Dear Parents

World Environment Day

On Tuesday, 4 June St Michael’s is celebrated World Environment Day. World Environment Day is the UN’s most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. Since it began in 1974, it has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries. WE CAN’T STOP BREATHING. BUT WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE QUALITY OF OUR AIR is the theme for World Environment Day.

St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal

Winter can be a particularly difficult time for the 3.6 million Australians facing food insecurity at some point each year. Whilst many of us are snuggling up indoors The Australian Bureau of Statistics has found that over 116,000 Australians are experiencing homelessness. Of these, 60% are under 35, 44% are women and 13% are under 12 years old.

We are asking everyone to bring in item to give to those who are sleeping rough this winter. Many people in our local area are living on the streets, in tents or in temporary dwellings. We thought we would do a fundraiser to raise awareness and help these people to have some basic necessities over the cold winter months. The items that we have allocated to each grade have been selected by St Vincent de Paul Thirroul and Coniston branches as things they need this winter.

There will be a basket in every grade and these items can be brought in from Week 5 (Tuesday, 28 May) to Week 8 (Tuesday, 18 June).

Kindergarten: Blankets

Year 2: Body Wash / Soap (toiletry item)

Year 3: Shampoo (toiletry item)

Year 4: Toothpaste and/or toothbrush (toiletry item)

Year 5: Small packets of tissues (toiletry item)

Year 6: jumpers / long sleeve shirts or blankets

Your help and generosity will make a real and remarkable difference to the lives of homeless people in our area.

Confirmation Dates for your Diary

Parents/Guardians need to attend the Classes 1 and 2: Tuesdays, 11 and 18 June, 3:45pm to 5pm (parents MUST attend)

Confirmation Practice: Tuesday, 25 June, 7:00pm (parents MUST attend) Sacrament of Confirmation: 7:30pm on Wednesday, 26 June or 7:30pm on Thursday, 27 June 2019.

If there are any enquiries please contact the Parish office - all information is on the Parish website: http://www.thirroulcatholic.org.au/

The Sacraments of First Penance and Communion

The Sacraments of First Penance and Communion are celebrated when a child is in Year 2 or seven years old (or older).

Prior to receiving First Communion, children are to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance [Reconciliation].

Enrolments close on Tuesday, 10 September 2019

Enrolment Forms for 2019 may be downloaded at the parish website: http://www.thirroulcatholic.org.au/ and they must be handed in directly to the Parish office.

In order to prepare for these Sacraments, there is a preparation program consisting of the following:

Parent Meeting: Tuesday, 15 October at 7:30pm

Penance Classes 1 and 2: Tuesdays, 22 and 29 October, 3:45pm to 5pm

Sacrament of Penance: Wednesday, 30 October at 7:00pm

Eucharist Classes 3 and 4: Tuesdays, 12 and 19 November, 3:45pm to 5pm

First Communion: at either of the weekend Masses on 30 November or 1 December or  7/8 December or any weekend from then on.

Staff Spiritual Formation

Our SRI goal this year in Religious Education and Spiritual formation is, “all staff will engage in faith formation that is collaborative, planned and ongoing so that their living faith inspires others to discipleship and mission”. This combined with staff contributions from our SRI and our cyclic review recommendations has informed a 3 year strategic plan (2019-2021), with the intention of working on our school vision and mission in an authentic and purposeful journey.

In 2019 we will focus on the Capacity of Purpose, both personally and collectively as the community of St Michael’s Thirroul. Purpose is about discerning who we are and what we are called to be. In order to unpack this Tim Hart from the Catholic Education Office will be coming out to run four sessions  over the course of Term 2 and 3 in the lead up to the Staff Spirituality Retreat. Tim will be unpacking the following:

Session 1: Spiritual Formation - The Framework & The Story We’ve Travelled

Session 2: People of Purpose

Session 3: My Story  

Session 4: Our Story at St Michael’s

In 2020 we are looking to prepare for revision of our Vision & Mission (capacity of Principle), which will be supported by all the formation we have done on our purpose in 2019 (who we are - as a collective and individual). In 2021 we will focus on editing, writing, publishing and ritualising a shared Vision & Mission (Capacity of Ritual).

St Michael's students entering in Take Wollongong to the World Logo Competition

Well done to the little Picassos and Frida Kahlos from Year 5 and Year 6W at St Michael’s.  They've jumped aboard the Illawarra Mercury and Destination Wollongong international cycling event logo design competition and are pedalling strongly towards the finish line!

Have a look at some of the creative entries, including a video of Year 5 and 6 students explaining the meaning of their designs on the Illawarra Mercury website: https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/6196596/st-michaels-are-along-for-ride-in-logo-competition/

Miss Emma Groves - Religion Educaion Co ordinator

Term 2 Assembly dates

School Assemblies

Assemblies at St Michael’s are an opportunity for our community  to come together to acknowledge and celebrate the great learning and events that happen in our school. The school assembly allows all students at St Michael’s to be recognised for their efforts. This term we have added an additional component to our assembly which allows one class per fortnight to share some of the brilliant learning that has been happening in their classrooms. Thank you to Miss Treble and 6W for sharing their learning at our week 2 assembly.

Week 8- Friday, 21 June (Year 1 sharing their learning)

Week 10- Friday, 5 July (Kindergarten sharing their learning)

School Garden

As a part of our initial stages of our landscaping project we now have a beautiful place on playground one for a school vegetable garden. To assist us in the design and maintenance of the garden we are looking for any parents or grandparents to help our Year 6 leaders in designing and caring for this space. If this is something of interest could you please contact the school office.

Cyber Safety

Throughout the term we will continue to provide parents with information that will support our school cyber safety messages at home. All information in these excerpts will be based on the information provided from the esafety government initiative that aims to support all Australians in accessing the digital world in a safe and positive way. The link below is a great way for parents to explore strategies to support the safe use of technology with their children at home. I highly recommend accessing this content to develop a range of skills and strategies to assist your children with developing safe practices when using technology in all environments.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/education-resources/iparent

Fact: On average, outside of school, 10 to 14 year olds spend 23 hours online per week.

1. Try to encourage positive screen time, like content that you can view and enjoy together. Discourage anything that is overly aggressive or disrespectful
2. Negotiate key rules together, such as when screens can be on and when they need to be turned off. Young teens are likely to respond better to rules that they’ve contributed to and see as being fair and consistent.
3. Agree ahead of time on the rules and strategies to get your child to switch off from the screen. With gaming, think about a timer that signals that game time is nearly over and be clear about the consequences for not switching off.

Reports

Reports will be sent home this term on Friday, 28 June. Parent Teacher Interviews will begin Monday, 1 July.

Parent teacher interviews and student conferences

Parent Teacher Interviews and student led conferences for Semester 1 will be held during Week 10 this term

(Monday 1 July – Thursday, 4 July 2019). The interview timetable is now open for parents to book a date and time. Interviews are scheduled at 15 minute intervals and we ask that if your child is in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6, they attend the interview with you (students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 do not attend the interview). If you do not have access to the internet please contact the school office for assistance on 4267 2560.

BOOKINGS CLOSE WEDNESDAY, 26 JUNE 2019

Go to www.schoolinterviews.com.au enter this school event code then follow 3 simple steps:

When you click finish, your interview timetable will be emailed to you automatically - check your junk mail folder if you do not receive your email immediately.

Parents can change their interview bookings, any time prior to the closing date, by re-visiting the www.schoolinterviews.com.au website using the event code. Remember to use the same name and email address you used when you made your original booking. Parents wishing to change their interview times after the closing date should contact the school directly.                

How to read my child’s Academic Report

Reports are written in line with the requirements of the new NSW K-10 syllabuses for the Australian Curriculum in English, Mathematics and Science. In addition, St Michael’s follows Diocesan guidelines in the writing of reports. Grades are awarded to students following the Common Grade Scale. At the Parent Teacher Interview your child’s class teacher will be able to explain how the grade awarded reflects the level of work your child is currently demonstrating. It is a requirement of national legislation for primary schools to provide twice-yearly written reports for students in Years 1 - 6 to parents for ten years of schooling. These reports are to be standards-referenced which in NSW means reporting based on the Common Grade Scale. Standards-referenced reporting requires teachers to consider the performance of each student according to the standard detailed at each level (A-E) of the Common Grade Scale for each Key Learning Area (KLA). Students are then awarded a grade based on the evidence teachers have of their learning in that particular KLA and the standard it reflects. According to the Common Grade Scale a ‘C’ grade is considered sound. That is, if awarded a C in a particular KLA the student has demonstrated that they have gained the knowledge, skills and understanding expected of them at that point in time. Some features of the report include: Overall grades Each KLA has an overall grade that is determined by the teacher by considering the evidence of each student’s learning and the standard on the Common Grade Scale it reflects. Overall grades are not determined by averaging performance on strands within a KLA. In many cases more time has been dedicated to learning in one strand over others and this contributes significantly to the balanced judgement a teacher is required to make in order to award an overall grade. It is not unusual for a student’s overall grade to change from one reporting period to the next as the knowledge, skills and understanding they encounter in each KLA will vary from one reporting period to the next.

Throughout 2018 and 2019 we have invested in a great deal of professional learning and have witnessed the vast positive impact this has had on the learning of our students. To share this with you we will be incorporating a showcase in each newsletter to provide a quick snapshot of this learning in action.

Year 2 

Year 4Blue -  An Orientation on an Imaginative Text

A Watery World

There I was lonely and lost sitting at the bottom of the bluey green plant thriving Great Barrier Reef. I had no friends at this trashy rubbish dump except for the bright coloured angel fish who just swim lazily in circles around me. I don't know how I Johnny got here in the middle of the ocean. I don't have any sort of memory. I'm starting to lose air in here, what was happening. Then Oh no I knew this was going to happen to me eventually. Then I grew a fish body and fish lips......

Parent workshop- Assessment  

On the June, 21 we will be holding a parent workshop about how assessment is undertaken within our school. We will be discussing what assessments we have within the school and how we use them to target our teaching. We would also like to have an open forum to review our reports, the use of seesaw and feedback on data not books?Bookwork ?

SPLICED - Art workshop

On Tuesday the 11th of June all our SPLICED students had a day to work on their projects. This was an opportunity for students to create art works, poems, songs and creative pieces of writing to express the beauty, goodness and truth of their chosen topic. The students worked hard all day and are  in the process of producing amazing pieces of work. We can’t wait to share their amazing work with our school community. In the meantime here is a sneak peek.

MATHEMATICS - Developing your child’s mathematical skills

In the last newsletter we looked at how to help our children develop their number skills. This week let’s look at geometry. Concepts of space and geometry are some of the most intuitive concepts as it involves our position in the world. You can help your child’s understanding move from the simplest of understanding to the more complex. You can start by emphasising the language of space and geometry, such as flat, round, curved, under, over, next to. With young children play games like hiding a toy and using this language to describe what the child is doing while looking for it. You can also encourage your child to find shapes and objects in the environment, using the correct geometric names for three - dimensional and two dimensional objects.

As your child develops these skills you can look for things in the environment that have symmetry, like butterflies, a reflection, a bridge etc. You can also look at tessellating objects such as bricks and tiles.

Building things with cards, dominoes, blocks and looking at these creations from different viewpoints, helps your child learn about points of view.

Getting your child to look at maps while travelling and giving instructions is a great way to learn about position and direction. Show your child the legends and different symbols on a map and explain their purpose. Your child may like to find these things during your travels.

There are many ways to have ‘real life’ conversations with your child in relation to space and geometry.

mBots

Year six students are currently working hard in their teams to program their mBots to dance, wrestle or get through mazes. They will be competing in the ‘in school’ challenge on the 21st of June. From this challenge a few groups will be chosen to represent our school at the diocesan mBot Coding Challenge to be held on June, 26. We will have a school showcase of their skills later in the term.

KINDERSPOT

Last Thursday Mr Bryce and I attended a professional development day titled KINDERSPOT, run by a speech pathologist and an occupational therapist, who currently work within various primary school in the Illawarra and Sydney area.

The two professionals provided details underpinning the extensive range of support provided by speech therapists and occupational therapists. They focused on the particular developmental needs in students in the early years of schooling and how Kindergarten teachers can best support students daily in their Kindergarten classrooms.

It was a very practical day from which both myself and Mr Bryce came away from the day with a range of relevant and useful strategies related to student speech and vocabulary development, as well as fine and gross motor development.  

The second installment of this professional development will continue this Thursday, with a following day to commence during term three.

Mrs Amie Dutaillis - Middle Leader 1

PARENT ENGAGEMENT,  FOSTERING EFFECTIVE AND POSITIVE PARTNERSHIPS IN LEARNING, LEADING AND LIVING THE FAITH

At St Michael’s parents have many opportunities to be involved in school life and engaged in student learning either at the school or by making connections at home. Please see below some upcoming workshops that we hope you will be able to join us for.

COMMUNICATION TO TEACHERS

• check in at the office and ask if the teacher is available. If they are available the office staff will let you know where to meet them. If they are not available you can either leave a written message or leave a message for them to call you back.
• phone the office and ask to speak to the teacher. If they are not available the office staff will leave a message for them to call you back (You may find that it is a better option to make a time to chat face to face)
• email the school at info@smtdow.catholic.edu.au with the subject “Attention (insert teacher name)” and the office staff will forward the email to the teacher – please follow this process in regards to emails. Please do not email staff directly.

KINDER EXCURSION

A reminder that the Kindergarten excursion is fast approaching.

Our excursion to Calmsley Hill City Farm is on Friday, June 21. Please return the permission slip as soon as possible if you have not yet done so, and ensure that your child owns long school sport pants and a school sport jacket that they can wear on the day, as it can get a little cold at the farm. The countdown is on.

Mrs Amie Dutaillis - Kindergarten Teacher

CANTEEN OUTSOURCING

As discussed recently with the P & F Executive we are in the process of outsourcing our canteen facility as a result of a lack of volunteers. We are in discussions with a company who also provide their services to several schools in our Diocese. Once we have finalised documentation the company will be advertising for the appropriate personnel. We are hoping to have the new facility operating early in Term 3. 

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

A reminder that notes for the athetics carnival are due back to the school office. Please indicate method of transport, volunteer availablity and if your child is competing in the 800 metre event.

Awards

Principal's Awards:

• Daniel Morozov
• Finn Molloy
• Taj Donnelly
• Fiadh Molloy
• Shelby Richens
• Arianah Ballantyne
• Kai Rossignol
• Eliana Trasler
• Pierce Ballantyne
• Audrey Mackey
• Sara Trasler
• James Bolton

GOLD Awards:

• Eliana Trasler