Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s been a great couple of busy weeks at St Michael’s. We’ve had a 40^th Anniversary celebration, some awards and assemblies, fun days, shared fruit and lunches a Giving Mass and a beautiful Graduation. We are very proud of our Year 6 cohort leaving St Michael’s in 2022 and wish them every future success. After a beautiful ceremony in the Church last night, we gathered at the Kaleen Clubhouse to celebrate our Year 6 Graduation. Congratulations to all our graduates and to the following students who received school awards.

Pastoral Care and Christian Values: Stella C

Community Service: Katie P and Cameron C

Academic Excellence Award: John J

School Highlights

Today we will send out the digital link to our School highlights for 2023. Thank you to everyone involved in putting this together. Special thanks to Maria Papasidero for pulling the pieces together in time for the end of the year.

Staffing News

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Bridgette McCann to the position of Acting Assistant Principal of St Michael’s Kaleen for the 2023 school year. Bridgette has held the position of Coordinator, classroom teacher at Holy Spirit in Nicholls as well as Acting Coordinator, classroom teacher at St Monica’s. Bridgette has held the position of Coordinator, Classroom Support Teacher and Acting Religious Education Coordinator at St Michael’s. Bridgette holds the tertiary qualifications of Master of Educational Leadership, Bachelor of Education, and Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) from the Australian Catholic University. On behalf of our community, I congratulate Bridgette and look forward to her support and leadership in 2023.

We are excited to welcome Danielle Madsen to St Michael’s as a classroom teacher in 5/6. Danielle has National Certification as a Highly Accomplished Teacher and is a huge asset to our teaching team. Danielle has worked in middle school at SFX holding Coordinator positions in the SOSE and Humanities area. She has also held positions as Literacy and Curriculum Officer in the Catholic Education Office for 3 years. Danielle is an experienced and highly qualified teacher and will be a wonderful addition to our teaching team and to our school community.

The staffing process continues to provide ongoing challenges to schools and we have certainly experienced this in 2022. I am very pleased to announce our staffing for 2023 classes:

Kindergarten: Victoria De Mattia

Year 1/2: Natasha Kapantais

Year 1/2: Meaghan Younger

Year 3/4: Shannon Blakey

Year 3/4: Emily O’Rourke

Year 5/6: Jessica Hallahan

Year 5/6: Shianne Sahariv

Year 5/6: Danielle Madsen

Students will visit their classes and meet their teachers for 2023 on Thursday 15 December.

Our final prayer event this year will be the Final Advent Prayer (presented by Kinder) and the Passing of the Light which will take place on Thursday 15 December at 9am in the school hall. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Thank you so much to everyone in our community for an amazing 40^th Anniversary Year at St Michael’s. We were featured in the Catholic Voice if you would like to visit the link:

https://www.catholicvoice.org.au/forty-fabulous-years-for-st-michaels/

Sincere wishes to everyone in our community for a Happy Christmas filled with the blessings of Jesus. Safe travels and looking forward to catching up with everyone in 2023.

Warm Regards,

Judy Egan