Dear St Thomas Aquinas community,

Thank you for a fantastic first term at St Thomas Aquinas. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know students, families and staff alike. I have a much deeper appreciation for the values we share in our community. I've been made to feel very welcome and I am genuinely excited about the future for our community.

Thank you to Ms Megan Smith who organised our Cross Country Carnival today. The encouragement and energy from students, parents and staff was really lovely. Many students pushed themselves to do their very best. They were impressive. Thank you to the parents who assisted on the course and with record keeping. It was a fantastic event.

Thank you to our Year 6 and 5 students who are preparing and leading our Holy Week liturgies this week and to Ms Smith and Mr Mackenzie for supporting their students through this. The liturgies so far have been a lovely way to gather and a great way to reflect on this time in Jesus' life.

End of Term Awards

Congratulations to all of our students who will receive end of term awards at our assembly this coming Thursday. These are well deserved. Thank you to all of the families and staff who have also supported them to achieve their best.

While each fortnight we present class awards that celebrate those students who reflect our school values in their learning, our end of term awards are for those students who have achieved well in literacy and numeracy and have consistently and quietly worked hard throughout the term.

It is hard to select one person for each award when there might be a number of children who deserve it. Our teachers always try to spot and recognise those that 'fly under the radar'. It's through a variety of practices throughout the school that we attempt to recognise each child's achievements and efforts as often as possible.

School Uniform Term 2

A reminder that we change to our Winter Uniform next term. You can find a full list of the uniform requirements for our students on our school website.

I would like to remind everyone of the following uniform requirements:

Make Up & Nails

• No make up
• No nail polish

Hair

• Natural colour
• No extreme haircuts
• Shoulder length hair, or covering a students eyes, must be tied up
• Hair ties are to match school colours or natural hair colour

Jewellery

• Earrings - plain studs or sleepers
• Necklace - only if with a plain cross or crucifix
• Other religious or necessary cultural items if agreed by the Principal

We are currently looking into the place of smartwatches at our school. Smartwatches often have similar features to mobile phones including taking photos. At St Thomas mobile phones must be paced in the front office each morning and picked up at the end of each day. We are reviewing whether this will need to be the same for smartwatches and will inform families prior to the beginning of next term.

Pupil Free Days

Please remember that the first and last day of each term is a pupil free day to enable staff to complete administrative, professional learning and compliance requirements. 

Thank you for an excellent term. Thank you for your collaboration and support for our school and community. I wish everybody well deserved rest and Easter blessings during these coming holidays.

Matthew Garton

Principal