Dear Families,

I would like to begin by congratulating our Year 6 leaders for the wonderful way they conducted themselves at the Leadership Mass on Friday. They are a great credit to you and the school and have already contributing well to our beautiful school culture. On Friday, I spoke about Jesus calling his disciples. Jesus didn’t call people who were always perfect, they didn’t start out saints. And so, we are called to look out for those who might not be the most popular and to look out for them, to welcome everyone and let them know that we care about them too.

Each year, Year 6 students have to complete a number of tasks to demonstrate they have the qualities and desire to be a leader at St Thomas Aquinas. All students applied themselves to this task and I am pleased to say, they all completed these tasks well before the Leadership Mass. All students received their leadership shirts on Friday, and it was wonderful to see them wearing them by lunch break! I thank Mrs Thomas, Mr Smith and Miss Barry for preparing the Leadership Mass and the students for this Mass.

SRC
Today, Mrs Michelle Mason met with our Student Representative Council. The SRC is made up of one elected member from each class from Year 2 to Year 6. This SRC will provide advice for student-led projects throughout the school.

NAPLAN
Information about this year’s NAPLAN is provided in this week’s newsletter. Years 3 and 5 will complete NAPLAN earlier this year commencing in Week 7. This earlier date and the fact that all tests are online will enable ACARA to provided information for parents and schools earlier in the year which will allow us to use this information to support or extend students where necessary. At St Thomas Aquinas, we also use this NAPLAN data to assess the effectiveness of programs across the school. This year’s Year 3 students will be the first cohort of students to have had Initialit for Kindergarten (albeit from halfway through the year) to Year 2 and to had Connecting Math Concepts (CMC) in Year 2 and Year 3.

Fete
Planning for the Fete meeting is well underway with our first parent fete meeting to be held this Thursday. If you would like to be part of this great community event and have not had a chance to respond or email, I encourage you to come along and hear about the big or small ways you might be able to contribute. It has been over three years since we have held our last school fete and I for one am looking forward to finally being able to be part of this event.

Lent
This week, we begin Lent. This is a time for reflection and penance. It can be a little tricky for some children (and adults) to understand what Lent is about. Many think it is just about giving something up, but it is so much more. We fast or give things up to help us attune our thoughts back to God, but we can do this in other ways too. Prayer is a wonderful way to reflect on what God is asking of us, as are acts of service. I encourage you to talk to your children about ways they can be more like Jesus and serve those around them.

Take care and God bless

Yours in Faith