I am pleased to let the St Michael's School Community know that our Classroom Support Team have been selected as a finalist for the ACT Chief Minister's Inclusion Awards. This is a huge achievement for the team, led by Jo Krippner as Classroom Support Teacher. Our Classroom Support Assistants, Kylie Arena, Sonja Vocisano, Sharon Friend and Unnati Shah go above and beyond each and everyday to ensure that all students feel included, supported and challenged. I appreciate their dedication and passion to making a difference in the lives of all our students. 

The category we are a finalist in is... 

Inclusion in Education and Training
This award recognises an educational and training organisation or individual either within the private sector or government funded that has provided exceptional or innovative educational or training opportunities for people with disability. The finalists are:

Black Mountain School
Charles Weston School Coombs
Jake Naylor
Classroom Support Team at St Michael’s Primary School
Panache Driver Training
The Pastoral Care Team at The Woden School
Rebecca Jefferys

There will be a Gala Night on Thursday 5 December where the team will attend and celebrate this great achievement. On behalf of the whole school community, I would like to say thank you to our amazing Classroom Support Team!

Catholic Mission Day

On Friday, Catholic Mission was a focus with students wearing uniform free (the colours of the world) and each child received Mission Rosary Beads. Pope Francis has chosen the theme 'Baptised and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World'. The Extraordinary Missionary Month (October) is an invitation for all to join in and do something extraordinary for mission. For us at St Michael's, raising awareness and bringing focus to what is happening in the world. 

This year, we were encouraged to learn about how the Church in Ghana is taking a lead in providing life-saving care to children with a disability and fostering their personal development for a brighter future. 

Kinder Orientation

Today, we welcomed 26 little people and their families to St Michael's. It was so great to see them altogether for the first time. We look forward to their next visit on Wednesday 20 November where they will again spend time with the 2020 Kinder Team and also meet their buddies for next year. 

Book Club/Book Fair 2020

Over the course of the year, we have been discussing and reviewing our current arrangements for Book Fair and Book Club. Scholastic do a great job and have done for years, however, we have been noticing in recent years that the quality of literature is dropping and more stationary items and novelty type books have been increasing. Whilst we want children to be excited when we hold book fairs and book club, we also need to centre on what the purpose of holding them is and what message we are sending to our students. We have been working extremely hard over the last year to ensure good quality literature is present at school. We have purchased in excess of 500 books for the library, updated class reading sets and have begun the long process of sorting out the quality of home readers.

The Book Club and Book Fair commission that we receive each year has contributed to enabling us to do this. So, holding book clubs and book fairs are important moving forward however, we have been exploring other companies.

We have come across Redgum. Redgum Book Club is an Australian owned and operated children’s book club. The team has a strong background in publishing, marketing and distribution, and they are passionate about providing engaging and educational books to kids and promoting Australian products. Redgum are proud to promote the unique work of emerging and award winning Australian children’s authors and illustrators and independent Australian publishers. They are providing a fresh offering in the children’s book market by promoting a mix of high quality products including books with strong Australian content and current popular titles

Our librarian (Erin Hardwicke), Front Office Manager (Lisa Monro) and myself have been discussing the benefits of this new company and recently took this information to Community Council to ask for their support in switching to Redgum next year. Community Council have supported this change based on various reasons including, increasing the range of quality literature, a higher commission rate back to the school based on sales, a digital catalogue to stop the waste of sending home 2 catalogues every term (in line with being a more Sustainable school) and less impact on school staff with sorting out payments etc. 

In 2020, we will hold two Book Fairs, (Term 1 and Term 4) and one book club per term. We hope that you welcome the change and continue to support these programs in order to keep increasing the quality literature our students are exposed to and promote a love of reading!

Remembrance Day

On Friday we will pause, pray and remember those who have sacrificed so much for us. 5/6FW will lead us in this prayer reflection. On Monday, we will pause for a minute silence. 

Maths Cluster K-2

On Monday we will again host teachers from across Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese for our K-2 Maths Cluster Professional Learning. All our K-2 teachers will be involved. This has proven to be a great opportunity for us this year where Leonie Anstey, Numeracy Consultant works closely with teachers and students with 'Make, Say, Do, Write' in Maths lessons encouraging higher order thinking and understanding. 

Sacrament of Reconciliation

On Tuesday, we will celebrate with 16 Year 3 students who begin the next step in their Sacramental and Faith journey by receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I wish them and their families all the best as they begin this journey. Thank you to Ms Younger for all her preparation behind the scenes. 

Enjoy the week ahead. 

Kind regards, 

Pat Ellis

Principal