Filter Content
- Principal's Message
- RE Week 1 - Our Common Home - Connecting with ourselves
- Upcoming Events
- Tommy's Tales
- Fete News
- Canteen News
- Birthdays this week
- Remember your drink bottle!
- Photos - Mission Day and Socktober
- Photos - Creation Day
- Photos - Chess Competition
- TeamKids - Exciting news!
- Tigers Football Club
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back for Term 4. We have a busy and exciting term ahead. We have begun a flying start with a successful Mission Day ‘Socktober’ held yesterday and today we had our postponed ‘Creation Day’. Thank you all for your kindness of contributions for both of these events. The money raised will go towards Catholic Mission and supporting vulnerable children facing malnutrition and food insecurity in Ethiopia. The plants and garden supplies will be well used across the school for our gardening projects. We truly do have such a generous caring community here at St Thomas’.
Working Bee
Thank you to the families who have signed up for our Working Bee tomorrow. We have the Bryce, Trussler, O’Brien, Rootes, Gasnier, Maher, Town, Pulford, Simson, Clynch, Sedatis, Salzke and Hoskinson families all coming along. If you are able to come but haven’t had a chance to sign up, don’t worry, just turn up in the morning, anywhere between 8am and 12 noon and we will find a job for you to do (bring a wheelbarrow and shovel if you can). John Cousins, our groundsman, has a list of jobs that need doing, including filling in the big potholes we have managed to acquire after all the rain.
Final day of the school year for students - Thursday 15 December
ACT government schools will be having two pupil free days this term in Weeks 3 and 8. Catholic Education have announced that we will have only one and that is will be on Friday 16 December. Catholic Education is allocating this one day for a staff development day (pupil free) for all ACT Catholic schools. This day will allow our staff to work on our Annual Improvement Plan and planning for the 2023 school year. Therefore, students will finish on the Thursday 15 December. TEAMKIDS is available for a full day of care for those families who may need it. The announcement by the Director of this can be found here.
Staffing update
At the end of last term we had our interviews for a permanent REC position. I am pleased to let you know that Geoff Ryan has been appointed as our ongoing REC. He has been acting in the role this year and has been inspirational as an REC. We are blessed to have him continue into the future.
I am sad to announce that Mrs Rachel Kennedy will be leaving us at the end of this year. Rachel has been a dedicated and valued teacher here with us for the past 10 years. She has decided it is time for a change and has taken a transfer to St Clare of Assisi in Calwell from next year. We wish her all the best for the next adventure in her teaching career.
Holiday Professional Development
You may have noticed how full the car park at school was for the last three days of the holidays. That was because we had 90 teachers and 60 students here at school for the intensive learning experience that we advertised last term. It was led by Dr Lorraine Hammond along with her team from Western Australia. Teachers came together from as far west as Lake Cargelligo to Batehaven on the coast along with teachers from Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. Nine of our St Thomas the Apostle teachers also attended, with Monique and Lauren demonstrating for the attendees, High Impact Teaching Practices (HITP) and Daily Review. A very big thank you must go to the 45 children from St Thomas the Apostle who came to be part of the learning experience. They spent 3 days of their holidays doing schoolwork (and they loved it!). Also thank you to Victoria Town who catered for the event. As usual, her culinary skills meant we were treated to a delicious morning tea and lunch each day. There were many comments about how lucky we are to have a chef running our canteen. On Saturday the Canberra Times ran a piece about the day. I have included that article here for you to read as well. Overall, it was an amazing three days of learning for everybody.
Parent Training
On Tuesday we had Dr Lorraine Hammond run a parent workshop on reading and writing. 24 or our parents came along to this informative session. Their feedback showed how much they valued what Lorraine presented. Here is just one example (email) we received from Tamara Lindeman, one of our Kindy parents.
"I just wanted to send a quick email about the session yesterday with Lorraine, she is fantastic and I can see why you were all so excited by her teachings. I really enjoyed gaining a better understanding of how Oscar has been taught to read. It now makes sense, how everything is being put together in his head. Is it possible for me to get the link to the paper Lorraine was referring to?
I also want to give personal feedback from a parent perspective of this way of teaching, Oscar's reading has gone from non-existent at the start of the year to him being a fantastic, super reader by the start of term 4. Toby (Oscar's dad) and I are blown away with his progress and I now firmly believe it is due to this way of teaching - facilitated by Jacinta. I feel so truly feel so lucky to have Oscar enrolled at St Thomas and being taught by such wonderful and passionate teachers.
A huge thank you to Jacinta and the St Thomas teachers for their fantastic work and I look forward to working with you all throughout the rest of Oscar's school journey."
What’s the Crime Mr Wolf
This morning I went and watched the rehearsal for the upcoming Year 5/6 musical. I was blown away by the singing and acting of these budding thespians. Tickets went on sale this week and we expect it to be a sell out as it is only on for 2 nights – Wednesday 26 October and Thursday 27 October. Tickets are $10 each or $30 for a family of 4. Here is the link to purchase tickets.Social Media challenge
My final message today is quite a serious matter. We have been informed about some worrying behaviour that some students have been participating in. It’s called the "redface" challenge also known as the “blackout” challenge. It is being promoted on various social media platforms, including TikTok. This is where a participant holds their breath until they blackout (faint). Children think that it’s just a bit of fun but it can be very dangerous with participants actually dying as a result of side effects (heart failure or head injuries from falling). I spoke to the students from Year 3 to 6 about it today and asked them to be sensible about these types of behaviours, to speak up if they know it’s happening and to be brave and say ‘no’ if they are challenged to do it. I invite you to have a conversation about this with your child to reinforce the message of how dangerous this behaviour is.
On Monday and Tuesday, Channel Ten screened a program “Mirror Mirror” hosted by Todd Samson. It was one of the most disturbing, eye opening documentaries I have watched in a very long time. It deals with many issues that are connected to what is too easy to connect to on the internet and the vulnerability of our children been exposed to what can only be described as horrific content. It is available on 10play to watch. I would encourage all parents to watch it so you can be informed and do your part in protecting you children.
Yours in partnership,
Ursula Jamieson
Principal
RE Week 1 - Our Common Home - Connecting with ourselves
The 5/6 students did a wonderful job running a fundraiser for Catholic Mission this week. Students wore crazy socks and participated in many wonderful activities on the day. Thank you for all the generous donations, we will provide an update once the money has been counted. If you would like to learn more about Socktober or donate further you can visit the following website.
Geoff Ryan
REC
Date |
Event |
Saturday 15 October |
Working Bee 8am - 12pm |
Thursday 20 October |
Indigenous planting and culture workshops |
Friday 21 October |
Production Dress Rehearsal for Yr 3/4 |
Monday 24 October |
Production Dress Rehearsal for K-2 |
Hi, I’m Tommy
In the holidays, I went on a big car ride from Hervey Bay to Canberra with my new family (the Camerons)! I was the best boy in the car for the big drive.
When I go to my new home, I met my “big dog” brother Banjo. I already love him so much.
I have been coming in to school for little visits with my new school friends. I can only do little visits because I am just a little pup!
When I get bigger (and have had all my super important vaccinations/needles), I will be in at school lots and lots!
I met my “Nanny” (Ursula) and have had a little visit to all of the classrooms. My “Mum” (Sally) has discovered I love shoelaces and licking knees.
Look out each week in the newsletter for more adventures at school.
Love Tommy
Saturday 12 November 2022 – 10am-3pm
How you can help
- Like, follow and share our fete’s Facebook page
- RSVP & Share our Facebook Fete Event Invite
- Sign up to volunteer here. We need each family to give 1 hour of their time to make the fete a success.
You don’t need to create an account, just add your name to the desired stall and time slot. Admin will only be able to see your contact details.
- Plant stall – Can you help with potted plants or vegetable seedlings?
You can pot up any deciduous tree/shrub (eg Japanese Maples), any bulbs that have not yet sprouted or ones that have just started growing; parsley seedlings, lettuce varieties, most succulents. The more plants we have for sale, the better our stall will be. Donations of pots are also welcome.
- Spring cleaning? The Treasure Trove – Used Clothing – Kids Books stalls would love your treasures! The next Treasure drop off day is Sunday 23 October from 10am till 12pm. Please enter the hall and deliver in person, rather than outside for us to collect. We need to make sure these are treasure items not trash!
What we would love is your unwanted treasures:- good quality toys, boardgames & puzzles
- good quality clothing/shoes/accessories (children & grownups)
- kitchen equipment (NO electronics)
- bric a brac
- sports equipment
- other interesting items
- Children’s books:
We welcome any children’s books and readers/novels. - We are still in need of a BBQ Stall Coordinator & Used Clothing Coordinator, please email chant@cg.catholic.edu.au if you can help.
- Handmade stall – If there is any crafty family members out there, our handmade stall would love some donations of products to sell.
- Colour Me stall - Donations welcome of coloured hairspray, nail polish and temporary tattoos.
What exciting stalls do we have this year?
Treasure Trove, Clothing, Kids Books, Café, Cakes, Handmade, Plants, Pick a Prize, Chocolate Wheel, Money Tree, Tombola, Showbags/Lucky Dips, Chocolate Toss, BBQ, Tongan/Indian/Vietnamese Food, Gelato/Slushies/Drinks, Fairy Floss/Popcorn, Colour Me, Durkin Rides, Side Show Alley – Pluck a Duck, Pick a Pop, Balloon Toss and Photo Booth.
We also have a Silent Auction, Live Auction & a TV raffle for our students.
Important dates
Stall holders meetings – Parish house – Monday 17 October or Wednesday 26 October – 6-7pm
Treasure Trove donation day – Sunday 23 October – 10am-12pm
Tombola donation uniform free day - Friday 4 November
What’s happening next week?
Activity bags and all-day ride passes will be available for purchase by QKr – Activity Bags $17.50 and $25 for an all-day rides pass.
We will launch our famous Pick A Prize tickets.
Our amazing Platinum Sponsors
This year we are so lucky to have 7 Platinum Sponsors of our fete. We would like to thank:
Thanks for your ongoing support of the fete!
Tia Giacomin & Vicki Pearman
Co-Fete Co-Coordinators
Heads Up!
There will be frozen meals available for sale on Flexischools from Monday.
Make sure you log in and check them out!
Victoria Town
Canteen Manager
Happy Birthday
to the following students and teacher
who will celebrate a birthday this week
We’ve teamed up with 28 by Sam Wood to offer all families a two-month subscription plan to 28 by Sam Wood for $99.
In return, every family that signs up will receive a $100 Visa gift card.
PLUS, they’ll go into the draw to WIN 1 of 10 GOLDEN TICKETS to SUMMER at TeamKids (two days of free care).
This incredible offer is now LIVE but won’t be around for long, so please send this through to your families, so they can join in on the FUN!
The link to sign up is here: https://app.28bysamwood.com/offer/teamkids
Please note: this offer will be available from Monday, 10th October to Monday, 24th October.