6 April 2017

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

This Tuesday the Primary Students participated in Reconciliation. Reconciliation is about God’s love for us. When we make poor choices they separate us from God, as he wants us to be. As Father Mark stated at our service, “we are born good and make good choices, but sometimes we err a little and need to continue to build up our goodness.” During Reconciliation we have a time and a place to celebrate, appreciate and reflect on God’s constant love and forgiveness. Lent, as the penitential season is the most appropriate for celebrating the sacrament of penance. Already on Ash Wednesday some weeks ago the students heard: "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." Reconciliation is an opportunity to be reconciled with God and our neighbours and so be able to celebrate the paschal mystery in Easter with renewed hearts. As we soon come to reflect next week during Holy Week on Jesus’ Passion, we are then able to celebrate the next event of the risen Christ on Easter Sunday. It was on this day that “Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, ‘Peace be to you!’ And when he had said this he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore rejoiced at the sight of the Lord. He therefore said to them again, ‘Peace be to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed upon them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.’ (John 20:19-23)

Jesus here gives us a challenge – to forgive others’ sins just as God forgives us.

Wishing everyone a happy and restful Easter.

Carol Seagar
Principal

The reflection below was used for reconciliation this week. It is also suitable for adults to think about these and aim for an even closer relationship with God.

Close your eyes……

think about way you have been living lately.….
think about the children you have played with……
the good things that have happened……
the sad things that have happened …..
the things that went wrong……
a time when you made a good choice……
a bad choice……
have you hurt someone?……
who could you have helped, but didn’t?……
have you told a lie?……
has your conscience told you that something was wrong?……
have you remembered God?……
have you shown your Mum and Dad how much you love them?……
have you said something mean?……
have you been jealous of a friend?……
God wants you to tell Him about the things you are sorry for.
To get them off your chest so you can start afresh.

Act of Contrition

Priest: Please join in our Act of Contrition:

All: O My God,
I am very sorry that I have sinned against you
Because you are so good
And with your help
I will try not to sin again.

Family Mass Flyer with dates

Family Mass is on this Saturday at 6pm, Newstead Church. If you or your child/ren would like to read at Mass please email as soon as possible.

As it is Palm Sunday this weekend we will invite the children to be part of the procession at the beginning of Mass. They can carry the palms in with Fr Anthony and lay them in front of the altar. Please talk to your child about this if you are going to be at Mass this Saturday night so they will be prepared.

Kind regards,

Jacquie Wood

WWVP Card

Parents, Grandparents and Caregivers are reminded that if they wish to do Parent Help with their children they must have a current WWVP card which has been copied and held on file at the office.

How to apply for a WWVP Check & Number

1. Complete the online application form:
2. Print the “Application Receipt” which is generated when the application has been completed in full.
3. Take the “Application Receipt” (and your 100 point check to confirm identity) to a Service Tas Shop and pay the fee.
4. Take your WWVP card to the school office where your number will be recorded. If you are not recorded in the office you will not be able to do parent help, camp, etc.

Project Compassion 2017

Caritas Australia’s annual fundraising and awareness-raising appeal, brings thousands of Australians together in solidarity with the world's poor to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.

In Project Compassion 2016, over $11 million was raised to help the world's poorest communities.

The theme for Project Compassion 2017 is “Love Your Neighbour”.

As Pope Francis said, “Love of God and love of our neighbour is one and the same thing.”

By supporting Project Compassion you will be helping to empower our world’s most vulnerable neighbours to grow stronger.

You may remember having a Project Compassion box at home when you were a child. You can now share this tradition with your children, helping them to learn that they can make a positive difference in the lives of others.

Please bring back Caritas boxes next week for collection. The House Captains will be collecting these as a House Competition under the piazza each morning.

Explanation of Prayer that may be helpful for you

Whether our prayer be praise, contrition, thanksgiving or petition, it always recognises our need for God. In the gospel Jesus instructs us to ask for what we need. He assures us that God is more than willing to give us what we need. However, for this to happen we must turn to God and humbly acknowledge our need.

It is not so much that we persist in prayer in order to change God’s mind as it is that we persist in order to discover what God’s mind might be.

The salutariness of prayer is often found in the change that it effects in us, not in God. By persevering in genuine prayer we may come to acknowledge that all things are in God’s hands, and that we can rest content to leave them there, trusting that the situation will be cared for as God sees fit. It seems trite to say that God hears all prayer and sometimes the answer is ‘No!’ It is better to say that God respects the freedom of people and will seldom intervene to change the way events unfold. Still, prayer can change the one who prays and also the one for whom the prayer is offered if only human need is recognised and divine solicitude is acknowledged.

Dianne Bergant CSS

STM Techspot – The Dangers of YouTube

YouTube continues to grow in popularity, especially with children. Don’t get us wrong, we like YouTube, it has some great educational resources and is super handy when learning how to try a DIY project at home. However, YouTube has some extremely nasty stuff on it, often posted by adults, but also posted by children. One of the things we find children watch on YouTube are videos that they consider to be “funny”, but are often wildly inappropriate. These videos can be about, but are not limited to, things that are based on an interest of the child’s. For example, Minecraft (that extremely popular mining/building game) videos are one of the big ones that children watch. People do some pretty cool stuff on Minecraft, but some of these videos include adults doing some pretty silly stuff and using terrible language while they are at it.

Something else that has us extremely concerned at the moment is that students are coming to school and discussing inappropriate things (sometimes of a pornographic nature) that they have seen on YouTube or a website at home/elsewhere. Furthermore, students are also recommending that other students go home and watch these inappropriate videos. This recommendation then gets passed down the line from student to student, and in some cases students are recommending inappropriate videos to others that they have not even seen themselves. Often these videos have inconspicuous names that do not immediately identify them as being inappropriate. This is a real trap for the unsuspecting student that goes home to search the recommended video/website. We recognise and thank those students and parents that have had discussions around this issue already.

We strongly recommend that all YouTube , other streaming website use and internet use in general at home/elsewhere is strictly monitored with clear boundaries set. Also, we are aware that some of our students have been creating and posting their own videos on YouTube. Some of these are possibly inappropriate and some videos depict the students in full school uniform and/or giving away personal information (very dangerous).

Below is a link to a Cyber Safety Lady Blog discussing YouTube. The YouTube App was moved from a 12+ App to a 17+ App because of the increase in adult based content on the site.

We thank you in advance as parents of our school community for taking this matter seriously for the safety of all of our students.

Cheers,

Kurt

2016 Magazine

The 2016 Magazine is currently being reprinted and will be issued as soon as it arrives at school.

Kinder 2018

Applications for Kinder 2018 will be taken until the end of May. If you have a child turning 4 this year and wish them to be enrolled at St Thomas More's School please get an Enrolment Application from our website or the office and return it as soon as possible. If you know anyone in the community who would like their child to attend STM Kinder next year please advise them to get an Expression of Interest form off our website or the office and return it as soon as possible.

Catholic Education Research

Dear Parents

As part of the Catholic Education Research Project conducted by Richard Rymarz, he would like to engage parents in the collection of data.

Please find below a link to an anonymous survey of 20 questions relating to education choices.

Could you please make this survey available to parents within your school community.

The survey will be open until Friday 21st April.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Kind regards

Sandra Harvey
Assistant Director: Education

MyTern

Post 2
The Skill of MYTERN

MYTERN is based on a simple metaphor:

• you are the driver
• only you have control of the steering wheel
• you can’t control anyone else’s steering wheel
• each road you drive down is an emotion
• and the way you choose to react to a situation decides which emotional road you 
will drive down. There are two types of roads:
• The green roads which increase your health. Reapo is in charge of these roads - some of which include: happy, excited, peaceful, generous, loving and confident.
• The red roads which increase your resilience. Buska is in charge of these roads – some of which include: sad, disappointed, angry, mean, jealous and scared. Just remember not to stay on the red roads for too long, otherwise you may lose some of your health. It is important to realise that each road has its own merit. Each road is designed to give you a completely different perspective, changing the way you see things and often helping you to choose another road. Life is meant to be full of contrast. You can’t expect to spend your life driving down smooth green roads all the time. If you did you wouldn’t be able to develop any resilience. You just need to know HOW to be in control of your steering wheel, as well as accepting responsibility for the roads that you choose to drive down. This is exactly what the skill of MYTERN helps you to develop through introducing the characters of Reapo, Buska, TEP and PET. Our next post will deal with the characters of PET and TEP, helping you to take control of your steering wheel.

Family Activity

Discuss the meaning of the green and the red roads with your child/children. Ask them what road they are on at different times of every day, beginning to make them aware of what they are feeling. Also, try to monitor which roads you drive down as well.

How do you know what road you are on? A GPS is a tool that can tell you where you are and help guide you to where you want to go.

Perhaps you use a GPS in your car. You can use this to explain to your children how they have their own inbuilt GPS that tells them which road they are on in the MYTERN city of emotions (their current emotion).

Feeling good?

Your GPS is saying that you are on a green Reapo road building your health and that you can drive down there as long as you want to.

Don’t feel so good?

Your GPS is telling you that you are on a red Buska road building your resilience.

Tips for helping your child develop resilience:

Developing resistance – if students think they are on a red road, walk away and tell a teacher is serious.
You can role play with them the words to use if someone is not being inclusive or being mean… eg I would like to play with you; your actions are being mean…
Chat about other choices and how they can react to negative play by others..
Don’t replay negative situations in the child’s mind – forgive and move on.
Learning to wait
Identify struggles as challenges to overcome
Always explain that there are two sides to a story- learning to understand others and where they are coming from.

Fees

It is a requirement on the Fee form signed by parents that:

• Monthly payments are to be made in 9 instalments due:
• at the end of each month March to November; and
• by the end of Term 4, a final payment settling the account in full.

If you require assistance with meeting this commitment please see the Principal.

Medical Information

Can parents of students with medical needs please ensure all medical plans are updated with your doctor and returned to us in the next two weeks. We use these plans (for example anaphylaxis and asthma) as direct instruction when your child needs medical assistance from the staff.

Parking:

Our incorrect and unlawful parking behaviours around the school are impacting on the residents in Abbott and Campbell Street - some cannot exit or enter their driveways. To help this situation, please move on quickly & safely if dropping off only and in picking up please remember there are 5 minute only zones. Students can be picked up as late at 3:15 - 3:20 to help with the traffic pressure. There are side roads and parking up towards the local store if you are able to walk to pick up your children. Please endeavour to be respectful to the whole community.

2017 Sacramental Calendar –

CELEBRATING HOLY WEEK & EASTER 2017

P & F

This year’s committee members are: President – Jacqui Cross; Finance Officer – Kylie Smart; Secretary – Kirsty Pedder.

Vacancy: Fair Coordinator; coordinate the team, facilitate meetings and purchasing and help with sponsorship. If anyone has these skills please contact a P&F member.

Dates of meetings: Thurs 1 June; Wed 5 July; Wed 16 Aug; Wed 13 Sept; Tues 17 Oct; Wed 15 Nov.

Birth to 4 Program at St Thomas More’s

Starting 21st February in the Josephite Hall 9 -10:30 every Tuesday during term time. All parent and children 4 and under are most welcome. Looking forward to seeing you.

Community Announcements

MUSIC EASTER HOLIDAY PROGRAM

What? Games, Prizes, Activities, Team building, Music Education, make new friends, leadership development (for upper primary), Easter egg hunt, Easter bunny relay, Easter mystery walls, Certificate of Participation, Perform a song on your chosen instrument (optional) and much much more!!

When? Wednesday 19th April
Time? 10-1pm
Cost? $15 for 1
$25 for 2
$35 for 3
Where? 125 Abbott St, Newstead

Organised and run by Robyn D Wilson Atcl, Perf Cert, Hon SCSM a Professional Private music teacher in Launceston and her helpers. Working with children checked.

RSVP: 0400 070 375 or email robbiewilson75@hotmail.com Limited spots available so BE QUICK DONT MISS OUT

UPCOMING EVENTS

FRIDAY 14 APRIL GOOD FRIDAY
MONDAY 1 MAY TERM 2 STARTS
FRIDAY 12 MAY MOTHERS DAY BREAKFAST AT 8.00 – INVITE TO COME OUT NEXT TERM
CROSS COUNTRY DATE CHANGE – STM CARNIVAL 17 MAY
NIJSSA CARNIVAL 13 JUNE

April is Autism Awareness Month

GALLERY

Gr 3 boys came 2nd in NIJSSA Relay

Congratulations to the Rae family on the birth of Eamon Frederick Rae on 25 Feb. Portrait by Eamon’s big brother, Ronan