St. Michael's Primary School ~ Term 3 Week 10

IMPORTANT DATES

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As Term 3 comes to an end, I want to take a moment to reflect on some of the special achievements and growth we’ve experienced together. It has been a busy few months filled with great learning, extracurricular activities outside of the classroom and memorable events.

At times, students have been reluctant to participate in these extracurricular activities and special events. However, this term I am so grateful to families, peers and educators who have encouraged and supported children to participate in our Masses, the Athletics Sports, Sandhurst Arts on Show (SAOS), the Melbourne Camp and the Reaching Out & Serving Others RE Unit Community Outreach. It is such a privilege to witness these students show great courage in overcoming challenges to experience a huge sense of achievement and success as they led our liturgies - reading and taking on roles, participating in the sports to the best of their ability, performing at the Cube for SAOS, taking on public speaking, reaching out to local community groups and to not only enjoy camp but demonstrate great leadership by helping others as well. These are the opportunities when children can truly flourish and reach their full potential. 

Research over the years has shown that students benefit from taking on these types of activities in a number of ways. This can be through feelings of acceptance and belonging - the importance of community, positive mental health outcomes, personal and academic success, increased self-esteem and resilience in overcoming challenges and taking on new activities as well as improved social skills.  

So if your child is reluctant to participate in a new opportunity there are many ways to support them through these challenges.  This can help them to work through their hesitation about these new and different activities by helping them to build their confidence, self-efficacy and realise their potential. Please communicate with your child/ren’s teacher to work together to support your child’s continued growth and development. 

At St Michael’s we seek to educate the whole child through a positive learning culture that is authentic, challenging and supportive. Our curriculum is comprehensive and purposeful with a wide range of learning experiences, activities and events that are vital for all of our students. Please support your child/ren to engage fully in their education through their attendance at school and participation in extracurricular activities and special events - especially when it is an opportunity for them to overcome challenges, experience a sense of achievement and success, to build their self-confidence and self-esteem, be a part of community and to flourish to their full potential. 

Our Catholic faith teaches that human beings grow and achieve fulfilment in community. Knowing God’s presence in our lives and world we can look at challenges and embrace them as opportunities to find meaning and experience growth through following in Jesus’s footsteps and filled with the Spirit we can live a life of service and love.

I wish you all a wonderful break with your family, and I look forward to seeing you all back at school rested and recharged for our final term of 2024.

Loving God, 

We thank you for this term. For our challenges, our successes and the mistakes from which we have learned much from and that have helped us to flourish. 

May we be aware of your loving presence in our lives as we spend our time with family and friends these holidays. Give us courage and compassion to never see a need without trying to do something about it. 

May we be grateful for the love we receive and for what others do for us, may we love others and give our time and effort to help others. 

May we be peacemakers in our families, communities and world. Keep us safe in our activities and travels; give us good rest and good fun. Bring us back rejuvenated and ready for a new term. 

We thank you for our students, teachers, staff, families and a community that loves and cares for us all and helps us all to learn and grow.

We ask this prayer through Jesus your Son and our teacher,

Amen.

Peace and blessings,

Lisa Hitchcock 

Foundation Students School Nurse Visit

The school nurse will visit St Michael's in Term 4 to do the Foundation health, wellbeing and development checks. Foundation Families -  please ensure you have completed the online form or returned your form to school. Contact the school if you have any questions. 

Community Announcement: Pertussis  - Whooping Cough

Please find attached email communication from the Ovens Murray Public Health Unit regarding the increase in Pertussis cases in our region this year, particularly among school-aged children.  Should you wish to read the CHO alert https://www.health.vic.gov.au/health-alerts/increasing-pertussis-whooping-cough-cases-in-victoria.

St. Michael’s Primary School is committed to child safety and the inclusion of all children.

New email address - Office Staff 

With the change in office days for staff, a new email address has been created for all office related school communications at:

office@smtallangatta.catholic.edu.au

Principal and teacher emails are still to be addressed directly to the staff member.

Teachers & Staff Response to Emails and Messages

To ensure our teachers and staff have a healthy work life balance I wanted to communicate to our community the following: 

• Teachers and staff will respond to emails and messages within 48 hours and will be monitoring these during the hours of 8am-5:30pm. 
• If you have an urgent message please call the school on (02) 6071 2386 or the school mobile number on 0418 105 060. 

Thank you for your understanding and care of our teachers and staff. 

Grade 5/6 Camp - Melbourne

From Wednesday 4th September to Friday 6th September 17 students, 2 Teachers, 1 parent (huge thanks Sam Macdonald) and 1 bus driver,  “Smurf” AKA Stepehn Damm from Martins Albury, left St Michael's at 7am for the adventure to Melbourne. 

There was long days filled with activities including Dinner in Lygon Street, a movie at camp, 2 hr visit to the MCG with tour and picnic lunch on the return home. 

Highlights

Highlights included Science Works, for amazing hands-on activities with lots of learning without realising.

The Planetarium - An incredible doomed roof cinema with a screening about planets, seasons and fascinating facts about Earth within our solar system. 

A visit to the Eureka SkyDeck for sensational views over Melbourne at night, all lit up and looking spectacular. 

Immigration Museum - real life stories of migrants journey to indeed ‘The Lucky Country’; Australia.

IMAX 3 D Theatre - a scary close up look at the T-Rex and a lot of dinosaur archaeological information about palentology. 

Melbourne Museum - a close look at everything from the First Nations to  insects and bugs, to fossils to rocks and gemstones, to historical memorabilia of Australia to miniture models to the human body, to ecosystems to Phar Lap, to mineralogy,  to entomology, to live exhibits …….. Woah!

Lots of stories shared at Old Melbourne Gaol of the working history of this brutal jail system in the late 1800’s that certainly captured everyone’s fascination and a tour through the cells on all 3 levels.

Dinner at Universal Restaurant on Lygon Street, Carlton for Italian cuisine for us all with 100’s of customers every hour that tasted delicious. 

Returning to The Urban Camp for The SMURF movie with a red carpet entrance and freshly made popcorn in a carnival style cart.

And on the final day, completing the Melbourne icons with a visit to the MCG  with volunteer Malcolm who has been conducting tours for 23 years - what a legend he was in the historical sporting records. 

Absolutely fabulous camp food that was generous portions and actually tasted realllllllyyy good.

The student’s behaviour was respectful and mature in every tour and EVERY guide/leader/staff member complimented the group for their thoughtful questions and attentive participation. Watching the class enjoy new things with such awe was truly delightful and I was extremely proud to be their Classroom Teacher.  

Mrs Mez Moffat

Class Happenings - Grade 5/6

Tallangatta Op Shop Visit

Our Year 5/6 students have been learning about groups that service our local community and volunteer organisations. Darby, Bridie and Carla visited our local Op Shop to learn more. Loraine Miller spoke to them about the history of the shop and what it is like to be a volunteer before putting them to work around the store. The students really enjoyed volunteering. 

Al's Skateboarding 

Grade 5/6 have had a super time learning the skills of skateboarding this term.  With a visit on Tuesday to Al's Indoor Skateboarding Park, the class was able to cement the new skills and confidence they have gathered through the term . 

Class Happenings - Grade 3/4

Student Attendance

We have noticed an improvement in the overall students' school attendance this term. We continue to build our awareness of the importance of having attendance rates over 95% for every child. Contact your child's class teacher if you need to know your child's attendance rate. 

Tips to help improve your child's attendance; 

• Talk to your child about school and how important is. You can ask them how they feel about school, what they liked and if there are any problems.
• Reward good behaviour and not bad behaviour. For example, if your child refuses to go to school, do not let them have access to their phones, TV or the internet. 
• Set a good example. Show them how you keep to your own commitments. 
• Encourage your child to take on hobbies that your child enjoys such as sports and clubs. This will help them develop positive relationships outside of the classroom. 
  
• Have a set time to do homework and go to bed. 
• Leave all technology out of their bedroom. 
• Pack their school bag the night before with everything they need. 
  
• Have a set time for breakfast
• Plan to meet up with a friend so they can travel to school together. 
• Don't miss the bus!
  

Mr Joe Quinn

Mental Health Wellbeing Leader. 

Wodonga Catholic Parish News

Hello Everyone,

Wow, the weeks are flying by!

Soon the sun will be warm on our faces, some will be complaining about the heat, and some will be by the rivers and waterholes enjoying every minute of it. I will be the later as I love the summer season just as much as I love springtime. in our bulletin this weekend we have a bit of information on Sr. Mary Duffy, who was the founding Principal of Catholic College Catholic Education Wodonga on the site that is stand today.

Sr Mary passed away peacefully on Monday evening. 

Thank you to everyone for the positive comments on our 'New Look' Bulletin, the link is below.  PDF also attached

Have a happy weekend everyone and don't forget to give your smile away to a stranger or a friend. 

Sonni 

What's On

Tallangatta Neighbourhood House:
School Holiday Program

As you well know School Holidays are rapidly approaching.   At Tallangatta Neighbourhood House we have a great line-up of activities to help families entertain their children during the school holiday break.  There are four fun and interactive workshops to choose from and tickets are $12 each which can be booked via Eventbrite: https://tallangattaneighbourhoodhouse.eventbrite.com.au

Kiewa Tennis Club - New Members Welcome

George's Creek Tennis Club - Coaching

Coaching will begin on Friday 11 th October, for juniors of ALL levels.

Please register with Sharon  on 0428 195 990 or email mckimmie@activ8.net.au ASAP. 

Section 2, 3 and 4 players for the upcoming season will need to register their interest with
Sam Reynolds, 0434 314 352 ASAP

Tallangatta Cricket Club

Tallangatta Cricket Club welcomes new and existing members to join for Junior Cricket and Cricket Blast. 

Junior training starts second week of holidays and the Blast program early November.