Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the new 2020 school year.  A special welcome to all new members to our community; the new students and families in Years 1-6, the new Kindergarten children and the new members of staff.  A full staff list for 2020 has been included in this newsletter.

During the next few days all of the 2020 Kindergarten children are participating in the Best Start Assessments and therefore do not commence their official first day until next Thursday 6th February.  On this day, all Kindergarten parents are invited to bring their child to the School Hall at the beginning of the school day. There will be an opportunity for you to take photos and then take your child to the Kindergarten classroom, once the morning assembly has finished.  The P&F are also providing a morning tea to help parents celebrate the first official day of Kindergarten.  

As you are aware in recent weeks our local area,  state and country has been affected by bushfires. A huge thank you to those in our community who donated time, money and goods to the bushfire appeal.  Early in January, two truck loads of goods were donated to those in need. A great response from our school and local community. Well done St Thomas More community.  You might like to read more about this on our school’s Facebook page.

This year the ‘Meet and Greet’ interviews will be held on Tuesday 18th February 2020 from 3.00pm-6.00pm in the School Hall.  This will be an opportunity for parents and children to meet and talk with their class teacher. Please note that this is not a parent/teacher interview but an opportunity for you to discuss with the class teacher your child’s needs, strengths, interests and how they best learn.  A Student Information sheet is being sent home this week. Please complete and return it to school so that the information can inform the discussion had between class teacher and parents. Details will be sent home soon regarding booking a time to meet with your child’s teacher. 

A reminder that our school day commences at 8.30am and that all children should be at school by this time to commence their day.  Similarly no child should be dropped off at school before 8.00am as there is no teacher on supervision until 8.00am. At our morning assembly the children will say good morning to the community, say our school prayer together, students birthdays will be acknowledged and then the children will go to class.  On Mondays the national anthem will be sung and the raising of the flags will be included into the morning assembly. All awards (Merit Awards, Stewardship Awards, Principal Awards, School Badges) will be distributed at the Friday afternoon assemblies that will occur each term from Weeks 4-10 at 2.00pm. Awards for Weeks 1-3 (which is usually a time of only a few awards being given out) will be distributed at the conclusion of the PB4L lessons held on Friday afternoons of Weeks 1-3 each term.  

At the beginning of the new school year parents are also reminded about the importance of some of our school rules and procedures to ensure the safety of EVERYONE.  Parents are reminded that if you are running late in the morning, your child requires a late pass from the Front Office. This pass is generated by the computer and is maintained for the school attendance records.  Your child needs to be accompanied to the School Office by an adult. Similarly in the afternoon, if you are running late or anticipate being late (after 3.10pm) a phone call to the office is appreciated so that we can assure and inform your child as to what us occurring.   Children who have not been collected by 3.10pm will remain in the Front Office until they collected. An adult must come into the School Office to collect their child. Children will not be allowed to leave the Office area unaccompanied by an adult.  

A special thank you to all families who have presented their children to school in the correct school uniform, adhering to school policy.  

In order to maximise learning time and to reduce the amount of time teachers cannot be present in their classroom due to professional commitments, the school is implementing a new structure in regards to Sport and Creative Arts lessons and release time for teachers.  Full-time classroom teachers are entitled to two hours/week or 4 hours/fortnight of professional release time from their class as per the Teachers Award. In 2020 at St Thomas More School, each grade teacher will be released for one full day each fortnight to receive their PPT (Professional  Planning Time), where the students will be taught by Mrs Augustine and Mrs Wells. Sport, Creative Arts (Visual Arts, Dance, Drama, Music), Health and in some grades Library will be taught on PPT days. Students will continue to wear their Sports uniform two days each week on their Sports/PPT day as well as Fridays.  Class teachers will be teaching a modified Sports lessons on the week that the children do not have a lesson with Mrs Augustine.

2020 Sport clothes are worn:

Our condolences are offered to Roman (Year 1), Ilaria (Year 3) and Serafim (Year 6 2019) on the recent passing of their father.  The prayers and support of the St Thomas More community are with Ovchinnikov family at this sad time. May Mr Ovchinnikov rest in peace.  

Each year Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong sends a group of staff to attend the annual Religious Education conference In Los Angeles.  This year Mrs Morris and myself have been asked to attend this conference. I will be absent from St Thomas More School from Friday 14 February to Friday 28 February inclusive.  During this time Mrs MacFetters will be acting principal.

Best wishes for the coming week,

Philip Barrington 
PRINCIPAL