Friday February 5th 2021

The Journey Begins

As we step into this new year, Restore our spirits.

Renew our passion for sharing your wisdom

And nurture our compassion

For those in need of greater support.

Transform us as we seek to transform: Guide us as we seek to guide;

Open our minds and hearts

As we seek to open minds and hearts

To the Good News of justice and peace.

Help us listen more deeply

To the world and to your Word, So we can walk with those in our care,

Attentive to the Wisdom that Calls us all to the Kingdom of God.

Ash Wednesday (17th Feb)

On Ash Wednesday, 17th Feb, we will be taking the Connection and Innovation learning teams to mass at St Peter’s Church at 10.00am, to celebrate the beginning of Lent. This is a parish mass, not a school mass, so we will be there attending with the middle and senior aged kids only. A permission form will be released on PAM today for parents of those children to complete at your earliest con-venience please. If you are thinking of attending, please note that Fr Gary has indicated a capacity of 75 people only are allowed in the church, and that once this number has been reached, no one else will be able to be admitted. Reconciliation The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be celebrated on Friday 26th February for 9 of our Connection and Innovation students at 10.00am. Maddi, Soph, Lily, and Joey from Connection, along with Ben, Juliette, Eliza, Amarli and Nate from Innovation will receive Reconciliation in the Third Rite. There is a parent information session on Wednes-day 17th Feb at 4pm in the Presentation Center for all parents of children receiving the sacraments this year. 3 way chats

On Wednesday 24th Feb, Tuesday 2nd March and Wednesday 3rd March, we will be holding 3 way chats with your child’s homeroom teacher online, in the same way we held them at our mid year 3 way chats in 2020. Bookings will be open early next week. We will send out a note on Seesaw to indicate when they are open. Please sign in for a 10 minute slot via PAM with your child’s home-room teacher once they are open. These 3 way chats are crucial to establishing a con-nection between home and school at the begin-ning of the year. The focus will be for the child to lead the discus-sion with their thoughts and ideas related to goals they have set themselves, their strengths, chal-lenges and hopes for the year. They will be prepar-ing in class to be able to do this in a confident manner at these 3 way chats.

Dear Families, Welcome back for 2021. Following the extraordi-nary year that was 2020, I hope you were all able to have an enjoyable and restful holiday break, recon-nect with family and friends and recharge the batteries in readiness for a new year here at St Michael’s. We look forward to the challenges and celebrations that this coming year will provide us, assured in our capacity to previously be able navi-gate something as extreme as a worldwide pan-demic. I would like to especially welcome Shane Bruty to St Michael’s. Shane comes to us in the role of teacher in Innovation (3 days), as well as Performance & Development Leader (Deputy Principal). We look forward to the leadership and teacher excellence that Shane will bring to compliment our terrific staff. We also welcome Kylie O’Brien who joins us as an LSO (learning support officer) who will be working predominantly with our Discovery stu-dents. And of course we welcome our wonderful new Foundation (Prep) students — Kul, Mackenzie, Tris-tan, Joel and Lucia! It has been fabulous seeing them transition to school this week so smoothly and enthusiastically. The happiness and wonder and curiosity on their faces each day really is a joy to behold.

A big welcome to our new families to St Michael’s this year: Steph Swales (mum of Mackenzie) and Tenielle and Alan Ware (parents of Joel), Param-preet Kaur (mother of Kul).

Lord, Give us insight to see realistically "what is"; but make us dreamers, and give us vision of all the possibilities for "what can be." Use us as your in-struments to form, inform, reform, and transform those who come to us. We ask this in your name, Jesus Christ. Amen

Sport/PE Days Health & Phys Ed will be taught on the following days this term: Innovation (Yr 5/6): Tuesday & Thursday

Connection (Yr 3/4): Tuesday & Friday

Discovery (1/2): Tuesday & Thursday

Discovery (F/1): Tuesday & Thursday

On these days children are to wear sports uniform and appropriate sports shoes (runners) as detailed in the uniform section of the Parent Information Booklet. Birthday food at school In the current COVID climate we are asking that if students have birthdays and would like to bring some food for their friends/classmates to celebrate their birthday, that they ONLY bring individually wrapped food please, and NOT homemade food (cakes/slices etc). Thank you for your understand-ing.

Transport

A reminder to please let the office know if your child is being collected by someone else after school, has after school care, or has any other change to their normal pick up arrangements. As a school we have a duty of care until children are col-lected and there are occasional times when we are unclear about how they are getting home. We are asking your vigilance with this as a high priority by means of communication. Thank you. First Aid, including medical details on PAM

Thank you to everyone who has completed their child/ren’s medical details on PAM. This is a high priority for the health and wellbeing of your child here at school and also a minimum requirement for them to participate in any activities outside school such as excursions. If you have not yet updated these details, please do so ASAP. If your child has or requires any medication, please ensure it is left at the office, clearly named, to be stored in our First Aid room. This is particularly rele-vant to those with asthma (including having current and up to date asthma plans).

Buddies

This year we will be formally buddying up our junior and senior students as a Wellbeing initia-tive to help build relationships across the school and assist the transition of our junior students as well as the social and emotional needs for all of them. The Foundation (prep) students will be buddied up with Year 5 students and the Year 1 students with the Year 6 students. We will an-nounce these next week. There will be a lot of opportunities for the students to spend time with their buddy, both during learning times as well as at recess and lunch. School fees

Statements will be emailed home next week. Those families who have a health care card are eligible for family fee assistance and camp/school excursion fund. If you have a health care card please supply the office with a copy for our rec-ords so that we can adjust statements as re-quired. Our fee payment preferred method is direct deb-it. Forms are available from the office to set up a payment plan, with a frequency and amount of your choosing. We also have an EFTPOS machine at school where they can be paid by card. Please note that the student fee of $260 is paya-ble by Friday 12th February. If you have not al-ready done so, could you please ensure this is paid by that date. Uniform and Hats All children are expected to be in full school sum-mer uniform in Term 1. This includes wearing a hat for all outside play. The uniform require-ments are detailed in the School Information Booklet, as well as on our website. Please note particularly the requirements for school shoes – casual slip ons, skate shoes, multi-coloured sports shoes, etc are not part of the school uniform. Stu-dents should not be wearing runners on any day that is not an designated sport/PE day, and any student not in uniform should bring an explana-tory note.

Please see the attached link to the uniform page on our website for pictures and further infor-mation: https://www.smdaylesford.catholic.edu.au/

Life Ed van

Next Monday and Tuesday we have the Life Ed van visiting school. Innovation will start off with a ses-sion called ‘Relkate Respect Connect’ followed by Connection with a session called ‘bCyberwise’. On Tuesday, Discovery BM will begin a session called ‘Safety Rules’, followed by Discovery SM with ‘Harold’s Friendship’.

Calendar

The school calendar is filling up with important dates. Please take some time to be familiar with events happening this term.

Garden

Thank you to Caylie McColl (and family) for kindly tending our garden over summer. There is much produce that has come out of it and much that is still growing. Each learning team will have a garden bed to care for this year and we look forward to making this a regular part of daily school life, in-cluding the cooking we’ll do which will include our very own home grown ingredients! Community Team

The Community Team Executive have set their meeting dates for the year. There is much they are keen to pursue by way of parent engagement this year, with growing opportunities for us to be onsite and together more, after a year of remote/isolation. We have 2 vacancies on the Executive team this year, if you would like to join, please contact Matt Pearce (Chair) either up here at school or via email at: matthewpearce6983@gmail.com.

We are already discussing 2 social evening for fami-lies this term which we hope to finalise and begin advertising next week….stay tuned!

Assemblies

We are in the process of reviewing our assembly procedures, both in light of COVID restrictions, and also our purpose for them and how we can struc-ture them to best fit the needs of all in our commu-nity. We will be using Term 1 for this and will pro-vide more information about a possible recom-mencement in due course.

Lunch orders begin Wednesday 24th February (the week after Ash Wednesday). We require parent volunteers to pick up and drop off from the Secondary College each Wednesday. Please let Leah know if you are able to help. This service does rely on the support of parent volun-teers. It is literally a 5 min exercise. Thank you in anticipation for your help. Please ensure you have checked your Flexis-chools APP and amended your child’s class, and most importantly that you have funds in the ac-count.

2022 enrolments

If you have a child or know someone that is inter-ested in enrolling at St Michael’s for 2022, could you please contact Leah (admin@smdaylesford.catholic.edu.au or ph 5348 1261) and she will organise an enrolment for you to complete. We will be active in the kindergarten communities this year and will be keen to say hi to these kids when we drop in.

Message from the Art Room

Ms Matthews is after newspapers, magazines and containers with lids from recycling (for mixing col-ours and keeping paint). They can just be left in the art room. Also, if students want to bring along a smock/old shirt with their name on it, only if they want and I can keep it in the art room

Congratulations Adams family

A big warm welcome to Siena Adams who was born during the holidays. A little sister to Archie (Yr 2), Lucia (Prep) and Mila.

Have a great weekend!

God bless,

Ethan

News from St Patrick’s College, Ballarat. The next Scholarship Testing date for St Patrick’s College will be held at the College at 9am on Saturday, February 20, 2021 for 2022 Year 7, 10 and 11 students. Registrations are now open at this link. Please note that registrations close at mid-night on Wednesday, February 10, 2021. To encourage and recognise the pursuit of excel-lence in all areas of school life, St Patrick’s College offers scholarships for Years 7, 10 and 11 entry lev-el in the categories of academic excellence, art, performing arts, music, sport, leadership and gen-eral excellence. All categories have an academic component and boys must sit a scholarship test conducted by the Australian Council for Education-al Research. A fee of $95 is payable at the time of registering your son as well as the opportunity to purchase additional practice testing papers at $25 which are available online and downloadable in PDF format. For further information please contact the College Registrar on 5322 4449 or email enrolments@stpats.vic.edu.au

Day Date Event

Mon Feb 1 Students Return

Mon Feb 8 Life Ed Van

Wed Feb 10

School Banking Starts

Wed Feb 17 Ash Wednesday Parent Sacramental Meeting 4pm

Wed Feb 24 Lunch orders Start 3 Way Chats

Fri Feb 26 Reconciliation

Tues Mar 2 3 Way Chats

Wed Mar 3 3 Way Chats

Fri Mar 5 Clean Up Australia Day

Mon Mar 8 Labour Day Holiday

Thurs Mar 25

School Photos

Wed Mar 31

Easter Liturgy

Thurs Apr 1 School Athletics Day Last Day of Term 1

Daylesford Junior Tennis starts back this Saturday 6 February. Competition for more experienced juniors begins at 9.15am. Hot Shot beginners start at 9.45am. Look forward to seeing existing and new players, weather permitting. Any changes due to weather will be posted Daylesford Lawn Tennis Club’s facebook page https://www.facebook.com/DaylesfordLawnTennisClub NB. The planned presentation and BBQ has been deferred until end of season presentation day on 27th March.

Drama and Dance are back! We are so excited to be back in the studio at Inside Out Dance Theatre. Enrol now for Term 1:

Creative Dance from Kinder to Teens Contemporary Dance Gr 3 – Yr 12 Drama Prep – Yr 12 Ballet Prep – Yr7

For full schedule and online enrolment

goto: insideoutdancetheatre.com.au

Enquiries: admin@insideoutdancetheatre.com.au

0428 330 640

We are so excited to be back!