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Dear Parents, Guardian and Carers,
What a crazy start we have had to this week with yesterday's wind and unseasonably cold temperatures. A special shout out to the Admin team who put on their catering hats to ensure that any child with a lunch order still got lunch. It’s a reminder on how much we rely on services such as electricity! Hopefully all the school community now has power and the impact from the storm has been minimal.
National Child Protection Week
You will have noticed the messages on our facebook page this week about Child Protection week. In 2024, the National Child Protection Week message that ‘Every child in every community needs a fair go’ will be complemented with the theme ‘Every conversation matters’.
Conversations are powerful tools to keep children and young people safe and well.
Conversations can help us understand issues, craft solutions, value community knowledge, and build the brains and social connections of children and young people.
Conversations between
…children and their caregivers matter (from the very earliest days)
…children and their peers matter
…families with teachers, doctors, and other professionals matter
…friends or neighbours matter
…decision-makers and the communities they serve matter.
And, of course, conversations in the public realm and media matter…
So this National Child Protection Week we invite you to speak up – and speak together – about what needs to change for every child in every community to have a fair go.
- A great, free resource for parents/caregivers and other family members is the Australian parenting website raisingchildren.net.au. The site offers free, reliable, up-to-date and independent information to help families grow and thrive together. The articles, videos and interactive resources are tailored to different ages and stages, taking families from nurturing a newborn to raising a confident, resilient teen – and helping parents to look after themselves too.
- If you’re looking for activities to do with your children the National Association for the Protection of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) has launched a great Children’s Activity Booklet. Working through the pack is a great way for you to start a conversation with your child about what makes them feel safe and supported where they live.
2025 requests for classes
All school staff aspire towards providing an environment where the best interests of the child are held paramount. While teachers don’t have the same attachment to a child that a parent does, the staff at St Michael’s care personally for the children in the school. We are starting the process of planning for the 2025 school year. If parents have a genuine reason for class placement requests for next year, could you please email them through to principal@stmtraralgon.catholic.edu.au by Friday 20th September.
An enormous amount of time and effort is put into the creation of class lists and many factors are taken into consideration by the staff. A written request will be considered on its merits but is not a guarantee. Who is teaching which grade has not yet been decided so please do not request certain teachers.
At St Michael’s we work on a whole school approach to class planning and are blessed to have a committed teaching staff who collaborate to give the very best learning opportunities to all students in our care. Please be aware that a request has to be made for this current year, we will not be referring to requests made 12 months ago as circumstances change.
If your family situation is changing, we would also appreciate you letting the Office know. An accurate indication of student numbers assists us enormously in our planning for 2025. We have a waiting list for some grades and if we know you are leaving we can offer them your spot.
All requests are due by Friday 20th September and no further requests will be considered after this time.
Key dates:
- 5th September - Pie drive closes 10pm on CDFPay
- 9th - 10th September - grade 4 camp
- 12th September - Pie order collection from 3:15pm
- 19th September - Footy Colours Day
- 20th September - Term 3 ends at 1pm
Thank you for the many well wishes regarding my upcoming holiday,
Kind regards
Jodie
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 8 the School Wide Expectation focus is 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.
| Evaan Anoop | Sanvika Suveesh | Ella Van Der Meer |
| Patrick Marshall Black | Kyah Pham | Emerson Hayes |
| Nessa Bino | Isabelle Paulet | Claudia Blomquist |
| Frankie Colgan | Virginia Sanchez | Aubrey Ross |
| Jack Hill | Alex Do | Kelsey Reed |
| Lachlan Franklin | Ollie Martyn | Lucas Groves |
| Tomike Ayeni | Ella Mazza | Vivienne Crozier |
Today's gospel is all about obeying the purity rites of the Jewish people. No matter how good the intention, sometimes misguided principles can lead to false action. This is what Jesus chastised the Pharisees about. The traditions that had been established based on the Law as stated in the Torah had become practices to try to help people honour the Torah, but effectively they now replaced the Law. In order to maintain spiritual cleanliness, a tradition of physical cleanliness had emerged – particularly around interaction with Gentiles and around eating. However, the purpose of the tradition had become lost. The need for physical cleanliness had replaced the maintenance of spiritual cleanliness.
When the Pharisees observed some of the disciples eating without properly washing their hands, they challenged Jesus about it. Jesus reminds them – somewhat forcefully – that these external practices are not the Law; rather the Law is observed internally. Jesus points out that no amount of ritual cleansing will make a person clean within. Similarly, evil and uncleanliness come from within a person – one doesn’t ‘catch it’ from contact with strangers.
We live in a culture that is very quick to lay blame on external factors; some people are very reluctant to accept responsibility for their own actions and look for opportunities to distance themselves from feelings of guilt or even regret. Jesus makes it very clear that evil intentions – the things that make a person ‘unclean’ – actually come from within. In our culture of no personal responsibility, Jesus challenges us to rethink “where does the buck stop?”
Yesterday we had the pleasure of hosting Maria and Michael from Catholic Mission. During the day Maria spoke with every level of our school, sharing the story of Catholic Mission and what it means to be missionaries in our world while staying right here in Traralgon.
As a Catholic Community we are inspired by the life of Jesus to reach out to those in this world who are marginalised or less fortunate than we are. Last year the focus country for Catholic Mission was Timor Leste, working with the Don Bosco Children’s Home and assisting the community with health care.
The most exciting news that Maria shared with the children is that St Michael’s Primary School was the top fundraising school in Victoria and Tasmania last year! Last year we raised $4,277.45. Congratulations to our entire school community, this could not have been achieved without you all!
The country that Catholic Mission is supporting this year is Mongolia. This country will be the focus of our mission work for the rest of the year; the children will learn about the needs of this community and how we can be missionaries supporting the marginalised.
Our Mini Vinnies team learnt how to make Mission Balls out of old socks. They are looking forward to sharing this with the classes next term. We will be needing lots of odd socks - can you please start collecting these for us.
Next week we will kick off a Colouring Competition and Guess the Lollies in the jar. Both of these fundraisers will be 50 cents each. The Mini Vinnies team will visit the classrooms each day for the children to guess the number of lollies in the jar and choose a picture for the colouring competition.
Thanks again for your fabulous support.
We offer hot lunches weekly on a Monday with Munch Lunch. They are a local company that offer a variety of lunch items.
Ordering is simple, download the Spriggy Schools app via your App Store or Google Play store, select St Michael's School, add your children and their class to the app and place your order! Lunches will then be delivered to school. Orders need to be placed by 9:00am on the day. You can pre order lunches 2 weeks in advance.
Contact: Munch Lunch 0459 220 445 or hello.munch.lunch@gmail.com
