Dear St Thomas Aquinas community,

Today we farewell Georgia Edwards, 4 Green teacher, who is taking leave to have her baby. We wish Georgia and family all the best in the coming weeks as they welcome a new member of their family. Ms Lily Kennelly will teach Year 4 Green for the remainder of the year. 

Yesterday we celebrated 100 days of Kindergarten. I loved visiting the classes and reminding them how much they've learnt since starting school in February. When asked, the students talked about knowing how to write lower case letters, how to count to 100 and how much they like their new friends.

I have been teaching since my first class in 1990. My first 5 years was spent teaching K/1 and then three years in Year 2 before teaching older year levels. I have four children that are now young adults. I have a soft spot for those youngest children at school. Celebrating one hundred days in Kindergarten is a perfect reminder of the extraordinary growth that happens in the first few years. There is so much learning that occurs. As a teacher and parent it is so satisfying to see the growth happening before our eyes. 

I would like to congratulate our amazing teachers and classroom assistants who work in Kindergarten and the younger years. Their dedication, skill, warmth and kindness knows no bounds and the children genuinely flourish under their care. It's a pleasure to work with such an amazing team of educators.

Kindergarten Health Checks

Our Kindergarten Health Checks are occurring this week. It is a service provided by the ACT Government for students across all schools in Canberra. They take basic measurements of vision, hearing and growth. It is an opportunity to provide early advice for students whose learning may be impacted by these. The information is reported to families and not schools. If important information arises from these health checks please do inform your child's teacher.

Bullying No Way 

Next week is Bullying No Way Week across Australia. Bullying can occur in every school, sport team and workplace. Wherever people come together, no matter our best intentions, there is always a risk of bullying occurring.

We take bullying seriously at St Thomas Aquinas as part of our Positive Behaviour for Learning Statement of Practice. Preventing and responding to bullying effectively requires a clear definition of what bullying actually is.

The national definition of bullying in Australian schools says:

Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through
repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical,
social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing
their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it
from happening.

Bullying can happen in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices
and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert). Bullying behaviour is repeated, or
has the potential to be repeated, over time (for example, through sharing of digital
records).

Bullying of any form or for any reason can have immediate, medium and long-term
effects on those involved, including bystanders. Single incidents and conflict or
fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.

Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include:

• mutual arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)
• not liking someone or a single act of social rejection
• one-off acts of meanness or spite
• isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.

However, these conflicts still need to be addressed and resolved.

Likewise not all online issues are bullying. (Online bullying is sometimes referred to
as cyberbullying and refers to bullying that is carried out through information and
communication technologies).

Children in primary schools are still learning how to have positive and healthy relationships. Social skills are learnt, we are not born with them. Children need support and time to understand when the situation they find themselves in might be bullying. Sometimes they even need to be shown that their own actions might be bullying others. In our school, particularly in the younger years, if bullying occurs it is responded to and used as an opportunity for everyone in the social group to learn how to have better, positive friendships.

Working together to reduce and prevent bullying

We can be much more effective when parents report bullying and support our efforts to deal with it.

If your child reports that bullying is occurring at school, or the bullying involves students from the school outside of school (e.g. online), you should let the teacher know the situation.

Working together with the teacher is the best way to help your child resolve bullying issues.

Teachers will work with you to resolve the situation and will also work with the other student's parents. Due to privacy laws, we will not be able to share information about any other students involved.

Building and maintaining a positive school culture, filled with healthy relationships, takes all of us. Bullying is a complex issue and requires working together to prevent and respond effectively. We are committed to supporting positive, healthy relationships at school for staff, students and parents.

For more advice about bullying in schools please see the links below in the newsletter.

Matthew Garton

Principal