Term 2 - Week 1 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from https://courtneydefeo.com/back-to-school-prayers/ 

From the Principal’s Desk…

Several years ago now, I had the opportunity to listen to Mr Billy Moore, former State of Origin and Australian rugby league representative. (Known for his famous “Queenslander” call.) Interestingly, his motivation for life success was not centred on solely being a sportsperson.

Billy’s manager, also known as his mother (a teacher), would not let Billy sign a professional contract, at age 17, unless he agreed to complete tertiary study. Billy had been quite academic at school and his mother insisted he ‘keep those doors open.’ Consequently, whilst playing professional rugby league, he completed a Science degree from Sydney University in physiology. Billy said he worked much harder than the other players, juggling his fitness and study commitments but goal setting and time management were his saviours.

He quietly told me that he loved hanging ‘around the nerds’. Once, after scoring the match winning try in State of Origin, he returned to university expecting adulation from his mates. None of them had watched the game and had thought he had dropped out of university because of the nine days he had been absent on training camp.

Billy said he was often disappointed that he received so much praise for his physical skills whilst former classmates were the unknown ‘Wally Lewises of the physics and medical worlds’.

Billy strongly advocated tertiary study and the importance of gaining as many ‘strings to your bow’ as possible, providing more opportunities if Plan A failed. He is now the successful owner and manager of a catering company coordinating corporate events.

For some reason this story had me thinking of brain plasticity. That is, our brain is always growing and developing.

Like Billy Moore, it’s exciting to know that your child’s talent and smarts are not fixed. Their brains can always learn more, continue to grow and be stretched. So as parents, it seems sensible that we should be developing a growth mindset in our children. We want them to believe that with effort and practice they can develop their skills and abilities in many areas.

Carol Dweck, author of “The New Psychology of Success” believes that a growth mindset is the quality that separates those who succeed from those who don’t. Her research reveals how the use of language when praising kids can have a profound impact on their attitudes. She states:

Praise Effort, Strategy and Action, Not Results

Focus more on the processes of what kids do rather than results to develop a growth mindset. Kids need to hear comments such as “You worked hard to get that right!”(effort), “That was a smart idea to tackle the hardest task while you were fresh.”(strategy) and “You recognised the first few steps were the most important but then after that you were right.”(action). This encouragement, helps kids develop the belief that success has more to do with what they do than innate smarts and talents.

Look for Opportunities to Stretch Your Child’s Capabilities

Encourage kids to stretch their capabilities by adding depth and breadth to their list of activities. Boys, in particular, often go deep, investing all their time into areas such as sport or online gaming to develop their talents. Encourage them to stretch their capabilities across a range of areas rather than a few. Conversely, encourage a child who dabbles in many areas or interests without specialising in any area, to go deeper in one area.

Give Honest Feedback

Providing your child with honest feedback about their performance not only helps them improve, but also promotes a growth mindset. We often shy away from giving feedback for fear of harming children’s self-esteem. Focusing on two or three things they do well before giving constructive feedback is one way you can keep a young learner’s head up while giving pointers about better performance.

Having brain plasticity means that we can continue to acquire new skills, learn new things and embed new habits across our lifespan. It is important then that we help our children develop a growth mindset so that they can reap the benefits of brain plasticity over their lifetime rather than limit them. (Michael Grose 20th February 2017).

2023 St Thomas More’s Annual Action Plan

Every year, the St More’s Leadership Team, School Staff, School Advisory Council and P&F collaborate and discern upon goals and priorities for the school year.  The Annual Action Plan is essential to maintaining the provision of long term, high quality educational experiences for all students. The collaborative process of defining the future vision and prioritising actions and resources to achieve this vision, challenges the school community to think deeply about its aspirations and expectations for students and builds a collective responsibility for our ongoing success.  Included for your benefit is a graphic identifying the priorities and goals for 2023!

To commence the new term, it’s important to be familiar with the following school expectations to ensure a smooth transition.

Before School Supervision

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.

Uniform Policy

The uniform is as follows (Information regarding the Winter Uniform dates will be advised in the coming weeks):

• Girls Uniform: Check dress or royal blue skort with a check blouse, short blue socks and black shoes.
• Boys Uniform: Royal blue shirt, grey shorts, long grey socks with blue/gold stripes and black shoes.
• Unisex Sports Uniform: Blue shorts, gold shirt with blue trim, blue socks with gold bands, joggers.
• Hat: Royal blue wide-brimmed hat (no hat no play policy).

Guidelines

• No jewellery, rings, body piercings or nail polish are to be worn. One earring in each ear only, stud or sleeper.
• Hairstyles which draw attention to the individual, including but are not limited to: mullet, scullett, mohawks, tracks, tails, hair colouring etc. are not permitted.
• Shoulder length hair or longer to be tied back, both boys and girls. Hairstyles and colours to be sensible. Hair bands to be royal blue, navy, black or gold.
• Watches are allowed, but no liability or responsibility is accepted by the school.
  
• Boys formal shirts are to be tucked in.

Technology

• Mobile phones are to be signed in at the office each morning and collected at the end of the day after the final bell.
• Students are not permitted to text or make phone calls from smartwatches during the school day.

General

• Students are not permitted to bring toys, trading cards or sports equipment from home.

Should you have any questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Student Protection Contacts

From our APRE

Welcome back! It was lovely to see so many smiling and happy faces this morning. I hope all of our STM families enjoyed their Easter Break. I hope to be able to share our final Project Compassion Fundraising amount by the end of this week. Thank you to all the families who were able to contribute to 50c Friday, classroom Project Compassion Boxes, and our Easter Raffle. We really do have a generous community at STM. 

Worship Choir and all things Service Club will recommence next week. I look forward to working with the children again this year on their wonderful projects which help make our school just that little bit extra special! 

Easter Observance 

This week, we will come together as a school to continue our Easter observance with a whole school Easter Prayer Celebration on Wednesday, April 19th at 11:30 am in the Sportscentre. All families are most welcome to attend. A big thank you to 5 Blue for taking on the leadership of this prayer at such short notice. 

ANZAC Day in 2023

Next week, we join with schools, communities, and individuals across Australia to commemorate ANZAC Day. ANZAC Day is a very special day for many in our school community. This year, we will have our annual STM ANZAC Day Prayer Celebration led by 6 Gold on Monday, April 24th at 11:30 am in the Sportscentre. All children from Prep - Year 6 will be attending and families are most welcome as well. This year, we reignite our tradition of our STM Honour Roll. If you have a family member either currently serving or who served in the past and want to add their name to our Honour Roll, please use the link below to register their details. 

We will also be joining in with the Toowoomba commemoration on Tuesday. Thank you to Mrs H for organising our participation in both the Toowoomba ANZAC Day March and Toowoomba ANZAC Service. If you would like to be part of the ANZAC Day March, please check out Mrs H's notes further down in the newsletter for details on how to register your interest. More details about this will be shared once we receive them. 

God Bless.

Miss Kristin Byrne

Assistant Principal: Religious Education

Thinking STM for Prep in 2024 ...

Miss Byrne's Important Dates to Remember for Term 2

Mothers Day Stall is coming up!

Our Mother’s Day stall will run again on Wednesday 10th May. We are excited to announce that this year we have sourced gifts from local suppliers - we have received wonderful support and have some beautiful gifts on offer. 

Students can order for their mums, grandma’s or special adults. Orders can be placed via FlexiSchools or a cash order form. You will be able to place orders up until Monday 8th May. 

If you can help with the setting up of the stall and collating orders (Tuesday) or the running of the stall (Wednesday) please message Kylie Haywood presidentpandf@gmail.com 

From Our Sport Desk

Zone Cross Country  

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to represent St Thomas More’s at the Central Zone Cross Country. Don’t forget to return your permission form to Mrs H by Friday 21st April.  

12 Years – Born 2011 

Xavier 
Nathan
Cooper   
Kobi  
Bastie  
Kiara   
Tamsyn   
Emilia 
Scarlet   
Annabel   

11 Years – Born 2012  

Kate  
Amelia  
Harper   
Zara  
Akech
Peter 
Jordan 
Jordan 
Seth   
Chris    

10 Years – Born 2013 

Audrey  
Ariana 
Makayla  
Amelie 
Olivia  
Hamish
Jonathan 
Christian  
Mitchell  
Billijace 

Central Cross Country  – Kearney’s Spring – Friday 28th April 2023 

Race Times: 

Representative Sport  

Congratulations to Xavier who has made the Darling Downs team for Softball. We wish Xavier all the best at the State Championships in August.  

Congratulations to Mya, Piper, Izabella and Scarlet who successfully made the Toowoomba netball team. We wish them the best of luck at the Darling Downs trials in the coming weeks.  

Good luck to Amelia who will be trialling at the Toowoomba football (soccer) trials this week.

Athletics  

Term 2 is Athletics season. During PE lessons and at the Athletics carnival children who are 10yrs, 11yrs & 12yrs will be participating in discus activities. Due to this being a high-risk activity, parental permission needs to be obtained.  

By giving permission, that means your child is able to participate in PE lessons that involve using a discus and will be able to participate in the athletics carnival in the discus event. If permission isn't given, unfortunately, your child will be unable to participate in these activities.  

Please keep an eye out for a notification through the parent portal to give permission for discus activities.  

ANZAC Day March  

All students and parents/guardians are strongly urged to show your ANZAC Spirit and remember those who have served our country by congregating for the ANZAC Service March on Tuesday 25th April. 

While the entire school community is very much encouraged to attend, our Year 6 Student Leaders (and prospective 2024 Student Leaders) will be expected to attend and act as formal ambassadors for St Thomas More’s Primary School.  

Please register your child’s interest in joining us using the link below.  

https://forms.office.com/r/XimsSydzz6 

God bless,

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher 

Term 1 Southern Cross Award

At the end of last term, we awarded our very first Southern Cross Awards to one student from each class. One student from each class will be awarded the Southern Cross Award at the end of each term. Recipients of this award are chosen by classroom teachers and have been seen to demonstrate our school values throughout the term by ...

• Upholding the Catholic values and ethos of St Thomas More’s
• Working collaboratively and cooperatively with school staff
• Acting as a role model for peers in all aspects of school life through positive interactions, actions, attitude and words
• Living our school theme of ‘Never See A Need Without Doing Something About It’

 Congratulation to our Term 1 recipients of the Southern Cross Award. 

Week 10 Awards

Well done to our students who were recipients of awards at the end of last term. Keep up the great work!

Classroom Newsletters

From our Tuckshop

Reminder - no tuckshop WEEK 1

Tuckshop Menu

Open every Thursday & Friday.  Please place your childs order through FlexiSchools by 1pm Wednesday for Thursdays & 1pm Thursday for Friday. 

From our Uniform Shop

The Uniform Shop Trading Hours.

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 the St Thomas More's Parish

Please find attached the bulletin for this week. 

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.

Notice Board