Term 1 - Week 10 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

Prayer retrieved from https://www.courageouschristianfather.com/jelly-bean-prayer/ 

From the Principal’s Desk…

This coming Sunday, the Christian community will embark on what is called ‘Holy Week’. Holy Week for Christians is a time of special meaning. It is a week during which we do things that we don’t usually do and hear things we usually don’t hear. Holy Week has been held in great reverence since the very early years of the Church and no other Christian observance has interested the world so much. The rituals of the Church are complex and laden with meaning. 

Passion Sunday, also known as Palm Sunday, commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem where He is proclaimed King, as many people of His time were seeking a political leader. We, like those who greeted Jesus, use palms to show our willingness to accept Jesus as our leader and to follow Him.

In the three days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, the Church gives us a dramatic, intense and symbolic expression of the very heart of Christian belief. By participating in the liturgical ceremonies of these three days, we can deepen our understanding of what it means for us to be a Christian.

There are Christian people who find it difficult to come to Church any more. They have had experiences with the Church that have been hurtful to them or they feel the Church has little or nothing to offer them. Such people are closer to Jesus than they might have imagined. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, He was entering the holiest city of the Jewish religion, the city of the Great Temple a place so revered that only the High Priest was allowed to enter it.

Yet, it was in Jerusalem that Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused, humiliated and handed over to an occupying force by the senior religious leaders, so He could be tortured and executed.

Like everything that happened in Jesus’ life there is something to be learned from this experience. Jesus’ belief in Himself and the purpose of His life was being tested to the extreme. Even though things did not seem to be working out the way He might have expected, the events that followed were totally momentous.

For people who have suffered religious hurt, Jesus’ experience is saying yes, there is real hurt, yes, it can be confusing but it is possible to rise above it all and to come back again to the beliefs you once had. Maybe Holy Week is a time for quiet reflection and to be reunited with your faith.

Holy Week is definitely a week with a difference and spiritually rewarding for those who willingly take part.

Thank You!!!

As this will be the last newsletter for the term, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all who have volunteered their time in some capacity over the term. Whether it be in reading groups, working bees, committees, social events etc., your assistance doesn’t go unnoticed and is valued by the teachers and myself.

Term 1 certainly has flown by. It was a great start to the year and it has been very rewarding to see how quickly the children have settled into routine and the level of school work produced in a short period of time has been exceptional.

Have a very happy and safe Easter break and I look forward to seeing you all back for the beginning of Term 2 on Tuesday 18^th April.

Lucky Number Plate:  St Thomas More’s Car Stickers

St Thomas’s More’s Car Stickers have been distributed to most classes (we are yet to share with all families as of yet).  Be sure to place your St Thomas’s More’s Car Sticker on your car to be in the running for a $50 Rebel Sport voucher to be announced at the conclusion of Term One!

Parent/Volunteer Sign In/Sign Out Reminder

Please be reminded, parents/guardians who volunteer their time and support within the school (classrooms, sport, tuckshop, library, parent meetings etc) are required to sign in at the School Administration Office prior to commencing duties.  At the conclusion of voluntary duties, it is essential to sign out at the School Administration Office.  

When dropping children to school late, collecting children from school early or returning children to school after meetings or appointments, please be mindful to sign back in through the School Administration Office.

Medical Conditions Procedure

Medical Management Plans/Emergency Action Plans

1. For students with a medical condition or diagnosis requiring a Medical Management Plan/ Action Plan, these are to be developed and signed by a medical practitioner and provided to the school, or when the condition or diagnosis become known to the student’s parents/carers.
2. Medical management plans for ongoing medical conditions must be updated each year, or when circumstances change.

          Medication Administration

1. In situations where administration of medication is required whilst at school, and parents/carers are unable to administer the medication, staff will only be permitted to administer medication to a student if
2. the medication is accompanied by a Medication authorisation form completed by the parent/carer or doctor, and
3. the medication is in its original package with pharmacist’s label which clearly states:
4. the student’s name
5. dosage
6. frequency of administration
7. date of dispensing
8. expiry date (expired medication must not be administered).

Students Diagnosed with Asthma and/or Anaphylaxis

1. are to have a medical management plan and emergency action plan in accordance with this procedure
2. must provide medication and other equipment required for the school to provide asthma (including spacer) or anaphylaxis first aid

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Student Protection Contacts

A letter from Mr Wann

ANZAC Day March 2023

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=_f1LV0RCBUK3EBaPWwxYDVEERCGDGCJCgwix6VAyIT9UQ1RLMVRLWVZWWlhONlRLR001M0gzMUhXNi4u 

From our APRE

A big thank you to Mrs Weier and 4 Blue for leading the whole school so prayerfully for our Harmony Week Prayer Celebration last week. You perfectly captured the theme of Harmony Week ... Everyone is Welcome. This week our Harmony Week Hallway of Hearts will start to take shape. Students from Prep to Year 6 spent some time last week learning about some of the cultures from our STM community and created hearts to reflect the unique artwork associated with these cultures. 

Over the weekend we celebrated our first Family Mass of 2023. Thank you to all the STM families who were able to come along and share in such a special experience with our STM Parish. A special thank you goes out to all our readers, symbol bearers, and singers (both past and present students). You did a wonderful job leading Mass. 

Stations of the Cross

This Thursday, a small group of Year 5 students will share the Stations of the Cross in the Sportscentre from 1:40 pm with our STM school community. All families are most welcome to attend. 

Project Compassion 2023

Our Project Compassion Campaign for 2023 is in its last week! If you still wanted to donate any Easter Eggs for our hampers, please send them in before Wednesday this week. Raffle tickets can be purchased until Wednesday for 50c each from my room. Our Easter Raffle will be drawn at Assembly this week, which will be at the usual time (8:40 am) on Thursday. 

Worship Choir

Worship Choir is back this week. Children from Year 2 - Year 6 are welcome to attend on Tuesday at First Break. It's been great to have so many lower-school children along in the past few weeks! 

Volunteering at STM in 2023

We love our parent helpers at STM! Any parents who would like to volunteer at STM this year will need to complete the TCS Volunteer Induction. This needs to be completed each year by parents who volunteer at our school. Please email me (Kristin.Byrne@twb.catholic.edu.au) if you would like an induction pack sent home. 

Catholic Education Week

Although Catholic Education Week is a long way off yet, nominations for both the TCS Excellence Awards and the Spirit of Catholic Education awards are now open. These awards celebrate the wonderful staff and volunteers we have in our Catholic school communities. If you have a teacher, member of staff, or volunteer you would like to nominate from St Thomas More's, we encourage you to put their name forward. Please liaise with Mr Wann about any nominations submitted as school Principal permission is required. 

Visit https://catholiceducationweek.com.au/catholic-education-week-awards/2023-spirit-of-catholic-education-awards-nomination-form/ to enter a nomination for the Spirit of Catholic Education Awards. 

Visit https://www.twb.catholic.edu.au/about-us/about-us/toowoomba-catholic-schools-excellence-awards/ to enter a nomination for a TCS Excellence Awards. 

Thank you to our whole St Thomas More's School community for a wonderful term. I wish you all a safe and happy Easter and I cannot wait to see everyone back and ready to tackle Term 2 after the holidays. 

God Bless.

Miss Kristin Byrne

Assistant Principal: Religious Education

Thinking STM for Prep in 2024 ...

Miss Byrne's Important Dates to Remember for Term 1

From Our Sport Desk

Cross Country Results 

Prep Girls  
1st – Ivy 
2nd – Chloe 
3rd – Audrey 
4th – Amelia  

Prep Boys 

1st – Eddie  
2nd – Ollie  
3rd – Connor 
4th – Christopher 

Girls 2016  

1st – Ester  
2nd – Adelyn   
3rd – Ava 
4th – Michele  

Boys 2016  

1st – Thomas  
2nd – Taj 
3rd – Tristan 
4th – Steven   

Girls 2015 

1st – Mia   
2nd – Florence  
3rd – Scarlett  
4th – Lauren  

Boys 2015 

1st – Tyrell  
2nd – Louie  
3rd – Ryland   
4th – Billy 

Girls 2014  

1st – Ella  
2nd – Addison   
3rd – Penny 
4th – Aaliyah  

Boys 2014  

1st – Levi  
2nd – James 
3rd – Darcy  
4th – Ryan  

Girls 2013  

1st – Audrey   
2nd – Arianna 
3rd – Makayla   
4th – Amelie   

Boys 2013  

1st – Hamish   
2nd – Jonathan  
3rd – Christian   
4th – Mitchell   

Girls 2012  

1st – Kate  
2nd – Amelia   
3rd – Harper  
4th – Zara  

Boys 2012 

1st – Peter  
2nd – Jordan  
3rd – Jordan   
4th – Seth   

Girls 2011 

1st – Kiara   
2nd – Tamsyn   
3rd – Emilia   
4th – Scarlet   

Boys 2011 

1st – Xavier  
2nd – Nathan   
3rd – Cooper  
4th – Kobi   

 Overall House Points  

1st – MacKillop 
2nd – Hall  
3rd – Finbarr  
4th – Leonard  

Representative Sport 

Well done to Piper, Erin and Jamie for trialling at the Toowoomba hockey trials last Thursday. Congratulations to Erin and Jamie who were successful in making the Toowoomba Hockey team. We wish them the best of luck as they head off to the Darling Downs trials in April.  

Good luck to Scarlet, Annie, Tamsyn, Grace, Piper, Izabella and Mya when they head to the Toowoomba Netball Trials on Tuesday.  

Good luck to Xavier who is trialling at the Darling Downs softball trials on Tuesday.  

 T-Ball Gala Day – Year 4 
The Year 4 students will head to a T-Ball gala day on Tuesday 28th March. Students will be catching a bus to and from the gala day. Please arrive at school by 8:30 am. Students will need to wear their school uniform, have their school hat, sunscreen, water bottle and food for the day. Any questions, please speak to your child’s classroom teacher.  

God bless,

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher 

From our Service Club

Year 6, don’t forget that you are welcome to join Service Club from Week 2 next term. We would love your help! We meet each Wednesday at First Break. You will need to bring your lunch with you.  

Don’t forget we have one more week of our Project Compassion Mission. You can buy a raffle ticket for 50c or donate any money you would like to your classroom box. Let’s try and raise over $1000 for our mission to make a real difference for people who are less fortunate than us!  

Our CARITAS Project Compassion focus person for this week is Priscilla. Priscilla is from Zimbabwe in Africa. She is 59 and she lives with her husband and her grandchildren. Priscilla’s family earn a living by crop farming, which can be hard with climate change impacting how much rain there is in Priscilla’s town. This drought can cause a shortage of food and a loss of income for Priscilla and her family. Currently, over 50% of families in Zimbabwe live in poverty with not enough food and clean water.  

CARITAS helped Priscilla’s town to set up some community gardens where they grow food that can grow all year round that they use to eat and to sell. They also have a poultry and cattle program that helps them earn money as well. CARITAS has helped the community look after their cattle and protect them from ticks, sickness and illness caused by hunger. Priscilla and her family are very thankful to CARTIAS for their financial support and helping them get the knowledge and skills they need to earn a living. CARITAS does this great work with donations, so please donate what you can to our Project Compassion Mission.  

Have a great week.

God Bless,

Anakha and Mckenzie from Service Club 

From our House Representatives

Don't forget we have our fun Sport Morning this Wednesday during Before School Play.

 The fun games and activities that we will share with you include … 

• Parachute games 
• Pop up tag and stuck in mud
• Skipping  

 Come to school as normal and we will have these activities set up for before school play. 

We hope to see you there.  

Have a great week.

God Bless.  

Your 2023 House Representatives. 

Week 9 Awards

Well done to our students who were recipients of awards last week. Keep up the great work!

From the LOTE desk

Hi and Konnichiwa!

My name is Maddie Bermingham and I am the LOTE Japanese teacher at St Thomas More’s. I am a past student of STM and was also a Year 3 Teacher in 2018. I then lived in Japan for 3.5 years where I taught English to Japanese people of all ages, babies to grandparents. I’m excited to be back and sharing the language, culture and my experiences in Japan with your children.

It’s great to see that many children already have some knowledge about Japan!

Over the year for students in years P-6, I endeavour to expose students to the Japanese culture including where Japan is located in the world, Japanese culture and traditions, some greetings and classroom language such as please raise your hand, please stand up, please be seated, etc. Students will also be exposed to some of the characters/script used as part of the Japanese writing systems – Romaji (English letters to represent Japanese), Kanji (picture characters to represent words), Hiragana (phonetic characters unique to Japanese) and Katakana (phonetic characters unique to Japanese for words from other languages). There will be some variations across the year levels. I will be utilising a variety of mediums to teach students including the use of music, video clips, and books.

Please feel free to contact me via email – maddie.bermingham@twb.catholic.edu.au – if you have any questions.

Sayonara

Maddie Bermingham 

Japanese Teacher

From the Library

Classroom Newsletters

Parent Engagement

Please find attached the minutes from the Parent Engagement meeting for March. 

If you would like to learn more about the purpose/drive of Parent engagement, I find the Catholic Parent Schools Queensland website a great resource - https://www.cspq.catholic.edu.au/parent-engagement

Our next meeting will be held in Term 2 on Thursday 4th May at 3.15 pm. Please note that we will now meet in the LOTE room (the same room we were in for March) as there is more room there. 

If you have any agenda items or questions please send them through. 

kyliehaywoodbusiness@gmail.com 

From our Tuckshop

Tuckshop Menu

Open every Friday.  Please place your childs order through FlexiSchools by 1pm Thursdays. 

News Flash: 

Exciting things happening in the Tuckshop

Tuckshop will open Thursdays and Fridays in Term 2.

From our Uniform Shop

The Uniform Shop Trading Hours.

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

Thank you to the following sponsors who kindly donated Lucky Door prizes for the community dinner 

Horizon Accounting 

Brad Rae Painting 

VIPersonal training

Edgy Hedges Yard Maintenance 

From the St Thomas More's Parish

Please find attached the bulletin for this week. 

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!

A huge thank you to Meat Cellar for their continued support for our school events.

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