Thank you

At St Michael’s we celebrated Catholic Schools Week with open classrooms, a beautiful prayer service and an assembly packed with celebrating what is great about our community. Thank you to the parents and friends who were able to attend our Catholic Schools Week celebration last Friday, having you a part of our learning journey and sharing our story together is something we value greatly.  Thank you to teachers for preparing the students and to the Leaders of Living the Faith Team led by Miss Groves for planning and organising our celebration.

We also recognized the launch of Project Compassion at St Michael’s. Project compassion is always a part of our Lenten experience. Another way that we can live our call as Catholics in service to others. Thank you for your support through food donations and monetary donations for crazy socks day.

God Bless

Mrs Belinda Hughes - Principal

Thank you: Non -Perishable Items 

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for bringing in SO MANY non-perishable items for our opening school Mass. We had overflowing baskets from every class and these items have been distributed to people in need around the Illawarra. 

Confirmation

The Sacrament of Confirmation will be conferred by Bishop Brian on Thursday July 2nd @ 7:30pm.  Enrolment Forms for the Sacrament of Confirmation close on Monday 11 May 2020. 

To download an enrolment form go to the St Michael’s Parish website (http://www.thirroulcatholic.org.au/) and return it to the Parish Office.              

PROJECT COMPASSION 

Caritas Australia is the international aid and development organisation of the Catholic Church in Australia, and is part of one of the largest aid and development networks in the world – Caritas Internationalis – working in over 200 countries and territories. 

Each year, Project Compassion runs during the six weeks of the Church season of Lent. On Friday we raised both money and awareness for project compassion by doing a CRAZY SOCK DAY.  Thank you for your generous donations, we raised $236.65 for project compassion. 

These donations will go to the most vulnerable women, children and men in Australia and around the world. Together, we can all help to break the cycle of poverty and injustice.

Catholic Schools Week

“Engaging, inspiring, faith-filled, positive, community, encouraging, educational and  innovative”.. are just some of the words the students at St Michael’s Catholic Primary school Thirroul use to describe their school. 

We think this is something worth celebrating! 

Thank you to everyone who came to St Michael’s to celebrate our amazing Catholic School. We had so many parents, families and friends who came to spend the afternoon with us as we hosted our Celebration of Learning and Catholic Schools Week Assembly. We love being able to showcase first hand how focused and engaged our students are with their learning and it was such a great sense of community at our afternoon assembly.

LENT

During Lent we are encouraged to pray, fast and give alms (money, food or clothing) to those in need. As we all know, Jesus retreated into the desert for forty days to prepare for his ministry. It was for him a time of reflection and contemplation.

Prayer - Mass attendance; family prayer; a visit to a church or chapel; reading the Bible; making the Stations of the Cross; praying the Rosary.

Helping others - special attention to someone who is poor, sick, elderly, lonely or overburdened.

Self-denial - not eating sweets or dessert; giving up entertainment to spend time with the family; limiting food and drink so as to give to the poor; not eating meat; (abstinence from meat and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday for people between 18 - 60).

HOLY WEEK

For Holy Week this year each class will be responsible for leading a morning reflection (5-10 minutes) based on the significant events of Holy Week. These reflections will take place at our new outdoor prayer space on the following days: Monday 6th: Palm Sunday (Yr K/1), Tuesday 7th: Holy Thursday- Washing of the Feet (Yr 3), The Last Supper (Yr 4), Wednesday 8th: Garden of Gethsemane (Yr 5), Thursday 9th: Crucifixion (Yr 6). These reflections will take place at 9:30am and all are welcome. 

Dates for your diary:

• Year 3 attending Mass - Friday March 13th  @ 9:30am (Church)
• Year 5 Liturgy - St Joseph's Day - Tuesday March 17th @ 2:30pm (Hall)
• Friday March 20th - Cross Country
• Year 5W attending Mass - Friday March 27th @ 9:30am (Church)
• Year 6 attending Mass - Friday April 3rd @ 9:30am (Church)
• Holy Week Prayer Services from Monday 6th April - Thursday 9th April @ 9:30am each day (Outdoor Prayer Space)

Miss Emma Groves - Religious Education Co ordinator

Online safety for Kids 

As children start to navigate the online world and interact with others more independently, they are more likely to be exposed to risks of bullying or unwanted contact, accidentally coming across inappropriate content or racking up bills through in-app purchases.

Your guidance can help them be aware of the risks and understand what is expected of them. And let them know you are always there to support them. 

For kids aged 5 to 12, it is important to

• Keep the computer or device in an area of your home that can be supervised. And check in regularly with your child to see what they are viewing.
• Stay engaged with their online activity. Consider setting up your own accounts with the sites they use most so you can see how they work and understand the risks. 
• Explore the online world with them to help establish that this is not just a solitary activity. Play games with them. Do a creative project together.
• Think about social media readiness. Most social media sites require users to be at least 13 years of age before they can register, although some sites are created especially for children under 13. See if they are old enough?
• Encourage respect and empathy. Teach them to avoid sharing or posting things that may upset others. See good habits start young.
• Start building resilience. Teach your child that there are ways they can deal with material that worries or frightens them. This includes immediately telling you or another trusted adult of any concerns or uncomfortable material. See good habits start young.
• Be clear about how much time they can spend online, the apps they can use, the websites they can visit and what they can share or post online.
• Use parental control tools appropriate for the age and experience of your child.  Be upfront about this and get your child on board. Let them know that these can be reviewed and changed as they get older and they continue to demonstrate responsible behaviour. Consider installing a ‘child-friendly’ search engine that will allow them to explore a limited number of sites.
• Ensure your own devices are protected by a password or pin, so your child cannot accidentally come across inappropriate content. 

 For more information, visit: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice 

NAPLAN - For Yr 3 & Yr 5 Parents – 

There will be parent information about the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) sent home to families with students in Yr 3 and Yr 5 in the coming weeks. As it was last year it will be an online assessment (except for writing in Year 3). Please contact the school if you require further information.

2021 Kindergarten Enrolment Applications

2021 Kindergarten Enrolment Forms are now available from the school office. You may also access the forms from our school website. We look forward to welcoming siblings and new families to our wonderful community.

The enrolment package is available from our school or online at www.dow.catholic.edu.au

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS

St. Michael’s Clean Up Day / Clean Up Australia Day

On Friday 28th February, all classes were involved in St. Michael’s Clean Up Day as part of Clean Up Australia Day.
The main aim of our clean up was to pick up rubbish in the areas that were allocated for each class. Each class was also responsible in cleaning their own classroom eg. recycling, picking up rubbish off the floor, clean out of desks and cleaning their classroom set of bins. 

During this week all classes took the time to revise their coloured bin posters in the classroom and had a discussion on what type of items go in each coloured bin.

Thank you to all staff and students for your enthusiastic involvement in the Clean Up Day. Also, thank you to staff, students and families for your continual support with all the environmental initiatives at St Michael’s.

Primary Student WEN Day

On Friday, 27th March there is going to be a Primary Student WEN Day ‘Caring for Our Common Home – A Call to Action’ held at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School, Albion Park. I’ll be attending the day as the Wollongong Environmental Network Contact for St Michael’s.  Four Stage 3 students will be joining me for the day.

The 4 students representing our school will actually have a very important role on the day as they will be presenting about our school’s environmental initiatives.

I’m sure the day will be one full of inspiration, sharing and collaboration for both students and teachers.

Mrs Katie Kelly (WEN – Wollongong Environmental Network Contact)

Band Performance

At the week 10 assembly, the children who are involved in the Band with Yule Music will be performing, showcasing how far they have come in such a short time of tuition. We look forward to the performance.

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. We are very excited to announce that our school band will be sharing some of their fantastic work during this assembly. 

Please see below dates for our Term 1 assemblies.

Week 8- Friday 20 March 

Week 10- Friday 3 April (Band Performance) 

The Leader In Me 

This fortnight's focus will be reviewing the habit ‘Be proactive.’ This will be carried over as we were unable to include this in our Catholic Schools Week assembly. 

Professional learning update (Goal 1- writing)

This fortnight we have continued our professional learning in writing to continue to build consistent evidenced based practices that fosters growth in learning for all students. During this professional learning we collaboratively developed and implemented a data wall to monitor student learning and inform our teaching in order to address student needs. In stage teams all staff engaged in a collaborative inquiry where we designed teaching strategies to address the needs of all students as evidenced from our assessment data. 

We have already seen a positive impact on student learning as a result of this ongoing professional learning. Below is an example from one of our Year 4 student’s who has kindly offered to share a small sample of his imaginative texts he constructed. This particular student effectively implemented feedback given from both his peers and teacher to refine the opening of his text to engage the reader. 

John S- Year 4 

Mr James Bryce - Assistant Princicpal

National Day of Action against Bullying 

The National Day of Action against Bullying (NDA) will be held on Friday 20 March 2020. 

The NDA 2020 marks the 10 year anniversary of Australia's key anti-bullying event for schools. The theme for 2020 is Take Action Together.  The NDA is a catalyst for Australian schools to take a stand together against bullying. The day brings together more than 60% of schools nationwide, involving more than two million students in finding workable solutions to address bullying.

This year, each class at St Michael’s will continue to learn how they can actively take action against bullying. Students will be provided with a wristband, that can be worn on the day, and a small card that provides some useful tips in preventing bullying

Everyone has a role to play in saying Bullying. No Way! 

Passive play update

This week, I met with the student leaders of Community and Well-being: Sara, Emmanuel, Mila, Oliver, Isabella, Jessica, Kyan, Amelie and Cooper M to discuss some ideas around passive play at St Michael’s. The idea of passive play is to provide an alternative to the hustle and bustle that a busy playground can be. There is equipment ranging from lego, dolls, cars, chess and draught sets, Jenga, croquet and even a huge snakes and ladders. We hope to start passive play next week. The student leaders are very excited to start to get some of the equipment out and used. We may be in store for chess or Jenga championships. A big thank you to Jess Hart who has kindly donated a lovely doll house and other bits and pieces (all in tubs too!).

Mrs Ronelle Peardon - Middle Leader 1

Swimming Carnival

Well done to the students that represented our school at the district swimming carnival!

Another congratulations to the students that competed at the selection trials on Monday the 9th,

Senior Boys Relay (William Egan-Brown, Cooper Garrard, Josh Beaumont, Osacr Lambegrer) - (3rd)

Willian Egan Brown (100m Freestyle 4th, 50m Freestyle 3rd, Backstroke 3rd, Butterfly 4th)

Imogen Villanti (50m Freestyle 6th)

Great effort by all!

Netball Trials

Well done to Jesscia Smith for successfully trialling and earning a position in the Diocesan Netball team. Great effort Jesscia!

Soccer Trials

Well done to William Egan-Brown and AJ Duffin for successfully trialling and earning a position in the Diocesan Soccer team. Great effort boys!

Cross Country 

Our school Cross Country is coming up in week 8 (20th March - Friday) and will be held at Gibson Park.

Mr Jason Novak - Sports Coordinator 

Prinicpals Awards

• Sailor H
• Bear H
• AJ D
• Kryan P
• Molly H
• Harrison L

Gold Award

• Kyran P

St Michaels' Blue

• Kyran P

Uniform Shop Closure

A reminder that the St Michael's Uniform Shop will be closing its doors on the last week of Term 1. All items are still for sale until this date. Starting from Term 2, uniforms can be purchased either online or in store at Lowes Wollongong.

Thank you to our wonderful Uniform Commitee both past and present for the countless hours and supplying our school with such a seemless service!