Term 4 - Week 7 - Newsletter

Prayer of the Week

From our Principal

During the period of the South-North Dynasty in China, there was a kingdom called Tuguhun. Acai was the emperor of this kingdom.

Acai had twenty sons, each one of whom was strong and skilled at fighting. Each had his unique expertise. When Acai was very ill, he called all of his sons together and asked each one of them to give him one arrow.

He then said to his younger brother, Mu Liyan, "Please take one arrow here and break it." Mu Liyan easily broke the arrow. Acai then said, "Please take nineteen arrows here and break them." Mu Liyan could no longer break the bundle of arrows.

Acai said, "Now do you understand? One arrow is very easily broken, while a bundle of arrows is hard to break. As long as all of you work together with one heart, our kingdom will be stable."

A principal’s job can be made or broken by the support they receive from families and at St Thomas More’s, we are very blessed to have such a committed group of families. When I look at the myriad of ‘things’ our nearly three hundred families are involved in, on top of working and just running around after our children, it makes me extremely proud to be a part of this school community.

One group that any principal is delighted to be backed by is an active and positive Parents’ and Friends’ Association. At our regular monthly meetings, attending parents will be valued for their opinions, ideas and willingness to help. The Parents’ and Friends’ deals with assisting with the provision of a good educational environment for our children.

Tonight at 7pm we hold our final P&F Meeting for 2023 and we are looking to fill a number of executive positions. I’ve previously giggled as to the many reasons why mums and dads enjoy attending P&F Meetings, however, this one takes the caked:  “P & F Meetings were a wonderful way to get out of the house and have your husband feed, wash, dress and bed the children.”  You can’t beat that!

Looking forward to seeing many more parents and carers tonight for our next meeting! 

And hopefully, we can be like the characters in the next story and all become involved in our P & F Association.  Your respectful and considered voice will be greatly appreciated at meetings.

God Bless,

Duane Wann

Principal

2024 Staffing Update

Please find below recent staff updates for 2024:

David Anderson (Class Teacher):  After teaching at Holy Name School, Toowoomba and recently as Acting Assistant Principal: Religious Education at St Patrick’s Primary School, Mitchell and Acting Assistant Principal: Religious Education and Middle Leader at St Patrick’s Primary School, St George, David will continue as a class teacher at St Thomas More’s in 2024.

Liz Skinner (Music Teacher):  Liz has accepted a Music Teaching position at another school and finish her time at St Thomas More’s at the conclusion of the year.

From our Acting APRE

Remembrance Day Prayer Service.

Welcome to Week 7! Thank you to Miss McVeigh and 6 Blue for leading the whole school so prayerfully and respectfully for our Remembrance Day Prayer Celebration last Friday. It is always a sombre time to reflect on the lives that have been lost over the many campaigns Australia has been part of since World War 2. 

Vinnies Christmas Appeal

It is wonderful to see so many items coming in to fill class Hampers as part of the Vinnies Christmas Hamper appeal. Your support is greatly appreciated. Please continu

Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum 

Over the next few weeks, teachers will be implementing the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum. This curriculum has been developed to support Queensland schools’ delivery of key safety messages to students from Prep to Year 9. Through a series of lessons, students will learn how to recognise, react and report when they are unsafe or find themselves in situations that can have a significant detrimental effect on their physical, psychological or emotional well-being. Please see the information sent out via the Parent Portal Last week for further details about topics to be covered in each year level.

We encourage you to talk to your children about what they are learning in class. The following table outlines the content areas to be covered by each class this year.  

TCSO Family Life Lessons 2023 

Over the next few weeks, the Sexual Health Education Program (better known as Family Life Lessons) will be taught to children from Prep to Year 6. Please have a conversation with your child/children and clarify any questions that they have after these lessons. 

These lessons are part of the curriculum of our school and all schools across this Diocese. They form part of the Personal, Social and Community Health Strand of the Australian Curriculum and follow the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Toowoomba, Guidelines for Teaching Sexual Health.  

Please be assured that this material will be handled with sensitivity. Below is a brief overview of the content covered across the school. Please see information sent to families via the Parent Portal last week for further details for each year level. If you have any questions or concerns about the content being covered or your child's participation in these lessons, please contact your classroom teacher. 

God Bless,

Mrs. Wardle

Acting APRE

Student of the Week awards

Congratulations to our Week 7  Term 4 Student of the Week Award Recipients. 

Important Dates to Remember

Student Protection Contacts

From our Sports Desk

Term 4 Interschool Sport 

Interschool sport will continue this Friday. Children have nominated for their preferred sport. AFL girls have received a mouth guard form that will need to be completed and returned before they will be able to play. Mouth guards are compulsory for AFL. There are no special requirements for boys touch and mixed volleyball.  

Boys Touch - Kearney Springs Touch Fields 

Girls AFL - Concordia (Stephen Street) 

Mixed Volleyball - Toowoomba East State School  

Please ensure that your child/children have a water bottle and hat for Term 4 sport. 

Draws - Friday 17th November   

Boys Touch – Kearney Springs Touch Fields 

1:35pm Senior A vs Glenvale F8 

1:35pm Senior B vs TESS Navy  F3 

12:50pm Junior A vs Fairview  F5  

Girls AFL – Concordia (Stephen Street)  

12:50pm Senior A vs Glenvale  

1:35pm Junior A vs Glenvle 

Mixed Volleyball – Toowoomba East State School  

1:35pm Senior A vs Toowoomba East  

1:35pm Junior A vs  Toowoomba East   

12:50pm Senior B vs Highfields   

1:35pm Junior B (team 1) vs Holy Name   

1:35pm Junior B (team 2) vs Toowoomba East   

Prep – Year 3 Swimming Lessons 

Thank you for your patience. We finally have some information regarding Term 4 swimming lessons. This term swimming lessons will still be conducted by Darren Lange Swimming Academy, however the children will be bused over to the DLSA pool at Wilsonton. To account for the extra travel time, lessons have been reduced to 4 lessons x 1 hour each.   

Below is the timetable for swimming lessons for Prep, Yr 1, Yr 2 & Yr 3 for Term 4. 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 and the swimming carnival at the end of the year.  Children will get changed at school prior to leaving and will get redressed when they return. Please pack slide on, easy to wear thongs/slides for easy removal. Please ensure that ALL items are labelled.  

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.  

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or your child’s classroom teacher.  

Senior Swimming Carnival 

The 2023 Senior Swimming Carnival will be held on Tuesday 28th November at The Glennie Aquatic Centre. This year the swimming carnival will be open to all students born from 2011 to 2015. Year 2 students are already participating in the Junior Swimming Carnival, however, children who can confidently swim 25m or 50m are more than welcome to participate in the Senior Swimming Carnival as well. 
 
To assist with the planning of the carnival, please complete this form for each child. Please complete this form even if your child is not attending the carnival. Buses will be provided for students if required. 

https://forms.office.com/r/a4J... 

Junior Swimming Carnival 

This year our Junior Swimming Carnival will be held at the TAS (Toowoomba Anglican School) swimming pool on Monday 27th November, commencing at approximately 9:00 am - 12:30 pm, access via Wirra Wirra Street. Children in Prep - Year 2 will have the opportunity to participate at this carnival. We invite parents to attend this carnival if they wish. 

We encourage all students to attend regardless of their swimming ability. Shorter lap lengths and novelty races ensure that this is a memorable day, whilst building confidence in the water prior to joining the more competitive races at the upper school swimming carnival in years to come. Some events will include freestyle/kickboard, noodle and other novelty races. 

No ribbons will be awarded at this carnival as this is purely a non-competitive carnival to encourage fun in the water. Adults will be placed in each swimming lane and will be available on the sides of the pool to assist if required. 

The school will provide buses to transport students to and from the carnival. 

Children can wear their sports uniform and wear their togs underneath. They will also need to bring a towel, goggles (if needed), swimming cap, sunscreen, morning tea and a drink bottle. 

If you have any further queries, please don't hesitate to contact your child's classroom teacher or myself. 

God Bless,

Stacey Hancock

HPE Teacher

Recipe of the Week

3 Ingredient Basque Cheesecake

If you make this cheesecake please send us a photo to post in the next newsletter.

Send your recipes through to stthomas@twb.catholic.edu.au and each week we will feature a new one for you to try.

Thinking STM for Prep in 2024 ...

From our Classrooms

Catch up on all the individual classroom news, click the link below.

From our P & F

A reminder, at our last meeting we had no nominations for x3 positions on the executive (President, Vice President or Secretary).
 
If you’re interested in nominating for any positions or just want to know more - feel free to contact Kylie (Kyliehaywoodbusiness@gmail.com) or Shontelle (Shontelle.Petrie@gmail.com) 

Join on your computer, mobile app or room device

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 499 495 067 881 

P & F - September Meeting Minutes 

AGM Minutes 

From our Tuckshop

Open every Wednesday & Friday. 

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

NEW Tuckshop Menu

From our Uniform Shop

Back to School Trading Hours - BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.

Appointment can be booked via a portal link that will be sent in the next few weeks.   

As this is always a busy time in the Uniform Shop, we ask for your patience and understanding.  Please allow extra time when you turn up for your appointment for delays as we serve a high volume of foot traffic and processing of payments.

Orders can be placed in advance and collected during opening hours,
please email :  thouniforms@twb.catholic.edu.au

From our OSHC

The week that was...

Good Morning St Thomas, Mores Families,

I hope you have all had a wonderful week.  It was a bit cooler this week, which is a pleasant change to the high temperatures we were receiving last week.

This week’s theme has been all about Melbourne Cup.  How the fashions on the field started,  the beginnings of fascinators, and the horses themselves. Some of the Prep children laughed and questioned why the video that was filmed in the early 60’s was in black and white. We then had another discussion about how back then there was no colour videos etc.

Monday- Miss :Laetitia showed the children how to make a fascinator. Some children made them for themselves, some for their mothers. We watched a video on Fascinating fascinators.

Tuesday- Miss Hannah had a team building exercise with the children , where they needed to suck through a straw and pick things up, and then carry them to the other end of the oval. It was quite a windy day, and Miss Hannah found the straws blew away in the wind, so she is going to go back to the drawing board and use resources that are not so light. The children thought it was hilarious though and changed the game up, by chasing the straws around the oval.

Tuesday morning – Miss Gemma had a wonderful special breakfast for the BSC children , where they helped to prepare French toast. Miss Gemma then cooked it. Asher absolutely loved the French toast and had 3 slices. It was such a popular activity for the morning children , that Miss Gemma will try and facilitate this every Tuesday morning . Next  Tuesday Miss Gemma is making pancakes with the children and they will be special pancakes as next week is Remembrance Week.  I’ll keep that a secret until next week.

Wednesday-  Miss Gemma had a create a paper plate horse activity planned, however due to the childrens choice of next weeks theme the day before, Miss Gemma improvised and created Poppies with the children to put on our wall plaque.

Thursday- Miss Jannali had a ‘create your own fashion for on the field activity. The girls improvised and instead of making dresses for the paper dolls that Miss Jannali had made up, they got the dolls from home corner and made fashions for them. Great job girls. It is so good to see children being creative, and maybe not following the norm and branching out and creating something totally different.

Friday- This morning we had a small number of children who were very busy painting their Melbourne cup winners, and making more fascinators . Max was a great helper this morning and helped the staff pack up without being asked. Max was very excited when he got two dojo points. Great helping Max. He was so happy he gave all the staff high fives.

This afternoon Miss Hayley’s activity that she has planned for the children is ‘designing a jockey jersey. Will be great to see photos of this activity.

Staffing .

• Miss Hayley will be on leave from the 16^th to the 24^th November.  Miss Jannali will backfill all Miss Hayley’s Responsible Person shifts during that time.
• Miss Halle is away from the 13^th to the 17^th November.
• Miss Charlotte returns on Monday.

As some parents may be aware, we have just gone through ACEQCA this week for accreditation. You may have seen a lady who was walking around with a laptop in tow . She was here for Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning, going through all paperwork and procedures, routines etc.

• I have attached our Philosophy to this email. We would really love some family feedback please. Is there anything you feel we need add to the Philosophy , anything we should omit.

• I have printed out some ‘update enrolment forms ‘for families who have not updated their enrolments for next year. They will be on the sign in table.

I will be sending out the Vacation Care Program next week.  You will be able to book into vacation care from next week after the program is finalised. We have a great array of activities , for Christmas, and New Year.

Just a reminder about our operating days during this period.

From the 4^{th of} December until the Wednesday the 20^{th of} December we will be running a vacation care program.

The staff will then be at Professional Development from the 21^st to the 22^{nd of} December, inclusive. We will be closed on those two days.

We will be closing for 2 weeks on the 25^th December and re-opening on the 8^{th of} January , until Friday the 19^th January.

We will resume BSC and ASC from the 22^{nd of} January.

Until next week, have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the pictures.

Kind Regards

Debbie and the team

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

Tennis Lessons -  sign up for 2024