Principal's Page - Pat Ellis
I hope that everyone had a peaceful and restful fortnight. Welcome back to Term 4! The last quarter of 2019. We have had a massive, successful year and we will continue to strive to do our best this term as we finish off 2019.
Staffing Annoucement 
I am pleased to announce that Nadia Farhadi has accepted a temporary full time class teacher role for 2020. Nadia completed her 4th Year Prac on 1/2M this year and will be working on various classes this term. We are very pleased to have Nadia join the team.
In 2020, both Damien Webb and Meaghan Younger will be in an 'off class' role. They will support various classes across the school for those teachers who are part-time or to release teachers for various roles/responsibilities they have within the school. Damien will oversee B Block (K-2) and Meaghan will oversee C Block (Years 3-6). I will announce further roles that teachers will lead in 2020 in coming weeks.
Staffing 2020
As mentioned previously, all teachers who have been with us in 2019 would like to remain in 2020. This is great news for us as we can continue to push forward. It is quite a unique situation to have all staff keen to stay at a school, very reflective of the amazing school we have!
With that, I am pleased to annouce the classes for 2020. Of course, things can change and if that occurs we will work that out at the time and I will inform you of any changes.
KL - Jessica Lewis
1/2M - Bridgette McCann (Thursday - Damien Webb)
1/2B - Shannon Blakey
3/4FR - Laura Frogley
3/4A - Sarah Anderson (Friday - Meaghan Younger)
3/4F - Nadia Farhadi
5/6F - Jessica Figura (Tuesday - Meaghan Younger)
5/6K - Natasha Kapantais
Class Placement 2020 
At this time of year, we begin forming classes for 2020. As you can imagine, there is a lot to consider from academic, social, emotional and behavioural needs, as well as friendship pairings and separations.
As a parent, I am aware that there may be certain personalities that clash from time to time and for this reason, if any parent wishes to request a certain placement regarding their child, I would ask that you email me directly at patrick.ellis@cg.catholic.edu.au Only requests emailed directly to myself by Friday 25 October will be considered. There are no guarantees because of the complexity of class placements, however, I will do my best. The final decision regarding class placements sits with me.
If you are intending of leaving St Michael's at the end of the year (apart from Year 6 students), could you please email the Front Office with that information. This will assist with our planning and class placement for 2020.
Notification of Classes for 2020
In the past, it has been practice here to place class lists on the library door on the last day of school. I have concerns about this process. Focus at all times should be on each individual child and not other children in the class. It is also important that students get the opportunity to share the news of their new class with their parents. Parents wanting to know who their child/ren's class teacher is and who is in their class, can directly ask their child.
Step Up will occur at 1pm on the last day of school (Thursday 19 December) where all students will be able to visit their new class, meet their new teacher for 2020 and class mates.
Parents, whose children who will be away on the last day and would like to know before the break who their child's teacher is, will need to email the Front Office requesting this information. An email will be sent out at 3pm to those parents informing of the class teacher.
Protective Behaviours
Over the next few weeks all classes with be focusing on Protective Behaviours during Health lessons. Please see attached letter from Damien Webb.
ACT Children's Week
I will be attending the ceremony as being part of the ACT Children’s Week Committee.
Cinderella - Canberra Theatre 
Congratulations to Sienna (5/6B) who was lucky to be selected to promote Queensland Ballet’s production of Cinderella in Canberra. She will be performing as an extra in her first role with a professional ballet company. Cinderella will be at the Canberra Theatre Centre from 5-10 November. See the article in The Canberra Times.
World Teacher's Day 
World Teacher’s Day is on October 5th each year. As that falls in the school holidays, in Australia we celebrate it on the last Friday in October. This year, that is Friday 25 October. Please take the time this week to say thank you to the amazing teachers we have at St Michael’s. We appreciate all that they do!
BYOipad Information Night - Save the Date
A BYOipad information will be held for parents of children in Year 4 and 5 on Thursday 28 November. Two sessions (both the same), one at 3.30pm and one at 5.30pm. This is an opportunity for parents to get any information they need in preparation for your child/ren to bring their own ipad to school in Year 5/6 in 2020. More information to come in coming weeks.
JumpFest
A reminder that Jump Fest is coming up on Sunday 27 October (10-2pm). This is an event to raise much need funds for Jarrah Education Centre in Kenya, our Global Partner School. Our target is $2500 so the school can purchase a water tank to have regular access to clean drinking water.
We are looking for volunteers to help us on the day. If you could spare some time, please add your name to the google doc. We are also looking to hold a Bake Store, so if you could please consider baking something to donate, that would be appreciated.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EivbL4sjpZ_nNeDJ8fWJJqhr9fyCBX6cw9b4D34T4Ro/edit
TQI Board
I have recently been appointed to the ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) Board. TQI is governed by this Board which is comprised of key ACT education stakeholders, the teaching profession and the ACT community. I look forward to working closely with TQI over the next 3 years.
Grandparent's Day
Tomorrow we celebrate our Grandparents. An 
opportunity for us to thank all the Grandparents and Grandfriends of our St Michael's Community whether they can attend or are elsewhere. We especially remember those Grandparents/friends who have passed. It is also a time for us to reflect upon St Anne and St Joachim, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and grandparents of Jesus. Whilst the Feast Day of St Ann and Joachim is in July, decision was made to move our Grandparent's Day to October when the weather is a bit warmer. A special day for us tomorrow.
Enjoy the week ahead.
Regards,
Pat Ellis
Principal