Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,

We have hit the halfway mark of the term and boy is there a lot happening at St Michaels. Today our Year 5/6 children are representing our school in the District Winter Sports Carnival where they will participate in a range of sports including football, netball, soccer and t-ball. We’d like to thank our parent volunteers who have offered to assist during the day. We greatly appreciate your support. Also this week, our 1/2 students are off on an excursion to Old Gippstown in Moe, whilst our 3/4 students will be celebrating a year level Mass on Friday at the Church. 

We are currently experiencing a lot of poor and unsafe behaviour in our student toilets. These include the throwing of wet toilet paper on the roof, sports equipment and sticks being jammed into toilet bowls, children using the floor instead of sitting on the toilet seat, children standing on and breaking the toilet seats, children climbing over the cubicles and children locking the cubicle doors from the inside and leaving the cubicle unattended. 

Whilst these issues are being addressed as they occur, often the students responsible are not identified and appropriate consequences are not able to be put in place. We have spoken about safety in the toilets at a few assemblies and every day the children are reminded of the expectations by their classroom teacher, however these issues continue to occur on a daily basis. To support us, we ask that all parents speak to their child/ren about safe and responsible behaviour expected of their child when in the toilets. We will continue to remind all children about the expectations of using the toilets and we also have some plans to make this a more child friendly environment by including some positive reminder posters in the toilet blocks. 

This weekend we celebrate Pentecost Sunday. All families are warmly invited to attend the 9:30am Mass and join the Parish for Morning Tea afterwards.  

It is that time of year where we have lots of staff and student illnesses. We ask that if your child is unwell, please keep them home from school until they no longer show symptoms. Covid is present at St Michaels, so please test your child if necessary and if positive, it is strongly recommended they remain at home. Please let the school office know or indicate this via PAM attendance. 

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at St Michael’s for their dedication and passion in supporting and encouraging the best learning outcomes for your child. The staff here go above and beyond, always seeking opportunities to improve their practice and to provide their students with a safe and caring environment. We are very lucky to have a highly skilled team of educators here at St Mich’s!! 

Kind Regards, 

Lia DiCorleto 
Deputy Principal

Please take note of these important dates: 

Grandparents Day - Friday 16th June at 2:30pm 

Student Led Conferences - Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st June 

Last Day of Term Two - Friday 23rd June 2pm finish 

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 5 the School Wide Expectation focus was Honesty: 

I always tell the truth.

I am honest when reflecting on my personal performance.

I take responsibility for my actions.

The award winners for Week 5 are:

St Michael's is once again participating in the Wonder Recycling Rewards Program.  Our school is collecting bread and muffin bags to redeem for sports equipment. Could you please keep your bags and place them into the green bin outside of the hall. Bread bags should be as free from crumbs as they can be to keep the recycling process free from contamination (there is no need to wash them).  Any questions can be forwarded to Mrs Dortmans or Miss Petesic.  Thank you for your support!

Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and (insert school name) is excited to be participating. The PRC application offers a range of exciting features including:

• access to a library catalogue (including book images and blurbs)
• a modern user-friendly interface
• rewarding students with badges as challenge milestones are achieved
• the option for students to mark books as a favourite, give them a star rating or complete a book review

The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 8 September 2023.

Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books. 

All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.

To read the Premier’s letter to parents, view the booklist and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/premiers-reading-challenge 

Deborah Gilmour in the school library is able to help with any enquires.

To participate in the challenge please click on the link below:

Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge 2023