TERM 3 - WEEK 1
Welcome Back
I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday. The students appear relaxed and excited to be back at school and it was great to hear some of their holiday stories. Holidays are always a great opportunity for everyone to recharge their batteries and Term 3 looks like being a very exciting and busy term!
A special welcome to new students and their families at St Thomas More School. We hope their association at St Thomas More School will be rewarding and an enjoyable experience in our school/parish community.
Front Cover - Vacation Care
During the school holidays, children and staff at OSHC had an incredible time!
We visited mega Courts, where we played indoor sports, battled in laser tag and bounced around on their many jumpy castles. We also had a tour through the Museum of South Australia where we participated in a Lego scavenger hunt and did some awesome roller skating in Gawler.
OSHC turned into a huge winter-themed carnival with inflatable games, a jumpy castle and an obstacle course, we had fresh hot popcorn and face painting! The children also loved our ‘YES DAY’ where they could challenge or dare educators and had pizza for lunch. With all of the excitement over the two weeks, it was nice to finish up with a pyjama and technology day.
Come along next time and join in the fun!
Vacation Care Gallery
Leadership
Dear Parents, Caregivers, Students and friends of St Thomas More,
Staffing News
Congratulations and welcome to Miss Natasha Trestrail (Reception teacher), Mr. Jay O’Leary (Yr. 5/6 teacher) and Mrs. Irene Martin (Yr. 4/5 teacher). Please also welcome Anthony Filpi, who has replaced Sue Dixon as our School Bursar and Mr. Bruce Hutchings. Bruce has been appointed to St Thomas More and St Mary Magdalene’s Schools as our IT consultant from CESA.
As I have shared previously, I will be taking Long Service Leave from 8 August 2022 to 28 August 2022. Peter Mercer will be Acting Principal at St Thomas More School and St Mary Magdalene’s School during this period.
COVID-19
With this new variant of COVID-19 across Australia, again, we are all in a time of change, a need for flexibility and at times, uncertainty, with state and system-wide changes that have and will continue to impact us all. While there will be challenges ahead, it remains important that we still do our very best and keep our core business at the heart of what we do and make it a positive experience for ourselves and our students and recognise the importance of providing quality education and care for our children and students while minimising the risk of COVID-19 transmission. We ask you to please refer to the SA Health website: https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/
First Semester Reports
Last Term, teachers were busy writing reports that are evidence-based and capture the entire learning achieved by your child/ren during their first semester of school this year. We had the pleasure of reading each child’s report and gaining a greater understanding of their growth and development.
One of the areas we take particular note of is a child’s efforts. Children receive a grade for achievement and for ‘application to learning’ (effort). This grade is provided for each subject area and compliments the ‘Achievement' grade, informing you about how your child has applied themselves and given effort in their learning. At St Thomas More School our staff continually reinforces to students to ‘Strive for Excellence’ which highlights the importance of trying their best, regardless of their knowledge or interest level in a particular subject area.
I’d like to thank our teachers for their efforts in writing these reports and hope you have celebrated your child’s/children’s achievements and have talked to them about the importance of setting personal learning goals for the remainder of the year.
Student Punctuality and Attendance
When children begin school, they develop learning habits. These learning habits continue to develop throughout each learning year and these habits can affect learning achievements. Two important habits and life skills are attendance and punctuality. Very few people can argue with the correlation between attendance and school achievement. There is empirical evidence at a state, national and international level to prove that this relationship is true but, closer to home, our own achievement data and student report information clearly demonstrate that, as a general rule, the more time students spend at school, the better they will do.
We need to maximise every day to get full value – this means turning up to school every day and on time. When students arrive late and take time to settle, valuable learning time is lost. When students are absent from school, they miss work (which they seldom make up) and miss important interactions with their peers.
It is now commonplace for children to stay away from school for reasons that would have been unheard of 20 years ago. These include:
- Their own or a sibling’s birthday
- Stayed up too late watching TV
- Going shopping for clothes
- An extended long weekend
- Not wishing to participate in a sports day, special school event or excursion
This sends a strong message to children that their parents neither value learning nor the school experiences. It is difficult to resist the persistent pressure that children can exert on parents, but parents need to be strong and send their children to school every day, on time and ready to make the most of school experiences.
In conclusion, it is reassuring to know that parents increase their children’s chances of future success just by making sure they turn up to school every day. This important habit and regular school attendance also prepares young people for the workforce where it is expected that they turn up each day ready for work! Absentee notification – please ring the front office by 9.00 am.
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.
2023 RECEPTION ENROLMENTS
Places are available. If you have or if you know of anyone who has a child turning 5 before May 1, 2023, 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, 2023, please complete and lodge an enrolment form at the Front Office.
Working in Partnership,
Leadership Team
Religion
The Liturgical Year of the Church
This week we celebrated the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene. Her Feast Day is held on July 22. Mary Magdalene is a significant woman who is mentioned many times in the Gospels. She was one of the people who had the courage to stay with Jesus at the foot of the cross at the crucifixion. She was the first witness to the Resurrection and was given the role of telling the apostles that Jesus had risen. She was brave and courageous and filled with faith. She was a special friend of Jesus and she travelled with him listening and learning about what it means to bring God’s promise to the world. In 2016, Pope Francis recognised the significance of Mary Magdalene’s role as the first to witness the resurrection and elevated her memorial acknowledgement to that of a feast on the church’s liturgical calendar.
We pray…
Loving God, through the joyful words of Mary Magdalene, you bring the good news of your love to all the peoples of the earth. Strengthen us to carry that good news in our lives, in our hearts, and in our words. Amen
Sacrament Program 2022
Confirmation Session for Parents and Candidates
Saturday, August 27 - Term 3 Week 5
St. Thomas More Church 9.00am – 11.00am
Practice for Confirmation
Saturday, Sept 3 - Term 3 Week 6
St. Ann’s Church 10.00am – 11.00am
Celebration of Confirmation
Wednesday, Sept 7 - Term 3 Week 7
St. Ann’s Church 7.00pm – 8.00pm
Celebration of First Eucharist
Saturday, Sept 10 - Term 3 Week 7
St. Thomas More Church 6.00pm – 7.00pm
OR
Sunday, Sept 11 - Term 3 Week 8
St. Thomas More Church 10.00am – 11.00am
Bringing Up Great Kids
Library
Tri-Wizards Cup
During terms 1 and 2, 4/5 Williams, 5/6 Warren and 5/6 Morrison were competing for the Tri-Wizards Cup during their library lessons. Classes were sorted into teams in their first lesson with the 4 house cards put into a hat and then picked out one at a time. Once the teams were organised, they were ready to go!
Each week the students learned different information about the library books and resources and were given tasks to complete that earnt their team's points. These consisted of quizzes, scavenger hunts, sorting and using buzzers to answer questions like in a game show.
In each lesson, the teams earnt points by how well they completed the tasks, how well they worked together as a team and how respectful we were in the library.
In week 8 of last term, as a celebration of all their hard work, the teams made their own edible sorting hats. Using a biscuit as the base, icing sugar and an ice-cream cone - oh, and lots of M&M’s which were hidden under the hat.
Here are some photos of their creations.
Sorting Hats
In the last week, the teams were given a quiz to test their knowledge and finalize the points to see who will be the cup winner. We had an assembly with the whole school for the announcement. The three finalist teams were, 5/6 Morrison Ravenclaw, 5/6 Warren Gryffindor and 4/5 Williams Gryffindor.
The winning team was . . .
Congratulations to all participating students on a great semester of library lessons.
Ms. Swann
Library Co-ordinator
Installing SZapp
Please click on the link below for instructions on how to install SZapp on Apple and Android products.
Canteen
Playgroup and ELY
Postponed until further notice
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.
Advance Notice
Every Tuesday
Parent Coffee/Tea chat 8:30am in Jubilee Hall - Postponed
ECC Playgroup 9:15am to 11:15am - Postponed
Principal's Tour (first Tuesday of the month) 10:00am - By appointment only
Every Wednesday
Early Learning Years (ELY) 9:15am to 11:15am - Postponed
July 30
International Day of Friendship
July 31
National Tree Day
August 1 -7
National Landcare Week
August 4
National Aboriginal and Islander Children's Day (NATICD)
August 6
The Feast of The Transfiguration
August 8
The Feast of St. Mary of the Cross Mackillop
August 12
International Youth Day
August 13 - 21
National Science Week
20-26 August
Book Week
Raising Hearts and Minds
