Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,

STAFFING NEWS

Next week you will receive a letter sent home with your child(ren) that shows your child’s classroom teacher(s) for 2023. We are welcoming Bianca Grundy, Kaitlin Vacca and Phoebe Trembath to St Michaels who will be joining us as classroom teachers in 2023 as well as welcoming back Amy Smith and Louise Clarke.  

Sadly, we will also be saying farewell to Bethany Allen, Gemma Pizzi, Sarah Watson, Lachlan Ware and Nicole Leeder as they move onto new opportunities and experiences. On behalf of the school community, we thank you for your contributions and wish all of you well.

2023 SCHOOL CAPTAINS

Last Thursday I had the pleasure to listen to a group of grade five children who presented a speech to their teachers and peers about why they would be a suitable candidate to be school captain. All the speeches showed a lot of thought and preparation had gone into them and they were of a very high standard. Whilst only some children can be chosen to this role there are other opportunities for student leadership at St Michael’s including House Captain, Environmental Team and Student Leadership committee and I encourage those who missed out a school captain role to consider nominating for one of these roles. 

I am pleased to announce that the following students have been chosen to be the 2023 school captains:

• Ekhai Imhagwe
• Lilly Duran
• Lucy Graham
• Rocco Moretti
• Sibella MacPherson

Congratulations and I look forward to working with them next year.

I would also like to congratulate this year’s school and house captains on their work this year. You have been outstanding representatives of St Michael’s this year.

POLICE REMEMBRANCE DAY

Earlier this term St Michael’s students were invited to complete a piece of art work for Police Remembrance Day 2022. Yesterday St Michaels received a lovely gift from the Police chaplain, Veronica on behalf of Victoria Police. 

PEACEFUL KIDS PROGRAM

You will have noticed from the above staffing list one of our current teachers, Nicole Leeder has decided to take leave from being a fulltime classroom teacher and has decided to open her own business. 

Nicole has completed training in the ‘Peaceful Kids’ program and will be offering the program in 2023 from her new office space in Traralgon after school. We also aim to offer the program at St Michaels one day a week as well if enough parents are interested in their child participating. 

‘Peaceful Kids’ is a Mindfulness and Positive Psychology based program to lessen anxiety and stress and increase resilience in children. It  is an 8 week program, and sessions are for approximately 1 hour each week. (40-50 minutes for Prep and Year 1’s)  

Sessions include learning a range of mindfulness strategies and meditations and positive psychology exercises. The outcomes of completing the ‘Peaceful Kids’ program are:

• Lessen symptoms of anxiety and stress in children  
• Teaches children to self-calm 
•  Empowers children to manage their own anxiety and stress symptoms 
•  Builds emotional resilience  
•  Develops emotional intelligence skills 
•  Teaches children life-long skills to manage stress and prevent stress build up 
•  Supports children so they know that they are not alone with suffering from anxiety

Nicole will also be offering tutoring in Maths, Reading Comprehension and Writing in after school hours sessions. For further information please contact Nicole via email at nicole67maree@gmail.com.

2023 School Fee Schedule and School Fees Payment Arrangement forms have been sent home. Please note that forms for changes to current direct debits, or to set up new direct debits, are required at the school office by Monday 12th December. Direct debits for the rest of December and January 2023 will be scheduled for processing during the last week of term. Any changes to bank details etc received after 12th December will not be processed until 30th January 2023.

This year 29 of our St Michael’s children celebrated their First Holy Communion during November. Congratulations to the following children and their families on their preparation for this special sacrament. 

Mason Athanasiadis, Scarlett Baxter, William Calabro, Nicolette Chihota, Faith Daniel, Thomas Denyer, Aoife Doherty, Leigham Frendo, Sebastian Goicoa, Nathan Kimani, Harper Kite, Milla Koppen, Wynter Krausz, Jack Krieger, Jaise Maiden, Oscar Marotta, Braith McNeill, Lachlan Moon, Elijah Nicolopoulos, Alice Nye, Chloe Rawson, Clementine Reid, Pippa Roscoe, Henry Stanistreet, Justin Te Paa, Olivia Uren, Ella Van der Meer, Phoebe Walker and Kaiden Warne.

St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal                           

St Michael’s Primary School has a long tradition of supporting our local St Vincent de Paul Society. Each year we assist with two collections for St Vinnies: June, for the Mass of the Sacred Heart and December, for the Christmas Appeal

Leading up to the festive season, St Vincent de Paul make Christmas Hampers for families in our local community who are in need of support, particularly at this time of year.

To assist St Vinnies, we ask our school families to donate some festive items. These donations might include: Christmas food, serviettes, wrapping paper, bon bons, gift cards, toys etc. Consider donating the items that bring joy into your household during this special time of the year.

Any support you can offer at this time would be greatly appreciated. We ask that donations be at school before Friday 9th December.

Thank you for your continuous spirit of giving.                          

Sue Rickwood

Each week students from each class are awarded Student of the Week certificates. These children are nominated for the example they have been within the school based on the School Wide Expectation focus for that week. The weekly focus will be from Wednesday until Tuesday the following week. Awards will be presented to students at assembly on Friday.

In Week 9  the School Wide Expectation focus was Learning: 

I set high expectations of what I can achieve.

I work hard and always try my best.

I reflect on my own learning and how I can improve.

I can receive and act on feedback.

The award winners for Week 9 are:

The Traralgon Country Network buses will continue to run to a revised schedule as follows:

Starting on Wednesday the 14^th of December – Buses will carry out their usual morning service.  If there are students using the morning service to get to school, that service will also run that afternoon.  If there are no students in the morning, the service will not run that afternoon.

The following days, if there are no students using the bus in the morning, the service will not run that afternoon.

If there are no students using the service two mornings in a row, the service will cease.

Reminder: 2023 School Bus Program Offers need to be submitted. Travel offers for applications submitted for 2023 have now been made and any new applications for 2023 will be processed daily. 

• Please log into your SBMS account and confirm the travelers detials are correct, such as school attending, year level enrolled, and bus stop/route details
• If the details are correct, please accept the travel offer
• If the details are incorrect or you no longer need to travel, please email: schoolbus@education.vic.gov.au
• Offers expire 30 days after the offer is made
• If you do not have an existing application in the system, you can continue making travel applications for 2023.

Icy poles are for sale at lunchtime during Term 4. They are 50 cents each.