Dear St Michael’s College Community,

Celebrating Excellence

This week the College celebrated the Semester 1 academic achievements of our students across Reception to Year 12. In addition we acknowledge and  congratulate all students who have achieved their own personal successes in Semester 1.

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the format of our assemblies changed to reflect the current requirements:

• the Primary Campus Assembly was livestreamed to parents;
• the presentation of certificates for Years 8 to 12 students took place in Pastoral Class and;
• to provide our Year 7 students with an understanding of the esteem in which we hold their achievements, a Year 7 assembly was organised in Founders Hall where students experienced a mini version of our formal Academic Assembly.

We are hopeful of returning to our usual format moving forward.

Primary Awards

So, what exactly did we celebrate today?

Academic Excellence
Awarded to students for outstanding achievement attaining A’s in the majority of their subjects studied in Semester one.

Academic Application
Awarded to students for excellent effort in the majority of subjects studied in Semester one.

Primary Values
Awarded to students for excellence in the development of the majority of the Primary Values during Semester one.

Outstanding Achievement
Awarded to students for outstanding achievement across all three areas of excellence.

Ms Joanne Gilmore, Director of Teaching & Learning – Primary reflects:

Working with younger learners is a true joy because of the diversity of talents and interests that are on display every day amongst our students. The learning spaces at the Primary Campus reflect this diversity and encompass both the high tech and the natural worlds, which assist our students with being flexible in their approach to learning. In recognising these students, we are celebrating the value that these young learners have put on working with others and striving hard in order to develop their unique set of talents. We congratulate them on setting themselves up with a love of learning that will grow with them as they progress through life.

A principle I have learned along the way is that ‘how we learn is just as important as what we learn’. Congratulations to all award winners who have embodied both the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of learning.

Secondary Awards

Academic Excellence
Awarded to students who averaged an ‘A’ grade across their Semester 1 subject areas.

Academic Endeavour
Awarded to students who achieved ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’ for Application to Study and Behaviour in class for all subjects.

Congratulations to the following students in Years 7 to 12 who achieved Academic Excellence and/or Academic Endeavour awards for their Semester 1 studies.

Language Competitions

During the Year 7 Academic Assembly, Ms Angela Benedetti recognised and celebrated the additional successes in three different languages competitions held this year. Congratulations to all students who participated in the competitions, and a big thank you and congratulations to Ms Benedetti and the Italian Department for their passion and commitment in making these extracurricular opportunities available to our students. The results are outstanding!

2021 Education Perfect Languages World Championships

246 St Michael’s students took part in the EP Languages World Championships in May. It was wonderful to see so many students again demonstrating persistence and resilience, participating not only in the Italian questions, but also exploring the other languages on offer, reflecting their curiosity and love of learning.

After coming first in South Australia in 2018 and 2019, and then 2nd after Mitcham Girls’ High School last year, this year St Michael’s reclaimed its top spot for Italian in SA with a margin of over 7000 points!

St Michael’s finished:

• 1^st overall for Italian in SA (out of 43 schools)
• 32^nd overall in Italian world-wide (out of 1,068 schools) (= top 3% for Italian in the world)
• 3^rd globally for Italian out of 116 schools in the 1000+ students category
• 32^nd for Italian in Australia (out of 779 schools) (= top 4% in Australia)
• 17^th overall in SA across all languages (out of 67 schools)
• and 3^rd for ARABIC in SA out of 24 schools!

Italian Week Competition

In Week 6, for Italian Week, the College held its second-ever Italian Week Education Perfect competition. Over five days, almost 128 students across the College answered over 80,000 (an increase of over 25,000) questions, with seven students achieving special recognition.

South Australian Languages Championships

More recently, just last week, 149 students competed in the South Australian Language Championships which again resulted in St Michael’s College taking out 1^st place for Italian and 6^th overall across 34 languages. Five of the top ten students for Italian in South Australia were from our school, with Joel Grygus in Year 10, finishing in 1st place.

A big warm welcome to our new students in the Mid-Year Intake class!

In today’s Primary Campus Assembly, we also welcomed new students to the St Michael’s community who commenced at the Primary Campus in Terms 2 and 3. We wish our new students and their families every blessing for the future. We hope their association with St Michael’s College will be a happy and positive experience.