Dear St Thomas Aquinas community,

Well it's Fete Week! There's an excited buzz in the air. I'm thoroughly looking forward to this Saturday.

I want to offer a very big thank you to everyone who has been involved in preparing for this fabulous event. Each fete meeting I have been amazed at the organisation skills, commitment and collaboration of our parents. While there are many involved, I want to offer a very big thank you the Arianne Moylan and Tara Nolan, our fete convenors, who have been working towards this day for a long time. Thank you also to Ms Carmen Myles, Assistant Principal, for being the hard working arm of the school in supporting the fete committee.

No matter how much our organising committee works, the fete only succeeds when we have enough volunteers on the ground. I know that the committee appreciates every hour that a family can provide to help on a stall. If you haven't already volunteered, please do, even for one hour. Your contribution will help our fete be a success and your children will benefit from your effort.

Congratulations

Congratulatons to our Years 3 and 4 students who celebrated their first Reconciliation last Wednesday & Thursday evenings. Thank you to the parents for preparing their children for this milestone in their faith journey. Thank you to the parish for their organisation of the evenings and the staff who attended to show their support.

Congratulations also to our Year 6 students who where officially presented to the community as student leaders at a liturgy last Friday morning. They were called upon to receieve badges that symbolise this special role. These were pinned on them by their parents and the whole student body was present to bless them. Thank you to Mr Finn, Ms Smith and Mrs Myles for organising this special moment.

New Parish beginnings

At each of the masses over the weekend an announcement was made about the future of both the Kippax and Charnwood parishes.

You can read the announcement here.

The main points are:

• due to the current context, both parishes are merging to become the West Belconnen parish, though will keep their own church names.
• as a West Belconnen parish there will be:
  • one Parish Pastoral Council and Finance Committee
  • one parish newsletter
  • one website
  • centralised administration
• the merger has already begun with:
  • one sacremental coordination team
  • shared mass times
• all of the changes above are expected to be complete by the end of the year and a transition committee will be developed to guide this process.

Yesterday Megan Thomas (REC) and I met with the Fru Tru and Marian England (Parish Sacramental Coordinator) to review the First Reconciliation Program from a St Thomas Aquinas perspective. We had an excellent conversation celebrating what went well and looking at ways to assist our parents in helping their children prepare. It was a very fruitful meeting and we're looking forward to the next sacrament for preparation, Confirmation. I'm very grateful to be working with a parish team that are so committed to the sacramental preparation of our students.

I look forward to seeing everyone this coming Saturday at our 50th Anniversary STA School Fete! See you there.

Matthew Garton

Principal