St Thomas More’s Primary School Newsletter

This week we celebrate Harmony Week, Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. It is about celebrating differences and embracing new cultures.

Harmony Week is a time when school communities can unite and promote inclusion. We can lead our communities in the appreciation of difference by celebrating and sharing our cultural heritage, practices, beliefs, identities and languages. The theme for Harmony Week is Everyone Belongs.

On Friday, we encourage students to wear orange. Orange is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Week. Traditionally, orange signifies social communication and meaningful conversations. It also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect.

Friday is also The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA), Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative, connecting schools and communities to find workable solutions to bullying and violence. 

The theme for the NDA 2021 is Take Action Together. This theme aims to elevate student voice, empowering young Australians to join the conversation. 

Thanks to students, staff & parents for your efforts last week. In a busy week where we were down on numbers due to Year 6 camp, PD days & leave, it was pleasing to see so many people willing to step up, at school & camp, to allow everything to run smoothly. We had students welcoming new families, leading prayer celebrations, assisting injured children in the playground, and running assembly in our school leaders' absence. Staff were willing to cover extra duties & parents contributed the P & F and board meetings. We also had two parents who went out of their way to assist a boy from Rangeville who had injured himself outside of our school. 

God Bless!

Mr Michael Cash

Principal

Well done to 2 Red for leading our very first Prayer Celebration for 2021 back in Week 6. You did such a wonderful job! Thank you Mrs Tancred for all your hard work preparing the children to share some important messages with us about how to treat others with kindness and compassion. It was great to have some parents and families along to our Prayer Celebration too!  5 Gold also did a marvelous job sharing their celebration last week, teaching Years 4 and 5 all about St Patrick, whose Feast Day we celebrate this week. It was again so wonderful to be able to invite families to come and share these special experiences with the students.  

1 Gold will be sharing their Prayer Celebration all about the Feast Day of St Joseph this Friday at 11:15am in the church. It’s very exciting that 1 Gold are sharing their celebration about St Joseph as Pope Francis has declared this year the year of St Joseph. I look forward to seeing what 1 Gold have to teach us about a saint that is not only special to the Catholic faith, but to our school community as well. Families are most welcome to attend. Please be aware that all family members who attend our prayer celebrations in the church will need to sign in using our school QR code (which will be up at the entrance to the church) so we can pass your contact details on to the Parish Office for their COVID tracing requirements.  

This week, our Year 4 students will be off to Parish Mass. Year 4 families are most welcome to come along and join in the Friday Parish Mass if they would like (9:00am in the church), but please remember you will need to sign in before Mass in accordance with the COVID-Safe plan for the church.  

Our Worship Choir have been doing a marvelous job sharing some of the hymns they have been learning with the school community during assembly over the past few weeks. It's been great to see the other students (and some teacher too) join in with the singing and actions! Worship Choir will lead the whole school singing our Harmony Week song on Friday this week at assembly, helping us to celebrate the diversity of our school community.  

Project Compassion 

In Week 6 Service Club introduced Olivia to the school community. Olivia is one of countless people CARITAS support each year with the help of donations from campaigns just like our Project Compassion campaign. Be sure to ask your children who Olivia is, where she lives, what her life is like and how CARITAS has helped her. She has an amazing story. If they can’t quite remember what Awuoi and Harry told us about Olivia, check out the Service Club section in this week’s newsletter.  

Our Project Compassion Campaign is going really well. In Weeks 6/7 we raised over $280, which brings our total for the first four weeks of Project Compassion to over $500. What a fantastic effort! Don’t forget we will have our 50c Fridays for the rest of this term (only two more Fridays) and our Project Compassion Easter Chocolate raffle goes on sale this week. Check out the Service Club message for more information.  

Harmony Week 

Harmony Week is upon us!  During 1st break each day this week students are invited to share a traditional story, craft, game or language with the students in the Library (10:45 – 11:15am). If you would like to come in and share some of your culture and tradition with the students it’s certainly not too late! Please contact Mrs Haddin (Dominique.Haddin@twb.catholic.edu.au) or Ms Berry (Leah.Berry@twb.catholic.edu.au) and let them know. We are very excited to be able to learn about some of the cultures and traditions of some of our St Thomas More's families.  

Some of the other fun activities we have planned for Harmony Week include … 

• A Harmony Week banner – students can come and colour this before school or during break time each day this week. 

• A whole school art project – students will be creating self portraits which Mrs Haddin and Ms Berry will creatively display in the corridor outside my room. 

• A whole school sing along – at assembly on Friday we will hold a whole school sing along to a classic Australian song to celebrate that although we are different, we are all part of our St Thomas More’s school community. If you would like to have a practice at home, use the link below.  

ABC’s National Sing-along | We are One | ABC Australia 

• Orange day on Friday – students and teachers are invited to wear something orange on Friday to show their support for both Harmony Week and Anti-Bullying Day. Don’t panic if you don’t have anything orange – just wear something colourful! Students will not need to bring a gold coin donation as this is an act of solidarity!  

I must say a very big thank you to Ms Leah Berry and Mrs Dominique Haddin for organising our Harmony Week events for us. I know the whole school community very much appreciates the extra time and effort you have already put into this project. Your dedication and enthusiasm to this project has been noted by many and on behalf of our whole school community I say a very sincere thank you!  

Purple Day  

On Friday March 26th the Service Club have organised a Purple Day to help raise funds for epilepsy Australia. Students and teachers are invited to wear something purple and bring along a gold coin donation. Don’t panic if you have nothing purple – feel free to come in free dress of a different colour instead.  

Important Dates this Term …. 

God Bless

Miss Kristin Byrne

In our first two weeks of our Project Compassion campaign, we have raised over $250 for CARITAS. In the Lower School, 1 Gold are our fundraising champions and in the Upper School, 5 Blue are the fundraising champions. 5 Blue raised over $40 in two weeks! Don't forget, 50c Friday happens every Friday during Lent. If you can, please bring along 50c each Friday to put in your classes Project Compassion box. See if your class can beat our current fundraising champions! We’ll check in again when we are back from camp next week!   

Our lunchtime groups have been going really well and we will be back into the swing of things this week after our week away at camp. 

The 'Be Like Jesus Challenge’ is still going well. We have seen lots of people being kind on the playground and being inclusive of others. Keep up the great work!  

In Week 5 Liam and Darcy taught you a bit about Margret and how CARITAS has helped her. This week, we want to share a story with you about Olivia.  Olivia is from Tanzania. She didn't have the chance to go to school as a child and as an adult, she could not read, write or count. Due to drought, it is hard to grow food and afford clothing in her community. Many children also don't have the chance to go to school because families don't have the money to send them. Olivia tried to work, but found it hard to calculate change in the shop where she worked. In 2018 Caritas came to Olivia's village. They introduced the A+ Program, which helped adults learn how to read, write and count.  Olivia loved school so much, she became a teacher and set up a school in her own house.  CARITAS also helped Olivia's village have better access to drinking water.  Olivia says … I am proud to be a teacher who helps others to achieve their dreams. I would like to thank CARITAS Australia for their support. CARITAS is only able to do wonderful things like this with the support of people in places like Australia. This year, we urge you to dig deep and give what you can during our Project Compassion Campaign.  

Our Project Compassion Easter Raffle is finally ready! Tickets will be 50c each and you can buy as many as you like! You can buy your tickets outside the library at first break each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  

Service Club would also like to invite the school community to help us support Epilepsy Australia by having our very own Purple Day on Friday the 26th of March. Students and teachers are encouraged to come along to school in their best purple free dress in exchange for a gold coin which we will donate to Epilepsy Australia. Mark the date in your calendars! 

Have a great week. 

God Bless. 

Harry and Awuoi from the Service Club

Have fun as a family designing and building a rubber band powered car out of recycled material. The winning car will be the car that goes the longest distance.  The competition will be held in the Sports Centre in Week 9.  The car needs to be clearly labelled with name and class.  The rubber band is used to power the car and cannot be used as a slingshot.

For inspiration check out these websites:

• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/build-a-rubber-band-powered-car/
• https://yourmoderndad.com/diy-rubber-band-racer/
• https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/rubber-band-car/

You know what a selfie is but do you know what a shelfie is?  A shelfie is a photo of yourself with your bookshelf! We would love some photos of students with their bookshelves.  The photos can be sent to margy.heuschele@twb.catholic.edu.au. Each photo will earn the student a token in the Rev Up Your Reading promotion.

It is a tightly contested race for the Rev Up Your Reading House Challenge.  Hall and Mackillop have been neck and neck all the way but there is still time for Leonard and Finbarr to come racing up from the back.  There is one week to go so help your house and read, read, read!

• If your child will be away from school for any reason, please notify the office of your child's absence.  There are a few ways for parents to notify the school of a student’s absence:

1.  Send a text message to 0439 457 981,

2.  Submit an Absentee Form via the Skoolbag App,

3.  Email the student’s teacher and “copy” the school into the email stthomas@twb.catholic.edu.au

4.  Call the school’s office on 4591 3900 and leave a voicemail explaining absence,

5.  Ask a sibling to inform the office of the absence.

Uniform Shop Opening Hours:

Monday Morning:  8:15 am - 8:45 am

Wednesday Afternoons:  2:45 pm- 3:15 pm

Friday Morning:  8:15 am - 8:45 am

Email orders welcome: THOUniform@twb.catholic.edu.au

Hey families!

Tuck Shop orders are still closing at 12pm Thursdays for the foreseeable future so please make sure they're in through Flexischools.

Baked goods and ice blocks (second break only) are available for purchase.

Whitney @ the Tuckshop"

St Thomas Mores School uses the Skoolbag App to provide information about the school to parents & the school community. The SkoolBag app is an easy way to stay up-to-date with school events, last minutes notices, newsletters and all school communications such as reporting student absences.

Please follow the instructions below to access the SkoolBag school app. 

For iPhone and iPad users:

Click on the “Download on the App Store” button, or go to the Apple App Store, search for “SkoolBag” and download the free SkoolBag app. After opening the app, create an account then search for St Thomas More Toowoomba, Add our school and you’re ready to go! 

For Google Android Users:

Click on the “Get it on Google play” button, or go to the Google Play Store, search for “SkoolBag” and download the free SkoolBag app. After opening the app, create an account then search for St Thomas More Toowoomba, Add our school and you’re ready to go!

Please follow the link to the most recent St Thomas More's Parish Bulletin