Welcome to St.Thomas'
Prayer
Heavenly Father
As we start this new school year, we thank You for the gift of community. Please bless our students, parents, teachers, and staff. May we work together with kindness, understanding, and respect, always encouraging one another. Guide us to make our school a place where everyone feels valued and included. We are grateful for the chance to grow and learn together, and we pray for a year filled with joy, growth, and success.
Amen.
Important Dates
Wed 12 Feb – Fri 14 Feb – Y6 Camp
Tue 18 Feb – 9am Whole School Mass
Fri 21 Feb – Y3-Y6 Swimming Trials (non-spectator event)
Fri 21 Feb – P&F Sundowner
Tue 4 Mar – Shrove Tuesday
Tue 4 Mar – Project Compassion launch (CEWA)
Wed 5 Mar – 9am Ash Wednesday mass
Thu 6 Mar – 6:30pm P&F meeting
Tue 11 Mar – 7pm Advisory Council meeting
Wed 12 Mar – Y3-Y6 Swimming Carnival
Wed 12 Mar-Fri 21 Mar – NAPLAN (Y3 & Y5)
2025 Term Dates
TERM DATES:
- TERM 1 – Wednesday 5 Feb – Friday 11 Apr
- TERM 2 – Tuesday 29 Apr – Friday 4 Jul
- TERM 3 – Tuesday 22 Jul – Friday 26 Sep
- TERM 4 – Tuesday 14 Oct – Friday 12 Dec
PUPIL FREE DAYS:
- Monday 28 Apr
- Friday 30 May
- Monday 21 Jul
- Monday 25 Aug
- Monday 13 Oct
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS:
- Monday 3 Mar (Labour Day)
- Friday 18 Apr (Good Friday)- in school holidays
- Friday 25 Apr (ANZAC Day) – in school holidays
- Monday 2 Jun (WA Day)
- Monday 29 Sep (King’s Birthday)
From the Principal
Welcome to the first school newsletter of the new year! We are excited to embark on this journey together, with a strong focus on fostering a sense of community and building positive relationships among students, parents, and staff. We believe that a supportive and connected community is the foundation for a successful and enriching educational experience. A heartfelt thank you to all the parents who attended the parent-teacher meetings last evening for Pre-primary to Year 6 students. Your involvement and dedication are greatly appreciated and play a crucial role in our collective efforts to support our students’ growth and development.
BEGINNING OF THE YEAR SCHOOL MASS – Tuesday 18 February 9am
Next Tuesday 18 February, the Pre-primary to Year 6 students will be celebrating the beginning of the school year with Mass in St Thomas the Apostle Church at 9am. At this Mass, we will bless our school community, and acknowledge our new student leaders, new staff, members of the Advisory Council and Parents & Friends Executive. Please join us for this special celebration.
P & F WELCOME SUNDOWNER
We are excited to invite all parents and caregivers to our annual Parents and Friends Sundowner on Friday, February 21st, at St Thomas Primary School. This adult-only event is a wonderful opportunity for our school community to come together, meet new families, and reconnect with old friends in a relaxed and enjoyable setting. There will be delicious food and plenty of time to socialise.
Date: Friday 21 February 2024
Time: 6.30 pm – 9.30 pm
Venue: St Thomas’ Primary School Hall
Tickets: $35 and can be purchased on the link in the flyer below.
We look forward to seeing you there and making this a memorable evening for everyone!
Natalia Thomson
Principal
From the Assistant Principal
COMMUNITY
Welcome to ‘2025 – The Year of Community’ at St Thomas’ Primary School! This year we will focus on Community as one of our five values. In Term One, we will look at Contributing to Our Community. This element celebrates the unique gifts, talents and abilities that God has blessed us with, and encouraging everyone to share these gifts when they can within the school community. This includes everyday activities and special events that lend themselves to these special character strengths we all possess.
NAPLAN
Parents of Years 3 and 5 students will soon receive information regarding the National Assessment Plan Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) that will occur later in this term. Whilst the intention is for all Australian children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to complete the tests, if you believe your child should not take part in this testing please contact your child’s teacher or myself as soon as possible to discuss. Tests are conducted in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language, and Numeracy.
STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT
At the parent information sessions last night, your child’s teacher talked of the Student Code of Conduct at St Thomas’ Primary School. These two documents (Early Years and Upper Years) is an important document, revisited each year, that has been created by students, for students. I encourage you to view the document by clicking here.
ROWE PARK
At times during the year we make use of the extra space at Rowe Park, primarily for Sport activities, which predominantly involves Years 3-6 students. Years 5 and 6 students often spend their Friday lunch time (prior to sport) at Rowe Park to make use of the wider space. Students may walk down to Rowe Park, Claremont during their Friday 2pm-3pm timetabled Sport session, or other classes (up to Year 1 to Year 6, but mainly Year 3-6) on special occasions such as Harmony Day. Students are always supervised by staff during the walk to Rowe Park and back again. If you have any concerns regarding this, please make contact with myself or your child’s teacher.
Y4-Y6 iPADS
If your child in Years 4 to 6 changes over iPads at any stage, please contact me so I can facilitate the install of our school management software. This includes access to our WiFi, internet filters and monitoring, provision of apps, and allows real-time screen monitoring to see the thoughtful and creative work that students produce! If you would like more information about digital safety, we highly recommend the Office of the E-Safety Commissioner which has excellent resources for parents and children. Click here to visit the ‘Parent’ section of this site.
TERM ONE – CO-CURRICULAR CLUBS
Please click here for a list of clubs, teachers in charge, venues and timings, that your children may enjoy participating in. Thank you to our staff who have generously given up their time before, during or after school, as an additional opportunity for our incredibly lucky students.
Heath Nankivell
Assistant Principal
Back to School!
2025 Student Leaders
Year 6 class depart for camp!
First day fun!
Parents’ Welcome cuppa
Highway Heroes
Highway Heroes is a social and emotional learning program that your child will be learning throughout the year.
A HIGHWAY HERO is a child who:
· Socially – knows how to be friendly, makes and keeps friends, resolves friendship issues, knows when and how to stick up for themselves.
· Emotionally – understands their feelings and the impact on thinking and behaviour; calms down quickly, asks for help when in overwhelm and learns to ‘de-catastrophise’ patterns of thinking and emoting.
· Supports their learning behaviours through planning and organising their time and resources, persists through tough and boring work requirements, becomes and stays motivated, identifies and avoids distractions.
Social and emotional intelligence is the foundation to creating happiness and success and for developing resilience to adjust to and overcome, life’s inevitable adversities – the BUMPS and HAZARDS.
P&F Sundowner
Supporter Cap
Sports News
SWIMMING TRIALS
All Year 3-6 students will take part in Swimming Trials Friday 21 February. Students will be accompanied by their teachers by bus to and from St Thomas’ to Claremont Pool. This is not a parent spectactor event, however if parents can assist with timing, please look out for the form coming out later this week seeking parent helpers.
SWIMMING CARNIVAL
On Wednesday 12 March, Years 3-6 will take part in our school Swimming Carnival. This is an exciting day for many students, although we also understand some students worry with swimming. Participation is a key element of the day, and we look forward to supporting your children to try their best on this exciting day. More information will come through soon regarding the logistics of the day. We look forward to many parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties and friends supporting our students during the events. As with the swimming trials, I will ask for parent helpers in due course, and I thank you for your support in advance.
THANK YOU
I have enjoyed the community feel and warm welcome I have received so far at St Thomas’. Thank you! The enthusiasm of all children during Health and Physical Education learning activities has been magical! I look forward to working with your children over 2025!
Jasmine Wallace
Physical Education Teacher
Get To Know Our New Staff
Name: JASMINE WALLACE
Role at St Thomas’: PHYSICAL EDUCATION & HEALTH ED TEACHER
Family: Mum, Dad, older brother, older sister
Pets: Dog – a Poochon called “Honeybun”
Hobbies: Hockey, going to the beach, running.
Favourite Sporting Team: West Coast Eagles
Favourite movie: Notting Hill
If I had $50 I would: Take my family out for coffee
Favourite holiday destination: Maldives
Easter Competition
Get Ready for Our Annual Easter Egg Competition!
Easter may still be a little while away, but it’s time to start preparing for our much-loved ‘Guess How Many Easter Eggs Are in the Jar’ competition!
We are kindly asking for donations of individually wrapped Easter eggs to help fill the jars. If you’d like to contribute, please drop off your donations in the collection box located in the front office.
This fun tradition not only brings excitement to our school community but also helps Mini Vinnies raise money for St Vincent de Paul. Your support will make a difference for those in need this Easter.
Thank you for your generosity – we can’t wait to see the jar fill up! Stay tuned for more details on how to take part in the guessing competition!!
School Fees
School fees were issued to parents/caregivers this week. If you have not received your account, or you have any questions regarding your account, please contact our Finance Officer Victoria McDonald on finance@stthomas.wa.edu.au.
CEWA Executive Director's Message
While every year is important, this year is particularly significant in the context of our faith, as it signifies a Jubilee Year for the Catholic Church. A Jubilee Year is marked every 25 years, with the last one occurring in the year 2000. In his letter announcing the Jubilee, Pope Francis has called on us to “fan the flame of hope that has been given us, and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision” and said the “forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth”. In the context of our mission to deliver a quality, affordable, faith-based education, this message serves as an aspiration: to give the young people in our schools hope for the future, and a strength of mind and spirit to tackle life’s challenges and embrace its gifts wherever they may lie. (Please view the Executive Director’s full message HERE)
Mr Wayne Bull
Executive Director of Catholic Education WA
Parking at STPS
PARKING
Safety is a top priority at St Thomas Primary School. To ensure the well-being of our students and families, parking on Warden Street is not permitted during pick-up or drop-off times. This measure helps prevent safety issues. If you have family members or friends picking up your children, please inform them of this rule. Rangers are patrolling the area around our school, and fines are substantial. We kindly ask everyone to follow the pick-up and drop-off guidelines outlined in our school procedure, by clicking the link below. Thank you for your cooperation and support.
Parent Address Collection
The Australian Government Department of Education (the department) would like to notify you that they have requested for St Thomas’ to provide residential address and other information. More information can be obtained by reading the PDF document below.
Playgrounds
NO PLAY ON THE PLAYGROUNDS AFTER SCHOOL
A friendly reminder that, for safety reasons, children should not play on the playground before or after school hours.
Music Lessons 2025
Instrumental music lessons are available at St Thomas’ Primary. Children can learn voice, keyboard, piano, violin, drums, guitar and flute. Please contact the school office for a music form if your child is interested in commencing music lessons in 2025.
