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

Thank you

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the community of St Thomas More [STM] for your warm welcome. When I was asked to return to STM, I jumped at the chance to come back to the community that educated my own children over 15 years ago. As a family, we have many fond memories and lifelong friends, that we hold very dear. Now, I look forward to creating new memories during my time here. Once again thank you for your support and welcome.

Dulcie Ryman (Acting Assistant Principal)

All families would have received their school fee statement for 2021 via email this week. Please check your emails to view this statement and read the covering page to outline the new centralised system.

The invoicing of school fees and the distribution of school fee statements each month is now a function carried out by the Catholic Education Office (CEOoW).  Payment of fees, whether as an annual payment or first payment by instalments is due on 28th February 2021.

Commencing in 2021, the issue of reminders for late payment via SMS and email will be introduced for schools on the new system.  These reminders are automatically generated by the software based on the number of days a payment is overdue.  For those families that may have difficulty in paying their school fees, these reminders may cause some concern. This is not the intention of CEOoW.  The intention is to manage the collection of school fee accounts with new technology and in so doing, alleviate some of the administrative work at school level.

Request to pay instalments - please complete a Request to Pay by Instalment Form which is available on your school’s website or at your school’s office.  On completion of the request either email it to instalments@dow.catholic.edu.au office or submit at your school’s office. Following receipt of the request, instalments will be generated on your account and a schedule of payments and due dates will be provided on your next school fee statement.  Please note it is only necessary to complete this form once during the period of child/children’s enrolment, unless you wish to amend your payment frequency. This form needs to be completed by families who have paid by instalments in previous years and haven't filled out the form.

Direct debit - Families who have completed a CDF Direct Debit form are to indicate the frequency and amount. Please ensure the amount and frequency matches the suggested ‘schedule’ on the last page of your fee statement. Should your direct debit not be the amount or higher than the scheduled amount, you will receive reminders via SMS and email that your account is overdue. 

The school or CEOoW cannot alter the direct debit amount without your authority. Please check the schedule against your debited amount to ensure it covers the due amount. The direct debit will continue deducting until you instruct the bank (via the CDF direct debit form) to cease or suspend payments. Setting up payment in BPAY is a great way to manage your payments and we encourage you to pay via BPAY rather than direct debit.

BPAY - Please check against your statement with the suggested ‘schedule’ on the last page of your fee statement and setup up your regular BPAY payments according to your schedule. Should the payment be less, then you will receive reminders via SMS and email that your account is overdue.

Receipts applied to account after 31st January 2021 - CEOoW have advised there was a need to suspend any receipt after 31/1/21 to deal with some issues in relation to billing and instalments.

Please be assured that CEOoW will commence the uploads towards the end of this week and all receipts will be up to date by the beginning of next week.

DIFFICULTY WITH PAYMENT
If you are experiencing financial difficulty, we encourage you to contact the school to discuss an arrangement that will assist you meet your commitments.  This may include the completion of a Diocesan Application for Fee Concession which is available from the administration office of each school.  Be reassured that your situation will be treated with strict confidentiality and respect for your circumstances. We encourage you to make this contact before the 28 February 2021 otherwise, the system will start sending you overdue reminders via SMS and email.

Is your child experiencing back to school anxiety? There can be many anxiety causing triggers for students at this time of year.

To help parents and carers support their child (and themselves) CatholicCare and CEDoW have put together some strategies which may help. Find information here to support self-care and student wellbeing as the new school year begins https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bk1zyAyVI5Y-b00DD_4a62JjaY86MBmT/view

If you require further support you can contact the school or CatholicCare has a range of group programs that might be helpful. Find out more at www.catholiccare.dow.org.au/index.php/family-support-program-fsp