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 create opportunities for our children to become loving individuals with the skills to willingly contribute to make the world a better place.

TERM FOUR

Friday 13 November: Yrs 5 & 6 Cricket & Tennis Carnival - CANCELLED

Saturday 14 November: St Thomas' Party

Monday 16 November: Night of the Notables - selected Y4-6

Tuesday 17 November: Volunteers Morning Tea

Monday 23 November - Friday 04 December: Swimming PP - Y6

Thursday 26 November: AGM 6 pm

Friday 27 November: School Disco

Tuesday 08 December: Christmas Concert

Wednesday 09 December: Graduation Mass & Graduation Dinner

Monday 7 December: Reports issued

Friday 11 December: End of school year for students

God of freedom,
On this day of remembrance
We give thanks and honour for the lives
Of those who have helped make our beautiful country
A place of freedom and peace. Your son Jesus showed us
that the greatest love is in giving one’s life for the sake of others.
May we always remember The generosity and bravery
Of those who have died in war
As they worked for the freedom of others. Let us strive to be people of peace
in our thoughts, words and actions as Jesus has shown us.
We make our prayer in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace.
Amen.

It was a privilege to share the vision of our school with our new families, as we gathered for the Kindy 2021 Parent Information Session this morning. 'Educating the Whole Child' moves beyond providing well educated citizens for the future. It encompasses spirituality, reverence for the natural environment, and a sense of social justice. At St Thomas' we are blessed to have so many opportunities to educate the whole child through academic excellence, creativity, the arts, sport, service and community. It is exciting to share so many of these opportunities with you in todays newsletter.

Kindergarten 2021 Orientation

This morning, our 2020 Kindergarten parents gathered to attend a Parent information Session for the 2021 school year. The meeting provided parents with important information to assist in making the beginning of 2020 a smooth transition for their child. A special thank you to Celeste Hartfield for organising morning tea for our new parents.

Remembrance Day

Yesterday was Remembrance Day. At 11am, our Faith and Justice Leaders Benjamin and Benedict along with our Student Leaders Nicholas, Ruby, Grace and Cayden, lead us in a prayer service to remember the sacrifice of those men and women who have died or suffered in wars and conflicts, and all those who have served this country.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Congratulations to our Year 6 students who received the Sacrament of Confirmation on Friday 30 October. It was a beautiful liturgy which included the angelic voices of two of our Year 6 parents Sarah Chatfield and Maria Enriquez-Watt. A big thank you to Mrs Gibbs, Father Wayne and all parents for supporting their children in receiving this Sacrament.

Nature Play Project

Our new Nature Play Project has commenced. The children are watching the progress on the bottom oval with enthusiasm and excitement.

Annual General Meeting

A reminder that the Annual General Meeting for our school community will be held on Thursday 26 November at 6pm in the Hall. All parents and caregivers are welcome to attend. The meeting will include a report of activities of the 2020 school year and staffing for 2021 will be announced. Refreshments will follow.

Volunteers Morning Tea

We welcome the opportunity to say thank you to our many parent helpers who have volunteered their time throughout the year. Please join us for morning tea on Tuesday 17 November at 9am. RSVP's to admin@stthomas.wa.edu.au by Friday 14 November.

Have a lovely weekend

God bless

Natalia Thomson

Principal

The Kindergarten students have been watching the Nature Play Playground take shape and decided to start their own building site.

We are so pleased to let you know that Valentina raised $1909.55 for Telethon!

Last year, Valentina started a tradition of raising money for Telethon with her cousins. This year, the girls sold homemade lemonade and raffle tickets out of Valentina’s garden. Valentina letter dropped each morning before school all around Subiaco and the girls made over 25L of homemade lemonade! Over 100 people including family, classmates, neighbours and passers by came to Valentina’s garden on the Telethon weekend and Valentina sold hundreds of raffle tickets and over 150 cups of lemonade! Valentina had the privilege of swimming and playing with Nora one of the Telethon Kids over the weekend and took great delight in sharing with her and her Mum what she did for Telethon and knows how the money she raised will make a difference. Valentina would like to say a huge thank you to her wonderful teachers and classmates for their support, generous donations and encouragement! She was so excited to make this donation to Telethon and is excited for next year!

Year 6 were privileged to have two marine biologists from CSIRO visit our school to talk about water quality and becoming citizen scientists. We thank Jo Myers, our ‘Scientist in Schools’ for organising this informative and interesting incursion and to the inquisitive Year 6 class who enthusiastically embraced this opportunity.

Congratulations to the high achievers at St Thomas' School in the learning areas of English, Mathematics, Science and Digital Technologies. These assessments are ranked nationally.

The Annual School Community Meeting will be held on Thursday 26 November at 6pm. All parents are encouraged to attend. Nominations for Board and P&F Executive positions close on Monday 23 November. Please use the link below to https://www.smore.com/pb65f-st-thomas-primary-school

to nominate yourself or someone else. This is a wonderful way to be involved in school life, supporting the education of your children.

Dear Parents and Guardians

SEQTA ENGAGE

Last semester all families set up SEQTA Engage. SEQTA Engage provides parents/guardians with access to student reports.

The Semester Two Report will be made available as a PDF document to parents/guardians on SEQTA Engage by Monday 7 December. Families with multiple children at the school will be able to view their children’s information from the one SEQTA Engage account.

Only parents/guardians can only view students reports relating to their own child/children.

Families can access SEQTA Engage in two ways:

1. Through the URL on a computer https://stthomas.coneqt-p.cathednet.wa.edu.au/

2. Through the App on a phone

Please ensure you are able to login into your SEQTA Engage account or alternatively if you have forgotten your password please follow the prompts to create a new password by Monday 16 November. This will enable adequate time for SEQTA Helpdesk to support families if required.

SEMESTER TWO REPORTS

This year we have revised our reports with a view of providing greater clarity to families regarding their child’s academic progress. All subject areas will now contain graded descriptors as opposed to ungraded descriptors that were previously used in previous years.

Kind regards

Mrs Lisa Meyers

Assistant Principal

St Thomas’ hosted the Checkmate Champions Tournament for 2020. Though we did not come home with the cup, we were able to secure two awards. Our Champion B Division was won by Christian Lorbeer and The Spirit of the Game award was won by Cayden Arquiza Relenas. Well done on all of members of the Interschool Chess Team. They played as a team with the true spirit of the game.

Christmas Hampers

We hope you will help bring ’Christ into Christmas” and generously donate non -perishable items to our St Vincent de Paul appeal. Baskets are placed in each classroom and in the Front Office.

Romily House

Romily House is a hostel that provides supported accommodation to adults with a severe and persistent mental illness. Each class has approx. 10 large snap lock plastic bags to collect items. If families could join together to fill a plastic with a title Male or Female, each family would only need to bring in a couple of items. These are some suggestions: roll on deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, soap, beanies, socks, moisturiser, other personal items or a little Christmas gift (please note: no razors).

Donations are voluntary, we thank you in anticipation of your kindness and generosity. The last date for collection of items will be Friday 27th November.

Thank you

Mrs Sullivan

We are very proud of the Mini Vinnies team who have raised $500 from their stall at the Art Show. This money was used to purchase $500 of Coles Vouchers, to be donated by St Vincent de Paul, to the local community to make Christmas a little bit brighter to those in need.

This term St Thomas' will be taking part in the sustainable recycling incentive,

'Containers for Change'. Students of the Green Team will be running this as a competition between each class over the course of Term 4, beginning in Week 4.

Containers will be collected in the undercover area in blue buckets and must be rinsed clean before being donated. Only eligible containers are accepted. Your generosity and effort in contributing to this sustainable competition is greatly appreciated.

The Green Team

Last Friday all students in years 1-6 participated in a Judo session run by UWA Sports which was well received by the students and we received positive feedback from the instructors about the children’s behaviour and participation. Well done students.

Great news… UWA Judo are offering a Thursday afternoon session here at St Thomas Primary school starting next week. To register your child please see the attached flyer for all of the information.

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