Term 3 - Week 5 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

From the Principal’s Desk…

Yesterday, our Year 3 and 5 children received their NAPLAN reports. I always read with great bewilderment over the media hype generated by NAPLAN each year. Even more so when the media start to rank schools according to their NAPLAN data. To rank schools according to a one off test held at the beginning of the year and not to take into consideration the children's backgrounds, demographics, cultural background, level of early education received, time spent on preparing for a one off test, amount of funds spent in preparation for NAPLAN, pressure placed on staff and students to perform in this one off test, absenteeism, etc. 

NAPLAN does have its advantages. It enables the school to identify trends of improvement in a certain area over a period of time. It also provides a clear picture of areas which a school may need to provide more focus on. We can also identify strengths in weakness in each class or year level. More importantly, we can investigate individual students' performance regarding how they answer certain questions. 

As Educational Leaders (myself included), sometimes we can get carried away with the expectation of high academic performance and the pressure to produce quality student testing results.  Although our 2023 NAPLAN results are ‘very pleasing’ sometimes we need to stop, take a step back, ‘keep it real’ and ask ourselves, ‘What are the real reasons why we are here?’ Below, I have adapted a letter for our own St Thomas More’s context based on a note Western Australian Principal Len Christie penned for the children and parents of Beechboro Primary School.

Children, this week you will receive your 2023 NAPLAN testing results.  We are really pleased that you tried your very best in those challenging tests and during the weeks and months leading up to them.

I’d like you, your family, friends and teachers to remember that these tests are unable to measure all of what it is that makes you the valued person who you are. The people who have created these tests and those that mark them don’t know you as well as your teachers know you, to the extent to which I know you and certainly not the way your family and friends know you.

They don’t know that some children at St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School, Toowoomba speak one or more languages other than English. They also don’t know that you may be a great singer and dancer or that you can play a musical instrument really well. They also don’t know how well you can draw beautiful pictures.

They don’t know that you have a sense of humour which can bring a smile to your friend’s faces and make them laugh or that they can rely upon you to support them when they need a kind and encouraging word. They wouldn’t know that you can write poetry and stories, play all types of different sports and have interesting and enjoyable hobbies.

They don’t know how much you love spending time with your family and your close friends and they won’t know how much you are appreciated and loved by them. They don’t know you are trustworthy, kind and thoughtful and you try to do your best every day.

The NAPLAN test results give you some very specific information, however, they can’t say everything about who you are and what you have achieved. I hope you are happy with your results and that they inspire you to do even better in literacy and numeracy. Just remember that there is so much more to describe who you are that can’t be shown in these scores.

I am very proud of your achievements, however, I’m overwhelmed with your effort and dedication in making our school a better place every day

The 2023 NAPLAN results have been distributed to parents via hard copy yesterday.  In 2023, there are new proficiency levels for NAPLAN based on a 4 point scale, replacing the previous numerical reporting method and national minimum standards.  These standards provide clear information on student achievement and are based mainly on what was taught in the previous year of schooling.  These are the four proficiency levels:

• Exceeding: Student’s results exceeds expectations at the time of testing
• Strong: The student’s results meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing
• Developing: The student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing
• Needs additional support: The student’s results indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing.  They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily

Today I would like to provide you with a summary of the proficiency level distribution percentages for St Thomas More’s and the state for comparison.  These results are extremely positive for the school as you will see below. 

Health & Wellbeing Week

As part of our commitment to the emotional health and well-being of our children and staff, St Thomas More’s will provide a ‘Health & Well-being Week’ for week 5 (Monday 7^th August).  Well-being is not just the absence of disease or illness. It is a complex combination of a person's physical, mental, emotional and social health factors. Well-being is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction.  This week we will also acknowledge the Health & Well-Being of our St Thomas More’s children and staff in a number of ways. Teachers will be encouraged to implement the following across the course of the week:   

• No Homework (Children are encouraged to read and revise number facts)
• Engage in 10 - 15 min physical activity during the day;   
• Engage in mediation, yoga or quiet time during the day;   

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

Student Protection Contacts

From our APRE

Mary MacKillop Feast Day Mass

Tuesday, August 8^th at 11.30 am

Prep - Year 6 to attend in the STM Church

Families Welcome

This Tuesday 8th August, students will celebrate the Feast Day of St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop. We will celebrate this day with a whole school Mass commencing at 11.30 am in the STM Church.

St. Mary of the Cross is Australia’s first Saint. Mary MacKillop became known as St. Mary of the Cross when Pope Benedict XVI canonised her in 2010. Mary was a Catholic nun who, together with Father Julian Tenison Woods, founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. St Mary of the Cross and Fr Woods opened their first school in Penola, South Australia. From there, they founded other schools for children who were poor, especially in country areas. They taught about God’s love and being faithful to the Gospels. 

Mary MacKillop is recognised for her generosity to the poor and for consistently helping people when they are in need. Her influence spread far and wide, along with the many principles that she lived by. These include ‘Never see a need without doing something about it’ which is our theme here at St Thomas More’s this year. I encourage all STM community members to really consider this theme this week and assist someone in need or lend a helping hand in some way or another.

Bully Zero Day – Wednesday 16th August

On Wednesday 16th August, St Thomas More’s Primary School students are encouraged to come to school wearing their favourite superhero outfit or symbol (badge, cape, mask etc) to take a stand against bullying as part of Bully Zero Day. Bully Zero is a not-for-profit organisation that delivers evidence-based bullying prevention workshops to schools across Australia.  Bully Zero is also endorsed as a Trusted eSafety provider by the eSafety Commissioner. We encourage all students to bring a gold coin to support this cause. Alternatively, you can donate directly to Bully Zero through the Bully Zero website or via bank transfer using the details below: Banking Institution: Westpac Account Name: Bully Zero Australia BSB: 033 134 Account Number: 534412.

Term 3 Family Mass

This term, we join with the St Thomas More’s Parish to celebrate Family Mass on Saturday 26^th August at 6:00 pm.

If your child wishes to participate in this Mass, whether to read, sing or bring something forward to the altar, please email me at Patricia.wardle@twb.catholic.edu.au, or encourage your child to come and see me.

Worship Choir

Mrs Carmel Weier would love to have any students from Prep - 6 join the worship choir. Worship Choir is held every Wednesday at first break in the music choir. Please encourage your son/daughter to attend.

God Bless.

Mrs Patricia Wardle

Acting Assistant Principal: Religious Education

Term 3 Date Claimers

Please see below the important dates for Term 3. 

From the Middle Leader/Learning Support

ICAS COMPETIONS

ICAS Tests will commence this Monday with Writing and Digital Technology. If you have registered your child for any of the ICAS tests, please see information below regarding dates and times. I have had to make a slight change to the spelling test initially scheduled for Tuesday 22nd August due to swimming. If your child is absent for one of the tests, we will find an alternative time for them to sit the test later in the week.

• Writing - Monday 7th August at 8.45
• Digital Technology – Monday 7th August at 11.15
• English – Monday 14th August at 8.45
• Science – Monday 21st August at 8.45
• Spelling – Monday 21st August at 11.15. Please note that this time has changed from Tuesday 22nd due to swimming.
• Maths – Tuesday 29th August at 11.15. Chess comp kids will do their test at 12.10 on Wednesday 30th August.

Regards,

Trish Wardle

Thinking STM for Prep in 2024 ...

From Our Sports Desk

Interschool Sport – Friday 11th 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 East court 7 

12:50pm Senior B vs OLOL court 8  

12:50pm Junior A vs East court 13  

1:35pm Junior B vs St Saviour’s court 8  

Soccer – Anderson Park  

1:35pm Senior A Boys vs St Mary’s 

12:50pm Junior A Boys vs St Mary’s  

1:35pm Junior A Girls vs Fairholme  

Rugby League – Gold Park 

12:50pm Senior A vs Glenvale  

Year 4 Rugby 7’s – TAS  

12:50pm – 2:15pm  

 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

Podcast Episode 7 – Colour Fun Run by Grace and Miss Jayne

On this week’s episode of the podcast, Grace and Miss Jayne talk about the exciting Colour Explosion Fun Run that will be held on Friday in Week 10, the last day of term!

Week 4 Awards

Well done to our Award winners for Week 4!

A HUGE congratulations to Shontelle Petrie who was presented with the Volunteers 'Couldn't Do It Without You' Award.

Classroom Newsletters

From our P & F

Our next P&F meeting will be held next Monday evening  (14th August). This meeting will be held in the music room with an option to dial in via zoom (link to be sent out later this week ). All parents and staff are invited to join us for this P&F meeting - it is a great way for parents to be involved in your child's school and contribute to doing 'just one thing' in the school community. See you all there! 

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.

Bush Dance - we have interest in holding another bush dance for our school community again this year but to do so we need a committee of volunteers to help drive this. If you are interested, please come and see Kylie Haywood 

From OSHC

Good Morning St Thomas, Mores Families ,

I hope you have had a great week.  We are well and truly in the middle of winter at the end of this week. Just when we thought it was time to pack away the winter clothes and jackets, we get another cold snap.

This week was a little bit of this, and a little bit of that with regards to activities.

Monday – Miss Gemma had a lot of interest last week in the game Uno, so she introduced the game ‘Garbage’. The children watched a video on how to play the game and then a small group stayed inside to play the game.

Tuesday – Miss Hannah has been inundated with requests to draw anime and that has extended onto what is 3D and how to make 3D.  The children are still making the 3D robots today .

Wednesday- I introduced the ‘Helper’s Group’ to ASC. We had a list of all children who attend who are 10 years and over and asked them if they would like to be a part of the Helpers Group. All but one said they wanted to join. How it will work is it will be a reward system, where the children initiate helping their peers, or educators and will get a star on the chart. Once they reach 5 stars , they get a small prize ( the children asked for a chocolate ) and then when they get to 10 stars , they get a prize from the prize box, then when they get to 15 stars , they get larger prize.   The children are very excited and we are too, as we want to encourage ‘Community’  where the children help one another,  be it a small gesture,  for example taking a Prep to the toilet as in  a buddy system  or helping tidy up etc.  

Just another note on Wednesdays. We have not had a lot of children take up Homework Club on Wednesday afternoons. The children chose Wednesdays as they said it was the middle of the week. We do let them know it is Wednesday and is Homework Club day at Group time and tell the children if they want to do their homework to grab it from their bags. Any suggestions would be appreciated, as we can not force them to do their homework. Maybe something you have tried at home that works? Please let me know and I will endeavour to incorporate it at OSHC if possible.

Thursday – Miss Jannali introduced Origami activities with the children today.  I think Miss Jannli bit off more than she could chew as the saying goes, and the children and her, had a great time trying to make origami flowers. I could hear the laughter outside when they realised it is harder than it looks. It was a lot of fun though.

Friday- Miss Hayley is having a game day outside this afternoon , where the children will invent their own games and make the rules for this game. It will be a chilly day outside this afternoon, so Miss Hayley may need to take the children up to the hall.

Staffing-

Miss Drew has officially resigned and will be starting her new job as a Prep Teacher at a Catholic School in Laidley. We will miss her as she was an integral part of the OSHC family. All the very best Miss Drew.

Mr Kallen is a school-based trainee, and he is officially starting next week on Tuesday , Thursday and Friday afternoons. It will be lovely to have him here at St Thomas Mores. The older boys are very excited to have him here as well. Archi has been asking me every Tuesday for the last two weeks if Kallen was coming that day.

I have interviewed a young lady this week who will fit in lovely . Pending her referee checks she will be a great asset. Maybe next week I will have more news on her commencement date.  

We have introduced something slightly different at OSHC , this is at a trial basis at the moment. We have noticed that some , not all, but some children do not want any afternoon tea after group time, so are on the verandah waiting on the other children to finish before they can go out on the oval to play. So we introduced on Wednesday this week that if you don’t wish to have afternoon tea at that time, you can go out to play with an educator or two depending on how many children wish to go out. We have food covers , that we place over the fruit and vegetables, and this is left on the table with tongs, and plates, so the children can have something to eat after they have had a little play. If anything is going to spoil from being outside , for example , yoghurt, cheese, meat products, will be placed in the fridge in the office . Before cleaning up the afternoon tea table at 4:30 the children are asked again if they would like something to eat. The children seem very happy with this arrangement as one boy said to me yesterday, ‘this is awesome now I don’t have to wait around for the others to eat’, and it seemed a smooth transition. We will monitor this , especially when the weather warms up. We will then put the food straight in the fridge and the children just need to let us know that they are now hungry and want something to eat.

I just wanted to add some information for some parents in regard to cancelling permanent bookings etc. This information is from head office.

-              A Government enrolment will automatically cease after 12 weeks of no attendances; one can be re-created at this time for the parent to approve in Centrelink.

-              If a child doesn’t claim CCS in 26 weeks, Centrelink will cease the claim entirely and a new claim will be required to be submitted and approved with Centrelink.

-              A child must not be absent on their first or last booked day or CCS will not be paid.

If your child has not attended at least once in 12 weeks, the government enrolment will cease . To stop that from occurring you need to only book your child in for one afternoon or morning booking in the 12 weeks to stop this happening.

Also ,If you are cancelling your child’s permanent booking , you will need to give 2 weeks’ notice, as per the cancellation policy, so hypothetically your child’s last day of the 2 weeks’ notice period is the 16^th August, your child needs to  attend on the 16^th August so you do not lose your CCS entitlement .   

I hope this helps as I was a bit confused myself , so asked Tarah from accounting to send me a quick blurb to add to this email.

I would like to welcome Penny and Annabelle to OSHC. We hope you enjoy your time here. And I would also like to say a big farewell to Laila. Laila is moving to another school next week. We will all miss you, Laila. I hope you enjoy your new school.

Please enjoy to the photos from this week.

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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