St Thomas More’s School Update

RADII Survey

During Catholic Education Week parents, staff & students will be given the opportunity to provide feedback regarding various aspects of the school’s operations. Parents should have received an email with information on how to access the survey. For those who did not receive the email, the survey can be accessed by following the procedure below:

(1) Go to https://surveys.radii.org/surveys/

(2) Enter the relevant Survey ID as listed below.

(3) Click NEXT to save and record the responses

Parent Survey ID: 2925-syYC

Closing Date: 9th August, 2021

Happy Catholic Education Week! This year the theme for Catholic Education Week is ‘A Spirit Tomorrow'. This year our celebration is extra special as we are also commemorating 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia and 60 fantastic years of education at St Thomas More's! This week we will be highlighting some of the wonderful things that happen in our school not just in Catholic Education Week, but every week, on our Facebook page! Be sure to follow us so you can see what we have been up to!  

As part of our Catholic Education Week celebrations, Prep to Year 4 will be participating in a Whole School Mass this Thursday from 1:40 pm. At this stage we are hoping to be able to share this Mass in the St Thomas More's Church, but we will confirm these details with our families later this week. Families are most welcome to attend! This Thursday our Year 5 and Year 6 children will be off representing STM at the annual Catholic Netball and Touch Day. We wish all our budding athletes the best of luck!  

Healthy Harold delivered his last lesson to STM for 2021 last week. Harold and Miss Jane extend a hearty congratulations to all our STM students for their wonderful participation during Life Education Lessons. They were both very impressed! 

As I am sure you know, the Tokyo Olympics kicked off over the weekend! Many classes across the school have already started getting into the Olympic spirit by studying some of the different athletes and sports and even creating some artwork to send to the Athletes Village for the Paralympics! To show our support for our Aussie athletes, STM will be holding a Green and Gold Free Dress Day on Monday, August 2nd. Our Green and Gold Day is all about showing our respect and support for the Australian Olympic Team, therefore students will not need to bring along a gold coin donation! I can’t wait to see everyone all dressed in the green and gold!  

Parish News  

St Thomas More's Parish was very excited to welcome Peter Kearney to share a free concert in early August.  Peter is a popular children's liturgical singer and songwriter, whose songs we use often at school.  Unfortunately due to COVID travel restrictions, Peter has had to postpone his August 3td concert in Toowoomba.  We will share revised details when a near date has been set.

SIGNS OF HOPE – PEOPLE OF FAITH 

Songs, stories and reflections about people who have lived out the Beatitudes and whose faithful lives have brought compassion and hope into our world.  Hosted by St. Thomas More Parish Tuesday 3rd August, 6.30pm,  

St. Patrick's Cathedral Centre,  

123 Neil Street 

TOOWOOMBA 

Free admission. Donations welcome at conclusion 

The St Thomas More's Sacramental Program continues this term with preparation for the Sacrament of Penance occurring in August. Please see a note from Mr John Briffa (the STM Parish Leader) below with details regarding this program. 

Sacramental Program - Penance 

Preparing to receive the Sacrament of Penance: 

The next Sacramental Program at St Thomas More’s Parish will begin with preparation to receive the Sacrament of Penance. If you wish your child/children to participate, I would like to invite you along to a parent information session on Wednesday 4 August 2020. The sessions will be conducted by the Parish Leader, John Briffa, in the Parish Church at 2pm and 7pm on 4 August. Please come to either the afternoon or the evening session on that day. This session is for parents only. John will talk about the program and dates and times for the program which will roll out in the weeks following. A copy of the dates and times is attached. To register your child please contact the Parish Office parishoffice@stthomasmores.org.au or 4635 9555.  

For further information contact APRE Ms Kristin Byrne or John Briffa parishleader@stthomasmores.org.au 

Preparation for Penance 2021: 

Celebration of the Sacrament with Fr Michael: Wednesday 1 September – 6.00pm 

Dates to keep for Term 3 ... 

Have a wonderful week! 

God Bless  

Miss Kristin Byrne

ICAS Competitions are designed to assess a student’s ability to apply classroom learning in new contexts, using higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills.  The competitions give students experience in answering questions in formal test situations and to have their work assessed against other students around Australia and the Asia Pacific Area.  Each student who participates in the competition receives a certificate acknowledging their achievement in the test, a detailed results break down indicating their skills from the test and a summary of their results compared to other students across the state.  

At St. Thomas More’s we provide students with the opportunity to participate in ICAS assessments in Digital Technologies (Years 3-6), Science (Years 3-6), English (Years 3-6), Writing (years 3-6), Spelling (Years 3-6) and Mathematics (Years 3-6).  The assessments are held during class time and are an online format. 

Registration and payment to participate in any assessment is completed online. Please visit the UNSW Parent Payment Website  https://shop.unswglobal.com.au/pages/pps and enter our school code KMY151.   From here you can register your child for any of the assessments and make payment. The registration website will close on the 1st of August. Writing and Digital Technology closed yesterday.  

Please refer to the notice sent out last Friday for further details about registering your child, competition dates for 2021 and the cost of each competition. 

If you have any further questions or require assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs Wardle – patricia.wardle@twb.catholic.edu.au 

This term we will be running lots of groups for students from Prep to Year 6.  

On Monday we have Sport Group for Years 2 to 4. This happens at second break playtime on the Top Oval. 

On Thursday we have Creative Group for Prep to Year 6 at second break playtime. This is in Miss Byrne’s room. 

On Friday we have Sport Group for Prep and Year 1. As we have interschool sport this term, this will now be at first break playtime. 

Year 4 are running a Prayer Group on Mondays at second break playtime and a Cheer Group on Fridays at second break playtime. Thank you, Year 4, for helping us provide these great opportunities for our school!  

Later this term we will be having Jeans for Genes Day. On Jeans for Genes Day we can wear jeans and bring along a gold coin to help raise money and awareness for children’s genetic diseases. Keep your eyes peeled for more information about this in the next few weeks.  

This term we are really excited to start our Kindy Connection with Creative Gardens. We are going to be visiting them once a fortnight. 

Service Club have some great ideas for this term, but there is always room for more. If you have any ideas on how Service Club can support our school or community, please let us know! We’d love to hear your ideas.  

Have a great week. 

Lucy and Harry from Service Club 

A friendly reminder that swimming lessons will be taking place this week for our Year 4, 5 & 6 students.

Please make sure you have the following items at school for your lesson:

• Togs/Swimmers
• Goggles
• Swim Cap
• Towel
• Spare underwear

We’re making it easier for you to help keep us all COVID safe.

Download the Check In Qld app today ? www.covid19.qld.gov.au/check-in-qld

We’re using it because it’s safe, secure and convenient.

We look forward to seeing you soon. #CheckInQld

The theme for Book Week this year is Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds.  During Book Week we will again be having a dress up parade. The students have been asked to pick a book from one of these themes and bring the book along with them.  Book Week is in week 7 and the date of the parade will be announced in the near future. 

The theme is very broad and can encompass a huge variety of books.  Here are just a few suggestions: 

Old Worlds (Historical) - Ancient Egypt, Knights, Dinosaurs, World War I and II.

New Worlds (Futuristic) - Space Station, Science Fiction, Future Technology, Robots.

Other Worlds (Fantasy) - Fairies, Harry Potter, Aliens, Dragons.

We encourage you not to spend a lot of money on the costume but use what you have at home, go to the secondhand shop, or have fun creating a costume from recycled materials. 

Have you joined our private Facebook page for St Thomas More’s families? 

Here we share up to date information on things happening around the school, let parents know what is happening from the P&F and also allow parents to post regarding selling uniforms, lost property and other school related questions. 

It’s a great way to be involved in our school community. 

You can join the group here 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/612293628865467/

Our Bush Dance and Dinner that was held as part of our 60th birthday celebrations was such a successful night and enjoyed by all. The success of the night was in part due to the amazing sponsorship received by a number of businesses within the school community. We would like to thank the following businesses and encourage all families to support these businesses where possible. 

GTH Group - Accounting and Financial Planning 

07 4632 9698

Alan Reilly Real Estate 

0427655767

Excavation Equipment 

0746009660

ParisiAnn Patisserie 

0420 906 186