2025 T2W2 – 7 May

It was wonderful to welcome our students back last Tuesday after the holiday break. Their energy and enthusiasm have set a positive tone for the term ahead.

As we continue exploring our school value of ‘community,’ we build upon the foundation laid in Term 1 “My Contribution to Our Community,” where students reflected on their gifts, talents, and how working positively with others strengthens our shared experience.

This term, our focus shifts to “Responsibilities in Our Community,” encouraging students to embrace manners, courtesy, and the principle of “See something, do something”—a call to action for kindness, respect, and responsibility in our daily lives.

ANZAC Day

A wonderful example of this commitment was demonstrated on ANZAC Day, when our Year 6 student leaders, Charlie J. and Giacomo F., proudly represented St Thomas Primary School at the Town of Claremont ANZAC Day ceremony. Charlie and Giacomo laid a wreath in a heartfelt tribute, honouring the courage and sacrifice of our servicemen and women. Their participation was a meaningful reminder of the shared responsibility we all hold in remembering and valuing service, sacrifice, and community.

A heartfelt thank you to Mrs Pitcher and our Year 5 students for leading the Anzac Day school prayer service with such reverence on Wednesday. Their dedication made the service a special and meaningful experience, reminding us of the importance of reflection and gratitude on this significant day.

Mother’s Day

We are excited to celebrate Mother’s Day in our school community on Friday 9 May. We will begin the day with a special breakfast commencing at 7.30am, followed by a liturgy in the Church led by our Year One students, honouring the incredible mothers, grandmothers, and mother figures in our lives.

The P&F have also organised Mother’s Day stalls on Wednesday and Thursday morning before school, giving students the opportunity to purchase gifts to show their appreciation.

Prayers

In the coming days, the Conclave will elect a new Pope. As the Church prepares to choose its next leader, we join in prayer, asking for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in selecting a shepherd who will continue to inspire faith, unity, and compassion throughout the world.

Wishing all mothers, grandmothers, and mother figures a happy Mother’s Day, filled with love and special moments with family.

Clubs
Term 2 offerings are now available by clicking here. Thank you to all staff for these extra roles they take to appeal to students’ wider interests and passions.

Parent Communication
Thank you for your communication in collaboration with staff to assist students in meeting the learning objectives set for them at school. Staff have a multitude of roles to perform, and this puts pressure on their work time, similarly to many other professions. When emailing, we appreciate the respectful conversations. Staff will reply within 48 hours, often within 24 hours. We suggest avoiding lengthy emails in preference to a request for a phone call or face-to-face meeting. We appreciate this can be difficult to set-up on occasions. We suggest that parents who need to make urgent contact, to phone or email admin@stthomas.wa.edu.au email, when circumstances require more immediate action, as teachers may not be in a position to access their emails through the day. We ask that parents not communicate via apps with their child in school hours, due to the distraction it causes to learning. Thank you for your assistance.

How We Resolve Conflict Between Students
It is easy to expect children to respond to situations they encounter, as adults understand the world. Children learn appropriate social interactions developmentally, and from adult expectations and guidance. This does not mean poor behaviour choices are tolerated – quite the opposite. At St Thomas’, staff take these situations as learning opportunities and assist children develop the strategies and skills needed to resolve conflict and interact appropriately. As adults, we model to children when we seek to resolve disagreements or differences in opinion. If we name-call, are aggressive, or disrespectful to others (whether that person is in our presence or not), it is easy for children to adopt these behaviours in their own lives. When situations warrant it, we use ‘restorative practice’ methods to address situations, where perspectives can be shared, feelings discussed and a plan of action for the future agreed upon. Please contact me if you would like to discuss this further.

Strategic Plan Update
As we prepare to move our focus to a new strategic plan here at St Thomas’, we are keen to share the progress of the current plan with you. After the first year of its implementation, over half of the 49 ‘Success Measures’ were achieved or initiated. This was a tremendous achievement by our school community. The quick take-up of these initiatives, enabled us to move toward embedding some of the measures across the school in the subsequent three years. At this stage, we have ‘completed’, ‘began’ or ’embedded’ 35 of the 49 actions, 71.4%, with a further 11 of the 49 (22.4%) ‘in progress’ or ‘started – but not fully embedded’. That leaves 3 measures (6.1%) not achieved or initiated (of which one has been deemed no longer relevant due to features of our school website). I commend our staff and school community for taking on the elements of this plan to improve our school and constantly look for areas of improvement. Well done!