Dear Families, 

We are coming to the end of Week 6 of the school term. Thank you to the dedicated staff of STM who have continued to provide the best learning experiences for your children. This week will be our first full week for our Prep students who have had Wednesday as a non-school day. We look forward to having our newest students attend school full time!

Family Holidays 

Holidays are a great opportunity for families to connect with each other. In the case that a family wishes to take a holiday during the scheduled school term, the parent/guardian must make contact with myself to grant a leave of absence for their child/ren. This is a legal requirement put in place by the Department of Education. 

Staff News

Natasha Stefkova has made the difficult decision to move to Queensland mid year and will be  ending her employment at STM on Friday 23rd June. Natasha has been part of the STM community for nearly 13 years. It has been a pleasure having her here at STM and will be sadly missed. Please be assured that Natasha will continue to work with your children to maximise their achievements and wellbeing. I will be advertising for a teaching position in Term 2 and rest assured there will be a thorough handover of student information.  

Upcoming School Tours:

We look forward to welcoming future families to our school for the first of our 2024 Open Day Tours. The tours will be held on:

Tuesday March 14 from: 9:30 – 10:30am

Tuesday March 21 from: 9:30 – 10:30am

6:30 – 7:30pm

We cannot wait to show everyone the amazing learning spaces within our school! 

Our New Agreement - EBA 

Over the past year, negotiations have been taking place between MACS and our union, IEU, to negotiate our new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA).  One of the outcomes is that teachers will be eligible to receive time in lieu if directed to participate in activities outside of school hours. The implication of this is that outside of hours events may be affected or staff may not be present at them. We will endeavour to continue to hold STM school community events as we have in the past but there may be some adjustments needed. 

Teacher workloads have been a major component of the new EBA.  At this stage, we have not been required to reduce school hours as some schools have had to do but I will be attending further briefing sessions to ensure our school meets the requirements of the EBA.

I will keep you informed when further information is available. I thank you in advance for your understanding.

Casual Clothes Day

On Tuesday March 7 students are invited to wear casual clothes and asked to bring in a donation of Easter items in lieu of a gold coin donation. The Easter items (chocolate, crafts, toys) collected will be made into Easter baskets and raffled off in the last week of Term 1. 

Dad's Dinner

it's not too late to rsvp your attendance, please see the 'Community News' section below. 

Kind regards, 

David Hurn 

Principal 

MARCH

• Thursday 02nd - School Photos Day

• Tuesday 07th - Casual Clothes day - donations for the Easter raffle in lieu of gold coin

• Tuesday 07th - Volunteering at STM Parent session @2.30pm in the staffroom (see info under Learning and Teaching)

• Wednesday 8th - STM Dad's Dinner  - see info below

• Monday 13th - Public Holiday - Labour Day

• Tuesday 14th - Open Day - 9:30am

• Tuesday 21st - Open Day - 9:30am & 6:30pm

APRIL

• Sunday 02nd - Daylight Saving Time ends

• Wednesday 5th - Inform and Empower Parent information session @7.00pm - see info below under Wellbeing

• Thursday 06th - Last day Term 1 

• Friday 07th - Good Friday

• Sunday 09th - Easter Sunday

• Monday 24th - 1st day back Term 2

• Tuesday 25th - Anzac Day - Public Holiday

**'Public Events' are listed on our website under 'News and Events', the link being; https://www.stmhadfield.catholic.edu.au/news-events

On the bottom right hand side there is a blue box with a + symbol. If you have a google account, you can link the 'Public Events' calendar to your own personal Google calendar and keep up to date with the most current events and times.

Please don't hesitate to contact the office if you have any questions.

Dear Families, 

Thank you for all the feedback we have been receiving over the Seesaw platform that we use at St Thomas More. You will have noticed that there have been a few changes from previous years. We would like to explain the purpose of Seesaw, and how it will be used moving forward. 

The Seesaw platform allows teachers and students to share posts about their learning in real time. These learning posts are a snapshot of student learning. You will be able to see formative assessment evidence of your child’s progression of  skills and knowledge in their learning, across key areas of the curriculum. The posts support St Thomas More’s Reporting and Assessment processes. 

Educators are engaged in the core business of learning and teaching. Each Year level team will post two areas of learning per week for you to view and comment. Teams will plan for these posts according to the designed learning. The learning posts will cover the Curriculum areas of Religion, Writing, Reading, Maths and Inquiry. Children will also have the opportunity to post one piece of learning of which they are most proud.

Specialists will make two posts per term. Due to the nature of their learning and teaching, and their classroom loading, their learning posts will be sporadic over the term.

The learning post will also indicate if your child completed the task independently or with support. The support may indicate that your child needed an adult to encourage, explain and affirm your child in their learning. Please remember, this is a snapshot of the learning, at that time. If your child needed support at that time, they may progress along the learning continuum to complete it independently, when they have fully understood and grasped the skill or knowledge. 

If you have not already done so, we encourage you to activate your alerts so you can see the posts. We also encourage you to make positive comments about your child’s learning. 

Comments could include:

I like the way you used different strategies to solve that problem. 

Wow! Your reading is getting better every day.

I am proud of you for practising your times tables. Look how many you know! I will continue to help you with them at home. 

I loved reading your writing! It is so creative. 

Teachers will also make class announcements. Announcements may include pictures from incursions/excursions, reminders about a Year level event, Sports Day, Easter Raffle etc. 

We hope that this explanation of the purpose of Seesaw is clear for all our families. 

David Hurn Rita Totino

Principal  Deputy Principal                      

If you are interested in becoming a Parent Rep for your child's class, joining the STMPA, or volunteering for fundraisers and events throughout the year, please fill out your details in this document, we would love to welcome you!

Regards,
Kate Mackintosh