Principal Message

This weekend we celebrate and acknowledge the wonderful women in our life who have been an inspiration and a constant source of love and compassion. We always know and appreciate all that those who are mother figures do for us, however on this special day we deliberately pause and celebrate these special people in our lives.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the fabulous mothers and mother figures in our school community who support our amazing children to value learning and to be the best that they can be. We are so pleased that we were able to share a prayer service to celebrate you.

Wishing you all a very special and blessed Mother’s day, may you be surrounded by love and gratitude.

God Bless

Mrs Belinda Hughes - Principal

SRI - Differentiation  

This year one of our school priorities is differentiation. Our focus this year is to engage, challenge and extend students at St Michael’s. During our staff development day teachers had the opportunity to engage in professional learning that explored different teaching and learning strategies to support and challenge the students in our classes. 

This term, each class’ Religious Education ‘Easter’ unit is using contemporary effective teaching strategies which promote student engagement and provide students an opportunity to have ownership over their learning. Students are developing their skills to work collaboratively and be critical, creative and innovative thinkers. 

To kick this process off each class engaged with an entry event, this event provided a variety of stimulus for students to interact with and hypothesise what they were learning about. Students then came up with a list of things they already knew about Easter and a list of things they needed to know. 

Teachers have then collaboratively planned lessons around the ‘Needs to knows’ for their class. This teaching and learning has been highly responsive to student needs and engagement levels across the school have been high. We are very excited to share this learning process with you over Seesaw. 

Here is what some of our students have to say about the process: 

Miss Riolo - Middle Leader 2

A prayer service for the wonderful women in our lives this Mother’s Day!  

As a school we came together on Thursday, May 6 to celebrate the wonderful women in our lives with a Mother’s Day prayer service. We would like to say thank you to the families who attended this prayer service. It was an absolutely beautiful way to celebrate and thank the mums and mother figures in our lives. Thank you to Mrs Duffin and Mrs Do for their contributions to our prayer service. 

ANZAC Day Prayer Service

St Michael’s celebrated an outdoor ANZAC Day service on Monday 26th April. It was so lovely to come together as a school, with the inclusion of families and special guests to commemorate a very important part of Australia's history. Thank you to the Living the Faith Team, Bob Weir and Father Ken for making this such a beautiful service. 

Confirmation - Enrolments closing soon (11 May 2021) 

The Sacrament of Confirmation will be conferred by Bishop Brian on Tuesday and Wednesday, 22 and 23 June 2021 to Year 6 (or older) students. 

Enrolment Forms for the Sacrament of Confirmation close on 11 May 2021. To download an Enrolment Form, click here. Download and complete the Form, then return it to the Parish Office:  thirroul@dow.org.au Parish Office:  325 Lawrence Hargrave Drive, Thirroul. Tuesdays and Wednesdays 9am to 3:30pm  and Fridays 10am to 3pm

Parents/Guardians need to attend the Parent Meeting: 

7:30pm, Tuesday, 1 June 2021 (parents only attend) 

Parents/Guardians and students need to attend: 

Class 1: Tuesdays June 8, 3:45pm to 5pm (parent and student attend) 

Class 2:  Tuesday June 15, 3:45pm to 5pm (parent and student attend) 

(same day as netball gala day - students attending will need to come back to school from 3:45pm to 5pm) 

Parents/Guardians and students need to attend: 

Confirmation Practice: Monday, 21 June, 7:00pm (parent and student attend) 

Sacrament of Confirmation:

7:00pm on Tuesday, 22 June 2021 

7:00pm on Wednesday, 23 June 2021

RE Term 2 Dates for your diary:

• Mother’s Day Prayer Service: Thursday, 6th May @ 12:30 – 1:00pm 
• Year 6W Attending Parish Mass @ 9:30am - Friday 7th May 
• Penance and First Communion: Parent Information Evening Tuesday, 11 May at 7:30pm (2020 cohort who have communicated with Father Ken)  
• Ascension Liturgy Liturgy Hosted by Year 1: Monday, 17 May @ 14:15 – 15:00
• Year 6B Attending Mass @ 9:30am - Friday 28th May 
• Pentecost Liturgy hosted by Year 6W: Monday, 24 May @14:15 – 15:00
• Our Lady Help of Christians Liturgy hosted by Year 4: Friday, 28 May @ 14:15 – 15:00
• Confirmation Parent Information Meeting - Tuesday June 1st @ 7:30pm. 
• Year 5 Attending Mass @ 9:30am - Friday 4th June
• World Environment Day Liturgy: Friday, 4 June @14:15 – 15:15
• Sacrament of Penance - Tuesday, 8 June at 7:00pm (2020 cohort who have communicated with Father Ken)   
• Confirmation Class 1 - Tuesday June 8th @ 3:45pm  (parents and students) 
• Confirmation Class 2 - Tuesday June 15th @ 3:45pm  (parents and students) 
• Preparation for First Communion Class 1 on Thursday, 17 June from 3:45pm to 5:00pm (2020 cohort  who have communicated with Father Ken)  
• Confirmation Practice: Monday, 21 June @ 7pm  
• Preparation for First Communion Class 2 in the Parish Church on Thursday, 24 June from 3:45pm to 5:00pm (2020 cohort who have communicated with Father Ken)  

Miss Emma Groves - Religious Education Co Ordinator

Director of Schools Visit

It is with great excitement that on Thursday we  welcomed the Director of Schools, Mr Peter Hill to St Michael’s. Mr Hill came to experience the amazing culture, community and learning that takes place at our school. He attended Mass with our student Captains and Vice Captains, visited classrooms to see the amazing work of our students, met with teachers and attended our Mother's day Liturgy where he was lucky enough to meet our parent community. 

Winter Uniform

The official change over date for winter uniform is Monday 10 May, Week 4. If the weather is cooler beforehand students may begin to wear their full winter uniform earlier.

Reporting Timeline - Years 1 -6

Towards the end of Term 2, Year 1-6 students will receive their Semester 1 reports. The Semester 1 report, will demonstrate student’s academic achievement in relation to what they have learnt in Term 1 and Term 2. Reports will be released via Compass on Friday 18 June, Week 9. This will be followed by Parent/Teacher Interviews in Week 10. There will be one late night of interviews on Wednesday 23 June. Interview bookings will be released closer to the date. 

Assemblies

This term we will hold our assemblies on a Friday at 2.30pm in Weeks 4, 6, 8 and 10. Parents are welcome to attend assemblies to be held in the hall.

Learning Labs

The University of Wollongong invites students to LITTLE and EARLY LEARNING LABS, an academic and creative arts enrichment holiday program. We are targeting students from Year 1 to 6 who are passionate, self-motivated and curious learners.

Dates: Little Learning Labs (Years 1 and 2): 28th – 30th June 2021

Early Learning Labs (Years 3 to 6): 6th - 8th July 2021

Venue: University of Wollongong (Wollongong campus only)

Applications close: Wednesday, 26th May 2021

LITTLE AND EARLY LEARNING LABS program brochure

APPLICATION PROCESS

• Parents/Guardians visit our website and read the full list of workshops available by scrolling to the “Workshop Descriptions” section.
• Parents/Guardians fill out the online application form.  This is an academic and creative arts enrichment program designed for students who are motivated and passionate learners and performing excellently in their area of interest. First-
• time applicants are required to demonstrate their suitability for the program. One piece of supporting documentation is required (see 'Supporting Documentation' section on website). 
• Learning Labs is registered as COVID-Safe and follows the guidelines set out by the NSW Government here.

 For further information about workshops and the application process please visit our website, or contact the Learning Labs team via email at learning-labs@uow.edu.au or phone on (02) 4221 5557.

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS

GREEN TEAM

This term we have started a Green Team at St Michael’s. We have two representatives from each class on the team for Term 2. The class representatives will be changed each term.

The Green Team involves gardening, weeding and planting veggies etc with Mrs Kelly each Friday at lunch time. So far these students have enthusiastically helped with weeding and preparing the soil in the 4 garden beds.

Parent Helpers are welcome. Please contact the school office if you have a strong interest in gardening and would like to join us on a Friday at 1.15pm.

We have purchased 4 subpods and 4 aerators for our 4 garden beds. These subpods were installed into our garden beds yesterday. We look forward to composting more efficiently as a whole school. 

Our composting procedures will start in Week 4 or Week 5. Students will empty their fruit and veggie scraps into the green classroom bin and then Year 6 leaders will collect the organic waste from each classroom. Firstly, they will empty the organic waste into a white bucket and then this will be transferred to the subpods. 

Mrs Katie Kelly WEN - Wollongong Environment Network Contact

Mini Vinnies - Term 2

The Term 2 Mini Vinnies team consists of a passionate group of Year 6 students who have already shown their eagerness through the development of some key plans for the term.

Their first fundraiser is to assist those in need that have been affected by the floods in Lismore. These floods have had a devastating effect on the farmers and residents. The Term 2 Mini Vinnies have decided to create an obstacle course that every class will partake in. This will take place on Tuesday the 18^th May in the afternoon.

In order for this to be successful, students will provide a gold coin donation to participate and will wear their sports uniform. All proceeds are going to the Flood Appeal launched by the Bishop of Lismore, the Most Rev Gregory Homeming to provide financial and practical support to the Lismore community at this critical time.

If you would like to donate or learn more about the Flood Appeal launched by the Lismore Diocese, please head to https://youtu.be/yFQxDc7TIys which has all the details.

Their second fundraiser will take place later on in the term and will be a Winter Appeal to help those in need this winter by providing them with warm and protective clothing. More information to come.

We thank you in advance for all the support you provide to the school, the Mini Vinnies team and the wider community.

Miss Negus and the Term 2 Mini Vinnies team.

PB4L

This week saw the introduction of our new sports trolleys with equipment to be used during break times. The students were ecstatic to say the least for equipment to be back on the playground. Students have been reintroduced to playground equipment expectations and have proven to be excellent leaders of taking care of themselves, this place and each other. For us older folk… it was lovely to see elastics being played in the playground again as were the artists who loved the chalk to draw on the cement with. Lots of regular equipment was put to good use too.

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

Lowes Wollongong

Lowes have advised that their Wollongong store will be holding a 20% sale on Thursday, 6 May and Friday, 7 May. This includes all St Michael's school uniform items. Flyer in Community Notices

In this section of the newsletter we have been introduced to our school leaders. For the remainder of the year we will be sharing and clebrating the great learning in our school.

School Cross country

Friday week one saw a beautiful day for the whole school to participate in the cross country. It was such an adventure for Year 1 and Kindergarten who had never been to Gibson Park before let alone run a cross country. It was fantastic to see so many parents get involved in the running of the event and to support students. Without parental help, we are unable to run such events. Thank you!

The students who ran the fun run (non-competitors) had a blast and it was great to see them get into the spirit of the day.

The competitors ran with a lot of spirit and determination with some very close finishers.

Results were as follows:

Girls 8/9 Boys 8/9

1st Lila H 1st Clancy M

2nd Ava T 2nd Flynn S

3rd Mahli D 3rd Tye F

Girls 10 Years Boys 10 Years

1st Giselle B 1st Sebastian C

2nd Maya D 2nd Oliver F

3rd Audrey F 3rd Oscar N

Girls 11 Years Boys 11 Years

1st Isla O 1st Riley S

2nd Amelia M 2nd Noah H

3rd Sophia L 3rd Cameron S

Girls 12/13 Boys 12/13

1st Seidah B 1st Angus D

2nd Arabella B 2nd Taylen W

3rd Ella F 3rd Josh B

Diocesan Cross country

Last week, I had the pleasure of spending the day with our school’s cross country team in Nowra. For many of us, we were caught in, what seemed like an endless line of traffic! A huge thank you goes out to all the parents and grandparents who made the trek. Once there, we established our home base and set out discussing our race strategies. It was much appreciated to see our parents and grandparents jump in and help with our designated task of course marshalling. All our runners did an amazing job and we had some mixed results. I was very much impressed with our younger runners who had never run a competitive race and then to find themselves representing in such a prestigious event. We were super impressed with Clancy M and Giselle B both receiving third placings and will be off to represent the Diocese of Wollongong at Eastern Creek on Tuesday 8th June 2021. Many of our runners just missed out on making it to the next level - better luck next year!

But I have left the best bit until last…. St Michael’s Thirroul won small school. What an amazing achievement! Congratulations St Michael’s.

Rugby League Gala Day 

On Friday April 30th we had 57 students (6 teams) from Years 3 – 6 participating in the Rugby League / League Tag Gala day. There was clear skies at Croome Road in Albion Park and the students had an absolutely sensational day. We had some experienced Rugby League and League Tag players and some students who experienced their first ever day playing tackle football! I think we have some future Rooster's players in our midst. 

Thank you to all the parents who assisted in managing the teams on the day: 

Mr Woods, Mr and Mrs Holland, Mr White, Mrs McNamara, Mrs Garrard, Mr Scott, Mrs Mayers and Mr Clark. Your assistance is very much appreciated.

Thank you to Miss Groves, Miss Riolo, Mrs Fitzgerald and Miss Viselli who accompanied the students on the day.

St Michael's Pop Up Uniform Shop

Principal Awards:

• Owen A
• Lodi N

Gold Award:

• Owen A
• Lodi N

St Michael's Blue:

• Owen A
• Lodi N