Term 4 - Week 9 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from https://www.lords-prayer-words.com/times/farewell_prayer.html 

From our Principal

Dear Parents / Guardians,

As my time at St Thomas More’s draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your cooperation and friendship over the past twelve years. I have enjoyed sharing many good times with you, and your support has helped me through the difficult times. Together, we have achieved a great deal and I am confident that the school will experience continued success as you enter a new phase in our school’s history.

This week we also farewell Sarah Benvenuti, Rebekah Groer and Janice Wark. I would like to thank them for their dedication in sharing their talents to achieve the best outcomes for our students. It has been a pleasure working with them and I wish them every success in their future endeavours.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a safe holiday.

2023 Teachers

Below are our teachers for 2023. We are currently allocating students to classes. A slip with class placements will be included with the 2023 calendar that will be sent home on Thursday.

Unfortunately, we have had a teacher withdraw from a position and we will need to run another recruitment process. The class teacher allocations may change depending upon the outcome of this process.

Prep – Rebecca Nystrom, Melena Luck, Katie Hargrave
Year 1 – Joy Wright, Lynda Rowling / Deena Jones (share teaching)
Year 2 – Charmaine Tancred, Lisa Souter
Year 3 – Annette Grimshaw, Emily Candale, Matthew Barnes
Year 4 – Carmel Weier, Clare Wilson
Year 5 – Leah Berry, TBC
Year 5/6 – Russell Fechner
Year 6 – Anita Roberts, Erin McVeigh

HPE – Stacey Hancock
Music – Liz Skinner
Japanese – Katie Almeida
Teacher Librarian – Margy Heuschele

Leadership Team – Duane Wann, Kristin Byrne, Trish Wardle

God Bless

Michael Cash 

Principal

From our APRE

It is hard to believe we are in the midst of our last school week of 2022. What an extraordinary year we have had this year AND what an insanely busy week we have to finish our time together for the 2022 school year. 

Last night we gathered together to farewell our amazing group of Year 6 students. It has been an absolute pleasure working with our school leaders this year on various projects and I am sure the whole school community joins with me in wishing our Year 6 leaders all the best for the big adventure that is High School! Congratulations to our Award Winners this year ...

Academic Award: Darcy Thompson and Toby Williams

Cultural Award: Makenzie Ryan

Sports Award: Will Koelmeyer and Braith Stower

Ryan Teakle Award: Olivia Ward

Kathy Davis Award: Ava Spain

Tanisa Norbu Living Life in all its Fullness Award: Aimee Schulz

This week as well as farewelling our Year 6 leaders, we will also be farewelling some of our STM staff. Best of luck to Mrs W, Miss Groer and Miss Benvenuti. We will also be officially farewelling Mrs Haddin, who will not be returning from leave. We wish you all the best with your new adventures. 

We also farewell our fearless leader Mr Cash this week. I think Mrs Wardle and I said it all in our official speech last week. Mr Cash, thank you for 12 years of service to our STM community. You will certainly be missed.

As we farewell our Year 6 students and staff who are leaving our STM community, we also have the exciting job of electing our school leaders for 2023. Congratulations to all the Year 5 students who shared leadership speeches last week. I was very inspired by your speeches and know you are going to be enthusiastic and passionate leaders next year! Congratulations to our 2023 school leaders ...

Student Representatives: Scarlet Haywood and Harrison McCarthy

Service Club: Emma Staff, Mckenzie Wiffen, Oliver Fyffe, Brooklyn McKay, Evelia Gerke, Bella Harch, Isaac Barron and Anakha Nipin

Hall House Representatives: Kuai Ayii and Izabella Randall

Finbarr House Representatives: Scarlett Melrose and Nathaniel Bation

Leonard House Representatives: Tamsyn Milligan and Fletcher Gilbert

MacKillop House Representatives: Emilia Dewar, Zara Tancred and Xavier Macdonald

As the year is drawing to a close, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all students, staff and families in our STM community. This year has not been without its challenges but I certainly feel a defining feature of St Thomas More's is our compassionate and caring school community. I certainly felt no shortage of care when I was hobbling about after my surgery earlier this year! Thank you all for a wonderful year. I wish you all a happy and safe Christmas break and I can't wait to see you all back and reading to tackle another school year in January. I'd like to leave you this week with some of my highlights from 2022 ...

Matilda the Musical was such an amazing experience for our whole school community. I was blown away by the enthusiasm of our STM performers. Thank you to all the parents, teachers and students for helping to make our 2022 musical such a success. As always - thank you to Evention as well. Your support of our musical was amazing. 

I have had the absolute pleasure of working with a small but mighty group of exceptional Service Club leaders this year. You have endless enthusiasm and I hope you continue to nurture your gift for service as your take on your next educational adventure. 

It may seem strange, but our SRIP (school review process) from my perspective was such a great experience for our school community this year. We received some really useful feedback from our community and I can't wait to see where to next for STM!

While COVID-19 is not behind us just yet, it has been nice to be able to open our doors again to our community this year. Events like Under 8s Day (pictured above), Grandparents Day, Reading PAP sessions and Socktober have been such a treat. 

Our Year 5 Hero Retreat was a great experience this year for staff and students alike. I can't wait to see what our 2023 school leaders will do with their passion and enthusiasm. 

Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum 

During Term 4, we will be implementing the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum. This curriculum has been developed to support Queensland schools’ delivery of key safety messages to students from Prep to Year 9. Through a series of lessons, students will learn how to recognise, react and report when they are unsafe or find themselves in situations that can have a significant detrimental effect on their physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing.  

We encourage you to talk to your children about what they are learning in class. The following table outlines the content areas to be covered by each class this year.  

Prep to Year 2 

 Year 3 to Year 6 

Further information about the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Lessons and Curriculum can be found at ...  

Lessons: https://danielmorcombe.com.au/keeping-kids-safe-resources/keeping-kids-safe-lesson-plans/  

Curriculum: https://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/stages-of-schooling/daniel-morcombe  

If you would like further information about what the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum involves, please contact your classroom teacher or Miss Kristin Byrne (Kristin.Byrne@twb.catholic.edu.au).   

TCSO Family Life Lessons 2022 

At the end of this term, the Sexual Health Education Program (better known as Family Life Lessons) will be taught to children from Prep to Year 6. Please have a conversation with your child/children and clarify any questions that they have after these lessons. 

These lessons are part of the curriculum of our school and all schools across this Diocese. They form part of the Personal, Social and Community Health Strand of the Australian Curriculum and follow the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Toowoomba, Guidelines for Teaching Sexual Health.  

Please be assured that this material will be handled with sensitivity. Below is a brief overview of the content covered across the school. You will also receive a note home with further details for each year level. If you have any questions or concerns about the content being covered or your child's participation in these lessons, please contact your classroom teacher.  

God Bless.

Miss Kristin Byrne

Assistant Principal: Religious Education

Once again, a huge thank you to Evention for your sponsorship and support of our Matilda Jr. production this year! You went above and beyond and we are so very thankful! 

Important Dates to Remember for Term 4

Due to Lower School swimming, some adjustments have been made to our school calendar. Please make sure you check the calendar dates below and note any changes - especially the Junior School Swimming Carnival. 

From Our Sport Desk

Junior Swimming Carnival 2022 Prep-Year 2 

Dear Parents, 

This year our Junior Swimming Carnival will be held on Thursday 1st December at the TAS (Toowoomba Anglican School) swimming pool, access via Wirra Wirra Street. Children in Prep – Year 2 will have the opportunity to participate at this carnival. We invite parents to attend this carnival if they wish.  

We will leave school via bus at the conclusion of the End of Year Mass (approx. 11am) to hopefully start by 11:30am and we intend to be back at school by the end of the day. All Prep-Year 2 teachers will attend the carnival. We encourage all students to attend regardless of their swimming ability.  

Shorter lap lengths and novelty races ensure that this is a memorable day, whilst building confidence in the water prior to joining the more competitive races at the upper school swimming carnival in years to come. Some events will include freestyle/kickboard, noodle and other novelty races. 

No ribbons will be awarded at this carnival as this is purely a non-competitive carnival to encourage fun in the water. Adults will be placed in each swimming lane and will be available on the sides of the pool to assist if required.  

The school will provide buses to transport students to and from the carnival. 

Children can wear their sports uniform and wear their togs underneath or get changed at school before getting on the bus. They will also need to bring a towel, goggles (if needed), swimming cap, sunscreen, lunch and a drink bottle.  

*All Year 2 students participate in this carnival, even if they would also like to participate in the Senior Swimming Carnival if they are an 8yr old and can confidently swim either 25m or 50m* 

If you have any further queries, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s classroom teacher or myself. 

 Senior Swimming Carnival 8-12 Years 

**We have been lucky enough this year to be able to invite parents to come to our Senior Swimming Carnival. However, we are still restricted by compacity limits within the aquatic centre. If everyone can be mindful with the number of adults that come to watch and for how long they watch, we are confident that we won’t reach the compacity limit. Thank you in advance for being considerate and mindful.** 

The 2022 swimming carnival will be held on Tuesday 29th November at The Glennie Aquatic Centre. This year the swimming carnival will be open to all students born from 2010 to 2014.  

The Central Zone and Catholic Carnival Teams for 2023 will be selected from the results of the 50m events. Correct technique is a requirement for some strokes. The Central Zone Carnival will have strict nominating times that will need to be adhered to. Children born 2014 will be eligible to be nominated in these carnivals in 2023 if they choose to swim 50m events at our school carnival.  

 BUSES WILL LEAVE PROMPTLY AT 8:40am 

Important Information  

• A teacher will be on duty from 8am at the venue.  

• Years 3-6 teachers will attend the carnival. We encourage and it is expected that all students attend the carnival regardless of their swimming ability and have a go in at least 1 event. There will be no supervision at school for these year levels.   
• Kickboard events are for competitors who are not competing in the 25m or 50m events.  
• Competitors may only swim one distance per stroke i.e. 50m Freestyle or 25m Freestyle or 25m Kickboard. Not all three.  
• Students who are capable of swimming 50m in a particular stroke are strongly encouraged to do so.  
• Only competitors who nominate as 50m swimmers will be eligible for age champion. 

• Only 50m events will have heats if there are sufficient numbers. Otherwise 50m events will be straight finals.  
• Only 50m events will be timed.  
• Ribbons will be given to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th places of kickboard, 25m and finals of 50m events.  
• Age champion trophies will be given to 9yrs-13yrs champion swimmers who nominate/compete in 50m events. 
• Some events may have to be combined due to the number of nominations but will be judged separately.   

• Open 100m Freestyle and Open 4x50m Individual medley events are for house points ONLY.  

God bless,

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher 

Awards

Wonderful work from our Week 8 award recipients. Keep up the great work! 

From our Service Club

We have two weeks left of our Vinnies Christmas Appeal. Please keep bringing your donations in. Speak to your classroom teacher if you are not sure which family your class is supporting.   

 You might like to bring in … 

You can bring your donations right up until the last day of school this year. Remember, you can bring something second-hand but it must be in good condition.  

 God Bless.

Service Club

Classroom Newsletters

From our Tuckshop

NO TUCKSHOP THIS WEEK

Open every Friday.  Please place your childs order through FlexiSchools by 1pm Thursdays and please supply a Paper Bag for your childs order.

From Our Office

From our Uniform Shop

The Uniform Shop will be back to normal hours this term.

Monday 8.00am – 8.30am

Wednesday afternoon – By Appointment

Friday 8.00am – 8.30am

If these times don’t work for you please email your order through to THOuniform@twb.catholic.edu.au and the orders will be at the office for collection at your convenience.

Need some uniform alternations?

A hem taken up?  A skirt taken down?  Some buttons adjust on a shirt?   Give Mrs Fix It a ring and see if she can help.   

From our P&F

P&F committee for 2023

The October AGM returned Kylie Haywood to the Presidency, Shontelle Petrie to the Vice Presidency, Jacqui Milligan as Secretary and Jacinta Mah Yen as Treasurer.  Tina Walsh and Jacinta MacGovern were elected committee members.  Andrew Ward has been elected as the diocesan representative.  It is also expected that Megan Boulus will accept her nomination as diocesan representative at the November meeting. 

Next meeting 14 November 2022

As it is our last meeting for the year, and our last meeting with Michael Cash as principal, we’ll be having drinks and nibbles from 6.30. We’d love to see you there.  The meeting will start at 7pm.  All parents and carers welcome. 

About the P&F

If you’ve always wanted to be involved with the P&F, but keen to know more - you’re in luck!  We’ve created a flyer that gives an overview of what we do and why we do it. We are grateful for our wonderful school community.  We hope you feel the spirit of our community too.  If you’d like to know any more information or are interested in volunteering in any capacity, do contact us.  

Thank you!

A huge thank you to Westridge Fruit and Vegetables for their continued support with the donation of fresh fruit every week for our students!

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From Our Parish