TERM 4 - WEEK 1

Front Cover - Rec Zolotovs and Appelbee

For the start of our term, the reception students in R/A and R/Z have been engaging in morning investigations. We have been deepening our understanding of our current learning intentions through play-based learning. Some areas we have been learning about are, place value, tricky words, sentence structures, counting strategies and problem-solving through sensory activities.

Leadership

Dear Parents, Caregivers, Students and friends of St Thomas More,

Welcome to the final term of the year which, once again, will be busy with all of the activities that make St Thomas More the place that it is. We hope that during this final term of the 2021 academic year, we continue to be a Catholic community of welcome, connecting faith, family and education, and a school that encourages and supports our young people to achieve their personal best. Term 4 will also be the final term of primary schooling for our Year 6 students.

Catholic Schools' Music Festival

The Catholic Schools Music Festival is held annually at the end of Term 3. On Tuesday 21^st September, our choir students joined a 400 voiced mass choir representing a range of Catholic schools across South Australia at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. The students were well prepared by Megan Pollard, our Creative Arts and Choir teacher, for the wonderful opportunity to perform in a professional setting. We are most grateful for Megan’s tireless efforts in preparing the students, which resulted in an amazing and uplifting performance. Congratulations Jacinta, Tilea, Nazaneen, Grace, Ellaouise, Maliyah and Charlotte for your great commitment and dedication to our school choir and for your outstanding representation of St Thomas More School. A big thank you also to all parents and caregivers for your support.

Sports Carnivals

Last term many of our Year 3- 6 students participated in various sports carnivals including Football, Cross Country and T-Ball. These experiences provide the students with opportunities to shine outside their classroom environments and their enthusiasm and participation were simply outstanding. A very big thank you to Fabian Chevalier for his dedicated work in planning and coordinating these events and to the staff for their support. Without the assistance of volunteers, these events would not be possible so our sincere thanks to you all for your time and efforts. We look forward to the upcoming Tennis and Athletics Carnivals.

NAPLAN 2021

We have received the NAPLAN results for 2021 and individual student reports have been sent home. We are currently in the process of analysing the school’s performance as well as that of individual students. We have identified strengths for our Year 3 and 5 students and are closely analysing areas for growth that will inform future planning. At St Thomas More school, we recognise that NAPLAN is only one form of Literacy and Numeracy assessment and believe it is vital that we also consider each student's learning individually. We value the analyses of rich classroom assessment data collected and collated throughout the learning cycle and in doing so, we ensure that we provide students with every opportunity to demonstrate understandings and knowledge in a variety of ways.

Staffing

Mrs. Raelene Smith will be on Long Service Leave from Monday 11 October to Monday 15 November. We wish Raelene a safe and relaxing break.

2022 Class Placements

Staff have begun to plan for next year which includes class allocation for students. Our views on class placement are relatively simple and are premised on the following principles:

The child’s needs come first.

These needs include:

• Social - maximising each child’s potential to be happy and have positive self-esteem is essential. Consequently there may be reasons for ensuring that certain children are, or are not, placed in the same class.
• Educational - different children have different learning styles and needs.
• Other considerations might include whether children have already had certain teachers, the mix of learning needs in a class, etc.

The ultimate responsibility for assigning class placement rests with the school.

The staff spends much time considering the social, peer group and learning needs of the children and, within the practical constraints of numbers of children, numbers of teachers, etc, will allocate children to specific classes.

Parents are welcome to write to me regarding particular learning needs or particular social and peer group needs your child may have. I am not prepared to consider requests for individual teachers. All correspondence regarding information for 2021 class placements should be addressed to me and be received by Monday 18 October, 2021.

Getting the most out of school

Within each class, teachers work in partnership with families to develop in students specific social skills so that each student has the opportunity to maximise their learning. There are five foundations that support this success. They are Confidence, Persistence, Organisation, Resilience and Getting Along. Research has shown that each student’s positive attitude to learning enhances their achievements and rate of learning.

Students need to be able to:

• Be confident in beginning new work or continuing with difficult work
• Be persistent to complete all tasks
• Be organised to manage their classwork and homework
• Get along and work cooperatively with others by managing conflict and following important school rules
• Be resilient to bounce back and keep issues in perspective.

Each of these key skills needs to be reinforced equally at home and at school.

School drop-offs

A reminder that school gates open at 8.30am each morning. There is no supervision of students prior to this time. To ensure the safety of everyone please drop your children off at school from 8.30am onwards. Your support with this matter is greatly appreciated.

School Uniform

Please make arrangements to ensure your child is prepared to wear the correct uniform in Term 4 and beyond.

A list of St Thomas More School’s uniform requirements is available from the Front Office if you have any concerns.

St Thomas More School uniform items can be ordered and paid for using the St Thomas More School QKR app. Ordered items will be either be left at the school front office for you to pick up or we will have them delivered to your child’s classroom.

School Hats

During Term 4, hats will again become compulsory for all playtimes and learning activities outdoors for all children and staff. No Hat - No Play will apply to children not wearing a hat for playtimes and they will also have to be under shelter or in the shade during outside activities.  

2022 RECEPTION ENROLMENTS

Places are available. If you have or if you know of anyone who has a child turning 5 before May 1, 2022, please complete and lodge an enrolment form at the Front Office.

2022 TERM 3 RECEPTION ENROLMENTS

Places are available. If you have or if you know of anyone who has a child turning 5 before October 31, 2022, please complete and lodge an enrolment form at the Front Office.

END OF TERM ARRANGEMENTS

End of School Year – (Year 6 students) – Monday 6 December 2021 at 1.30 pm

End of School Year – (Reception to Year 5 students) – Wednesday 8 December 2021 at 2.30 pm

Working in Partnership,

Chris Platten, Vicki Rubino, Leah Williams, Melissa Musolino

Religion

Mercy Day

At the end of term 3, we celebrated Mercy Day. ‘Living Mercy with our Head, Heart and Hands’ was the theme of our Liturgy and buddy class activities. During the Liturgy, we reflected on the life of Catherine McAuley and the Sisters of Mercy who continue her work today. Students worked as buddies to engage in a variety of activities that explored how to ’live mercy’ reflecting on the following:

As merciful people we consider others in our thinking when we…

As merciful people we consider others in our hearts when we…

As merciful people we consider others in with our hands when we…

Students were also invited to wear casual clothes on the last day of school bringing a gold coin donation. Money raised from this day will go to support Catherine House.

Catherine House offers crisis, longer-term accommodation and support services for women experiencing homelessness in South Australia. Catherine House Inc. was founded in 1988, by the Sisters of Mercy to address an unmet need for women experiencing homelessness in Adelaide.

Money collected from our Casual Clothes day will be used to put together emergency kits for women at Catherine House. These kits will include toothpaste, toothbrush and a toothbrush holder. Students also designed artworks to go on the gift bags.

mmusolino@sttmore.catholic.edu.au

Tarnanthi Festival

On Sunday, October 11, Sienna and Connor Watts’ mum, Yamatji/Noongar woman Sasha, was a part of the Tarnanthi Festival, with the theme of ‘My Country, My Identity’. 

My Country, My Identity speaks to Sasha Hill’s reciprocal and interdependent relationship between herself and her Country. ‘Caring for and healing Country starts with my own journey into knowing my self-identity and caring for myself and my family. Country for me is both a place of belonging and the knowledge that I belong’, says Sasha, a Yamatji/Noongar woman living in Kaurna Country.

In this exhibition, she shares aspects of Country through paintings that express songlines and ancestral stories, artifacts and weavings. It also includes clapsticks carved by her father and painted by her, and works by her children as they learn connections to Country and identity through art.’ 

This incredible exhibition displayed 60 artworks produced by Sasha, as well as Connor and Sienna, with Connor even selling one of his pieces! 

The incredible detail and effort placed into each artwork were astounding. Sasha is so very talented and an inspiration to many. We congratulate Sasha on a wonderful and successful exhibition.

School Holiday Fun

We had such an amazing and exciting time these past school holidays at OSHC. Children jumped, climbed and stretched their way through the Tea Tree Gully Gymsports, had a Teddy Bear’s Picnic at Fremont Park, participated in a Trash and Treasure day where children swapped preloved toys, tested their knowledge and skills in an escape room challenge, created natural bath products and participated in a range of imaginative play, crafts and games!

Holidays in OSHC

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Year 5/6 Compassion Project

OLSH - 70 Years Celebration

COVID - Check-in

Elizabeth Community Connections

Playgroup and ELY

Canteen Specials

Out of School Hours Care

Daily: 6:30am to 8:45am and 3:00pm to 6:00pm       Wednesday: 2:30pm to 6:00pm

School Access

8:30am to 8:50am

Access via the main front courtyard gate at the school crossing.

8:50am to 2:45pm

Access via green front pool gate in front of the administration building. You will need to lift the pool gate lock at the top of the gate to open and please ensure the gate is closed securely.

2:45pm to 3:15pm

Access via the main front courtyard gate at the school crossing.

Children dropped off before 8:30am and not collected by 3:15pm will be sent to OSHC and caregivers will be invoiced for the service.

School Banking

School Banking at our school is on Wednesdays.

For every deposit made at school, students will receive a silver Dollarmites token. Once students have individually collected 10 tokens they can redeem them for an exclusive School Banking reward item in recognition of their regular savings habits.

School Banking is also a great fundraiser for our school. Our school receives a Regular Savers             Contribution of $5 for every 10 deposits processed per student as well as an Annual Contribution which is based on the number of students who made at least one School Banking deposit in the prior year.

If your child has lost their book, please contact your School Banking Co-ordinator for a replacement or visit any CommBank Branch.

If you would like to know more about School Banking, please ask for a 2020 School Banking program information pack from the school office or visit www.commbank.com.au/sbc

Advance Notice

Every Tuesday

Parent Coffee/Tea chat 8:30am in Jubilee Hall - Postponed

ECC Playgroup 9:15am to 11:15am

Principal's Tour (first Tuesday of the month) 10:00am - By appointment only

Every Wednesday

ECC Early Learning Years (ELY) 9:15am to 11:15am

School Banking

October 16 

World Food Day

October 18

Catholic Schools Tennis Carnival

October 22 - 30

National Children's Week

October 26

Class Mass

Walktober Month

Raising Hearts and Minds