Dear Parents and Carers,

This newsletter is all about celebrating our wonderful Office Manager 'Lisa Monro'.

This Friday is Lisa’s last day at St Michael’s after an amazing 14 years!

Lisa started her Office Manager position at St Michael’s after working in a dental surgery in 2007. She has held the position during the tenure of 4 school Principals- David Austin, Judy Walsh, Pat Ellis and currently Judy Egan.

If you know Lisa, you will understand that she has a HUGE heart and despite the difficulties and pain life has brought her she has continued to care and support her family and the St Michael’s school family. Lisa is always positive and always doing something to help others. An example is her kindness in buying milk for staff each week as she walks to school and on weekends. She has also been the one that Principals call on when the alarms are set off, she steps in and checks everyone is safe and the school is secure.

I’ll never forget my first ‘meet and greet’, I was helping Damien bring out some drinks and looked up to see Lisa and Stuart cooking the barbecue. It’s a great example of the types of things that Lisa does without being asked and without asking for anything in return. There are so many jobs that Lisa quietly does around the place, collecting the crossing signs daily, locking the gates, tidying up the staffroom to name a few! Her other great talent is her amazing cooking, sadly we have not been having many morning teas as Lisa would make the most amazing, cakes, slices, and biscuits. She recently outdid herself for Miss Frogley’s birthday by making COVID safe individual chocolate cheesecakes and an incredible passionfruit slice- unbelievable!  

I know parents will also agree how amazing Lisa has been assisting students who are hurt or injured over the years. Her calm, no-nonsense approach and respectful relationships with school families has been hugely appreciated. She is always willing to solve an issue, find some second-hand clothing or support students or staff in any capacity.

Let’s hear what some of our older and younger students think of Lisa…  

She listens to us to hear our problems when someone’s hurt, she makes sure we get what we need

(Adeline Yr. 3)

She’s always kind to us, she is one of the kindest people in this school (Liam Yr.4)

She’s been here since I was in Kindergarten, she’s always been a wonderful person (Maddie Yr.6)

She helps me when I’ve been hurt-she makes you feel better (Milos Yr. 2)

Mrs Monro, she’s lovely, kind, and beautiful (Bentley Yr. 5)

She’s the person who looks after you if you’re sick- thank you for being here you’ve been very helpful (Matthew Kinder)

Thank you for helping us (Sofia Yr.1)

So from all of us at St Michael’s thank you and God Bless Lisa, we will treasure our memories with you and wish you every wonderful new adventure as you and Stuart head to the Coast.

Many Blessings

Judy Egan

Ultimate Professional Day!  (Farewelling Mrs Monro)

Dear Parents,

This Friday, the 4^th of March, we will be saying goodbye to Mrs Monro, our wonderful Front Office Manager and the ultimate professional. As a part of the celebration we are having a dress up day, where students are invited to dress up as professionals from any field. We will be having a few different activities to help make the day special and to say goodbye to an amazing lady, who has been a pillar in our community for many years.

Get involved, dress up, have some fun and let’s make this day brilliant for Mrs Monro!

Many thanks

Mr Webb

Recording of Student Absences

A notification went home on Tuesday Via Compass reminding parents/carers to ensure the school is provided notes for absences. It is a legal requirement for schools to ensure they have documentation around student absences, and we need your help. Please follow the instructions on the Parent Portal to send an absent note or email the front office and let us know.

Office.stmichaelsps@cg.catholic.edu.au

We will be sending reminders each Thursday to any families missing notes, this is a generated email from compass, please email or phone the front office if you have any concerns. 

Free Parent Webinar – Parent guide to digital technologies and mental health.

This free webinar, hosted by the Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT and delivered by the eSafety Commissioner, is designed for parents and carers of young people aged 10–18.  Parents and Carers can register at  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6726877427764036623 Date of the webinar will be Tuesday 8 March 7.30pm – 8.30pm

The webinar will cover:

• What do to about accidental exposure to content about suicide, self-harm or eating disorders
• Using games, apps, and social media to support mental wellbeing
• The pros and cons of digital mental health platforms
• Strategies for young people to support friends online

Kind Regards

Judy Egan
Principal

Parent Support Network

Dear Parents

We are calling for nominations for parents to be the class representatives on the Parent Support Network.

This network would help support communication between the classroom teacher/s and the parents in the class. These networks have proven very successful in past, but with the interruptions of the past 2 years, we haven’t called for parent volunteers since 2019.

We are looking forward to getting this network up and running again and helping everyone stay connected and continuing to build our wonderful school community.

Parents on the network will receive a copy of the email address of the families in the class and there will be a short digital meeting in the coming weeks with Mr Webb to discuss the simple duties of the role and the ways that you can support the class. It is not a time consuming role, so the commitment to role is certainly not demanding 

If you are interested please email Mr Webb, damien.webb@cg.catholic.edu.au and include the following information

• Your name and name of child
• Class of child
• Email address
• Best contact phone number

Once again, thank you all for the continued support

Many thanks

Mr Webb

School photos will be taken on Friday 18th March.  Photos can now be ordered through the Parent Portal, please see link below on how to order:

Below is a video on how a parent orders through the Compass portal – family orders are all online as well.

https://www.loom.com/share/31a090ae64a74b7ca52a9e050eae30dc

Could all students please remember to wear full school uniform on the day.

Religious Education around our school – Spotlight on 5/6

This week students in 5/6 learned about how Shrove Tuesday is celebrated in other countries. Whilst in Australia we have traditionally celebrated with pancakes (YUM!!) in other countries they go really wild with huge celebrations. In many countries they have Mardi Gras to enjoy a wild party before the solemnity of Lent. Mardi = Tuesday and Gras = Fat so it literally translates into Fat Tuesday – a day of feasting and fun. A key element of the Mardi Gras is masks so we decided to make our own. Check out our beautiful creations:

Religious Life of St Michael’s

Shrove Tuesday

Thanks to those who shared some of the fun of ‘Pancake Day’ yesterday. I hope everyone enjoyed some delicious pancakes to celebrate Shrove Tuesday.

Ash Wednesday

It is Ash Wednesday today. We have come together as a whole school community (socially distanced in our own classrooms of course) to mark this special day in our Church calendar with a liturgy shared online. In our classrooms the children all received ashes sprinkled on their heads as was done in ancient times. Staff have had a cross placed on their foreheads as a reminder to turn away from sin and live out the Gospels.

Project Compassion boxes / Lenten Appeal

Today eldest children in the family will be bringing home Project Compassion money boxes. We ask that families join us in the annual Lenten fundraiser for Caritas and fill the money boxes in the coming weeks. Usually we donate extra money that we have from giving up things during Lent – doing our fasting. This might be the nightly ice-cream, weekly chocolate or favourite fizzy drinks. This money is then given to Caritas to do their missionary work in Australia and around the world. You are encouraged to return the boxes to our front office in our last week of school, or the Church in the week before Easter. Thank you in advance for your generosity to those in need.

Week 1 Caritas

Each week we will look at an example of people who have been helped through Caritas’ excellent work around the world.

In week 1 we meet: Anatercia, Mozambique. 12-year-old girl Anatercia can now access clean drinking water, eat nutritious food and focus on her schooling. Anatercia, a 12-year-old girl living in southern Mozambique, was struggling to cope with adult responsibilities after her father passed away. With your support, she participated in training and gained access to psychosocial supports. Now, her quality of life has improved and she can focus on doing well at school. A video giving more information is linked above.

Parish Sacramental Program 2022
If you have a child in Years 3, 4, or 6 in 2022, this will be a Sacramental year.

This also applies if your child is in Year 5 and he/she has previously missed the Sacraments of Reconciliation and/or First Eucharist.

Sacrament of First Eucharist will be celebrated on the weekend of 18 and 19 June 2022 (Corpus Christs Sunday) across the four Sunday Masses.

6pm - 18 June at St Monica’s Church – Evatt;

8am - 19 June at St Michael’s Church – Kaleen;

10am – 19 June at St Monica’s Church – Evatt; and

5.30pm – 19 June at St Michael’s Church – Kaleen.

Registration for the Sacrament of First Eucharist

Registration must be made via the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Qkr! App.

Registrations will open on Monday 4 April 2022 and will close by Friday 29 April 2022.
No further registration will be accepted after the closing date.

Commitment Masses
Students and parents must attend one of the weekend Masses at either St Monica’s Church (6pm Saturday or 10am Sunday) or St Michael’s Church (8am or 5.30pm Sunday) on one of the dates listed below to make their commitment for the Sacrament.
Saturday 30 April and Sunday 1 May
Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 May
There will be no additional commitment masses beyond these dates.

Confirmation will be celebrated in Term 3, 2022.

Reconciliation will be celebrated in Term 4, 2022.

For further Information – please contact the Sacramental Program Coordinator at sc.belconnennorth@cg.org.au or check the parish website for updates at www.cg.org.au/belconnennorth

Library Matters

Thank You

Thank you to the El Cheikh, Clark and Halley families for kindly covering some new books for our library.  The students loved getting their hands on the new books!

Chief Minister's Reading Challenge

This week we launched the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge! All students will participate in the challenge this year, which sees them aim to read 30 books by August. The challenge will be completed at school during class and library lessons.

Families can also complete the challenge at home, if they wish. More information can be found at https://www.education.act.gov.au/public-school-life/additional-programs/chief_ministers_reading_challenge

Each completed form (whether completed at school or at home) can be placed in the barrel in the library for the chance to win a prize. Prizes will be draw when the challenge concludes on 19^th August.

Happy Reading!

Help needed!!! 

If there are any parents who are able to volunteer to cover new library books, we would appreciate your help.  Books and contact can be taken home with families and returned at your convenience.  We have over 200 books that we are hoping to get onto the shelves for the students in the near future. Please see Erin or Lynda if you can assist in any way.

Erin Hardwicke

Erin.hardwicke@cg.catholic.edu.au

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

Cameron 1/2H, Matthew KK & Graham KD

We hope you have a great day!!

Congratulations to the following students who achieved a Harmony Award in Week 5.  Awards will be handed out to students during the day on Friday.

Well done!!   

As several of the students at our school have a life threatening allergy to nuts and related products we have adopted a NUT FREE policy. 

Our school does not sell any nut products and we ask you to support our efforts by ensuring that your child does not bring peanuts, peanut butter, nutella or other nut related products to school in their lunch boxes.  This will require you to take note of the content of items such as muesli bars etc.

We appreciate your support in ensuring the health and safety of all our students.