Dear Families,

It was wonderful to see so many families at Donuts for Dad on Friday morning. This is a lovely opportunity to recognise all of the dads, grandfathers and father figures in the lives of our children. It has been good for the community to be able to hold more of these events this year, including Grandparents day earlier this term. Hopefully, next year we will be able to have the full suite of celebrations with our whole community.

This week, we welcome Mrs Rachael Hind to the staff. Rachael comes to us from Radford College and has a great deal of experience as a Teacher Librarian. Many of you may already know Rachael as a parent of the school who would often help out in the library at the end of each Semester. There are always challenges in coming into a new school, let alone mid term. Mrs Hind has already started to get to know the students, their interests and most importantly about the books they love to read! I am sure you will all make Mrs Hind feel very welcome.

Today we extend a warm welcome to seven guests who will lead St Thomas Aquinas through the Registration and School Improvement process. Brenda Foley, Dominic Braybon, Margaret Pollard, Lee Herden, Jamie Kemp, Jon Sleeman and Greg Walker will join us from Catholic Education Canberra & Goulburn. As the name suggests, there will be a check of compliance requirements, however the major focus of the visit will be to assist in future directions to enhance school improvement. Students will engage with their lessons as normal and panel members will work with all staff at different times on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to experience the school and provide future recommendations.

I would like to thank so many of you for your concern and offers of support following the parish break-in last month. It has been a challenging year within the parish, but your support has made this time a little easier.

Take care and God bless

Yours in Faith

Note from Mr Ross Fox, Director CECG

Acknowledging the unprecedented situation we face, and following consultation, I have authorised two additional pupil free days in Term 3. The timing of these days for ACT schools will align with times set by the ACT Education Directorate – Friday in Week 3 and Friday in Week 8. NSW schools will set dates for these these pupil free days in consultation with nearby schools. I hope this additional time will assist teachers and staff in term 3.

In accordance with the abovementioned and in line wth all ACT Schools, we note that the two additional pupil free days for Term 3 are:

• Week 3, Friday 5th August 2022 
• Week 8, Friday 9th September 2022

We, again, thank our community for supporting and working with us to enable our school to hopefully remain appropriately staffed and open and our amazing learning to continue. 

A friendly reminder that school fees for Term 3 for 2022 are now overdue. Please contact the front office to arrange payment unless you already have payment arrangement in place

Thank you for your cooperation.

We look forward to seeing some amazing work presented by Year 1 when they host the next assembly on Friday 16 September 2022. Sadly, we are unable to welcome families to the assembly, in accordance with the COVID Management Plan but we hope that families will have discussions surrounding their child’s involvement in their assemblies.

We look forward to celebrating our Principal Awards in our Week 10 assembly on Friday, 23 September 2022.

On Saturday the 27^th of August the St Thomas Aquinas Tournament of Minds(TOM) Team presented their solution to a STEM challenge and worked as a team to solve a Spontaneous Challenge.  Their Long Term Challenge included many components but over five weeks the team showed dedication, ingenuity, collaboration, persistence and resilience to produce a scenario which addressed all of the criteria.  They were required to:

• present a creative scenario about the discovery of a 300g nugget, 
• identify the importance of gold over time and the significance of this discovery,
• design and make a platform to display the gold which moved at two different speeds for ten seconds and
• include a multimedia presentation of the design process!  

What a task!!

Presenting at the ANU was quite overwhelming and they were all very nervous, but they should be so proud of the way they stepped up to the challenge to present.  The team did not make it through to the next round but received the following impressive feedback from the judges:

• Use of Presentation Skill - props: Excellent
• Scientific Understandings of gold: Very Good
• STEM principles - explanation and demonstration: Good
• Overall dramatic performance: Excellent
• Comment from the judges: "This was a really thoroughly researched challenge and you were clear with your facts and reasoning within the play.  Your hard work and attention to detail was evident - well done.  Awesome props!!"

Feedback from their spontaneous challenge was: 

"Great work on your enthusiasm for the task at hand.  Thanks for the animated and energetic discussions."

We hope that there are a few Year 4's and 5's inspired to have a go at TOM next year!

We have received notification from Life Unlimited Church at 45 Lhotsky Street Charnwood that many of our families are parking on the grassed area as detailed below which is causing damage to the grass. The Life Unlimited Church has been very accomodating in allowing staff and families to park in their car park which they are happy to continue to do so however we do ask that you please do not park on any of the grassed areas along Lhotsky Street. 

We understand that parking is limited on the school grounds but there is ample parking available at the Charnwood Shops and within the Unlimited Life Church allocated parking. 

We would be very grateful for your cooperation. 

CANTEEN

The Canteen is open from Wednesdays to Fridays - for the first 10 minutes of each break.  We sell a limited selection of healthy canteen approved chips and ice blocks.

SUBWAY

Parents and staff are able to place Subway Orders Online.  Click on the link below to place an order and payment as well. 

Cut-off time is 9:15 AM for same day delivery.
Call on 02 6259 9101 to place your order after this time

Subway Lunch Orders can also be made, via Subway Envelope, at school.  Subway envelopes, including cash, need to be placed in the Lunch Order Subway box, located outside the Front Office,  by 9:30am on the day before the lunch is required.  For example, if you would like a lunch order on Wednesday, the lunch order needs to be manually submitted by Tuesday 9:30am.

Here is a sample of the Subway ordering envelope.  Envelopes are available from the Front Office or the classroom.

September 2022

Jade J, Hannah M, Matilda H, William B, Edison B, Luella B, Elodie A, Jacob P, Holly B, Harper G, Zocrates CC, Charli C, Sebastian GR, Sebastian D, Aden G, Jessica B, Lincoln D, Emma S, Ebadat KS, Sarah H, Timothy R, Natalia R, Felicity W, Eleanor S, Chloe W, Harper E, Harrison G, Aleu D, Arianna D, Ethan L, Gabriel S-P