Term 2 - Week 8 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/54887689189850690/ 

From the Principal’s Desk…

Like most kids, my own children certainly have their moments!  I shared one of these moments with a group of children recently. It came about because we were endeavouring to impress upon the students that just because something is not against the law doesn't mean that is not the wrong thing to do. And, what do we do if we witness others doing something that we know is the wrong thing to do? For example, an individual or group of people excluding or belittling another person.

My eldest daughter achieved a few things whilst at school; along with sending her dad around the bend, she did pretty well both academically and on the sporting field. However, the story I told the children when I found out she stood up to a group of her peers who were verbally and physically taunting another student at school was a defining moment. Not only was I proud of her brave stance but I also realised that maybe all those times she had to listen to her parents and teachers talk about rights and wrongs, standing up for injustice and the fact that the cool group, really ain't that cool, may have had a positive influence on her outlook on how to treat others.

Then, just last weekend a miracle occurred, all in the midst of a group of boys playing football in the backyard.  No, the miracle wasn't the Maroons winning Origin 1, but I overheard my son say to his older sister just how well she played at Netball only hours before. Her face lit up with a smile and you could see her confidence grow as he gently placed his arm around her at the same time. Getting a sincere compliment from her little brother meant a lot. This of course extended the game of football in the backyard in which my rather ruthless son continued to dominate in every aspect!

To get my mind off re-mortgaging the house, I couldn't help thinking that it doesn't take much to grow kids' self-esteem and create good feelings between each other. "A sincerely given compliment has an enormous impact on the person who receives it. We all grow a little taller, at least on the inside when we are given a compliment. We also feel closer to the person who complimented us."

However, while compliments are easy to give, they are not easy to give, if you know what I mean! We forget. We might get worried how and if we are saying the right words. We underestimate their impact and we might develop a habit of not giving compliments.

There are two things that my son did that amplified the impact of his compliment. He smiled as he gave the compliment and he put his arm around her as well.

"This is exactly how kids receive all our messages – they see, they feel, they hear. We often focus too much on the words and forget the visual and kinaesthetic." "So next time your child does something worthwhile, take the time to give a compliment. Add a smile and a hug to really let them know how you feel. Watch your child's reaction. Get into the habit of giving sincere compliments. It'll have a significant impact on whoever receives them." [Michael Grose]

Thanks for reading…                     

Duane

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Student Protection Contacts

From our APRE

Thank you to all our families and staff who made it to Family Mass over the weekend. It is always very special when we get to come together in prayer and celebration with our STM Parish community. 

Parish Mass

Just a friendly reminder that Friday Parish Mass has now moved to 9:30 am. This will help alleviate the hustle and bustle in the Church Carpark and will allow students to attend our weekly assembly in its entirety. 

Feast Day of St Thomas More

Please note that our Feast Day Mass originally scheduled for the Thursday of Week 10 has now been moved to the last day of Term 2, Friday, June 23rd at 11:30 am.

As part of our Feast Day celebrations this year, Service Club will be holding a Pancake Morning on Thursday, June 22nd. Students will be able to get a maximum of two pancakes at no charge to celebrate St Thomas More, who is very special to our school. Pancakes will be available from 8:00 am - 8:30 am in the Quad. 

During the coming weeks, students will also be learning about St Thomas More in preparation to celebrate his Feast Day. As one of the most famous saints in the UK, there is certainly no shortage of information out there about him! Ms Roberts and I were lucky enough to visit some places of significance in his life when we were in England earlier this year and learned a bit more about him ourselves. I encourage families to discuss the life of St Thomas More in the coming weeks and reflect together on what his life teaches us today.  Although our theme for the year, Never See a Need Without Doing Something About It, comes from the life of another saint dear to our school, I feel this is something we can also see reflected in the life of St Thomas More as well.

If you don't know much about St Thomas More, the clip below from the Tower of London should provide a good introduction.

Camp Quality Fundraiser

This term, Service Club has elected to support Camp Quality with a Free Dress and Crazy Hair Fundraiser. Camp Quality is an organisation that supports families who have children with cancer. This is a wonderful organisation that supports families with hospital programs, camps, digital resources, counselling and much more. 

Students (and staff) are invited to wear free dress with their craziest hair style on Thursday, June 15th for a gold coin donation. If you would like to donate more to this worthy cause, you can also make donations on our fundraising page. 

https://fundraise.campquality.org.au/fundraisers/kyliehaywood 

Semester 1 Academic Reports 

Our Semester One Report Cards this year will be distributed via the Parent Portal in the last week of this term. If you have yet to start using the portal, it is vital that you make the move to doing so in the next few weeks. If you need any assistance at all accessing the portal, feel free to contact our wonderful staff in the office and they will be more than happy to help you however they can. 

Over the course of this semester, teachers have been gathering evidence of learning for each learning area for each of our students. This process involves gathering, analysing and reflecting on multiple sources of evidence to make an informed judgment about what students know, understand, and can do.  

Assessment in the classroom can come in many forms. It can either be … 

• Diagnostic (assessing prior learning) - pre-tests and work samples. 

• Formative (assessing for learning) - observations, group work, individual conferencing, ongoing work samples. 
• Summative (assessing of learning) - tasks, assignments, presentations.

In Week 10, families will receive Semester 1 Report Cards for students from Prep to Year 6 via the Parent Portal. This Report Card is a culmination of your child’s academic achievement throughout the semester, as well as a snapshot of their spiritual and social development. It is just one way of communicating information about student achievement, effort, and behaviour.  

The Australian Curriculum is written in such a way that there is an ‘Achievement Standard’ for each year level for each subject area. It is this Achievement Standard that we report against. The standards are written as a statement of what a student is aiming to achieve by the end of the school year for their year level. A student receiving a ‘C’ standard indicates that they have met this standard, that is, that their work demonstrates a conceptual understanding of the concepts covered and that they can apply this knowledge and skill in familiar situations. Simply speaking, a ‘C’ standard indicates that your child is able to do what is expected of them for their year level. 

To move beyond a ‘C’ standard, a student must demonstrate that they are developing sophistication of conceptual understanding, with a strong application of skills, and that they are beginning to transfer their knowledge and skills to new situations (B standard). For an A standard, students must demonstrate the excellent application of skills and be readily applying the knowledge and skills to new situations. 

Similarly, a ‘D’ standard does not constitute a fail but indicates that a student is continuing to develop their understanding of the expected curriculum, and may be able to demonstrate some of the elements within it, whether with support or inconsistently. A rough outline of these standards is provided below.  

In each KLA, students also receive an effort achievement level. This level is derived by the level of application and study habits during that particular KLA. Please see the table below for the effort achievement scale.

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

From Our Sports Desk

Athletics Carnival 

Our athletics carnival is coming around quickly. It will be held at O'Quinn Street Oval on Monday 12th June. Attached is the program for the day. Please use the link below to indicate your child/children travel arrangements for the day. If your child/children are catching the bus to the carnival, they will need to be at school promptly by 8:30 am as the buses will be leaving at 8:40 am. Children can come dressed in their house colours for the carnival. They will need to bring a hat, water bottle, sunscreen, morning tea and lunch. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

https://forms.office.com/r/SPE... 

This year we are after some champion parent helpers for our Athletics Carnival. Champion parent helpers would have the option of staying on a field event for the whole day or moving around the field events with their child/children so you could still see them participate. You would be required to help with measuring, raking 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. 

If you think you could lend a hand, please register yourself using the link below. 

https://forms.office.com/r/HaP... 

 9 Years – 12 Years High Jump Events 

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will begin conducting all high jump events for our athletics carnival. These events will be held in the sports centre at school and will include all children born in 2014, 2013, 2012 & 2011. Students are welcome to wear their sports uniform on the day they are competing.  

God Bless,

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher

From Our Library

Speak Up STM Podcast - Episode 3 - Interview with Gus Gordon

During our author visits in Week 4, Gus Gordon, author and illustrator of many award-winning books including Herman and Rosie, Last Peach and I Am Cow Hear Me Moo kindly agreed to be a special guest on our new podcast.  How exciting to interview an author.  Well done Jaxson!

Silver Green Team Award - Alek

Last week Alek Ayii was awarded a Silver Green Team award.  Alek has been a consistent helper with Green Team jobs like picking up litter, watering plants and collecting bins.  Every time a student helps they get a point. When they accumulate 10 points they get a bronze award, 20 points is a silver award and 30 points is a gold award.  Alek is already nearly halfway to getting her Gold award.  Thank you, Alek, for all the work you are doing around the school to make it a greener place.

Eco Warriors

Each day students volunteer to be Eco Warriors at play time during first and second break. Eco Warriors walk around the school picking up rubbish.  A big thank you to Henry in Year 1 for being an Eco Warrior last week and helping to make our school clean and green.

From our Service Club

Last week our Vinnies Winter Appeal officially began. You can bring donations in right up until the last day of this term. Your baskets have now been dropped off by Service Club. Some donation ideas include … 

Please donate what you can. Like Mr Pemberton said last week – every little bit helps. We can all make a big difference in our Toowoomba community.  

 Crazy Hair Day is coming up soon. It is in Week 9 on June 15. For a gold coin donation, you can wear free dress with a crazy hair doo! You can colour your hair with your parents' permission. I wonder who will have the craziest hair doo? We will be looking for the craziest hair class on the day! 

 In Week 10 we celebrate the Feast Day of St Thomas More, the saint our school is named after. To celebrate his Feast Day, we will be sharing another pancake morning. As this is a celebration, there will be no charge but there will be a limit of 2 pancakes per child. Our Pancake Morning will be on Thursday, June 22 from 8 am until 8:30 am.  

 Have a great week. 

God bless,

Mckenzie, Anakha and Emma from the Service Club

Student Spotlight

5 Blue had a wonderful time creating Quick Writes using a mysterious and interesting stimulus picture from Pobble. Check out their amazing writing!

Knitting Group

Week 7 Awards

Well done to our Week 7 award recipients. 

Classroom Newsletters

From our P & F

From OSHC

Good Afternoon St Thomas Mores Families,

What an interesting week we had this week.

Monday saw us discovering Japan, and we watched a video on all the interesting facts about Japan and finished off with Sushi for afternoon tea. Well, I thought pizza scrolls were a hit. Nothing comes close to sushi. The children absolutely loved it.  So that will be on the menu again, I am sure.

Tuesday , Miss Jannali ran a very interesting craft activity where the children made indigenous necklaces.  The children have asked Miss Jannali for more interesting things to do that are indigenous. So, we have planned for Miss Jannali to do an art activity where the children will construct a serpent to go in our Indigenous corner.  Our indigenous corner is currently at its infancy stages . But we were lucky enough to be gifted an aboriginal flag by our local member Garth Hamilton MP . She will also be facilitating an indigenous games afternoon next week where the children will play some games handed down the generations.

Wednesday , Miss Fran ran a great program on Discover China. We watched a video on Terracotta Soldiers. I have some miniature terracotta soldiers from China and brought them in for a ‘show and tell’. Each child got to have a look at them and handed them with great care as they are quite fragile. It just so happened that on this same day Callum and Ethan brought in their Grandmothers terracotta soldier and a book on China for their show and tell for school, and they spoke briefly about their Grandmas terracotta soldier and showed their book to the group.

Thursday was Samoan independence Day and we watched a short video on the very first day that Samoa became independent from New Zealand back on the 1^st January 1962. It was only a short 1-minute video but as it was in black and white, the children were more intrigued that people watched black and white in the old days.  Some of the children then did Saipo Art which traditionally is done using the bark of a mulberry tree. We didn’t have this bark, so I found an activity that replicates this using brown paper bags. We have hung these on the wall.

Friday is Miss Hayley’s activity on England and the monarchy. She will be doing an activity making crowns with the children .

On staffing , Miss Fran has decided to move on from St Thomas Mores, and will finish up on Wednesday the 7^{th of} June. We will miss her very much as she has been a great team member, and nothing was ever too much trouble for her. All the very best Miss Fran, the children will miss you.  

Miss Drew will return from Prac on Monday. It will be great to see Miss Drew again as she has been away for 3 weeks.

The children have been very interested in the cultural activities , so we are extending this into next week.

We have completed our tree of life, Eion , Halliana and Porcha have been helping me . We have added a nest and will be adding baby birds to it next week. We ask that families please send in a family photo to add to the tree. The children have been so happy to complete the tree this week.

Unfortunately , we have had no luck with our vegies and nothing has come up. I think we may need to purchase punnets as there is a better success rate.  Back to the drawing board.

We had some new resources arrive last week and had our hula hoops arrive on Monday. The children had such a wonderful time with them on Monday , however on Tuesday , they were no more as the older children played a little bit rough with them and they did not stand the test of time. I will look at getting more however , as the younger children really enjoyed them.

I am slowly but surely getting to the bottom of the files. Only 4 more to go. If you received an email requesting documentation this week, could you please forward the required documents on to me at your earliest convenience.

I will be sending out the vacation care program on Monday.

Until next time, have a wonderful weekend.  Enjoy the pictures below.

Kind Regards

Debbie and the team.

Our Tree of Life

From our Tuckshop

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.

Tuesday 8.15am – 9.00am

Wednesday afternoon – By Appointment

Thursday 8.15am – 9.00am

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

On Wednesday, May 24th, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Ken Howell the new Bishop of the Toowoomba Diocese. We wish Bishop Robert the very best in his retirement, and we welcome Bishop Ken to our region. 

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.

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