Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,

We have officially passed the halfway mark of the term! After a hint of Spring last week, we are being reminded this week that it is still winter. The children will still be going outside at recess and lunchtime, provided it isn’t raining, so please ensure they have their jumper and coat with them. 

Students in grades Three and Four begin their swimming program next week at the Ford Centre. Students will be participating on Monday, Tuesday , Thursday and Friday for two weeks from Monday 22nd of August. As much as possible, this will be a continuation of the swimming program that children would have participated in before COVID restrictions impacted our ability to run this program. Children will be taught by qualified instructors.  Thank you to all who have offered to assist us with this program. We still need a few more helpers over the two weeks so if you can spare an hour or two and hold a current working with children card we would really appreciate your support. 

Book Week

Book week will be celebrated from August 20-26. The theme for this year is: Dreaming with eyes open. 

Our school will be celebrating book week with a 'Relax and Read' day on Friday 26th August. During our school assembly, we will have a special reading of a book by Mrs Ware and follow this with the children participating in activities in their classroom focussing on our relax and read theme.  As part of the 'relax and read' theme, we are inviting the children to wear their pyjamas or onesies to school on this day. If students choose not to wear their pyjamas, they are required to come to school in their normal school sports uniform.  All students are required to wear their runners with their pyjamas (no slippers allowed).

Camp Information Meeting for Parents in Grades Three to Six.

Just a reminder that the camp meeting for parents is on this Thursday in the school hall. Details below: 

Camp Support Meeting for Parents:  Has your child missed out on school camp because of Covid lockdowns?  Do you have a child that worries about going on school camp?  Are you unsure about your child going on school camp? We know that going on a school camp can be a really big deal! We also know that the disruptions of the last two years has led to challenges with all the usual preparations that occur prior to children learning to go on school camp. Dani and Kayce, from Dani McLennan Occupational Therapy, will be offering a presentation and discussion about preparing your child for camp on Thursday 18th August starting at 5:30pm in the School Hall. This will include how to support your child to develop skills in reducing worry about staying away from home, increasing independence in self-care, and dealing with the new and unusual activities that are a part of camp.

Have you ever thought about Baptising your school aged child? Are you wanting to learn more about the Catholic faith? 

 St Michael’s Catholic Parish are offering the RCIC – Rite of Christian Initiation for Children this term for school age children. 1 parent must be Catholic and journey with the child. 

 They are holding 2 compulsory workshops in the Church : 

• August 21st: 9:30am Mass followed by a session 11am–12pm 
• August 28th: 9:30am Mass followed by a session 11am – 12pm 

Children will be Baptised on Sunday 4th September at 11am. If you are interested or have any questions, please call the Parish Office on 51742060 or email sec@smpt.org.au

FATHERS DAY CELEBRATION: 

On Sunday 28th August St Michael's Parish will be holding a Morning tea in the MacKillop Hall after the 9:30 am Mass. It is a great opportunity to continue building our Parish community and to show our appreciation for all the special fathers and grandfathers in our Parish. 

Bring along your children, grandchildren, parents and grandparents so we can celebrate the important men in our lives and all that they do for our families. Everyone is welcome! Please bring a plate of morning tea to share. 

Kind regards
Jodie

After a huge start to our fundraising efforts for Ethiopia we have already raised $100. This is enough money to buy one goat for the Goat Rearing Centre in Emdibir.
The Guess the Lolly jar was won by Chloe in Grade 5/6A with a winning guess of 208.
This week we have a new lolly jar to win. A big thanks to Miss Tija Dark for her donation.
The children will be able to guess the number of lollies for 50c a guess.

Colouring competitions are selling well. These are also 50c for an entry. Entries for the Colouring Competition will close on Friday 26th August.

Each week students from each class are awarded Student of the Week certificates. These children are nominated for the example they have been within the school based on the School Wide Expectation focus for that week. The weekly focus will be from Wednesday until Tuesday the following week. Awards will be presented to students at assembly on Friday.

In Week 5 the School Wide Expectation focus was Honesty : 

Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and St Michael's is excited to be participating. The PRC application offers a range of exciting features including:

• access to a library catalogue (including book images and blurbs)
• a modern user-friendly interface
• rewarding students with badges as challenge milestones are achieved 
• the option for students to mark books as a favourite, give them a star rating or complete a book review

The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 2 September 2022.

Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books.

All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.

To read the Premier’s letter to parents, view the booklist and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/premiers-reading-
challenge

The  end of the challenge is the 2nd of September so 18 day left to register your books.

Deborah Gilmour in the school library is able to help with any enquires.

Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge 2022

With only several weeks of the 2022 Premier’s Reading Challenge left. It’s time
to make sure you have your books completed for the challenge. So far we have:

33 students registered
14 students completed
761 books finished

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCfFdksBHFGD-p8CFyRxyWoQROksqYa0QBRFMNcMhehoSAgw/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0