Dear Parents and Caregivers

Due to the King’s Birthday Long Weekend and the Staff Development day on Tuesday 10 June 2025, families were able to experience a four day weekend. The school appreciated your support with keeping students home on Tuesday 10 June 2024. On this day, staff at St Michael's Nowra participated in a professional learning day which focused on enhancing teaching and learning through effective feedback. Staff learned that effective feedback is crucial for improving teaching and student learning outcomes. Key topics included understanding how feedback connects to formative assessment, success criteria and learning goals. The day emphasised that feedback should be specific, timely, and goal-oriented to help students understand their performance and close learning gaps. Staff also explored how to plan for quality feedback based on student work samples and reflected on their current feedback practices to set actionable goals for improvement. The importance of explicit teaching of learning intentions and success criteria was highlighted, particularly how success criteria are significant in guiding assessment and feedback. All staff appreciated the professional learning. 

I extend our gratitude to parents, students and staff on your overwhelming support and generous contributions to Winter Appeal last Friday. The participation in this appeal has demonstrated the compassion that thrives within our school community. Compassion is one of the school’s four Virtues. Our dedicated Mini Vinnies students are already excitedly preparing to collate these items into essential packs, which they will present to the St Vincent de Paul representative during their visit next term for our annual Winter Sleep Out. This hands-on involvement allows our students to truly connect with the impact of their generosity. We are incredibly proud of our students, families and staff for embodying the values of empathy and service.

Last Friday, Year 6 students participated in their annual ‘Spirit Day’. As part of their Religion Unit - Confirmation: Celebrating the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, our students were involved in this vital spiritual experience. The meticulous planning and commitment by staff ensured that the students received a deeply meaningful and reflective day. This event is a significant part of a number of the Year 6 students' spiritual journey towards Confirmation. A number of students in Year 6 will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation on Saturday 28 June 5pm Sunday 29 June 11am. A special thank you goes to Mrs Mathieson, Mrs Dempsey, Mrs Royston, Ms Ross-Kelly, Mrs Roles, Mrs Warner, and other staff  for their dedication in organising Spirit Day.

Last Tuesday evening our Parents and Friends group met in the school staffroom. It was a very productive meeting and discussions included the Winter Disco (Friday 1 August), Colour Run (Friday 14 November), Father’s Day Breakfast & LIturgy (Monday 8 September) and numerous other important events for the second half of the year. Thank you to this important group of parents who work very hard to provide for the students and families in the school. 

Advance notice is given for the annual Grandparent's Liturgy and open classrooms which will occur at midday on Friday 15 August, 2025. We always look forward to this special day. 

Mr Paton returned to school yesterday after a short period of Long Service Leave in China with his siblings. One of his early adventures was climbing the Great Wall of China. Welcome back Mr Paton.