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- Principal's Report
- RE Week 4 - Be still and know that I am God
- Awards Term 4 Week 4
- Swimming Program starts Monday 9 November
- Library News
- Partners: Parenting Ideas
- Stay Safe with Check in CBR App
- November Birthdays
- Will Lipscombe Award - Reminder
- Photos - Garden Cafe
- Year 5/6 boys cricket carnival
- Tuggeranong Valley Junior Cricket Club
- TeamKids Newsletter
Dear Parents and Carers,
Last week the Principals from the Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese (56 in all) gathered for our Annual Conference with the CE Director, Ross Fox and other leaders from our Catholic Education System. Friday was a most informative day reviewing the Archdiocesan System goals for the next few years. The two bold goals all schools will be working toward are –
To achieve these goals the Catalyst Program, informed by the science of learning, will focus on four key initiatives.
- High Impact Teaching Practices
- K - 2 Literacy
- Curriculum improvement through high-quality resources
- Instruction leadership to support the implementation of evidence-based instruction leadership techniques.
The key initiatives will drive professional learning for teachers next year and guide the formation of the 2021 Annual Improvement Plan for each school. Further detail about Catalyst can be found at the following link:
It was an inspiring two days and I look forward to planning with the leadership team and the teachers for the implementation of this, starting next year.
2020 Recognition Awards
Members of our staff were recently nominated for the 2020 Catholic Education Recognition Awards.
Service Award: Cathy Duffy (Classroom Support Teacher)
Mission Award: Penny Vanzwol and Ursula Jamieson (Religious Education Coordinator/Principal)
Whilst they did not win for their respective categories, we congratulate them on their significant achievement. Being nominated is just as special as winning.
Kinder Orientation
We are looking forward to meeting our new kinders who will start with us in 2021. We have 40 delightful children coming into Kindergarten. Their first orientation session will be next Thursday. Because of COVID restrictions, the format will be different from previous years but the most important thing is, that these little people will get to spend time in their new school.
No fete this year
Normally at this time of the year we would be are getting very excited about our annual fete – an event that the St Thomas Community is famous for. Sadly it is yet another causality of the coronavirus pandemic. However, we are confident that next year’s fete will be bigger and better than ever!! Early next year we will be calling for volunteers to join the committee. I am expecting with this year being such a lean year of parent involvement opportunities, that we will be inundated with offers of people to be part of it. Parents and carers are missing the community contact and being involved in events management next year is one way to make up for some of that.
The Toilet Project
Next Friday morning, we will be having the official opening of our renovated toilets. The students will have an opportunity to thank the parents and other significant contributors to the toilet make-over. It has been an incredible team effort.
Community Council
Our School Community Council met on Monday night with many issues covered on a full agenda. Mr Mike Giacomin, SCC treasurer will be writing a piece for the newsletter next week letting you all know what was discussed.
May God bless you and your families,
Ursula Jamieson
Ursula Jamieson
Principal
RE Week 4 - Be still and know that I am God
RE Week 4 - Be still and know that I am God
This week we listened to the Gospel of Luke - Jesus heals a man with leprosy. People with leprosy were outcast by society. They were sent away so the disease wouldn't spread, they were avoided by everyone. Imagine living like this. The person with leprosy would've expected Jesus to be repulsed when He saw him. Instead, Jesus looked upon this man with love and compassion. He welcomed people that no one else would, even when it wasn't socially accepted. How can you welcome others (especially people who are different or challenge you)?
Family Prayer Night
Family prayer night will be held in the Church on Wednesday of Week 6 (18th November) at 6:30pm. Join us for a night of quiet prayer and reflection around the theme of forgiveness.
Geoff Ryan
REC
this week. Photos will be included in the next newsletter.
Kinder | Razan Ablahd, Vincent Sommariva Baani Toor, Vincent Denino |
Year 1 |
Anna Mathew Thomas, Felix Walker |
Year 2 |
Harper Clark, Lewis Rice |
Year 3/4 |
Mailg Ngo, Teliaha Goward |
Year 5/6 |
Iely Shaji, Georgina Jenkins |
Cultural Award |
Gab Esguerra |
Principal's Special Award |
Cameron Long |
To support our commitment to continuous improvement in the teaching of Literacy, we have purchased a significant number of new readers for students in Years K-2. We would like to protect the books by covering them. This is a huge job as we have well over 100 books. They are all the same size and quite simple to cover however, the volume of books means the more helpers we have, the more efficiently we can get the books covered.
If you are willing to take some books to cover, please email me on Penelope.vanzwol@cg.catholic.edu.au. We really appreciate your help in this matter.
Penny Vanzwol
Teacher Librarian
Stay Safe with Check in CBR App
At St Thomas the Apostle we will be using the Check In CBR app for parents/carers and visitors to the school.
Could you please download the Check in CBR app if you are visiting the school, for example for sacrament home nights.
Will Lipscombe Award - Reminder
Recently a "Garden Cafe" was setup in our inside Courtyard area for classes to book in to eat their recess or lunch and for future class kitchen cooking experiences.
Year 5/6 boys cricket carnival
The Year 5/6 boys cricket carnival was held on the 3rd of November at the Kambah ovals. The weather was fantastic and it was great to have the students participating in a sports gala day again. There were 2 full teams from St Thomas and they played 5 games each. As well as being good sports, they won 9 out of 10 games between them! The boys are to be commended on the way they played and represented our wonderful school.
St Thomas the Apostle Strikers
Ned Adams
Patrick Fogarty
Benjamin Lowes
Logan Berry
Dominic Hamilton
Riley Masters
Bruno Grzegorzewski
Ethan Marcelja
Dylan Anyon
St Thomas the Apostle Heat
Ryan Tkalcevic
Liam Kneeshaw
Jack Miels-Barrett
Christy Mathew Thomas
Oscar Zacny
Ethan Angus
Liam Dunn
James Rice
Gab Esguera
Ruben Hines