St Thomas' News

St Thomas’ Primary School is part of a faith community centred on the life of Jesus, as expressed in our Motto, ‘Together in Christ’

Our Vision is to 'Educate the Whole Child' and empower learners as global citizens, to be curious, collaborative, creative and critical thinkers, inspired by Christ.

A friendly reminder that Friday 24 September is a Pupil Free Day.

TERM THREE

21 September - Interschool Debating Yrs 5 & 6 - 6 pm

21 September - Interschool Athletics Carnival Years 3-6

21 September - Advisory Council Meeting 7pm

22 September - Tiny Tom's 0-4 program 9-10.15am

23 September - St Thomas' Feast Day Mass 9am

23 September - Market Day - lead by Year 5 & 6 students

23 September - Last Day of Term Three for all students

24 September - PUPIL FREE DAY

(Please note dates & events are subject to change)

TERM FOUR

11 October - PUPIL FREE DAY

12 October - Students commence

15 October - Soccer Clinics - Pre-primary to Year 6 students

19 October - Year 5 Camp

20 October - Surfing commences Year 6 students

22 October - Kindergarten 2022 Parent Information Session 9am

29 October - Assembly Year 1

We are very thankful, God, for the good times we have with our families.

Thank You for allowing us to enjoy each other’s company.

Thank You for giving us time to spend with them each day.

Preserve our good relationships, Father, whenever we are with our beloved families.

Let peace reign in our homes and let compassion fill each of our hearts.

Teach us what it is to experience real joy and enable us to show each other what this means.

Lord, You are our Prince of Peace and the One that guards our hearts.

May You always remind us to be peacemakers, especially within our families.

Guide us each day as we walk through life with our families, wherever each of us may be.

All these we ask in Your Name,

Amen.

What a busy two weeks we have had at St Thomas’ since our last newsletter; our Athletics Carnival, Parent Teacher Interviews, Busy Bee, Open Morning, Maths in Action workshop for parents, Year 3 & 4 Assemblies, Oracy for Year 3 students, Catholic Performing Arts, our Artist in Residence program and so much more.

With one week left of the school term, we are looking forward to celebrating Mass as a whole school with a focus on the Feast of St Thomas’ and 200 years of Catholic Education on Thursday. On the calendar, we also have our Interschool Athletics Carnival for Years 3-6 students on Tuesday and our Market Day lead by the Year 5 & 6 students on Thursday between 12 and 1.30pm.

Open Morning

After a very successful busy bee on Sunday afternoon thanks to the efforts and generosity of our parents and families, the grounds of our school looked wonderful in preparation for our Open Morning on Tuesday. It was lovely to showcase the amazing gifts and talents of our students and staff, and to proudly show prospective parents and families all that St Thomas’ has to offer. A big thank you to our P & F parents who served morning tea and to all our families who joined us for the Busy Bee.

Artist in Residence Program

Linzi Carter, a well renowned contemporary artist, has commenced our Artist in Residence program for 2021, working with our students alongside our Art Specialist Mrs Byrne, to design a school mural based with a focus on 200 years of Catholic Education, our school values, and the many opportunities we offer at our wonderful school. One aspect of the art process was developing a brainstorm wall where students, staff and parents could contribute words, pictures, or diagrams to represent our school. These ideas will be used to develop the overall design. Please stay tuned for more updates on this mural as the process progresses.

Catholic Performing Arts Festival

Congratulation to our soloists, instrumentalists, Drama and Choir students, for the high standard of their performances at this years’ Catholic Performing Arts Festival. The final event of the Catholic Performing Arts Festival for 2021 was the 'Spirit of the Arts Concert' held on Monday evening at Perth RAC Arena. Our school choir joined with 1 500 students from Catholic schools and Colleges across the state in a massed choir, to sing ‘Hearts of Courage’ and ‘Faith in the Future’. This concert showcased some of WA’s most inspiring rising stars in a three-hour celebration of choirs, orchestras, bands, dancers, and soloists. My sincerest thanks to Mrs Herbert, our Choir students and their parents, for supporting the combined choir performance. A big thank also to the staff who joined the students at this event, Mrs Thomson, Mrs Gibbs, Mrs Vincent, Mrs Keatch and Miss Lee.

Maths in Action Parent Workshops

It was great to see so many parents attend the ‘Maths in Actions’ workshops on Tuesday afternoon. The variety of activities across the different year levels showcased the many ways we teach mathematics in the classroom.

Scholarships

For the 2022 school year, we have introduced a needs-based scholarship for families who are experiencing hardship. The 'St Thomas’ Primary School General Excellence Scholarship' is open to new and existing students, who would not otherwise be able to attend or continue their child’s education at St Thomas’ for financial reasons (statutory declaration of assets/liability required). This needs-based scholarship application will be treated with the utmost confidentiality. Applications are available on the school website and close on Friday 29 October. If you require any further information about this scholarship, please feel free to contact me.

https://www.stthomas.wa.edu.au/scholarships/

End of Term

With one more week of Term 3 to go, it is important that we recognise that student’s energy levels are plateauing. It is also important that we recognise that high expectations create more successful learners. Please ensure uniforms continue to be worn correctly and that all school items are brought to school so that learning can continue at a high level all the way to the end of term.

A friendly reminder that Term 3 concludes on Thursday 23 September and recommences in Term 4 on Tuesday 12 October.

Wishing you a wonderful week and a relaxing holiday with your family.

Best wishes and God bless

Natalia Thomson

Principal

Our rescheduled St Thomas’ Feast Day Mass is 9am next Thursday 23rd September in the Church we look forward to you joining with the community to celebrate this special occasion. It will be led by the Year 2 students.

Saint Thomas is one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. His name means "the twin".

Doubting Thomas

Thomas is most famous for not being present when the other apostles (Jesus's followers and friends) first saw Jesus after he has been risen from the dead. Thomas was not there and when he heard about it, he did not believe his friends, and he said he wanted to see it for himself, even the marks in his hands where Jesus had been nailed to the cross. Jesus did return and showed Thomas. The phrase "Doubting Thomas" (a term for a person who does not believe something at first) comes from this story. Thomas didn't believe Christ had returned until he was invited by the risen Jesus to put his finger into the nail holes in Jesus' hands and his hand into Jesus' wounded side.

Missionary Travels Though not recorded in the Bible, there are many stories about Thomas working as a missionary. The Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, India believe that Thomas came to India to preach in 52 A.D. He is regarded as the patron saint of India. Other ancient accounts tell of him going to China and Indonesia.

UPPER YEARS CODING CLUB UPDATE

The Senior Coding Club (Years Four-Six) have grown in number as winter sport commitments have concluded for the season. A group of keen novice coders joined at the start of this term and have worked their way through the 48 challenges in Apple’s Swift Playgrounds coding app. Apple has created this Learn to Code program with its own unique Coding language that students have worked hard to master over the term. They have learn skills such as ‘Commands’, ‘Conditional Code’, ‘For Loops’, and ‘Functions’.

Wow! One of the most impressive features of these Coding sessions is the ability for children to be able to ‘debug’ or find the error in codes that generates an unexpected result. They have been collaborative and analytical in solving these problems all term. Some comments from Coding Club members are:

“I joined Coding Club to pursue my dreams of becoming a game developer” Kian, Year 5

“I joined Coding Club to find out more about Coding and more about Coding languages.” Elea, Year 4

“I wanted to get better at Coding, so I can one day design apps.” Jack, Year 6

“I went to Coding Club because I knew I would learn new skills and have fun activities to do.” Ruben, Year 5

“I signed up to Coding Club to improve my understanding of coding games.” Harry, Year 5

JUNIOR YEARS CODING CLUB UPDATE

The Junior Schoolers will present their movies created through Scratch to the club this week and next. The unique creations they have been some time in the making, and we are all looking forward to seeing the final productions. Persistence and problem solving has also been called up to solve coding activities in Coding Safari. The thoroughness that these young students adopt with these challenges has been amazing to be part of. More excitement is planned for next term, with a new app, ‘Tynker’ being used.

GATHERING – SUPA THINKING FOCUS

Our recent focus of “Supa Thinking”, which is aligned to our Highway Heroes social-emotional program, has been very well received by students. Supa Thinking involves thinking positively about challenging situations, enabling us to deal with problems as they are presented throughout life. Sometimes we try hard but don’t get the results we are after, and that’s ok. The common understanding of Supa Thinking has been developed very quickly amongst students and staff, and provided a positive perspective on how issues are handles at St Thomas’ Primary School. Supa Thinking is a great start to children putting things in perspective and learning to work their way through problems that will inevitably arise through day to day life. I encourage you to speak with your child about how they use Supa Thinking at school and at home.

Mr Heath Nankivell

Assistant Principal

24 St Thomas’ E-Challengers put on a Science Extravaganza for the entire school. Their task was to entertain an audience, taking into consideration that the ages ranged from 4-54, with a ‘WOW’ experiment and explaining the science behind it. We had hydraulic robots, swirling colours, DNA extraction, coloured fire, Harry Potter potions, coke and mentos and an amazing self-built trebuchet to name a few. The task involved higher order thinking skills and allowed the E-Challenge group to take it as far as they wanted to as the open-ended task had no boundaries. At St Thomas’, we encourage all children to use their gifts and talents to extend and enrich their learning opportunities.

Busy Bee

Don't our School grounds look fantastic! Thank you to all those families and teachers who came along to the St Thomas Busy Bee. It was wonderful to see the St Thomas spirit in action as our community came together to get many jobs done around our School. So many kids were eager to give Mum and Dad a helping hand, pick up a shovel, spade and wheelbarrow and it was fantastic to see the children so proud of their positive contribution.

The afternoon was a great example of our fun and hardworking community and we are very grateful to those families and teachers who came along and gave up their Sunday afternoon in what is a very busy time of year.

Thank you to Frank Di Latte, Trish Coniglio, Ron Wray and Joep Vaessen for all your efforts preparing for the Busy Bee and your master delegation skills on the day, and Rebecca Hartley, Angela Jarrott, Eleni Radici and Jen Vaessen for preparing the well earned sausage sizzle.

St Thomas' Open Day

We had some wonderful parent ambassadors at our St Thomas' Open Day who welcomed prospective families with a warm smile and were on hand to assist with refreshments and answer any questions from a parent perspective.

A big thank you to Celeste Hartfield, Irini McGoldrick, Angela Jarrott, Jackie Vaughan and Sha Ragnauth for all your help and contributions on the day.

Canteen

A big thank you to Rebecca Hartley and Irini McGoldrick who volunteered to clean, reorganise and manage our School Canteen/Kitchen! It certainly is a very large task with this space being used not only by our School but also Extend and the Parish, so we are so very grateful to Bec and Rini for your energy, efforts and hard work in making this space supremely organised and spick and span! Thank you ladies!

P&F Positions for 2022 - Treasurer and Vice President

A big thank you to Tom Curnow, Treasurer and Mel Trend, Vice President for your outstanding contributions on the P&F Executive this year. We thank you for your time, energy, hard work, and efforts in fulfilling your roles and we look forward to acknowledging your contributions at the AGM next term.

Tom and Mel are now at the end of their respective terms, so the positions of Treasurer and Vice President are available for 2022.

If you are interested in getting involved with the P&F and our School community, we would love to hear from you. More information about these roles and how to apply will be sent out before the end of Term 3.

Wishing you a fantastic weekend.

Bianca Della Vedova

President

Facilitated by Mrs Brianna Kirkbride (Early Years Educator) the session for parents and their children between 0-3 years is held every Wednesday morning between 8.45 – 10.15am.

All welcome.

With a hiccup two days prior to the event from occurring, we were told that we could not have our carnival due to a crane been booked in to move some sea containers! However with a compromise and promise to finish earlier, we were very fortunate to UWA Sports allowing us to go ahead!

The day started with rain when arriving to set up but it turned into a glorious spring day for our Athletics carnival on Friday 3rd September and it was lovely to have so many families and friends supporting the event. We were proud of the high level of participation and effort shown by the students who participated in various pre carnival events (jumps and throws), athletics and team events. Thank you to all of the staff, parents and community members for their assistance throughout the day, whether it was setting up, packing away, scoring, recording, announcing, handing out ribbons and collecting/returning gear to the school. Special thank you to ‘Crazy about Brew’ coffee van who served our community with hot and cold beverages as well as a selection of food throughout the whole carnival.

Congratulations to Sheridan who were our overall winners and to Gittens winning the ‘spirit award’ for 2021.

Please see below for all of the results and records broken on the day;

OVERALL CHAMPION FACTION

1st Sheridan 2799 points

2nd Gittens 2551 points

3rd Forrest 2545 points

Spirit Award – Gittens

Champions and Runner Up Champion

Year 6 Champion Girl Charli L

Year 6 Runner Up Champion Girl Erin M

Year 6 Champion Boy Christian L

Year 6 Runner Up Champion Boy Bastian D

Year 5 Champion Girl Alice R

Year 5 Runner Up Champion Girl Amelie T

Year 5 Champion Boy Jack H

Year 5 Runner Up Champion Boy Jackson D & Jude K

Year 4 Champion Girl Lily G

Year 4 Runner Up Champion Girl Amelie G

Year 4 Champion Boy Hamish L

Year 4 Runner Up Champion Boy Jett E

Year 3 Champion Girl Stella B

Year 3 Runner Up Champion Girl Mimi G & Maxine S

Year 3 Champion Boy Louis K

Year 3 Runner Up Champion Boy Harrison C

Year 2 Champion Girl Ewa K

Year 2 Runner Up Champion Girl Ruby R

Year 2 Champion Boy Charlie J

Year 2 Runner Up Champion Boy Luke F

Year 1 Champion Girl Maddy G

Year 1 Runner Up Champion Girl Javiera D

Year 1 Champion Boy Cruz L

Year 1 Runner Up Champion Boy Arthur V

800m

Girls Open: Gold Jewel G Silver Lily G Bronze Amelie G

Boys Open: Gold Bastian D Silver Jude K Bronze Jack H

There were a number of records broken this year. Congratulations to the following students:

Yr 3 Long Jump – Juliet D 2.95m

Yr 4 Long Jump – Amelie G 3.22m

Yr 6 Long Jump – Christian L 4.36m

Yr 5 Turbo Javelin – Jack H 20.65m

Yr 3 Teeball Throw – Stella B 21.21m

Yr 2 Standing Long Jump – Charlie J 1.73m

Yr 2 Standing Long Jump – Ewa K 1.34m

Yr 1 Standing Long Jump – Arthur V 1.39m

Yr 1 Standing Long Jump – Madeline G 1.27m

Yr 4 Girls 400m – Lily G 1.23.59

Yr 4 Girls 200m – Lily G 35.63

Yr 2 Boys 100m – Luke F 17.28

Yr 1 Girls 100m – Madeline G 18.57

PP Boys 50m – Hudson W 10.26

PP Girls 50m – Madeline G 9.56

Yr 4 Mixed 4 x 100m Relay – Forrest 1.10.15

Thank you for a wonderful day!

Sharon Seaman

In Term 4, I will be offering a Net, set , Go program for students in PP – year 6, on Thursday afterschool, from 3.15- 4.00pm for 6 weeks. The cost will be $70 as there are administration fees which go to Netball Australia and each child receives a participation pack.

The registration link for St Thomas Primary School participants is: https://netball.resultsvault.com/common/pages/reg/welcome.aspx?type=6&id=96017&entityid=77486

The registration link for St Thomas Primary School participants is: https://netball.resultsvault.com/common/pages/reg/welcome.aspx?type=6&id=96017&entityid=77486

Name: Sharon Seaman

Position: Physical Education Teacher

Interests: Boxing, Water sports, Pilates/Yoga, Swimming, Volleyball, Football, Art/craft workshops

Football Team: Carlton

Favourite Food: Seafood

Currently Reading: Scar Tissue

Favourite Holiday Destination: Koh Samui and anywhere tropical where the sun is shining!

3 people you’d invite to dinner: Stephen Silvagni, Chris Hemsworth and Hugh Jackman

What would you do with your last $50? Spend some, give some away and pop some in the bank!

Favourite Movie: The Breakfast Club

Favourite Quote: ‘Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful’

Someone you admire: My Grandma

If your child feels anxious reassure them that these feelings are a normal response to new people, events or potentially challenging situations. Help your child understand that there is a great deal they can do to manage their anxious feelings, so they can get on with the activities they enjoy. Explain anxiety If your child is anxious they may struggle to explain how they feel.

An important first step in anxiety self management is explaining to your child how anxiety works.

• Teach your child that the amygdala, the part of the brain that protects them, is always on high alert when they are anxious.
• Explain that the amygdala sees danger where there is none, but the body prepares to fight for life or flee from danger as if it’s protecting them from a hungry lion.
• Talk about the changes that happen in their body to power them up to fight or flee including; increased heart and breathing rates and the pumping of the blood from the stomach to the arms and legs, which can cause nausea and even vomiting for some.

Help recognise anxiety-inducing events. Help your child to recognise the specific situations and events that make them feel anxious such as meeting new friends, sitting tests and fear of rejection. In this way you can help your child manage and minimise his feelings of anxiety. Respond with empathy When your child feels anxious, the part of the brain that controls rational thinking, decision-making and concentration temporarily goes offline.

They can feel easily overwhelmed by simple, everyday events and situations. Rather than protecting your child by allowing them to avoid meeting these challenges, or dismissing them as trivial, validate their feelings with statements such as “I can see you’re feeling worried about going to camp without your brother.” Managing anxious moments.

Help your child develop the tools to regulate and push their anxious feelings to the background. Practise these anxiety management tools when your child is feeling calm, and it will be easier for them to practise when they are We're a Parenting Ideas school nervous.

These include:

• Taking some deep breaths: Deep belly breathing from the diaphragm calms the amygdala, reducing feelings of anxiousness Bringing their attention back to the present.
• Use their senses to bring their attention to the present moment and away from their worries – “Tell me five things you see, four things you hear and something you smell”Getting them moving.
• Physical exercise is not only a great distraction but it releases feel-good endorphins that help children and young people feel better and more optimistic about the future.
• Defusing their thoughts: Help your child to distance themselves from their thoughts by using distancing statements. Replace “I’m going to fail the test” with “I had a thought that I’m going to fail the test."

Rather than changing their thinking, assist your child to distance themselves from unhelpful thoughts There’s a great deal you can do to help your child manage their anxiety. Start by assisting your child to understand the fundamentals of anxiety, show your understanding of their feelings and be ready to support them emotionally to push their anxiety to the background.

Michael Grose

parentingideas.com.au/schools

A friendly reminder that if your child is not returning to St Thomas' Primary School for 2022 then a Student Departure Form must be completed giving one full terms notice (not applicable to Y6). This means we need to receive the form by day one of Term Four (Tuesday 12 October 2021). This will allow for planning in staffing and also in accepting new students who have applied and are currently on waitlist..

Should notice be received after this date a full terms tuition fee penalty will apply.

The form is available from the front office or by emailing Julie on admin@stthomas.wa.edu.au.

Term 3

Tuesday 20 July to Thursday 23 September

Term 4

Tuesday 12 October to Friday 10 December

Pupil Free Days

Friday 24 September

Monday 11 October

Keyed Up Music will be teaching drums and keyboard lessons next term during school. Lessons start at $23.10 for a shared lesson. If you are interested in your son/daughter learning an instrument, ring Savanna on 6107 8841 or 0479 171 424 or enrol at www.keyedupmusic.com.au/enrolment-form

Please also contact the school office to complete a Music Application Form.

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