Dear Parents and Carers,

This Sunday, 14th February is ‘Valentine’s Day’.  The feast of St Valentine celebrates love and affection.  There are many people in our lives who we love - parents, family and friends.  We also give thanks for all the people who love, care and support us. Let us all remember the importance of love in our lives; of loving others and receiving love, but above all recognising that God’s love is so great for each one of us.   

Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday when we commence the season of Lent.  Lent is the time of preparation for the great event of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter.  Lent is a time when we can pray more, go without something (fasting) and donate to charities and to people less fortunate than ourselves (almsgiving).   These concepts can be quite challenging for us to understand and fulfill, but just as Jesus suffered in the desert for forty days, we can challenge ourselves to be better people through our Lenten promises.  Lent is a great opportunity to help our children understand how their choices affect others and how they can become better people.  Even our younger children in Kindergarten can understand the concepts of trying not to fight with brothers and sisters, being more helpful at home and obeying rules.  Lent is the ideal time to remind all of us to try and be the best person we can be. 

Congratulations to our new Kindergarten students and their families on a very successful start to big school.  We have 47 students in Kindergarten who have settled into coming to school everyday.  We have 20 new families in our school who are especially welcomed into our community.  

The rescheduled 2020 P&F AGM will hopefully be held some time in March.  Date and time still to be advised.

Congratulations to Mr Joshua Navarrette on the announcement of his recent engagement to his fiance Courtney.  Best wishes to Joshua and Coutney for a happy life together.

Thank you to those parents and families who were able to attend this year’s Meet and Greet interviews that were held yesterday afternoon.  Communication between family and school is most important as we work together to cater for the needs of all children within the learning environment.    St Thomas More School is very fortunate to have hardworking and committed staff who work tirelessly for the students in their care.  If you were unable to attend the Meet and Greet interview and would still like to talk with your class teacher, a phone call can be arranged at a mutually convenient time. The classes that were unable to conduct interviews yesterday afternoon will be provided with an opportunity to chat with their teacher in the coming weeks.   2021 looks like it is going to be another great year of learning.

A huge thank you to all in our community for your patience and assistance with our afternoon dismissal.  Over the past few weeks we have experienced lots of cars, buses and traffic in our car park and internal road involving St Thomas More School parents as well as students and parents from St Patrick's College.  Safety is our main concern and we are continuously looking at ways to refine our processes.  We are currently working with St Patrick's College to ensure that everyone is safe and obeying the traffic rules at all times. 

As with many things in our school we have had to review and modify many procedures to adhere to the current Covid-19 restrictions.  Our traditional beginning of the year whole school Mass is unable to go ahead during these times.  Instead the Year 6 children are going to represent the entire school at Mass on Friday.  An important part of that Mass is that the new student leaders will be acknowledged and blessed.  At the conclusion of Mass the student leaders will be presented with their badges.  In accordance with restrictions, only the parents of the student leaders are permitted to attend our badging ceremony after Mass. 

Wash Hands
Social Distancing
Stay Safe

Philip Barrington 
PRINCIPAL