At St Michael’s we extend a warm and heartfelt welcome to all our students, families, staff and members of the community to be part of our remarkable school. Our strength has been forged from our humble beginnings in 1921, in the Josephite tradition of service, education and “never seeing a need without doing something about it.” We believe that education is a transformative force that shapes the future of our students and their world.
We continue to evolve. Through knowing our students and working collaboratively to create an environment where every student can flourish, we strive to create a school community that embodies Christ centred values, offers exemplary pastoral care, academic excellence, innovative curriculum and focuses on the central goal of growing life long learners who contribute to bettering our world. We set student wellbeing at the highest priority. This goal is supported by our recently appointed position of a dedicated Wellbeing Officer.
Relationships are the foundation of the culture at St Michael’s. Positive, mutually respectful and affirming relationships between our teaching staff, our students, our families and our parish underpin our ‘best for all’ culture.
We believe that students achieve their best when they feel safe, happy, engaged in stimulating and relevant learning and trust those who care for them. We work diligently in a collaborative and cohesive team to provide a safe, nurturing, happy, suitably challenging and engaging environment where every student can celebrate and develop their unique gifts, and recognise and best develop their areas of need. We embrace a curriculum that grows curious and critical thinkers. We value a wide variety of learning areas and experiences. St Michael’s offers explicit teaching of phonics, writing and core Mathematics concepts, small group inquiry learning for Mathematics social construction learning and creative writing, unique STEM and Science learning, a large variety of History, Geography and Creative Arts individual and group opportunities, and a broad range of sporting experiences. We offer representative pathways in many sporting fields. We teach our students that their voice is essential. We have an active student leadership group who raise issues and plan and run events. We have active ministry groups who inform other students about how to look after the environment, run religious and stewardship events, and plan student playground activities. Our students learn by doing, that what they think is important and what they do can change their and others’ situations.
We believe that our staff work best when they are supported to chart their best professional learning path in a trust filled, growth, collaborative culture. We are committed to being a Professional Learning Community. Our teachers are innovative and inspired to deliver best practice teaching and learning. We are guided by NESA requirements, our Bathurst Diocesan commitments and our own special Josephite traditions.
We believe that our families are our students' first teachers and are an essential part of the teaching and learning partnership with every student they entrust to us. We work with our families. Our support services are exemplary. Our specialised support teacher, classroom teachers, parents and carers and various allied health services look at “the whole child” to design personalised learning plans. Our welcoming open door policy invites parents and carers into our school. Our reading grandmas come every day to listen to our younger students read. We have regular school events where parents and carers shape our culture and learning by contributing their expertise and interests, like multicultural events, Mates Day, Farm Safety Day, Food for Schools Day, termly Mates and Dads BBQ lunches, Mothers Night out and Family Nights. Because of our small size, the running of many of our events, like our swimming carnival and athletics carnival, are evidence of the vital role our parents and carers play in our school community.
We believe that a close relationship with our parish is important. Our parish priest, Fr Pius, is a regular visitor to our school. He visits classes, is involved in many school activities and has been known to take to the soccer field! Our students learn about Jesus’ love for them and the Catholic traditions in daily religious education lessons. Students are involved in planning a liturgy or Mass at least once a term and attend Mass regularly. We respect and value the beliefs of many faiths.
We encourage our students to live, love, and learn today so that they may excel tomorrow. We invite you to consider St Michael’s as an excellent place to educate your children. We would love to welcome you and your children to visit our school. We would love to welcome you and your family to join our family.
Ms Judy Gibson
Principal
