8 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Friends of our School,

For our new families, welcome to St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School, and to our existing families, welcome back. Today I had the pleasure of meeting some of your children and I look forward to meeting them all over the course of the next couple of weeks. I also look forward to meeting you, if we haven’t already met, at one of the many celebrations we have throughout the year.

Good communication with school is important to your child’s success. I encourage you to communicate directly with your child’s teacher if you have any queries or concerns. This can either be via email, phone or a letter. Part of our commitment is to ensure we are sharing your child’s learning journey, therefore all of our classes will be using Seesaw Digital Portfolio this year. I encourage you to spend the time over the year to share and discuss your child’s learning with them.

Mrs Kathy Ranson has decide to move on from St Thomas More's. I wish her all the best and I thank her for her years of dedicated service to our community. While we wait to employ a new Admin Office Mrs Booth and Mrs O'Sullivan will be help us out in the office.

Finally, to share a little about me…

I have over 21 years of educational experience starting my career in Sydney, as a Catholic primary school teacher. After a few short years I had the need for an adventure so I moved to a remote Catholic community in the Northern Territory called Daly River. My family and I loved the Territory staying there for 12 years before starting a new journey to New Zealand, then China and Indonesia. Professionally I have had over 6 years principal experience and another 7 years in senior school leadership.

As an educator I am passionate about learning and believe that we are all life-long learners. I believe it is our job as educators to teach children, not just teach school subjects. I have a strong belief in a solid literacy and numeracy programme that integrates across all subject areas. I believe in teaching the whole child and that we are partners with you in your child’s education. I believe that we must embrace the tools and technology our children are using now so they become competent to ensure their future success in our modern ever-changing world. In the best classrooms I’ve seen, teachers use technology as a tool, like they would a reference book, a pencil or a piece of paper. Finally my overall belief on education is that successful education allows the child the opportunity to make their own informed decisions about what they want to do with their life.

My door is always open and I am here to serve you and your children by providing the best education for your child. I look forward to meeting you and if you wish to have a personal meeting with me please contact the office to arrange a time.

God Bless,

Mr Shayne Kidd
Principal

School Uniforms

Donations of outgrown school uniforms can be left at the office to be shared with families in our community. Any families needing uniform items please contact Jacquie Wood: jacquie.wood@catholic.tas.edu.au

Schoolzine Class Groups for 2018

Over the coming days parents/carers should receive an email with codes to join the relevant groups on the Schoolzine App. It is important that you take the time to join these groups, as information that is sent through Schoolzine to those specific class groups will only be received if you have joined the group.

2018 Schoolzine Calendar

All of the known dates for 2018 have been put into the calendar on Schoolzine. More dates will be added as they become available.

Seesaw Families App

We will be using Seesaw across the whole school from 2018 onwards as our classroom to home communication tool and digital portfolio. Previously Kinder to Grade 2 used Educa with Grade 3 to Grade 6 already using Seesaw.

Over the coming days you will receive a leaflet with instructions on how you and the rest of your family can connect to your child’s Seesaw portfolio. Please follow the instructions in this leaflet at your earliest convenience.

Below is a Youtube video explaining the basics of Seesaw.

Changes to Grade 5/6 Friday Sport

Please click on the below link to view a document concerning the change of Friday Sport to Gala Days for Grade 5/6 Students of Northern Independent Schools.

STM Techspot

Over the coming days each student will take home an ICT contract to sign for 2018. It is vital that parents take the time to sit down and read through this contract with their child before signing and sending back to school. Students will not be able to use technology at school until contracts have been signed and returned. In addition, Grade 5/6 students and their parents will also need to read and sign a one-to-one iPad agreement for 2018. Grade 5/6 students are not to bring their iPads to school until this agreement has been read, signed and returned.

STM Swimming Carnival

Please click below to see a notice regarding this year’s swimming carnival. A hard copy will also be sent home.

Email Communication between teachers and parents/carers

Many parents/carers use email to communicate with the school and with classroom teachers. email can be a very advantageous way to communicate, however it can also have downfalls. Below are some of the expectations the school has around email communication between parents and teachers.

• Try to be brief/concise. Teachers often receive anywhere from 20 to 100 emails per day and reading these emails can be extremely time consuming.
• Be patient when waiting on a response. Teachers can not reply to emails during class time (they are teaching your child), so don’t expect a reply until after 3pm. Also a reasonable timeframe for a reply is anywhere up to 24 hours, and can be longer in some circumstances.
• Don’t expect a reply on the weekend or after 5:30pm on weekdays. This is family time for our teaching staff and we would like to respect this time.
• Don’t send the teacher emails that are actually office related. For example, if your child is going to be picked up early to go to the dentist it is not good emailing the teacher at 9:30am the day you will be picking them up. This type of email should be sent to the office email address stm@catholic.tas.edu.au.

Below is a link to document from The Federation of Catholic School Parent Communities that goes into much greater detail in outlining expectations around Parent-Teacher Communication.

Fees

FEES: Thank you to all parents who continue to pay fees regularly through direct debit. Please be aware that at enrolment the signatories on the enrolment form continue to be responsible for fees even if family situations change.

RWVP Card

Parents, Grandparents and Caregivers are reminded that if they wish to do Parent Help with their children they must have a current RWVP card, which has been copied and held on file at the office.

How to apply for a RWVP Check & Number

1. Complete the online application form via the link below.
2. Print the “Application Receipt” which is generated when the application has been completed in full.
3. Take the “Application Receipt” (and your 100 point check to confirm identity) to a Service Tas Shop and pay the fee.
4. Take your RWVP card to the school office where your number will be recorded. If you are not recorded in the office you will not be able to do parent help, camp, etc.

UPCOMING EVENTS

TUESDAY 20 FEB - COMMENCEMENT MASS - 12:00PM START
THURSDAY 22 FEB - SWIMMING CARNIVAL @ RIVERSIDE POOL (GRADES 3 – 6)
WEDNESDAY 28 FEB – MUSIC PROGRAM INSTRUMENT ALLOCATION
THURSDAY 15 MAR – NIJSSA SWIMMING CARNIVAL
WEDNESDAY 21 MAR – CATHOLIC ED WEEK MASS

PLEASE SEE THE SCHOOLZINE CALENDAR FOR SACRAMENTAL DATES & INFO

2018 Term Dates

Term One - 8 Feb – 13 April
Easter - 30 Mar – 3 April
Term Two - 30 Apr – 6 July
Term Three - 23 July – 28 Sept
Term Four - 15 Oct – 20 Dec

Gallery

Building the new Playground

Learning on the first day back in 2018