5/6 Camp

Our 5/6 teachers Gwen Tarleton and Karen Tozer, Julie Ogden and I are currently in Stanwell Tops for our 5/6 Camp. We are so pleased that the students were given the opportunity to attend camp, particularly with measures put in place at the start of this term. The camp is an opportunity for our students to push themselves out of their comfort zone, come together as a team and discuss their future leadership potential both in transition to high school and moving into Year 6. We look forward to sharing photos of our trip next week.

Public Holiday 22 September

In line with the announcement from our Prime Minister, the school will be closed next Thursday 22 September for the Queen's Memorial Public Holiday. We understand that this may have an impact on your family's decision to commence the school holidays earlier or have a longer weekend. If you do not intend to send your child/ren to school on Friday 23 September we would ask you to complete the following Google Form for planning. purposes: https://forms.gle/AuHg9AFZGkx4SCpr8

Semester Two Report Structure

We have received the following correspondence from Catholic Education regarding the Semester Two report structure and the systemic removal of report comments. St Thomas More's values report comments for our families, having provided comments in the Semester One report. To accommodate this systemic change we will schedule parent teacher interviews before Semester Two reports are published so that we can share a verbal general comment with you regarding your child/ren's progress and areas for growth. 

‘Catholic Education Canberra and Goulburn (CECG) has communicated to schools informing them that general comments will not be required on the Semester 2, 2022 reports. This is in line with other educational jurisdictions and systems. Given teacher workload at present, including staffing pressures across the profession, CECG’s position is to prioritise parent/teacher conferences occurring during Term 4. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss your child’s progress, their strengths, challenges, and future areas of focus. A Semester Report will be sent home as in previous semesters providing A-E grading and attendance information’.

Carpark Safety

It has come to our attention that there has been some unsafe and disrespectful activity in the carpark of a morning and afternoon. We would like to remind parents of the following protocols when using the carpark:

• Maintain a walking speed of 10kph at all times
• Ensure you are only parking in carparks as opposed to nature strips or driving over kerbs
• Parking within car park so that doors can be opened, and car bonnets are not obstructing paths
• Only parking in the disabled carpark if you have approval to do so
• Actively supervising your children at all times and ensuring their safety when crossing through the carpark
• Remaining patient when waiting for other families to park, exit their vehicle or move about the carpark.

School Reception Carpark

You may have noticed that there are now two allocated visitor parking spaces in the school reception carpark. This is to ensure visitors to the school, and parents dropping off or collecting children during school hours, are able to park close to the reception. We would ask that these carparks are not used to drop children off in the morning as there is insufficient supervision of children passing through the admin block to the courtyard. As a result of these carparks being made available, we will now have a number of staff members parking in the top carpark during the day. 

Affirmations

Due to 5/6 being at camp, our Week 8, 9 and 10 Affirmations will be given out on the last day of Term at 8.50 am. Parents are welcome to attend.