Dear Families,

The term seems to be racing away from us already, it’s hard to believe we are in Week 3 already. Today we welcomed back Toni Hatten-Roberts from COGLearn for her final visit for this year. Toni once again worked with a group of teachers and the leadership team to support us in implementing a low variation curriculum and an explicit instructional approach and also to continue developing our coaching model. Last week Mrs Myles and Mr Collins attended training with Josh Goodrich and Ollie Lovell from Steplab to develop their skills as instructional coaches. We will be using the Steplab platform next year to support and track instructional coaching across the school.

After trialling Chinese language online, we have decided to go back to face-to-face lessons and so have employed a Mandarin Language teacher for 2024. Ms (Sally) Zhenyu Wang has been teaching in Melbourne most recently and will join the staff at St Thomas Aquinas from 2024 in an ongoing capacity. Unfortunately, Mrs Louise Osborne-Goldsborough will no longer be able to take up her position at St Thomas Aquinas for 2024. However, Mrs Shannon Hart will be joining us from Holy Spirit in Nichols. Mrs Hart has been working in our system’s ELCs and Primary schools for over 10 years and we are very excited to welcome her next year.

I would like to remind everyone that all children are required to have a school hat. Children who do not have a hat will need to remain in the covered areas and will not be able to play on the oval or tar area. Please ensure that your child has a hat with their name on it. Hats can be purchased at the front office.

I wanted to share a conversation I had recently with a new parent to the school. Her child started a short time ago and has been so happy coming to school every day. She also mentioned that her husband was struggling to find his way to the assembly area on their son’s second day and that one of our students noticed that they were looking a little lost and offered to walk them around. This behaviour is typical of students here at St Thomas Aquinas. Their thoughtfulness and kindness is a testament to you their parents and carers and to the teachers who model this for them, and helps to make the beautiful culture we have here at the school.

Take care and God bless

October Birthdays

Sophie K, Logan M, Elizabeth H, Samantha T, Mia W, Marine T, Evie P, Benjamin G, Alana B, Lara K, Kuir K, Lucas S, Lilah W, Ivy M, Sebastien M, Manyuon C, Lily G, Santiago A,  Jayden P, Heath L, Harrison B-S, Harold M, Arleth M T, Ayla M, Daniel N

This term students have been introduced to Ngunnawal vocabulary. This week students will be learning "Dhari" meaning "Stand". Thank you Miss Evans for continuing our learning of our Ngunnawal Country.

• Scholastic Book Club orders are due by 31^st October
• Overdue notices went out on Friday. Please try very hard to return any books you have at home so others can borrow them.
• Our last week for borrowing will be Week 7 this term.
• Don't forget your library bags each week, it is a great way to protect our library books.

Happy reading,
Mrs Hind

Class Allocations for 2024

During this term, we will be finalising our staffing arrangements for 2024. 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.

We believe 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, parents are invited to inform Mrs Taylor 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 our Principal  (Leah.Taylor@cg.catholic.edu.au) by Friday of Week 4 (Term 4 - Friday 3 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 Mrs Taylor 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, the Principal reserves the right to make final professional decisions regarding the placement of children

If your child/ren is leaving St Thomas Aquinas at the end of 2023 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 8 December 2023.

Thank you

Congratulatins to Chloe & Jadyn who attended the Australian Schools Judo tournament in Queensland.

Chloe Won a Silver Medal and Jadyn Won a bronze medal

We are hearing that the ACTJRU is going to start a "Summer 7's" competition starting in Term 1 of 2024 as a particular way to grow numbers in the sport- especially targeting Girls teams.  The Uni-Norths Owls are committed to rebuilding our Girls teams and this will be a great way to 'come and try' the game in a slightly modified sense.  There are still plans to launch a U12's Girls Competition in 2024 so this is another great way to build up numbers for that also.  

  
What we do know right now is the following:

• Term 1 starting Friday 2nd Feb and running for 8 weeks until Easter.  
• Friday Nights at a common venue each week- most likely moving each week or a North Venue and a South venue if enough teams.  
• Girls U12, U14, U16 (Possibly U18’s)
• Boys U12, U14, U16 
• Sevens so probably only need approx. 10 to get a team off the ground.
• Probably 1-2 games each Friday night
• Costs are TBA   
• Sevens tackle laws

In order for the Owls to assess what teams we will be able to enter, we have setup a Google Form survey to gauge interest if you could please fill out ASAP as we will have to let ACTJRU know in the coming weeks.  

OWLS SUMMER 7'S INTEREST FORM

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfl2UfB9A85DoIkFbFOoRw1VWo7RNZd7lYDsvnFCSCITFQ_GA/viewform?usp=sf_link