2024 Term 2 - Week 7 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

Over the weekend, the Catholic Church celebrated the first ever World Children's Day! Pope Francis has encouraged children around the world to continue praying and talking to God each and every day. One prayer we can say in unity with those around the world in the prayer that Jesus taught us. 

Image retrieved from https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/466117381/our-father-prayer-print-the-lords-prayer 

From our Principal

Last Sunday marked National Sorry Day. ​Sorry Day is ​a day of remembrance where we acknowledge the grief, injustice and the resilience of the Stolen Generations. It is important that we reflect on the ‘protection’ policies that led to the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and the intergenerational trauma that affects many of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  

Today also signifies the beginning of National Reconciliation Week. The theme for 2024 is ‘Now more Than Ever’.  National Reconciliation Week provides an opportunity for each of us to reflect on where we stand in the reconciliation journey and make a commitment to take action.

I encourage you to reflect on the injustice and to pray this prayer:

Let us pray for our Aboriginal  and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters,
asking God to bless our First Nations People with new hope.
Father of all, You gave our Aboriginal People the Dreaming.
You have spoken to them through their beliefs,
You then made your love clear to them in the person of Jesus.
We thank you for your care of these people.
You made them resilient through unimaginable hardship.
We ask you to help us, the people of Australia,
To listen to our First Nations People and respect their cultures.
Make the knowledge of you grow strong in all people,
So that you can be at home in all of us,
And so that we can make a home for everyone on this land.
Amen.

Thanks for reading. 

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Japanese Host Families Required:

St Thomas More’s Primary School has been invited to welcome and accommodate twenty students from Japan (aged 15-17) on exchange from 24^th July – 3^rd August (10 nights).

Host families will be required to provide all meals, transport Japanese students to and from school, while also providing a friendly home environment for their student.  Supervising adults must be 18 years or over and have a Blue Card.  A payment of $750 will be provided to Host Families. 

We are desperately seeking more support for our St Thomas More’s families to assist with this wonderful initiative.  If you can assist can you please contact Jane Greenhalgh at: jane.greenhalgh@twb.catholic.edu.au

Wear Origin Colours to School: Thursday 6^th June

Children are encouraged to wear their Origin Colours to school on Thursday 6^th June in readiness and anticipation of Game Two of the Women’s State of Origin!  Please note, there is no donation required for this day.

Winter Uniform Transition

As we move into cooler weather, please be advised the Winter Uniform transition has commenced. St Thomas More’s School in collaboration with the School Advisory Council and P&F are currently exploring uniform options with the likelihood of transitioning to one formal school uniform to replace the current summer and winter uniform for 2025.  Please be assured, any uniform change will be shared with the school community once finalised and accompanied with a three-year implementation and transition phase.

For 2024, please find below Winter Uniform options for girls:

• Check tunic, white blouse, long navy socks/tights and black shoes
• Blue & white check dress or blouse, blue culottes, navy blue tights/blue socks and black shoes (tracksuit pants are not to be worn with the formal uniform)

Please find below Winter Uniform options for boys:

• Long/short sleeved royal blue shirt, grey shorts/long grey trousers, grey socks and black shoes

It will be up to the discretion of families to determine if a winter uniform is purchased for 2024.  This means children from Years 1 – 6 will have the option of wearing either the winter uniform or summer uniform (layered to ensure warmth) for 2024.  Should you have any questions or queries, please be encouraged to contact me.

Grooming Expectations

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

Before School Supervision

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

School Lunches

To commence Term Two, we are asking families to have conversations with children regarding eating requirements when at school to ensure enough lunch is packed to see out the school day.

Parent Engagement Charter (Code of Conduct)

The Toowoomba Catholic Schools Parent Engagement Charter is attached to this notification. It describes the partnership that exists between families and the school and is an agreement between parent, school and Toowoomba Catholic Schools. This begins when an enrolment has been accepted and continues until its completion. I strongly encourage you all to read this document, especially noting the final page of conduct expectations for both staff and parents.

ParentEngagementCharter (twb.catholic.edu.au)

From our APRE

Our next class Prayer Celebration for this term will be led by 2 Red. Please note that the date for this celebration has been moved. 2 Red will now share their Prayer Celebration with our school community on Friday, May 31 from 11:20 am (this Friday) in the STM Church. All families are most welcome to attend. 

Confirmation

On Wednesday last week, our Sacramental Canditates received the Sacrament of Confirmation with Bishop Ken! Congratulations to these students and their families. There is one more step for these students on their Sacramenal Journey this year ... receiving the Sacrament of First Communion. This will occur during our Term 2 Family Mass this weekend. I am sure our whole school community joins me n congratulating these students and wishing them all the best. 

Term 2 Family Mass

Our Term 2 Family Mass is being held this weekend at the STM Church. STM Families are warmly invited to join the STM Parish for Family Mass this Saturday (June 1) from 5 pm. Family Mass is a wonderful opportunity for our school and parish communities to come together in prayer and worship. 

As this is our First Communion Mass, we won't be needing any readers from school but there is always room in the choir! Students who would like to sing in the choir (older siblings are most welcome as well) are invited to arrive from 4:30 pm on Saturday for a quick practice before Mass begins. 

Farewell Father Nathan

As you may have already heard, Father Nathan has his last week with us this week. Next week, he takes on a new temporary posting as the Parish Priest in Stanthorpe. I am sure the whole school community joins me in thanking Father Nathan for his amazing contribution to St Thomas More's Primary School over the past few years. We first met Nathan as a Deacon on his journey to priesthood. We quickly took him under our wing and he has been part of the furniture here at STM ever since! He has become quite the expert at Reading Groups and has played a significant role in the formation of students and staff alike during his time as our Priest contact here at STM. His enthusiasm and creativity is noted and admired by all. Father Nathan, we wish you all the best for your new adventure in Stanthorpe. They are very lucky to have you! 

We will officially farewell Father Nathan this Friday at our Weekly Assembly. All family and friends of our school community are warmly invited to attend. 

Under 8's Week

Our Lower School had a wonderful time celebrating Under 8's Week last week! Thank you to our wonderful staff for preparing special activities for students to participate in each day and to our wonderful volunteers who helped make our Under 8's Morning such a success! Under 8's Week is a great time to celebrate and acknowledge the joy and passion our little people bring to our school community and I firmly believe our STM community did just this last week! 

Under 8's Week

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School Photo Update

Please note that our School Photo Day this year has been postponed until Term 4.

World Children's Day

Last week, Pope Francis decreed the weekend of May 25 and 26 the very first World Children's Day for the Catholic Church ... a day to celebrate children and the joy they bring to their parents, families and our school communities.

Pope Francis wrote a letter to the children of the world, speaking about friendship and the importance of sharing fun times with our friends. In it he said,

"Playing, singing, discovering new things, having fun, everyone being together and excluding no one. Friendship is wonderful and it grows only in this way: through sharing and forgiving, with patience, courage, creativity and imagination, without fear and without prejudice".

In his letter, Pope Francis also encourages children to pray each and every day as a way of not only connecting with God, but to find happiness as well. 

I hope all of our STM students had a great World Children's Day over the weekend. 

Musical News

It has been an absolute joy working with the children in the beginning phase of our musical preparations over the past few weeks. Not only have our main cast been diligently and enthusiasticallly rehearsing each scene, our class sessions have also begun as well!

I thought I would share some information about some of the commonly asked questions we receive in the lead up to our school musical ...

Who is involved in the musical? 

Each our our Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 classes will feature in our musical this year. Year 4 will each lead one musical number and Year 5 and Year 6 have a whopping 3 numbers per class this year! While this sounds like a lot, if last week is anything to go by, our STM Superstars are more than up for the challenge! 

Our Lower School don't miss out on all the fun either! While they will not perform as part of the musical, they are learning a selection of songs from the show in musical lessons to perform at a special assembly in Term 3. 

What costumes do students need to wear?

We are currently in the final stages of confirming costumes and hope to share this information with families either at the end of this term or early next term. While the school will provide some specific costume items, families will need to provide basic items in this space as well. 

How do we purchase tickets to the musical? 

Tickets will be available via Trybooking this year. These will go on sale in Term 3. We will share details of how to purchase tickets with families via the SENTRAL FOR PARENTS App, the School Newsletter and the School Facebook Page when tickets are available. 

Musical Sponsorship

For our musical this year, we are seeing sponsorship from our local community. Expressions of interest for sponsorship are due by this Friday (Friday, May 31). Please contact the school office if you would like further details. 

Thanks to our sponsors so far! Your generosity will help to make our show extra special!

The Lion King Jr Sponsors 2024

God Bless

Kris Byrne

Assistant Principal Religious Education

Thanks to our Lion King Jr Gold Sponsors ...

From our Middle Leader

Math's Challenge

On Tuesday the 7^th of May, 5 students from Year 6 travelled to St Ursula's College to compete in the Primary School’s Math Competition. These students were selected based on standardised test results and their application in the classroom. This competition is designed to challenge and extend students beyond their everyday classroom learning with a variety of challenging questions and complex multi-step problems.  The team worked extremely well together, finishing 4th overall. Congratulations!

Trish Wardle

Middle Leader

Term One Important Dates

Student Protect

From our Service Club

Thank you to everyone who has come along to LEGO Club over the past few weeks! It has been great to see some repeat visitors and some new ones as well! LEGO Club runs each Wednesday in the Spare Year 4 Room with Mrs Wilson. 

This term, our major fundraiser is the Vinnies Winter Appeal. This year, each class will receive a rub to start collecting their donations in. Donations can be brought in right up until the last day of school this term. Donations might include blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, warm socks, pantry food, canned food and tea and coffee. These donations can come in from this week. 

This term, we will also be holding a Free Dress Day on Tuesday June 18. This is going to be a fundraiser for Rosies. Rosies has inspired us this term with their generosity and we invite everyone to dress up as someone who inspires them for our Free Dress Day this term. If you wear free dress, you must bring a gold coin donation. 

Have a great week. 

God Bless, 

The Service Club 

From our Student Representatives

Our Handball Competition is going very well. To make our challenge extra special, we will be giving out double points in the last week of our competition this term. Come and play some handball AND earn some points for your house. Our Handball Competition is open to children in the Upper School. 

The wet weather has kept us out of the playground in our search for justice, but we hope to get out this week and see where we can find students and staff showing justice. When we look for justice, we look for people being kind to each other and helping each other out. 

Have a great week.

God Bless,

Flynn and Audrey

From our Sports Department

Athletics Carnival 

Our annual athletics carnival will be held on Tuesday 11th June at O’Quinn Street Oval. Classes have been busy preparing for the carnival. High jump events for children Yrs 9-12 will be held in Week 8. A timetable will be available shortly.  

Please use the link below to indicate your child/children’s travel arrangements for the carnival.  

https://forms.office.com/r/zR2KpvqR4M  

This year we are after some champion parent helpers for our Athletics Carnival this year. Champion parent helpers would have the option of staying on a field event for the whole day or move around the field events with their child/children so you could still see them participate. You would be required to help with measuring, racking sand and retrieving equipment. You don’t have to know much about the field events, as there will be a teacher accompanying you and running the actual event. Please use the link below to register to be a champion parent helper!  

https://forms.office.com/r/5WSfaZv2SB 

High Jump Events Timetable 2024 

Week 8 

High jump events will take place at school in Week 8. Please see the below timetable. If students are not wearing their sports uniform on their day, they are free to bring along a change of clothes to wear for the event.  

God Bless.

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher 

Student Awards

Well done to our students who received awards in  Week 5 and Week 6. Keep up the great work! 

Week 5

Week 6

From our Library

P & F News

Tuckshop News

Opening Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Order via Flexischools App.  If you need help to navigate the App, please feel free to pop into the tuckshop and chat to Jemma or email on jemma@archerscateringandevents.com.au 

Cut off of Online orders...
Order before 3pm Tuesday (for Wednesday), 3pm Wednesday (for Thursday) & 3pm Thursday (1pm for sushi) (for Friday).

NEW Tuckshop Menu

REMINDER - IF YOU CHILD IS SICK, PLEASE CONTACT THE TUCKSHOP BEFORE 9AM TO POSTPONE YOUR ORDER TO THE NEXT DAY!

From our Uniform Shop

From our OSHC

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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