Canteen Success! 

Wendy Rix - Aboriginal Art

Pick Up Procedures in the Afternoon

Community Council

Last week we held our first Community Council meeting for 2020. I am pleased to announce the roles for our council.

Chair - Esther Coghlan

Deputy Chair - Serae Love

Treasurer - Gabriel Walsh

Secretary - Evan Thomas

PR - Emma Bickley

Staff Rep - Jessica Lewis

Damien Webb (AP) and myself will also be members of council. Fr Loi as Parish Priest, is also a member and will attend when required. I will assist with reporting between St Michael's Community Council and the OLPH Parish Council.

As part of the first meeting, we have taken all feedback from last year regarding events to hold and fundraising ideas. Over the next 12-18 months, our fundraising efforts will be to raise funds to install shade sails over our play equipment. Obviously, these is an expensive operation, so our fundraising efforts will need to be well supported for this to occur. 

Community Council planned events for the year will include our annual Trivia Night, Carols Night, Family Movie Night, Disco and an End of Term 1 Family Picnic Afternoon. As we have previously decided to hold our Fete every second year, the decision was made to conduct the raffle in the alternate years. This year to coincide with the Family Movie Night we will be holding a school raffle. 

We are putting the call out now for any parent who would like to take the lead with organising one of the events mentioned above? Of course, Community Council members will be involved, however, we think it more effective to have another parent taking lead. Please express your interest by emailing council.stmichaelsps@cg.catholic.edu.au

We are also asking if there are any parents who own a business or work for a business who would be willing to donate items or vouchers for us to use in our raffle or in a silent auction that will be held on the trivia night. We would like to promote and support businesses connected with St Michael's in the first instance. We are particularly looking for items such as restaurant vouchers, accommodation vouchers and electronic items. Of course, any item or voucher would be greatly appreciated and we would promote company names, logos, websites, services offered etc via our newsletter and social media sites as well as on the day/night of the event. Again, please email council.stmichaelsps@cg.catholic.edu.au 

School Counsellor

I am pleased to inform the school community that CatholicCare have appointed a new school counsellor. Jess Dawson to be the new counsellor at St Michael’s and she will start at the school on Wednesday 18th March. Her regular hours will be 8.30am – 12.30pm each week. Once Jess starts, we will ask her to introduce herself to the community via the newsletter. Further information to come. 

Swimming Carnival

What a great day we had yesterday. The Swimming Carnival was a lot of fun and the venue was much better than previous venues. Congratulations to everyone who had a go and tried their best. A huge thanks to all the parent volunteers and especially to Erin Hardwicke for your organisation. 

LENT

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Along with our Parish, today we received ashes on our forehead to mark the remembrance of the dust in which God made us. 'Remember you are dust, and dust you shall return'. The season of Lent is one of reflection, of fasting, of prayer. The ashes symbolise that we have sinned and must ask for forgiveness 'Repent and believe in the Gospels'. 

During this period of Lent, we ask ourselves, how can we be a better person, to be more like Jesus? Consider giving more time to prayer, to attend Church, to clean up something within yourself that you have been wanting to focus on, to go without something, to give to those in need, to volunteer your time. To focus on the important things in life to live a more prayerful and meaningful life. 

On Monday we celebrated Shrove (Pancake) Tuesday due to our swimming carnival and water fun day occurring on the Tuesday. This is a great way to enjoy something special before Lent begins. 

Catholic Schools Week Community Breakfast - Save the Date

CE Online Survey

Catholic Education, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, will shortly release an online survey to seek a better understanding of your opinion of the value Catholic schools, like ours, provide and what that means for you and your children. The findings of this research will be used by Catholic Education to improve the offering of Catholic schools.

The survey will be sent out to parents via email in the coming week and should take less than 15 minutes to complete.  

Privacy and confidentiality

Please note that Catholic Education has engaged JWS Research to host the survey, collect the data and analyse the results. JWS Research is an independent, fully accredited, Australian research agency (see www.jwsresearch.com for further information). Survey results will be reported in the aggregate with individual responses remaining completely confidential and treated in accordance with the relevant privacy laws, including the Market and Social Research Privacy Principles and the industry’s code of professional behaviour.

Thank you in advance for your time and participation.

Enjoy the week ahead. 

Kind regards,

Pat Ellis

Principal

Religious Education Curriculum

3/4 & 5/6 begin to work with Scripture

3/4A and 5/6K have begun to explore the first story in Genesis to consider how it supports our understanding of our theme this year, Knowing & Growing in the Spirit as Stewards of God’s Creation. Did you know that the first story in Genesis was written during the time of the Babylonian Exile in the 6^th Century BCE? Ask 5/6 about the Babylonians (and don’t hum By the Rivers of Babylon…).

Religious Life of St Michael’s School Community

Prayer Bags

Prayer bags are coming home to support family prayer time. Enjoy the opportunity to contribute your own family traditions or special prayers to our books of prayers and reflect on those already in the books. Please return these at the end of the week so others can join in this activity.

Shrove Tuesday (on a Monday…)

Yum! The warm smell of pancakes cooking on Monday was delicious and very tempting. Thank you to Amanda, Anthony, Edith, Cristina, Enza, Casey, Serae, Lisa, Amelia and Gianni who supported us to prepare these special treats to celebrate before the ritual fasting and abstinence of Lent.

Ash Wednesday & Lent

Today (Ash Wednesday) marks the beginning of Lent for 2020. As a whole school community we celebrated the beginning of this solemn season with Mass and by being marked with ashes. In classes children have spoken about the importance of Lent as a time of preparation – making ourselves ready for Jesus’ death and resurrection at Easter. I encourage you to continue this discussion in your homes. How will your family prepare during Lent? How will you nurture your faith just that little bit more in this season of preparation? What small sacrifices can you make to help out others?

Project Compassion

With the beginning of Lent children are bringing home Project Compassion money boxes from Caritas. These are an invitation for your family to support the excellent missionary work done by Caritas in Australia and around the world. Please consider ways you could donate to this worthy charity and return the filled boxes in Week 10 of this term. If you are interested in the work done by Caritas please see this link:

https://lent.caritas.org.au/#blank

Developing a love of literacy

 ‘Literacy is the ability to read and use written information and to write appropriately in a range of contexts. It is used to develop knowledge and understanding, to achieve personal growth and to function effectively in our society. Literacy involves the integration of speaking, listening and critical thinking with reading and writing.' Source: Department of Employment, Education and Training, Australia's Language and Literacy Policy.

At St Michael’s we believe that the study of English is central to the learning and development of all students. It helps create confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens. It is through the study of English that our students learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and with the world around them.

St Michael’s uses the Australian Curriculum for teaching English. The English Curriculum is organised into three interrelated strands that support students' growing understanding and use of Standard Australian English. Together the three strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking and writing. The three strands are:

• Language: knowing about the English language
• Literature: understanding, appreciating, responding to, analysing and creating literature
• Literacy: expanding the repertoire of English usage.

A partnership between parents and school has proven successful in supporting students’ literacy learning. Research has shown that when parents reinforce the efforts of schools, children’s literacy competence, attitudes and confidence improves. St Michael’s provides opportunities for parents to attend literacy workshops and engage in the learning and teaching process in classrooms.

This term we will offer a reading workshop to parents on Tuesday 31 March at 5pm in the school library. This will mainly be targeted at parents who have children in Years K,1,2 or children who be having some challenges with reading. More information to follow in coming weeks. 

We will also offer a spelling workshop for parents explaining the Sounds Write program that we currently use. This will be on Tuesday 5 May starting at 4.30pm. More information to follow towards the end of the term. 

Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to all the students that participated in yesterday's swimming carnival! A fun day with lots of great swimming results and some personal best times.  Thank you to all the parents that so kindly volunteered their time.  We could not have run our carnival without your help.  In the coming week or so we will be able to confirm our school team to compete at the Belconnen Region carnival.  This carnival will be held at the AIS on 26 March 2020.  

Swimming Carnival Ribbon Presentation

Congratulations to the following students who will receive their ribbons at next Tuesday's awards presentation.  Please feel free to join us at morning assembly on Tuesday, as the ribbons will be presented at this time.

Year 2 students - Isabella P, Hannah L, Eliane W & Nate B

3/4A - Landon, Austin, Stella, Xavier, Katija, Jahzara, Kobe, Aaron, Madison, Josiah, Macy, Seb, Jack & Oscar

3/4FR - Isabella, Stella, Andrew, Milena, Cameron, Josh, Ryan & Chloe

3/4F - Cameron, Maya, Hugo, Bentley, Jackson & Lachlan

5/6F - Samuel, Phillip, Ada, Angelina, Brooklyn, Joshua, Dylan, Brodie, Hannah, Samara, Matthew, Billy, Clarisse & Zavier

5/6K - Erin, Orla, Olive, Stefano, Eamon, Emma, Owen, Beth, Arna, Sophie, Lucas, Cooper, Jillian, Cameron, Matilda & Caitilin

K-2 Fun Day

Yesterday our younger students had a fun-filled day here at school for the Water Fun Day! Thanks to the parents who prepared the morning tea and the teachers for all their enthusiasm and preparation for the day. 

Basketball Gala Day

We are excited to be able to enter two 5/6 teams in next weeks Basketball Gala Day. The students need to arrive at Belconnen Basketball Courts to meet Mrs Blakey by 8:30am. All the best to both teams. 

Sports Clinics - Basketball

Next week all classes will commence 6 weeks of basketball clinics as part of our Sporting Schools grants. The clinics will be held on Tuesday and Thursday. Please take care when leaving the basketball courts in the morning as the clinics will commence at 9am.

Sporting Schools ACT

Please note that the website is currently undergoing a transformation. For all up to date information please visit the facebook page. 

New Titles in 2020 - Book covering

Over the next few weeks we will have over 200 new books available for students to borrow. Thank you to Christina and Sarah for coming in and covering books this moring. If you are willing to assist us with covering books, please see Lisa or Erin to take some home for covering.  Any help you are able to offer would be greatly appreciated.

Red Gum Book Fair  - Save the date!

10th -14th March

Our first Book Fair for 2020 will take place in Week 6. The Book Fair will be open before and after school each day from 8:20-8:50am and 3:00-4:00pm. We would love your support as this is the major fundraiser for our library and allows us to purchase new material throughout the course of the year. 

Congratulations to the following children who have achieved a Harmony Award in Week 4 and will receive their award this Friday at morning gathering (weather permitting).  

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

Brooklyn 5/6F & Ana KL

We hope you have a great day!!

We will be participating in Clean Up Australia Day this Friday the 28 February. We will be aiming to clean up our school grounds and the surrounding area of Kaleen. Parents and visitors are welcomed to join us from 2:20pm to help clean up. This event marries up with the school’s culture of Sustainability and our 2020 School Theme. Students are very welcome to bring in gardening gloves from home, in order to avoid us using disposable gloves for the event.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send me an email.

Many thanks,

Mr Webb

Damien.webb@cg.catholic.edu.au

DANCECORE -  Dance classes are held on Wednesday’s at recess in the school hall, forms are available at the Front Office. 
Contact Cassie 0417 442 750 (NO CLASSES FOR TERM 1)

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

DRAMA  -  Drama classes are being held on Wednesdays at lunchtime, please contact Elizabeth McIntosh if you are interested on 0408 620 899

SCHOOL BANKING  -  Banking day is Thursday, please leave your books at the Front Office.

REDGUM Book Club -  Redgum Book club runs four times a year.  If you have any queries, contact Mrs Monro or Mrs Hardwicke.

Grace-Lenten Program 2020

The parish will be offering Lenten Groups again during Lent.  The program we will use is called GRACE and is published by the Diocese of Wollongong.  It is perfect for both group or individual reflection.  The daily reflections and Gospel reading (Ash Wednesday 26 February to Easter Sunday 12 April) are accompanied by beautiful artworks.  We hope to offer two evenings (one at Kaleen and one at Evatt) in the parish meeting rooms.  The room at St Monica’s is available on Wednesday night only.  Everyone is welcome to join a group.  Sign-On sheets, indicating your preference, have been placed in the foyer of both churches.  The booklet cost is $5.00 and may be purchased from the church.