Dear Parents and Carers,

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.  As a Catholic community we gathered to mark and celebrate this important day in the life of our Church.

What is Ash Wednesday? 
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, which marks forty days until Holy Week and Easter.  Through the symbol of a cross marked on our foreheads we remember that we are all human and that Jesus died for all of us.

What is Lent? 
Lent is the special time when we have begun to prepare ourselves 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 fulfil, 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.

Thank you to all in our community who have attended, supported and been involved in our recent school and community events.  The Welcome to School Year BBQ, Meet and Greet interviews, P&F meeting and the Opening of the School Year Mass have all been great opportunities for our community to gather.  We have a busy life at school and within our own families, so it is great that parents and families can support the events being held.  A special thank you to the parent volunteers who provided the welcome BBQ at such short notice.  It was a wonderful afternoon and evening where new and old families of our school could meet.  A huge thank you also to our staff for making themselves available to meet with parents as part of the ‘Meet and Greet’ process.  The main intention of these meetings was for parents and teachers to meet and communicate about the best learning environment for each student in our school.

The next Parents and and Friends Association meeting will be held on Monday 13th March at 7.00pm in the School Library.  Any items for the agenda can be emailed through to info@stmdow.catholic.edu.au.  

Congratulations and best wishes to the students representing St Thomas More School at the upcoming Western Region swimming carnival being held next Wednesday 1st March.  Best wishes to: Zac (Year 2),  Fletcher (Year 3), Sienna, Abigail, Hendrix, Indiana, Roman, Jack (Year 4), Nathan, Megan, Emily, Jackson, Sophia (Year 5) and Brielle, Adrian, Ethan, Lennix, Ilaria, Ben, Ella (Year 6).

NAPLAN 2023
The official dates for Year 3 and Year 5 NAPLAN 2023 is Wednesday 15th March to Monday 27th March.  St Thomas More School will be conducting the NAPLAN tests on the following dates:
Wednesday 15th March - Writing (Year 3 and Year 5)
Monday 20th March - Reading (Year 3 and Year 5)
Tuesday 21st March - Conventions of Language (Year 3 and Year 5)
Wednesday 22nd March - Numeracy (Year 3 and Year 5)

Best wishes for the coming week,
Philip Barrington 
PRINCIPAL

Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,

Re: Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the:

Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.dese.gov.au/about-us/resources/department-education-skills-and-employment-complete-privacy-policy-0).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school.