Dear Families,

It was wonderful to see a few familiar faces back in the courtyard. We were all so excited to hear that we would once again be able to welcome families back onto our school grounds and volunteers back into the building. We are looking forward to presenting our first lot of class awards in the courtyard this year.

This week is Catholic Schools Week and the beginning of our enrolment period. If you know of anyone who is considering enrolling their child for 2023 in either the Primary School or for Preschool, let them know that now is the time. There is more information about open days and how to enrol in this newsletter. Our first Open Morning will be on Thursday between 9.30-11am - so spread the word.

Yesterday we welcomed back Toni Hatten-Roberts from COGLearn to work with staff on Explicit Direct Instruction and Daily Review. Toni has been working with our school for over a year now and has been very pleased with the progress made my staff in implementing this new pedagogy.

CE have granted schools two additional pupil free days to make up for lost release from face-to-face and the additional workload resulting from staff absences. We have tried to place these days as conveniently as possible and to work with St Francis Xavier to minimise disruption for families with children at both schools. We have managed to match one day, but unfortunately, due to calendar clashes, we have not been able to match both days. These pupil free days will be Tuesday 31st May (this is the Tuesday following the long weekend) and Friday 1st July (the last day of school). I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. OSHClub will be available for families who require care.

This term is already proving to be a challenging one. You may hear about a few ‘guest’ teachers in classes. We are trying to minimise disruption to learning as much as possible and ensuring planned lessons as taught. I thank you for your understanding and support during this time. Today we had three officers from the Catholic Education Office in class to support our school. You may hear your children talk about Mr Kemp, Mr Barnard and Mrs Blake. In the coming days we will have other CE officers coming into to take classes where required. As a school we are very grateful for the support provided by these officers and the Central Office to ensure that we are able to remain open and that all students are able to participate fully in planned learning.

Next week students in Years 3 and 5 will participate in NAPLAN. This nationwide assessment helps the school to track learning over the years and across cohorts. We use this information to assess the effectiveness of programs and make decisions about whole school teaching and learning. While we know there is a lot of attention paid to NALPAN by the media, we would like to reiterate that NAPLAN is only one measure of a student’s progress. Students at St Thomas Aquinas also complete other assessments including PAT Reading and PAT Maths, as well as assessments associated with the various programs we use here to assess and track learning. I wish all of the students participating in this year’s NAPLAN well.

Yours in Faith

Leah Taylor
Principal