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Dear Parents and Carers,
It’s been an excellent week of teaching and learning and thankfully no COVID cases in the school. We will continue to maintain all of our health and hygiene practices including cleaning, hand washing and sanitiser use. We will continue to have students separated into cohorts, play spaces pick up areas. We will continue to limit non-essential visits from those not part of our community or essential to supporting students. What we know from other schools' experiences that should a case occur, it's these practices that ensure a school remains open with minimal impact to all. ACT Health and Catholic Education have worked very effectively with each other, supporting schools to take quick and clear action to contain any case and minimise any further risks
There will, however, be some decisions made regarding community events. We had hoped to be able to have our Carols Night and SCC barbeque, but understandably with children mixing and the inability to ensure social distancing, we have regrettably decided to cancel this even once again. We will have a Christmas Celebration for the children with a sausage sizzle lunch, ice creams and carol singing. We will also have the Colour Run on that day so it should be a real fun day for all the students. This is planned for Monday December 13th, weather permitting.
Kindergarten Orientation
With the increasing number of schools that are experiencing COVID-19 cases we have decided to reduce the Kindergarten Orientation sessions from two to one. We know that bringing together a group of young students from many different pre-schools and day care centres, creates higher risk and so we will only be conducting the small group sessions on December 2nd. This will be an opportunity for our new Kinders for 2022 to see the school, their classrooms and to meet the teachers.
Congratulations Miss Barry
Today is a very special day for our Miss Aimee Barry, as today she is getting married. We wish both Aimee and Matt all the very best for their special day and lifetime of love and happiness ahead.
Will Lipscombe Memorial Art Award
This week we announced the winners of our Will Lipscombe Memorial Art Award.
Will Lipscombe was a courageous and inspirational member of our St Thomas community. Sadly, Will passed away in 2015. Will was well known for his understanding of heroes as being “ordinary individuals who find the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” Will remains a hero in the hearts of many people in our community.
This is a photo of Will.
This year, Will’s family has had a book published about Will’s life. The book talks about several teachers at St Thomas the Apostle School and the impact they had on Will and his family.
This is a reminder of how lucky we are to be a part of this wonderful community. It also talks about how brave Will was.
The winners of the Will Lipscombe Memorial Art Awards for 2021 are:
Kinder – Harry Adcock
Year 1/2 - Daniel Housler
Year 3/4 - Abbey Hines
Year 5/6 - Darcie Jenkins
Our major prize winner across all grades was Elena Munoz.
Congratulations to these worthy recipients.
Parent Teacher Interviews
Due to the disruption to the children’s learning this Semester, we have revised our reporting schedule to ensure the children get sufficient time to complete the relevant learnings and assessment for their year level. In weeks 9 and 10, you all will have the chance to have a Parent Teacher Interview with your child’s teacher. The conversation between you and your child’s teachers will be a valuable opportunity to discuss the teaching and learning that has taken place in both Remote Learning and face to face teaching. These will occur remotely, via Microsoft Teams. Reports will be sent home via Compass in Week 11. The booking form can be accessed by clicking this link
Class Placements for 2022
The process of allocating children to classes for 2022 has begun. The allocations are based on many considerations: Learning abilities; gender balance; behavioural considerations; personalities; friendship and religion. It is important to have a balance of Catholic and non-Catholic children, especially in Sacramental years.
Be assured your child's teacher and other key staff in the school know our students well and have information and data about them which assists in placing them in the best class for 2022. I know this can be an anxious time for parents and we need to remember that children are more resilient than we often give them credit for and they will be able to learn and enjoy school in whichever class they are placed. There is also time given to transition for particular students, depending on their individual needs, including a transition staff meeting, where staff from 2021 will share knowledge about students to their teachers for 2022. During the last week of the school year, students (including those Year 1-6 new to the school) will meet with their class and where possible, their teacher for 2022. They will have the opportunity to spend some time together in preparation for the new year.
Enjoy your weekend, which I am sorry to say will be another wet one.
Yours in partnership,
Ursula Jamieson
Principal
RE Week 7 - Who do you say I am?
This week a note will go home for our annual Christmas Hamper food collection. Due to COVID restrictions, the St Vincent de Paul Kambah Conference have given a specific list of donations that will assist them in creating hampers for those who need a hand up at Christmas. Your child will have a note will a specific item listed. It would be much appreciated if you could have your child give the item to their class teacher by Friday Week 9 3rd December. Please allow your child to bring the item to their class teacher as this gives them ownership for the donation but also avoids potential confusion when items are dropped to the Front Office.
If you would like to donate gifts, we are supporting the St Joe’s Program run by St Vincent de Paul. Please donate gifts appropriate for children aged 6-15 years. Gifts should be unwrapped and can be handed in to the office or to your child’s teacher. Your generosity and continued support will benefit the people in the Kambah Community and will be greatly appreciated.
Penny Vanzwol
REC
Thank you to those families with children in K-2 who are remembering to return library books on MONDAY. This is very helpful to the smooth running of the Library.
I continue to be inspired by the level of engagement the students demonstrate during Library lessons. This week K-2 discussed the importance of caring for wildlife and watched a video about creating animal shelters from recycled materials. You can find it here
In Years 3-6 we investigated the plans for a floating City to be built in the Maldives. We discussed the creativity and engineering genius behind this plan that has come as a response to the prediction that by 2050 the Maldives may be completely uninhabitable. It is amazing to think about how in 20 years time, our children may be engaged in jobs that we can hardly even imagine. You can find the clip here;
Penny Vanzwol
Teacher Librarian
Date |
Event |
Monday 22 November |
SCC Budget Meeting 6pm |
Thursday 25 November |
Youth Ministry Retreat 6pm |
Friday 26 November |
Orientation Day St Clare's College |
Happy Birthday to the following students who will celebrate a birthday this week
The Awards were presented to the students in their classes by Mrs Jamieson and Ms Chant.
Kinder |
Evie Andriunas, Dominic Niju |
Year 1 |
Willow Wilson, Alfie Cameron |
Year 2 |
Lucy O’Brien, Zack Clynch |
Year 3/4 |
Evie Russell, Eamon King |
Year 5/6 |
Annabelle Bailey, Amelia Bryan |
Principal's Awards |
Nixon Dean |
Cultural Award |
Caitlin Hackney-Britt |