News from the Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,
Thank you to all who have supported the school in the past few weeks by volunteering for excursions, attending the art show, and coming to Class Masses. It was lovely to see so many of you here yesterday for the Italian Day dress up parade.
The children clapped and cheered each other on and it was a lovely way to start the day. The gelato and the Italian show were also enjoyed by both staff and students. Thank you Maestra Carla for organising this for us.
STAFFING NEWS
Next week you will receive a letter sent home with your child(ren) that shows your child’s classroom teacher(s) for 2023. We are welcoming Bianca Grundy, Kaitlin Vacca and Phoebe Trembath to St Michaels who will be joining us as classroom teachers in 2023 as well as welcoming back Amy Smith and Louise Clarke.
Sadly, we will also be saying farewell to Bethany Allen, Gemma Pizzi, Sarah Watson, Lachlan Ware and Nicole Leeder as they move onto new opportunities and experiences. On behalf of the school community, we thank you for your contributions and wish all of you well.
2023 SCHOOL CAPTAINS
Last Thursday I had the pleasure to listen to a group of grade five children who presented a speech to their teachers and peers about why they would be a suitable candidate to be school captain. All the speeches showed a lot of thought and preparation had gone into them and they were of a very high standard. Whilst only some children can be chosen to this role there are other opportunities for student leadership at St Michael’s including House Captain, Environmental Team and Student Leadership committee and I encourage those who missed out a school captain role to consider nominating for one of these roles.
I am pleased to announce that the following students have been chosen to be the 2023 school captains:
- Ekhai Imhagwe
- Lilly Duran
- Lucy Graham
- Rocco Moretti
- Sibella MacPherson
Congratulations and I look forward to working with them next year.
I would also like to congratulate this year’s school and house captains on their work this year. You have been outstanding representatives of St Michael’s this year.
POLICE REMEMBRANCE DAY
Earlier this term St Michael’s students were invited to complete a piece of art work for Police Remembrance Day 2022. Yesterday St Michaels received a lovely gift from the Police chaplain, Veronica on behalf of Victoria Police.
PEACEFUL KIDS PROGRAM
You will have noticed from the above staffing list one of our current teachers, Nicole Leeder has decided to take leave from being a fulltime classroom teacher and has decided to open her own business.
Nicole has completed training in the ‘Peaceful Kids’ program and will be offering the program in 2023 from her new office space in Traralgon after school. We also aim to offer the program at St Michaels one day a week as well if enough parents are interested in their child participating.
‘Peaceful Kids’ is a Mindfulness and Positive Psychology based program to lessen anxiety and stress and increase resilience in children. It is an 8 week program, and sessions are for approximately 1 hour each week. (40-50 minutes for Prep and Year 1’s)
Sessions include learning a range of mindfulness strategies and meditations and positive psychology exercises. The outcomes of completing the ‘Peaceful Kids’ program are:
- Lessen symptoms of anxiety and stress in children
- Teaches children to self-calm
- Empowers children to manage their own anxiety and stress symptoms
- Builds emotional resilience
- Develops emotional intelligence skills
- Teaches children life-long skills to manage stress and prevent stress build up
- Supports children so they know that they are not alone with suffering from anxiety
Nicole will also be offering tutoring in Maths, Reading Comprehension and Writing in after school hours sessions. For further information please contact Nicole via email at nicole67maree@gmail.com.
Kind regards,