St Thomas Aquinas Primary School - West Belconnen eNewsletter

Dear St Thomas Aquinas community,

Thank you for a fantastic first term at St Thomas Aquinas. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know students, families and staff alike. I have a much deeper appreciation for the values we share in our community. I've been made to feel very welcome and I am genuinely excited about the future for our community.

Thank you to Ms Megan Smith who organised our Cross Country Carnival today. The encouragement and energy from students, parents and staff was really lovely. Many students pushed themselves to do their very best. They were impressive. Thank you to the parents who assisted on the course and with record keeping. It was a fantastic event.

Thank you to our Year 6 and 5 students who are preparing and leading our Holy Week liturgies this week and to Ms Smith and Mr Mackenzie for supporting their students through this. The liturgies so far have been a lovely way to gather and a great way to reflect on this time in Jesus' life.

End of Term Awards

Congratulations to all of our students who will receive end of term awards at our assembly this coming Thursday. These are well deserved. Thank you to all of the families and staff who have also supported them to achieve their best.

While each fortnight we present class awards that celebrate those students who reflect our school values in their learning, our end of term awards are for those students who have achieved well in literacy and numeracy and have consistently and quietly worked hard throughout the term.

It is hard to select one person for each award when there might be a number of children who deserve it. Our teachers always try to spot and recognise those that 'fly under the radar'. It's through a variety of practices throughout the school that we attempt to recognise each child's achievements and efforts as often as possible.

School Uniform Term 2

A reminder that we change to our Winter Uniform next term. You can find a full list of the uniform requirements for our students on our school website.

I would like to remind everyone of the following uniform requirements:

Make Up & Nails

No make up
No nail polish

Hair

Natural colour
No extreme haircuts
Shoulder length hair, or covering a students eyes, must be tied up
Hair ties are to match school colours or natural hair colour

Jewellery

Earrings - plain studs or sleepers
Necklace - only if with a plain cross or crucifix
Other religious or necessary cultural items if agreed by the Principal

We are currently looking into the place of smartwatches at our school. Smartwatches often have similar features to mobile phones including taking photos. At St Thomas mobile phones must be paced in the front office each morning and picked up at the end of each day. We are reviewing whether this will need to be the same for smartwatches and will inform families prior to the beginning of next term.

Pupil Free Days

Please remember that the first and last day of each term is a pupil free day to enable staff to complete administrative, professional learning and compliance requirements.

Thank you for an excellent term. Thank you for your collaboration and support for our school and community. I wish everybody well deserved rest and Easter blessings during these coming holidays.

Matthew Garton

Principal

PLEASE RETURN ALL FETE RAFFLE TICKETS

(SOLD OR UNSOLD)

EVERY BOOKLET MUST BE RETURNED

WEEK	DATE	EVENT
10	Tues 08/04	STA Cross Country
10	Wed 09/04	Class Party - Kinder Blue
10	Wed 09/04	Class Party - Kinder Green
10	Wed 09/04	Class Party - 2 Blue
10	Wed 09/04	Class Party - 4 Blue
10	Thur 10/04	Try Darra Day
10	Thur 10/04	White Token Lunch
10	Thur 10/04	Principal Awards Assembly at 2pm
10	Thur 10/04	Last Day of Term 1 for all students
10	Fri 11/04	Pupil Free Day
TERM 2	Mon 28/04	Pupil Free Day
1	Mon 28/04	Second hand uniform shop open
1	Tues 29/04	All students return
1	Tues 29/04	Enrolment period commences
1	Wed 30/04	Year 5 & 6 DaVinci Decathlon
1	Fri 02/05	SFX Try-A-Day - Year 6 students
2	Tues 06/05	ACT Swimming Championships
2	Fri 09/05	Assembly hosted 1 Green at 2:15pm
2	Fri 09/05	SFX Open Day
3	Wed 14/05	Whole School Author Visit
4	Mon 19/05	Eucharist Parent Formation Session
4	Tues 20/05	ELC School Photos
4	Wed 21/05	School Photo Day
4	Thur 22/05	ELC School Photos
4	Thur 22/05	Whole School Bilingual (Mandarin) Puppet Show
4	Thur 22/05	Belconnen PSSA - Cross Country
4	Fri 23/05	Assembly hosted by 2 Green
5	Wed 28/05 - Fri 30/05	Year 5 & 6 Camp

Parish Priest	Father Tru Nguyen
Parish Secretary	Sharon Greaves
Telephone	02 6258 1563
Email	charnwood@cg.org.au
Address	23 Lhotsky Street CHARNWOOD ACT 2615

MASS	TIMES
Monday to Friday	9:30am
Thursday - School Mass	9:30am - one grade each week
Public Holidays	9:30am
Saturday Vigil	6:00pm
Sunday	9:00am Children's liturgy is held during the school term. All families are welcome to attend.

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Through our weekly newsletters we will be providing information from a variety of sources recommended by Australian Government, ACT Government, CECG & nationally recognised groups and institutions to build healthy relationships and safe learning environments for our students. We hope to provide families with information that allows opportunities for conversations at home.

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At St Thomas Aquinas we are continually teaching our students about digital and online safety to help them become knowledgeable digital citizens. Each week we will be posting online safety tips to help parents and families build your knowledge and open discussion with your children at home.

Online gaming

Online gaming provides children with lots of opportunities for skill development, beneficial play, creativity, self-expression, belonging, and social connection. To make sure they get the most out of gaming, parents and carers also need to help them build skills to navigate risks and put in safeguards. Are you familiar with the benefits or the risks your child might be experiencing whilst playing online games? Regardless of the console or device they use, what type of game they play, if they play alone or with others, or how often they play, it is important to understand your child’s unique gaming experience.

Playing online games with your children is a great way to learn more about their interests, while also developing a greater understanding of how they interact and communicate with others online.

When adults get involved in positive ways it can also strengthen family relationships and enable families to manage conflict about gaming in more productive ways.
For more information on gaming and simple tips for how you can make this a safer and more positive experience, go to the parent's page of eSafety Commissioner's website. The eSafety Commissioner also has an eSafety Guide which includes the latest games, apps and social media, with information on how to apply safety and privacy settings, whether there are any risky digital features, and how to report abuse or other harmful behaviour.

Please note that our two disabled parking spots located at the front of the main car park are soley for the purpose of those who hold a Disabled Carparking Permit. Please be aware that it is illegal to park in a disable parking spot without a permit on display.

Please ensure that these spots remain available for those who require it. These parking spots are not for pick up and drop off. We have many options to drop students off. Our back gates open at 8:30am to enable parents to "drive-thru" and drop students off with teacher supervision.

We appreciate your assistance.

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The School Community Council (SCC) provides the opportunity for members of the school, Parish and Archdiocesan communities to support the mission of Catholic education in the school. Working with the Principal, Parish Priest and staff, the members of the Council and its committees provide leadership to the wider school community.

The Council of St Thomas Aquinas come together twice a term to support and challenge each other to ensure the best outcomes for St Thomas Aquinas. We have a united approach to continued school improvement.

The Council has a decision making role in certain policy areas and an advisory role in others. The policies of the school are always set within the mission of Catholic education.

The Council currently consists of a diverse mix of parents, teachers and parish members. The Council Executive is comprised of:

Chair
Secretary
Treasurer
Principal (ex officio)
Parish Priest (ex officio)
Elected Parent representatives (At least one and up to four parent members appointed in accordance with the Constitution)
Elected Staff representatives (Two)
Members appointed by the Council (As many as three (3) other people appointed by the Council for their expertise)

A number of a valued members will step down from their current positions on the Council at the end of this year. Their time, dedication and commitment to the roles is truly appreciated and respected.

We are calling for nominations to fill the position of Chair & Treasurer to commence in Semester 2, 2025 by shadowing the current position holders before taking on the role from 2026.

We strongly encourage those parents of this wonderful school that have a genuine desire to be of service to the community, have the ability to work collaboratively and constructively with other members of the Council, have adequate time to give Council duties or perhaps have a specific skill or qualification that could be utilised within the Council, to consider putting their hand up.

Please reach out to one of our current Council members if you have any questions of would like any additional information.

Those who wish to nominate are asked to complete the nomination form below and return it to the school by no later than Friday, 9th April 2025.

SCC Nomination Form 2025

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Principal_Awards_Term_1_Newsletter.pdf

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Please join us at our Morning Assembly on Thursday 10th April 2025 at 8:50 am to celebrate our White token recipients

WEEK 10

White Token

Sophia S	Geoffrey F	Violet W	Jamyang L
Ruhani P	Declan R	Lara K	Charlotte M
Jack P	Heath W	August S	Savanna H
Millie S

April

Chaia L, Charles M, James K, Mia B, Kaylee W, Billie D, Yuvraj A, Benjamin S, Harjit S, Charlotte S, Keeva R, Kael S, Parker W, Carlos C-C, Larra D, Eva K, Poppy R, Eva E, Eric H, Tyler D, Gerrard D, Sophia S, Hudson K, Kahurangi R-T, Anon D, Eva O, Joshua N, Riak K, Henry P

EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT PARENTING - LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE

You are invited to join a parenting program that could make a positive difference to your child’s development. Tuning in to Kids® is an eight-week group program for parents. It can help you to teach your child the skills of emotional intelligence.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence is about using your emotions to guide you through the world. It is about being able to use your knowledge of emotions to make decisions, to calm yourself down, to manage anger and conflict, to help you in your relationships with people, to understand what is happening in social situations, and to assist you in any aspects of life that involves you and another person.

Why is Emotional Intelligence important?

Children with greater emotional intelligence have been shown to:

have greater success with making friendships and be more able to manage conflict with peers
have better concentration, which means they are more likely to be successful academically
be more able to self soothe when upset or angry
tend to have fewer childhood illnesses
have more stable and satisfying relationships as adults; and
have greater career success ... emotional intelligence may be a better predictor of academic and career success than IQ!

When parents focus on helping their child learn about emotions, the child is more likely to have higher emotional intelligence. In this parenting program we will teach parents what to do to help these skills develop.

Program details

The program will run each Tuesday starting on May 6 for eight weeks for 1.5 hours at a time. It will be held at Marymead CatholicCare Canberra & Goulburn Red Hill office between 9:30 and 11 am.

If you have any questions regarding the program, or would like to register, please contact us via email by Friday April 11 COB.

Ryoko.Koyasu@mccg.org.au or Patience.Way@mccg.org.au