Term 3 - Week 3 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from https://sharecatholic.com/blog/a-prayer-for-our-school 

From the Principal’s Desk…

This week, Catholic Education Week will be celebrated across Queensland.  Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society. 

The theme for 2023 celebrations will be ‘Communities of Faith, Love & Hope’. 

This annual event is held to promote the special ethos of Catholic schools and to highlight the great things that take place in Catholic schools every day across the state and country.

It's always wonderful to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of our Staff Members during this week:

Congratulations to Mr Fechner on being our St Thomas More’s Spirit of Catholic Education nominee for 2023 for his outstanding contribution to Catholic Education.  On behalf of the entire school community, Russell we congratulate and thank you for your outstanding service to St Thomas More’s and Catholic Education!

Congratulations to Miss Emily Candale (Early Career Teacher), Mrs Rebecca Nystrom (Primary Expert Teacher) and Mrs Deb Murphy (School Officer) on their respective nominations for the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Excellence Awards.  We are very proud and appreciative of the wonderful work you do!

A special congratulations to Mrs Charmaine Tancred (Primary Expert Teacher) and Mrs Kylie Haywood (Volunteer Support) on being named finalists in their respective Toowoomba Catholic Schools Excellence Awards divisions.  We are very proud and appreciative of the wonderful work you do! Thank you for making our school a better place!

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Student Protection Contacts

From our APRE

Congratulations to the children who made their First Communion over the weekend. Miss McVeigh and I have enjoyed leading you on your Sacramental journey this year. I hope your First Communion was a special time for you and your family. Thank you to Father Michael for sharing this special milestone with the children over the weekend. 

This week, we celebrate Catholic Education Week! This is a special week each year where we can unapologetically celebrate how special Catholic schooling is! We have some special things planned for the week including ...

Monday: Staff vs Student Netball Game

Tuesday: Spreading CEW Kindness in our Local Community with Service Club

Wednesday: CEW Assembly and Whole School Picnic (from 10am in the Sportscentre)

Thursday: Catholic Touch and Netball Carnival and Catholic Education Week Prayer Celebration (11:30am in the STM Church).

Catholic Schools are such wonderful places and work and learn and it's always special when we get to celebrate them!

During Catholic Education Week we also get the chance to acknowledge staff and volunteers in our schools with both the Spirit of Catholic Education Awards and the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Excellence Awards. We submitted a number of applications this year and are very proud of our three finalists ...

Mr Russell Fechner: Spirit of Catholic Education Award Nominee

Mrs Charmaine Tancred: Toowoomba Catholic Schools Expert Teacher Nominee

Mrs Kylie Haywood: Toowoomba Catholic Schools Volunteer Support

We will be heading off to the TCS Excellence Awards Dinner on Thursday night and we have our fingers crossed for Kylie and Charmaine. 

As I am sure you may have heard by now, our Peace Garden underwent some major work over the June/July Holidays. I echo Mr Wann's words from last week and extend a huge thanks to our wonderful STM P&F for funding this project. Our Peace Garden has been years in the making, first proposed by our graduating class of 2020. I am sure they would be so proud of how their little garden is looking now!

A special thank you must go to Mrs Heuschele for helping plan our wonderful outdoor prayer space and to both Mrs Kaywood and Mrs Petrie for their enthusiasm and commitment to this project! Thank you also to Mark, Alex, Zac and Matt from MRC Landscapes and Down Mini Digs for bringing our ideas to life! 

This wonderful space has already become a favourite and it always puts a smile on my face when I see children (and adults) taking some time out to meditate and pray in our Peace Garden. 

This will be my last newsletter for a little while. Thank you to the entire St Thomas More's School Community for making my last four and a bit years here at St Thomas More's so wonderful. It's such a privilege being APRE in a school where the Religious Life of the School is so valued and embraced. I know Mrs Wardle will do a great job continuing to nurture the Religious Life of the School in my absence and I look forward to seeing everyone again in 2024!

God Bless.

Miss Kristin Byrne

Assistant Principal: Religious Education

Term 3 Date Claimers

Please see below the important dates for Term 3. 

Thinking STM for Prep in 2024 ...

From Our Sports Desk

AFL – AusKick 

We were very fortunate to have staff from the AusKick program come to St Thomas More’s during our PE lessons last week. The children thoroughly enjoyed learning some new skills and playing some AusKick games.  

Interschool Sport – Friday 4th August   

The children looked fantastic in their new playing kits at sport on Friday. Thank you to our amazing sponsors for making this possible. We missed taking some photos the netball girls, but we will catch them next week.  

No interschool sport this Friday 28th July due to it being a pupil free day. Draws below are for Friday 4th August.  

Last week we had a huge number of children that didn’t have a water bottle for interschool sport. Can you please support your child by ensuring they have a water and hat for sport.  

If your child has chosen to play soccer, they will be required to have/wear shin guards. If your child has chosen to play rugby league, they will be required to wear a mouth guard and wear school-coloured footy shorts and socks.  

 Netball  

1:35pm Senior A vs Fairholme court 5  

12:50pm Senior B vs Fairholme court 6  

12:50pm Junior A vs Rangeville court 12  

1:35pm Junior B vs Toowoomba East Navy court 11  

Soccer – Anderson Park  

1:35pm Senior A Boys vs Darling Heights  

12:50pm Junior A Boys vs Darling Heights  

12:50pm Junior A Girls vs Darling Heights  

 Rugby League – St Mary’s Field 2 

1:00pm Senior A vs OLOL 

 Year 4 Rugby 7’s – TAS  

12:50pm – 2:15pm  

 Catholic Netball & Touch Carnivals 

All children in Year 5 & 6 will be participating in the annual Catholic Netball & Touch Carnivals on Thursday 27th July.  

Venues: Kearney’s Spring Reserve & Nell E Robinson  

Starting Time: Teams Arrive 8:30am, Official Opening 9:00am  

Finishing Time: 2:30pm (approx.)  

Please check Sentral to indicate if your child requires the use of the bus.  

We are chasing parent helpers for both netball and touch. If you are able to help out for the day, please send Mrs H an email (Stacey.Hancock@twb.catholic.edu). Helpers would be required to help with coaching and refereeing/umpiring games.  

 Term 3 Swimming Lessons 

Years 4-6 will participate in swimming lessons in Term 3. Due to renovation works happening at the Centenary Pool, we will be busing our students over to the Harristown High Pool. The swimming lessons will still be conducted by Darren Lange Swimming Academy. Below are the dates and times that the lessons will be held.  

Please ensure your child has their swimming costume, towel, cap and goggles for their lessons and anything else you feel they may require. They do not need sun shirts as they are inside for lessons. Swimming caps are encouraged for both swimming lessons.  

If there is a problem with your child’s lessons, please speak to their class teacher and they will deal with the concern. Please do not contact the pool directly.  

Dates for lessons 

Tuesday 18th July  

Tuesday 25th July  

Tuesday 1st August 

Tuesday 15th August  

Tuesday 22nd August  

Lesson Times – 45min  

11:45am – 12:30pm       Year 4 Gold & Blue  

12:30pm – 1:15pm         Year 5 Blue, Gold 5/6 Red  

1:15pm – 2:00pm            Year 6 Blue & Gold  

God Bless,

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher

From Our Library

BookGen – Term 3

BookGen kicked off again for Term 3.  This term we are reading a highly awarded novel by called “How to Bee” by Bren MacDibble which explores a futuristic world where bees are extinct and children climb trees to pollinate the flowers.  We had a great chat about bees, learnt many amazing facts and talked about the repercussions of bees becoming extinct. Unfortunately, we had a number of families unable to join us due to sickness in the family, however we are all looking forward to a hearty discussion in week 8 when we get back together to talk about the book and of course, eat more pizza.

Poem Forest – Student Poetry

Last term several of our students attended a poetry workshop on World Environment Day run by Red Room Poetry. Following the workshop Penny (Yr 4), Christian (Yr 4), Zoe T (Yr 5), Ruby (Yr 4), Isla (Yr 5), Lliam (Yr 4) and Florence (Yr 2) have completed their poems and have now been entered into the Poem Forest poetry competition.  Every entry has helped to plant a native tree on Dharawal Land in the Wollongong local government area. All the poems can be viewed here – Red Room Poetry - along with other students work from around Australia.

Book Week Dress Up Day – Week 8

Due to a number of event clashes STM will be holding Book Week in Week 8. This will be different to the rest of the country as it would normally be held in Week 7.  Hopefully this isn’t too confusing. The Dress Up Day will be held on Wednesday 30 August. The students are invited to dress up as a favourite book character.  They will need to have the book on the day. The book can be a picture book, chapter book or non-fiction book.  It can be from school, home or the town library.  We encourage students not to spend a lot of money on costumes.  The idea is to keep it simple and use something from home or to make something with cardboard etc.

Episode 6 – Speak Up STM – Synchronised Swimming by Grace and Charlotte

Learn some fun facts about Synchronised Swimming as you listen to the next episode of Speak Up STM

Speak Up STM

Week 2 Awards

Amazing work from our Week 2 award recipients. 

Classroom Newsletters

From our P & F

If you would like to join us but can't make it to the meeting you can link in via Zoom.  A link will be released a week prior to the meeting date.

From OSHC

From our Tuckshop

Tuckshop is back to our normal Thursday & Fridays this week.  Please make sure your orders are done by 1pm Wednesady via flexischools.

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

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.

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