practitioners to differentiate the challenges placed before the learner in order to meet their individual needs.

We are committing to ensuring we are challenging ourselves, evaluating current practice and analysing student need to ensure we are providing high quality teaching that is effective and purposeful to the development of every child. I will keep you posted as we unroll the Sounds-Write program over the coming year. 

Rainbow Family WALKATHON

Please keep the sponsorship money coming in. For families to be in the raffle draws, all money must be handed into Lisa at the Front Office by Friday 2 November. 

Before School Care

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey regarding Before School Care. We were overwhelmed with responses and has confirmed there is a need in our community for some assistance in this area. So, starting on Monday 5 November (Week 4) until the end of the year, as a trial only, we will be opening up the library between 8-8.20am for students to be dropped off to school early. This will be quiet reading and/or drawing time. Please discuss this with your child/ren before allowing them to attend. A small donation of a gold coin each day to the Front Office for accessing this additional service would be appreciated. As mentioned previously, to not place extra pressure on staff, I will be taking the lead with this supervision to support our families. I will unlock the sliding door at 8am. Once the duty teacher comes out at 8.20am, students in the library will then go out to the playground as normal. In my absence, another teacher will take over. Toward the end of the term, I will be asking for more specific feedback regarding before school care to take to YMCA to discuss options there moving forward. I hope that this will assist families in the morning with drop offs, work and other committments. 

School Fee Statements

The Term 4 school fees have been sent home, please ensure that all fees are settled by the end of the year.  If paying by direct debit, please ensure that your payments cover the remainder of fees for 2018.  If you are experiencing difficulty or would like to discuss any aspect of your fee statement, please contact myself or Lisa Monro in the Front Office.

Enjoy the week ahead.

Kind regards,

Pat Ellis

Principal