Last weekend’s Gospel and readings revolved around the central theme of love, and there is nothing more important! Jesus asks us to love others the way he has loved and continues to love us. We are invited to enter into the love of Jesus and his Father, and to give it expression in our own lives. Genuine love is an unselfish gift. It can easily be expressed with a few words by saying I love you, however, I believe that love expresses itself in actions more so than words. We must never underestimate the impact of acts of kindness and service on others. Acts of love and sacrifice can make a huge difference to a person, a difference that we may well never know about. This in itself is perfect, as acts of kindness are not completed to receive accolades for. I encourage you to reach out to others in need of your love. When you do, your children come to know firsthand what it means to love one another as Jesus has loved us.

This week, our Year 3 and Year 5 students sat the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). NAPLAN tests the types of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. The tests cover skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy. I commend our students for the manner in which they tackled each assessment. Everyone paced themselves, used their time wisely and tried their hardest. Well done Years 3 and 5.  Thank you to Mrs Preddey for facilitating all the tests for the students.

I trust that all of our Mums and significant females had a wonderful Mother’s Day last Sunday. I’d like to thank the team of ladies who took time out of their busy schedules to organise and run the Mother’s Day stall last Thursday: Gabbi Armstrong, Kristie Swann, Ashley Fuller, Geraldine Arnold, Helen Kettlewell, Lidia Georges, Danielle Spence, Julia Holbrook, Leonie Cutroni, Sarah Young and Heidi Searle-Aalto. Our students definitely enjoyed having the opportunity to purchase something special to take home. Thank you.

Year 1 Excursion

The Year 1 students visited Symbio Wildlife Park today and from all accounts have had a wonderful time on their first school excursion.  There will be some tired students tonight - and teachers!  Thank you Mrs Archbold, Ms Young, Mrs Gould and Mrs van den Haak for accompanying the children.

I wish you a wonderful week ahead.

Mrs Jo Robinson
Acting Principal

CatholicCare

To celebrate National Families Week CatholicCare is running a five-part webinar series to celebrate family and make the most out of family life. Each webinar will have a different focus. 

Family Resilience

Understand what a resilient person and family looks like, and how you can build resilience within yourself and your family.

Family Values

Understand what values are and why they are important. By identifying our family values we can better understand and connect.

Family Connection

With our lives so busy we can struggle to keep connections within our family, learn why connection is important and how to sustain or build family connections

Family Self-Care

Learn why self-care is so important and how looking after ourselves, has a flow-on effect on the whole family.

Family Mindfulness

Learn what mindfulness is and the benefits it provides, not just for ourselves, but also the benefit it has on our family.

See the link here to register: https://dowcatholic.zoom.us/webinar/register/6016202622065/WN_GZrZMh1VQJaNNlkTsRaBOA

Why confirm?

As the name implies, the Sacrament of Confirmation confirms or strengthens thenew life received at Baptism. Symbolically, the bishop or priest makes the sign of the cross on the forehead using an oil called chrism. As he does so he says, ‘(Name), be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.’

Although the Holy Spirit is received at baptism, Confirmation focuses on this gift by recalling the promise of Jesus to send the Spirit. Having been baptised as a baby and raised in the Christian life, the youth is now called upon to make a more mature commitment to the Gospel.

Please pray for our students and their parents preparing for Confirmation.

At St Thomas Aquinas we have three very important school rules.   

Safe and Respectful Play Everyday

At St Thomas Aquinas school we all have the right to feel safe and respected when we are playing during break time. When we are playing safely and respectfully, we are making sure that our words and actions are keeping ourselves and others safe and respected at all times.  

Bringing Toys To School

In recent times students have been bringing toys such as Pokemon cards and marbles to school.  This had been going well, with students initially playing the marble game and looking at each other's cards.  Students have been repeatedly reminded about the rule of NO TRADING, however, in the past few days students have been trading their toys.  Today trading for money occurred, which is not acceptable at school. 

As a result of this, small toys such as Pokemon cards and marbles are no longer able to be brought to school.  All students were informed of this at today's whole school assembly.

We thank you for your co-operation in this matter.

Remember to follow the STA rules during play.

Stay Safe and 

Act Respectfully every single day.

Athletics Carnival

Weather permitting, the STA Athletics Carnival will take place next Friday 21 May at Chevalier College (Eridge Park Road side of the campus).    

All students from K - Yr 6 will be participating on the day.  Parents need to give permission for their child/ren to attend via the Compass app.  Students will be transported to and from Chevalier by bus.  There will be a mobile coffee van available for parents and staff to use – students are not permitted to use this facility.  Dogs are not permitted at the event.

If you wish to take your child home from the carnival, please let their teacher know before you leave the grounds.

School Fees

Due to several excursions, etc not going ahead this year, fee credits for every student have been processed and should be reflected in your school fee account.  If you have any questions please speak with Shauna in the office.

Fees for 2022 will be billed at the beginning of January and are due 28 days later.  If you wish to pay by instalments please complete the form which was sent out via Compass this week.

STA Uniform Shop

We have quite a lot of second-hand uniforms for sale in the P & F Uniform Shop @ $2 per item. The money raised from these sales will be donated to St Vincent de Paul at the end of the year. 

for 2nd hand items.  DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED.