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.

Loving God

You create all people in your image.

We thank you for the astonishing variety of races and cultures in this world.

Enrich our lives by ever widening circles of friendship

and show us your presence in those who differ most from us,

until our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all your children.

Through your son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

‘Everyone belongs’ is the focus for our Harmony Day celebrations next Thursday 18 March. Starting with prayer and liturgy, students will participate in activities with their buddy classes which include Art, Music, Sport and Literacy through storytelling. A reminder that students may wear cultural dress or something orange on the day.

What is Harmony Week?

Harmony Week is a time to celebrate Australian multiculturalism, and the successful integration of migrants into our community. Australia is one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world and we should celebrate this and work to maintain it. Harmony Week is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background, united by a set of core Australian values.

Did you know?

· Nearly half (49 per cent) of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was.

· We identify with over 300 ancestries.

· Since 1945, more than 7.5 million people have migrated to Australia.

· 85 per cent of Australians agree multiculturalism has been good for Australia.

· Apart from English, the most common languages spoken in Australia are Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, Tagalog/Filipino, Hindi, Spanish and Punjabi.

· More than 70 Indigenous languages are spoken in Australia.

These facts are taken from ABS 2016 Census Data. Check out the Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

Swimming Carnival

It was lovely to see the encouragement and talent of the Years 3-6 students at the Swimming Carnival last Friday. The organisation of the event by Mrs Sharon Seaman, our Physical Education Specialist was exceptional and provided activities for all students on the day. Thanks to the wonderful support of our parents and staff, the smooth running of the event was assured. Please view results in the newsletter below.

Drama Club

It was fascinating to see the engagement by students participating in our Drama Club after school on Tuesdays. Mrs Corinna Herbert, our Music and Performing Arts Specialist, has 35 of our Year 5 & 6 students attending the Club.

Parent teacher Interviews

A reminder that the booking link for parent teacher interviews for Kindergarten to Year 6 has gone live. Please ensure that you select a time to meet with your child’s class teacher on the designated interview day.

May God bless your week

Natalia Thomson

Principal

This year Harmony Day will be celebrated on Thursday 18th of March for Kindy-Year 6. Please note the change of date as previously stated in the newsletter. The day will run from 11am until 2pm.

We invite the children to dress in cultural dress or wear orange.

There will be activities focussing on Art, Music, Sport and Literacy through storytelling. Each activity will be done with our buddy classes.

Please bring recess, lunch and a drink bottle as normal and all children must wear a school hat.

Although all classes offer extension and enrichment within the class, a Gifted and Talented extracurricular program is provided by the school. The Gifted and Talented program at St Thomas’ is called E-Challenge. The E-Challenge class is an enrichment and extension class that incorporates modules with an emphasis on higher order thinking and developing critical and creative thinkers.

Primarily, students are selected through testing. The AGAT (General Ability Test) is based on verbal comprehension, knowledge and understanding using vocabulary, problem solving items of a mathematical kind and verbal reasoning by analogy. The ART (Abstract Reasoning Test) is pattern-based, measuring skills in analysis, interpretation, prediction and sequence identification.

To open it up to as many people as we can, modules in E-Challenge can change each term which allows those children with specific talents to be incorporated ie Night of the Notables is an English based module whereas the Solar Car Challenge is a STEM based module. Modules change from year to year to suit the Gifted and Talented children in Years 4-6. Therefore, the group may change according to the challenge.

There are also competitions such as Tournament of Minds, Brainstorm Challenge, Academic All Stars, Steaming Ahead to name a few.

The team is chosen on:

Test results, in class work, how they think, how they question, have they the ability to work in a team, can they stay on task, do they persevere, have they independent work habits and are they problem solvers.

St Thomas’ recognises reading as an essential skill for students in becoming successful learners and as a foundation for success in all learning areas. Helping your child become a reader is easy! Parents often worry that they are not doing the right thing. However, chances are, you are doing everything right! Just to reassure you, we’ve created a list of tips below:

· Encourage your children to use the pictures. This is not cheating, it’s what good readers do!

· Children learning to read should be encouraged to look at the beginning letters. Not all words can be sounded out, but the first letter is a good clue to help children understand what will and will not make sense.

· Have your child break the words into parts – we call this chunking. They should look for little words/sounds they know inside of big words.

· Read on. Have children skip the word they are stuck on and read to the end of the sentence. When they finish the sentence, ask them what would make sense.

· Give your children vocabulary clues. If they are trying to read a new word, help them make a guess by telling them about the word.

· Matching a book with your child is important. A child who is reading a book that is too hard will easily become frustrated and stop trying.

And, most importantly....read with your child every day, no matter their age. Reading to your child is just as important as having your child read to you!

St Thomas Swimming Carnival 2021

Well done to all of the students in Years 3-6 who participated at the swimming carnival last Friday. Your behaviour was immaculate and it was lovely to see everyone supporting each other and doing their best on the day.

Many thanks to the parents who assisted with the running of the carnival. Without your support these carnivals could not happen.

Congratulations to Gittens who were winning faction and to Forrest winning the Spirit award.

Results:

1st Gittens 1430 points

2nd Sheridan 1279 points

3rd Forrest 1234 points

Below are the results and records that were broken:

Champion Girl

Year 3 Maxine S

Year 4 Emily C

Year 5 Chloe S

Year 6 Erin M

Champion Runner Up

Year 3 Mimi G

Year 4 Lily G

Year 5 Chloe C

Year 6 Sophie C

Champion Boy

Year 3 Levi L

Year 4 Hamish L

Year 5 Jack H

Year 6 Joshua L

Runner Up

Year 3 Hamish C

Year 4 Jett E

Year 5 Jackson D

Year 6 Julius E

Team records

Year 5 Faction Medley Relay – Gittens; Lucas B, Chloe C, Jackson D and Harriet H.

Interschool Swimming Training

Training starts on Thursday 11th March from 7.30 – 8.15am. Parents are to drop and collect their child from Claremont Pool and students need to be picked up by 8.30am as staff have classes to attend to.

It would be beneficial to all students to attend especially those in relay teams attending as this is an important part of the Interschool swimming program.

Training for the Interschool swimming team will be on Thursdays and Fridays up until Thursday 25th March (No training on Friday 26th March). Only Interschool squad members are invited to attend swimming training.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tennis and Cricket carnival – Friday 26th March – Abbett Park Scarborough and Scarborough Tennis Club. We require 2 parents for Cricket and 4 parents for Tennis. If you are available for the day or a small part of the day can you email Sharon.seaman@cewa.edu.au

Interschool Swimming Carnival – Thursday 1st April – HBF Stadium, Spectators $2.60 entry

Mrs Sharon Seaman

Physical Education Teacher

The St Thomas’ School Advisory Council met for the second time in 2021 on 2 March, and for the first time face to face. It was a fantastic opportunity for the new council members to meet the existing members in a face to face environment.

We were delighted to be joined by Mr Greg Ward, our School Improvement Advisor, who led the Council through the 2021 Advisory Council Induction process. During this presentation the Council was informed of the Catholic Education Commission WA’s Strategic Directions for 2019 - 2023. As the Council’s Chair, Susan Swift, mentioned in the last newsletter update, this year we are focussed on assisting Mrs Thomson in reviewing the schools strategic plan, and we will do so in light of CECWA’s strategic direction.

Following the presentation by Mr Ward, the Council discussed a number of key initiatives for the year, and areas of priority focus. In particular, we are encouraged by the engagement with the school community through the upcoming Climate Survey as well as the P&F survey to parents.

We very much look forward to supporting Mrs Thomson and the school’s leadership team on these initiatives.

“Oceans” School Disco

Take a trip under the sea next Friday night – it’s the St Thomas School Disco! Our Year 6 parents and P&F are busy organising a fun night for our children full of music, dancing, fun and games. Thanks to our Year 6 class for choosing our theme!

We rely on parent volunteers to make this event a success – please follow the link if you can assist on the night: https://signup.com/go/moZTyWF

Children are very welcome to dress up in the ocean theme or simply in their favourite disco/party outfit! It is their night so we encourage all children to come in whatever they feel comfortable in.

Shrove Tuesday

To celebrate the commencement of Lent, the P&F provided pancakes on Shrove Tuesday for all children to share with their buddies. It was a fun morning as children descended on the canteen, some even jumping in the kitchen to help cook. A heartfelt thank you to all our wonderful mums and dads who gave up their time to help cook and serve pancakes to all our children. Special thanks to Celeste Hartfield for her assistance with the organisation of the morning and to Coles Floreat for their generous donation of pancake ingredients. A wonderful demonstration of our community supporting each other.

P&F Survey

Today is the last day to complete the P&F Survey. If you are yet to fill it out, please take a few minutes to share your thoughts, feedback and ideas. We value your input.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CNS6BBC

Mother’s Day

To celebrate our wonderful St Thomas mothers, grandmothers and those in our community with a mothering heart, there will be a Mother’s Day Liturgy followed by a Mother’s Day High Tea on the morning of Friday, 7 May 2021. Details to follow.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is at 7pm on Tuesday, 23 March where we will be discussing survey results and confirming our calendar for the year. We hope to see you there.

Warm regards

Bianca Della Vedova

St Thomas P&F President