Dear Families,

Welcome to the last half of the last term.

Teachers are busily finalising assessment ready for reports. We know everyone can get a little tired as the year draws to a close and it can be easy to let children take an extra day off here and there, but lessons are still occurring as there is still half a term’s worth of curriculum to get through. If your children are sick, then by all means, keep them at home so they can recover more quickly, but if they are just a little tired, try to give them a bit more of a nudge to get them in to school.

Ms Meaghan Younger will be joining us from St Monica’s next year as acting Religious Education Coordinator while Skye McPadden goes over to St Thomas More’s, Campbell. Meaghan brings a great deal of experience to the role with almost 25 years of teaching experience and 12 years of experience as a Religious Education Coordinator. I am sure you will join me in welcoming Meaghan to St Thomas Aquinas.

Last Thursday, Mr Tim Cleary came for the morning. Mr Clearly had an opportunity to chat with students and meet with staff. I also had a chance to talk about some of the things we were doing at St Thomas Aquinas, our teaching and learning, and our wonderful parent and carer community. Mr Cleary is very much looking forward to leading St Thomas Aquinas next year. It will be hard to leave, but I know the school will be in very safe hands.

Thank you to those parents who contacted me regarding classes for next year. The opportunity to make these requests has now closed as teachers have already started to formulate lists. We will do our best to accommodate your requests. However, this can be challenging, particularly if parents and carer’s have made multiple requests. If your request cannot be accommodated, the current classroom teacher will call you to have a discussion about preferred options.

Take care and God bless

November Birthdays

Andrew M, Regan L, Taigh R, Rebecca J, Zoe P, Jewel J, Jett B, Niklaus T, Geoffrey F, Cody H, Kuzivakwashe M, Ava G, Jadyn W, Aiden M, Hudson T, Harpreet S, Benjamin S, Grace S, Ella T, Mikayla M, Faith M, Isabel P, Darcy A, Georgia B

Students are introduced to new Ngunnawal vocabulary weekly. Special thanks to Miss Evans for continuing our learning of our Ngunnawal Country.

Please come along to our STA Fete Meeting TONIGHT at 7pm in the Library. 

As they say, many hands make light work! Helping with the school fete is a fantastic way to get involved and become an active member of our school community. You will meet many families, students and staff members aswell as contributing to our schools major fundraiser which will in turn supports all our students/your children. 

Please come along - Tuesday 14th November at 7pm in the School Library

We look forward to seeing you there. 

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

We invite parents and carers to the optional Semester 2 - 3 Way Conference Interviews. The 3 Way Conference bookings will go live and will be available to you on COMPASS on Monday 20th November 2023 .  It will remain open until Friday 1 December 2023.  If you would like to meet with your child/rens teacher please ensure that you access COMPASS to lock in a meeting time. Please note that bookings will close strictly at 3pm on Friday 1 December 2023. 

The Conferences will be held on Tuesday 5th December from 3-7 pm and Wednesday 6th December from 8:00am - 8:45am and from 3pm - 6pm. Each Conference will be for a maximum of 15 minutes.

The Game On events are community based, free, family friendly physical activity “pop up” events, which will see us conduct four events in eight suburbs across Canberra each year, utilising local parks, ovals, sports courts/fields. The aim of the events is to promote physical activity/60mins a day target for children through providing fun, accessible sessions and ideas for children, families and school communities. Our aim is that the events are a pre-cursor to ongoing community based physical activity and we will evaluate the sessions through a range of measures.

To confirm, we will be running four events on the following dates:

Walk, Talk, Workout: Sunday 5^th November 10am-11.30am

Run, Jump, Catch, Throw: Friday 10th November 3.15pm-4.30pm

Navigate & Participate: Wednesday 15^th November 3.15pm-4.30pm

Bike Skills & Drills: Friday 24^th November 3.15pm-4.30pm

All events will be held at Belconnen Netball Association Courts

Parents and carers are offered access to free online parenting courses developed in Australian by the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, thanks to Australian Government funding.

Via the following link you can choose from specific programs and online resources, assisting with the everyday challenges parents and carers face raising calm, resilient and happy children.

Link: https://www.triplep-parenting.net.au/au/triple-p/