Our Feast Day was a great success last Friday with the school's pilgrimage from Telopea Park to the Cathedral to celebrate the Jubilee Year of Hope. We are so appreciative to Skye McPadden for her coordination of the event, including preparing our Year 6 leaders to facilitate their group activities, purchasing pilgrim bags for each child and providing the children with a lanyard or ribbons to swap with other pilgrims. Our adventure will be celebrated in the upcoming Catholic Voice Newspaper. We are also thrilled to share the following email that came through from a parishioner of the Cathedral:

 

We also had 70 people RSVP to the Family Mass and BBQ on Sunday, which was the official day of St Thomas More's Feast. It was a great community event for our Parish and School to come together. We especially thank Shelle and Jo from the Community Council for their coordination and efforts.

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Miss Tully Brynes to St Thomas More's from next Term. Tully will be teaching in 5/6G and taking on the PE specialist role. Tully met the school community yesterday and is looking forward to commencing in mid July. We also take this opportunity to wish Gwen Tarleton all the best as she prepares for her move to the US for 18 months. We look forward to welcoming Gwen back to our community in 2027!

Thank you to Penny Vanzwol for preparing and leading our Cyber Safety Workshop last night. We had 6 families in attendance who took the opportunity to sit with their child/ren to reflect on their device use in the home and ensuring they are being safe. Please contact Penny if your family was unable to attend and are interested in her running the workshop at a later date. 

Our second Open Council Meeting for the year was held last night with some new faces joining the discussions. The attendees were able to evaluate our events this term and make decisions about events moving forward. We also spent time reviewing the draft plans for the top carpark and came to an agreement to increase the size of these works in the pursuit of improved safety for our students. The plans will be taken to our parish council for their review before being released as a draft to the school community.

We are currently calling for donations for our Vinnies Winter Appeal with the dedicated giving day to be Monday 30 June where the students will come together in their pilgrimage groups to learn about the importance of outreach through social justice. Please refer to the flyer in the newsletter for the allocated items for your child/ren's class.

Following on from our Parent Teacher Interviews, we will release the Semester One reports through Compass on Friday. Parents are able to request the distribution of grades for their child's cohort by emailing their classroom teacher. We hope you were able to gain further insight into your child's successes and areas for growth this week and we know you would join us in affirming our teachers for all the time and effort that has gone into preparing the reports and interviews.

The last day of Term Two will be next Thursday 3 July with the first day of Term Three being Tuesday 22 July. TeamKids will be available for the two pupil free days and the holiday period. We wish you all a restful break after what has been a rewarding term of learning at STM!