Our Community

The 2024 School Year - A Reflection

Written by Mr Casimir Douglas (Principal)

“This is the real secret of life – to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realise it is play.” 

– Alan Watts

The quotation above from British philosopher, writer and speaker, Alan Watts, comes from his Essential Lectures Collection recorded in 1972, from a lecture titled, Work & Play. It speaks partially to Hungarian psychologist’s Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research on flow state, and the wellbeing benefits of being so immersed and focused on our task that we lose track of time itself. But it also speaks to both seeing and seeking work as play. To empower ourselves to be engaged in work that promotes dynamic engagement, creativity, experimentation, curiosity, and wonder. The learning, personal growth, and self-actualisation that this mindset promotes is self-evident. 

And this is the task of Catholic education, to not only prepare and deliver these experiences for students in the classroom each year, but each and every single day. Every day is different, and every student is different, and designing and cultivating an educational experience that caters for the vast range of variables presented to a school community is an imperfect science, but a science that we are committed to approaching with a spirit of play and pursuit of excellence. The journey of 2024 for St Thomas More’s Catholic School has not been without its challenges. But without challenge there cannot be growth. I will attempt to capture some of that unique journey of challenges and successes here, in as much as words can emulate experiences.

The central pillar and focus of our school is our faith and our Catholic identity, and in 2024 our students participated in: daily class prayer; Monday morning Prayer Assemblies; weekly class liturgies with Fr Jessie Banez, Fr Vinco Muriyadan, and Fr Leonard Caldera; a number of whole school Masses held in the Church including the Feast Day of St Thomas More; weekly Christian meditation on Tuesday mornings; multiple Making Jesus Real sessions each term with Mr Davie; raising money for Project Compassion; and welcoming His Grace, Archbishop Julian Porteous, to celebrate Catholic Education Week Mass with us in our Church. 

There were a number of unique initiatives, some commenced and some completed, in the 2024 school year to enhance student learning, celebrate student achievement, and promote the life of the school to the community. This included the continued implementation of the Insight initiative, so that the principles of evidence-based high impact teaching practice are evident in every class, every day; the incredible Little GEM Production at the Door of Hope, featuring 180 of our Early Years students as choreographed by Adam and Sarah at TasDance; the review and renewal of the school’s approach to positive behaviour support in terms of the structures, incentives, rewards, routines, and expectations; and the planning, development, and publication of the Strategic Plan (2025-2030): Fostering Greatness, which seeks to ensure that every student finds their voice, that we deliver high performance teaching, that we establish our school as a leader in wellbeing practices, and that we commit to resourcing our growing community.

There were also a number of significant upgrades made to the school environment, both aesthetically and functionally. This included the installation of the new hybrid Basketball Hoops/Futsal Goals; the replacement and upgrading of the fencing on the courts; the installation of the timber panelling on the western wall of the School Office building; major plumbing works to improve drainage and the schools stormwater capacity in school holiday periods; the repairs and maintenance for the Grade 1/2 More classroom; the creation and installation of the Gospel Values Actions posters as visual environmental cues, and the purchasing of the land on which the old Parish Presbytery currently sits to enable planning for the commissioning of a new Early Years facility as a major building project.

As we anticipate the holiday break ahead, and embrace the opportunity for renewal and recreation, I encourage the staff, parents and students of St Thomas More’s Catholic School to use this time to seek stillness and quiet reflection. The rhythm of busyness in our lives tends to persist as we transition from school days into holidays; the season of giving brings with it a season of organising, budgeting, travelling, and buying. Rather than giving in to our preoccupation with the external pressures of agendas, demands, and requests, may we make the time in silence to discover the truth of what drives us from within: the love of God and the love of our family and friends. To finish I would like to express my most heartfelt and sincere gratitude to all those who have contributed to the task of educating and forming our students in 2024.

God bless.