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Dear Parents/Carers,
Well we are in a far different world to the one we were in last week when I wrote the newsletter. There has been a lot of correspondence from me over the last week so I will keep this brief.
We will be begin remote learning next Monday. We are saying it’s a trial as we anticipate that there will be changes made to how it happens as we learn from the experience of each sessions and feedback from the students and parents.
Teachers will be in touch with their parents tomorrow to let you know what will happen from Monday and what you need to do to have your child ‘remote learning’ ready. We have spent many hours working together over this week to plan for this transition. I’m am so proud of how our teachers have met this challenge, of turning their whole teaching world upside down. No other profession has been impacted in quite as big a way.
There has never been a more important time than now for us to have accurate and current contact information for all families. If you change a phone number, email address, postal address or emergency contact, you must inform us immediately.
Our primary and most effective form of communication is via the Schoolzine App (SZapp). Emergency announcements, all information, etc, will be communicated via the app.
Please ensure you have installed the app on your devices and are enabling notifications.
As many of our families are at home, here is a great opportunity time to connect with your child in a way that we often don’t have time for. We are encouraging the playing of board games, reading interesting stories, playing card games, doing some craft, doing some cooking, watching a movie or documentary, researching a favourite topic, or writing an amazing story/play or screenplay. Seize the opportunity and make the most of this time.
We are keeping spirits high my knowing that we will soon be back in visual and audio contact with our students. Tomorrow, for a little bit of fun, we are having a stripes day. We want all our children (along with parents and carers) who are working at home to wear something with stripes and to send us in a photo of how they are "learning in stripes". We will put these on our newsletter.
I would also like to say that kindness certainly prevails here at St Thomas the Apostle. I have had some parents bring in donations of cash and supermarket vouchers to help out families who are doing it tough. They were keen to share with others who are not in as good a position as them. Thank you for you kindness and generosity. Thank you also for the many emails and phone calls of thanks, support and encouragement that are coming to the teachers, the office and to me. They make such a positive impact on our day and they are very much appreciated.
May God bless you and your families and may he keep you all safe.
Ursula Jamieson
Principal
RE Week 8 - Be still and know that I am God
While many exclusions are in place, there are also many ways that we are still able to worship in our homes and through activities provided by the school. We will continue with our Community Prayers on Monday and Friday but these may look a little different.
Daily Mass is available on the Catholic Voice website online from 6am each day.
Additional resources for personal and family prayer are available on the Catholic Voice website.
The reflection journal sent home with all students is an important way to build resilience and an attitude of gratitude. Please spend time regularly on this with your child.
Finally, I would like to leave you with the following from Pope Francis;
“The very first truth I would tell each of you is this: “God loves you”. It makes no difference whether you have already heard it or not. I want to remind you of it. God loves you. Never doubt this, whatever may happen to you in life. At every moment, you are infinitely loved.
His is “a love that does not overwhelm or oppress, cast aside or reduce to silence, humiliate or domineer. It is the love of the Lord, a daily, discreet and respectful love; a love that is free and freeing, a love that heals and raises up. The love of the Lord has to do more with raising up than knocking down, with reconciling than forbidding, with offering new changes than condemning, with the future than the past”.
Penny Vanzwol
REC Coordinator
Global School Partners
The image of our wooden structure covered with orange hearts is testament to the generosity of our wonderful St Thomas’ community. To date, we have collected $923.95! This is an amazing contribution and will be a great help to our partner school, Charcha Kiomanga Academy. We will continue to collect donations until the end of term. Donations can be dropped to the Front Office in a labelled envelope.
"Stripes" Theme for Friday 27 March
All staff and students (at school and home) are invited to dress in stripes tomorrow. This can include socks, scarves, hats, t-shirts etc.
Please send in your photos if you are at home learning, so we can include these in the next newsletter.
Thank you for your home learning photo contributions. There are some wonderful photos of students working on their maths activities, home learning booklets, making constructions, enjoying recess outside, creating science models and colouring-in.
We would like to continue to include photos in future newsletters. If you have photos of your child/ren learning from home, please send them to
lynette.wilson@cg.catholic.edu.au
Congratulations to Griffin Moule who won silver in the 700 metre walk at ACT Little Athletics State Championships in early March.
Dear TeamKids Parents and Caregivers,
Our thoughts are with our whole community at this time. We are all facing an unimaginable world event. We feel your worries and fears around the situation unknown and we will endeavor to support our families by keeping you updated with critical information as we receive it and remaining open to meet your care needs in line with the decisions made by the school.
Our entire team are dedicated to their roles and understand they are a much-needed service, even though they may have fears of their own. Please remember to say thank you, show them love, patience, and appreciation.
To our families who have chosen to isolate, please log into your parent account or contact our customer service team to remove your bookings, so that we are able to adjust our roster to reflect and ensure that we limit the exposure of our team and our ability to support ongoing.
Our teams are available should you have any questions.
Stay safe,
Kaylee Wandel- ACT Area Manager