Dear Parents and Carers

I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for the term that has been. We have reached the end of another busy term. It has been a wonderful start to the year and I look forward to what the remainder of the year brings.

Kindergarten has had a wonderful beginning to school life and they have settled in beautifully. Our students have embraced being a part of the St Michael’s community and have demonstrated in their application to their learning, but also in the way they have represented our school at so many events in this first term.

As we continue on the journey of Lent and prepare for Easter I pray that you have the time to reflect together as a family over the meaning of Easter and the importance this holds to us as Catholics in today’s world. I wish you a restful and blessed break with your family and I thank you for your continued support as we work together.

Thank you to the staff who have also worked on the shared mission of educating our children in “Inspiring Excellence in Learning, Leading and Living the Faith”. I wish everyone a safe and restful holiday break.

God Bless

Mrs Belinda Hughes - Principal

Confirmation

Enrolment Forms for the Sacrament of Confirmation close on 13 May 2019. To download an enrolment form go to the St Michael’s Parish website (thirroul@dow.org.au) and return it to the Parish Office.  

Parents/Guardians need to attend:

• Parent Meeting: 7:30pm, Tuesday, 4 June 2019
• Classes 1 and 2 : Tuesdays, 11 and 18 June, 3:45pm to 5pm
• Confirmation Practice: Tuesday, 25 June, 7:00pm
• Sacrament of Confirmation : 7:30pm on Wednesday, 26 June or 7:30pm on Thursday, 27 June 2019

Come along to our school ANZAC Ceremony

After having discussions with Thirroul Public School this year we have decided to have our ANZAC day services at our respective schools. We have decided to trial this, so that all years from Kindergarten to Year 6 can attend the service.

It will take place on Tuesday 30th of April, the second day back at school. The service will begin at 9:30am.

The service will be held in our school hall.

We thank our captains & vice captains for attending the ANZAC day dawn service on behalf of St Michael’s at Austinmer/Thirroul RSL Sub-Branch Dawn Service at William Woodward Park, Thirroul. 6am start. We would love to see more faces from St Michael’s  at this important commemoration.

Easter at Thirroul Parish - Join our Thirroul Community and Father Ken for our Easter Masses:

 Holy Thursday – Mass of the Lord’s Supper

• 7:30pm, 18 April

• Good Friday, 19 April
• Way of the Cross, 10:30am
• Liturgy of the Passion, 3:00pm

• Easter Vigil, Saturday, 20 April
• 7:00pm

• Easter Sunday, 21 April
• Easter Sunday Mass, 8:00am [with infant baptisms]

Thank you!

Thank you for everyone’s involvement in our Holy Week Liturgy. I want to especially thank Mr Mal Duffin, Mrs Joanna Stuart and Mrs Renee Brunero for contributing to our Holy Week Liturgy on behalf of the  parent community.

Activate Fire

St Michael's will be hosting Year 6 students from Holy Cross, Helensburgh, St Joseph’s, Bulli and St Columbkille’s, Corrimal for Activate Fire, which will be held on Monday 6 May, 2019. The day is an Immersive Spiritual Experience based on the Yr 6 unit Confirmation: Celebrating the Gift of the Holy Spirit. St Michael's, Thirroul is hosting the day with CYMW (Catholic Youth Ministry Wollongong) assisting the day to facilitate. We are very excited to be able to give our Year 6 students this faith forming experience.

Miss Emma Groves - Religious Education Coordinator

Term 2 sports uniform days

Dear Parents,

Due to our changes in the structure of our teacher release times there have been slight modifications in the days in which each class participates in Physical Education lessons. Please see below the days in which each class will require their sports uniform throughout Term 2. Additionally, all classes will require their sports uniform each Friday.

The Leader In Me

Each fortnight our brilliant Year 6 Leaders of Community team have designed and facilitated engaging presentations on a focus habit at each fortnightly assembly. These students are to be commended on the way in which they have allowed all of our students to gain a deeper understanding of these habits and provide them with strategies of how they can implement these habits into their daily lives. It has been brilliant to see students across the school demonstrating these habits in all aspects of our school. Due to positive feedback from our school community we will continue to explore the remainder of these habits throughout the year.

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.  We welcome all parents and friends to our school assemblies which are held every fortnight on a Friday afternoon at 2.40pm in the hall (McCarthy Centre). Our wonderful Year 6 leaders will be facilitating these assemblies throughout the year. This year we are exploring other ways to showcase our learning through our assemblies.

Please see below dates for our Term 1 assemblies.

Week 2- Friday 10 May

Week 4- Friday 24 May

Week 5- Friday 31 May

Week 8- Friday 21 June

Week 10- Friday 5 July

Mr James Bryce - Assistant Principal

Term 2 Uniform

As we come to the end of Term 1, it is easy to become complacent with school uniform. Thank you to all parents who support our uniform policy and ensure that their child is wearing the correct uniform at all times.

The teachers are having a focus on correct uniform in the next couple of weeks, this may mean that your child may bring home a pink slip reminding you and them of the expectations. Please refer to the SPB4L section of our newsletter for the key messages around uniform expectations.

The change to winter uniform next term is Monday 20 May (Week 4). If the weather becomes cooler students may wear their full winter uniform before this date.

Morning Procedures:

Please note that supervision of students does not begin until 8.30am. Any students who arrive at school before this time are unsupervised.

NAPLAN 2019

Year 3 and Year 5 students will sit NAPLAN on the following dates.

Tuesday 14 May- Writing

Thursday 16 May- Reading

Monday 20 May- Language Conventions

Wednesday 22 May- Numeracy

School Communication

If you would like to contact your child's class teacher for any reason (no matter how big or small) you can either:

• 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.

Social Media Policy Launch

Last week Mrs Peardon and I attended the launch of the Catholic Education Office Social Media Policy. There was a focus on the positive use of Social Media to support learning and communication. The diocese presented information for schools and parents. I have attached the parent information that was share to today’s newsletter. We will share further information in term 2.

Thank you to the parents who were able to attend the P&F AGM. I would like to thank the committee from 2018 for their tireless work to support the families of St Michael’s. All positions on the executive were declared vacant. I congratulate and thank the following parents for taking on this important role on the executive. I look forward to another productive year working together.

President - Mike Lyon

Assistant President - Sinead Molloy

Secretary - Elaine Gully

Treasurer - Rodney Bolton

           

Woolworths Earn and Learn

We are excited to be taking part in the 2019 Woolworths Earn & Learn program.

During the previous campaign, we were able to purchase some great resources with the points we earned, thanks to you.

From 1 May until 25 June 2019, you can collect stickers at Woolworths that go towards Earn & Learn points. For every $10 you spend at Woolworths (excluding the purchase of tobacco, liquor and gift cards), you will receive a sticker.

These stickers can then be given to your children to collect on a special sticker sheet. Once it is completed, they can simply bring it to school or you can drop them into the Woolworths collection box.

The more points we earn, the more we can redeem from a choice of over 10,000 educational resources including mathematics and English resources, art & crafts materials and much, much more!

Touch Football Diocesan Trials

A massive congratulations to Ainslie White & Zoe Wilson for making it through to the Wollongong Diocese touch football team. They will now compete at the MacKillop Trials on 31, May at Werrington Park, St Mary's. Best of luck girls!

Mr Jason Novak -Sport Coordinator

Catholic Legends Shield 2019

On Thursday April 4, 75 students, 6 teams from Years 5-6  and 2 teams from Years 3-4 participated in the Rugby League Paul Mcgregor and Rod Wishart Cup.

They had a fantastic day and every student represented our school with pride and enjoyed playing Rugby League and League Tag. Congratulations to each one of you on your brilliant sportspersonship and respectful attitude!

Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who came to help cheer on the teams. A special thank you to Mr Smith, Mr Holland, Mr Temple, Mr Hamod, Mr McEvoy, Mrs Carey-Barr,  Mr Duffin, Mr White, Mrs Ninness and Mrs Trasler who volunteered to be team managers on the day. Your assistance is very much appreciated. Thank you again to everyone for their support on this day.

We looked very professional at the gala day with our own special jerseys. The jerseys were provided by Mr White from Thirroul Butchers Football Club.

Thank you to Mr Hamod for providing a “rain shelter” for us on the day.

Thank you also to Mr Novak, Mrs Jackson and Mrs Loughery for attending the day with the students.

Miss Emma Groves

Cross Country

What a superb carnival! The sun was shining with a soft breeze. All the students had a wonderful carnival. It was great to see all students involved in the day, whether it was the fun run or the competitive races. It was fabulous to see such a lot of parents helping on the day. We truly appreciate the efforts that were made to ensure that you could come and give a hand. I know the students love seeing you help out too!

We will look forward to seeing the following students represent St Michael’s at the diocesan carnival on Tuesday, 7 May.

Arabella Barr, Giselle Barr, Chloe Bleeker, Tessa Body, Seidah Bristow, Amelie Kelly, Sophia Lamberger, Sophia Leavesley, Harper Pingnam, Finlay Reid, Jessica Smith, Zoe Wilson, Dash Barr, Jayden Beaumont, AJ Duffin, William Egan-Brown, Noah Henderson, Charlie Lamberger, Harrison Leavesley, Ruben Mayers, Rory Milross-Rose, Riley Saville, Cameron Sheldrick and Ciaran Stuart. Please ensure that your permission notes have been returned.

We need to provide a parent helper for the Diocesan Carnival. If you are interested in filling this role, please contact myself or the school ASAP.

Mrs Ronelle Peardon - Carnival Convenor

Awards

Principal's Awards presented at the last assembly:

• Aiden Ganassin
• Sandon Rossignol
• Harrison Leavesley
• Sophia Leavesley
• Dash Bristow

GOLD Awards presented at the last assembly

• Sophia Leavesley

• Kalani Paxton 
• Sophia Leavesley

THIRROUL JUNIOR FOOTBALL CLUB

Calling all U8 players wishing to play football (soccer) in the winter season.  If you were born in 2011 and would like to learn new skills – Thirroul Junior Football Club have vacancies in this age group.  If you are 7 (2012) and would like to play up an age group we would love you to join our club. For enquiries please contact Debbie Crawford on 0402 775 005 or 42681757 (leave a message) or go to www.thirroulfootball.com.au for instructions on “How to Register”.