Welcome back to Term Two. We trust you all had a wonderful Easter break with family and friends. It’s been great to see the children back in classrooms and reconnecting with their friends. 

Child Safety 

At St Michael’s school Traralgon, we hold the care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people as a central and fundamental responsibility of our school. We have a team of Child Safety Champions including Miss Tija Dark, Miss Molly Clavarino, Mrs Mel Celima, Mrs Leanne Kamphuis, Mrs Jodie Ware and myself. 

In July 2022, the Victorian Child Safe Standards were revised to be more consistent with Standards across Australia. The 11 Standards set out minimum requirements and outline the actions organisations must take to keep children and young people safe. The 11 Standards include specific requirements such as: 

•  to involve families and communities in organisations’ efforts to keep children and young people safe

•  for a greater focus on safety for Aboriginal children and young people
•  to manage the risk of child abuse in online environments
•  in relation to governance, systems and processes to keep children and young people safe.

This term our team of Child Safety Champions will be working with teachers and students in promoting the Standards throughout our school. So far, teachers have led our students on a safety walk through the school where the students were able to talk about areas of the school where they feel safe and unsafe. This data will be used by the Child Safety Champions and School Leadership to make informed decisions about how we can continue to make St Michaels a safe and inviting environment for all who visit.  

These conversations opened up excellent opportunities for teachers and students to consider “What does it mean to be safe?”, and how we can be physically, socially and emotionally safe. Our next step is to work with the student leaders in creating “child friendly” worded statements and illustrations. You may start to see some of these illustrations in our weekly newsletter, so stay tuned. 

Student Agency at St Michaels 

This year our Leadership Team will be undertaking some professional development on Student Agency and considering what this may look like for St Michaels. It is an exciting, yet challenging concept, but ultimately will help develop our students to be motivated, independent, resilient and strong learners for life. The idea of Student Agency sits within our School Improvement Plan, therefore there will be a four year focus on developing leadership, teaching practice and students in this space. 

There will be no assembly this Friday 5th May due to a Year 5/6 Incursion and the hall being unavailable. A reminder that all children should be in full Winter uniform by Monday 8th May. 

Kind regards, 

Lia DiCorleto (Acting Principal) 

Up and coming dates for your calendar: 

Monday 8th May - Yr 6 Camp to the Summit 

Tuesday 9th May - Foundation Information Session 5pm 

Friday 12 May - Mother’s Day Stall 

Friday 19th May - Whole School Mass 11.30am