Dear Families,

We are quickly approaching the end of the year and all that this entails. With restrictions beginning to ease a little, we are able to hold end of year Christmas Carols. It is wonderful to be able to hold an event to bring our community together and see out the end of this school year. I thank the School Community Council for organising the night. Details can be found later in the newsletter.

Reports
Traditionally, St Thomas Aquinas, and all Catholic Schools in Canberra, have printed and sent home reports. This year the Catholic Education System has moved to online reports through Compass. These reports will be available to parents from midday on Friday, 10th December. Families are reminded that these reports will no longer contain comments. Please contact the School Office if you are experiencing difficulty logging onto Compass.

Parent-Teacher/ 3-Way Conferences
This semester we will hold Parent - Teacher or 3-Way Conferences before the reports are released. During these interviews, teachers will be able to talk to you about your child’s performance across all curriculum areas as well as their application to learning. We hope that by doing this before reports are made available, you and your child will already have an understanding as to why they received a particular grade and what they might do in the future to build on their learning. These conferences should provide fruitful conversations between families and teachers with the aim of supporting your child’s learning goals.

Take care and God Bless

 
Leah Taylor
Principal

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.

Qkr installation instructions are included in this Newsletter.

Parent Teacher Conferences for 2021-Term 4 will be held from Monday, 29 November to Wednesday, 1 December 2021 via MS Teams.

Compass Bookings open on Monday, 22 November at 8:30am and will close on Friday, 26 November at 12 noon.

Bookings are strictly for 15 minutes.  If you require further time, please organise a separate conference with your child's teacher.

Please find below information regarding the BYOD iPad Program for Year 5 in 2022.

This information is also available on our website under Forms - ICT.

In this current climate, students should not attend school if they are showing any cold or flu-like symptoms. If your child has vomiting or diarrhoea, please do not send them to school for at least 24 hours after the symptoms have ceased. 

As a school community we all understand the difficulties of having a sick child, but please do not send your child to school if they are ill or if they have not fully recovered from an illness.  Keeping a child at home, when they are not well, not only helps them recover more quickly with rest, but it also prevents the spread of illnesses in the school community.

Also, if contacted by the school, please pick up your child up as quickly as possible in order to reduce stress for your child.

The AWS Girls’ Tech Day will take place from Saturday, 13 November to Monday, 13 December 2021. The virtual event is designed to inspire and motivate girls and young women ages 8 to 24 to develop and pursue their interests in technology. Participants can explore coding, robotics, cloud computing, problem solving and more through keynote speakers, hands on learning sessions and fun activities. Registration is free of charge for students, educators and youth leaders with an interest in technology. Please contact Karen Ruppert, RTO Manager (Karen.Ruppert@cg.catholic.edu.au or 0419 354 895) for more information.

School Terms

Public Holidays

The STA Swimming Carnival, for students in Years 3 to 6, will be held on Friday, 25 February 2022. 

Notes will be sent home in Week 1 of 2022 and will need to be returned by Friday 11 February 2022 - Week 2 of 2022.  Please note that late notes cannot be accepted due to the tight timeframe.

Community News is located on our website.

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

Andrew M;  Amber B;  Farrah A;  Annabelle C;  Rebecca J;  David C;  Jewel J;  Leaniva M-H;  Mia O;  Ava G;  Jadyn W;  Aiden M;  Archer W;  Harpreet S;  Ella T;  Grace S;  Carys S;  Mikayla M;  Faith M;  Isabel P;  Darcy A;  Dante C;  Spencer S; Obie I;  Taigh R;  Kuzivakwashe M;  Amity W;  Benjamin S;  Samuel C.