Dear Parents and Carers,

As this is the last newsletter for 2019 and the year draws to a close it is timely to say “thank you” to many members of the St Thomas More Catholic Parish Primary School Ruse community:

• To the parents for all their support of the school in many ways.  We have had a wonderful year with many parents assisting and supporting the school as classroom helpers, through a variety of fundraising activities, at sporting events, on excursions, in the library as well as through their attendance at school functions.  We thank you for your generosity of time and hard work.  
• To our priest, Fr Michael who has guided us and supported us through 2019.  We say thank you for his spiritual guidance, support and assistance in many ways.
• To the students for their hard work, friendliness and their eagerness to learn.  Our school community is fortunate to work with children who love to learn but who are also appreciative of all the hard work that goes into assisting them.
• To the 2019 P&F Association for all of their hard work in raisIng some much needed funds for our school, especially in their support and coordination of the STM Fete.
• To the wonderful staff of St Thomas More Catholic Parish Primary School.  Their professionalism and dedication to the community is inspirational. Our school is known as a quality school and this is the result of the teamwork of all staff in a variety of roles.
• To the parishioners of St Thomas More Ruse for their prayers and support, particularly with the sacramental programs for 2019.
• To everyone who did anything to assist and support our great school community - we say thank you.

Next Wednesday 18th December, we will say goodbye and farewell to all of the Year 6 children and some children in other grades.  Goodbye and thank you to the following families who leave St Thomas More Catholic Parish Primary School Ruse: Bastok, Berbari, Bichara, Biju, Broudou, Chan, Fowler, Guinta, Hancock, Harding, Hooton, Iddles, Jenkins, Kelly, Kerr, Kite, Lawson, Lucas, Lumagui, Machuca, McDade, McNamara, Meznaric, O’Brien, Pinzuti, Rathbone, Reilly-Ormsby, Ruggiero, Shrimpton, Strnad, Thammavong and Vardy families.  The traditional ‘STM Guard of Honour’ will commence at 2.15pm on Wednesday 18th December in the school grounds. All are invited to say farewell to those who are leaving St Thomas More Catholic Primary School Ruse.

Congratulations to Mrs Ashlee Ross and her husband Brett on the recent birth of their first baby, a boy named Hudson.

Your child’s Semester 2 Report will be available through Compass.  Paper copies of student reports ARE NOT being sent home. Year 3 to Year 6 reports will be made available for you to access through Compass on Thursday 12/12/19 and Kindergarten to Year 2 reports will be available to you on Friday 13/12/19.  

To access your child’s report:  1. Login to Compass. 2. Click on you child’s portfolio.  3. Click on the Reports Tab 4. Click on Semester 2 2019.

A brief News Bulletin will be sent home next week with a full staff list for 2020.

Best wishes for a joyful and peaceful Christmas.  May it be a special time for being with family and provide you with many opportunities to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Philip Barrington 
PRINCIPAL

Please see attached a Family Christmas Holiday Bingo game that might be a nice idea for your family during the holidays.

Thanks to Nicolle from Catholic Care for providing this to our community.

Please see below the 2020 school fee information. These fees will be billed against fee accounts in late January 2020.

Tuition fees                                            $1,678.00 per family
SEDSO fees                                            $1,025.00 per family
Resource Fee                                          $145.00 per student
Excursion, Sport & Mass Bus levy             $110.00 per student 
Technology Levy (K-2)                             $100.00 per student
Technology Levy (3-6)                               $80.00 per student
Year 5 Camp                                           $165.00 per student
Year 6 Camp                                           $260.00 per student

SCHOOL FEES 2020 – NEW ARRANGEMENTS FOR PAYMENT BY INSTALMENT

The Catholic Education Office and its system of schools are in the process of a business transformation.  Part of this transformation involves a new administration and accounting package being rolled out to schools.  As you would be aware our school has been introducing Compass as our administration system over a period of time.  It is now fully functioning together with a new web based accounting system called Technology One. 

This will allow for school fees in 2020 to be invoiced centrally by the Catholic Education Office under advice from schools.  Additionally, families will still be offered the opportunity of paying their school fees by regular payments over the school year as is the existing practice.  However, the new system also allows for instalments to be calculated and advised to families with a Schedule of Payments and the dates that they are due.  This replaces our current process of School Fee Agreements and the necessity for families to calculate their own payments.

Please note, families may elect to pay school fees by instalment under the following terms and conditions:

• The family must complete a Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment and present a separate request to each school in which their child/children are enrolled.
• Families may have only one instalment frequency.  If the family has multiple accounts due to children at different schools, they may only elect one payment frequency eg fortnightly in both schools.  
• The instalments must pay the school fee account in one school calendar year with an end date of the first week in December.
• On receipt of the Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment, an Instalment Schedule advising dates and amounts, will be generated by our accounting system and forwarded to the family by email so that payments can commence.
• The Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment will continue year to year until a further notice is received from the family.
• If instalments are not paid as agreed and there is serious default, the school may withdraw the offer of payment by instalment at any time and all fees will be due and payable until such time as a further arrangement is agreed upon with the school.  Please note, families will be informed of the withdrawal of instalments in writing by email.

FAMILIES WITH EXISTING SCHOOL FEE AGREEMENTS
If you have an existing School Fee Agreement and are meeting your periodical payments as set out in the agreement, you will automatically be allocated to the instalment process in 2020 with your payment frequency.  Therefore, it will not be necessary for you to submit a Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment.

FAMILIES WITHOUT AN ACTIVE SCHOOL FEE AGREEMENT
If you do not have an active School Fee Agreement in place and would like to pay by instalments, please obtain a Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment from the school office.  By submitting this request you may elect to pay your school fees next year by weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly instalments.  When fees are invoiced and issued in early 2020, you will be provided with a Schedule of Payments and due dates with your school fee statement to enable you to commence payments.  Please note, if you do not elect to pay by instalments, your school fee account will be payable in full 30 days after annual invoicing.  

FAMILIES WHO MAY BE EXPERIENCING HARDSHIP
For those families who are experiencing financial hardship, please do not hesitate to contact the school office to access an Application for Fee Concession, either when your 2020 school fee statement is received, or in the case of an existing Fee Concession arrangement, on the date of your annual review. 

SYSTEM REMINDERS
With the introduction of the new system, we now have the ability to generate system reminders for late payments.  Should you default in your payments, reminders will be issued for each payment missed and they will continue to be issued until your account is brought up to date.  

You will also have the opportunity to contact the school, if necessary in these circumstances, to provide explanation and make a further arrangement for payment.

Little Green Frogs will be closed between from the dates of Friday 20^th December 2019 till Tuesday 14^th January 2020. We will not be answering any phone calls or emails throughout this time. Therefore, if you would like to book your child in for Vacation care it needs to be completed and handed in By Wednesday 18^th of December 2019, along with all payments finalized.

If you are paying cash please, place in envelope provided in the hall along with appropriate amount and completed forms. Or write down on the envelope that you will be using direct debit. Please make sure all cash payments are done before Wednesday 18^th December.

Throughout the January vacation care program we will not be accepting last minute bookings, or any bookings done throughout the time the center is shut.

Some days are limited numbers so please get your booking forms back as soon as possible to guarantee your place on the day.

Please see attached the vacation care program.