Dear Families, 

Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost. The word Pentecost is Greek and it means "50th day". Fifty days after Easter Sunday, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and their followers, and the beginning of their Earthly ministry. It also marks the birth of our Church. Most of us have heard or read the account of the Twelve Apostles cowering in a darkened room following the Ascension of Jesus. They felt lost and frightened. The Messiah had seemingly left them with an impossible task to go out into a hostile world and preach God’s word. For those who know the story or have seen the paintings, the Holy Spirit came upon them as tongues of fire, settling on the head of each person in the room, and with the gifts of the Spirit within them, they all had the courage to go out into the world.

So what does this all mean for us 2000 years later? Where is our experience of the Spirit at St Thomas Aquinas, especially at a time where our opportunities to gather in community are limited? I see the Spirit in the way families have reached out over these last few months to support other families in our community who are struggling, I see it in the way parents have thanked me and their children’s teachers for our dedication to the education and wellbeing of our students, and I see it in the way the staff at St Thomas Aquinas continue to work tirelessly to provide a safe and caring learning environment under difficult and unprecedented conditions. We are a community which, even in challenging times, continues to show care and compassion to those we encounter.

Ian Luscombe and Behaviour Management
Last week we welcomed Ian Luscombe from Behaveability. Ian worked with all of the staff to support the implementation of strategies to build a culture of high expectations and respectful relationships across the school. It is our aim at St Thomas Aquinas to create a culture where everyone feels safe and secure so everyone can focus on being their very best.

Last week, I was able to visit most classes to talk about some of the new procedures put in place since the students returned and also about respectful language. In the younger classes, I spoke about caring words and how even when we are sad or angry it is important that we use caring words or respectful language when we speak with others. For the upper grades, I spoke about setting high expectations and respectful relationships. I will endeavour to get around to the last few classes this week to talk about the school’s expectations.

Our work with Ian is focused on a whole school approach where we praise and encourage the behaviour we want to see and set known boundaries for all students. This approach fits in perfectly with our Positive Behaviour Program as well as our Berry Street training and a trauma informed approach to schooling. Ian uses an image of a Buddha to demonstrate this approach.

You can see one hand is cradled in Buddha’s lap showing how we need to care for and support our students. This hand symbolises the adjustments, the praise, care and compassion we show towards our students. The other hand is held out as if to say stop. This hand symbolises the boundaries we need to hold, and that as the adults, our responsibility in stopping students from making poor decisions. If we have too much of the cradling hand our students may make decisions which lead to themselves or other being hurt.  If we have too much of the ‘stop’ hand then we struggle to build relationships and the child struggles to build a positive self-identity. So we need a balance of both.

Reconciliation Week Celebrations
Last week was Reconciliation Week. Our Aboriginal students ran a beautiful prayer liturgy to recognise this event. I wish to acknowledge and thank Mrs Skye McPadden for organising the liturgy and in preparing the students. The theme for Reconciliation this year is "In this Together" and marks 20 years since the Reconciliation walks of 2000. To quote Reconciliation Australia “Reconciliation is a journey for all Australians – as individuals, families, communities, organisations and importantly as a nation. At the heart of this journey are relationships between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”.

Simultaneous Storytime
On Wednesday, we joined thousands of other students across Australia as part of Simultaneous Storytime. When we first started to think about what we might do to celebrate this event we thought we would still be remote learning. But it was wonderful to be able to take part in this event in classrooms. Various staff members read sections of Chicken Divas and students had to guess which member of staff read which page. Thank you Mrs Stephanie Noack for organising this event.

Pick-up
Thank you again for supporting us with the current pick-up arrangements. As restrictions relax we will be able to move back to something similar to the pick-up we had prior to commencing remote learning. We ask that parents arrive close to or after 3pm so we do not block Lhotsky St. We are happy for parents of children in Kinder and Year 1 to park at the shops and walk across to collect children from the front of the school and thank you for continuing to maintain appropriate social distancing.

God Bless