2024 Term 3 - Week 3 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from https://ace.nd.edu/catholic-schools-week 

From our Principal

Celebrated annually in Week Three of Term Three, Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all 312 Catholic schools in Queensland to celebrate and promote their distinctive mission and ethos.   

Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.  Catholic Education Week in 2024 will be celebrated in Queensland from 21 July – 27 July.   

This year we celebrate our Spirit of Catholic Education Week nomination Mrs Jodie Ramage.  

Jodie has been an integral member of the St Thomas More’ s School community for a number of years.  Every day and in all that she does, Jodie strives to live our school vision, mission and values: Joy, Justice, Faith and Hope. 

Within her everyday roles and responsibilities, Jodie displays a beautiful sense and touch of compassion and care. This care and compassion is always shared among children, staff, parents and parishioners.  From a cheerful and smiling ‘good morning’; walking an upset child back to the classroom; giving a child in need a cuddle; tending to a grazed leg, bleeding noses and ant bits; being a listening ear; providing a meal for a family in need; looking for lost jumpers and hats; providing much needed support and encouragement, there is no end to the lengths that Jodie will go to in order to brighten the day of a child, staff member or parent.  

As an employee of Toowoomba Catholic Schools and St Thomas More’s Primary School, Jodie has left a legacy of Joy, Justice Faith and Hope.  In the words of Mary Mackillop, and as we commonly refer to at our school, Jodie ‘Never Sees a Need Without Doing Something About It!’ Jodie has and continues to make our school a better place, and for that we are tremendously grateful! 

Thanks for reading. 

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Student Protection

From our APRE

Happy Catholic Education Week! This week, STM joins schools all around Queensland celebrating the awesomeness that is Catholic Education! At STM, we are doing this in many ways throughout the week.

Families are most welcome to come and help us celebrate at any of these events this week. We especially invite our STM adults to join us for our Parent Retreat tomorrow evening at the STM Church. Come along for some prayer, reflection time and a yummy Thai dinner! Use the link below to register.  

Good luck to our TCS Award Finalists this year, Ms Jodie and Mrs Jones. Good luck on Thursday night!

The Religious Life of our School is one of the many things that make us so special here at STM! A big thank you to Mrs Wilson and 4 Gold for leading the whole school so prayerfully and passionately in our NAIDOC Week Celebration in Week 1. It was a wonderfully reflective way to conclude our NAIDOC Week celebrations this year.

Feast Day of Mary MacKillop

Our next big religious celebration this year will be the Feast Day of Mary MacKillop. I fondly recall the excitement in the lead up to the canonisation of our very own Mary MacKillop back in 2010, which just happened to be my very first year teaching in a Catholic school. How special that young Catholics today have their very own Aussie saint to look up to and learn from.

During the week leading up to the Feast Day of Mary MacKillop, which is celebrated on August 8, students from Prep – Year 6 will be learning all about the life of Mary MacKillop. There are some wonderful resources out there that explore Mary’s life and the impact she had on others. Below is a link to a great clip that gives a few interesting facts about her early life and religious calling.

Hope – Our Term 3 Value

Our Term Three value this year is HOPE! Students have spent the last two weeks talking about hope in classes and created their very own hope dove for our whole school display in the Administration Building.

Our STM symbol of hope is a dove. The dove is a prominent symbol of hope in the Bible, most famously in the story of Noah’s Ark. In this story, as in life, the dove represents hope for a better world, hope for safety and security and hope for a community that cares for one another.

We will continue unpacking our value throughout the term, reflecting on how hope was important to Jesus, St Thomas More, St Mary MacKillop and St Joseph.

Green and Gold Dress Up Day 

The Paris 2024 Olympics are just around the corner! STM students and staff are invited to dress in their best green and gold gear on Wednesday, July 24 to show their support for our Aussie Olympic Team. Please make sure all clothes are sun safe, shoes are closed in and hats are wide brimmed. Clothing also needs to be sensible and appropriate for school – no short shorts or bare midriffs. No gold coin donation is required – just show some Aussie pride!  

Musical Update

Thanks to all the families who have ordered LKJ shirts. Shirts have now arrived and are in the Front Office ready for collection. A gentle reminder – students cannot collect their LKJ shirt until it has been paid for.

LKJ tickets will go on sale next week on Monday, July 29. Tickets will only be available via Trybooking. Please use the link below to access our unique LKJ page.

**Please note while you can already visit the page, you WILL NOT be able to purchase tickets until July 29.

This year, we will hold a concession stand at our musical selling soft drinks and lolly bags! Families are invited to help us stock our stand by sending in cans of soft drink and bags of Allen's lollies between now and Week 10. Thanks in advance for supporting our 2024 school musical! 

God Bless

Kris Byrne

Assistant Principal Religious Education

Thanks to our Lion King Jr Platinum Sponsor ...

Thanks to our Lion King Jr Gold Sponsors ...

Miss Byrne's Term 3 Important Dates

From our Sports Department

Interschool Sport 

Years 5 & 6 children will be participating in interschool on 2nd August, 9th August, 16th August & 23rd August. Buses will be booked to depart school at 10:30am and will return around 2:15pm. The sports that the children will be involved in are boys rugby league, boys & girls soccer and girls netball. Team lists will be sent out via the Parent Portal. Please check the equipment list below and ensure your child has everything they require for interschool sport.  

Catholic Netball & Touch Carnival 

Years 5 & 6 children will be participating in the annual Catholic Netball & Touch Carnivals on Thursday 25th July. Netball will be played at Nell E Robinson, while touch will be play at Kearney Springs. Information regarding team lists and buses have been sent out through the Parent Portal.  

Years 3-6 Swimming Lessons 

Swimming lessons for the children in Years 3-6 have been booked at the Glennie Aquatic Centre for the following dates this term:   

Thursday 8th August  

Thursday 15th August  

Thursday 22nd August  

Thursday 29th August  

Children will be bused to and from the pool. A timetable and more information will be sent out through the Parent Portal.  

Year 4 Gala Day 

The Year 4 children will participate in the Catholic Schools Touch Football Gala Day on Tuesday 10th September. They will be practicing and learning the game in PE lessons this term.  

God Bless.

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher 

From our Student Representatives

Our Student Representative Challenge begins this week. Our challenge will be each Thursday at Second Break. The challenge this term is an Amazing Race. You will get your first clue each week in the Quad at the start of playtime. Each week you participate you will get a point for your house. Make sure you record your name on the sign in sheet or your house won't get your point.  

This is a great challenge you can do with a partner and children from Prep – Year 6 can play. Your partner cannot be from the same year level as you.  

Have a great week,

Audrey and Flynn

From our Service Club

Thank you to all the families who donated to the Vinnies Winter Appeal. Mr Doherty was very impressed by the amount of donations and assured us that people in need in Toowoomba would really appreciate them. Thank you also to the Service Club families who helped cook up some pancakes to celebrate the Feast of St Thomas More at the end of last term. They were delicious!  

This term, Service Club will continue with Kindy Visits and LEGO Club. LEGO Club will continue to run each Wednesday at Second Break. This term, if you come to LEGO Club, you must stay for the whole break. Children won’t be allowed to come to eat and then leave at the play bell from this term. A big thank you to Mrs Wilson and Ms Souter for helping us with these outreach activities this term.  

Service Club are currently working on picking the main fundraiser for this term. We hope to share some more information about this in the coming weeks.  

God Bless,

Service Club

Student Awards

Well done to our Week 1 Student of the Week recipients.

Well done to our Week 2 Student of the Week recipients.

Library News

Book Week 

Book Week is a celebration of reading and an annual event in our school calendar.  The theme for Book Week this year, is Reading is Magic. Reading is Magic really encourages us to understand that books can truly take us anywhere and that we can do anything by imagining it.  

As a school we will celebrate Book Week with a special Book Week parade at 10am on Wednesday 21st August.  We encourage students to come dressed as their favourite character from a book of their choice.  It would be great if it could relate to the theme.  Costumes do not need to be purchased, putting them together from materials you have at home is preferable.  Students will need to have the book their character is from with them for the parade.  They are encouraged to borrow this from the library. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your classroom teacher or myself in the library. 

Book Week Competition 

We love to celebrate reading and all things books in our library.  This term we are holding a competition for Book Week.  Students are invited to create a hat that could take them anywhere or allow them to do anything.  Students might like to make their own hat from materials found at home, use an existing hat as the basis for their creation or draw an amazing hat that allows them to do all they could ever dream of! 

Completed entries can be dropped off at the library, any time between now and Tuesday 13th August.  Winners will be announced at the Book Week Parade.  

School Vegetable Garden 

Currently there is an abundance of silverbeet, kale and a variety of herbs in the vegetable gardens.  These will be harvested on Wednesday 24th July.  There will be a table outside the library after school if you would like to come and collect some free produce.  It is a first-come first serve basis and students must be accompanied by an adult or have a note with them saying what it is they would like.   

We look forward to sharing the fruits of our harvest! 

Catherine McAleer 

Teacher Librarian

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) & 1pm Thursday (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

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!

Notice Board

Scholarship Opportunity - Grace Lutheran College

Tennis Coaching.