What a beautiful day we had on Friday, celebrating Our Lady of Perpetual Help with St Monica's Primary School. I was fortunate to attend both the K-2 Liturgy at St Michael's, and the Years 3-6 Liturgy at St Monica's. Both reflective and celebratory. The day was filled with meeting new friends, having fun and checking out each other's schools. Thank you to all the parents who attended, Fr Loi and Sr Kate for celebrating with us and to the staff from both schools, especially the RECs for their work coordinating the day. 

Such an amazing Trivia night on Friday! So much fun! A huge thank you to Serae Love, Fiona Sherl, Lisa Monro and Damien Webb for all their doings behind the scene. Thank you to everyone who donated prizes and gifts, especially our school families who organised donations through their workplaces and connections. To run the Trivia Night it approximately cost $55 and we collected $2230, meaning we made a profit of $2175. Exact figures will be provided by Council Treasurer at a later date. This money will be used to continue to run our Greenhouse and upgrade the area around the greenhouse and watertank, including purchasing additional play space resources and equipment. Thank you! If you have any photos to share, please send them through to Lisa at the Front Office. We would love to include a page in this year's end of year school yearbook. 

As mentioned last week, Shannon Blakey will be taking Term 3 off for Long Service Leave. We are fortunate to have Catherine Beckett joining our staff for the term to take the lead with 5/6B. Catherine comes to us from Brindabella and Canberra Grammar. Catherine will teach 5/6B Monday-Wednesday, Damien Webb will take 5/6B each Thursday and Jo Krippner and myself will share Fridays. Jessica Figura will be extending her teaching load taking 5/6FW each Thursday. I am very excited to expand the team in 5/6 to further develop collaborative and team teaching experiences, that will support our senior students as they move towards high school. Catherine spent some time planning with the team today and met students. 

Tomorrow, we have our RoboCup team in Sydney attending the RoboCup International. How exciting for these students to travel with the team from SFX. Thank you to Mrs Figura for all your work with the team and igniting their passion further for all things tech. 

Reports came home on Monday. If you didn't receive your child/ren's report, please contact the front office. Reports are sent home with the children. Parent-teacher interviews will be held in Week 2 next term. We will be trialing booking these through SchoolZine for the first time. The bookings will open on the first day back next term. You can book an interview time by following this web address and entering in your details https://stmichaelskaleen.schoolzineplus.com/view-session/2 Any problems, please email me directly and I can sort out your booking patrick.ellis@cg.catholic.edu.au Thank you in advance for your patience, as this system takes a little while to get used to. 

Week 1 next term we will celebrate NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

The theme for this year's NAIDOC Week is Voice, Treaty, Truth. 2019 is the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages. For generations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have sought recognition of their unique place in Australian history and society today, looking for significant and lasting change. Voice. Treaty. Truth. were three key elements to the reforms set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. These reforms represent the unified position of First Nations Australians. I encourage you to get out and about in Canberra next week in the holidays where various events are being held to officially celebrate NAIDOC Week. At St Michael's, we will celebrate together in Week 1 next term. 

Our Reconciliation Action Group met yesterday to begin development of our School Reconciliation Action Plan. Exciting times ahead!

Early next term we are looking at options to fence our school oval. To ensure overall safety and wlelbeing of staff and students, a fence would provide added safety reassurances. We have also had lots of feedback from potential enrolments, that fencing is very important to their choice of school. I will provide update at the start of next term, hoping to get something sorted in the first few weeks. Community Council fully support this decision and I trust the parent community would support us in ensuring this safety measure is in place. 

As we draw to the end of the term, I would like to take this oportunity to thank the whole St Michael's School Community. The parents, carers, students, teachers, support staff, parish and community members. We truly have a fantasic school, one that is supportive, inclusive, passionate and involved. I appreciate the opportunity to lead and feel very fortunate to love my job each and everyday!

Enjoy the next two weeks.

Regards,

Pat Ellis

Principal

TRIVIA NIGHT

Thank you to all those that attended the Trivia Night last Friday evening, a lot of fun was had by all.  After expenses we made a profit of $2175.  These funds will go towards upgrading our outdoor space around the greenhouse and further replace resources and equipment. 

Our school couldn’t be what it is without fundraising, and for our fundraising efforts to succeed we rely on the continued commitment of local business who come on board as sponsors for our events.

Many of these are family run businesses who may not even have children at this school but like helping the local community. One of the best ways we can say thank you and encourage them to keep supporting our school is to visit some of these places and give them our business.

The night’s sponsors were:

-      Intercontinental Hotels Group

-      1882 Bar & Grill (Hall)

-      Get Set Tennis (Kaleen)

-      Ziggys Fresh at Belconnen and Fyshwick              Markets

-      Yogurtland (Belconnen)

-      Beautiful Blooms Interflora

-      Croatia Deakin Soccer Club (Deakin)

-      BWS (Kaleen)

-      Beyond Q (Weston Creek) and Datatrax Touchscreens

So whether it’s by taking the kids for a treat at Yogurtland, booking some tennis lessons at Get Set down the road or buying your weekly groceries at Ziggys Fresh, please let these businesses know how much we appreciate their help.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Feast Day

What a spectacular way to celebrate our patron’s Feast Day last week! Thank you to all the students for your positive participation in all the activities and to staff for your energy and enthusiasm.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Our Information Evening for Confirmation will be on Thursday 25 July in St Monica’s School Library. The meeting will begin at 6pm and is anticipated to conclude by 7pm. This Information Evening is for parents of students wishing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation this year. Our Parish has been allocated the 10th and 11th of September for this special Sacrament. A reminder that children wishing to receive this sacrament will need to attend a Parish Mass on either Saturday 27^th or Sunday 28^th July to make their commitments. At least one adult will need to attend this Mass with each child.

Any questions you may have, please contact me (meaghan.younger@cg.catholic.edu.au )

Term 3 Clinics

Next term we will start off with Touch Football clinics for all students from K-6. The clinics will run on Tuesday’s for the first 3 weeks. We are thankful to ACT touch football for running these clinics for us free of charge.

Regrettably, we will not participate in Tennis clinics next term. The decision was made as a result of being unsuccessful in our application for a Sporting Schools grant. We will look to continue the program in 2020. ​

Star Reader Winners

Congratulations to Aveline (KL), Jahzara (1/2M), Josh (1/2W), Kai (1/2F), Cameron (3/4YM), Orla (3/4AK), Caitlin (5/6FW) and Sienna (5/6B) for being awarded the Library Star Reader in Term 2. These students show their love of reading both during class and through regular library borrowing. They received an ‘Alpacas with Maracas’ prize pack thanks to Scholastic Books.

Scholastic Book Fair

Save the Date Tuesday 6th – Friday 9th August 

We are looking forward to our second Book Fair of the year. The theme for this fair is ‘Dino-mite’

The Book Fair is a great opportunity to check out the new and exciting titles or to make some early purchases for Christmas presents. We appreciate you support of this event, as a percentage of the proceeds are given to our school to buy new books for our library.

The book Fair will be open each day from Tuesday 6th Aug – Friday 9th August. Before school 8:20-8:50am and after school 3:00 – 4:00pm

Celebrating Book Week 2019 at St Michael’s

During Weeks 5 and 6 in Term 3 we have lots of exciting events to celebrate Book Week. On Tuesday 20th August, we will have our Book Week Dress Up Day and on Friday 30th August our whole school will come together for a performance titled ‘Big Dreams’. The performance links together the themes of the CBCA shortlisted books for this year.  

We will be showing our support for Indigenous literacy by holding a ‘Giant Book Swap’ on Wednesday 21st August and are calling for donations of pre-loved (but still in good condition) books. These books will then form part of the Giant Book Swap to take place during library lessons in Week 5. We are hoping to receive 200 books so there are enough books for each child to take part in the swap. If you are able to donate a book, or maybe even two, books can be left in the tub behind the library desk or dropped to the Front Office. If donations can be brought in to school by Friday 16th August, it would be appreciated.

During library lessons in Week 5 students will then make a gold coin donation to support the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and in turn they can choose a book to take home from a selection of donated books.

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation aims to raise enough funds to gift over 35,000 books to remote communities in 2020. We would love to show our support and assist in addressing the literacy gap in Indigenous communities.

Our entry for the Bostik Smart Schools Competition has been submitted.

We need your vote.

The project with the most votes wins $3000.

Go to https://bostiksmartschools.com.au/view-entry?ref=BSS2240 and cast your vote for our Year 3/4 project titled 'A Natural Wonder'. 

Project ID #BSS2240

The app of the week is Kahoot. Play, create and host your own quizzes, this is a fabulous way for children to consolidate their own knowledge by creating a learning opportunity for someone else. Consider this as a holiday tool to keep your child/ren learning and have a bit of fun!

Each week, we will provide a fact sheet from the Carly Ryan Foundation, on various popular apps that are frequently used and should be monitored by parents regarding age restrictions, safety and usage.

Congratulations to the following children who have achieved a Harmony Award in Week 10 and will receive their award this Friday at morning gathering (weather permitting).

KL	Allegra
1/2F	Luke & Bentley
1/2M	Akito
1/2W	Parth
3/4AK	Sienna
3/4YM	Katija
5/6B	Oliver
5/6FW	Hamish

Altar Servers Training

Congratulations to all the students who recently celebrated their First Communion. Our Parish would warmly welcome any new candidates to join our list of Altar Servers for the Sunday Masses. Sr Kate will hold a training session at 3:30pm on July 31st and All are welcome. Senior Servers, who are currently on the rosters are asked to come along to this session to assist our new trainees.

Think about it over the holidays, and we look forward to seeing you when school resumes. God’s Blessings and love to you all from Sr Kate

Youth Mass

All are invited to the next Parish Youth Mass on the 21 July at St. Michael's Church, at 5:30pm.

Special wishes to those children who celebrate their birthday this week:

Pearl 5/6B, Oliver 1/2W and Tad 5/6B

We hope you have a great day!!

Lunch Orders are to be placed by MIDNIGHT on Wednesday nights. 

The canteen still require assistance on Fridays from approximately 12.30-1.45 to help pack lunch orders, if you can assist in anyway, please contact Lisa in the Front Office.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  

Please feel free to contact Empire Catering on 0408 200 481 for queries with lunch orders or any constructive feedback you have regarding menu items.  

Reminder that school banking is processed on a Thursday morning, please leave your books at the Front Office for processing. 

Information packs are available at the Front Office for anyone wishing to open a new account or claim your rewards.

Thank you to Fiona, Connie & Cheri for assisting with the banking this year.  

All lost property has been placed on a table near the sliding doors and is filling up very quickly with unnamed clothing and lunchboxes/drink bottles.

Please ensure that your children's belongings are clearly labelled.  If you are missing an item, please remember to check the table, any unclaimed items will be disposed of on Friday and any unclaimed clothing will be placed in the 2nd hand clothing pool.

Playgroup is held on Wednesdays in Weeks 2 to 9 from 9am til 10.30am in the School Hall. It is for children ages 0-5 and their parents/carers.  Please contact Kylie Arena or Lisa Monro on 62414022 for any enquires. 

LAST DAYS TO RETURN STICKERS!!!

Thank you to those families that have been bringing in the Earn and Learn stickers, so far we have well over 8500 stickers and still counting.  

The Woolies Earn and Learn program finished last week, please remember to bring in any stickers you may have laying around.  

I require all stickers back to the school by Thursday 4th July as we will need to submit our tally and redeem our rewards during the holiday break.

The 2019/20 Entertainment Book is now available to purchase.  Books can be purchased at the Front Office for $60 or digital copies can be ordered through the following link.  Please see Lisa in the Front Office for more information.