Dear Parents/Carers,

Grant us the courage to hope, hope for Your presence, hope for Your peace, hope for Your promise.

Another week has flown by and we are now in December. As we enter into this time of year, I would ask that you keep those in need in your prayers. We have families in our school community who are doing it tough at the moment, for many different reasons, so the power of collective prayer to help them and support them, can make all the difference. 

THANK YOU to everyone for your donations last Friday on our Uniform Free Day. We have some fantastic donations which will create some amazing silent auction hampers for our Autumn Fete next year. 

Today, Year 3/4 students and their teachers enjoyed a day at Questacon learning all things STEM. It is such an engaging space and I am sure we will hear all the great things that they learnt, explored and discovered. 

Tomorrow we will be having our End of Semester Arts Showcase Assembly at 2pm. I am always so inspired listening to our students play their musical instruments and showcasing their dance and movement skills. The hard work, passion and dedication that goes into the Creative and Performing Arts by these students is fantastic.  

You will see our Giving Tree is up in the Front Office foyer. Please give generously at this time of year. If we could have these gifts by Tuesday 11 December as St Vincent de Paul will be here to collect these items. 

End of Year Happenings

As we draw to the end of the year (final fortnight), a few things to flag with you all. 

1. Semester 2 reports will go home on Monday next week. Remember, it is important to not just focus on the grade your child received. It is about the progress your child has made over the course of the second semester (and the year). It is important to focus on the positive aspects of your child's report. Talk to them about what it says, praise and affirm the effort they have put in and the learning that has occurred. Of course, everyone (including ourselves) can improve in various areas. Discuss these areas constructively with your child at their level. The way parents react to a child's report can have a lasting impact on them. Should you wish to discuss your child's report and the progress your child has made, you may contact class teachers via email or calling the Front Office and leaving a message. Week 10 would be the appropriate time to sit down with your child's class teacher.

2. Tuesday 11 December we will hold our Giving Mass at 9.30am. All most welcome.

3. Our Christmas Carol Spectacular Night is on Tuesday 11 December at 6pm. Hope to see you there. All students will perform two items with their class. Please pray for good weather!

4. Friday 14 December we will hold our final assembly of the year, starting at 2pm. This year we are introducing three Year 6 awards. These are Community Service Award, Academic Excellence Award and the Pastoral Care & Christian Values Award. The students who receive these awards have been nominated by staff across the school. The awards will be presented by special guests. Year 6 will present their final item of primary school. We will also farewell staff who are leaving. 

5. Monday 17 December - White Band Celebration (Movie and Snacks)

6 Tuesday 18 December at 5.30pm - Year 6 Graduation Mass and Celebration Dinner

7. Wednesday 19 December - Our traditional Year 6 student and staff breakfast (8am) followed by Year 6 Big Day Out at Big Splash

8. Friday 21 December - Step Up will occur. This is when students will find out their new class and have an opportunity to spend some time together with their new peers and new teacher. 

9. Friday 21 December at 2.15pm - Light Ceremony where we farewell our Year 6 students and welcome our new student leaders for 2019. 

10. Friday 21 December - Last day of 2018. School returns on Monday 4 February.

Staffing 2019 

I am please to announce staffing for 2019:

St Michael's Primary School has been selected to be involved in Active Streets in 2019 as it expands to support more schools.

The Active Streets for Schools program is expanding to include an additional 52 schools over the next four years. 

Suzanne Orr MLA, representing the Minister for Transport Meegan Fitzharris and Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development Yvette Berry, announced that our school is one of the schools that will benefit from the program.

Active Streets is an infrastructure and education program for schools. The program improves infrastructure around schools to support walking or riding to school. Improvements include new or upgraded footpaths, better crossing facilities and traffic calming measures.

To support the infrastructure, educational resources are provided to students, including a map highlighting safe routes to school.

Transport Canberra and City Services will work closely with the school community from the beginning of 2019 to deliver the program and identify potential infrastructure improvements you would like around the school.

More information is available on the Transport Canberra website.

Congratulations to the following students who participated in the Maths Olympiad Competition throughout the year and will receive an achievment certificate:

Maria, Daniela, Gemma, Noah, William, Alexander, Vincent, Amelie & Sarah Ba (5/6B)

Patrick, Joel, Sofia, Ivan & Bradley (5/6H)

Laura, Harper, Hamish & Alex (5/6R)

Well done to Patrick, Maria & Gemma who will also receive a special award.

Congratulations to the following children who achieved a Harmony Award in Week 8 and will receive their award at our next assembly on 7 December.

Whole School Prayer Time

Thank you to Miss Lewis and Kindergarten for your beautiful Whole School Prayer Time last Friday.

Advent Liturgies

We look forward to 3/4W's Advent Prayer Celebration this Friday, directly after morning assembly. All families are invited to stay with us for this special prayer service as we prepare for the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

St Vincent de Paul Christmas Hampers

Perhaps your family preparation this Advent could include donating some special Christmas food/drink or a present for our Giving Tree? All gifts of non-perishable food or presents (unwrapped please) can be sent in to the Front Office until our Giving Mass on Tuesday 11^th December. Thank you in advance for your generous support of our local St Vincent de Paul chapter.

Mini Vinnies Christmas Raffle

Thank you to everyone that has purchased raffle tickets for our Christmas hamper, there has been a change of date for the drawing of the raffle and it will now be drawn at our Christmas Spectacular next Tuesday evening, you can still purchase tickets on the night.

Just a reminder we will have our Christmas Carol Spectacular night on Tuesday next week (11 December) at 6pm. Students (and everyone) are asked to wear Christmas colours. We would love to see lots of red/green/white and golds. 

Remember to bring along a chair or blanket/picnic rug to sit on. In the event of rain, we will squash into the hall and go ahead. 

All classes will perform two songs each. The BBQ will be going with burgers and sausages on offer. Some cold drinks and cakes will be for sale. Feel free to bring your own snacks, and alcohol (in moderation) to celebrate the night. 

Hope to see you all there!

A reminder that all library books are due back now for stocktaking, we appreciate your assistance with this.  If you have misplaced a book, could you please email Erin Hardwicke at erin.hardwicke@cg.catholic.edu.au to assist with our stocktake.

Thank you!

Special wishes to those children who celebrate their birthday 

this week:  

Katija 1/2F, Caitlin 3/4W, Landon 1/2F, Tayla 5/6B,
Ryan 1/2F and Jemima 5/6H

We hope you have a great day!!

All lost property has been placed on a table near the sliding doors and is filling up very quickly with unnamed clothing and lunchboxes/drink bottles.

Please ensure that your children's belongings are clearly labelled.  If you are missing an item, please remember to check the table, any unclaimed items at the end of term will be disposed of.

Friday 14th December (Week 9)

9-11.30        YMCA
12.30-1.30   Jane

Friday 14th December (Week 10)

9-11.30       YMCA
12.30-1.30  Jane

Thank you for your assistance, all help is greatly appreciated.

PLEASE NOTE:  Due to the hot dogs/puppy dogs falling under the RED food category, it has been decided to remove them from the canteen menu.  The canteen will no longer be selling these food items, other items will be added to the menu in the new year to replace them.

Playgroup is held on Wednesdays in Weeks 2 to 9 from 9am till 10.30am in the School hall.

It is for children ages 0-5 and their parents/carers.  Please contact Kylie Arena or Lisa Monro on 62414022 for any enquires.

AUDITIONS & INDIGENOUS SCHOLARSHIPS

Woden Valley Youth Choir is an exciting and dynamic choir for young people aged 8 to 21.  We are proud to offer so many positive benefits to our members: the value of learning to sing with confidence, the value of positive self-esteem, and the value of developing performance skills, which will hold them in good stead for the rest of their lives. WVYC is a not-for-profit community choir with a strong emphasis on Kodaly Music Education. We don’t just sing – we become musicians.

Woden Valley Youth Choir has: 

• a lower primary choir
• an upper primary choir
• a secondary/tertiary aged choir for boys and girls with treble voices
• a secondary/tertiary aged choir for boys with changing or changed voices
• an upper primary a cappella vocal ensemble
• a secondary/tertiary a cappella vocal ensemble

Rehearsals are held on Tuesday evenings at Charles Weston School in Coombs which is easily accessible from all parts of Canberra via the Tuggeranong Parkway.

AUDITIONS

Auditions for Woden Valley Youth Choir for 2019 will be held on two dates

• Saturday 12 January 2019
• Saturday 23 February 2019  (following our Open Day on 12 February)

We would particularly like to audition young people in January who will be in high school or above, so that successful applicants can come to our camp for our two secondary/tertiary choirs on the weekend before school starts. However, all interested applicants may audition in January and we will also happily accept new secondary/tertiary applicants in February.

For more information about the choir and the audition process and to download an application form go to wvyc.org.au

ROTARY CLUB OF HALL INDIGENOUS SCHOLARSHIP

WVYC is pleased to announce that scholarship(s) to the value of $1,000 have been generously provided by the Rotary Club of Hall to enable indigenous Canberran young people to have access to the choir. Applicants should follow the application process for an audition and also contact the administrator on info.wvyc@gmail.com to be sent the guidelines for applying for a scholarship.