Dear Parents, 

We will conclude Term 3 tomorrow with our St Michael’s Feast Day Mass. This will commence at 11.30am in the school hall. This mass will also launch our new Vision and Mission statement. All families are invited to attend the mass. As our patron saint, we see St Michael the Archangel as our protector. St Michael is also the patron saint of police officers, paramedics and the military. Our school has many parents in these different occupations. We hope you can join us for the mass. 

As we complete our third term, we say goodbye to a couple of staff members. Mrs Toni Hodges begins the next phase of her teaching career at St John’s Nowra in Term 4. Mrs Hodges has been teaching Year 2R this year and will be very missed by the students and staff. We have been fortunate to employ Mrs Christine Hart to teach 2R in Term 4. Mrs Hart is a very experienced teacher and will ensure student learning will remain robust in 2R. We also say farewell to Mrs Mel Green who has been working every Tuesday in the Benedictine Centre. We wish Mrs Green the very best as she prepares for the birth of her next child. Mrs Cathy Palmer will teach each Tuesday in the Benedictine Centre until the end of the year. 

A big thank you is extended to our Parents and Friends group who co-ordinated the ‘Cookie dough’ fundraiser today. It was very well supported and I look forward to tasting some of the cookies. Thank you especially to Kristy Davis and her team who distributed the cookie dough yesterday afternoon. The next big Parents and Friends fundraiser and community will be the ‘School Fair’ on Sunday 10 November, 2019. 

Yesterday the new school crossing supervisor commenced at our school. The North St school crossing will now be supervised every morning from 8.00-9.00am and 2.30-3.30pm each afternoon. This new initiative is much welcomed by parents, teaching staff and children.  An application has been submitted for an additional new school crossing supervisor to be employed at the Osborne Street crossing. 

Tuesday night I attended St John’s Nowra Year 12 Graduation mass and ‘Awards’ night. The mass was led by Father Pat Faherty and was just perfect. I was so proud of our former St Michael’s students who have grown into fine young men and women. Congratulations to Mrs Hogan and her St John’s team for such a great night. 

During the last two terms, the school has been exploring new ways to assist students make better behaviour choices. Guided by the Catholic Education Office Wollongong, the school reviewed elements of the SPB4L policy and has made a few changes. The school has replaced the previous ‘attention’ system with a greater emphasis on involving parents in the process of assisting the student reflect on their behaviour choices. This is our new procedure:

As you can see, parents will be contacted on the same day when possible if a ‘major’ behaviour incident occurs involving your child. There will be a greater involvement of ‘Middle Leader’ staff who supervise your child’s grade. The Middle Leader who will contact you is:

Table:

Dog and Puppy Alert. Just a reminder to parents to not bring dogs or puppies on to the parish and school property. We do have some students who are allergic to dogs and can experience an ‘Anaphylactic reaction’. I love dogs as much as anyone, but student safety is my biggest concern. Thank you for your assistance. 

As we conclude our third term, may I wish all families a safe and happy holiday. School will return on Monday 14th October, 2019. 

Yours in Faith and Virtue,

Mr Christopher Paton