Term 4 - Week 4 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

From our Principal

This coming Friday, we recognize and honour the crucial role teachers and educators play in building better communities.  This day reminds us that teachers and educators deserve to work in a supportive environment, have access to professional development, and be empowered to be innovative and creative to ensure their students can succeed.

From critical thinking to coding and literacy, educators are helping the next generation develop the skills they need to adapt to our rapidly changing world, succeed in tomorrow’s economy, and find solutions to future challenges. Teachers go above and beyond their basic job descriptions. On any given day, they serve as mentors, advocates, and counsellors to their pupils. Educators act as guides who inspire students of all ages to give the best of themselves while learning and growing as individuals.

On behalf of St Thomas More’s, I thank all teachers and educators for the incredible work they do and their adaptability every day on the job. Thanks to your dedication and commitment, you continue to change lives and communities for the better.

I encourage families from St Thomas More’s to recognise and acknowledge via email, face to face or letter, their class or specialist teacher or educator who has made a real difference this year.

As part of our Catholic faith, Mary, the mother of Jesus, is an extremely important person.

One story which often resonates with older primary children was the time young Jesus was lost from his parents’ care (Luke 2:41-52).

A day after travelling back from the Passover in Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph were alarmed to find the twelve year old Jesus was not with the caravan of travellers returning home. Jerusalem’s population at the time was possibly around 25,000 people but, during the Passover, may have swelled to as many as 100,000. You can imagine a frantic Mary and Joseph travelling against this tide trying to seek their missing child.

Of course, the story ends well, as after three days, they discover Jesus in the main synagogue, surrounded by learned men aghast at the wisdom of this natural born scholar. Frustrated Mary appears to scold Jesus ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.’ ‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he was saying to them.’

The passage then ends ‘And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart’.

To me, this is a clear recognition of the humanity of the person of Mary, a good mother struggling with the vagaries, confusions and surprises of parenting.

I’m sure many of you can relate to this story – that stomach churning terror when you realise a child is missing, even if only for ten minutes. I’m sure you have ached at some time contemplating the grief of the Morcombe family and the tragic loss of their son, Daniel. (Now 20 years ago.)

This Friday 27th, we remember, not just Daniel, but also the legacy his family has chosen to create for him in the Day for Daniel. The Day for Daniel is a National Day of Action to raise awareness of child safety, protection and harm prevention.

It is about educating children and adults about keeping kids safe through child safety and protection initiatives.

It aims to help empower our children to ‘Recognise, React and Report’ if they feel something is not right.

The objectives of Day for Daniel are:

• To raise awareness about child safety and protection and to promote a safer community for children.
• To educate children regarding their personal safety and empower them to ‘Recognise, React and Report’.
• To provide free safety and educational material.
• To honour the memory of Daniel Morcombe.
• To have as many as possible Australia wide participate in Day for Daniel.

Day for Daniel is also an opportunity for Australians to make a statement that crimes against children are not acceptable in modern Australia. This Friday, we invite our children to wear red accessories in recognition of Day for Daniel.

Thanks

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

2024 Staffing Update

Hayley Fairweather (Class Teacher):  After a number of years teaching at St Mary’s School, Goondiwindi, Miss Fairweather will return to St Thomas More’s as a Class Teacher for 2024.

From our Acting APRE

 SOCKTOBER Kick-Off.

Thank you to our STM Community for raising over $400.00 as part of our Socktober Kick-off. All funds raised will go towards supporting children in Timor-Leste to have a brighter future. 

Mission Month Children's Liturgy

A huge congratulations to our Service  Club Students and a small number of our Year 5 volunteers who presented the Mission Day Children's Liturgy last Wednesday. This is the first time that a Toowoomba Catholic School has hosted this event. We were lucky to also have had a number of other Catholic Primary Schools and staff from TCEO join us on this day.

Day for Daniel

This year we celebrate the Day for Daniel on Friday, October 27^th. We invite all students in our STM school community to show their support for the Day for Daniel by accessorising their school uniform with red on Friday!

Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum

During Term 4, we will be implementing the Daniel Mocombe 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. Further information about the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Lessons, resources and Curriculum can be found at https://danielmorcombe.com.au/keeping-kids-safe-resources/

Prep to Year 2 

 Year 3 to Year 6 

If you would like further information about what the Daniel Morcobe Child Safety Curriculum involves, please contact your child’s classroom teacher or Mrs Patricia Wardle-  Patricia.wardle@twb.catholic.edu.au

TCSO Family Life Lessons 2023

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.

Family Mass - Saturday 28th October - 6.00 pm

This Saturday, 28^th October we will celebrate Family Mass as part of the 6.00 pm Mass at the St Thomas More’s Church. We invite all STM families to come along and join the parish to pray and celebrate.

Vinnies Christmas Appeal

This year, STM will once again participate in the Vinnies Christmas Appeal. Each class how now been allocated a family within the Toowoomba community that is doing it tough at the moment. We encourage all our STM families to bring in a donation to place in the classroom hamper for the appointed family. Donations may consist of toys, personal hygiene products, clothes, etc. All donations will be collected by Vinnies in the last week of term.

God Bless,

Mrs. Wardle

Acting APRE

Important Dates to Remember

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 27th October  

Boys Touch – Kearney Springs Touch Fields 

12:50pm Senior A vs Fairview F5 

1:35pm Senior B vs Glenvale F5 

1:35pm Junior A vs St Mary’s White F8  

Mixed Volleyball – Toowoomba East State School  

1:35pm Senior A vs Highfields  

1:35pm Junior A vs   

12:50pm Senior B vs Highfields 2  

12:50pm Junior B (team 1) vs T  

12:50pm Junior B (team 2) vs  

Girls AFL – Concordia (Stephen Street)  

12:50pm Senior A vs Toowoomba East   

1:35pm Junior A vs Toowoomba East   

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. My apologies with how long this is taking, however, we are still waiting for final confirmation.     

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, at our last meeting we had no nominations for x3 positions on the executive (President, Vice President or Secretary).
 
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. 

NEW Tuckshop Menu

From our Uniform Shop

From our OSHC

A Snapshot of our week!

Dear St Thomas Mores Families,

I hope you have had a great week. We have had a week of Paw Patrol as a children’s choice theme for this week.

I have to be honest and up until this week had not watched one episode of Paw Patrol.   As I mentioned in previous emails , we have short 3-to-4-minute videos and then a question-and-answer time after.  I got one of the characters wrong on Monday, and it was pointed out to me very clearly by the children that Miss Debbie got it wrong. So, I ensured for the rest of the videos that I watched and took note of the names of the characters.

Monday – Miss Hayley and the children designed their own Paw Patrol puzzle. The children had a great time with this activity, and we were thinking of extending it further in to other themes.

Tuesday- Miss Jannali ran a Paw Patrol Bingo Game with prizes for the winners.  Bingo is always fun for the children.  Miss Charlotte and I and a few children had a handball tournament. It was team based, and it was the children against the educators. Every time we went up to play, the children would chant, ‘get the educator out, get the educator out’. It was a great afternoon. The children ask every day since if they can play handball.

Wednesday – Miss Gemma and the children made Cake Pops. The before school care children made the cake pops and then the afternoon children put chocolate or vanilla icing on them. They were very tasty. Even the staff put their hands up for some. Miss Gemma said that the morning children enjoyed it so much that she is going to plan for them to cook something for breakfast and they can eat it after.

Thursday- Miss Hannah had a Paw Patrol scavenger hunt. Scavenger Hunts are always popular. Miss Fran use to run them when she used to be here, and they were always popular. Miss Hannah said that she was going to make it a bit trickier next time, as the older children guessed it very quickly.

Friday- Miss Laetitia is having a Paw Patrol drawing competition. See who can draw the most imaginative paw patrol character.  The children also love to dress up as their favorite super heros.

And the boys found a mud puddle Which after this picture was taken they were asked to move away from ..sorry boys

Next week the children chose Octonaughts. Another program that I do not know anything about, so I will be upskilling, and looking into Octonaughts over the weekend in readiness for next week.

On Thursday the 26^th, it is ‘Day for Daniel’. I am sure the school is doing something, but we will just watch a short video from Daniel’s Mum and Dad, and all staff will wear something red.

Reminders :

• Just a quick reminder if your child is going to be absent, can you please go into Xplor and mark them as absent, or send a tx and we will be happy to mark them absent on your behalf. If we are not aware that your child will be absent , then the procedure is that we will ring until we can speak to someone to ensure your child is safe. This will take staff off the floor to make these calls. If we are not able to reach the main carers, we will need to call the emergency contacts.
• When picking up your child of an afternoon , can you please let an educator know you are leaving with your child. Sometimes, we can be involved in activities and may not see parents come in, especially if we are outside. There is generally always someone inside where parents sign their child out, so I am hoping that the staff inside will acknowledge you when you arrive, if not , please just let them know as they also may be involved in a discussion with a child or an activity. This way we can ensure everyone is safe and accounted for.

I just wanted to add some information for some parents regarding cancelling permanent bookings etc.  

-              A Government enrolment will automatically cease after 12 weeks of no attendances; one can be re-created at this time for the parent to approve in Centrelink.

-              If a child doesn’t claim CCS in 26 weeks, Centrelink will cease the claim entirely and a new claim will be required to be submitted and approved with Centrelink.

-              A child must not be absent on their first or last booked day or CCS will not be paid.

If your child has not attended at least once in 12 weeks, the government enrolment will cease . To stop that from occurring you need to only book your child in for one afternoon or morning booking in the 12 weeks to stop this happening.

Also, if you are cancelling your child’s permanent booking , you will need to give 2 weeks’ notice, as per the cancellation policy, so hypothetically your child’s last day of the 2 weeks’ notice period is the 20^th October , your child needs to attend on the 20^th October so you do not lose your CCS entitlement .   

I hope the above information helps. If you have any questions regarding enrolments, cancellations or bookings, please drop in or give me a call on the number below.  My hours are as follows.

Monday to Thursday 10:30am-6pm, and Friday 6:30-2pm.

I am still waiting on a few Asthma Action Plans for some children. As mentioned in my email last week, we are required to have these current, and on file.  Asthma Action Plans are only valid for 12 months.

In closing , I hope you enjoy the pictures attached, and have a wonderful weekend. See you all next week.

Kind Regards

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.

Notice Board