Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome back to the start of our final school term for 2019! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. It was lovely to see the students’ smiling faces when they returned to school on Tuesday! We are looking forward to a very busy yet exciting term.

Apologies for a lengthy newsletter this week due to the condensed versions that went home in hard copy during the last two weeks of term. Our Connected App is back up and running – Yvonne from Chameleon Logic is recovering from her health setback – thank you for your prayers and patience!

Staffing Update

Mrs Helen Shanahan has accepted an offer of a position at Chisholm College commencing in 2020. Whilst this is such a loss for our community, we are thrilled for Helen as this is a wonderful opportunity for her. Congratulations Helen! We are currently advertising for a replacement Visual Arts specialist and will have opportunities towards the end of the year to farewell Helen and thank her for all she has contributed to the St Michael’s community.

Next Week is Wellness Week!

Next week is our first St. Michael’s Wellness Week. The purpose of this initiative is to give everyone (students, families and staff) an opportunity to slow down and take time to focus on our health and wellbeing, particularly our mental health. A variety of activities will be run throughout Wellness Week for students and staff to promote wellbeing. There will be no homework for students or meetings before or after school during Wellness Week. Hence, we ask parents not to request meetings with staff (unless in the case of an emergency). Instead, we are encouraging staff and students to spend quality time with their families. Here are some ideas that you can do as a family:

• Introduce “Reading Night” to your families – a night where the TV and other electronic devices get switched off and the family comes together to read, discuss books and share the joy of literature.
• Have a “screen free pledge night” with your children where you all pledge a night free of the screens that encroach on our lives. This may even spark a permanent screen free night one day a week.
• If you usually eat in front of the tv, choose one night to sit down and have a meal together at the table with the tv switched off.
• Make the most of the no homework week and perhaps go for a family walk, bike ride, play some games or read together.
• Have a midweek picnic dinner at a beautiful location
• Visit other family members like grandparents who you don’t normally catch up with midweek.
• Have a family cooking night.
• Walk or ride your bike to school.
• Plan healthy recess and lunches and prepare these with your children.

 

It’s all about finding time to take care of our own health and wellbeing.

Whilst there will be no homework we do ask that students still read for pleasure next week (reading shouldn’t be seen as homework – just what we do for enjoyment).

Some of the activities planned for students include daily mindfulness activities, yoga and meditation. Please note that students need to bring a yoga mat or towel on Thursday and a gold coin donation for free dress on Friday (donations go to Wheelchairs for Kids).

P & F Meeting Monday 21 October 7.15pm

The only meetings which are unavoidable during Wellness Week are our board and P&F meetings. Please come along if you are free to our P & F meeting on Monday night at 7.15pm in the staffroom.

Please also get behind raising money for our Walkathon. Monies raised will be donated to the school by the P & F towards custom designed storage tubs for our playground. These will serve a dual purpose: storage for our spare parts play equipment on the inside and playground benches on the outside.

I’d also like to draw your attention to the P & F section of this newsletter – please offer your assistance at the Bunning Sausage Sizzle this week if you are free.

Wheelchairs for Kids

Please donate generously next Friday to Wheelchairs for Kids. This is an organisation run by Br Ollie Picket and his team of retired volunteers in Wangara, ensuring that 100% of the funds raised gets to those in need.

According to United Nations World Health estimates, wheelchairs are desperately needed around the world for millions of severely disabled children throughout under-resourced countries. Wheelchairs For Kids (WFK) is an organisation whose mission is to manufacture and distribute wheelchairs to some of these children assisting them with the means to raise them off the ground from where they are presently confined, and gain a new level of freedom and mobility. Approximately 340 wheelchairs are produced every month by WFK (approximately 3550 per year) and they are then subsequently distributed worldwide to these needy children.

These wheelchairs are locally designed specifically to conform with WHO guidelines. They are built specially for rough terrain, adjustable for the child’s size, with postural supports, head rest, harness, a waterproof cushion, tray, tool kit, plus a knee rug, and a knitted toy.

On delivery of the chairs to the receiving sites, agency and hospital personnel, therapists and individuals are involved in providing therapy in the field to ensure each chair is correctly adjusted and fitted to the receiving child to ensure they are comfortable in their new chair.

For every $200 donated in support of the WFK program, a child gains a new wheelchair giving him or her this new experience of freedom of mobility for the first time in their life, and often easing the burden for personal carers and allowing them to go to school. These wheelchairs are life changing so, although we are asking for a gold coin donation for casual dress, we encourage you to dig deep and donate as much as you are able to. Donations will also be accepted throughout the week at reception. For more information go to: https://wheelchairsforkids.org/

Staff Development

On our student free day on Monday, staff spent some time in a Mindfulness Meditation workshop and gained some information behind the science of mindfulness and some strategies to promote mindfulness and meditation in the classroom to support the mental health of students. We then participated in some team building activities.

Updated Accreditation for Kagan Co-operative Learning

This week we spent two days hosting our national Kagan coaches. On Tuesday, classroom teachers received in class coaching and on Wednesday we hosted a Kagan open day for interested colleagues who were able to observe our teachers and students learning co-operatively in the classroom. As a result, our status as a Kagan accredited school (the only one in Australia!) has been renewed and I was very proud of our staff who were acknowledged by the coaches as demonstrating the co-operative learning program at a very high level. Congratulations to our wonderful teachers!

2019 NAPLAN Results

Our 2019 NAPLAN results were received late in Term 3. I am pleased to inform the community that both the Year 3 and Year 5 classes scored above the National Average in all areas (Numeracy, Reading, Writing, Spelling and Grammar & Punctuation).

Strategic Plan

Our strategic planning process is now complete, and a copy is now available on the Connected App. Our sincere thanks go to everyone in our school community who contributed their thoughts and ideas during the consultation process and to Mrs Carolyn Jess who served as our “pretty committee” to format the final document and make it look professional! A copy is also available on our website.

AGM

Our school board and P & F AGMs are being held on Monday 18 November. We are calling for nominations, particularly for the school board as we will have at least one vacant position. In particular, we are seeking a board member with a legal background. An information booklet and nomination forms have been uploaded to the Connect App. Please consider nominating for the P & F executive for 2020, or the school board if you possess skills that you feel would benefit the work of the board. Nominations are due by Monday 11 November.

Planning for 2020

We are currently working on our 2020 budget. Our budget figures are based on expected enrolment figures, so if you are not anticipating your child remaining at St Michael’s in 2020 please notify the school in writing by Monday (with the exception of the current Year 6 students).

Three-year-old Program (3YOP) 2020

We have received official approval to commence a 3YOP next year. However, we are still looking for more expressions of interest to get our 3YOP off the ground. If you or any friends may be interested, please see our website for the EOI form: https://www.stmichaelsbass.wa.edu.au/enrolment.html

Term Dates

A Term 4 calendar has been provided with this newsletter via the Connected App. The term concludes for students on Friday 13th December. Students commence school in 2020 on Monday 3rd February.

 

All the best for a fantastic term!

Dr Siobhan Galos
Principal