School News
Staffing News
Again it is with mixed emotions that I congratulate Miss Eliza Treble on her appointment as Middle Leader at St Paul’s Albion Park. Miss Treble has been an extremely valued member of staff, her passion for the students can not be compared. She is an exemplary educator and St Paul’s is blessed to have Miss Treble as a part of their community. We will miss you greatly Eliza and wish you well on the next chapter of your journey.
Staff and Classes - 2023
Principal - Mr James Bryce
Assistant Principal - Mrs Amy Sammut
REC - Mrs Stephanie Brown
Middle Leader 1 & Instructional Coach - Miss Emma Riolo
SSSO - Mrs Claire Ryan
Kindergarten - Mrs Katie Kelly
Year 1 - Mrs Shari Mayo
Year 2 - Miss Pamela Di Domizio
Year 3 - Mrs Chelsea McLeod
Year 4 - Ms Maria Shea
Year 5 - Miss Emma Riolo & Mrs Amy Sammut
Year 6 - Mrs Ronelle Peardon
DLST - Mrs Stephanie Brown
Creative Arts - Mrs Laura Aguilera
Office Support and Executive Assistant (Principal) - Mrs Jakki Agostino
Classroom Support
Mrs Renee Holt, Ms Emma Cooney, Mrs Jodie Maloney, Mrs Melissa Costello, Ms Natasha Galea, Mrs Cecilia Medina (Library), Mrs Nicole Parker (IT support)
Year 6 Graduation
This week we saw our Year 6 students have their Year 6 liturgy and graduation ceremony. What a special night it was. The liturgy was led by Fr Ken and highlighted the importance of our Catholic faith in the lives of our young people. The graduation ceremony in the hall was a celeration and acknowledgement of the special gifts and talents in our students. An opportunity to reminisce and recognise some great achievements. Thank you to Mrs Peardon and Mrs Brown for their leadership and significant contribution to ensuring that the night was meaningful and special for the students and their families. All the parents were extremely grateful for your time and effort in making the night so special for them.
A thank you to the Year 5 parents who supported the evening with their time in setting up the hall with decorations, a small gift and serving of food. Your support was greatly appreciated by all.
SPLICED 2022
This year's SPLICED program has seen over 200 students across the Wollongong Diocese aged 7-12 successfully engage with the challenging tasks of thinking critically, creatively and contemplatively with this year’s conceptual unit ‘Taking Up Space: The Length and the Breadth, the Height and the Depth’. Congratulations to the successful St Michael’s students who have successfully completed the SPLICED program this year. The following students are to be commended for their perseverance, layered depth and enthusiasm, and inspired minds and hearts.
Year 6 - Sophia
Year 5 - Lucy, Audrey, Sophie
Year 4 - Edison, Lila, Maggie, Olivia
To view the amazing work produced by our students please visit the official website that has been launched this week https://spliced2022.dow.catholic.edu.au.
Unity Garden Update
Over the last few terms our garden club has been busy preparing our Unity Garden. The garden has been established as an area on our playground that will celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and to be a space where students can go for quiet prayer and reflection. At the end of last term students were involved in painting rocks for the garden where we raised money for the ‘Indigenous Literacy Foundation’. These rocks will be placed in the garden very soon.
Over the last few weeks students have helped plant a variety of native plants and native edibles in the space. These plants have been purchased from IndigiGrow, a nursery located in La Perouse public school. IndigiGrow is a 100% Aboriginal owned and operated social enterprise that seeks to deliver positive cultural and environmental projects by growing and reviving local endangered native plants and native edibles.
Next year The Unity Garden will continue to be an area of focus for our garden club members. We hope that students will be able to watch the plants grow and thrive, and learn about the many benefits of native plants.
PB4L 2022 Wrap up
2022 Positive Behaviours for Learning always prioritised the promotion of being proactive with the promotion of positive behaviours and student and family wellbeing and welfare.
In order to meet the needs of all students in order to promote student learning and wellbeing, we maintained and embedded into school culture several strategies that we had introduced over the last two years. This included classes integrating Social and Emotional Learning through the PDHPE and RE curricula. Our programs incorporated the building of personal and social capabilities that included self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social management through the Zones of Regulation framework. Students were exposed and explicitly taught how to articulate their emotions, their effects on others and how to regulate their emotional states. The strategies used were highly effective in supporting students to further develop building resilience and positive mindsets.
This year we also maintained the engagement in Christian Meditation. This is a specific type of meditation and is not the same as “mindfulness” or other meditation practices. Christian meditation is the prayer of stillness and silence. It is a universal wisdom found in all spiritual traditions and is part of an ancient Christian tradition. As with all prayer, and in time, we are graced with the fruits of the spirit - love, peace, joy, happiness, patience, kindness, gentleness, attention, compassion and wisdom.
This year we introduced Peer Support. The Peer Support Program provided a fun and engaging environment for the students that addresses issues arising throughout Primary School. Our Year 5 and 6 leaders effectively facilitated the groups that were vertically aligned across the school years, meaning that we had a mix of all classes in each group. The ‘Keeping Friends’ module was run during Term 2. Keeping Friends is underpinned by the premise that resilient children have a broad range of supportive networks as opposed to a single best friend. In Term 3 the groups met each Tuesday to share lunch together. To recognise mental health week, we also participated in a walk and talk afternoon, where students were teamed up with different classes and had prompts to lead constructive conversations.
We also reintroduced a focus of the week. This incorporated students being explicitly taught expected behaviours in a particular setting. Each fortnight, students were asked to display those expected behaviours and were in the running to host Micky, our newest member of the St Michael’s school community. Micky certainly was a crowd favourite; even the Year 6 students were lining up for squishy cuddles.
Again this year, positive behaviours were rewarded with tokens (Dojos). On Wednesday of week 10, the Term 3 and term 4 top token winners and St Michael Blue winners are gifted with a play down at Thirroul Beach park and a small bag of goodies. I look forward to seeing lots of smiles on faces!
I hope that you all enjoy a happy and holy Christmas surrounded by those you love.
Thank you
Mrs Ronelle Peardon - Leader of PB4L
Year 6 Fun Day
After a huge night before, celebrating all things Year 6 (graduation), we backed it up with a Year 6 Fun day. Many of the students were unaware of just how much fun they were going to have. One of them thought that we were just going to be throwing rubber chickens or having egg and spoon races! We had a morning of a giant zorb ball, laser tag and gaming. The smiles on their faces said it all. The spins and flips in the ball was a sight to see with the onlookers cheering them on as they tried helplessly to control their bodies. At one point I thought we were at the world cup when the gaming truck erupted into shouts of cheers and groans of disappointment of defeat to worthy opponents. Of course, Mighty Mitchell was victorious in the battle of the playground equipment during the laser tag battles. The girls, although a tad quieter, certainly enjoyed the battles too. Following the fun activities the students were treated with pizza and some extra sweet treats. They certainly went home very tired!
