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.

Lord, You send out Your Spirit to touch the hearts of all people,

so that they may believe in You and in Jesus whom You sent.

Look kindly on all candidates for Confirmation as they listen to Your voice. Open their hearts to Your Spirit and bring to fulfilment the good work that You have begun in them.

Deepen our faith in the Gospel and help us to pass it on by our example. We pray that You will continue to guide us and sustain us.

Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Confirmation

On Friday evening, our Year Six candidates will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Confirmation, a sacrament of initiation, establishes young adults as full-fledged members of the faith. During confirmation, the focus is on the Holy Spirit, who confirmed the apostles on Pentecost and gave them the courage to practice their faith. I would like to thank Mrs Gibbs, Miss Corless, Father Wayne, and Sr Catherine for all their work in preparing our candidates.

ARTs Show

It is now three weeks until our bi-annual ARTs Show. Thanks to Mrs Kate Byrne, students have been using their talents to create some inspiring art pieces for the show with the theme, ‘Colours of our southern land.’ Mrs Corinna Herbert has organised a schedule of music and performing arts. Student performances include vocal, instrumental and drama monologues. Classrooms will be open, and parents are encouraged to visit classrooms with their child/children.

· 1.30-2pm Afternoon Tea

Viewing of Art + Student performances

· 2pm Official opening + Choir

· 2.30-3pm Viewing of Art

Student performances

Mini Vinnies Stall in Library

Open classrooms

· 3-4pm. Viewing of Art

Mini Vinnies Stall in Library

Open classrooms

Afternoon tea will be available between 1.30 and 2pm, generously provided by the P & F. Entry to the ARTs Show will be by donation and entry will be via the pedestrian gate on College Road. All families and community members are welcome to attend this event, celebrating children’s art, music, and performance.

On Friday 16 th September, parents and caregivers are invited to attend ‘The Art Show Chin Chin’ featuring a live auction of the class art pieces. Please see flyer below with all the details. Special thanks to the P & F for organising this event.

Catholic Performing Arts Festival

Our students continue to perform with excellence at the Catholic Performing Arts Festival. Over the last two weeks, students have performed in Sacred Choir, drums and vocals. Today our 70+ Choir will perform. We wish all our performers well.

Celebrating Father’s Day

Students will have the opportunity to purchase a gift for Father's Day from our Father's Day Stalls on Monday 29 August and Wednesday 31 August in the undercover area. Information on these stalls can be seen in the flyer below.

Next Friday 2 September, all dads and father figures are welcome to join us at school from 7.45am for coffee and croissants, followed by a liturgy at 8.45am in the school hall to celebrate Father's Day. A big thank you to the P & F for organising this event and to the Pre-primary students for leading us in prayer.

We wish all our dads, Grandads and father figures a wonderful Father’s Day on the 4 September.

May God bless your week

Natalia Thomson

Principal

BOOK WEEK

Well done to all students and teachers for the brilliant participation in our Book Week celebrations. Book Week is an important part of our year, and promoting reading and the enjoyment that books can bring is something we are keen for children to experience. Thank you to Mr Wray for leading Book Week at St Thomas'.

SPEAK UP AWARDS

Congratulations to Louis (Year 4), Hamish (Year 5) and Rory (Year 6), for participating in the Speak Up Interschool public speaking competition, held last week at the Scarborough Masonic Hall. All three students spoke confidently and entertained the audience with their well-prepared speeches. 4 minutes is a long time to speak, maintaining eye-contact with students from other schools, their parents and their teachers can be incredibly intimidating, but the St Thomas' school community can be very proud of the representation these students gave us. Well done Louis, Hamish and Rory.

SCIENCE WEEK

Last week we celebrated Science week at St Thomas’. Quizzes, chatterboxes, word sleuths, and scavenger hunts were all excitedly completed by students across the school. The topic of 'glass' was an interesting focus for us to investigate. Before the end of the term, we will have scientist/s visiting our school to speak to some year levels, as well as hopefully some online meetings with astronomers and scientists doing some incredibly interesting work in the field of Space Sciences.

TOURNAMENT OF MINDS COMPETITION

We wish the three teams involved in the Tournament of Minds competition taking place this weekend at ECU. Students have worked very hard on answering their challenge questions, which they will present to a panel of judges this weekend. They will also be given a 'spontaneous challenge' on the day where the teams need to collaborate to creatively solve the problem and present it to the judging panel. I look forward to communicating how our students went in this competition, in coming newsletters.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING - MONDAY 22 AUGUST

On Monday of this week, all teaching staff participated in a professional learning session, focused on Mathematics - teaching, learning and assessment. It really was fantastic to witness the enthusiasm and high-level discussions staff took part in, while reflecting on our current practice with a future-focus of how we can improve our teaching and learning program to assist students' understanding of Mathematics concepts.

Heath Nankivell

Assistant Principal

The advisory council met in the school library on 9 August 2022. Our meeting commenced with a prayer from Natalia based on the works of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.

We discussed the School Strategic Plan in detail and the very good progress in actioning the 4 pillars of Inspiring Christ-centered leaders, Catholic Schools of Excellence, Catholic Pastoral Communities and Accessible, Affordable and Sustainable System of Schools. We look forward to seeing the outputs of some of these actions in the coming months, and were pleased to learn that the welfare of the teachers is also being addressed (including that staff have enjoyed soup kindly made by Father Wayne and Natalia)!

We also discussed the School Improvement Plan where the focus on student well-being has been the most impactful development. Natalia updated us on upcoming school activities and events, and thanked Heath Nankivell for stepping in as acting principal whilst she was on long service leave.

Bianca Della Vedova updated us on P&F matters, which include some administrative changes required by CEWA on how the P&F will run going forward, the appointment of a new treasurer Sarah Von Bockxmeer and the plans for the Arts Show on 16 September.

On Finances, the school is tracking well against budget and we were delighted to hear that we’ve had 9 new enrolments this term.

Finally, Trish Coniglio and Frank Di Latte from the grounds & maintenance committee informed us that the sliding doors in the assembly hall are now installed and working well.

Peter Lorbeer on behalf of the Advisory Council

St Thomas Athletics Carnival - Thursday 8th September at UWA Sports Ground, McGillivray oval.

Information has been provided in the permission note sent out via email.

All forms are due Tomorrow for all year group PP-6 Friday 26th August. Please ensure you have filled in the permission form so your child can attend.

Jumps and Throws for Years 1-6

Wednesday 31st August – Years 3-6 Jumps and/or throws depending on weather

Thursday 1st September – Years 3-6 Jumps and/or throws depending on weather, during class time

Thursday 25th Aug (change of day) August and Friday 2nd September - Years 1 and 2 Jumps and/or throws depending on weather, during class time

The student points will count towards champion points and calculated together at the St Thomas Athletics carnival. Champion points are for all runs, throws and jumps, not relays or novelty games.

Please note: If your child is ill, injured, or in a representative team for the jumps and throws days, I will try to ensure they have an opportunity to complete their jumps and throws prior to the carnival.

Parents, if you know you have a planned absence, can you please inform Mrs Seaman via email Sharon.seaman@cewa.edu.au

Tuesday 20th September – Interschool Athletics Carnival – HBF Athletics Stadium

Selected years 3-6 students will be representing the school.

Interschool Selection for Years 3 – 6:

100m and 200m First 5 places,

400m First 2 places, 3rd place is reserve TBC

Circular Relay 4 x 100m First 4 places, 5th place is reserve TBC

Long Jump First 2 places, 3rd place is reserve TBC

Ball Throw / Turbo Javelin First 2 places, 3rd place is reserve TBC

Training for these events will either take place before school at Rowe Park at 8am or Thursday afternoon, on the school oval.

While not compulsory, it would be wonderful if all children selected could attend the sessions for their event/s.

Training Schedule:

RUNNING CLUB

Running club is up and running during Term 3. Dates are as follows: Friday 2nd Sept

Attendance is not compulsory and everyone is welcome to join in, including parents running the course.

Don’t forget your drink bottle and your asthma puffer if you need one.

TBC - Friday 9th & 16th September Rowe Park - Relays

Thursday 15th September Afterschool until 4pm - Throws and Jumps

Parents are to ensure they are supervising their child/children at Rowe Park until a staff member arrives. Please do not drop off and leave the child/children unattended prior to 8am.

If the weather is poor, I will send a cancellation email out in the morning.

Sharon Seaman

Physical Education Specialist Teacher

The St Thomas Dad's Camp Out is back!

All St Thomas dads and father figures are warmly invited to this year's Camp Out. An overnight adventure full of fun, mateship and trying new things with your kids in the great outdoors!

When: Saturday 29 October - Sunday 30 October 2022

Where: The Jarrahfall Bush Camp & Dare Adventures Team, Dwellingup

Please secure your tickets via https://www.trybooking.com/BYDSF

A friendly reminder that if your child is not returning to St Thomas' Primary School for the 2023 school year, then a Student Departure Form must be completed giving one full terms notice (not applicable to Y6). This means we need to receive this form by the end of this current term (Friday 23 September). 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: admin@stthomas.wa.edu.au.

Thank you.

It is vitally important that parents and caregivers inform the school if your child tests positive for COVID-19. Parents and caregivers can inform the school of their child’s positive or negative COVID result via this LINK.

A friendly reminder to also register your positive RAT result to the WA Health RAT Register on this LINK

Thank you

Instrumental music lessons are available at St Thomas' Primary. Children can learn voice, keyboard, piano, violin, drums, guitar and flute. Please contact the school office for a music form if your child is interested.