Dear Parents and Carers,

8th August is the feast of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop - Australia’s first saint.  Mary MacKillop began the Sisters of St Joseph and Sr Niesha is a Sister of St Joseph.  We will acknowledge this feast day with a special whole school prayer on Friday morning.  As parents cannot be present for this please ask your child about it on Friday.  Also as our world needs many prayers at the moment due to COVID19 we are going to say a special Novena for ‘A World in Need’.  We will stop at 12 midday for nine days to pray to Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop.

Thanks to those parents who were able to be present for our first ever Zoom P&F meeting last week.  At this meeting it was acknowledged that everyone in our community is doing their best to keep themselves and others safe at this time.  It was stated that our current practices in maintaining a safe environment need to remain in place for now.  A few events for the future were discussed however no firm decisions were made due to the restrictions that we need to follow.  As a school we will continue to acknowledge the important events and continue the daily life of the school to the best of our ability.  We will provide details of our school’s Book Week and End of Year celebrations at the appropriate times.

A reminder that Book Club orders close on Friday 7th August.

School Photo Day is Friday 14th August.  All children will have an individual photo and a class photo.  All students are asked to be in their full Winter School uniform.  Sports uniforms are not to be worn on Friday 14th August.  

Friday 4th September is Jersey Day.  Our school is again participating in Mufti/Jersey/Footy Colours Day on Friday 4th September 2020 to raise awareness for Organ and Tissue donation.  This is an extraordinary mufti day, not to raise money donations but to raise our awareness of this worthy cause.  This cause is close to the St Thomas More community as it affects some families in our school.   All children are asked to wear their favourite mufti/jersey/footy colours to school so that we can raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.  Have you seen the recent story in the Macarthur Advertiser about Matilda Harley?  There is a link on our school’s Facebook page.

If your child is away from school it is important to let the school know as soon as possible with a specific reason, e.g. what type of illness they have.  If you are filling in a note on Compass, please add an explanation in the details/comments box.  It is most important to keep your child at home if they are unwell, this will help with the spread of illness. In the current COVID 19 climate  it is preferable that you get a medical clearance for your child to return to school.  If your child has a Covid test, please notify the school when they have the test and as soon as you get your results please forward these on to the school.

Wash Hands
Social Distancing
Stay Safe

Philip Barrington 

PRINCIPAL

There are a large number of unclaimed items (jumpers & jackets) in lost property which are not marked with students names. 

Should your child be missing an item, please contact the school office info@stmdow.catholic.edu.au to advise of the item and size and we'll do our best to find and send the item home.

A reminder - please ensure all of your child's clothing items are labelled with their names.