Dear St Thomas Aquinas community,

Last week I spent time in Brisbane with 10 other Principals from our Archdiocese. I visited schools from the Mastery Schools Australia network. They use Explicit Instruction methodology similar to ourselves.

The visit was very affirming for our school. Many of the strategies for teaching English and Mathematics were the same as our own. I have watched our own teachers implement these very successfully, with very high participation by students and with very good results.

My colleagues and I also attended two days of professional learning about school leadership in Catholic schools. I always advocate for ongoing learning and the opportunity to listen to speakers from Harvard University and other leaders in education was unmissable.

I was very, very glad to be back here on Friday to see may smiling faces.

A new School Community Council

Thank you to those parents, friends and staff who attended the School Community Council AGM last Tuesday evening.

Thank you to Katie Walsh-Smith who has stepped into the role of Chair and Bernadette Urack, who is the new SCC Secretary. I really appreciate their generosity in taking on these important roles and looking forward to working closely with them.

Thank you also to Allyson Hogan and Soraya Hoepner who are new to the Community Council. Your voices and contributions are very welcome!

Thanks you Stephen Kiley who will continue to operate as Treasurer for the remainder of the year as we seek a new person to take over. Stephen would like to share the following message:

Monitoring student progress

At the end of this term we will distribute Semester 1 Student Reports to families via Compass.

Regular assessment helps us know how each student is tracking in relation to what they are taught each week. We want to know if they are they retaining what we are teaching. These small assessments, sometimes as small as a quick  'check for understanding' during a lesson contribute to the teacher judgement that informs School Reports.

We also conduct more formal literacy and numeracy assessments twice a year that assist us to track how students are progressing over the long term journey of school. This assessment data is also collected by Catholic Education. Students have been sitting these assessments for the past two weeks. We're looking forward to seeing the results. They will help us understand who is progressing as expected, who needs additional support for a time and who would benefit from extension.

We're always happy to share this information with parents at end of term Parent-Teacher Interviews if requested.

Student teachers

Have your children come home talking about a lot of adults in classrooms across our school?

We have a lot of student teachers presently working with us. This has included many in their first year of university who have been observing and working with individual students. 

Additionally we have welcomed final year teachers in several classrooms who have been teaching alongside the classroom teacher. 

As a school we have a responsibility for supporting the development of the next generation of teachers. It's a pleasure to share our school with them.

Thank you Lions Club

Thank you to the the Lions Club of Canberra Belconnen who donate books to our library every year. It is clubs like this, whose role it is to support local communities, that keeps a spirit of generosity alive for us all. They are an inspiration.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

Matthew Garton

Principal