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The vision for St Thomas More's Catholic School is to be a vibrant, positive, and energetic learning community, where every child is valued, and where relationships, the Gospel, and our Josephite charism are at the heart of every aspect of our educational program.
We have high expectations for student learning and student behaviour, and aim to support our students to grow into independent and confident learners, but community-minded contributors to society.
Students are invited into an intimate relationship with Christ. We know we have achieved this goal when our students smile when they arrive at school, and are still smiling when they leave.
MYSTICISM & MINDFULNESS
“Westerners, including Christians, are rediscovering the value of nonduality: a way of thinking, acting, reconciling, boundary-crossing, and bridge-building based on inner experience of God and God’s Spirit moving in the world. We’re not throwing out our rational mind, but we’re adding nondual, mystical, contemplative consciousness.”
– Fr Richard Rohr
Are we aware of the sacredness of the mundane? The imminent presence of God as we go about the lives we lead, and the work we do? The movement of modernism, the proliferation of the scientific method, the incredible advancements of technology, and the sheer volume of knowledge and information available to us in our pockets has impacted the way we understand our faith. To many it appear that our faith has been too literalised, too rationalised, too dogmatised, and that worship, prayer, and encountering the divine has been confined to a discrete set of activities practised at specific times.
How would it reinvigorate our faith, how would it impact our relationships, how would we develop our capacity to reduce our distractedness and enhance our ability to be present, if we were to rediscover the mysticism of our faith? How would we benefit from creating space in our daily lives to experience the awe and wonder of encountering the divine in the seemingly mundane? What can the wisdom of the Christian mystics, and the deep practice of contemplation teach us about how we see the world?
I often heard people quip: She says it as it is! Or: He sees it as it is! It is as though some people in our world, through the relationship-damaging traits of being blunt, direct and rude without kindness, compassion, or understanding, have some undeniable claim on objective truth and have all the answers. But this is not so.
People do not see the world the way it is. People see the world the way they are. Prisoners to our emotions, distracted by our phones, captive to our anxieties about the future. As Albert Einstein said, “We are trying to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s software”.
Though, the Christian mystics have taught us that we can reboot and reset our systems through the practice of contemplation, meditation and mindfulness:
“Through a regular practice of contemplation we can awaken to the profound presence of the unitive Spirit, which then gives us the courage and capacity to face the paradox that everything is—ourselves included. Higher levels of consciousness always allow us to include and understand more. Deeper levels of divine union allow us to forgive and show compassion toward more and more, even those we are not naturally attracted to, and even our enemies.” – Fr Richard Rohr
In meditation, the goal is not to become ‘a meditator’, not even a good one. Rather, it is to dissolve the apparent boundary between meditation and the rest of life. Because, as we soon discover, no such boundary exists. The clarity and freedom you can experience in periods of meditation are no different than the clarity and freedom we can experience in our lives, in our relationships, at work, when stuck in traffic, even when receiving a confronting diagnosis from a doctor.
Being mindful is not a matter of thinking more clearly about experience, it is the act of experiencing more clearly.
St Thomas More’s Catholic School is actively providing opportunities, learning, and curriculum for our students to develop this skill set of mindfulness, stillness, meditation and presence. Our students engage in the stillness of prayer at the start of every school day, encouraging them to encounter and experience the imminent presence of God in our community. Also, every Tuesday following first break we have school-wide Christian meditation, where the entire school pauses for 10 minutes to participate in a period of stillness and reflection.
Additionally, our school is committed to the delivery of The Resilience Project curriculum, which is built on the GEM Principles: gratitude, empathy, and mindfulness. Our students therefore have regular lessons on mindfulness with age-appropriate resources, experiences, and outcomes. These learning opportunities for our students equate to them downloading the software of today, the skills and information they need to move toward stillness and presence.
The enemy of presence is choice. We have so many options, excuses, and opportunities to give into distractedness. But the development of mindfulness, the art of contemplation, the patience of stillness, and the wisdom of the mystics can teach, show us, how to see and experience the presence of God right where we are, right here, right, now.
I’ll end with a tired, but powerful, aphorism that urges us towards presence in every moment: Every moment is a gift. That’s why we call it: the present.
Mr Casimir Douglas
Wednesday 1st May, 2024
SALUTATION
Grace to you and peace.
LAUNCESTON COMPETITIONS!
Those members of our school and local community who ventured down to the Earl Arts Centre this past weekend, were treated to a smorgasbord of newsworthy performances from our students presenting their individual and small group pieces across a range of different categories!
We boasted 18 different 1st places over the weekend! But more importantly, we are so proud of every student who had the courage and confidence to step outside their comfort zone and perform in a full theatre! Thank you so much to our Drama Teacher, Mrs Angela Edwards, for her passion, commitment, and leadership in supporting our students to perform at the competitions!
Please also join me in congratulating the following students who were the named as the Overall Winners of their age groups and were awarded the Arthur Ride Memorial Aggregate Trophy:
Grade 3: Ava Carr
Grade 5: Eva Lewis & George Boyle
Best Overall Recital: Eva Lewis
Also, on Wednesday 8th May, over 300 students from Prep to Grade 6 participated in Launceston Competitions on Wednesday this week by presenting the whole class poem recitals!
We were amazed (as we always are!) by the composure and confidence of all our students, which is a testament to their hard work, talent, and courage.
A special mention to the students and teachers of our Prep Thomas and Grade 5/6 Thomas classes, who claimed first place in their sections! Please check out our School Newsletter this week for further results from our performances in the Launceston Competitions. It would not be an exaggeration to say that we dominated this section in the Launceston Competitions, as evidnece by the placings of each of our classes below.
Prep-Grade 2 Section:
1st: Prep Thomas
3rd: 1/2 Saint
Grade 3/4 Section:
2nd: 3/4 More
3rd: 3/4 Thomas
Grade 5/6 Section:
1st: 5/6 Thomas
2nd: 5/6 Saint
3rd: 5/6 More
Additionally, we were also award trophies as overall winners for the Launceston Competitions in the following group categories:
Impromptu Speaking - Overall Most Points: St Thomas More's Catholic School
Most Outstanding Group Speaking Choir: the entire Grade 5/6 student cohort!
Finally, congratulations again to our Drama teacher, Mrs Angela Edwards, on her outstanding work in preparing our students for the occasion, and to the Launceston Competitions Association for providing this wonderful opportunity for our students!
MOTHER'S DAY BREAKFAST
This Monday morning (5th May), we celebrated our annual Mother's Day Breakfast in the Kitchen Garden area, where the amazing Mums in our school community were treated to some delicious and delectable treats to make that experience of being a mother of a St Thomas More's student just that little bit sweeter!
Our students were able to share their school, their friends, and a yummy breakfast with their most special people! We hope that all the Mums of the St Thomas More's community enjoy the gifts their young people will give to them on Mother's Day this Sunday!
SCHOOL PHOTOS ON MONDAY
Please note the following uniform expectations for the School Photos on Monday. These ensure consistency of presentation for the school uniform, for when the individual and group photos are published or displayed both in internal school platforms, and on the school's digital media profile.
Kinder-Grade 2
For all individual photos and class photos, the students need to be wearing their polo shirt. No jackets or jumpers are to be worn for the photos.
Grade 3-Grade 6
Boys - For all individual photos and class photos for boys, the expectations are as follows:
Girls - For all individual photos and class photos for girls, the expectations are as follows:
GRADE 6 LEAVERS SHIRT PRESENTATIONS
After much anticipation and excitement, Mr Douglas presented our Grade 6 students with their Grade 6 Leavers' Shirt yesterday afternoon!
The shirts not only symbolise their station and responsibility as the student leaders in our community, but they celebrate eight years of commitment, contribution and achievement for this amazing cohort of young people!
Thank you very much to Mrs Belinda Taylor and the Grade 6 Teaching Team for organising the rite of passage for our students. Who knew how much you could learn about life, presence, and leadership from just spending five minutes with an orange?
GRADE 6 LEADERS INITIATIVE - GAGA PIT
Our students leaders have a unique and important role in the life of the school. Not only are they called to lead their peers through modelling the expected ways of behaving, learning, and communicating at St Thomas More's Catholic School, but they are also the voice of the student body. I meet with the School Captains and House Captains regularly to listen to their ideas, concerns, feedback, and hair-brained schemes!
Last term, following the Grade 6 Camp in Smithton, our School Captains and House Captains came to me with a compelling proposal for the installation of a Gaga Pit, which I have agreed to explore and support. Please find below the image of the proposed Gaga Pit, and the location in the school grounds. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Grade 6 Leaders!
FINAL GREETING
May the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
God bless,
Mr Casimir Douglas
Principal
Please see the below an open letter sent by Catholic Education Tasmania, regarding religious freedom and discrimination legislation to the Prime Minster.
Last night at the presentations we had 3 students win an Arthur Ride Memorial Trophy for the highest aggregate score for their grade:
Grade 3 Ava Carr
Grade 5 George Boyle and Eva Lewis
George Boyle also won the Cliff Taylor Trophy for the most outstanding item and Eva Lewis also won the Tuppini Family Perpetual Trophy for the best recital
St Thomas More's won the Louise Peters Perpetual Trophy for the school gaining the highest aggregate for the impromptu reading!
Well done to all competitors in the Launceston Competitions Speech and Drama section. We had children competing in nursery rhyme in costume, recitals, humorous poems, impromptu reading, plays, dance groups and whole class poems.
Some of the highlights of the week were:
Prep T winning the prep-2 section in the whole class poems. Our whole grade 5/6 cohort being awarded Farm Machinery Perpetual Shield for champion primary group speaking, this has never happened before, but the standard was so incredibly high the adjudicator thought they all deserved it. I would have to say the 5/6 group as a whole were flawless on the stage in their whole class poems.
The adjudicator regularly commented on our professional entrance onto the stage, the unison and the focus shown by our St Thomas More’s students when on stage. Lots of “bonus points” awarded!
Angela Edwards
Our lost property bench is currently over flowing with uniform items and bags. If your child has lost a jacket, jumper, bag, etc., we encourage you or your child to have a look in the bench for their belongings. The lost property bench is located on the landing at the top of the stairs outside the school office.
St Thomas More's now has a subscription to World Book Online. WBO is a safe and trusted learning platform for classroom research, homework help and educational games. Our subscription allows staff, students and families to access reliable and age-appropriate information anywhere, anytime.
Please see the attached flyers for instructions on how to access World Book Online. The link is also available on our STM Library webpage.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Kind regards,
Rebecca Thomas
Librarian