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, as we begin a new term

Make us ready, attentive and available to hear you.

Thank You for the gift of being able to rise each day

With the assurance that You walk through it with us.

Thank You for the gifts of creativity and uniqueness,

And the energy to put them to good use.

May all that we are today, all tht we try to do today,

May all our encounters, reflections, be placed in your hands.

May the work we do and the way we do it, bring new hope, new life,

And courage to all we come in contact with this term.

We make this prayer through Christ Our Lord,

Amen.

As a new term begins, it is important to focus on the setting of high standards and expectations for our students. Please assist our staff by reinforcing uniform standards, homework practices and the way students work with others at school. Thank you to all parents and families for ensuring students were prepared in their summer uniforms, wearing them correctly and proudly for the start of the term.

New families

We welcome several new families to St Thomas’ this term. Bryson in Pre Primary, Archer in Pre Kindy, Ayla & Martin in Y2, Kyle in Y3 and Ignacia in Y4. We know you will join with us to make them all feel welcomed.

Marketing at St Thomas’

The St Thomas’ Marketing Team consisting of Danah Dunkeld, Saeed Heidari, Penny Mulholland, Nicola MacDonald, Heath Nankivell and myself, recently met to identify target and key messages for our school marketing campaign. At our recent meeting, our social media champions Mrs MacDonald and Miss Mulholland, were excited to share the impact that social media has on sharing our school profile locally, nationally, and internationally. Key target messages that will be used in marketing for 2022/2023 include ‘small school, big opportunities’ and ‘excellence.’ Our school-managed social media pages are a great way to keep up to date with the happenings and celebrations in our school. Search for ‘St Thomas’ Primary School Claremont’ on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and ‘like’ our page to continue to build the profile of our school.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Thank you for taking the opportunity to meet with your child’s class teacher last week to discuss your child’s progress. We invite you to provide feedback on the process by completing the form on this link.

Year 5 Camp

A big thank you to Mr Godsall for organising the Year 5 Camp to the Perth Zoo. I am looking forward to reading some of the animal reports written by the students and talk to them about their exciting adventures. Thank you also to Mrs Gibbs, Miss Lee and Mrs Vincent who supervised at camp and to all our Year 5 parents for their support.

Year 3 Sacrament of Penance

We keep the Year 3 students in our prayers this week as they prepare to receive the Sacrament of Penance (Reconciliation). This is a very important time in their lives, and I know the students are indeed looking forward to taking this next step in the sacramental journey. Many thanks to Fr Wayne, Sr Catherine and Mrs Caelli, for preparing our students for this Sacrament.

Interschool Swimming Carnival

Our Interschool Swimming Team has been busy training before school with Mrs Seaman in preparation for Interschool Carnival on Monday. We wish all our competitors the very best and hope they enjoy the day.

Royal Show Parking

A huge thank you to Mrs Gibbs and our Year 6 students and parents who raised substantial funds through show parking in the school holidays. It was lovely to see the maturity of our Year 6 students as they took on the role of welcoming and assisting members of the community with parking.

From my readings

Research shows that making sleep a priority is important for parents who want their children to succeed in school. Recently staff have noticed that many students are returning to school on Monday after the weekend tired. Sleep experts say that a lack of sleep reduces cognitive abilities and impairs school performance. Sleep needs vary by age. For school age children aged 6-12 years the National Sleep Foundation recommends 9-11 total hours of sleep per day.

We ask for your support in ensuring that your child arrives at school each Monday morning refreshed and ready to learn. More information can be sourced on this topic in the article ‘Improve your child’s school performance with a good nights sleep.’

St Thomas’ 2022 School Campout

Next weekend is the St Thomas’ School Campout in Dwellingup. A big thank you to Joep Vaessen and the wonderful team of organisers. We wish all of our families a safe and enjoyable weekend.

God bless

Natalia Thomson

Principal

Swimming Lessons

In weeks seven and eight of this term, all students in Pre-primary to Year Six will take part in Swimming lessons. Rare Indigo is the company St Thomas' has engaged to deliver these lessons, for a number years. Specific details of the lessons and the logistics of the days will be communicated to parents through classroom teachers, specifically discussing travel, clothing and other instructions. An enrolment form will be distributed early next week for parents to communicate to Rare Indigo a 'grading scale' to assist with correct placement in swimming stages. If you have any queries, please contact me.

Sci-Tech Challenge Day

Eight students from Year Six took part in the SciTech Challenge day on Thursday 20 October. Students used creativity, collaboration and critical thinking to solve various challenges including the creation of a 'pod' for an astronaut to safely land on earth with the fewest amount of 'G force'. With ratings measured at 0.99G and 0.33G, (standard rollercoasters being measured around 5G and walking being 1G) the students' 'pods' achieved the desired result. Identification of a meteorite as well as solving challenges to correctly identify a star from a star map of approximately 50, were also highlights, however the 'plasma blaster' was no doubt the highlight! A huge congratulations for 'Team Billy' for winning this interschool competition against 8 other schools. A huge achievement. Congratulations to both St Thomas' teams, and to all students involved!

Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum (KS:CPC)

St Thomas’, along with all other Australian schools, teaches a child protection curriculum. Complementing the Keeping Safe curriculum is our Social-Emotional program, 'Highway Heroes'. The KS:CPC teaches children and young people to stay safe. This includes developmentally appropriate protective behaviours that children can adopt, safe and unsafe touch, recognising abuse, identifying and talking with a trusted adult, and other ways of keeping themselves safe or finding help when they need it.

The curriculum is based on two main themes which are presented through topics and activities.

- Theme 1: We all have the right to be safe

- Theme 2: We can help ourselves to be safe by talking to people we trust.

The two themes are explored through four Focus Areas, which are examined in growing complexity in accordance with the age of the learners.

- The right to be safe

- Relationships

- Recognising and reporting abuse

- Protective strategies.

More information can be found on the KS:CPC website: http://kscpc.2.vu/DE_ParentsCarers.

HIGHWAY HEROES

All year levels cover Highway Heroes (or Little Highway Heroes) concepts. As a school we are currently covering Module 2: Connecting 4 Friendship; Playground Resilience and Wisdom. Module 2 teaches a child how to make and keep friends along the Social Highway of life. Not every child is a social butterfly and is able to make friends with ease and not every child knows how to grow their friendship base and then to sort out the to-be-expected friendship bumps along that journey.

Childhood friendships are relationships that form the templates of how to manage a range of social situations throughout life. Knowing how to make a friend and to join in is an essential skill for every child – one that they’re going to need throughout their primary school years and beyond. This Modules engages children in learning about how their internal representation of their social world impacts their behaviours and provides multiple opportunities to actively practise skills that increase their friendliness, social acceptance and ability to manage friendships that are sometimes difficult.

Arts Show - A celebration of Community + Creativity

What a wonderful Arts Show to finish Term 3 – a true celebration of our children’s creativity and artistry, and our School community. Thank you to the many parents and grandparents who joined the P&F for afternoon tea, and for those who attended our Arts Show Chin Chin. A fun night was had by all as parents caught up over champagne and canapes and celebrated this year’s Arts Show.

We are delighted to share that $8,919 was raised at this year’s Arts Show which will be used to purchase blackout performing arts curtains for our School Hall. These will be a valuable asset to all students as the Hall will be able to readily transform for assemblies, arts performances and of course, the kids’ favourite … the School Disco!

THANK YOU

An ENORMOUS thank you to the many parents who so generously volunteered their time to assist at this year’s Arts Show. Whether it was assisting with a collaborative piece, sourcing materials and props, mounting art, setting up the art exhibition, packing down, serving the afternoon tea or the many other countless tasks involved, THANK YOU! Thank you to David Lynch from Peard Real Estate and Mrs Sue Vincent for conducting a very entertaining and colourful auction, and a big thank you to the incredible P&F Exec, Mel Di Latte, Carin Penberthy and Sarah van Bockxmeer for your continued extraordinary efforts with the Arts Show, the Afternoon Tea and Chin Chin.

P&F Investments

The P&F is committed to actively investing its funds into initiatives that are important to our School and benefit our children. At this week’s P&F Meeting, the following investments were approved:

- $20,000 contribution towards the renovation of the Early Years Playground area proposed for 2023;

- $5,000 contribution to the School Library which will include the purchase of new library books, resources and furniture; and

- $1,000 allocation to the 2022 Christmas Concert (licensing of music/script, decorations, extension cords and hire of microphone headsets).

We are excited about the positive impact these investments will have for our children and our School.

Warm regards

Bianca Della Vedova

P&F President

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.