2024 Term 3 - Week 9 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from https://www.gsl.wa.edu.au/newsletter-week-10-term-3-2023/ 

From our Principal

The theme for Child Protection Week this year is “Every Conversation Matters.” As parents and carers, conversations between you and your children are vital – you are the most important people in your child’s life to advocate for them, listen to them, and share messages of safety and support.

This year during Child Protection Week we encourage parents and carers to speak with their children about their understanding of safety and their support networks. The National Office of Child Safety launched their “One Talk at a Time” campaign earlier in the year. Alongside this campaign they released a list of resources about how to have a conversation with your children and young people about safety. You can access these resources here: Having conversations with children and young people | National Office for Child Safety

During Child Protection Week our students engaged in a number of activities to reinforce safety messages – for primary school students, they were provided with two activities to complete in class time including a “My Safe People” activity and a Child Protection themed Paper Chatterbox. High school students were provided with a business card sized “Every Conversation Matters” resource outlining some key support services they can access via phone and online, and also reminded about who they can speak to at school if they have concerns about the safety of themselves or others.

Should any student be concerned about how they are being treated by an adult, or another child or young person, they are encouraged to speak up to a trusted staff member or one of our School Student Protection Contacts (SSPCs). All students were reminded who our SSPCs are, and that they are depicted on the ‘Keeping Safe’ posters located around the school.

Child Protection really is everyone’s business, and we are committed to making our school a safe, secure, and protected place of learning for every student.

Thanks for reading. 

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Parent Teacher Interviews:

Semester Two Parent Teacher Interviews will be offered to families at the conclusion of Term Three.  Parent Teacher interviews are an important component of the school reporting and assessing process, providing important information as to the progress of children.  Fifteen-minute (two-minute transition time) Parent Teacher Interviews have been scheduled for Week 9 of Term Three: Tuesday 3^rd September and Wednesday 4^th September with the format as follows: 

• Tuesday 3^rd September 3:45pm – 7:45pm: Prep – Year 6
• Wednesday 4^th September: 3:45pm – 5:45pm: Prep, Year 2, Year 3, Year 5 & Year 6

The location of the interviews are as follows:

Prep - Year 2: STM Library

Year 3 - Year 6: STM Sportscentre

End of Term Three: Friday 13^th September

Please be advised, Friday 13^th September is the final day of Term Three. Term Four will commence on Monday 30^th September.

Student Protection

From our APRE

I hope all our STM families had a wonderful Father's Day over the weekend! It was so lovely to see so many of dads and those like dads to us come along to celebrate Father's Day with us last week. Thank you to Mrs Haywood and the STM P&F for organising such a special Father's Day Breakfast. A big thank you also to Mrs Hargrave and 1 Blue for leading our Father's Day Prayer so beautifully last week. 

Over the weekend, we also celebrated Family Mass! This was a special Mass for our Diocese as we celebrated the  patron saint of our diocese, St Mary of the Southern Cross. Below are some lovely words from our Parish Coordinator, Jacinta, about our diocesan patron saint ...

When the Toowoomba Diocese was established in 1929, 95 years ago, there was no Patron Saint decided or officially recognised. It wasn’t until 14th November, 1998 Pope John Paul II issued a Papal Bull confirming Mary’s place to watch over our Diocese. 25 years ago the first Mass, 1st September, 1999 celebrated the introduction of Mary of the Southern Cross. This feast exists nowhere else in the world. This first day of Spring is significant because it commemorates the date in 1929 when Bishop Byrne took official possession of the Diocese as Toowoomba’s first Bishop.

The title of Mary of the Southern Cross is one that acknowledges that God has ever been watching over this Great Southern Land of the Holy Spirit. The Southern Cross, a sign of hope, has hung in our sky since before any person walked this ancient land. Mary was one of the few who stood before the Cross of Christ and is therefore well qualified to be honoured with the title of Mary of the Southern Cross. 

This beautiful painting was the result of a competition to find a suitable image to portray our Patron. Painted by Jan Williamson it adorns our Cathedral and many of the churches throughout our Diocese. 

Australia's Biggest Child Safety Lesson (ABCSL)

This week, during Child Protection Week, our students will tune in to watch Australia's Biggest Child Safety Lesson. This is an initiative from the Daniel Morcombe Foundation shared each year with schools and school children across Australia. While the live ABCSL occurs on Tuesday this week, our classes will tune in to this lesson throughout the week when their timetable allows. The theme for ABCSL this year is consent.

If you want to know more about ABCSL please find below a link to the website and the trailer for this year's lesson. 

Life Education

This week, Healthy Harold comes to visit STM! As a child of the 90s, I have such fond memories of Healthy Harold lessons in the good old Life Education Van! While Healthy Harold is still around, the van will likely not make an appearance in Toowoomba again, with lessons instead occurring in the Learning Support Classroom this year. 

Over the next two weeks, students across the school will participate in lessons with Healthy Harold and our Life Education Educator, Ms Natalie. 

Below is a list of the modules each class will be accessing and a brief overview of what will be covered. 

Prep: My Body Matters

Year 1: Harold's Friend Ship

Year 2: Growing Good Friends

Year 3: Friends and Feelings

Year 4: Inside Story

Year 5: Take a Breath

Year 6: Relate, Respect, Connect

Our Healthy Harold visit this year ties in beautifully with Child Protection Week, enabling us another way to talk about safety with our students. 

If you have any concerns about Healthy Harold visits, please contact your classroom teacher. 

Chess Update

Last week, 9 of our chess students headed off to the Toowoomba District Primary School Teams Competition.  All of the boys played exceptionally well, with one of our teams even placing in the Top 12! This team has now secured themselves a place in the State Qualifier this coming weekend! We wish Shaun, Hartley, Morgan and Flynn all the best!

Musical Update

A gentle reminder to families who ordered LKJ shirts ... these are in the office ready for collection. Shirts that are not collected by the end of this week will have charges removed from fees and will be available for sale on our Musical Performance evenings. 

LKJ tickets are now on sale and they are selling fast! Tickets will only be available via Trybooking. Please use the link below to access our unique LKJ page to purchase your tickets. Feel free to share the link around - we would love for our students to be able to perform to a sold out audience! 

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! 

Costume details have now been sent home for our Whole Cast. If you have any questions or concerns about costumes, please contact your classroom teacher. 

Below is a link to the LKJ Update shared with Year 4 - Year 6 families via the SENTRAL for Parents app last week. Please make sure you do read this as it has very important information that families need to know for rehearsals this week and show week next week. 

Our Lower School have not missed out on the musical fun either! Mrs Melican has been teaching Prep, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 some songs from the show. They will share these at our Assembly this Friday.

As we draw closer to show week, I do want to say a huge thank you to our whole school community for embracing our musical this year with such enthusiasm. The children are looking and sounding amazing and we can't wait to share the magic of The Lion King Jr with our wider STM community in Week 10. 

God Bless

Kris Byrne

Assistant Principal Religious Education

Thanks to our Lion King Jr Platinum Sponsor ...

Thanks to our Lion King Jr Gold Sponsors ...

Thanks to our Lion King Jr Silver Sponsor ...

Thanks to our Lion King Jr Bronze Sponsor ...

Miss Byrne's Term 3 Important Dates

From our Service Club

We’ve had a busy few weeks. In Week 7, we helped set up for the Winter Shelter. On Monday evening of Week 7, our STM Church hosted 6 homeless guests and helped them have a safe and warm place to stay for the night. Thank you to Mr Doherty for allowing us to help.  

This term, our main fundraiser will be for the PJ Angels. The PJ Angels help foster a love of reading in young people. To raise money for this great cause, we invite all students and staff to come dressed in their best PJs on Wednesday, September 4. PJs will need to be suitable to wear at school and you will need to wear your normal school shoes. If you wear PJs, you must bring a gold coin donation.  

Don’t forget LEGO Club continues this term.  

We hope you have a great day!  

God Bless. 😊 

Minnie and Tilly from the Service Club

Student Awards

Well done to our Week 7 Student of the Week recipients.

Library News

Thank you 

Thank you to all the students who dressed up for Book Week this year.  It was wonderful to see a sea of students immersed in the world of books and all the places they can take them.   

Thank you also to all parents and caregivers who assisted with costumes.  I really appreciate the time and effort that you put into them.  It truly was a wonderful celebration of Book Week.  

And the Winners are… 

Winners of the Fancy Hat competition was announced at our book week parade.  The following students received a prize. 

• Lilah – 4 Gold 

• Willow – 1 Blue 

• Chloe – 1 Gold 

• Alice – Prep Red 

• Alexis – 3 Red 

And the People’s Choice Award went to Flynn – 6 Blue 

Holiday Reading 

The school holidays are approaching and in library lessons in the next two weeks, we will be ensuring that students have plenty to read over the holidays.  It is a wonderful opportunity to immerse ourselves in reading for pleasure.  We’ll be encouraging children to borrow books that they can read by themselves and that they can read with others.   

Happy Reading 

Catherine McAleer 

Teacher Librarian

From our Uniform Shop

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!

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!

OSHC

Dear Families,

Bookings for Spring Vacation Care at St Thomas Mores OSHC are now open. Permanent bookings can be made until week 9 Friday, 6/09/2024. Any bookings made after this date will be booked in as a casual fee.

Please find attached the vacation care program for the spring holidays!

During vacation care, one week’s notice is needed to delete any vacation care bookings.

Keep reading for some important reminders including:

• Hot food policy
• Appropriate and sun-safe clothing
• Labelling clothing
• Toys and technology from home
• Smart watches and mobile phones
• Spare clothing

We appreciate all parents taking the time to read through these important reminders.

Hot food

Hot food is not permitted at OSHC for the safety of children and educators. This includes microwave meals and cup noodles.

Appropriate and sun-safe clothing

All children MUST wear appropriate, sun-safe clothing and shoes. This includes dressing your child in t-shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and enclosed shoes every day. Singlet tops and caps are not permitted, and any inappropriate, unsafe clothing may result in staff sending children home to change or contacting you to provide appropriate clothing. If your child has their own sunscreen, please ensure the service is aware of this and that either an OSHC educator or your child has access to the clothing.

Labelling clothing

We highly recommend that all clothing and accessories including lunch boxes, water bottles, hats, and containers, where possible, are labelled by families before sending your child to vacation care. This allows for us to send all lost property home.

Toys and technology from home

Toys and technology from home are not permitted at vacation care. Any items that arrive with the children are brought in at your own risk. We have a fun and exciting program that will keep your child engaged without the use of property from home.

Smart Watches and Mobile Phones

Smart watches and mobile phones are not permitted at OSHC.

Spare clothing

We ask that all families from prep to grade six have a spare change of clothing including a shirt, underwear, pants, and socks are packed in the case of an emergency. Each day at OSHC looks different and we thank all families who pack spare clothes in readiness.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you these holidays.

Kind Regards,

Tyler Saxton  

Coordinator, St Thomas Mores OSHC

Diocese of Toowoomba Catholic Kindergartens and Care

phone: 0429 297 592

email: stmcare@tckc.qld.edu.au

Notice Board

Toowoomba   Special   1 Day

Children’s Cartooning Workshops

Dear Teachers / Carers/ parents

We are excited once again to be coming back to Toowoomba to run 1 day Workshop in September on one weekend ( ages from  5 to 15 years old ).

Venue:                 Drayton Scout Hall

                               Corner Wuth & Luck Streets, Toowoomba

Dates:                  Saturday Sep 14^th 9am - 12pm/ 12pm - 3pm/ 3pm - 6pm/ 6pm - 9pm            

Bookings:          Go to: www.illustrating-man.com.au

• Click on the colourful Cartoon Workshop button in the middle of the home page
• Select Toowoomba  

Please assist in forwarding attached brochure to families that are part of your school.

Your help in letting your children and community know is Highly appreciated

We look forward to welcoming you to our program

The Illustrating Man Designs Pty Ltd

Suite 2, 29 Newland Street, Bondi Junction NSW 2022

www.illustrating-man.com.au

Tel: 02 9343 0833

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