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17 Jun	SAC Meeting 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM

23 Jun	Week 10 All day

30 Jun	Week 11 All day

4 Jul	Last Day of Term 2 All day

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Term 4 Week 8 St Thomas' Newsletter

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Girai Wurrung people of the land on which we live and learn. We recognise their continuing connection to land, water and community. We pay respects to elders, past, present and emerging.

Prayer

From the Principal

We were extremely busy last week. To have another Olympian to come to school was amazing. Gold Medalist Grace Brown was fantastic and the students thoroughly enjoyed speaking and listening to her.

Also last week our F-2 students had their day excursion which was full of fun. They braved the warm weather and had a terrific time.

Our Grade 5/6's had some MRC students run a health and P.E session. The grade 5/6 girls had a Netfit session with the assistance from Sarah Wall.

Be sure to look at our facebook page as it has been very active over the past couple of weeks with all these activities taking place.

Back to a little normality this week before December hits. With just over three weeks left we still have much to do.

Enjoy the remainder of the week.

Matt Uzkuraitis

News

ASSEMBLY: We will be having an assembly this week. PrepM will be sharing. We will have it at 2:45pm in the undercover area.

CANTEEN: Canteen prices are as follows:

Quelch Icy Fruit Tubes: 50 cents

Fruit Boxes: 70 cents

STATEWIDE TRANSITION DAY: The Statewide transition is to be held on Tuesday 1oth December. This is where students will spend a day in their 2025 classrooms.

2025 CLASS STRUCTURES: We have just about finalised our class structures for 2025. We will send out a letter informing you of this structures in the next couple of days.

P&F Christmas Raffle

The P&F are conducting their Christmas Raffle. They are asking for each family to donate anything ‘Christmassy’ to go towards the raffle. Donations can be handed in at the office. It would be great for donations to be handed in by Friday 6th December. Raffle tickets were also sent home today as well.

We will draw our Christmas Raffle winners at our end of year Christmas Concert on Wednesday 11th December.

School Advisory Council Meeting

Our School Advisory Council will meet next Tuesday 3rd December at 5:30pm in the school Library for a General Meeting and AGM. To those members agendas and minutes will be forwarded to your nominated email this week.

P&F Meeting/AGM

Last Tuesday night the P&F had their AGM followed by a General Meeting. The executive for 2025 looks as follows:

President: Ella Credlin Vice President: Melissa Irving Treasurer: Jo Kenna
Secretary: Clare Quirk SAC representative: Clare Quirk

The P&F also had some voluntarily roles which are as follows:

Volunteer Catering Committee: Cassie Greaves plus additional volunteers

Volunteer for Care Package Coordinator: Michaela Meade

Volunteer/s for Big Breakfast (Term 1 – week 6): Cassie Greaves plus additional
volunteers

Volunteer/s for Major Fundraising Committee: Melissa Irving, Joanne Kenna, Mel
Jones, Clare Quirk

If you would like to help out in any of these voluntarily roles please speak to a member of the executive. I extend my thanks to this years P&F executive team led by Ella. They have been active and passionate. I also extend my thanks for those taking on executive and volunteer positions in 2025. It much appreciated by our school community.

Assembly Awards

Student Awards

Name

Term 4, Week 7 2024

PREP M

Harry Gilmour

Aila Messer

For his fabulous writing efforts and 1st prize at the Noorat Show.

For being brave and confident to try new things.

Gr 1K

Ellie Sloane

Elijah Savory

For taking the time to proofread your own stories.

For using wonderful expression when reading.

Gr 2P

Jack Tuckett

Charlotte Taylor

Angus Selman

Alexander Rech

Ailish Meade

For being kind and inclusive of others.

For demonstrating resilience and leadership skills.

For being a kind class member and becoming more confident.

For being resilient and trying your best.

For trying your best and improving your reading.

Gr 3/4JM

Alex Gubbins

Angeline Richard

Jack Gilmour

For demonstrating a growth mindset and never give up attitude to learning.

For being an excellent example of St Thomas’ behaviour expectations.

For taking on extra responsibilities and fulfilling them diligently.

Gr 5/6C

Dekohda McVilly

Paddy Meade

Oliver Clarke

Annabelle Blackford

Jade Byron

For being an engaged learner during investigation projects.

For being an engaged learner during literacy.

For his amazing handwriting efforts and winning 2nd prize at the Noorat Show.

For her amazing handwriting efforts and winning 1st prize at the Noorat Show.

For creating a well thought out creative writing piece and winning 1st prize at the Noorat Show.

Gr 5/6B

Noah Conheady

Audrey Vaughan

For being responsible and a fantastic helper in the classroom.

For persisting with your work and making sure that you have completed and presented work of a high standard.

ART

Greta Conheady

Fin Moloney

For always doing your very best artwork! Beautiful presentation Greta!

For doing an amazing job following instructions to create your Elf!

Kora Wines

Alexander Rech

Alfie Rickard

For representing the school at the state track & field in shot put.

For great sportsmanship and effort in tennis and boot ball!

For persisting and never giving up each week in P.E. Great determination Alfie!

SPECIAL

Patrick Broad

Evie Kubala

Hudson McVilly

Schalk van Heerden

Paddy Sargeant

Zander Williams

For successfully completing Level 1 in MiniLit!!

Fletcher Gleeson

Hamish Messer

Olivia Knight

Harriet Conheady

Pen Licences.

Year 6 Final Assembly/Year 6 Dinner

Our Year 6 students will hold their Final Assembly on Friday 6th December at 9am in the Undercover area. This is where they reflect on their journey through St Thomas' and their primary schooling. We also announce some awards at this assembly.

We invite all our parents and friends to to this assembly next Friday.

Also, a reminder to our Year 6 families that we have our dinner celebration next Thursday 5th December 6-8pm at the school. It is BYO dinner and drinks. We will have the undercover set up with tables and chairs. The students will also be able to utilise outside to play. This is a great way to get the Year 6 students and the families together before they finish their primary schooling at St Thomas’.

End of Year/Graduation Mass

Our End of Year/Graduation Mass is set for Friday 13th December at 10am. Fr Jim will be leading us in this Mass. This Mass is a way to conclude our school year through scripture and the eucharist. We will formally acknowledge our graduating Grade 6 students as they venture off to secondary school.

We will also announce our school leaders for 2025 at this Mass. We invite all our parents and parishioners to this special Mass.

Glennen Foundation

Once again the Glennen Foundation have money to be distributed amongst young local families prior to Christmas. The Glennen foundation are willing to pay a portion of a families electricity account. This would free up some available funds for the children at Christmas. This is all done privately.

In order to apply, the Glennen Foundation would like the latest electricity account of which they will pay a portion of. Families can scan and email their electricity account to Terang Mortlake Conference trang.conf.sec@svdp-vic.org.au

The closing date is Friday, 6th December, 2024

Term 4 Important Dates

There are lots of activities planned for Term 4. Here are some important dates:

DECEMBER

Thursday 5th December - Year 6 Dinner at St Thomas' 6-8pm.

Friday 6th December - Grade 6 Final Assembly

Tuesday 10th December - Statewide Transition Day

Wednesday 11th December - End of Year Concert

Friday 13th December - End of Year Mass/Graduation Mass at 10am

Tuesday 17th December - Last Day of Classes for 2024

School TV

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Friendship & Belonging

It is not always easy for children and teenagers to always know how to manage friendships. Learning how to make new friends and keep them involves a number of skills every young person needs to understand and develop. For some these skills will come very naturally, allowing them to easily move between different friendship groups, sharing their experiences and opening up to new people. For others, this can be much harder to navigate. Belonging to a group that is like-minded with similar interests is highly beneficial to a child’s wellbeing. Friendships are full of ups and downs and it is better for kids to learn how to manage and build their own friendships, even though as an adult carer you may be tempted to interfere.

“The ability to obtain, maintain and retain friendships is, according to all the childhood psychologists in the whole wide world, the greatest predictor of wellbeing. Having a rich repertoire of friends is a true indicator of whether your child is travelling ok.”

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

School TV