Dear Parents/Carers,

Its been great meeting so many of you over the past five weeks and getting to know your wonderful children. Last week I attended the Principal’s Leadership Day and Retreat. It was a wonderful opportunity to strengthen and build connections with other leaders across the Archdiocese. Currently we are busy organising two events where we will host schools as part of the Catalyst Initiative.  

16, 18, March: Dr Lorraine Hamond will work with K-2 teachers from St Michael’s and Holy Spirit.

19 April: Pupil free day- first day of Term 2. St Michael’s will be the venue for an exciting day of learning with Lorraine Hammond for teachers from St Thomas the Apostle Kambah, Holy Spirit Nicholls and St Bernard’s Bateman’s Bay.

I am passionate about leading a school where teachers are focused on improving their skills in order to benefit your children.

Swimming Carnival, Wednesday 10 March

A special thanks to all parents/carers who are volunteering to help at the Swimming Carnival today, we could not do it without you! We are looking forward to a great day together and thank you also to Erin Hardwicke for her thorough organisation and continuing efforts to organise the representative team for the Belconnen Carnival.

Funeral for Monsignor Father Kevin Barry-Cotter (14/6/1934- 28/2/2021)

Many of you may know Father Kevin, he was an inspirational leader and a truly gentle human being. His funeral was held today at St Christopher’s Cathedral and I attended on behalf of our community. I know you will join me in offering our prayers and sympathy for his family.

“With his very deep faith and vibrant spiritual life, his gracious disposition and humour, his abiding sense of welcome and hospitality, his pastoral sensitivity and wisdom, Father Kevin was a shining light among us.”  (https://www.catholicvoice.org.au/vale-fr-kevin/)

Many Blessings,

Judy Egan

Welcome to Week 6

We have had another action-packed week! I was fortunate enough to get involved with the Water Fun Day at school today, and it was a hoot. Although it wasn’t the warmest day ever, we still managed to have a heap of fun, get very wet and create some wonderful memories.

I’d like to continue our messages and information about our ‘Keys for Learning’ and this week I am highlighting the key of perseverance.

“Setting high expectations using a growth mindset by managing mistakes, welcoming feedback, and taking responsibility for their learning.”

Perseverance is a critical part of students' education and the way that we deal with mistakes and learn from our shortcomings. It is critical in creating successful learners. We have often used the language of “The Learning Pit’ which had been taken from English educator James Nottingham. We encourage students to understand that in the struggle moments of our learning we often make the best breakthroughs and have those ‘ah ha’ moments that lead to major gains in our thinking and understanding.

As teachers we are always working on finding the balance between providing critical support and allowing students to struggle in certain moments, to develop independence and resilience.

Once again, thank you to all the families for their wonderful support of the school and helping us form deep connections between home and school to support the lovely students we have here at St Michael’s.

Many thanks

Damien 

Inclusive Practices 

At St Michael’s, we believe that every student has their own aspirations, learning needs, strengths and interests. It is the responsibility of the Teachers to respond to every student and their unique characteristics, with high expectations for achievement. Informed by a Personalised Plan (PP), providing personalised learning and targeted support is one way we achieve this.

For students with a disability and additional learning needs, reasonable adjustments (detailed in the PP) should be made where required and evidenced as per the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. The teachers provide areas of adjustment for: Curriculum Instruction and Assessment, Communication and Social Skills, and strategies implemented.

If your child is given a Personalised Plan, Teacher’s will either call or meet with you during Week 6 &7 to discuss your child’s PP and set learning goals. These will be updated regularly during the year.

If you have any questions about these plans, please feel free to contact me to discuss.

Bridgette McCann
Classroom Support Teacher

Sacramental Program 2021 – First Eucharist for students in Y4 from 2021

The Sacrament of First Eucharist will be celebrated in term 2 of 2021 on the following dates:

• Tuesday 8 June at 6pm in St Michael’s Church
• Wednesday 9 June at 6pm in St Monica’s Church
• Thursday 10 June at 5.30pm and 7pm in St Monica’s Church

Please keep the candidates for First Eucharist in your prayers.

Information Night for First Eucharist – Term 2
The parent information night will be held on Thursday 29 April 2021 at 6pm via zoom (zoom address to be provided closer to the night).

Commitment Masses
Students and parents must attend one of the commitment Masses listed below to make their commitment for the sacrament. 
Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 May
Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 May
Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 May 2021

There will be no additional commitment masses beyond these dates.

The Sacrament is available in 2021 for the School of Religion.

For further information please contact the Sacramental Program coordinator at sc.belconnennorth@cg.org.au

Altar Servers

Congratulations to all our First Communicants who received Jesus recently in our lovely parish Masses. These children are now invited to become more active members of our parish community by serving on the Altar. We already have quite a few children who fulfil this role beautifully each week. Training sessions will be held within the coming weeks as follows:

St Monica’s Church; contact Gavan Smith on 0416 258 846

St Michael’s Church; on Tues 16th March at 3:40 pm or ph Sr Kate on 0421 943 867.

Older Servers who are already trained are welcome to come along and assist !

Many thanks and God’s Blessings to All.

Sr Kate

Scholastic Book Fair  9th -12th March

The Scholastic Book Fair is going well and is only open for a couple more days. We would love to see you there!

Dates: Week 6 Tuesday – Friday (9^th March – 12^th March)
Times: 8:30-8:50am and 3-3:45pm.
Location: Library

Please be advised that during the Book Fair we will be adhering to COVID restrictions based on the capacity of our library. 

Erin Hardwicke

Erin.hardwicke@cg.catholic.edu.au

School Sport Australia Announcement

'It is with regret that School Sport Australia is cancelling all 2021 School Sport Australia National Championships. The Board considered that running Championships in 2021 was not viable because of the ongoing volatility caused by COVID-19 outbreaks, hot spot declarations and border closures. School Sport Australia’s priority is on the wellbeing of students, teachers and other officials.'

For the full announcement please head to the SSA website http://www.schoolsportaustralia.edu.au/

SSACT is investigating other options for School Sport state teams in the hope of students competing and representing the ACT in 2021, we will keep you posted.

Swimming Carnival

Lots of fun and games for our Year 3-6 students at todays swimming carnival.  Well done to all those students that will compete at the Belconnen Region Carnival next week.

Water Fun Day

Our younger students enjoyed a great day of water fun activites, lots of fun was had by all.

Congratulations

Well done to Josh Lobo (Year 6 2020), Josh attended the Athletics ACT State Championships last weekend and won 2 golds & 1 bronze for Boys U14.

100m - 12.09 secs - gold

200m - 23.95 secs - gold 

Long Jump - 5.53 - bronze

He will represent the ACT, in the above 3 events, plus Relay event in Sydney, at the National Championships, between  12 to 14th April 2021. 

Special wishes to those children who celebrate their birthday this week:

Milos 1/2B, Sebastian 1/2H, Felix KF, Chloe 1/2H, Emma 5/6K, Arietta 3/4A, Zanna 1/2H, Delilah 5/6F and Lucas 5/6K

We hope you have a great day!!

Congratulations to the following students who achieved a Harmony Award in Week 6.  Awards will be presented at Friday morning's assembly (weather permitting).

Well done!!   

DANCECORE -  Dance classes are on Friday's at recess in the school hall, forms are available at the Front Office. 
Contact Cassie 0417 442 750 

CHESS -  Chess classes are held in C Block on Tuesday’s at recess, forms are available at the Front Office.  Contact Sydney Academy of Chess 9745 1170

GUITAR - Guitar lessons with Sam on Thursday's, please contact
Sam on 0408 196 855

PIANO - Piano Lessons with Mary-Liz on Mondays & Tuesdays, please contact Mary-Liz on 0413 425 753

SCHOOL BANKING  -  Banking has been suspended for Term 1.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB -  Scholastic Book club is back and runs twice a Term.  If you have any queries, contact Mrs Monro or Mrs Hardwicke.

Please see the School Sport ACT webpage https://schoolsportact.org.au/ or Facebook page for the most up to date information.

SCHOOL SPORT ACT TRIALS – Please keep an eye on the School Sport ACT website https://schoolsportact.org.au/ for upcoming ACT trials. The process for registering can be found below. If you need any assistance registering your child please feel free to ask for assistance.

How to register your child with School Sport ACT

School Sport ACT now collects all registration information online – this is to prevent the movement to and fro of a paper note and have all information readily available to officials prior to the trial. As this process incurs a fee for data storage, system maintenance and admin, a small $5 fee payment via credit card will be required.

1. Go to the School Sport ACT website – https://schoolsportact.org.au/
2. Click Register (top right corner of homepage) for an Account – enter parent details and password
3. A confirmation email will be sent to your chosen email that will contain a link that you must click on to verify the email account.
4. Click Log In (top right hand corner of home page) enter password then click on top tab My Profile
5. You will see a ‘dashboard’ of your information, click green box to Add Student – enter student and medical details and save.
6. Go to the Sports Tab – choose your specific sport, click on Trial Information box then click on the Register to Trial link.
7. Select your child’s name from the dropdown box and then enter the optional fields for Playing History, Preferred Position (if applicable) and Representative Experience. If you are already in the system, ensure your child’s school is up to date in your profile – have they moved onto High School?

Please contact me via email if you have any questions, feedback or are able to offer your assistance at any of our sporting events throughout the year.

Looking forward to another big year of sporting participation,

Erin Hardwicke
erin.hardwicke@cg.catholic.edu.au