Dear Families,

Welcome back to our final term of 2022. I hope many of you managed to have a little bit of a break from the day-to-day and were able to enjoy the little bit of sunshine the term break had to offer. My husband and I were able to start back at our long walks and walked 100km from La Perouse to Manly over the long weekend. We were lucky enough to have a few days of sunshine, which helped with drying out our shoes after the first day of walking.

It is hard to believe that Term 4 is already here. As always, this will be a term full of big events and activities. We were pleased to see that COVID restrictions have continued to ease over the break and will continue to do so over this month. This means we will be able to welcome families back into the school for a range of events and assemblies. Some of the events we have to look forward to are:

• Dance showcase - Wednesday 16 November matinee and evening performance. Save the date!
• Colour Run
• Graduation
• Year 6 water fight
• 3-way conference and parent-teacher interviews face-to-face!
• Parents allowed into assemblies!
• Principal awards in the hall
• Leadership ceremony - passing of the light

While we do not require parents entering the hall to see their children perform to sign in, we still require all visitors to sign in if you are entering the main school building beyond the front office during school hours - yes this includes visitors who are just popping in quickly to have a chat with their child’s teacher. This is a legal requirement for all schools. Any visitor who needs to enter the main school building will need to enter through the Front Office. Please do not come in through the side or back doors, if you do you will be politely asked to walk around the building and to sign in. Thank you for your understanding and support.

Class Allocations for 2022

During this term, we will be finalising our staffing arrangements for 2023. Below is a copy of the ‘Class Allocation Policy’ which aims to ensure there is a fair and just process in allocating students to classes for the upcoming school year.

My firm belief is that teachers are in the best position to decide a child’s placement because they know all the children in their classes and have a view of the ‘big picture’. However, I invite parents to inform me of anything that you feel needs to be considered, for your own child’s well-being or development.

When forming the class lists the following factors are taken into consideration:

• Gender
• Diverse Learners
• Work habits
• Cognitive ability
• Friendships
• Behaviour
• Health considerations
• Religion (to assist in achieving balance between classes, especially in Sacramental years) and
• Common names

Ideally, we aim for an equal spread of both positive and challenging characteristics. Where practical, parental requests based on educational concerns may be considered. At St Thomas Aquinas, we follow these principles and guidelines when considering placement of students each year:

• Every care will be taken to ensure that each child is placed in the best situation to enhance learning and social development
  
  
• Parents who wish to raise concerns regarding the placement of their children in particular classes for the following year, should put the concern in writing and email it to me (Leah.Taylor@cg.catholic.edu.au) by Friday of Week 4 (Term 4 - Friday 4 November). Parents cannot assume that requests from previous years will be taken into account. A new request will need to be made every year
  
  
• Parent concerns will be considered during the process. It must be clearly understood, however, that no definite guarantees can be given regarding parental concerns
  
  
• Where appropriate, advice will be sought from the Classroom Support Assistant, School Counsellor, Chaplain and current Class Teacher during this process
  
  
• Considering all the factors listed above, the current Class Teachers compile class lists from mid-term, Term 4. These are then handed to me to confirm
  
  
• Children will be informed of their class placement for the following school year in December (usually the last week of school) and the opportunity will be provided for them to spend some time with their new class teacher. New students to the school for the following year are invited to attend
  
  
• Throughout this process, after appropriate consultation, I reserve the right to make final professional decisions regarding the placement of children

I look forward to seeing many of you at the various events we will have this term.

Take care and God bless

Yours in Faith

WEEK 1 - THURSDAY 13TH OCTOBER 2022

Reminder that Primary Schoool photos will take place this Thursday 13th October 2022. All students should be in summer uniform.

Thank you everyone for making me feel welcome at STA.  It was wonderful meeting all the classes last term and seeing which books, authors and series are popular with our students.

Could we please make an effort over the first few weeks of the term to return library books to school? We have lots of overdue books out at the moment that would be great to get back into circulation. Please have a good look under beds and on book shelves and even in the car. You'd be surprised where library books can hide. If students have too many books overdue it may prevent them from borrowing more books, which we definitely do not want to happen.

We will send out overdue notices later in the term.

Happy reading!

Mrs Hind

STA Colour Run 2022
Friday 25^th November
Week 7, Term 4

Dear Parents and Carers,

Term 4 will see STA yet again take part in our annual Colour Run fundraiser! This will be our 3^rd year of running our Colour Run and obstacle course and it is a fantastic event each year and this year I’m sure will be no different! The date for this year’s Colour Run will be Friday 25th November in Week 7, Term 4.  The Colour Run gives all families a great opportunity to support the school by raising money to improve school facilities.  Relations, friends, neighbours or work colleagues are all great sources of donations! 

Proceeds of our past Colour Runs, have been used for some major improvements to our school and all of these will be of direct benefit to your children.  This year all donations raised from our Colour Run will be used for:

• The next stage of our shade structure on the courts – we need $15 000 for this job!

If we raise over $15 000, we will purchase:

• Decodable home readers
• Sports equipment for break times.

The Route
The route of our Obstacle Course and Colour Run will be around our school oval. We have again hired an obstacle course for the day and all children will be able to run the course and have coloured powder and water squirted on them by the teachers at set points along the course. Any students who do not wish to have powder on themselves or have asthma, will be able to run the course first.

We will be encouraging the children here at school with incentive prizes for raising money.  These will include highest fundraisers in ELC & Kinder, Year 1 & Year 2, Year 3 & Year 4, Year 5 & Year 6. There will also be a prize for the student who raises the most money overall, the family who raises the most money and the class who raises the most money. So, there are lots of reasons to get collecting and support our wonderful school!

The more money we raise, the better for our school.  We are not asking for children to wander around the streets unsupervised or to talk to strangers, but asking family members, relatives, friends, friendly neighbours, etc are all good ways to reach our goal of $20,000!!

Donation Pledge Card
Donation pledge cards have gone home with your children this week.  This card is used to record all donations. Spare cards are available from the Front Office.  We would like the money to be returned before the Colour Run as this allows us to tally final amounts and to present prizes at school as close to the Colour Run date as possible.

Thank you for your support

Dear Parents and Carers

If your child/ren is leaving St Thomas Aquinas at the end of 2022 please advise the school in writing.  This does not apply to students in Year 6 this year.

Attached here is the Student Transfer Notification form which needs to be returned to the school by 10 December 2022.

Thank you

Did you know that applying for a Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) card is free when volunteering? All visitors volunteering within the school require a current WWVP card which must be recorded upon entry into the school.  

We encourage family involvement in your child’s education. This can be achieved in many ways such as class reading, attending excursions or sporting events, just to name a few. Please consider applying for your free WWVP card by visiting https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/s/article/working-with-vulnerable-people-wwvp-registration-tab-overview

On behalf of Robogals Canberra, we would like to invite students at your school to attend our upcoming Robogals workshops hosted by our team.

We love to engage with students in a hands-on environment and believe the best place to inspire young women in STEM is through their schooling. Robogals Canberra offers in-school workshops and are interested in coming to your school to inspire your students. We were wondering if there was a specific STEM focus your school would be interested in to boost your students' learning? We can choose our workshops to align with what would benefit your students most.

We have two upcoming workshops which will be held on campus at the Australian National University:

- Saturday 15th October 9am - 2pm

- Saturday 22nd October 9am - 2pm

We have a variety of workshops, from learning coding languages, biology experiments, robotics and more! More information and a link for registration can be found via the QR code on the flyer attached.

If you are interested, we would love to discuss further either in-person or online.

 
Kind Regards,
Mady Hall
Robogals Canberra President | M: 0434497950

W: https://www.robogalscanberra.org/ 

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.

October 2022

Sophie K, Logan M, Elizabeth H, Samantha T, Mia W, Marine T, Evie P, Anna B, Benjamin G, Ruhani P, Lara K, Kuir K, Lucas S, Sebastien M, Manyuon C, Lily G, Darcy N, Santiago A, Carrelle R, Jayden P, Heath L, Harrison B-S, Daniel N, Seth R