St Thomas More's Primary School, Toowoomba eNewsletter

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/homeschool-helpers--52002570690665710/

From our Principal

During the period of the South-North Dynasty in China, there was a kingdom called Tuguhun. Acai was the emperor of this kingdom.

Acai had twenty sons, each one of whom was strong and skilled at fighting. Each had his unique expertise. When Acai was very ill, he called all of his sons together and asked each one of them to give him one arrow.

He then said to his younger brother, Mu Liyan, "Please take one arrow here and break it." Mu Liyan easily broke the arrow. Acai then said, "Please take nineteen arrows here and break them." Mu Liyan could no longer break the bundle of arrows.

Acai said, "Now do you understand? One arrow is very easily broken, while a bundle of arrows is hard to break. As long as all of you work together with one heart, our kingdom will be stable."

A principal’s job can be made or broken by the support they receive from families and at St Thomas More’s, we are very blessed to have such a committed group of families. When I look at the myriad of ‘things’ our families are involved in, on top of working and just running around after our children, it makes me extremely proud to be a part of this school community.

Two groups that any principal is delighted to be backed by is an active and positive School Advisory Council and Parents’ and Friends’ Association. At our monthly meetings, attending parents will be valued for their opinions, ideas and willingness to help.

The School Advisory Council supports the overall governance of the system as it gives consideration to, and advice on, important school matters in order to support the principal and the strategic interest of the school. The members of our School Advisory Council are: Nicole Ward (Chair), Duane Wann (Principal), Clare Wilson (Teacher Representative), Trevor Tolson, Kylie Haywood, Jess Tierney, Martin Mulder, Sarah Olive, Stephen Hooper and Chris Smythe.

The Parents’ and Friends’ assists with the provision of parent engagement and assisting to provide a quality educational environment for our children. Our P&F Executive are: Kylie Haywood (President), Mel Loach (Vice President), Jacinta Mah Yen (Treasurer), Greg Gola (Secretary) and Jo Plank (Diocesan Representative).

In Week Four we will hold our first School Advisory and Parents’ and Friends’ meetings for the year. I’ve previously giggled as to the many reasons why mums and dads enjoy attending P&F Meetings, however, this one takes the caked: “P & F Meetings were a wonderful way to get out of the house and have your husband feed, wash, dress and bed the children.” You can’t beat that!

Throughout the year, hopefully, we can be like the characters in the previous story and all become involved in our school-based associations. Your respectful and considered voice will be greatly appreciated at meetings.

Parent Information Evening: Tuesday 6^th February

Our 2024 Parent Information Evening is scheduled for Tuesday 6^th February (Week 3). As part of this evening, St Thomas More’s staff will present the following information:

Student Behaviour/Engagement Plan: Mr Anderson and Mr Wann will unpack the updated Behaviour/Engagement Plan (Behaviour Matrix and Follow-Up Processes). To confirm your interest in attending this presentation, please be encouraged to access the link to register: https://forms.office.com/r/9MuqafAscK
Principal Address: Mr Wann will welcome staff, parents and families to the new school year, while also sharing the Strategic Plan and Annual Action Plan
Meet Your Teacher: Your child’s teacher will facilitate a concise presentation which will cover various topics including, curriculum content, classroom, homework, and behavioural expectations.

The St Thomas More’s P&F will also be kindly providing ‘Wine and Cheese’ from 5pm – 5:40pm. Please be encouraged to prioritise this event in your calendars! Please find below the timetable for the evening:

4:30 pm – 5 pm: Student Behaviour/Engagement Plan Presentation

5:15 pm – 5:35 pm: Principal Address

5:40 pm – 6:10 pm: Prep, Year 2 & Year 4

6:15 pm – 6:45 pm: Years 1 & Year 3

6:50 pm – 7:20 pm: Years 5 & 6

Very much looking forward to meeting many St Thomas More’s families on Tuesday!

Afternoon Pick-Up Zone

On behalf of St Thomas More’s Parish and St Thomas More’s School, we are kindly and respectfully asking for parents/grandparents to refrain from ‘waiting’ in the St Thomas More’s pick up and drop off zone (Ramsay St entrance) until 2:50 pm.

The reasons being:

A lack of access to the lined car parks, which are available for your use and for parish use.
Congestion is blocking vehicles from moving through the car park
Work is still being undertaken on the grounds right up to 3 pm
It is a drop-off and loading zone not for parking

I understand this may cause inconvenience, however, your patience and flexibility in working with the Parish and School would be greatly appreciated.

School Lunches

In recent days we have experienced an increasing number of children visiting the Administration Office seeking food and fruit for lunch. Although we are happy to support families and children in need, we are also asking families to monitor lunch consumption and have conversations with children regarding eating requirements when at school.

Grooming Expectations

Please be mindful, hairstyles which draw attention to the individual, including but not limited to: mullet, scullett, mohawks, tracks, tails, hair colouring etc. are not permitted.

Before School Supervision

Before school duty commences at 8:15 am. Children who arrive at school before 8:15 am are kindly asked to sit in the ‘Quad Area’ until teacher supervision commences at 8:15 am.

Thanks for reading.

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Southern Cross Awards - Term 4, 2023

At the end of last year, we presented our Term 4 Southern Cross Awards to students in our school community. We are very proud of the final recipients of these special awards in 2023.

Congratulations to Connor, Sean, Harrison, Ivy, Tristan, Erica, Christian, Aaliyah, Millie, Isaac, Imogen, Nicholas, Grace, Audrey, Mitchell, Christopher (not pictured) and Emma (not pictured).

Southern Cross Awards will continue to be presented at the end of each term this year. Further information about these special awards will be shared closer to the end of this term.

From our APRE

Welcome to Week 3! What a wonderful two weeks we have had to start our 2024 school year. Our school theme for the year, find happiness in making others happy, is certainly alive and well in our community. Staff have done a wonderful job unpacking our theme for the year with students over the past fortnight and our whole school display is full of wonderful ways that we can make others in our community happy this year. I urge all members of the community to come and check out our display in the office if you have time and have a read of some of the ways our students and staff intend to live our theme this year.

Whole School Leadership Mass

Last week, we gathered to celebrate the start of the 2024 school year and to induct our amazing Year 6 school leaders for 2024. A big congratulations to all our Year 6 leaders. You led Mass confidently and respectfully. Thank you also to Father Nathan for celebrating our Mass with us. Due to technical issues, we don't have a whole Year 6 photo to share this week but we hope to publish one in our next newsletter.

Our Mass also acted as a re-introduction to our Student Representatives, House Representatives and Service Club Leaders for 2024. Congratulations to our elected leaders for 2024 ...

2024 Student Representatives

Audrey and Flynn

2024 Hall House Representatives

Mya and Jordan

2024 Finbarr House Representatives

Zoe and Mitchell

2024 Leonard House Representatives

Charlotte and Finlay

2024 MacKillop House Representatives

Wyatt and Makayla

2024 Service Club Leaders

Arlia, Grace, Indianna, Isla, James and Matilda

Mrs H and I have met with these leaders in the past two weeks, and they have some wonderful ideas for the year ahead. Watch this space!

During Mass, we reflected on the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This Bible story ties in well with our theme for this year, showing how the kindness of one person can make a huge difference to the life of another.

2024 Sacramental Program

The 2024 Sacramental Program at the St Thomas More’s Church begins soon. Students from Year 4, 5 and 6 are most welcome to join the program this year, which includes Penance, Confirmation and First Eucharist. Further information about the Sacramental Program is available from the Parish Office. You can contact them via email at parishoffice@stthomasmores.org.au

Sacramental Program letters have been sent home with Year 4 students. Families with Students in Year 5 and Year 6 who wish to be part of the Sacramental Program this year can collect Sacramental letters from Tammy in the office.

Please note that students need to be baptised to participate in the Sacramental Program

Term 1 Value ... JOY!

This term, we focus on our school value of Joy. Last year, our school community did a great job of unpacking our four school values. The journey continues this year, switching our gaze to include how our values are reflective of our 2024 school theme.

Making a link between joy and happiness is pretty easy … to many both bring to mind the same thoughts and feelings. When we find happiness in making others happy, we are both spreading and receiving joy. Joy is a great gift we can give to others and to ourselves. I encourage everyone in our school community to reflect on the joys they experience in the coming two weeks. What things do you do that make you joyful? What things do other people do that make you joyful?

In the coming week, our Year 6 leaders and the staff will be on the lookout for students (and staff too!) who are shining examples of joy in our school community.

Triple M Weather Reporter

Triple M have reached out to STM in their hunt for students to help present the weather on the radio of a Wednesday morning. Families can nominate students for this special experience using the link below. Make sure you tune your radio to Triple M to see if we have any STM weather reporters!

Nominate your children here!

Thanks for such a wonderful start to the 2024 school year!

God Bless

Kris Byrne

Assistant Principal Religious Education

Term One Important Dates

Date	Event	Year Level
Tuesday February 6	Parent Information Evening	All Welcome
Wednesday February 7	School ID Photo's	Prep Only
Friday February 9	Catholic Swimming Carnival	Selected Students Only
	Prep Chronicle Photos	Prep
	Year 6 Parish Mass 9:30 am in the STM Church	Year 6
Monday February 12	P&F Meeting - 7 pm	All Welcome
Monday February 12 - Wednesday February 14	Year 5 Camp	Year 5
Tuesday February 13	School Advisory Council Meeting	SAC Members
Wednesday February 14	Ash Wednesday Prayer Celebration from 2:15 pm in the Sportscentre	All Welcome
	Valentine's Day
Friday February 16	Year 5 Parish Mass 9:30 am in the STM Church	Year 5
	Interschool Sport	Year 5 and Year 6
Sunday February 18	Family Fun Day	All Welcome
Friday February 23	Year 4 Parish Mass 9:30 am in the Sportscentre	Year 4
	Interschool Sport	Year 5 and Year 6
Friday March 1	Year 1 Parish Mass 9:30 am in the STM Church	Year 1
	Interschool Sport	Year 5 and Year 6
Friday March 8	Year 2 Parish Mass 9:30 am in the STM Church	Year 2
	3 Red Prayer Celebration 11:20 am in the STM Church	Year. 3- Year 4
	Interschool Sport	Year 5 and Year 6
Monday March 11	P&F Meeting - 7 pm	All Welcome
Tuesday March 12	School Advisory Council Meeting	SAC Members
Wednesday March 13 - Monday March 25	NAPLAN Testing Window	Year. 3 and Year 5
Friday March 15	St Patrick's Day Green Accessory Day Wear green accessories with your school uniform	All Year Levels
	Year 3 Parish Mass 9:30 am. in the STM Church	Year 3
	2 Blue Prayer Celebration 11:20 am in the STM Church	Prep - Year 2
Tuesday March 19	STM Cross Country	All Year Levels
Thursday March 21	Harmony Day - Wear Orange!	All Year Levels
Friday March 22	Prep Parish Mass 9:30 am in the STM Church	Prep
	4 Blue Prayer Celebration 11:20 am in the STM Church	Year 3 - Year 6
Thursday March 28	Last Day of Term 1	All Year Levels
	Holy Week Prayer Celebration 1:45 pm in the Sportscentre	All Year Levels

From our Middle Leader

NAPLAN 2024

This year, Students in Year 3 and Year 5 will take part in the 2024 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) from Wednesday 13 March to Monday 25 March 2024. Please mark these dates on your calendar.

NAPLAN assesses Literacy and Numeracy skills that students have learned or are currently learning at school. On its own, NAPLAN is not a test that can be studied for, and students are not expected to do so. NAPLAN does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance.

Students participate in a total of 4 tests over the testing window including Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language, and Numeracy. All tests are completed online using a laptop except for the Year 3 Writing Test which is a pencil and paper test.

Students and parents wishing to familiarise themselves with NAPLAN can visit https://www.nap.edu.au/ where you can access the demonstration site example papers and parent information about NAPLAN. Students in Year 3 and Year 5 will also be engaging in online practice tests over the coming weeks to build familiarity with the online test environment.

A test schedule will be made available to parents over the next week or two. If you wish to discuss your child’s participation in NAPLAN, please get in touch with me as soon as possible at Patricia.Wardle@twb.catholic.edu.au

God Bless

Trish Wardle

Middle Leader

From our Sports Department

Catholic and Central Zone Swimming

Congratulations to the following children who have been selected to attend the Catholic Swimming Carnival and Central Zone Swimming Carnival.

Tyrell, James O, Ollie, Levi, Aaliyah, Ruby H, Mya, Grace O, Zoe R, Flynn T, Jordan D, Makayla, Christian, Jonathan and Hartley.

Good luck and all the best for the carnivals.

Cross Country Training

(From Mr Fechner)

We will begin early morning Cross Country Training for the children from Year 3 to Year 6 and any Year 2 children turning 8 years old on 21st Feb from 7:20 am -7:50 am at Anderson Park for those children who would like to do some extra training before the School Carnival on the 19th March. We will try to run the training each Wednesday and Friday Morning up until the carnival. If you wish your child to participate in one or both, please fill in the form on the portal and return it to me by the first Wednesday (February 21) or when students come to training. I will be assisted by Matthew Barnes (Year 3 Teacher) and Mr. David Andersen (Year 5 Teacher) who have kindly offered to assist with training.

Each child will require a water bottle and any medication that may be required ( e.g. Asthma puffer ), as well as a possible change of socks and shoes (if the grassat the park is very wet). Children can wear any training clothes and will be able to change into their school uniform at school after we walk back to school.

For more information about Cross Country training, please contact Russell Fechner - russell.fechner@twb.catholic.edu.au

From our Counsellor

The Resilience Project and Life Skills Go

We are excited to introduce to you some new wellbeing initiatives we have adopted for this year, The Resilience Project and Life Skills Go. The Resilience Project is a program committed to teaching positive mental health strategies to prevent mental ill-health and build young people’s capacity to deal with adversity. Teachers and students will engage in weekly lessons and activities around the key principles of Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness (GEM), and Emotional Literacy to build resilience. The Resilience Project also has great resources for families. Go online and check out TRP@HOME; a place filled with inspiration and activities for the whole family, to help improve your wellbeing and build resilience.

We have also engaged with Life Skills Go, which provides an online platform to teach wellbeing, delivering social, emotional and physical learning for students. The program allows regular wellbeing check ins to be completed and incorporates mindfulness and positive psychology principles. We are hoping to use this program as a whole class and within our calm spaces/regulation corners, which we are developing within classrooms. We are hoping this will support students to get into a ready to learn state to enhance their learning and will teach important life skills of emotional regulation and coping techniques.

Check out their website for more information:

The Resilience Project

Life Skills GO

TRP@HOME

God Bless,

Jayne Farquharson

School Counsellor

From Our Library

Have Book Will Travel!

Students who are in Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 can participate in the Have Book, Will Travel House Challenge by filling out a reading sheet. The idea is that students can read a book or have a book read to them. The books can be school library books, books from home or books from the town library. Every ten books read will be ten points towards the House Reading Challenge and one entry into the Have Book Will Travel Prize Draw. Students may complete more than one sheet. You are welcome to print out as many sheets as you need using the attached file. More sheets are more points for your team and more chances to win. It also means more reading and more learning. A win-win situation for everybody!

Have Book Will Travel Recording Sheet

Reading Photo Challenge!

As part of the Have Book Will Travel reading promotion, students receive a token if you send in a photo of them reading. To make it a bit more of a challenge I have put together a list of 18 possible locations where a photo could be taken.

1 photo = one token (children collect 5 tokens to get one ticket into our library prize draw)
4 photos = 1 ticket into the prize draw
10 photos = 3 tickets
Complete the challenge = 6 tickets

Photos can be sent to my email - margy.heuschele@twb.catholic.edu.au.

Holiday Snaps!

We are putting together a collection of holiday snaps to fit in with our travel theme. So if you have a photo of your children in a location where you have travelled - locally, nationally or abroad, can you please email it to me – margy.heuschele@twb.catholic.edu.au. Each photo will receive one token in the Have Book, Will Travel reading promotion.

Book Club Issue 1

So many great specials on books for Issue 1! Jump online and grab some great books for the 2024 school year. Orders are required by 8/02/2024 for Issue 1

From Our Service Club

Service Club met for the first time last week and have some wonderful ideas for the year ahead. Their main focus for Term 1 includes ...

1. Project Compassion - leading the education and fundraising at STM during Lent

2. School Outreach - investigating the possibility of resourcing and running a LEGO club

3. Community Outreach - investigating the possibility of local kindy visits

Our Project Compassion this year will once again include a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Morning on Tuesday, February 13 and an Easter Raffle. Service Club are seeking donations to help make both of these a success. If you can spare some pancake mix (in shaker bottles) or some Easter Eggs, please send them in!

Service Club will give their first update in person at assembly this week.

Have a great week,

From the 2024 Service Club