Dear Families,

Welcome back to the start of another exciting year of learning. It was delightful to see your children’s smiles on Monday morning and it was clearly evident that everyone had a well-rested break with lots of stories to share. I hope to be able to catch up with most of you at the Meet and Greet Welcome BBQ tonight from 5:30pm to 6:30pm.

All students participated in the school’s orientation program last week, learning the new song, being introduced to the theme, and becoming reacquainted with expectations at school. It was lovely to see students displaying such care for one another throughout the week, especially as they played in our smaller playground. It made me once again realise how blessed I am to work in such a beautiful community.

Last week was possibly the busiest week I have ever had in my 24 years of teaching. Not only did we have a community meeting regarding the PFAS contamination on site, we finished off the week with a swimming carnival and water fun day. I would like to thank Ms Vickers and Mr Mackenzie for organising the carnival, the parent volunteers and the teachers and CSAs for their organisation on the day, including the Infant teachers and CSAs for planning a Water Fun Day back at school for K-2. Ribbons will be distributed at the Friday morning assembly. As there were a number of heats, your child may not receive a ribbon even if they gained a place in their heat, ribbons will only be given to the first 3 place getters in each event.

New Counsellor

Our new school counsellor from Marymead, Al Robinson started with us this week. You can read a little more about him later in this newsletter.

PFAS Meeting

Firstly, I would like to thank those who attended the Community meeting either in person or on Zoom for remaining respectful throughout the meeting. It is understandable that this issue has raised some concerns and frustration about both the contamination and the speed at which the site is being assessed and remediated.

We understand that some members of our community were not able to attend, but were still interested in finding out more about the PFAS contamination and the planned remediation of the site.

The Communications Team at Catholic Education organised for the event to be recorded and have placed the video in their Youtube channel. If you would like to watch the video it can be found at the following link here.  Passcode: 8=D3R^HK, you will need to type in the passcode.

Some of you may have further questions relating to the PFAS contamination and planned remediation. If you do have questions please send them through to me via email at leah.taylor@cg.catholic.edu.au and I will forward them to the relevant person to be answered. We will also make answers to questions on notice available to those who attended physically or via zoom, available once they come in.

The school and Catholic Education are working closely and collaboratively with the ACT government to be able to remediate the site before the final assessments are complete so we can return the oval to the community as soon as possible. Catholic Education is supporting the school with this by funding the irrigation and leveling work so that this can occur at the same time as the remediation work. This means that the school is able to bring forward its planned work for the school oval by more than two years. We have engaged Paul Barnett to plan and manage this work and look forward to the final result. I will keep the community updated on progress.

I thank you again for your ongoing support

 God Bless

St Thomas has a new collaboration with Marymead Child and Family Centre - A new school counsellor/family worker is joining us.

Introducing Al Robinson

Al has been working with children and families at Marymead for the past 4 years. He is a qualified counsellor, specialising in adult/child relationships and problems experienced within family systems and other systems too. Al has also worked with: men experiencing anger problems, relationship breakdown and homelessness; parents and families experiencing domestic/family violence; parents in high conflict post-separation; supporting kids and carers in Out of Home Care.

When a kid is having a hard time, Al likes to help by taking the time to hear what's going on, and then by working in any space that needs it – with the child, the people in their home, the classroom teacher, or anyone else that can get involved and respond to make a difference.

The first thing you’ll notice about Al is that he’s quite tall, and nearly all his hair has disappeared. This is because he grew so fast that he grew taller than his own hair. Al hopes to shrink a bit one day and get some of it back.

Al has a bunch of kids of his own, nearly all grown up now, and a couple of beautiful young grandchildren too. Al used to be a music teacher and a tradesman. Al loves music, soccer, AFL, art (although he’s not so good at drawing), dogs, cats, woodwork, bushwalks, and camping.

All kids, parents and teachers are encouraged to approach Al and introduce themselves. Al is always happy for a chat. He will be at the school 2- 3 days each week.

Al will be starting to see students next week. If you would like your child to see Al, please contact your child’s teacher or the front office for a referral form.

Please find attached here the School Fee Schedule for 2021.

School Fees for Term 1 will be sent out this Friday and will be due by 12 March 2021.

Our school has introduced Qkr!™, a mobile phone payment app designed for Australian schools, delivering an online credit card payment solution for parents.

Please install Qkr on your phones as over the next few weeks and we will be introducing items to purchase via this system.  Please find below Qkr Installation Notes and Parent Tips.

The following items can now be purchased:  School Hats;  Second hand Uniforms; Canteens.  Items to be included next week are Year 5 and Year 6 Camps; 2021 Year 6 Shirts.  School Fees will be added from 2021.  Credit Card payments can still be made over the telephone and via the Front Office.

SZapp is our preferred form of communication for 2021.

Attached is information on SZapp Installation.  Please contact the school to obtain the password.

Please note that if you already receive the school newsletter via SZapp, you do not have to subscribe to the newsletter.

Online orders for Issue 1 due by 24 February 2021

Scholastic Book Club Order Forms have been sent home last week.
Scholastic now use online ordering.

No cash orders will be accepted at the Front Office for Scholastic Book Club.

The school will still get credits and the books will still be delivered to school for us to distribute, unless parents have requested they be delivered to their home.

Please download the INLOOP App
on your device or order from the online website.

https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/Parent/Login.aspx

 Any questions please contact me via email ksligar@bigpond.net.au

School Subway Orders can now be placed online.

Parents and staff of the school can 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

Community News is located on our website.

JANUARY 2021
Congratulations to the following students who will be celebrating their birthday this month:
Anna D;  Nate P;  Hanna E;  Imogen T;  Kendall T;  Zander R;  Ronith T;   Rohi B;  Delilah W-P;  Kira W;  Toby W;  Lucas A;  Zoe G; Lachlan P;  Lucy O;  Ashleigh H;  Abuk P;  Oliver R;  Fay D;  Elizabeth K;  Summer H;  Sofia H;  Ethan M;  Blake M;   Heath W;  Isabebelle Mc; Amelia H; Nicholas K;  Amelia W; Melody N;   Tahlayla B;  Lucas J;  Lazarus F;  Brock S;  Jade B;  Zoe C; Noah McB;  Charlotte M; Noah M; Kai M;  Summer H;  Alice S;  Beau R;  Amam A

FEBRUARY 2021
Congratulations to the following students who will be celebrating their birthday this month:
Jack P; Sienna D;  Evan L;  Jack B;  Thomas R;  Lucia M;  Seneca B;  August S; Nevaeh M;  Aditya P;  Bradley L-B;  Jessica R;  Skylar W;  Jaana C;  Eloise W;  Abbey T;  Jasmin P;  Anthony McP;  Annie W-S;  Violet P;  Matthew R;  Evelyn G;  Lu'isa T;  Lachlan W;  Mia P;  Payton C;  Savanna H;  Annabel L;  Maddison G;  Oliver T; Mitchell K;  Paige C