Last Thursday night it was great to be a part of our Sacrament of Reconciliation Formation Night via Zoom. A little bit different not to be face-to-face with everyone, however, still great to come together as a Parish to begin the journey of supporting our students through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Welcome to Sue Collins, our new Parish Sacramental Coordinator. A big thanks to the Parish Sacramental Team and teachers with the organisation.

Just a reminder also, at the moment, our water bubblers are still closed, so children need to bring in a water bottle each day. Also, we are still going with only pre-packaged items to bring in for a child's birthday (eg freddo frog, ice-block, packet of chips etc). Thank you in advance for your support regarding this. 

Parent-Teacher-Student Meetings

This week, all parents and their children have had the opportunity to meet with their class teacher. These important meetings have set the scene for the semester ahead. We have come through a unique and challenging period for student learning (who knows what the future may hold), so it is important for us altogether (home and school) to take a moment to reflect and the learning that has taken place and will take place moving forward. It is important to discuss areas of strength for a child and areas of challenge. What we will do at school to support, what is needed at home and what the child will need to do to take ownership for their learning also. 

Part of this is setting goals around learning. This is done continuously throughout the school year. Sometimes more formal goals are set, sometimes a focus area will be set for a child in a specific area, sometimes it centres around what a class or group of students are focusing on. Teachers work extremely hard to pinpoint areas to provide ongoing feedback throughout the day to affirm, support and challenge student learning. There are many reasons why students setting learning goals are important. Some of these reasons are;

1. Provides A Clear Path To Success
When your child sets goals, it gives him or her steps to follow so tasks are completed according to importance. This allows more time and energy to be spent on the next step in achieving their goal rather than tackling tasks as they come up.

2. Teaches Time Management & Preparedness
Having a clear plan also reduces procrastination. If your child knows exactly what they want to achieve and knows the steps required to achieve it, there is less room for procrastination.
Setting effective goals also teaches your child organisation, planning, and time management skills they can use in the classroom and at home.

3. Increases Motivation                                                              If the big picture seems too overwhelming, break bigger goals into short-term goals. This separates long-term goals into smaller, more manageable steps so your child doesn’t get discouraged and quit.

4. Measures Progress
Setting clear goals makes it easier for your child to track his or her progress. Seeing how far they have come and how much is left to do motivates them to continue working toward (and achieving) goals.

5. Gives Focus & Purpose
Setting goals determines a clear pathway to success, allowing your child to focus on what needs to get done. This goes a long way to preventing your child from becoming overwhelmed, frustrated, or discouraged. It lessens feelings of being disheartened and encourages your child to spend time on activities that contribute to his or her goals.

6. Boosts Self-Confidence
When your child starts making progress toward achieving their goals, it’s a big confidence boost! Your child’s confidence in their abilities is important for self-image in the long run, helping them tackle future goals with less anxiety. With that new-found confidence, your child can continue to set more ambitious goals.

7. Provides Challenges
If your child seems uninterested in a certain subject or school in general, set a small goal to work toward. This will keep them engaged in the classroom and encourages your child to think of new areas they can continue to improve.

Mathematician Day

Today we celebrate all things Mathematics with our first Mathematician Day. This was a fun and engaging day all centering around the world of Maths and creating a love of learning in Maths. We were visited by Mr Webb's brother, Michael who is a Magician. It was interesting to see the thinking by students when they saw some amazing magic tricks taking place. All students also rotated around to different classes to experience different Mathematical experiences. These ranged from tangrams, mapping, measuring, using technology to shapes. 

We are all Mathematicians and it was fun to see students dressing up like a Mathematician. Oddly enough, most of their outfits were what Mr Webb wears everyday! We hope everyone had a fun day and that we contributed to starting a change in attitude towards Maths. Teachers will use this as a springboard moving forward with mathematical thinking and learning in classes. 

This week I am leading Staff Prayer each morning. We are focusing on MATTHEW 13:31-35 (Parable of the Mustard Seed). It is amazing to think about. This tiny seed has so much potential. That little seed has within it the potential to become the largest of plants, a source of food, and a dwelling place for the birds of the air. Perhaps this analogy that Jesus uses does not impress us as much as it should because we know that all plants begin with a seed. But try to think about this wonder of the physical world. Try to think about how so much potential is packed into that little seed. As Educators, we often use this Gospel Reading as a reflection on teaching. Thinking of each child as a little seed, so much potential, so much growth ahead.

Take it easy. 

Kind regards, 

Pat Ellis

Principal

Religious Education Curriculum

Last term 1/2 used the story of Noah as inspiration to explore the concept of how we are all stewards of God’s Creation. Their artistic responses to this investigation demonstrate their deepening understanding of this complex but so relevant concept for us today as we become more aware of the importance of sustainability in all we do.

Religious Life of St Michael’s School Community

Whole School Prayer Time

The next Whole School Prayer Time will be for the Feast of St Mary MacKillop of the Cross and will take place on Friday 7^th August. Students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 will be taking the lead in the celebration of this special feast day. All classes will simultaneously celebrate the feast day with song and prayer. At this stage we cannot invite families to join us in the classes but know that you will be with us in our hearts.

Prayer Wall

In our walkway between the courtyard and canteen play space there is a very special prayer wall. All students are regularly invited to contribute their own special intentions to our community prayer wall for all to include in our daily prayers.

Parish News

Reconciliation Preparation

A huge thank you to all who attended last Thursday’s zoom meeting. What a great start to our preparation program for sacraments in 2020. Congratulations to the families who made their commitments at Mass over the weekend. If you have not yet done so please book in for Mass this coming weekend. Bookings are made online through the parish website http://cg.org.au/belconnennorth/Home.aspx or Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OLoPHNBelco/

Home preparation for Reconciliation

This week you need to have completed the activities for Week 1 - Understanding Right + Wrong.

Children: What was your favourite activity this week?

Parents: What did you enjoy most in exploring these issues of good and evil?

 

Sacramental Program—First Reconciliation 2020

Registration for the Sacrament of Reconciliation is due by 31 July 2020 via the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Qkr! App. 

Students and parents must attend one of the Masses listed below to make their commitment.  Please remember to make a booking for the Mass in advance, through the parish website.

Commitment Masses

Saturday 1 August and Sunday 2 August

Saturday 8 August and Sunday 9 August

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Tuesday 8 September in St Michael’s Church

Wednesday 9 September in St Monica’s Church

Thursday 10 September in St Monica’s Church

 

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is not available in 2020 for the School of Religion due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

The Daily 5

Daily 5 is a literacy framework that instills behaviours of independence, creates a classroom of highly engaged readers, writers, and learners, and provides teachers with the time and structure to meet diverse student needs.

The staff and students have begun implementing these structures into the literacy block at St Michael’s. The Daily 5 incorporates five important literacy practices.

1. Read to Self  
2. Read to Someone
3. Listen to Reading
4. Work on Writing
5. Word Work

Reading Strategies

Year 5/6 participated in a session and have learnt the ‘Read to Self’ strategy which incorporates the 3 ways to read.

• Read the pictures
• Read the words
• Retell the story

We shared a book called ‘Two Summers’ by John Heffernan and the students helped to read the pictures. The teachers were impressed with the insightful comments and high level of thinking that the students displayed.

‘Two Summers’ is a book set in rural Australia. It introduces many of the activities that farm kids experience from the point of view of a farm kid and his city friend: riding motorbikes & horses, swimming & fishing, mustering cattle, feeding stock & poddies, pulling calves from heifers, branding calves, marking lambs. It gently touches on the effects of drought, both physical and emotional. The beautiful illustrations enhance the story with lots of details.

We then discussed the IPICK Good-Fit Book strategy to ensure books to be read reflect the following criteria.

I – I SELECT A BOOK - Look it over inside and out.

P – PURPOSE - Why do I want to read it?

I – INTEREST – Does it interest me?

C – COMPREHEND – Do I understand what I am reading?

K – KNOW THE WORDS – Do I know most of the words?

The students then made sure that they chose a good fit book and spent time reading. The teachers were able to listen to individual students and discussed reading strategies and goals during individual conferences.

Next session we will focus on desirable reading behaviours and discussing hot books.

Bridgette McCann

 

Golf Clinics

We have been successful with our Sporting Schools grant for this term! Golf clinics will take place in the second half of this term for all our students.

New Sports Equipment

The students were excited to receive some new sports equipment this week! Lots of new basketballs, netballs and soccer balls.

Boorowa

Team notes were sent home today. Thank you to the parents who have taken on various roles this year. We will organise some training sessions for late this term or early next term, depending on the health restrictions at the time. 

SunSmart in August

A reminder that next week marks the beginning of August and time to start wearing hats again. 

Hats are available for sale at the Front Office for $12.  Please remember also to label your childs hat.

 

Chief Minister's Reading Challenge

A big congratulations to all the students who took part in the challenge this year. A wonderful effort! Special mention to Zara in KL who has read over 100 books!

All students recording sheets are due back by no later than next Monday 3 August so as I can submit our schools results. 

For any students who are keen to commence another reading challenge, or take on a shorter one, the MS Read-a-Thon starts this Saturday and runs for the month of August. https://www.msreadathon.org.au/

Book Week 2020

Many of our students have started to ask about the theme for this year's Book Week. This year's theme is Curious Creatures, Wild Minds. Our dress up day will be on Thursday the 22nd October. We are looking forward to seeing where everyone's curiosity and creativity takes them with their costumes!

Indigenous Literacy Foundation

This year during Book Week  (Term 4, Week 2) we will hold another Great Book Swap. After the wonderful support the event received last year we would like to show our support to the Indigenous Literacy foundation (ILF) again. The Giant Book Swap will take place on Thursday 22nd October. In order for the event to be a success we are asking each student to donate a pre-loved book, that is in good condition, and can be enjoyed by someone else. On the day of the book swap students will then be able to choose a new book to take home for a gold coin donation. The money we raise is used by the ILF to purchase books that are then sent to regional and remote Indigenous communities. 

We ask that all donations of books be made prior to the 19th October. Books can be left at the Front Office or with Mrs Hardwicke in the Library. Thank you in advance for your support of this important initiative. 

Overdue Library Books

Overdue loan records were sent home today with each child. If you are able to please return any overdue books as soon as possible that would be appreciated. If a title is incorrectly showing up on your child's account or a book has been misplaced, please return the loan notice with a note indicating that the book is lost/been returned. This will help us greatly with our records. 

 

Texture

Texture is one of the elements of Visual Arts that relates to how things look and feel. There are several kinds of texture– from actual texture in art where the artwork has a certain physical tactile surface, or it could be visual texture also called implied texture where texture is not

actually real but created through the manipulation of the media.

We will begin the term by exploring rubbings as texture and how different drawing/painting techniques represent implied texture.

To build on from Remote Learning and for students not to lose the skills they developed during this period, we have decided to move our Homework (or what we will refer to now as Home Learning) to our Remote Learning Website. 

Within this site, which can be accessed by student MSTeams account or via this direct link https://sites.google.com/cg.catholic.edu.au/remotelearningkaleenstmichaels/home

In this site there is a Home Learning button. Within this is each team's Scope and Sequence for the Term along with their Home Learning Tasks. These may consist of a whole grid for the term where students work at their own pace, it may be weekly, it may be assignment based work etc. Home Readers will start going home also for those students who require them (K-2 and any other student). Contact class teacher directly regarding home readers. 

Please note that the tasks set in the Home Learning Folder on our Remote Learning Site are not compulsory. These are additional tasks for students to consolidate learning or for an extra challenge. Home Learning is an opportunity for parents to become involved in the learning process. If you have other ideas/projects that students are working on with you at home as a family, that is fantastic. 

We would ask that some form of reading is occurring every night for every child. Whether that is listening to a story, reading out loud to a parent/sibling or reading quietly to themselves before bed. Reading opens doors to learning in general. If you have time for only one thing of an afternoon/night, always choose to read!

Any questions, please contact your child's teacher directly. 

Congratulations to the following students who achieved a Harmony Award in Week 2.  Awards will be presented at Friday morning's assembly. Well done!!   

KL	Ryder T
1/2B	Ned C
1/2W	Mahlia G
3/4A	Oliver M
3/4F	Aidan L
3/4FR	Liam B
5/6F	Ari B
5/6K	Emma D

 

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

Eliane 1/2W, Daniel 5/6K, John 3/4FR, Beth 5/6K and Harry KL

We hope you have a great day!!

In 2019, Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn (CECG) engaged Integroe Partners to conduct an independent review into student counselling and wellbeing services in CECG schools. As part of this review, Integroe Partners conducted online surveys of parents, Principals, students and school staff.

They also conducted individual interviews and face to face consultation forums with parents, Principals, teachers and CECG staff. Integroe Partners also conducted face to face and online consultations with CECG’s primary provider of student counselling services, CatholicCare.

CECG would like to thank all those who participated in the review, especially those who travelled to Canberra for the face to face meetings as well as those who participated in the online surveys and forums. The information gained from the review enabled Integroe Partners to deliver an evaluation of existing programs, structures, systems and processes.

Integroe Partners identified a diversity of challenges across the schools in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, requiring a model of counselling and wellbeing service delivery that is flexible and responsive to the student wellbeing priorities of individual schools and their communities. Integroe Partners were also able to propose structures and systems aimed at delivering services to schools that reflect best contemporary practice, optimising resource efficiency into the future.

As part of its initial response to the findings and recommendations of the review, CECG have increased the school counsellor allocation for each of its schools for 2020 and have appointed a full time Student Counselling and Welfare Manager. The Student Counselling and Welfare Manager will now look to work closely with schools, Principals and CECG staff to respond more fully to the review and to develop appropriate policies, procedures, frameworks and best practice to support high quality school counselling practice and service delivery in our schools now and in to the future.

The Commonwealth Bank school banking program has started back up again, banking days will be on a Thursday. Could we please ask that all books be left at the Front Office and if possible we ask that you don't bring in large quantities of small coins (ie. 5 and 10 cent pieces).

Thank you to Connie who has been volunteering with the banking.  Connie is now unable to volunteer and we are seeking another volunteer to join the team, you will not be required every week and training will be provided.  If you are keen, could you please let Lisa at the Front Office know of your availability.

Information to open accounts is available from the Front Office.

The digital book is now available for $69.99 and is regularly updated with new offers.

Help support our school and the local community!

Please click on the link below to order your 2020 Entertainment Book.

https://www.entertainment.com.au/orderbooks/232g38