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Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome to 2025 and what is sure to be an exciting year of learning and growth. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our community through our school creed and ensuring that St Thomas More's is providing the best education for your children.
We hope all of our new families have felt the embrace of our community as you have prepared your child to commence school. It was so rewarding to see our Kindergarten students bravely farewell their parents in the courtyard before heading into class and to visit each classroom to see that they were already centred in learning.
A special welcome to Carly Sargent, Majella-Rose Shanahan and Allina Young who have joined our teaching staff. We also welcome Bibi Peresin as our Defence School Mentor. Finally, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Penny Vanzwol as our School Wellbeing Officer (Chaplain). Penny is an experienced teacher with a passion for supporting the wellbeing and pastoral care of her communities. We know she will be a valued member of our community in this role. Penny will be at school on Mondays.
Parent Information Night and Welcome BBQ
Our Parent Information Night will be held on Tuesday 11 February from 5:30pm beginning in Holy Faith Hall. We will gather as a whole school community for the leadership team to present and then break into grade presentations. These presentations will be repeated twice for families of multiple children. There will be staff available to supervise children during the presentations. We will then gather as a community for a BBQ on our playground. RSVPs for catering can be found here:
https://forms.gle/UhvfDpoT5DvsQFMo6
This is sure to be a wonderful opportunity to engage in your child's learning and meet new people in our community.
Canteen News
We are thrilled to announce an innovative partnership that has been developed with St Thomas More's and Angie's Cafe, of Merici College. From Week 6 of this term Angie's Cafe will be servicing our school canteen on Tuesday and Thursday with freshly made meal packs delivered to the students to eat at first break. The meal packs will be priced between $10 - $15. Over the coming weeks we will be engaging in community consultation to develop the menu in line with the National Healthy School Canteens Guidelines. We look forward to providing this service to our community.
School Counsellor
We welcome Nik Shuhaimi as our new school counsellor. Nik will work every Wednesday. Parents can refer their child to the school counsellor for 6 sessions. We would ask that you speak to your child's teacher or myself if you would like to access this service.
More News vs. More Reminders
In reflecting on our communication strategy it has become apparent that the differences between More News and More Reminders were lacking. Therefore moving forward, we will ensure that More News is an in depth newsletter highlighting stories in our school and the wider community, and More Reminders is a brief newsletter of reminders for the week ahead.
Supervision Hours
School hours are 8:50 am to 3:00 pm. Students are supervised each day from 8:20 am until 3:20 pm. We would like to remind parents of the importance of ensuring that children are not dropped off at school before 8:20 am. Before and After School Care is available through Team Kids.
Sports Uniform - cessation of White Shirts
It is over three years since our new Sports Uniform was launched, therefore we will no longer accept students wearing the white sports uniform. The updated sports uniform is available from Lowes or you can contact the front office to enquire after preloved items.
Calendar of Events - Fridge Magnet and Online
We hope you enjoyed receiving your calendar of events for the fridge at home and that it will support you in the timetabling involved in family life. Our full school calendar can be accessed through the school webpage (there is a QR code link on the magnet!) or in the Compass App. We look forward to gathering this term for our PIN and Welcome BBQ, Working Bee and Grandparents Day.
Did you know we have a Facebook page? Find us @stmcampbell
Luke Donnelly
Principal
| Friday 7 March 8.50am | Centred in Learning Gathering |
| Monday 10 March | Canberra Day - Public Holiday |
| Saturday 15 March 9.00am to 11.00am | Working Bee |
| Friday 21 March 11.30am | Grandparents Day |
| Thursday 10 April | School Photos |
5.6 Green have had a great start to the year. We have been working on our To Be Program with Mrs. McPadden and today we collaborated with 5.6 White to commence working on our Acknowledgement of Country. We had P.E with Mrs. Tarleton where we worked on collaborative games.
To Be Program
Through our 'To Be' orientation program students will Xplore More about our theme scripture for this Term- Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) in connection with the middle value of our creed 'We Encourage More to Grow in Courage'. They will be looking to our patron, St Thomas More, to discover what it means to show courage and they will collaborate to decided what Encouraging More and Growing in Courage looks like at our school. Teachers will lead students in various forms of prayer to develop WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like), setting expectations of participation in the prayer life of St Thomas More's. Each class will prepare a prayer cloth to be used during class prayer throughout the year, we will share these at our first CIFG in Week 2.
Centred in Faith Gathering
Our first Centred in Faith Gathering will be held Friday Week 2 at 8:50am in Holy Faith Hall. This will be a celebration of our Year 6 students as they receive their leadership badges and are presented to the community in their leadership roles for 2025. We will also be launching our Catholic Identity Theme this year. All families are invited to join us.
Sacraments 2025
This Year St Thomas More's Parish will be offering the Sacrament of Confirmation for Year 6 students in Term 3 Registration information will be sent to parents later in the term.
At the end of last year, it was decided by the Inner North Parishes that the Sacrament of First Reconciliation would be offered to students in Year 3 and First Eucharist offered to students in Year 4, as such we will not be holding Sacraments in Year 2, Year 3 or Year 4 in 2025. If you have a child in Year 3 who was intending to participate in the Sacrament of First Reconciliation in 2025 or a child in Year 4 who was intending to participate in the Sacrament of First Eucharist in 2025 and would like to discuss options for these Sacraments this year, please contact our Religious Education Coordinator Mrs Skye McPadden (skye.mcpadden@cg.catholic.edu.au).
Skye McPadden
Religious Education Coordinator
Hello! My name is Penny Vanzwol, and I am excited to be joining the St Thomas More’s community as the Student Welfare Officer.
I bring extensive experience as a teacher and school leader, having worked in schools across Canberra and NSW. My passion lies in supporting the wellbeing of young people and their families, ensuring they feel valued, heard, and supported.
In 2022, I stepped away from teaching to take on the role of Manager of the Youth Team at Vinnies. This rewarding experience deepened my understanding of community support and service, further inspiring me to guide and support the St Thomas More's Mini Vinnies group.
I warmly encourage you to reach out for a chat—I’m always happy to connect. I look forward to meeting many of you at the Parent Information Evening on Tuesday, 11th February.
Looking forward to a wonderful year ahead!
Penny Vanzwol
The start of a new school year is a great time to check in with your child about their digital technology skills and set positive routines and strategies to support safer experiences online. The ESafety website (esaftey.gov.au) is a great resources for parents to begin conversations and monitor device usage at home.
Piano lessons are offered at school during class time. Lessons are individual, weekly, and are 20 minutes long.
Beginners and advanced students welcome.
Please contact Jaki Kane for more information. Ph: 0407007362 email: jakikane@hotmail.com
ALL GIRLS are invited to visit their local guide unit and find out what guides get up to.
Guides have FUN indoors and outdoors, learn new skills and make new friends.
Guides is for girls aged 5 –18 yrs.
Local guide units meet once a week at the Guide halls in Lister Cres, Ainslie and Clianthus St, O'Connor.
To find out more, go to: