Term 1 - Week 3 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

A special prayer for our Year 6 school leaders this week following their official commissioning last week. 

Image retrieved from facebook.com/FLCgainesville/photos/a.684504858328617/3137453859700359/?type=3 

From our Principal

As with most things nowadays, time is a precious commodity. We understand that school events such as Parent Info Sessions, Assemblies, Masses and Liturgies etc., add further pressure to the weekly family timetable.

However, generally being not common occurrences, we hope that priority is given to attending school events. Being involved in school activities sends a positive message to your children. Children will soon realise that school is important if they feel and see their parents taking a real interest in what is happening in their class and the wider school community.

“The involvement of parents helps break down the mystique about school that can exist for some children. Their chances of success are better when the school is an extension of home rather than merely an institution for learning.”

“Positive parent participation demonstrates to children that you value learning as well as their school. Children copy many of their parents’ views so your positive attitude to school and learning is catching.”

[Michael Grose]

There are many ways that parents can be positively involved in school life. Researcher and founder of ‘Parenting Ideas’ Michael Grose shares some ideas….

• Support the culture and what your school is trying to achieve;
• Support your child’s teacher;
• Become an advocate for the school throughout the wider community;
• Attend school activities such as sports events, concerts, Masses etc.;
• Consult regularly with your child’s teacher about practical ways in which you can assist both at home and at school.

Our Parent Information Evening is scheduled for this coming Tuesday 7^th February.  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:

5:15pm – 5:35pm:  Principal Welcome (St Thomas More’s Hall)
5:40pm – 6:10pm:  Prep, Yr 2 & Year 4
6:15pm – 6:45pm:  Year 1 & Yr 3
6:50pm – 7:20pm:  Year 5, 5/6 & 6

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

Thanks for reading…

Duane

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Student Protection Contacts

From our APRE

Thank you to all the families who were able to come along and celebrate our Start of Year and Leadership Mass last week. It is always so special when we have the opportunity to gather together to celebrate the things that make our school so special! Well done to all our Year 6 leaders. We are all incredibly proud of you and can't wait to see what your leadership will look like this year at STM. Year 6 families, I will share photos from the Mass with you later this week.

Service Club News

Service Club kicked off last week. Our Service Club Leaders are very excited about their projects for Term 1. Their major project this term will be helping to lead our Project Compassion Campaign. Each year during Lent, St Thomas More's runs a Project Compassion Campaign that aims to raise money and teach our school community about the wonderful work that CARITAS does around the world to support communities less fortunate than our own. 

Our campaign this year will begin on Shrove Tuesday, with Service Club running a pancake morning. Students can purchase a pancake on Pancake Tuesday between 8:00am - 8:20am for 50c. All money raised will go to our Project Compassion Campaign. We are asking our school community for donations of pancake mix in the coming weeks. These can be dropped off to the office or Miss Byrne's room. 

Worship Choir

Worship Choir begins next week. Worship Choir leads the liturgical singing for all our whole school celebrations and on occasion will help pick hymns for our celebrations and represent our school at diocesan events and celebrations. 

Children from Year 2 – Year 6 are invited to attend each Monday from 10:30 am in my room. Bring your lunch box along – we have a snack before we get into our singing!

2023 Sacramental Program

Sacramental Program letters were sent home with Year 4 students earlier this term. The St Thomas More’s Parish Sacramental Program begins soon and is open to students in Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. Students will complete Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Communion this year. Please contact the Parish Office for more details.

Volunteering at STM in 2023

Any parents who would like to volunteer at STM this year will need to complete the TCS Volunteer Induction. This needs to be completed each year by parents who volunteer at our school. Please email me (Kristin.Byrne@twb.catholic.edu.au) if you would like an induction pack sent home. 

Out of Bounds Areas

This year, we have aligned our before-school and after-school out-of-bounds areas. Please note that in the afternoons there is no play on any school ovals or equipment after school, just like there is no play in these areas before school until 8:15 am when the teacher on duty opens these areas. Teachers on the Stop Drop and Go duty near the Church Carpark may choose to open the Bottom Oval Playground for play after 3:15 pm. There is to be no play on this equipment until the teachers on duty indicate so. 

Reflections from Weekend Mass

Over the weekend at Mass, the Gospel reading spoke of the importance of shining our light and not hiding it away. Father Michael shared a powerful hymn in reflection of the Gospel which perfectly fits in with our theme this year. If you have time, I urge you to watch the clip below. Perhaps we can all light our candles in some way this week. 

God Bless.

Miss Kristin Byrne

Assistant Principal: Religious Education

Vinnies Buddies Program

Are you interested in the Vinnies Buddies Program? Check out the flyer below. 

Miss Byrne's Important Dates to Remember for Term 1

From Our Learning Support

This year, three staff members will form the Learning Support Team here at St. Thomas More’s. I will be overseeing the Learning Support Team and be providing support to teachers and collaborating with parents, while Daryl Petzler and Jordeigh Standfield will be providing the intervention for students from Prep to Year 6.  Both Jordeigh and Daryl work Monday – Wednesday and I am available Monday – Friday.   

For the first week or two of the school year, the Learning Support Team will be meeting with class teachers to analyse class data and discuss the needs of the students within the classes. Further assessments will also be undertaken, where necessary, to pinpoint students’ strengths and weaknesses and areas for intervention.  This will become an ongoing process for the support team as new data is gathered throughout the year.

As in previous years, we will be following The Response to Intervention Model. This is a three-tiered model for learning and intervention. The Learning Support Team will provide support across all three tiers – within the classroom, in small groups, and with individuals. 

Tier 1: Classroom Support

The majority of students (80%) succeed in the regular classroom with assistance from the class teacher and school officer. Class teachers use data (assessment results) to monitor student progress and make adjustments according to these results. Teachers record modifications and adjustments in PfPL overviews (Planning for Personalised Learning). Teachers are more than happy to discuss with you modifications and adjustments that may be in place for your child and we welcome your contribution to PfPL also.

Tier 2: Small Group Support

A Small percentage of Students, around 15%, require additional support to achieve at the expected level. The Learning Support Team works alongside teachers and parents to identify these students and to provide intensive, short-term, targeted support. This support is in addition to classroom support provided by the class teacher and school officer.

Tier 3: Individual Support

A very small number of students (5%) require a high degree of support and a team approach from a number of specialists. These students often require a more individualised program and may be on a Modified Curriculum Plan (CMP).

The Response to Intervention Model has been produced below.

Please remember that staff at St. Thomas More’s want to work with you to best support your child and their learning journey. It is critical that you keep your child’s teacher informed of any information that may affect your child’s learning while in our care. You can do this by contacting your child’s class teacher, by contacting the school office or by contacting Head of Learning Support.

If your child engages with any private therapists including Occupational Therapist, Speech Therapist, psychologist, etc, it would be greatly appreciated if you could let your child’s class teacher know. We also have access to a Speech Therapist and Occupational Therapist employed through the TCEO. They provide advice to educators on how to support students within the classroom environment rather than a therapy approach of which a private Speech Therapist or OT would provide. We also have access to a Guidance Counsellor who is onsite 5 days a fortnight.  Further information will be providing in the upcoming newsletters regarding what support our TCEO specialists provide. Please contact me via email: patricia.wardle@twb.catholic.edu.au if you feel that it may be beneficial to engage with specialists from TCEO.

Teaching and learning News

Welcome back to what I am sure will be a fantastic year!  

As some of you would be aware, over the last few years, Catholic Schools within the Toowoomba Diocese have engaged in various Tier Projects. This year, we will not be undertaking any new Tier Project but rather consolidating with staff the Tier projects undertaken thus far, particularly the Reading and Writing connection of which were both part of the Reading Improvement Strategy and The Writing Improvement Strategy.

You may have also heard and/or seen on news platforms or on social media that this year will see some schools starting to implement Version 9 of The Australian Curriculum. The STM staff have decided to not yet fully implement V9 but will however start to become familiar with V9 via Professional Development and exploration in preparation to start teaching some subject areas of V9 commencing in 2024. This approach aligns with the QCAA Professional Development and Support Schedule. Further information can be found at https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/aciq/version-9.

NAPLAN 2023

Students in Years 3 and 5 will take part in the 2023 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) from Wednesday 15 March to Monday 27 March 2023. Please mark these dates on your calendar.

This is the first year NAPLAN will be held in March, having previously taken place in May. This change was made so school systems would have access to results earlier in the school year, so they can be used to inform teaching and learning plans for the remainder of the year. 

NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are already 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 pen-and-paper test.  

Students and parents wishing to familiarise themselves with NAPLAN can visit https://www.nap.edu.au/ where you can also access the demonstration site, example papers and parent information about NAPLAN.  

A test schedule will be sent out over the next couple of weeks.  If you wish to discuss your child’s participation in NAPLAN, please contact me as soon as possible at Patricia.wardle@twb.catholic.edu.au 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

God Bless,

Patricia Wardle

Middle Leader/Learning Support Teacher

From Our Counsellor

God Bless,

Jayne Farquharson

School Counsellor

From Our Sport Desk

Catholic and Zone Swimming Carnivals 

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to represent St Thomas More’s at the Catholic and Central Zone swimming carnivals; Scarlet, Koby, Kiara, Tamsyn, Flynn, Mya, Makayla, Penny, Xavier, Jonathan, Christian, Arianna and Levi.  

Catholic Swimming Carnival – Friday 10th February.  
Zone Swimming Carnival – Wednesday 15th February.  

Brisbane Lions Player Visit 

This week we are super lucky to be having 2 Brisbane Lions players visit our school. They will be on the top oval at second break on Tuesday and will be staying to run some AFL sessions with the 2 x Year 1 classes in PE that afternoon. 

 Darling Downs Girls Cricket Trials 

Good luck to Grave Olive (Year 5) who will be trialling at the Darling Downs Girls Cricket trials on Monday. We wish her the best of luck.  

Interschool Sport – Years 5 & 6 

Interschool sport for ALL Year 5 & 6 students will commence this Friday 10th February. This will continue every Friday afternoon (except for week 7 due to Year 6 camp). This term we are able to offer boys AFL and girls Touch. Interschool sport is a fantastic opportunity for students to have a go at a range of sports that they may not play outside of school. They will have the opportunity to interact with and play against other students from schools over all Toowoomba.  

As a safely requirement, boys will need to wear a mouth guard and get parental consent to play. This form has been handed out to students and will need to be returned ASAP. Boys & girls can also wear molded studded footy boots if they have them or Joggers are also perfectly fine.  

All children will need to remember to have a hat and water bottle for interschool sport.  

Due to a change in the start time for games this term, students will stop work at 11:45am to get on the bus and arrive at venues for a 12:30pm start. Students are encouraged to bring a small bag (school swimming bag) that they can use to pack some lunch to bring and eat once they arrive at the venue. Students will return to school between 2:15pm-2:30pm.  

2023 Representative Sport Nomination  

Throughout the year Toowoomba Primary School Sport and Darling Downs School Sport run trials in a variety of sports to choose representative teams.  In most cases, students are required to participate in a Toowoomba Trial to be eligible for a Darling Downs Trial. These teams will then travel away to Regional and State Championships.  

For a student to be eligible for nomination they must meet the following criteria: 
 1.        Be turning 10, 11 or 12 in the current calendar year. i.e. born in 2013, 2012, 2011  
2.        Have had a reasonable amount of experience in their chosen sport.  
3.        Have a high level of skill in their chosen sport. 
 
In some cases, like touch football, where there are a number of interested candidates, the school may conduct in-house trials to choose players to be nominated for these trials.  This is important for a number of reasons; 1) the players that the school nominates need to meet the required selection criteria, 2) be of a suitable standard to trial and 3) schools are limited to a certain number of students at these trials.  
 
With the exception of Netball and Boys Rugby League, all teams chosen are 12 year old sides.  While 10 and 11 year olds are eligible, they must be of a very high standard.  Most teams chosen will consist predominantly of 12 year olds. 10 year olds are NOT eligible for Girls Rugby League or Rugby Union. 
 
It is also important to note, that only students who are available to attend both the Regional and State Championships, will be eligible for nomination.  All nominations for these trials need to go through the school, and decisions on which students are nominated is at the sole discretion of the school.    
 
Please note that the dates for trials are subject to change. 
 
If your child would like to be considered for Toowoomba, Zone or Darling Downs Team selection, please check your availability for ALL the trial dates and complete the application form vis the link below. 

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

 If your child meets the criteria to attend a chosen trial, they will receive information about the trial as it gets sent through to the school.  

2023 DARLING DOWNS SCHOOL SPORT 

COMBINED SPORTING CALENDAR 

As at 17 September 2022 (Dates are subject to change) 

God bless,

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher 

From our Service Club

Meet your 2023 Service Club! This year Service Club wants to help St Thomas More's have a wonderful 2023, with lots of fundraisers and fun things for everyone to participate in. This term, our main fundraiser will be Project Compassion, whcih begins on Shrove Tuesday with Pancake Morning. We will share more information about this in the coming weeks. Our Project Compassion fundraiser this year will also include an Easter Egg Raffle. Tickets for this will be on sale later this term. This year we really want to continue working wiht our local community and are excited to be working wiht the Kindy children again. We can't wait to share all our ideas with our STM family this year. 

God Bless,

Emma, Anakha, Isaac, Mckenzie, Evelia, Oliver, Bella and Brooklyn from Service Club.

Classroom Newsletters

From our Tuckshop

Open every Friday.  Please place your childs order through FlexiSchools by 1pm Thursdays and please supply a Paper Bag for your childs order.

From Our Office

Book Club

From Our OSHC

Dear Families,

Action Items:

• Bookings – Term 1 please email ASAP
• Updated enrolment information
• Reminder: SERVICE CLOSED FRIDAY 27^th January

We are touching base with all families as term 1 is fast approaching and our team want to ensure that all if your child/ren will be attending either before or after school care during term 1 could you please ensure you check your Xplor app in the bookings section that all your term 1 bookings have been added. If there are no bookings showing or incorrect bookings, please EMAIL our team and we will get this sorted for you!

Downloading Xplor App

It is mandatory that all parents and caregivers have the Xplor app downloaded and use this to sign children both in and out of care at either before school care, after school care or vacation care days. If you are yet to have access to the Xplor app yet, then please contact our team as primary and secondary parents will be unable to utilise the paper sign-in/out form from Monday 23^rd January.

Someone else collecting?

If the primary or secondary parent are not collecting your children from OSHC please ensure you text the full name, contact number and address to 0429 297 592 so our team. If our team does not have this message regarding the person collecting that afternoon our team cannot release your child into their care until we have got confirmation from either the primary or secondary parent.

Cancellations

Please note that now as we come into the school term the table below on the cancellation period that needs to be provided in writing to STMcare@tckc.qld.edu.au If any bookings are cancelled after the notice period they will be marked as absent and the fees will still be applied.

Allergies, dietary requirements, medical conditions, disabilities, etc.

Please ensure if your child does have an allergy, dietary requirements, medical conditions, a disability, etc. That our team is made fully aware as soon as possible as this information is crucial for our team to support your child the best we possibly can while they are in our care.

OSHC Room

Many families who have attended over vacation care will be aware that the OSHC has now officially received it’s very own room to operate from which will be the old music room. We are very excited to have this space as we can decorate with all of our artwork from children, remain set-up and have a consistent space for the children to play. While all our resources and OSHC office will now be located in this room we will still have all access to the deck out the front of the room, the playground, oval space and of course the hall! We feel extremely blessed and excited to see what amazing things will happen in the OSHC space for 2023.

The OSHC Team

As we come into 2023, we are excited to continue onwards our wonderful OSHC team, while we are on the hunt for a lovely new coordinator to come on board, we thank Miss Alannah (TCKC Roaming Coordinator) for supporting STM OSHC and the patience from our families during this transition period, we will let you all know as soon as possible when we have a new coordinator for the team. Miss Hayley will remain on supporting Alannah & the new coordinator into term 1, she has been away on an extended holiday and is excited to return! Miss Heather & Miss Charlotte will remain a crucial part of our team into the new school year. However, we are excited to announce our new educator Miss Drew who has been a part of the OSHC since the beginning of January and will be back in the OSHC in week 4 after she completes her uni placement. We currently have Miss Tenisha & Miss Rachel coming over to assist the service for the first few weeks of term.

If you have any questions or queries for our team, please do not hesitate to reach out to us as we are happy to help.

Warm regards,

The OSHC Team

Miss Hayley, Miss Heather, Miss Drew, Miss Charlotte, Mr Nic, Miss Alannah, Miss Tenisha, Miss Rachel

From our Uniform Shop

The Uniform Shop will be back to normal hours this term.

Monday 8.00am – 8.30am

Wednesday afternoon – By Appointment

Friday 8.00am – 8.30am

If these times don’t work for you please email your order through to THOuniform@twb.catholic.edu.au and the orders will be at the office for collection at your convenience.

Need some uniform alternations?

A hem taken up?  A skirt taken down?  Some buttons adjust on a shirt?   Give Mrs Fix It a ring and see if she can help.   

From our P&F

P&F Update

All parents and carers are invited to join a parent-run Facebook page to keep up to date with school activities and buy second hand uniforms 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/612293628865467/?ref=share_group_link

Parent Reps- each year level has a Parent Rep who is there to make you feel welcome at the school, answer non curriculum based questions, and help to organise year level social meet ups. 

The Parent Reps for 2023 are: 

Prep Red: Amanda Teese and Sara Olive
Prep Gold: Shenae Dolley and Trevor Tolson
Prep Blue: Emma Reilly and Katie Crichton 
Year 1: Kimberley Morris, Sophie McDonald and Sueanne Gola
Year 2: Megan Boulus, Tamarra Mulder and Kylie Haywood 
Year 3: Catherine Brodie, Teagan Cooke and Sara Olive 
Year 4: Jacinta MahYen and Brad Rae
Year 5: Lisa Trethewie and Patricia Thomas
Year 6: Shontelle Petrie and Tina Walsh

________

P&F 

Monday February 13th : 7pm

Music room 

All parents and staff are welcome to attend either meeting. To find out more contact Kylie Haywood at presidentpandf@gmail.com or via the families Facebook page. 

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.

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