Term 2 - Week 9 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from https://www.scross.co.za/2019/07/st-thomas-mores-prayer-for-good-humour/ 

From the Principal’s Desk…

Readers of a popular Australian newspaper voted on their top ten sporting quotes.

Here are a few:

"When considering the stature of an athlete or for that matter any person, I set great store in certain qualities which I believe to be essential in addition to skill. They are that the person conducts his or her life with dignity, with integrity, courage, and perhaps most of all, with modesty. These virtues are totally compatible with pride, ambition, and competitiveness." (Sir Donald Bradman, cricketer)

"I don't think I'll take the medal as the minute and a half of the race I actually won. I'll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in." (Gold medallist ice skater Steven Bradbury, who broke his neck and required 111 stitches in separate incidents on the ice.)

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." (Michael Jordan, Basketball legend)

"We are on the crest of a slump." Then Gold Coast rugby league coach, Phil Economidis after a rough trot.

“It is more important to be a good person than it is to be a good tennis player. Being a good human is absolutely my priority every single day.” (Ash Barty, tennis player)

Children and sports are definitely a good combination. Participating in a sport enables children to build healthy minds, healthy bodies, friendships and valuable life skills. Sports also teaches about the importance of working as a member of a team and being a good sport.

I can still remember quite vividly our first foray into organised sport with our daughter, aged 8 and son, 6 playing Touch Football in Toowoomba. One was a ‘demon’ on the field, taking on all opposition, bouncing up after any collision and loving being a team member. The other, enjoyed plaiting the grass and running away from the ball.

Participating in sporting events provides many lessons in life. One minute a child can be in the winning position racing for the finish line, shooting for a goal or hitting a six. The next minute, that same child can’t believe they were pipped at the post, missed the net or were caught on the boundary.

Being a ‘good sport’ is a valuable learning opportunity that comes as a result of participating in sports. Being humble in victory and gracious in defeat are life skills that require not only maturity to demonstrate but also modelling and encouragement by parents, teachers and coaches.

The actions of John Landy, a great Australian sportsperson, provides an excellent example. In the 1500m race at the 1956 Australian National Championships prior to the Melbourne Olympic Games, Landy stopped and doubled back to assist fellow runner, Ron Clarke after another runner clipped Clarke's heel, causing him to fall early in the third lap of the race. Clarke, the then junior 1500 metre world champion, who had been leading the race, got back to his feet and started running again, Landy followed. Incredibly, in the final two laps, Landy made up a large deficit to win the race, something considered one of the greatest moments in Australian sporting history.

The great thing about sport is that children get the chance to experience emotional highs and lows in a safe, appropriate and structured environment. Sport can give children the chance to learn about being part of a team, winning well, bouncing back from a loss and coping with unpleasant experiences such as injury.

It also teaches us about how important it is to try their best, even if this doesn’t always result in winning. Participating in sports is a great platform for children to feel the reward of putting in effort.

Talking of sport, what an amazing day our St Thomas More’s Athletics Carnival was.  The participation, persistence, humility and enjoyment on display was just exemplary!!

It is the effort and not necessarily the result that makes it a success or failure.

Thanks for reading…                     

Duane

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Student Protection Contacts

From our APRE

Thank you to Mrs Grimshaw and 3 Gold for leading the Upper School so respectfully in prayer last week. Your Prayer Celebration about World Environment Day was a great chance to reflect on God's wonderful Creation and on how we can all be Stewards of Creation. 

Toowoomba Catholic Schools Arts Fest

In Week 10, we have a number of students and teachers involved in the first-ever Toowoomba Catholic Schools Arts Fest! This is a great opportunity for our students to join with other schools in our Diocese and celebrate all things The Arts! 

We will be submitting a whole school art project to the Art Show at the Micah Centre. We also have both our Junior and Senior Choirs attending and participating in both the Sacred Choral Concert and Artsfest Mass during the week. In addition to this, a small group of students is also part of the Musical Theatre Performance, which will be performed at the Belief in the Arts Concert at the Empire Theatre on Wednesday evening during Artsfest Week. Please see a quick overview of Artsfest Week below. 

Families are most welcome to attend Arts Fest but bookings are essential. Use the link below to secure your spot! 

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 School Counsellor

Dear Parents/carers: You are invited to attend three FREE interconnected online seminars to provide you with a toolkit of practical strategies that will help you guide your child’s behaviour, manage everyday worries, and build healthy peer relationships. Attending all three seminars will provide you with the strategies you need to best support your child’s development and help them thrive now and into adolescence.

Seminar topics:

• Power of Positive Parenting (Triple P Seminar)
• Helping Your Child to Manage Anxiety (Fear-Less Triple P Seminar)
• Keeping your Child Safe from Bullying (Resilience Triple P Seminar)

These seminars form part of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program.

For more information, visit the project website: https://able.adelaide.edu.au/education/thriving-kids-and-parents/for-parents#power-of-positive-parenting

Video post:

Parent/carers our school is participating in the Thriving Kids and Parents Schools Project. Please see your invitation from Professor Matt Sanders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aC9rpf-ZHg

From Our Library

Podcast Episode - Ocean Pollution

Our next podcast episode is about Ocean Pollution and fits in very well with our investigation in the Library about Laudato Si - Pope Francis' letter to everybody about looking after our common home. 

Knitting Group

Week 8 Awards

Well done to our Week 8 award recipients. 

Classroom Newsletters

From our P & F

From OSHC

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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