Dear Families,

EXTENSION TO REMOTE LEARNING
Thank you again for all of your efforts at home to support remote learning. We are so proud of so many of our students who are working hard to complete their tasks and continue their learning, but we also know that this doesn’t happen without a great deal of support from home. So, thank you for working with us in the way you have.

You will no doubt have heard by now that the lockdown has been extended and Remote Learning will continue for the first 4 weeks of Term 4. This means that, at this stage, the earliest we will return to face-to-face learning is Monday, 1st November 2021. These plans will be further developed over the school holidays. Any plans will be subject to health and ACT government advice. We are working closely with Catholic Education and expect further clarification over the coming days. I will keep the community informed as information becomes available.

Please remember the most important thing you can do is support your child’s wellbeing. Keep in mind that children can express their feelings in many ways. I encourage you to speak openly with your children about how they are feeling. If your child requires extra help and assistance, counselling is available through CatholicCare. To access the service, a booking request may be made by contacting CatholicCare on (02) 6162 6100 or contacting Al Robinson via email al.robinson@marymead.org.au.

You can keep up to date with the latest health information and advice on the ACT’s COVID-19 website - www.covid19.act.gov.au.

We understand that if restrictions ease as planned on the 15th October, more and more of our parents and carers will be required to work outside of the home and will require supervision for children. To ensure that we have enough supervision in place, I will release a new survey each week. If you have already completed the survey for a previous week you will only need to enter your email, the names and classes of your children and the days they will need to be at school. I will make these surveys available on the Tuesday of the week before and request that families complete them by COB Friday.

COMPASS
Next term we will introduce the Parent Portal as part of COMPASS. The Parent Portal will be the main way the school will communicate with you, including end of semester reporting. Information and log-in details will be sent home today. We ask that you check to see that you can log-in sometime this week. If you are struggling to log-in please contact the school. More information regarding the Parent Portal can be found later in this newsletter.

NAPLAN
2021 NAPLAN results for Year 3 and Year 5 will be posted this week.

It is important to note that the NAPLAN tests are designed to allow parents/carers and educators to see how students are progressing in literacy and numeracy over time – individually, as part of their school community and against national standards. As far as individual results, the tests are a snapshot of one day of a student’s life and results need to be considered along with additional assessment data to gain a full understanding of where students truly sit in reference to expected outcomes.

If you have any questions regarding your child’s results please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.

FIRST EUCHARIST
I know that many students will be disappointed that they have not been able to make their first Eucharist over the last few weekends. Richard Rohr describes Eucharist as coming to “God’s banquet table... [where God] plays no favourites but embraces everyone without discrimination.” He goes on to describe receiving the Eucharist as akin to receiving a big hug from Christ. I think it is a beautiful way to think about Christ’s love for us. Just as a parent will hug a child when they are sad, Christ will embrace us each week as part of the celebration of the Eucharist. I know Skye McPadden is already making tentative plans for these missed sacraments, we will communicate these as soon as we can.

I know these holidays will probably be quite different to what we had all hoped for, but I do wish you all a restful term break and pray that this current situation eases quickly so we can all meet back at school as soon as possible.

Take care and God bless

 
Leah Taylor
Principal

Please find below Qkr Installation Notes

Compass Parent Portal (CPP)
It’s coming to STA in Term 4

The Compass Parent Portal will be coming to STA in Term 4 and parts of Schoolzine/SZapp will be turned off.  The CPP is an essential online portal that allows you to interact with your child’s school and access up-to-date information.

Please note that our school will not be using SMS and Compass PAY as we already have other payment options available for the payment of school fees, camps etc.  These options include EFTPOS, BPAY, Qkr and Direct Debits.

You will receive your log-in credentials via email this week and you will be able to log into the Parent Portal through the Compass App (Android & IOS0 or Desktop).  Only one email per parent/carer is used in Compass.  If you wish to change the email address used by Compass, please change your preferred email address via the Compass Portal or send an email to office.staquinas@cg.catholic.ed.au.

Please note that the Phone App has less functions than the Desktop App. To search for our school, please search for the Suburb, not the School as there are many St Thomas Aquinas schools around Australia.  If installing Compass on your phone, please scroll down when searching the school via the suburb to locate our school.

Below are some quick links for parents:

• Information Sheet for Parents
• Visual Guide for Parents
• Downloading the App
• Logging in to the Parent Portal
• Attendance Notes

Further information is available on our Website.  See link below:

These will proceed under the current COVID-19 Lockdown arrangements in the ACT.

The experience of lockdown is quite varied, and each family faces their own unique challenges as the demands of lockdown emerge. New challenges and new stresses impact how we perceive the needs of our children (and of ourselves as parents). What does my child really need from me? Is it OK if I feel like we’re just surviving and not really thriving? How will I know if I’m starting to ‘lose it’ (and how can I get it back again?). 

Parent and child wellbeing is foundational to surviving or thriving through a lockdown, and foundational to other valuable outcomes – including educational outcomes, family relationships, and a sense of hope for the future. Whilst there is no one neat answer to the question of wellbeing, there certainly are needs that can be interpreted from behaviour, approaches of managing an environment that are known to be effective, and aspects of self-care that make a significant difference. 

The therapeutic process of sharing our thoughts and concerns means that, instead of our thoughts circling in a loop inside our own head, our thoughts benefit from the light of day and can be engaged by others who can create a safe space and a fresh perspective. My role is exactly that – to generate a safe environment to explore concerns, explore an alternative focus, and help change the course of thoughts and actions into the future. This reflective practice forms a different kind of loop, one that helps parents out of stuck spaces and into greater wellbeing for their children and themselves. 

My experience has included the home education of my own kids (all grown up now), helping hundreds of parents interpret their child’s needs by considering the child’s behaviour, and generating environments of reflective practice that make a difference to daily living. 

I am offering online sessions for groups of up to four parents – to discuss the challenges of lockdown, explore the needs of your situation, and encourage new ways of being or engaging with others at home. I will respond to requests for support on a needs basis and as time permits. This invitation is initially set for the period of Friday 3^rd September to Thursday 16^th September, and will then be re-visited as a possible continuing support option for St Thomas parents during lockdown. Sessions will be offered at various times throughout the work week, with the hope that parents can also be supportive of one another in the group space and learn through each other’s experiences.

To book in for a session, please email me at al.robinson@marymead.org.au

Your email must include:

• Your name and the names of your children that attend at St Thomas;
• Your contact details
• The basic nature of the focus you would like to have in the session (such as rising conflicts in family relationships, school work refusal, boredom, anxiety);
• An indication of your availability (such as “Mon-Thu up until 12:00 noon, or Tue/Wed afternoon after 2:00pm”)

Kind regards

Al Robinson
School Counsellor
St Thomas Aquinas Primary School

Please note that Term 4 begins on Tuesday, 5 October 2021 as Monday, 4 October 2021 is a Public Holiday.

Community News is located on our website.

SEPTEMBER 2021
Congratulations to the following students who will be celebrating their birthday this month:

Evelyn W; Alexandra B;  Lewis B;  Ebada KS;  Jackson C;  Linuki M;  Benjamin Q;  Louie D;  Harriet P;  Arianna D;  Jade J;  Hannah M;  William B;  Matilda H;  Edison B;  Luella B;  Elodie A;  Jacob P;  Holly B;  Harper G;  Zocrates CC;  Ty R;  Charli C;  Sebastian GR;  Sisikula L;  Sebastian D; Fostina T;  Aden G;  Jessica B;  Lincoln D;  Emma S;  Sarah H;  Marie W;  Timothy R;  Natalia R;  Felicity W;  Eleanor S;  Chloe W;  Harper E;  Harrison G;  Aleu D;  Maxx S;  Ethan L;  Gabriel S-P;  Ruben D