Sacrament of Reconciliation

On Tuesday we had a beautiful celebration for students receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. A very prayerful experience for our students, their families and staff. An important moment for students who come to a firsthand experience of the power of God's forgiveness. We thank their teachers for preparing them and the Parish community, including Fr Loi and the visiting priests, who have supported them through this important step on their continuing faith journey. 

MLA Visit

Today we were visited by Mr Deepak-Raj Gupta MLA, one our local Yerrabi members. Some Year 6 leaders accompanied myself giving Mr Gupta a tour of our school. Discussions centred on Government support for Catholic Education and Mr Gupta was impressed by our focus on Sustainability. Like always, we welcome all of our Parliamentary members to come and visit our school. Education will be a key issue and discussion in the upcoming 2020 ACT Election, so ensuring Catholic Education is included within those discussions is important for our community. 

Arts Showcase Assembly

This week we host our Semester Arts Showcase Assembly. This is an opportunity for students, who have been receiving tutoring in the Arts at school, to showcase their learnings. This is an important assembly for those students to have an audience to present. We thank our external tutors who have worked with these students. Congratulations in advance to all the students who will be performing on Friday at 12.40pm. It takes a lot of dedication and courage. Well done!

Swimming Carnival Venue

I have previously flagged the dates for our three big carnivals next year. Whilst I can appreciate that members of our community may have a different suggestion for the dates when these carnivals are held, particularly the Athletics Carnival which falls at the start of winter, there are many factors that are taken into account when locking in carnival dates. The availability of the venue, when the next level carnival will be held, availability of staff, other events occurring at school including NAPLAN, preparation time leading into the carnival for staff, predicted weather, impact on learning programs, availability of back up dates and cost, just to name a few. The dates previously mentioned have considered these factors. 

In 2020, our Swimming Carnival will be moved from Queanbeyan to Gungahlin. There were a couple of big deciding factors with those being cost, travel time and having an indoor venue. We hope this will also be easier for parents to duck to during the day from work. This decision was unanimously voted for by Community Council. In 2018, our survey was put out to the parent community regarding feedback from swimming carnival and it was fairly close regarding the preferred venue. This year's carnival was already booked, however we had some more choice regarding venue for 2020.  

BYOipad Information Session

As we move towards the end of the year, we will be hosting a BYOipad info session. This is particularly for our current Year 4 parents as their children move into Year 5/6 in 2020 where they are permitted to BYOipad to school as an additional learning tool. Mrs Jessica Figura leads our Technologies at school and will be leading this info session. We will be holding one on Thursday 28 November at 3.15pm and a repeat session at 5pm. These will be the exact same sessions, so you can attend whichever one suits or perhaps one parent can attend the earlier one and another later if you wish. 

For those parents who have already had children go through Year 5/6 in recent years, you will be very familiar with what will presented, so your attendance is not required unless you would like the opportunity again and if so, you are most welcome. 

Term 4 Rainbow Award Assembly

On Friday 22 November we will present our final Rainbow Awards for 2019. These awards are presented to two students from each class each term, who have demonstrated our school values, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, perseverance, courage and respect. Students who will be receiving a Rainbow Award will have a letter sent home this week informing their parents. 

2019 Rainbow Award Celebration Day

As part of our focus on Rainbow Awards in 2019, all students who have received an award (64 students over the course of the year), have a celebration afternoon with Mr Webb and myself on Tuesday 26 November. These students are permitted to wear uniform free and will have pizza lunch supplied. They will also have a movie and games afternoon with some special treats of ice blocks and chips. A little way we can celebrate them and the hard work they have demonstrated this year to improve and to make a difference at St Michael's.

We are moving ahead with our preparations for our Year 6 Graduation Liturgy and Dinner. A reminder that our Graduation Liturgy starts at 5.30pm in the Church. This a lovely tradition of farewelling our Year 6 students as a community in Prayer. Following the Liturgy, we will make our way down to the school for a celebration dinner. At the dinner, Graduation certificates will be presented along with the Year 6 photostory. 

Enjoy the week ahead. 

Regards,

Pat Ellis

Principal