St Thomas Aquinas Primary School - West Belconnen eNewsletter

Dear Families,

It was truly wonderful to welcome back our Preschool, Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 6 students yesterday and we can’t wait to welcome Years 3-5 back next week. Remote Learning this time around was even longer than the last time, so it is to be expected that children will be a little nervous about returning to school. This time there is also the added layer of their teachers and support assistants having to wear masks. I was able to pop into each class yesterday morning and welcome the students back. We talked about how everyone was a little nervous, even me, but that it wouldn't take too long before we were all feeling comfortable about being back at school. If your child is feeling a little nervous or unsettled by this return to school, this article may help you to support them at home https://www.relationshipsnsw.org.au/getting-back-to-the-new-normal-school/

Caring Schools Network
As with all things, COVID has stalled some of our plans for school renewal. I had mentioned earlier that we were working with Harvard University and their Caring School’s Network. Part of this work includes a survey. It would be wonderful if you could take some time to complete the survey so we have a baseline for this work and know how we can support students moving forward. Students will also complete a survey so we have their thoughts on how they feel about school and ways we might be able to support them. Please follow this link to complete the survey CSN FAMILY Survey 2018 (qualtrics.com).

Class Allocations for 2022 - LAST WEEK
During this term, we will be finalising our staffing arrangements for 2022. 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.

My firm belief is that 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, I invite parents to inform me 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 particular concerns regarding the placement of their children in particular classes for the following year, should put the concern in writing and email it to me Leah.Taylor@cg.catholic.edu.au by Friday of Week 4 (Term 4 - Friday 29 October). 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 Teacher 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 me 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, I reserve the right to make final professional decisions regarding the placement of children.

Take care and God Bless

Leah Taylor
Principal

Please note that these events are dependent on COVID-19 restrictions.

WHAT's ON @ STA in TERM 4
WEEK	DATE	EVENT
	TBA	First Reconciliation First Holy Communion Reconciliation/Holy Communion Retreat Day
4	Fri 29/10	Class Party - Kinder Blue and Kinder Green
6	Thu 11/11	Remembrance Day Prayer Celebration @ 10:30am
6	Fri 12/11	STA Mission Fete
8	Tue 23/11	School Community Council @ 6pm
8	Thu 25/11	Kinder Health Checks - ACT Health
8	Fri 26/11	STA Colour Run
9	Thu 2/12	TBC: STA Christmas Carols @ 5:30pm for 6pm start
10	Thu 9/12	TBC: Yr 6 Graduation Mass @ 5:30pm TBC: Yr 6 Disco @ 6:00pm - 8:30pm
10	Fri 10/12	TBC: White Token Lunch @ 11:00am
10	Fri 10/12	TBC: Principal's Awards @ 2pm
11	Tue 14/12	TBC: Kinder Nativity: Students @ 12noon Parents @ 2pm
11	Wed 15/12	TBC: Yr 6 - Big Day Out @ CISAC
11	Fri 17/12	TBC: Yr 6 - Leadership Handover Ceremony @ 9:30am TBC: Yr 6 - Farewell Assembly @ 12:30pm TBC: Yr 6 - Farewell Tunnel and Water Fight@2pm
11	Fri 17/12	Last Day of Term 4
2022	Mon 31/01	Term 1 2022 Commences for Students

Due to COVID Restrictions, awards will be presented to students when they return to school in Week 4.

2021 - TERM 4 - WEEK 4

CLASS	STUDENT	CLASS	STUDENT
ELC Acacias	Linuki M Benjamin R	ELC Coolabahs	Ebadat K Ben Q
ELC Waratahs	Maxwell W Heath M
KB	Phoebe S Lorelei M	KG	Flynn O’G Alena G
1B	Mikayla M Cooper K	1G	Atticus W Lucas A
2B	Ajah A Hannah M	2G	Leilani M H Delilah W-P
3B	Jed G Amelia M	3G	Sofia A Mackenzie S
4B	Sebastian G-R Ruby R	4G	Melinda M Bieber L
5B	Amber B Dante C	5G	Orry L Anthony Mc
6B	Sisikula L Toby W	6G	Chloe M David C
White Tokens	Aden G - KG	Ella T - KG	Alena G - KG
	Zayne K - KG	Andrea O - 6B	Elodie A - KG
	Santiago A - KG

News 4 Green

Class Party

Kinder Blue
Kinder Green

Friday,
29 October 2021

Congratulations, our Kinder classes have earned 50 Black Tokens
and a Class Party.

KG and KB will be celebrating earning 50 tokens on Friday 29^th October. The children will be able to wear play clothes, please ensure they have covered shoes and remember a hat. Kindergarten will spend the day involved in some fun activities to celebrate all their hard work, particularly during Remote Learning.

Classroom teachers will send home further information in the coming days.

This year, due to Covid restrictions, ticket puchases can be made via Qkr. Please install Qkr (instructions below) and select

SCHOOL EVENTS - FUNDRAISING - STA MISSION FETE

Qkr_Installation_Guide.pdf

Qkr_Installation_Guide _pdf 1.06 MB

Colour Run

Colour Run 779.57 KB

This year, due to Covid restrictions, donations can be made via Qkr. Please install Qkr (instructions below) and select

SCHOOL EVENTS - FUNDRAISING - STA COLOUR RUN

Qkr_Installation_Guide.pdf

Qkr_Installation_Guide _pdf 1.06 MB

Dear Parents and Carers

If your child/ren is leaving St Thomas Aquinas at the end of 2021 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 10 December 2021.

LUNCH BOXES

Please ensure that your child/ren have sufficient food in their lunch boxes, in particular fruit and sandwiches. The school has capacity for emergency supplies only.

Thank you for your cooperation.

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.

Compass Parent Portal (CPP) has Arrived!!!

The Compass Parent Portal has arrived 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 should have received your log-in credentials via email and you will be able to log into the Parent Portal through the Compass App (Android & IOS0 or Desktop). If you have not received your Compass log-in details, please contact the Front Office. 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 WEST BELCONNEN, 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:

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

STA Website / Communication / Compass Parent Portal

Dedicated school buses and revised interim bus timetable
Effective Monday, 25 October 2021

Transport Canberra’s dedicated school bus services will recommence on Monday 25 October 2021. This includes ‘S’ trips that divert into schools.

Timings have changed for dedicated school services and the regular timetable. We are strongly encouraging families to check their school pack and plan ahead.

Special Needs Transport continues to run for those families that need this service.

A range of COVID Safe measures are in place to help keep students safe on public transport. Please remind families to familiarise themselves with these measures and talk to their children about them prior to the return to school.

From Monday 25 October 2021 buses will run to a revised interim timetable. This timetable is a similar frequency to the timetable that has been running over the past two months, but with some changes to timings to allow better connections for school students.

Light rail is continuing to run to its regular frequency but will see an increase in frequency from Monday 1 November 2021. This will assist with physical distancing on board. Customers will benefit from extended afternoon peak frequency on weekdays and increased frequency on Sunday mornings.

Consider walking or riding to school – or using a Part way point

Parents and carers may also consider alternative ways to get their children to school. If they live close by they can take advantage of the warmer spring weather and walk, ride or scoot to school!

Part way points are also a great way to get some exercise into children’s days for families that live a little further away and this also helps to ease congestion around schools. Parents or carers can simply drop their child at a point, or park and walk the rest of the way with them.

Park safely and legally
All 40km/h school zones are in place between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday. Speed limits in school zones are there to ensure the safety of children by allowing motorists extra time to stop in an unexpected situation.

Parking across pedestrian crossings, corners, verges and double parking can block kids seeing the road.

School packs and timetable information
The revised interim timetables and school packs are now available online.

For enquiries customers are encouraged to visit www.transport.act.gov.au or call 13 17 10.

For 90 years, our School Banking program has helped children learn about money, reinforced the importance of regular savings and provided structure for parents to support their children to save.

Support is strong from schools, principals and volunteers who choose to run the program, however you may be aware that in past months, a number of state and territory governments have announced bans on banks delivering programs in their schools, and the NSW Government announced a similar decision today, because of a report from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

We are disappointed with the position taken by ASIC and subsequent decisions by some state and territory governments to take the choice to participate away from individual schools and parents. Because of the ASIC review and these government decisions, we are unable to continue providing programs in schools and we have had to make a difficult decision to close our School Banking program nationally.

As a result, the CommBank School Banking program will not be returning to schools beyond 2021.

To find out more about these changes and to access resources, visit commbank.com.au/schoolbanking

Closer to the end of the year, I will provide more information about the next steps required to wind down the program at your school. In the meantime, please feel free to continue to run the program as you normally would, in line with the relevant health advice and government directions for your area.

Thank you sincerely for your support of our program. It has been invaluable and has helped many Australian children learn the importance of saving.

Warm regards,
Veronica

Community News is located on our website.

What's on in our Community

CONTACT DETAILS
Parish Priest	Father Tom Thornton
Parish Secretary	Debbie Hoffman
Telephone	02 6258 1563
Email	charnwood@cg.org.au
Address	23 Lhotsky Street CHARNWOOD ACT 2615

MASS TO RESUME 16-17 OCTOBER 2021

Mass for a limited number of 25 people will begin on the weekend of the 16-17 October and in order to facilitate as many parishioners as possible getting to Mass I propose the following:

Please indicate by email if you wish to be registered to come to mass charnwood@cg.org.au.
Could you please also advise people who are not on computers, but who attend Mass regularly, that this is open and they need to register by phoning the office during office hours on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday?

I will, for the few weekends where numbers are limited to 25, have extra masses on Saturday afternoon and evening and on Sunday morning. We will allocate a Mass to those who are registered, unfortunately we will be only able to accommodate those who register.

The proposed Mass times are:

Saturday: 5:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm

Sunday: 8:00 am, 9:00 am and 10:00 am

As stated you will be allocated a Mass time and I have no way of changing the time if it is not suitable, it is up to you if you wish to avail yourself of the opportunity.

Can I ask that if you are at your registered Mass and you are a reader that you nominate yourself to do the reading for that Mass? As there will only be 25 at Mass there is no need for an extra-ordinary minister of the Eucharist. There will be no music for any Masses just yet.

If you know of people who are unable to come to Mass, but who wish to receive communion at home, please nominate yourself to take communion to them.

It will be nice to have you back to celebrate Mass with, I have certainly missed you! Weekday Masses will also be capped at 25 so you will be asked, on the weekend of Mass starting, to register for weekday Mass.

MASS TIMES
Monday to Friday	TBA
Saturday	5:00pm; 6:00pm; 7:00pm
Sunday	08:00am; 9:00am; 10:00am

PARISH ROSTER
Weekend Dates	6pm Saturday Servers	9am Sunday Servers	9am Sunday Children's Liturgy
30-31 October	Damyn, Andy, Daniel	Evie, Lucas, Nicholas	TBA
6-7 November	Vince, Sav, Patrick	Caitlyn, Evie
13-14 November	Damyn, Andy	Gian, Annie, Grace
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
We encourage anyone who wants to help with the Children's Liturgy to contact Helene Axelby on 0415 179 470 or Skye McPadden via skye.mcpadden@cg.catholic.edu.au

Catholic Voice

Parenting Ideas

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

Neil McD; Maxwell W; Grace W; Albert K; Liam P; Sophie K; Logan McD; Elizabeth H; Mia W; Samantha T; Evie P; Benjamin G; Alana B; Lara K; Jasmine K; Kuir K; Lucas S; Athiang M; Cooper M; Keziah W; Sebastien McC; Ruhani P; Manyuon C; Lily G; Darcy N; Santiago A; Carrelle R; Jayden P; Heath L; Savannah A; Harrison BS; Daniel N; Seth R; Nyantet C.