Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Earlier this week, Mrs Rutkowski and I attended the monthly Parents and Friends (P&F) meeting. When I presented my Principal report, I briefly recounted the school events of the past month. It is extraordinary the number of events which included parents from the school and in particular, the P&F. During the last two weeks, parents have played a big part in the life of the school through attendance at events or transporting the students. These include:

• Support of the school musical through collecting the students after school hours. The preparation for the school musical is continuing to take shape. Mrs Boyton is happy with the progress so far and parents are helping the students in the musical to learn their lines!

• Transporting the students to various sporting events. Our students have continued to record some exceptional results and would not be able to be so successful without parent support.

• Provision of a canteen by our P&F for the South Coast Soccer Gala Day last Friday. A big thank you is extended to these parents as well as those who attended as spectators. The sportsmanship by the students in Years 3-6 was outstanding. 

• The Father’s Day preparation and provision of a daily stall to enable students affordable purchasing options for Father’s Day gifts. This required parents to set up a stall before and after school every day last week. Thank you for your gift of time.

• The catering and organisation of a raffle for the Father’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy last Monday. Thank you to our P&F team who prepared the food, organised sponsorship, fed the crowd and cleaned up so thoroughly!

• Parent helpers who have assisted in the recent excursions, including the Year 3 Nan Tien Temple visit and today’s Kindergarten excursion to Shoalhaven Zoo. 

On behalf of the students and staff, I would like to extend our gratitude to all the P&F, parents and caregivers for your incredible generosity and unwavering support. Your contributions of time, resources and energy have a lasting impact, whether you're volunteering at events, helping with classroom activities or simply cheering on our students. Thank you for being such a vital and important part of our school community. 

Yesterday Mrs Warner and our two school captains, Havanah Flugler and Sid Warner, represented our school at the launch of the 2025 Catholic Mission program. This event occurred at Narellan. A special thank you is extended to Mrs Warner and the captains as it was an early start and lengthy journey to and from Narellan. Year 6 will be providing our annual Mission Fair to raise funds for Catholic Mission on our final day of school this term, Friday 26 September. Thank you in advance to the Year 6 students, staff and Mrs Mathieson for organising this fun event. The Mission Fair will support the celebration of St Michael’s Feast Day on the same day. The school will also officially launch the school’s ‘Vision and Mission Statement’ on this day. A great celebration ahead! 

Next Thursday and Friday our Year 5 students and staff will attend their annual leadership camp at the beautiful Watersleigh Christian Centre. This is an important two days of learning for our future school leaders. Thank you to the staff who will work closely with the students over the two days and generously donate their time to supervise this overnight excursion.

As many of you may be aware, today is Mrs Jessica Dakin’s last teaching day before commencing her maternity leave. On behalf of the entire St Michael's school community, we extend our warmest congratulations to Mrs Dakin, her husband Mr Dakin and her family on this exciting time. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Dakin for her wonderful teaching and dedication to the students of 1R this year. Following a recent recruitment process, I am pleased to share with our whole community that Miss Annaliese Turner will be stepping into the role of Year 1R's teacher and will be with the students from the start of Week 9 this term until the end of the year. Miss Turner is a familiar face to many of our students, having worked with St Michael’s for the last three years, initially as a school support officer and more recently as a teacher for the last 10 months. She has taught this Year 1 group on a number of occasions and knows the students well. As a practicing Catholic, Miss Turner will continue to guide the children’s journey in faith and learning for the remainder of the year and I am anticipating the transition into the 1R class will be a smooth and successful one. 

Mrs Dakin is a valued member of our staff, and we will be keeping her in our prayers as she prepares for the birth of her daughter. We wish Mrs Dakin a safe and joyful time over the coming months and await with great anticipation the birth of her child.

We also congratulate and welcome Mr Marcus Chieffe officially to our teaching staff for the remainder of 2025. Mr Chieffe has been working as a casual teacher within many of our classrooms this year and will continue in this role commencing on Monday 15 September 2025. Congratulations Mr Chieffe on this appointment. 

Yours in faith & virtue

Christopher Paton

Principal