St. Thomas’ Community - As presented by Miss Canalini at Week Three Gathering
Caring: We look out for each other and care for each other. This helps improve on our school community.
Opportunity: St Thomas’ provides all students, teachers and parents many opportunities to get involved in the school community.
Meaningful: It is important that our relationships within the community are meaningful and gives us a purpose within our community.
Motto (together in Christ): Our school motto is a great way to encourage us to work as a school community to live and be like Christ together.
Unity: Just like our school motto, it is important we have unity in our school community.
Nano Nagle: The founder of the Presentation Sisters is a wonderful role model for our school community and it’s important we think of her whilst we are working together.
Inclusivity: It is important that we include everyone in our community. Whatever the occasion may be: students inviting others to play, parents including other families in events, staff involving parents and students in decision making, etc.
Together: We need to come all together to create our school community and a great example was the Art Show with everyone involved.
You: You all play a role in our school community. If no one played their role we wouldn’t have a community.
Friday 9 November: Year 4 Assembly
Friday 9 November: School Disco
Monday 12 November: Year 4 -6 First Aid Course
Wednesday 14 November: Parish Mass (Year 1’s attending) – 12.30pm
Wednesday 14 November: Parent Workshop “Building Resiliency in Children” – 6.30pm School Hall
Thursday 15 November: School Choir visiting Romily House
Friday 16 November: Pre-Primary Assembly
Saturday 17 November: School/Parish Mass - PP’s and Year 2’s are organising Mass and sausage sizzle.
Monday 19 November: Swimming Lessons commence
Tuesday 20 November: School Community Meeting
Dear St. Thomas' Community,
Staffing News: Congratulations to Mr Ryan von Bergheim who has been appointed Assistant Principal at Padbury Catholic Primary. Ryan will commence his time at Padbury at the start of the 2019 school year. We wish Ryan all the very best.
Community Meeting: We willbe having a St. Thomas’ Community Meeting on Tuesday 20 November at 7.00pm in the School Hall. At this meeting Peter Gibbons (Chairperson St. Thomas’ School Board), Carla Di Latte (P&F President) and I will be sharing with you all the wonderful things that have happened at St. Thomas’ during 2018 and talking to you about our goals and challenges for 2019.This is an informative night and opportunity for you to come and support your children’s school. Refreshments will be served at the meeting.
P&F: The current P&F Executive have all completed their two-year commitment as executive members, therefore we are looking for a new P&F President, Treasurer, Secretary, Parent Rep Coordinator and Fundraising Coordinator. I certainly acknowledge that everyone is extremely busy and therefore you may have noticed that over the past few years we have tried to reduce the considerable work of the P&F by introducing a levy and outsourcing the Royal Show Parking. We are trying to ensure that the P&F continues to play the very vital role of bringing the St. Thomas’ community together with a smaller emphasis on fundraising. If you can assist the school by undertaking a role in 2019 please see me and I can share with you our future direction and give you a full description of these roles.
Assemblies: Our next major assembly of the year will take place on Friday 9 November, where the Year Four class will be showcasing their learning.
Then the following Friday, 16 November the Pre-Primary class will be sharing their talents with us.
Congratulations: Well done to Mrs Karen Jones who has successfully completed her Masters in Early Childhood. Great example that we are all life-long learners. Congratulations Mrs Jones.
School/Parish Mass: The next Parish/School Mass will take place next weekend, Saturday 17 November, at 5.30pm. The Pre-Primary and Year 2 class, Mrs. Gibbs, Miss Canalini and Mrs. Vincent are organising the Mass and sausage sizzle. Please come along and support our school and parish. This will be our last Parish/School Mass for 2018.
Reconciliation: Congratulations to the Year 3 students who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation this week. May they receive the grace of forgiveness and repentance as they journey closer to God. Father Wayne was extremely complimentary regarding the way the students were prepared and presented themselves. So, thanks to the parents and in particular Mr. O’Mara for all their hard work.
Absentee Notes
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.
Poppy Appeal
This year we have a collection box for gold coin donations in the front office in support of the RSLWA Poppy Appeal. The money raised from this state wide initiative provides hundreds of past serving personnel, and their families, with welfare and care services in times of hardship and need. With an increasing number of young veterans from recent conflicts and operations, RSLWA is as relevant now as it was after World War One and Two.
Digital Technology Guidelines for Parents
Continued from last Newsletter... Tips and suggestions for establishing rules for iPad/device usage at home.
Tip #5: Be prepared to learn
Be ready to learn about social media, and the different apps and games that young people may be playing. But at the same time, be mindful of their boundaries. A recent Australian survey found that young people see TV-watching as a way of connecting to their family, and social media as a way of connecting to their friends.
Tip #6: Change the rules if necessary
Many families will have a young one who believes that rules are made to be broken. They are the ones always pushing past their boundaries, their own limits and the limits of their parents’ patience. Smart parents take a more flexible approach, and believe that rules are made to be changed. Be prepared to keep evolving your rules based on your young person’s behaviour, maturity, sleep habits, their tendency to leave homework or chores unfinished or any number of issues that will invariably crop up to make them feel like your rules just aren’t working.
Tips 7 & 8 coming next Newsletter...
Ryan von Bergheim
Assistant Principal
Composting
Composting is one of the oldest natural agricultural practices to return essential nutrients into the soil.
Compost is decomposed organic material that is produced when bacteria in soil break down garbage and biodegradable trash, resulting in a product rich in minerals that is an ideal garden or landscaping amendment. In fact, it’s nature’s perfect amendment and can be added to the soil any time of year.
Compost Benefits
· It’s free. You use kitchen waste, lawn clippings, leaves and other vegetation that would otherwise get thrown away.
· Improves your garden. Compost is a rich organic fertiliser and contains high level of nutrients and minerals needed by your plants and can bring life and nourishment to your garden.
· Adding compost improves soil fertility and stimulates healthy root development in plants. The organic matter provided in compost provides food for microorganisms, which keeps the soil in a healthy, balanced condition.
· Compost loosens clay soils and helps sandy soils retain water
· No need to add fertilizer — just mix compost into the soil. Compost contains nutrients that plants need for optimum growth, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. And it’s an especially good supplier of micronutrients that are needed in small quantities such as boron, cobalt, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc.
· Save money by producing organic compost in your own backyard. You don’t have to buy chemical fertilisers anymore.
It feels good! By composting your food scraps instead of sending them to landfill, each household can significantly reduce their climate change footprint
Remembrance Day ‐ 11 November:
On Sunday, Australians will pause to acknowledge Remembrance Day. Given the significance of this day, I thought it timely to share a brief reflection as to why this is a special day for Australia.
At 11am on 11 November 1918, the guns of the European Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare. The allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months. In November, the Germans called for an armistice (suspension of fighting) to secure a peace settlement. They accepted allied terms that amounted to unconditional surrender.
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month attained a special significance in the post-war years. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war. This first modern world conflict had brought about the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between 9 and 13 million dead, perhaps as many as one‐third of them with no known grave. The allied nations chose this day and time for the commemoration of their war dead. When we pause on Sunday at 11.00am, we are invited to share a moment of reflection to acknowledge those ‐ both military and civilian ‐ who have lost their lives during past and recent conflicts. We are also invited to pray that all people may respect the dignity of every person and find ways to settle disputes using non‐aggressive means in order that the world may live in peace.
Hello friends!
Over the past couple of weeks we have been busy making creative crafts and DIY activities such as mask making, jewellery making, army slouch hats out of paper plate, bravery medals, poppy wreaths, bookmarks and mini-book making. Everyone loved the ANZAC biscuit and Gingerbread and Pumpkin biscuits cooking activity. We also enjoyed the beautiful weather in playing outside during our “Sports Day”. Everyday in Extend we aim to create beautiful learning experiences and have fun with our friends.
To practice and to promote sustainability, next week, we are planning to make some cool inventions out of recyclable items. If you have anything that you need to part with, for example, dress- up clothing, paper that can be used for making crafts, clean jars, boxes or containers, it would be highly appreciated if you could please bring these to Extend for recycling activities.
Our Extend Superstars are:
Meg Cleary for organising an activity on how to make a cute animal corner bookmarks. Her enthusiasm to help others especially the little ones is incredible. Thank you Meg!
Sophie Cleary for being an inspiration to others by having a positive attitude towards work. Her kind and gentle nature as a friend is fantastic! Keep it up Sophie!
What’s on next week?
Monday 12 November - Newspaper Flowers and Newspaper hats
Tuesday 13 November - Plastic Lid Monsters and Mini Lid Banjos
Wednesday 14 November- Plastic Bottle Lanterns and Jewellery Box
Thursday 15 November- Egg Carton Dinosaurs And Slime Making
Friday 16 November - Paper Tube Posy and Butterfly Paper Roll Butterfly
Wishing you all a wonderful week!
Liezel Menguito
Extend Service Coordinator
Congratulations to Liezel Menguito (St. Thomas' Extend Service Coordinator) for being nominated for a National Extend Award. Liezel was nominated for Best Program Opportunity. Well done Liezel. Best of luck!
St Thomas' Primary School
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