St Thomas Primary School Celebrates 25 Years

ST Thomas Catholic Parish Primary School in Drysdale is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a community event in March.

Deputy Principal Lucy Wright-Smith said the school is delighted to invite all past and present school members, along with their families, to come along to the school grounds to see and celebrate the past two decades.

“It’s a showcase to see where we’ve come in the past 25 years… to see the change and just to celebrate the 25 years,” Ms Wright-Smith said.

On Thursday March 23 the school will be opening classrooms and grounds, with food and drinks trucks on site, and numerous other festivities to celebrate with past and present students, and their families.

“We’ve now got quite a few families that were students here; it’s the second generation of families coming through.”

As one of the pioneering staff, beginning in 1997 and deputy since 2006, Ms Wright-Smith said the school has plenty to celebrate.

She said when she began at St Thomas Primary School there were just 97 students in portable buildings.

Now more than 400 students attend, and the school boasts six buildings and extensive grounds including veggie gardens and chicken coops.

Among the many achievements to be celebrated is the school’s dedication to sustainability.

Five years ago, St Thomas was named a 5-star sustainability school by ResourceSmart Schools, under Sustainability Victoria.

“One of our big accolades is that we are one of the very few 5-star sustainability schools in the area. There are four areas we focus on: waste, recycling, biodiversity and water,” Ms Wright-Smith said.

“We are careful about the use of our water, our electricity, and we minimise the use of rubbish. There are a whole lot of different modules that sustain our sustainability…. we’ve kept that going for at least 10, 15 years.

“We used to have sheep and blue gum forests… and we still have chooks and the children are all involved in giving them food scraps, letting them run free-range, collecting eggs… they’re pretty involved.”

The anniversary event is at St Thomas Primary School, Drysdale, on Thursday, March 23, from 5.30pm to 9.30pm.