Dear Lord

Bless all the fathers in the world.

Guide them to be good role models and loving to all their children.

Help them to be a father like You are. Give them grace and patience and guide them in your loving ways.

Amen

Dads……we hope you had a wonderful Father’s Day. May the Lord bless you with good health and abundant joy at this special time of year.

Friday 31 August – Father’s Day Breakfast & Liturgy

Monday 3 September – Performing Arts Assembly – 2.15pm in Hall (All Welcome)

Wednesday 5 September – Confirmation Retreat and Parish Mass – Year 4 attending

Friday 7 September – Confirmation Mass Year 6 – 6.00pm

Tuesday 11 September – Science Extravaganza 11.00am in Hall (All Welcome)

Wednesday 12 September - Surf Online Safe Incursion – Year 5 & 6 during the day & Parent Presentation 6.30pm in the Hall

Thursday 13 September – Year 3 Oracy

Friday 14 September – Year 3 Assembly

Saturday 15 September – School/Parish Mass 5.30pm (All Welcome)

Father’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy: Tomorrow morning we have our annual Father’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy. Thanks to Miss Canalini and Mrs. Vincent for preparing the Liturgy and to the P&F for their organisation of the breakfast. Breakfast will take place in the school hall starting at 8.00am with the Liturgy taking place in the Church. We would love to see as many Dads, Granddads, Poppas, etc. in attendance. We wish all our Dads and Father Figures a wonderful day on Sunday and hope they get a sleep in and breakfast in bed.

Year Three Assembly: Our next major assembly of the year will take place on Friday 14 September, when the Year Three’s will be showcasing their learning.

Child Protection: In the lead up to National Child Protection Week (2-8 September) I would like to share with you Catholic Education of Western Australia (CEWA) commitment letter regarding child safety. In the next few newsletters I will shares CEWA’s Child Safe Framework and highlight the Nine Elements of the Child Safe Framework we as a system and school are committed too.

Commitment to Child Safety

Catholic Education Western Australia’s (CEWA) schools and care centres are Christ-centred and child-focused places of learning for children and young people.

We are committed to being a child safe organisation. Our children and young people have the right to be safe and feel safe to be able to flourish in their learning and development.

Our schools and care centres enact the Church’s commitment to the dignity of the individual. All members of our school and care centre communities have a fundamental right to be treated with respect, and to learn and teach in a safe and supportive environment. We encourage children and young people to contribute more broadly to the development of the kind of world envisaged by Christ, to form a commitment to the love, compassion and justice of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We promote justice, particularly to those who are culturally, physically, intellectually, financially or spiritually disadvantaged.

(Mandate for the Catholic Education Commission of Western Australia, 2009).

The person of each individual human being, in his or her material and spiritual needs, is at the heart of Christ’s teaching: that is why the promotion of the human person is the goal of the Catholic school.

Congregation for Catholic Education 1997, par. 9

Our Framework for the Development of Pastoral Care in Catholic Schools (CEWA, 2007) enhances the dignity of each person within their Catholic community, and provide a safe and supportive school environment to promote care, respect and cooperation. The framework values diversity, and takes action to protect children from all forms of abuse and neglect.

CEWA’s Child Safe Framework supports leaders to develop a child safe culture in their schools and care centres. The Framework emphasises situational prevention to reduce risk, promotes professional behaviours and healthy, respectful relationships, and is aimed at meeting and exceeding regulatory obligations and standards (CEWA, 2018).

Elements of the Framework are also expressed in CEWA’s Vision for Learning. Quality Relationships; Engagement; and Place, Space and Technology support child safety and wellbeing as an integral part of contemporary teaching and learning in our system (CEWA Vision for Learning, 2018).

If you are not returning to St Thomas' next year please remember in accordance with your Acceptance of Place you need to give a full terms notice. This also allows us time to structure our staffing of classes for the following year. Departure forms are available from the front office. Failure to give a terms notice will incur a penalty of a full terms fees.

Join the Leadership team on THURSDAY 6th SEPTEMBER straight after drop-off for coffee and an informal chat for 20 minutes. For more info, watch the short (45-second) video below. Each month we will hold this event - a chance for us to hear from the St Thomas' community. And don't worry - this has nothing to do with marketing!

* Please note, this is not a time to discuss individual children. This should still be done by appointment with the classroom teacher.

Confirmation: Please keep in your prayers our Year Six students who next Friday evening, 7 September, will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Year Six students have been well prepared and must be congratulated on the manner in which they conducted themselves and participated fully in their preparation. I thank parents, Mr. von Bergheim and teachers for modeling their faith so readily with these young children.

School/Parish Mass: The next Parish/School Mass will take place on Saturday, 15 September, at 5.30pm. The Year Three class and Mr. O’Mara will be organising the Mass and sausage sizzle. Even though it is the Year Three class organising this event, it would be wonderful to see the Church full with St Thomas’ families.

Absentee Notes Reminders: It is a legal requirement for parents to inform the school/class teachers prior to a child being absent if it involves a previously arranged appointment. If a child is ill an email to either the class teacher or the school office (admin@stthomas.wa.edu.au) will assist with our record keeping. If your child is absent for two hours or more an absentee note must be completed and given to the class teacher when the child returns. This also is a legal requirement. From time to time you will receive a reminder if you have forgotten to send in a note explaining your child’s absence. We thank you for your assistance with this matter.

Last term I shared with you a fantastic resource for parents - The CyberSafety Lady www.thecybersafetylady.com.au and www.facebook.com/TheCyberSafetyLady

This week I would like to share with you another fantastic resource for parents, to help you manage and navigate the online world with your children - Common Sense Media. www.facebook.com/commonsensemedia/ This Facebook page is another excellent resource to help you stay up-to-date with what your children are doing online. It features articles, tips, tricks and advice. I encourage you to visit this page and follow it.

Ryan von Bergheim

Assistant Principal

At St Thomas' our Green Team student volunteers and classrooms have started examining how our school can be more conscious of our waste. We are beginning the process of investigating how we can be more efficient and environmentally friendly with our waste management systems at the school. Keep an eye on this space...

Here is a short clip to see how some schools around Australia are trying to transition to a waste-free school! If you have any ideas, please let us know.

Athletics Carnival: Congratulations to all St Thomas’ students who participated in Friday’s Athletics Carnival. What a beautiful day we had, perfect weather, great sportsmanship and some outstanding efforts throughout the day in the individual events.

A very big thankyou to all of the parent helpers who assisted with transporting equipment, setting up, packing away and assisting throughout the day. We are very fortunate to have such a giving and supportive parent community. Without all of your help and support, there is no way it could run as smoothly as it did.

Congratulations to Forrest who were our overall winners and to Gittens for winning the spirit award for 2018.

Interschool Athletics: St. Thomas’ will be participating in the annual Interschool Athletics Carnival on Monday 17 September. We wish the members of the team all the best and know they will represent the school with appropriate sportsmanship qualities and competitiveness.

Training for the Interschool team will be during Friday afternoon sport and Thursday afternoons, details will follow soon in regards to Thursday after school.

Happy Week 7! I can’t believe how fast time flies! Over the past two weeks we have been doing lots of fun activities in Extend Before and After School Care such as: Sparkly Snow Cloud Dough, Straw Rockets, Styro Solar System model, Paper Helicopter Pinwheel and CD Spinning Top Science Project. Some of the activities that we enjoyed the most for our Father’s Day theme week are: DIY- Father’s day Keyring, Father’s Day Trophy Card, Folding Craft Sticks Card, Nuts and Bolts Frame craft, Tuxedo Heart Card and Father’s Day Scribble Mug Kids craft. Everyone showed their creativity to make their dad feel extra special this Father’s day.

Announcement: Spring Extend Squad - Fantabulous school holiday experiences

Extend's school holiday programs are a fantastic opportunity for your child to do fun and engaging activities with friends. Book 14 days in advance to receive the early bird rate. Bookings now open! Find your local Extend Squad: extend.com.au

Our Extend Superstars are:

Oliver Relota for always using his beautiful manners and for listening to instructions.

Miguel Kerber his happy and enthusiastic attitude towards work, always willing to help and proud of being the responsible person of the day.

What’s on next week?

Monday 03 September - Sticky Sticks Silly Hair Puppets and Talent Show

Tuesday 04 September - Craft Stick Harmonica and Music Sesh with Jo

Wednesday 05 September - Recycled Dinosaur Project and DIY plastic bottle flower vase making, Thursday 06 September - Paper Snowflakes and Basic Gymnastics moves by Aurelia

Friday 07 September - Drawing and Painting Competition and The Boat is Sinking Game

Wishing you all a wonderful week!

Liezel Menguito

Extend Service Coordinator

We are pleased to announce that JB 6 aside summer soccer league is back for the 2018/19 season so it’s time to get your St Thomas teams ready for another action filled soccer season. JB 6 A-side is a wonderful fun way to keep kids and adult teams active and playing soccer through the summer.The competition commences in the week of the 23th of October and continues until February 6th for thirteen weeks including finals and gala day with a Christmas holiday break. The competition will be conducted during afternoon/evenings on weekdays at Rosalie Park, Subiaco. Registration fees include new Jersey, referees, and fantastic facilities. All male and female players are invited to register. There will be a division to cater for each age group from 6 to 15 years, plus a women’s opens, men’s all age and over 35 Masters, so St Thomas dads we are ready for you! Make a team or join as an individual and we will make a team for you.

Looking forward to seeing you there! Registrations will commence on the 1st of September 2018 at www.jb6asidesoccer.com.au For more info please contact Cecilia Burns at jb6asidesoccer@yahoo.com or call 0401075759

Iona Presentation College warmly invites you to attend an Open Morning of the Senior School for prospective students in Years 7-12, Monday 10 September 2018.

Presentations will commence at 9.30am in the College Sports Centre followed by a guided tour and morning tea.

Bookings can be made at: www.iona.wa.edu/openmorning

Email: admin@stthomas.wa.edu.au
Website: stthomas.wa.edu.au
Location: 8 Warden Street Claremont WA 6010
Phone: (08 9286 9500
Facebook: www.facebook.com/stthomasprimaryschoolclaremont
Twitter: @StThomasCPS