St. Michael's Primary School ~ Term 2 Week 4

IMPORTANT DATES

Principal's Message

Dear Families,

It has been a wonderful couple of weeks in our school community, and I’m pleased to share some highlights and upcoming events with you all.

Mother’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us for our Mother’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy. It was fantastic to see such a great turnout and to celebrate the special women in our lives. Your presence made it a truly memorable occasion.

Growing School Community
It has been wonderful seeing more and more faces at our school and parish events. While our school continues to grow, we are proud to maintain the close-knit, small community feel that makes our school so special. That sense of belonging and connection is something we truly value and work hard to preserve.

Fantastic Work from Staff
A huge thank you to our dedicated teachers and educators for the fantastic work they’ve done implementing changes to our behaviour curriculum and routines. Their commitment has made a noticeable difference—our school environment feels calm, settled, and truly supportive of learning and wellbeing. It’s a joy to walk through the classrooms and see students engaged and happy.

NERSSA Cross Country
Congratulations to all the students who competed at the NERSSA Cross Country event. We are so proud of your efforts and sportsmanship. You represented our school with pride!

F–2 Cross Country
We’re looking forward to our Foundation to Year 2 Cross Country event next Friday 23rd May at school. It’s always a fun filled event with energy and encouragement – don’t forget your runners and water bottles!

Welcome Elisabeth Ryan
We are thrilled to welcome Elisabeth Ryan to our teaching staff. Elisabeth will be joining us from Monday 19th May to teach in the Foundation room. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in education and a strong commitment to nurturing each child’s unique potential. Elisabeth has a warm, student-centred approach and is passionate about creating engaging, supportive learning environments. We are confident that she will be a wonderful addition to our school community, and we look forward to all the ways she will enrich the learning journey of our youngest students.

2026 Enrolments Now Open
If you have a child beginning school next year or know someone who does, please ensure enrolments are submitted as soon as possible. Early enrolment helps with planning and ensures a smooth start for our newest students. Thank you for your continued support and involvement in school life. We are truly blessed to have such a committed and vibrant community.

Warm regards,
Marsha Ardern

Principal

Welcome to Pope Leo 

We join the global community in welcoming Pope Leo XIV who became the first American-born pontiff.  Appointed on 8th May, Pope Leo is the 267th Pope and shared his messages of peace as he addressed the thousands of worshipers from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica.

We share a prayer for the new pope. 

Community Announcement - Planned Fuel Reduction Burn

On behalf of DEECA - Forest Fires Department,  a planned fuel reduction burn is scheduled for this weekend, 17 and 18th May located above the Tallangatta Lookout. 

Please be aware there may be lingering smoke in the area early next week.  

For those with asthma and sensitivities to smoke and air quality, please take precautions as necessary. 

Absence and Teacher Communication Map 

New Allied Health Available

Allied Health Counsellor, Tamika Gigliotti will be available at St Michael's School on Thursdays.  For anyone seeking support with their children or families, a private and confidential space will be available at school for sessions with Tamika.  

Please see below for more details. 

Student Pick-up Arrangements

Please phone the school if your child/ren are not going to be on the bus or have changed pick up arrangements. This is a part of our daily process and our commitment to Child Safety at St Michael's.

Please update ongoing changes when they begin or conclude e.g. sport training or guides. 

School Advisory Council and Parent Representative Group 

We are looking for new members!

If you would like to take the opportunity to nominate for our School Advisory Council or join our PRG we would certainly appreciate new members. They are both great ways to connect with other families and support your child/ren's education and make our school even better. 

If you have any questions about the council or PRG please contact the school. 

Garden Club Donations 

Dear St Michael’s Families,

As we look ahead to the cooler months, the St. Michael’s Garden Club is getting ready for our winter planting—and we’d love your help! 🌱❄️

If you have any winter seeds to spare, we’d be so grateful for your donations. You can drop them off at the school office or bring them to Miss Kaycee’s Year One classroom.

Your contributions help our students learn, grow, and get their hands dirty in the most wonderful ways. Thank you for supporting our little gardeners!

Warm wishes,
The St Michael’s Garden Club.

Lunch Time Clubs 

Our lunch time club roster is attached below. These clubs are optional for students to attend during the lunch time period, starting at 11.25 daily 🎨🎮🎭

On Mondays invite students to Singing Club with Mrs Moffat. Our songs will be practiced each week and eventually performed at Assembly – stay tuned.

On Wednesdays, Mr Henderson has begun running a Chess Club. This week there were many keen players and we are seeking chess boards if you have one that we can borrow for a few weeks. An excellent strategy game for St Michael’s students to learn and join in to compete with friends.

2025 Pupil Free Days

Term 3: 13  August CESL Staff Spirituality Day

Term 4: 20 October Dan Petro Behaviour Analyst Professional Learning, 28 November 2026 Planning day and  17 - 19 December Staff Professional Learning Day and Magnify Sandhurst Days

STUDENT ILLNESS & ABSENCES

A reminder that if your child has gastroenteritis or fever please notify the school and record on your child's absence notification. This will help keep our school safe and our students healthy.

Gastroenteritis exclusion from school - 48 hours from last symptom of vomiting and/or diarrhoea.  

Creating Calm and Focused Classrooms Through Consistent Behaviour Expectations

This term, our school is placing a strong focus on improving classroom behaviour to ensure every student has the opportunity to learn in a calm, safe, and focused environment. While some behaviours—like calling out in class or not following instructions—might seem minor on their own, when they occur frequently, they can significantly disrupt learning for others and contribute to increased stress for both students and staff.As part of our Magnify initiative, our teachers have been undertaking training in Classroom Mastery. This training is equipping staff with clear routines, strategies, and expectations that promote effective learning environments. Your child may have already mentioned some of the changes at home. These include:

• Calm and orderly lining up before entering classrooms
• "Cue to Learn" strategies that signal when to stop, look, and listen
• Exit routines that help students leave class in a calm and respectful way

In the coming weeks, we will also introduce five core school rules. These are designed to support—not replace—our existing school matrix of expectations. Their purpose is to provide clarity and consistency for students so they know exactly what is expected of them throughout the school day. The overall aim of these changes is to reduce distractions in the classroom, allowing for more learning time and helping us build a stronger, more supportive school community. As part of this process, we have reviewed our current Behaviour Flowchart to ensure it aligns with these changes. One key insight has been that everyday behaviours, such as persistent calling out or low-level disruption, are often being repeated without escalation. This is often because it feels too severe to move a student to Level 4 consequences for what seems like a minor action. However, research and our own observations show that repeated low-level behaviours are a major contributor to classroom disruption and increased stress. For this reason, we will be consistently following our Behaviour Flowchart moving forward. If a student continues to repeat Level 1 and 2 behaviours, they will be moved to Level 3. Continued behaviours at Level 3 will result in Level 4 consequences, which may include internal or home suspension. We ask that you discuss this with your child so they understand that clear and consistent boundaries are being reinforced to support a positive learning environment for everyone. Below, you’ll find:

• Our Behaviour Expectation Matrix
• The updated Behaviour Flowchart
• Guidelines used by staff to determine behaviour levels

Families will continue to be kept informed as the rules are taught and reinforced in classrooms. Thank you for your ongoing support in making our school a calm, respectful, and focused place to learn.

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

Thank You!

A heartfelt thank you to our school community for your generous support of Project Compassion. This year, we are proud to announce that we raised $1,475.50! Your contributions will make a real difference in the lives of those in need.

Thank you for showing compassion and making a positive impact!

NERSA Cross Country

Congratulations to Leon, Declan, Tilly, George, Dusty, Lily, Mietta, Carla and Lottie for their participation in the NERSA Cross Country on Friday 9th at Yackandanda. 

Congratulations to the following placegetters who have progressed to the next round; 

U9/10 Girls: Lily - 2nd and Mietta - 10th 

U9/10 Boys:  Declan 8th and Dusty 9th

U11 Boys:  George 6th

U12 Girls: Tilly 4th and Carla 5th 

U12 Boys: Leon 2nd 

The divisional cross country will be held on Friday 30th May at Willow Park in Wodonga. 

Grade 3&4 - Mrs Sally Maguire & Mrs Hannah Barker

What's Happening in 3/4?

We are over halfway in reading our text by Indigenous Australian author Anita Heiss, 'Yirra and Her Deadly Dog Demon', where we have learnt many new vocabulary words such as 'sprawling' and 'nuisance'. We have continued to learn and apply new spelling patterns as well as recognise and write independent or independent clauses with subordinate conjunctions....sounds impressive doesn't it! (It is...just ask us!).
Alongside this, we have researched the history of the Indigenous Flag and have begun to use this information to write a 'Factual Recount' to teach others what we have learnt. 

We have been busy learning all about multiplication and division so far this term, with most of us understanding 'arrays' such as '3 x 7 = 3 rows of 7 in each row' and beginning to learn our Times Tables! Students who are doing extra practise at home are showing greater confidence with retaining them- even just practising in the car between errands is helpful!
We have also learnt to 'divide by two' to-create halving patterns, determine if halving patterns are accurate and correct halving patterns created by others. Erin and Archie created both correct and incorrect patterns for each other, then used a calculator to check and re-write them correctly. (PHOTO WITH THIS)

The most exciting thing to happen for many students lately is the beginning of their learning in 'Music' with Mr Henderson. They have started to learn some skills to play the ukelele and drumming. We read about 'gumleaf playing' in our book in English and Mr Henderson claims he could do this as a child...however, no-one in 3/4 has learnt to do it yet though! Mr Henderson has also taught us to play 'touch football' which was a challenge for many students, as it requires different skills to the AFL we are used to.

Camp planning is underway, so put the dates Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th of August into your calendars. More info will be sent home shortly. 

Sally & Hannah

Grade 5&6 - Mrs Mez Moffat

Hello to all from the Yr 5/6 classroom,

What an amazing start to Term 2. Week 1 was with family and loved ones whilst Educators learnt about their brains (a lot of amazing learning !!) Weeks 2 & 3 flew past with many wonderful learning opportunities. Our Termly Newsletter provides invaluable details of each class’s focus, so be sure to read that!

Yr 5/6 enjoy various learning opportunities and we are grateful to all whom help us learn. 

Al’s Mental Health Skateboarding Program

Yr 6 students benefit greatly from Al and Lochie teaching about positive self-esteem, the importance of sleep and health eating, alongside positive thinking and being assertive. An excellent programme that entwines life skills with fun on a skateboard.

Reconciliation Week : May 27th to June 3rd

St Michael’s was invited to join a Drawing Project with local indigenous artist, Narelle. We learnt about local Aboriginal culture through images and artefacts. Students were asked to create a picture and all images will be displayed at Tallangatta Library during Reconciliation Week.

Mental Health in Schools

Positive sleeping habits can have significant impact on our ability to learn and on our Mental Health and Wellbeing. 

Why sleep is important for children aged 5-11 years?

When your child sleeps well, your child will be settled, happy and ready for school the next day. That’s because good-quality sleep helps your child concentrate, remember things, manage emotions and behave well. This all helps your child learn well.

Getting enough sleep is also important for your child’s health. That’s because it strengthens your child’s immune system and reduces the risk of infection and illness.

Sleep: what to expect at 5-11 years.
At 5-11 years, children need 9-11 hours sleep a night. For example, if your child wakes for school at 7 am and needs approximately 10 hours sleep per night, your child should be in bed before 9 pm. Some children fall deeply asleep very quickly when they go to bed. Others sleep lightly, fidgeting and muttering for up to 20 minutes, before getting into deep sleep.

Children have different kinds of sleep during the night. The first few hours of sleep are usually the deepest. Most dreams happen in the second half of the night. 

How to help children sleep well
A good night’s sleep is about getting to sleep, staying asleep and getting enough good-quality sleep. Here are ideas that can help your child get the sleep they need.

Bedtime routine
A bedtime routine is very important at this age. It helps your child wind down from the day. For example, a child who normally goes to bed at 7.30 might have a bedtime routine that looks like this:

• 6.45 pm: put on pyjamas, brush teeth, go to the toilet.
• 7.15 pm: quiet time in the bedroom with a book and a bedtime story or quiet chat.
• 7.30 pm: goodnight and lights out.

Relaxing before bed
After a big day at school, your child might still be thinking about the day’s events and worries. If your child’s mind is still busy at bedtime, it can cause a restless night or bad dreams. You can help your child relax for sleep and sleep better by making time for calm, quiet activities in your child’s bedtime routine. For example, you could play gentle music, read a story together or encourage your child to have a bath before bed.

This extract is taken from the Australian Parenting website: Raising Children Network. 

Joe Quinn
Mental Health Wellbeing Leader

Junction Services 

 Offer the Early Help Program for families with children 0-12 years old.  

The aim of the program is to upskill families, providing tools and strategies to empower families based on their goals, needs and wishes. We provide parents with possible tools and strategies to help with common family struggles to build on their knowledge, skills and confidence.

This may include: 

• Developing and maintaining routines
• Emotional Regulation
• Interactions between family members
• Activities that promote healthy relationships
• Boundary setting in a variety of environments
• Supporting children to meet developmental milestones
• Connect you to the community and everything it has to offer

Families can connect directly with Junction, or you can contact the school to find out more about how they might be able to help you from time to time. Attached is some information for you to read and a self referral form that you might be able to use as part of the process when contacting Junction Support Services.

Contact me if you want to know more.

Joe Quinn
Mental Health Wellbeing Leader.
jquinn@smtallangatta.catholic.edu.au

Wodonga Catholic Parish News

Hello everyone, it is that time again, please find attached the Bulletin for this weekend.

Happy days to all 😊 Don’t forget to share your smile!  

Kind regards

Sonni 🌻

What's On

Auskick and Net Set Go