Dear Families,

Wow what a week! Last Friday, we officially opened our new ELC Building. From the time St Thomas Aquinas opened a two room facility in two converted classrooms in 2012 to now, we have seen hundreds children and families through its doors. We are so very pleased now to have a purpose built ELC where children can learn, cook and explore the outdoor naturescape. Archbishop Christopher Prowse, Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry and Mr Ross Fox were all part of the official proceedings. The ELC building was jointly funded through a $1M grant from the ACT government as part of the Building Better Schools grant and a $1.073M contribution from Catholic Education. We were blessed to have Ngunnawal Elder and grandparent to students at STA, Stephen Mudford conduct a smoking ceremony and Welcome to country. Stephen and his family have been involved with St Thomas Aquinas for many decades and it is a wonderful gift for all of you to have someone so personally connected with the school to complete this ceremony. I thank Carla Drayton, Acting Director for MC’ing, preparing the event along with the ELC staff and students, Skye McPadden for preparing the liturgy, Loryn Reynolds for representing the SCC, and Year 5 teachers and students for taking part in the liturgy and helping to set up for the event. I would also like to acknowledge the work of John Bourke, Cameron Johns and Carmen Myles for their roles in the ELC journey and Maribel Cabezas for her tireless work throughout.

You may have noticed that the fences surrounding the new oval are finally down. As of today, students are able to use the new ovals for sport. There is still a little bit of work to do in order to finalise the ovals, including putting up some soccer and football posts, but it is wonderful to finally allow the students onto this space after such a long time.

Immediately following the ELC opening, we held our third annual colour run. The weather was perfect for the event. I am not quite sure who had more fun, the students or the staff. Once again, we had the people from BFirm come out to run the obstacle course which the children always seem to enjoy. Carmen Myles ensured that there was sufficient colour as well as organising the sponsor cards and prizes. We still have until the end of the week to finalise sponsorship cards and donations if your child wishes to be considered for a prize, so if your child still has sponsorship to collect, we ask if you can organise this by Friday.

Reports will be coming out at the beginning of week 10. Parents are invited to contact their child’s teacher via email if they would like to have a meeting to discuss their child’s performance prior to reports going out. Most teachers will be available on Tuesday and Wednesday after school, with some teachers available before school on Wednesday.

It is at this time of year that we begin to find out about teachers leaving and new teachers coming to the school. It is with some sadness that we farewell Mr Michael Prosper who will be going to Holy Trinity next year, Mrs Jessica Betterton who moves to St Jude’s Holder and Mrs Emily Rhodes who will move to Mt Carmel in Yass. We will welcome back Ms Hannah Dewey who has been working at St Claire of Assisi most recently, Miss Brittaney Ford will continue to work with us next year and Ms Bronwyn Newth will work in the primary school one day a week as well as continue working in the beginning of the week class in the ELC.

Take care and God bless

Yours in Faith