TENs Conference 

Last week I attended a three day conference in regards to the new curriculum. It was an exciting three days with new and exciting learning as well as fabulous cross sector collaboration. 

We were lucky enough to have a number of professors and Educational researchers provide us with professional learning that will have a positive impact on teachers, students and our whole school community. One such presenter was Marina Laing, Principal Project of Curriculum Reform, Diversity. She spoke with us about how the new curriculum has been created with every outcome worded in a way that is inclusive of all students regardless of disability or background. It has been a huge focus of the new curriculum to include the ‘Equity Principles’ of excellence, respect and responsibility, equity and justice and Inclusivity. The aim is to remove barriers, building a curriculum that includes and involves all students. 

If we can take down the fences in all subjects we can make all subjects for all students. 

We were also lucky enough to view the draft syllabus for Science, HSIE, PDHPE and Creative Arts, I’m not allowed to tell you too much about these as we were providing feedback to NESA but… let me tell you it is EXCITING times ahead and I can not wait to teach this new syllabus with our students. We will need to wait a little longer for this to happen as user testing probably will not start until 2024.

Professional learning for all staff here at St Michael’s around the learning at this conference has already taken place this week and will continue throughout the term. 

Miss Eliza Treble - Assistant Principal

We are hosting a Talk-And-Walk-Afternoon to build student connections. 

October is Mental Health Month and we are encouraging students to talk and walk. The aim is to build connections between students, as strong relationships are crucial to good mental health. 

What is the Talk-And-Walk-Afternoon?

It’s important that our children feel safe, connected and supported at school and within the wider community. We know our young people connect and chat through their devices but this doesn't replace the need for connecting with others through face-to-face conversation. The Talk-And-Walk-Afternoon has been designed to highlight the importance of talking with others as a way of connecting to strengthen a sense of belonging, empathy and understanding.

Students will be invited to stretch their legs and strike up a conversation with peers they may not have connected with before. Engaging with others for the first time may not come easily to everyone. Students will be supported with conversation cards to help prompt discussion as they walk. Students who find conversation easy, will be challenged to use their skills to increase connections beyond their usual friendship groups. 

When is it?

The Talk-And-Walk-Afternoon is on Friday, 28th of October, 2022

How can you support your child develop social skills?

You can help your child learn conversational skills at home by:

• Practising conversation at home with the conversation prompts provided. 
• Modelling conversation with your child.
• Modelling conversation with new people you meet. 
• Modelling help-seeking or talking about your experiences, challenges and how you worked through them.
• Having conversations with people who are different from you. 

Using conversation starters at home

Here are some conversation prompts to use at home. 

• If you could make three family rules, what would they be?
• What are the most important things we’ve learnt from each other?
• What do you like best about your siblings?
• What do you think are the most important qualities of a good parent or carer?
• What is your favourite family tradition?
• What is your favourite thing about our family?
• What should we do more of as a family?
• What should we do less of as a family?
• If you could change one thing about your room, what would it be?
• What is something your parent or carer didn’t have growing up that you are glad you have?
• What is something you don’t need, but you’re grateful you have?
• What do you think is the best part about being a parent or carer?
• If you could make a rule for a day and everyone had to follow it, what would it be?
• What do you hope never changes?
• What day do you look forward to the most each week or each year?
• Among our family, what are you most famous for?
• What’s your favourite family memory?
• What’s something you wish everyone knew about you?
• When you’re feeling sad, what makes you feel better?

We recommend making time to enjoy the conversation together as a family. A family meal is an ideal time to do this. 

Eating together at home has a range of benefits. Research shows that kids who eat with their families perform better at school, have bigger vocabularies, lower rates of depression, anxiety and eating disorders, and have healthier diets and better cardiovascular health. (You can read more about that on The Conversation.) 

There are many times and ways to connect and talk. Do it as often as you can, as it helps build strong communities. 

You may like to come up with some conversation prompts too. What questions can you think of to discuss with your kids at home? 

PB4L Team - Mrs Ronelle Peardon and Mrs Chelsea McLeod

Summer Uniform Update

Lowes have advised the school that the current blue socks have been discontinued. Lowes will stock a slight variation on the colour moving forward, Saxe Light Sky sock. The price remains the same.

As we enter Term 4 with open minds and mighty determination,we look forward to the exciting opportunities that await us. Not to mention Yr 6 Captain speeches coming up soon! We are absolutely delighted to share our gifts with the St Michael’s school community. We are very thankful for these wonderful leadership opportunities that we will come across in the next year. In Yr 6 we have the chance to shape our school community to its greatest potential and we can’t wait to make this school a better place! 

We have started a new unit in Science & PDH focusing on OzHarvest. We have been learning about food waste and sustainability. When we heard that we were going to be cooking, we were so excited! We can’t wait to taste, and make all of the new foods that are coming our way! This Monday we got to make a delicious tzatziki dip with finely cut vegetable sticks, as well as nutritious fruit skewers dipped in with exceptional Vanilla Greek yoghurt! 

In term three, we participated in the Christmas story art competition. We loved this journey and experience as we got to celebrate the birth of Christ through our artwork and written description. We all worked very hard to complete our final product, and were very proud of our success. As we dived deeper into the true meaning of the scriptures we realised how much love the holy trinity provides us all with. Going into year 6 we are so excited to go on our journey again, and repeat this process with more of a deeper understanding. 

Everyday we learn something new in maths, and are always putting our minds to the test with excitement. Lately we have been learning about patterns and algebra which will further set us up for high school and life. We are going to learn about BIDMAS (brackets, indices, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction) and already have filled our brains with the basics of algebra. We always bump each other up and challenge ourselves to be better. I don’t think we ever have a maths lesson where we don’t learn something new! We are loving maths in Yr 5 so much! 

Written by Lara, Audrey & Hazel

Miss Emma Riolo - Yr 5 Teacher

Congratulation to the Term Two receipents of the

Living The St Michael's Vision Awards

Living Fully in Community

The Thirroul Catholic Women’s League

will be holding a Cake & Craft Stall after Masses at St Michael’s Church.

The Stall will be held on Saturday, 29 October & Sunday, 30 October

• Cakes
• Craft Items
• Second Hand Books
• Plants
• Kids Clothing
• Monster Basket of Fruit Raffle

Bring your money with you!