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Dear Parents and Carers,
Over the last few weeks we have countless examples of our Parent community coming together to support and give of their time to support the school and the school P&F. I would like to sincerely thank all parents who were able to donate their time, resources, cakes, and funds.
Both the election BBQ and the Seaside festival asked parents to give up their time on a weekend. Please know that this is very much appreciated. The community spirit at the Seaside festival was electric and I have received plenty of positive and encouraging feedback about our school and our parent community. It was a lovely way to showcase our true community spirit to the visitors and residents of Thirorul.
We are truly blessed by our community. Thank you!
Living Life Fully in Community Award criteria
God Bless
Mrs Belinda Hughes - Principal
The Ascension of Our Lord
On Thursday May 26th we gathered to celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord. Thank you to Year Two for sharing the reflection of how "The Lord Jesus was taken into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God…" (Mark 16:15-20)
Pentecost
On Friday June 3rd we reflected as a school community on the coming of the Holy Spirit through Pentecost Sunday - Jesus’ fulfils his promise to send the Holy Spirit. We pray that the Holy Spirit may assist us in our daily lives, as we aspire to be in the service of others.
Prayer for Pentecost
Spirit of our Loving God,
May Your fire revive us.
Spirit of our Loving God,
May Your blessing embrace us.
Spirit of our gentle God,
May Your mercy enfold us.
Spirit of our mighty God,
May Your wisdom inspire us.
Confirmation
The St Michael’s school community is invited to join the candidates and their families in prayerful support of all involved in preparing the young people for this major step in their faith lives as they prepare to receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Please keep the students, their families and those preparing them in your prayers.
Classes One and Two: Tuesdays, 7 and 14 June, 3:45pm to 5pm
Confirmation Practice: Monday, 20 June, 7:00pm
Sacrament of Confirmation:Tuesday, 21 June 2021, 7.00pm
Upcoming Dates
Friday June 10th
Year Four Grade Mass at 9.30am
Grace and Blessings
Mrs Steph Brown - Religious Education Coordinator
New English K-2 Syllabus
As you may be aware NSW are currently creating new syllabus’ for all Key Learning Areas. Here at St Michael's we are lucky enough to be part of the process of trialling the new K-2 English Syllabus and providing feedback to NESA. The new syllabus focuses on building strong foundations for future learning.
The new syllabus recognises that oral language is the base of learning and is developed before written language. Oral language outcomes in the new syllabus is also inclusive of students whose primary communication is not through speaking and listening. Oral language is a strong focus in our Kindergarten, year 1 and year 2 classrooms and is having a positive impact on the development of students reading and writing.
All new outcomes in the syllabus are researched based and focused on building strong foundations. As a result of this there is a new outcome based on decodable texts and the explicit teaching of phonic knowledge and phonological awareness. This new emphasis on decodable text meant our school has purchased a variety of new text for K-2. Our Kindergarten students have been working hard using the decodable texts and we are seeing great progress with their reading and writing.
If parents would like more information about the new syllabus please see the link below to the Curriculum Reform website.
New Pupil Free Day
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All Catholic Schools have been allocated an extra Pupil Free Day At St Michael’s this will be scheduled for the end of the school year on Monday 19 December. This means that the last day for students will be Friday 16 December. |
The enrolment package is available from our school or online at www.dow.catholic.edu.au
Reporting Timeline and Student Led Conferences
Friday 24 June, Week 9, 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. This will be followed by Parent/Teacher Interviews in Week 10. There will be one late night of interviews on Tuesday 28 June. Interview bookings will be released closer to the date.
This year we are pleased to return to Student Led Conferences in Years 3-6. Teachers are working with their class to prepare the children to be able to talk about their learning progress and how they use their learning goals and success criteria to improve in their learning. This means that students will need to attend the parent teacher interviews from Years 3-6.
Kindergarten parents will not receive a formal report, however we still have the opportunity for a parent / teacher interview in Week 10.
We look forward to sharing your child’s journey at school with you.
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2022
World Environment Day is a United Nations Environment-led global event, which takes place each year on June 5th and is celebrated by thousands of communities worldwide. The theme for World Environment Day 2022 is Only One Earth. Its focus is on the need to live sustainably in harmony with nature. On Thursday June 9th St Michael’s staff and students celebrated World Environment Day with a special whole school liturgy. World Environment Day is a day for everyone around the world to take ownership of their environment and to actively engage in the protection of our earth.
Mrs Katie Kelly - Kindergarten Teacher
Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal:
This term, the Mini Vinnies are hosting a Winter Appeal so that they can provide warm items to those less fortunate and enable them to stay warm and dry during these cold Winter months. Each classroom has been provided with a basket for students to collect their warm items. Warm items include but are not limited to: beanies, gloves, socks, scarves, jumpers, blankets, and neck-warmers.
The Winter Appeal collection started this Monday 6th June (Week 7) and will be running through to Friday 17th June (Week 8). The baskets will then be collected by John Dening, the St Vincent de Paul Thirroul coordinator for our school, who will provide these items to people in need in our community.
We thank you in advance for all the support you provide to the school, the Mini Vinnies team and the community.
Miss Negus and the Mini Vinnies team.
Premier have been notified by multiple school bus drivers that students have not been using an opal card when boarding the bus.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind all schools and students that if a customer does not have a valid opal card they are not able to catch any bus.
Can you please advise all students and parents/guardians that starting from Monday 13th of June 2022, any student that does not have a valid opal card will be handed back to the school via the teacher on duty.
Please see below website outlining the Student Code of Conduct as displayed on Transport for NSW’s website.
https://transportnsw.info/student-code-conduct
We are hoping that all schools are able to work with us to achieve an outcome where all students will have a valid opal card when travelling on buses.
Year 3: Writing texts
The students are writing informative texts about Australian Animals. We are using Tier 2 and 3 words to make our writing more interesting.
The purple words are Tier One words (everyday words)
The pink words are Tier Two words (interesting words)
The blue words are the special words only used when we are talking about the topic.
Here is some wonderful writing that has the different Tier words marked in the colours .
In Mathematics we are learning to represent multiplication and division problems as arrays. Students had to create multiple array buildings to contribute to an array city. Students created number sentences, designed array buildings and recorded the total number of windows and made number sentences.
This term in Science and Technology we are learning about Light. This week we conducted some experiments about refraction. Refraction is the bending of light through one substance to another, for example, through air and water. Our experiment tested how a coin becomes visible in a bowl when you add water due to refraction.
In Physical Education we have been practising the skill of kicking a ball in three different ways:
- From a stationary position
- Punt kicking the ball
- Kicking a rolling ball
The Year Three family - respect one another, work with one another, play with one another, share with one another, laugh with one another, grow with one another and learn from each other. TOGETHER we all try to be the very best people that God wants us to be.
Year 5 - Religion Based Learning
This term in year 5 students have been involved in Project Based Learning about the Easter Story. Students have worked independently and collaboratively on the following task:
Using your knowledge from this unit about the Easter story, you are asked to determine how Jesus influences our understanding of life after death. In previous lessons, we have discussed hope and everlasting life. Your task is to create a way to attempt to express to others how Jesus influences our life on earth and life after death.
Students have produced written texts, videos and websites to show their learning.
Check them out here:
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Sophie |
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z_4XpjXLS0K1jBlOcutOi1_X80wxthEY/view?usp=sharing |
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Audrey, Oscar, Charli & Emily |
https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/livingthefaith/home |
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Liam |
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QCe4NdsQth0n8DMHTVDvKmFNcMYDf1p9/view?usp=sharing |
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River & Finn |
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Maya, Jude & Imogen |
https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/theeasterstory/home |
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Hazel & Arabella |
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Will & Sebastian |
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Giselle, Lara, Lucy & Fiadh |
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Oliver, Craig & James |
Miss Emma Riolo - Yr 5 Teacher
Congratulations to Riley S who has made it into the NSW state Basketball team.
Congratulations to the students that attended the NSWCPS (MacKillop) Cross Country. What a big effort to make it to this event, we can see that all the training and hard work has assisted in you getting this far. Clancy M, Giselle B and Lila H all finished in the top 30.
Miss Emma Wragge - Sports Co ordinator
Thirroul Seaside Festival
A wonderful day was had at Thirroul Seaside Festival on Sunday 5th of June. A big Thank You to all the parents who donated cakes, biscuits and all things sweet! The St Michael’s cake stall was a huge hit on the day, taking up prime position and keeping the Thirroul community smiling on a cold winter day. Thank You to all the Year 2 parent helpers who came down to help setup and sell cakes on the day. We look forward to returning to 2023!
Mufti Day
We are looking forward to Term 2 Mufti Day, which will be on Week 10 – July 1, 2022. This term our Mufti Day theme is Crazy Hair and Sock day! Kids are to come to school dressed in their normal school uniform with the addition of a crazy hair style and/or colourful socks! All students are encouraged to bring a gold coin donation which goes towards the P&F.
Term 3 - P&F General Meeting
Week 4, 11th August 2022, 6.30pm for tea and coffee, Meeting commences at 7pm
Please send through any questions you would like raised to pandf@smtdow.catholic.edu.au by Thursday, 4th August to allow for the committee to prepare.
Miss Eliza Treble will be the guest speaker and will be discussing the implementation of the new syllabus and the role of decodable texts.
