Term 4 - Week 2 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

From our Principal

This coming Friday, St Thomas More’s will celebrate Grandparents Day. Grandparent’s Day is an opportunity to honour ‘Grandparents’, while acknowledging the vital role they play in the family unit’s expanding circle of love – a circle that will continue to be more and more important to the family with the passage of time.

I was reading that the Greeting Card Association in Washington, D.C. estimates that ten million greeting cards will be sent to grandparents on ‘Grandparent’s Day’ this year, reinforcing the intangible bond that links families and generations. 

The power of that bond is not without its surprises.  The affinity between grandparent and grandchild has expressed itself through the ages, defying explanation.  Author Lewis Mumford once wrote, “The commonest axiom of history is that every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers.” 

The grandparent makes the past real to grandchildren, relating personal tales of childhood as well as Daddy’s and Mummy’s, bridging generations, and often times, nations, race or creed, depending on the family’s heritage.

Children tend to view their grandparents as a reliable source of unconditional love and approval, sometimes to the point of vexing parents.  The incidence of vexation has spawned a number of definitions, including the following:

“A grandfather is a grandchild’s press agent”;

“A grandmother is a kindly lady who keeps your mother from spanking you”; and

“grandparents are people who come to your house, spoil your children and then go home”. 

Any parent who has felt a twinge of envy viewing the easy relationship between grandparent and child is advised to turn to the Book of Proverbs: 

‘Children’s children are the crown of old men: (but) fathers and mothers are the pride of their children.”

Thanks for reading…

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

From our Acting APRE

Grandparents Day - Friday, October 13^th

This Friday we celebrate Grandparent’s Day at STM. Please see a rough outline of the timing of the morning below:

8.40 – 9.00am: Prayer Celebration in the Sportscentre.

9.00 am – 10.30 am: Classroom visits

Grandparents will need to bring a hat and a snack to share with their grandchildren. Students and grandparents will be able to sit together to eat morning tea in one of three designated areas. Tea and coffee will be available.

We respectfully request grandparents DO NOT PARK in the CHURCH Car Park. Staff will vacate the STM Hall Carpark (Gravel car park next to the STM Parish Hall) for families to use in the morning.

We look forward to welcoming our STM grandparents on Friday 13th October.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mrs Wardle (patricia.wardle@twb.catholic.edu.au). 

Children's Mission Day Liturgy – Wednesday 18^th October

As part of Mission Month, St. Thomas More’s Primary School has been invited to hold the Children’s Mission Day Liturgy. The liturgy will be held on Wednesday 18th October commencing at 11.30 am in the St Thomas More’s Church and will be led by our Service Club. This is the first time that a Toowoomba School has been invited to host a Children’s Mission Day Liturgy. Over the next two weeks, our Service Club will be busy preparing for this liturgy which will see representatives from Toowoomba Catholic Education Office and other Toowoomba Primary Schools congregating at the St Thomas More’s Church.

SOCKTOBER – Thursday 19th October

Our Socktober Kick-Off will be held on the 19^th of October.  For a gold coin donation, students will be able to wear their craziest socks with their normal school uniform and have a chance to join in our Socktober Kick-Off. If you would like to raise additional money, use our Socktober school page below to donate or create your own linked account. https://www.socktober.org.au/fundraiser/StThomasMoresSchoolToowoomba

Students are more than welcome to bring along their own 'sockball' to use at our Socktober Kick-Off.

We are looking for parent volunteers to be kick-off goalies. If you are available to give us some help on the morning of the 19^th October, please let me know by sending an email to patricia.wardle@twb.catholic.edu.au.

For more information about socktober, please visit www.socktober.org.au

Family Mass – Saturday, October 28th.

This Term we celebrate Family Mass on Saturday , October 28^th as part of the 6: 00 pm Mass at the St Thomas More’s Church. We warmly invite all STM families to come along and join the parish to pray and celebrate.

Families who would like to be part of the Mass in a special way (reading carrying forward symbols or singing) will need to let Mrs Wardle know via email ASAP.

It would be great to see as many families as possible at Mass on Saturday 28^th October!

God Bless,

Mrs. Wardle

Acting APRE

From our APRE (from a distance)

Greetings from St George! I hope my STM family have had a great start to Term 4! I hope you don’t mind me crashing your newsletter but I wanted to take a moment to share some of my holiday experiences with the school community that means so much to me!  I was fortunate enough over the holidays to spend some time in the Holy Land on a pilgrimage with several other staff across the Toowoomba Catholic Schools network. Having heard stories about Jesus’ life since I was a little girl, the concept of the Holy Land has always been fascinating to me and to finally have the opportunity to walk in the places where Jesus walked and be in the places where the stories I have heard so many times played out was quite a special experience.  

Over the course of the two-week pilgrimage, we visited sites of significance in Jesus’ life in both Jordan and Israel, which really gave me a new understanding and appreciation for those stories that are so familiar. We visited places including the Baptismal Site on the River Jordan, Mary’s house in Nazareth, the site of Jesus birth in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, thought to be the site of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.  

Growing up in rural Queensland, I listened to and understood these stories through a very Australian lens and was very taken aback by the harsh conditions in the Holy Land. I always thought of the River Jordan as this lush, green space; to which it could not be more opposite. The road to Jericho where the parable of the Good Samaritan takes places was always a nice little path sheltered by trees and some greenery … when in reality it is totally barren and quite literally surrounded by desert. While the landscape was very different to what I had imagined, the sacredness of these special places was very much present; most likely through the shared experience and understanding of those stories so dear to the Christian population.  

I have so many stories and reflections I could share, but I will keep it brief and just share a few happy travel snaps! I think it’s especially important in light of recent events in the Holy Land to share these stories and experiences and keep those places closes to our hearts and in the forefront of our prayers.  

God Bless 

Kristin Byrne

APRE (from St George) 

Important Dates to Remember

AWARD Recipients

Congratulations to our Term 4 Week 1 Student of the week award recipients.

Student Protection Contacts

From our Sports Desk

Term 4 Interschool Sport 

Interschool sport will continue this Friday. Children have nominated for their preferred sport. AFL girls have received a mouth guard form that will need to be completed and returned before they will be able to play. Mouth guards are compulsory for AFL. There are no special requirements for boys touch and mixed volleyball.  

Boys Touch - Kearney Springs Touch Fields 

Girls AFL - Concordia (Stephen Street) 

Mixed Volleyball - Toowoomba East State School  

Please ensure that your child/children have a water bottle and hat for Term 4 sport. 

Draws - Friday 13th October  

Boys Touch – Kearney Springs Touch Fields 

1:35pm Senior A vs St Mary’s Gold F1 

1:35pm Senior B vs DHSS Yellow F8 

12:50pm Junior A vs Fairview F1  

Mixed Volleyball – Toowoomba East State School  

12:50pm Senior B vs Toowoomba East  

12:50pm Junior A vs Toowoomba East  

1:35pm Senior A vs Highfields 1  

1:35pm Junior B (team 1) vs Toowoomba East  

12:50pm Junior B (team 2) vs Toowoomba East  

Girls AFL – Concordia (Stephen Street)  

12:50pm Senior A vs Fairview  

1:35pm Junior A vs Fairview

Prep – Year 3 Swimming Lessons 

Children in Prep-Year 3 will be provided with 5 swimming lessons through Darren Lange Swimming Academy this Term. Due to the pool at Centenary Heights being renovated over the past few months, we are still waiting on confirmation with which pool we will be able to use so we can book our lesson dates in. Hopefully this will be locked in this week and more information will be able to be sent home to parents early in Week 2.    

Senior Swimming Carnival 

The senior swimming carnival will be held at Glennie on Tuesday 28th November. This carnival is open to all children born from 2011 – 2015. Keep an eye on for the nomination link that will be sent out to families in the coming weeks.   

Junior Swimming Carnival 

This year our Junior Swimming Carnival will be held 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 are just awaiting final confirmation of which day in the last week of term it will be held.  

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 busses to transport students to and from the carnival.  

Children can wear their sports uniform and wear their togs underneath. They will also need to bring a towel, goggles (if needed), swimming cap, sunscreen, morning tea and a drink bottle.  

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

God Bless,

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher

Thinking STM for Prep in 2024 ...

Class Newsletters

Catch up on all the individual classroom news, click the link below.

From our P & F

A reminder that the P&F AGM is next Monday, 9 October 2023.  Currently, we have no nominations for any positions on the executive (President, Vice President, Secretary or Treasurer).
 
If you’re interested in nominating for any positions or just want to know more - feel free to contact Kylie (Kyliehaywoodbusiness@gmail.com) or Shontelle (Shontelle.Petrie@gmail.com) 

From our Tuckshop

Open every Wednesday & Friday.  Please place your childs order through FlexiSchools by 1pm Tuesday for Wednesday & 1pm Thursday for Friday. 

Tuckshop Menu

From our Uniform Shop

From our OSHC

Good Afternoon St Thomas Mores Families,

I hope the children have transitioned well into the new term. Can you believe we are nearing the end of 2023 already? Where does the time go.

The theme this week has been Adventure Time, which was chosen by the children last week at vacation care. The children are really enjoying the themed activities.

Tuesday Miss Jannali facilitated a program called ‘Learn to Draw Adventure Time.’ The children really enjoyed learning how to draw the characters. Please see photos of pictures on the wall.

Wednesday I held an Adventure Time Bingo game. Only the girls played bingo for some reason. Unsure why. They won prizes at the end.

Thursday Miss Laetitia and the children created some Adventure Time Iron Bead Creations. Some of the children created other things with the iron beads, which is ok too.

Today Miss Hayley will run a program called ‘Create your own Adventure Time Character. This should be a great activity for the children to put their creative minds to work. Can’t wait to see the results.

As the weather is warming up, and the days are getting longer, we are staying out longer in the afternoon.  The boys especially like that idea.  

Also Zoe chose the cooking experience this week, and the children had tacos as a special treat on Wednesday afternoon. We generally ask the children after roll call and group time, if they would like to go straight out and play, or have afternoon tea. On Wednesday we had nearly a 90% intake on afternoon tea 😊 They were a great hit. Thank you Zoe for picking tacos.

Our Class Dojo is still very popular, and we have our first winner of a gift voucher , congratulations Madeline, you were the first to reach 30 points.  Our Group times have improved greatly since introducing Class Dojo. The children are so gracious when someone gets to the highest mark first , cheering them on.

Until next week, please enjoy the pictures below. Sorry not as many as usual .

Have a great weekend , from Debbie and the team.  

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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