Friday February 19th 2021

Dear Families, In his cartoon above, Luenig uses a table and chairs, symbolically, to illustrate how powerful and important (face to face) conversations are. They can be really powerful in building relationships, in any context. Next week we begin our 3 way chats, which this year we are emphasizing them as ‘student led’ conversations. Our priority is to have students take greater ownership of these conversations by leading them in articulating their goals for this year, along with their strengths and challenges etc. As a school we have begun a formal partnership with Corwin Institute this year to become a Vis-ible Learning school. This work is about using the science of learning to engage students more fully as independent, interdependent and autonomous learners. It provides relevant and innova-tive practices and protocols which are all informed by the latest research (John Hattie). It will give teachers the opportunity to deeply, and strategically, reflect on the impact we are having on student learning, as well as other factors such as student voice and student autonomy. We aim to bring you, our parent community, along with us in this endeavour, to give you a better insight into the research and practices that we are adopting, which are at the forefront of con-temporary education. It is exciting stuff! Whilst there are many schools in Melbourne (as well as across Australia and Internationally) that are Visible Learning schools, we are one of only three schools, both Government and Independ-ent, west of Melbourne that is a Visible Learning school.

Project Compassion 2021: ‘Be More’ The theme for Caritas’ Project Compassion this Lent is ‘Be More’. Caritas is the charity arm of the Catholic church. Each year during Lent they promote Project Compassion to raise aware-ness and money for vulnerable, outcast and marginalised people around the world. You can find more information at their website: https://lent.caritas.org.au/ ‘Be More’ is aimed at ending poverty and injustice in our world. Your eldest child will be bringing home a Project Compassion box. If you are in a position to do-nate in any way that would be so much appreciated. We talk to the kids about them doing some small ‘jobs’ around the house to earn money they could donate also. In this way, they are able to contribute in a real and practical way.

Buddies

This year we will be formally buddying up our junior and senior students as a Wellbeing initi-ative 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 prep students will be buddied up with Year 5 students and the Year 1 students with the Year 6 students. We will announce 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 were sent home last 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 records so that we can adjust statements as required.

Our fee payment preferred method is direct debit. Forms are available from the office to set up a payment plan, with a frequency and amount of your choosing. Our bank details are: NAB bank BSB: 083004 Acct: 711437401 We also have an EFTPOS machine at school where they can be paid by card.

Please note that the student fee of $260 is payable by Friday 12th February. If you have not already done so, could you please ensure this is paid ASAP. Sport/PE Days Health & Phys Ed will be taught on the follow-ing 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 uni-form and appropriate sports shoes (runners) as detailed in the uniform section of the Parent Information Booklet.

Starting next Tuesday we will be having an athletics coach come and run sessions for our students in preparation for our school athletics day to be held on Thursday 1st April.

St Michael’s Ride-A-Thon

Please see the flyer in this newsletter about an exciting event coming up here at school. We’re looking forward to a great and fun day, whilst raising awareness for cancer research. Reconciliation The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be cele-brated on Friday 26th March at St Peter’s Church in Daylesford, for 9 of our Connection and Innovation students, beginning 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. At this stage, with COVID re-strictions for numbers inside the church, we are able to have parents and Godparents (if appro-priate and applicable) attend the celebration. Unfortunately we are unable to have extended family and/or friends. Regarding the Sacramental parent meeting that we had to postpone this week, we will be in touch with a new day and time once that has been arranged. 3 way chats - Student led conversations

On Wednesday 24th Feb, Tuesday 2nd March and Wednesday 3rd March, we will be hold-ing 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 are now open. Please sign in for a 10 minute slot via PAM with your child’s homeroom teach-er. These 3 way chats are designed to be student led, where the student assumes a large speaking role in sharing their goal/s for the year, as well as their hopes, strengths, chal-lenges etc. These conversations are crucial to establishing a connection between home and school at the beginning of the year.

Family fun night - March 12th

The Community Team are planning a social evening for families in a couple of weeks, which they were due to advertise prior to last Friday’s lockdown announcement. A note about the oc-casion went out yesterday. Please complete the RSVP Google form so that the Community Team has an idea of numbers for COVID and catering purposes. It is 4.45pm for a 5pm movie start time. Kids will receive a sausage and bread when they arrive to eat while watching the movie. There will also be little goodie bags for the kids to enjoy. Par-ents can enjoy a BBQ tea and drink and socially catch up for the duration of the movie. I’d like to thank the Community Team Executive for organising this opportunity for our families to get together.

Lunch orders begin next Wednesday 24th February. 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 sup-port of parent volunteers. It is literally a 5 min exercise. Thank you in anticipation for your help.

Guitar lessons

We are delighted to be able to again offer guitar lessons to students here at St Michael’s, through a local guitar teacher, Sean Dixon. Sean is able to offer St Michael’s students pri-vate and individual lessons, and has a few spots still available. All bookings and payments need to be made directly with Sean, who can be contacted on 0434 527 741.

2022 enrolments

If you have a child or know someone that is in-terested 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 kin-dergarten communities this year and will be keen to say hi to these kids when we drop in.

Have a great weekend! God bless,

Ethan

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 arrange-ments. As a school we have a duty of care until children are collected and there are oc-casional 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 mini-mum requirement for them to participate in any activities outside school such as excur-sions. If you have not yet updated these de-tails, 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 relevant to those with asth-ma (including having current and up to date asthma plans).

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 par-ent engagement this year, with growing op-portunities for us to be onsite and together more, after a year of remote/isolation. If you would like more information about the Community Team, please contact Matt Pearce (Chair) either up here at school or via email at: matthewpearce6983@gmail.com.

Our first meeting will be next Tuesday 23rd Feb at 5.30pm.

Sustainability - Miss Breanna Millard

What a great reminder for us to make sure

that we are limiting our plastic bag use. Or

if we are using them, to recycle the soft/

scrunchable plastic through Redcycle (there

is a collection bin in Daylesford Coles).

Day Date Event

Wed Feb 24 Lunch orders Start 3 Way Chats Online

Tues Mar 2 3 Way Chats Online

Wed Mar 3 3 Way Chats Online

Fri Mar 5 Clean Up Australia Day

Mon Mar 8 Labour Day Holiday

Thurs Mar 25

School Photos

Fri Mar 26

Reconciliation

Wed Mar 31

Easter Liturgy 2.30pm

Thurs Apr 1 School Athletics Day 10am—2.00pm Last Day of Term 1

Clean Up Australia Day On Friday 5th March we will spend an hour clean-ing up different parts of Daylesford. Connection and year 2s will walk to St Peter's church and back, Innovation, Discovery SM and all year 1s will walk to the Daylesford library and back, all cleaning up the streets and areas as they go. We will be gone between 9:30-10:30 and will have rubbish bags and gloves provided for them. Students will wear their hats during the clean up, they may wear their sports uniform on this day. There are many clean ups planned for Sunday 7th March, you can find an event near you by looking at the website https://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/join-a-

clean-up

The theme for Project Compassion 2021 is: BE MORE

We are inspired by the quote from St Oscar Romero, “Aspire not to have more, but to be more.”

Instead of aspiring to have more, we can focus on how we can BE more.

Be more kind, more green, more involved, more aware, more giving.

This Lent, let us consider how we can ‘BE MORE’ for our neighbours around the world.

Week 1— The Story of Jamila, Bangladesh

Jamila is a single mother, living in the world’s largest refu-gee camp in in Bangladesh. She left fighting in Myanmar to save herself, her elderly mother and baby daughter Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people have crossed into Bangladesh since August 2017. Over 1.3 million people need support. Caritas provided Jamila with food and shelter along with emotional support through the Women Friendly Spaces program.

Jamila joined a Caritas sewing class. Learning to sew pro-vides a way for women to earn an income. Jamila now has a sense of community around and feels more supported.

“For the first time in my life, in the camp, I felt cared for and accepted. My worries of an

uncertain future are disappearing.” - Jamila

Daylesford Under 12 Football

Training will start Monday 1st March @ 5pm

Soccer Oval at Vic Park

Thommo will be coaching.