A warm welcome to all our families for the start of a new school year. I hope you had a wonderful holiday break. It has been so lovely to see our students return to school with smiles. We have enjoyed listening to, and sharing their holiday stories.

New Families & Staff

A warm welcome to all our new Pre-Kindy and Kindy students and their families. We also welcome students and their families, who have joined us in other year levels across the school:

Pre-primary - Elijah;

Year 1- Ben, and Axel;

Year 2-Thomas,

Year 3- Frankie, Ha and Ivy;

Year 4-Joshua, William, Winter and Arielle;

Year 5- Hai;

Year 6- Amelie.

We welcome five new staff:

Mrs Nicola Hurst -Year 2;

Miss Penny Mulholland- Year 4;

Mr Brendan Evans - Year 3;

Miss Jessica Berreteri and Miss Hannah Antulov as Education Assistants.

We pray that your time with us will be rewarding and we look forward to your contribution to our school.

School Values

As a faith community steeped in the charism and values of our founding ‘Presentation Sisters,’ we are reminded to be ‘bearers of light’ in our daily lives through our deeds and words. At St Thomas’ Primary we do this by living out our school values of:

• Inclusivity

• Excellence

• Truth

• Compassion and

• Community

These values will be a focus at our student assemblies throughout the school year.

COVID Update

Over the past two days, we have been made aware of the presence of the COVID virus in three schools in the metropolitan area. As a precaution, we will be limiting events which involve adults gathering in the same area at the same time. Parent Information Meetings scheduled for this evening have been cancelled and class information will be provided via the links in this newsletter. The P & F Sundowner has been postponed and will be rescheduled at a later date. We will continue to monitor the situation and of course let you know of any updates as they occur, that may impact on the school.

Parent Information Meetings

As educators we are ever mindful of the very important role parents play in the education of their children and we value your support in their educational journey. Please take the time to view the information sent to you by classroom teachers in this newsletter to familiarise yourself with the term curriculum overview, classroom routines and protocols.

If you have any concerns or you have any information about your child, please organise a time to speak with your child’s classroom teacher. Please be aware that first thing in the morning is the busiest time for a teacher with all the students arriving. You may wish to make an alternative time to meet.

Parent Class Representatives

The Parent Representatives role builds class community through increasing connections between and with, families and the school. A big thank you to our to representatives for 2022:

Kindy - TBA

Pre-Primary - Jackie Vaughn & Shelly Partridge

Year One - Holly Telford

Year Two - Deliah Cassidy & Sha Ragnauth

Year Three - Irini McGoldrick

Year Four - Holly Toft & Liz Dawson

Year Five - Veronica Edwards & Francesca Perugia

Year Six - Tess Thaung, Celeste Hartfield, Belinda Hammond & Mel Trend

Year 6 Camp
Next Tuesday February 8, students from Year 6 will travel to Jarrahfall Bush Camp in Dwellingup to commence a four-day Leadership Camp. Mrs Gibbs, Mr Godsall, Mr Nankivell and Mrs Vincent will be attending with the students. We look forward to sharing their adventures when they return.

May God bless your week

Natalia Thomson

PRINCIPAL

2022 - Our Challenge

Prior to school beginning this year, all staff took part in planning and preparation days to ensure school is ready, and as 'normal' as possible for students, given current certainty regarding the pandemic. During these days, staff worked with Sr Catherine, one of our Presentation Sisters, regarding the history of the Presentation order and the struggles and sacrifice Venerable Nano Nagle made as she built the Presentation order from scratch. Sr Catherine challenged the staff to go back to the roots of the order, the very reasons Nano Nagle saw a need, and to courageously continue Nano's mission of many years ago, into 2022. We look forward to working with all our St Thomas' community members on living out Nano's vision this year.

Co-Curricular

We have approximately 12 Co-curricular clubs that students can join in 2022. These clubs are interest based and give children the opportunity to interact with other like-minded students who are interested in similar topics of interest. Avenue for structured and unstructured activities exist within these extra programs, directed by teachers and education assistants. For our small school, there is an abundance of big opportunities for every student to take part in. St Thomas’ offer clubs in: MiniVinnies, Green Team, Drama Club, E-Sports, Lego Club, Coding - Years 1-3, Coding - Years 4-6, Runners’ Club, Swimming Training, Chess Club, Movie making, Italian Club. As other opportunities arise, these will be communicated to students and parents. I applaud the extra work staff do in preparing and providing opportunities for students to take part in these clubs. How lucky are our students?!

Year 3 and Year 4 1:1 IPad Program

The Year Three and Year Four iPad program is a parent-owned, school managed model, which has at its core, helping students use digital technology positively and purposefully as part of their learning. We will be offering parent information sessions for Year 3 and 4 this term, largely to help parents with download and use of the JAMF parent app that can help parents manage the device with their child at home.

High Performing Students

At the Morning Gathering on Monday, I spoke to the students about what makes kids perform well versus kids that don't perform as well. While there are an almost infinite list of impacts to children, four themes emerged from recent research out of the United States: adequate sleep (10-12hrs); Adequate exercise (2hrs/day); Adequate nutrition and healthy eating; and goal-setting. In particular, I encourage you to discuss with your child their aspirations for the year ahead, and areas they can further develop from a point of improvement or further enhancement. Progress toward these goals may be discussed at the end of term parent-teacher meetings in Week Ten of this term.

Extra curricular activities

Heath Nankivell

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL