Dear Parents and Carers,

We started the Season of Advent with a beautiful prayer in the Church last Friday. Thank you to Erika Tokich and the Year 6 Leaders for sharing this with us. Father Mick reminded us that while we wait for baby Jesus to be with us at Christmas, we need to let his light shine through us to the world. We do this by being people of peace and by following our school vision- to live in harmony with others. By our acts of kindness, we let the love of Jesus shine.

Important Events

This Thursday 5 December 9:30am is our Giving Mass. At the end of Mass, we will hand over our hampers to St Vinnies representatives. We will also be presenting our Rainbow Awards and acknowledging staff members leaving us and thanking our Community Council Team.

Other special events in the coming weeks include:

Year 6 Graduation

All welcome to the liturgy in the Church at 5pm Monday 9 December. Celebrations afterwards will involve family members at Gungahlin Lakes at 6.15pm.

Candle Ceremony

Thursday 12 December all welcome in the Church, Year 6 Leaders pass on the light of leadership to Year 5 in our Candle Ceremony -2pm-2:30pm

St Michael’s Christmas

A huge thank you to everyone involved in helping with our family event this Friday 6 December from 5- 8pm. We are very grateful to our community for their donations to raffles, tombola, book stall, chocolate toss and cake stall. We really appreciate our community members who can do some home-baking for us! Thank you to our Community Council who are running the BBQ and don’t forget to bring along some coins and small cash notes as the eftpos facility will only be available at the BBQ. Special thanks to Maria Papasidero for her untiring organisation and follow up- what a champion!

Please ensure all students are supervised by their family.

Please see the list of carols and times below from 5:30pm-6:10pm in the Hall.

 St Michael’s Staffing 2025

 We would like to farewell and thank Shannon Blakey for her commitment to St Michael’s school community over the past 11 years. We greatly appreciate Shannon’s generosity and dedication in taking on many roles during her time teaching. She has held the positions of classroom teacher across K-6 and taken on leadership of our Spelling Mastery program, Maths program and netball coordination on many occasions. She is a wonderful mentor to those around her and a passionate teacher who promotes strong relationships with both staff and students. We wish her all the best as she transfers to Rosary School Watson.

We would also like to thank and farewell Robyn O’Rourke for her dedication to our students and families and her coordination of learning support. Her knowledge of our students and beautiful calm, friendly approach has been a great asset to our school. We wish Robyn all the best as she pursues a teaching role at another CECG School.

A huge thanks to Connor Howland, who happily took on a fulltime teaching position with us late in the year. He has been flexible, adaptable, a quick learner and a passionate educator. Connor has been an asset to our school, and we are delighted to welcome him back into a contracted relief role next year.

In 2025 we are excited to welcome several new staff to our teaching team.

Emma Russell (St Monica’s)

Annabel McInnes (Mother Teresa)

Shannon Thewlis (Good Shepherd)

We are very pleased to announce our staffing for 2025:

Leadership Team

Principal: Judy Egan

Assistant Principal: Bridgette McCann

Religious Education Coordinator: Erika Tokich

Front Office

Office Manager: Lynda Logan

Publications/Admin: Maria Papasidero

Maintenance Officer: Kim Kennedy

Classroom Teachers

Kindergarten: Emily O’Rourke

Year 1: Erika Tokich and Cherie Kelly

Year 2: Emma Russell

Year 3/4: Annabel McInnes

Year 3/4: Shianne Sahariv

Year 5/6: Jess Hallahan

Year 5/6: Danielle Madsen and Erin Hardwicke

Contracted Relief

Victoria De Mattia

Connor Howland

Specialist Teachers

Arts Teacher: Jane McKeough

Teacher Librarian and Sports Lead: Erin Hardwicke

Indonesian Teacher: Jacqueline Ramesh

Classroom Support/Inclusion Team

Classroom Support Teacher & Intervention Support: Shannon Thewlis

Classroom Support Assistants:

Kylie Arena

Sonja Vocisano

Sharon Friend

Unnati Shah

Madeleine Widdeson

Maria Sanchez-Worsnop

Maggie Davenport

Michelle Stuckey

Heather Qail

We look forward to a wonderful celebration on Friday, don’t forget to wear your Christmas gear!

Many Blessings

Judy Egan

Principal