14 June 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Friends of our School,

In the Gospel this week we hear about the parable of the mustard seed, where Jesus uses the mustard seed as a metaphor for God’s kingdom. We must remember parables were told to help the people of Jesus’ day understand the message of Jesus, however they may not always be relevant to our lives today. In the mustard seed parable Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed, and although it starts off very small, it grows into a huge tree. For me, I like to compare this to our schools, where we are like the farmers planting mustard seeds in all our students. With nurturing and care we too can grow our children into faithful believers. What are you doing to help grow our mustard seeds?

Although our School Fair may seem a long way away it will be upon us before we know it. Our P&F are working hard already to start planning the event. They are looking for volunteers to help with the Fair Committee and a volunteer from each class to be the class representative. If you are interested in helping in any way please let one of our office ladies know, and they’ll pass it on to the P&F, or you could attend the meeting this evening. Many hands make light work.

Over the next couple of weeks teachers will be participating in collaborative workshops. For these to be successful we do need to release teaching teams for a period of time from their class. Although this will be a minor interruption the benefit will surely outweigh any disturbance.

St Thomas More’s Feast Day is the 22nd June. We will be celebrating the day with a Mass and other activities. You are most welcome to join us for the day.

Students’ Semester 1 reports will be sent home on Wednesday 4th July.

School photos will be on Monday 2nd July and all students are expected to wear full winter uniform.

God Bless,
Mr Shayne Kidd

Captains Corner

Welcome this week’s issue of Captains Corner. In the past fortnight we have had some interesting things pop up such as math relay tryouts, lego robotics and cross country training. Here’s how it all went …

On Tuesday 5th of June at second break,our reliable fire alarms went off. Everyone was well behaved and evacuated well with a nice style. After we were on the courts, (where we go if there is a fire) a firefighter told us that it was a false alarm and then he gave us some tips on how to deal with fires at home.

The cross country has finished but training for those in the top six has commenced. If a student placed in the top six for their race at our school cross country they are then nominated for the interschool team. The training commences at seven thirty, in the morning before school starts. Runners participate in many activities. These include timed runs, distance runs, hill sprints and terrain sprints. After learning many helpful running tips and trips runners were then given a breakfast in the Josephite Hall. A big thanks to the parents who kindly donated their time in making the breakfast while the students were running. We are sure that our Saint Thomas More’s running team will have fun and make us proud at the NJSSA running cross country later this term.

On Friday 1st June, years 5 / 6 had an opportunity to try out for the upcoming maths relay. The students were given 50 minutes to complete 20 really hard questions. If nominated in the top 4 they go to complete in the Maths relay held later on in the year. The training for the event will begin as soon as we get the results. The majority of the questions were word problems which were extremely hard.

Last Thursday, a group of people in 5/6 went to hear about First Lego League. It was an option last year and is basically a competition later in the year for robotics and lego combined. This year’s theme is space and everything in space. Mr A gave a talk about it and gave information about what it involves and the commitment you will need to give. Over the course of the time until the day, you build the board (made up of lego that is on a cloth with places to put the lego), build your lego robot and learn to program it, and work on a science project explaining a problem about the theme (last year’s theme was on water and so the projects last year were on water disposal and making water drinkable). And so around 20 people will be picked to represent the school on the day.

Until Next Time…
Abbey Smith, Ella Webber, Thomas Chambers and William Barns.

IMPORTANT: Unsupervised Students

Before School

A reminder that students who arrive at school before 8:30 are not directly supervised by a duty teacher. Therefore, these students must sit down in the Piazza and wait quietly until the 8:30 bell goes. We ask parents to remind their children as we have had a number of students that have not been following this instruction. If your child/ren must be dropped off well before 8:30 it is preferable to book them into before school care.

After School

Students should not be left at school unsupervised at the end of the school day. There are duties on Abbott St until 3:25pm and on Campbell St until 3:20pm where students that are being picked up should be. No students should be anywhere else in the school grounds unless supervised by a parent/carer (this includes any after school sport training). We thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.

School Photos

School photos will be taking place on Monday 2nd July 2018.

Please ensure children are wearing full school uniform.

All school photo envelopes need to be returned to the school office by Wednesday 27th June weather paying cash, online or not purchasing.

Kindergarten 2019

Kindergarten application for 2019 have now closed.

RECONCILIATION WEEK @ STM

Last week each of our classes were invited to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories. National Reconciliation Week occurs every year between 27 May - 3 June; bookended by two dates of important events in ATSI achievement: the 1967 Referendum and Mabo Day.

This year's theme was "Don't Keep History A Mystery". Our school used the #NRW2018 poster as a stimulus for inspiring research, reflection, and discussion around events in ATSI history of local and national significance. Each classroom focused on one aspect/image in the poster. Across our great school we learned about farmers, inventors, families, activists, heroes, land rights, warriors, the Stolen Generation, and trail blazers. From our Kinders going on a bushwalk to talk about changes to our environment since settlement, to 5/6P going on a Virtual Museum tour with Teangi Brown around TMAG, there were a variety of learning experiences enjoyed. Ask your child about their learning. We will be sharing some of our learning in an upcoming assembly (date to be announced).

Miss O'Neill

St Patrick's Music Program

Invoices for the Annual Charges for the St Patrick's Music Program have been emailed out this week (on Tuesday 12/6/18). These invoices are payable in full on 30 day terms. If you have a child enrolled in the St Pat's Music Program for 2018 and have not received your invoice or if you have any queries in this regard, please contact Annie in the Finance Office.

Family Mass

School Uniform Donations

Donations of outgrown school uniforms can be left at the office to be shared with families in our community. Any families needing uniform items please contact Jacquie Wood: jacquie.wood@catholic.tas.edu.au.

Awards

Congratulations to the following children who have received an awards this fortnight:

Prep Foot

Grace Goss
Joseph Holloway
Chloe Robinson
Prep Grieg
Mason Swain
Dante Holmes
Eliska Slama

1/2 Carr/Rooney

1/2 Tams

Lucie Hall
Asher Curtis
Joshua Stacey

1/2 Scharapow

Violet McCausland-Schmitt
Oscar Gleeson
Lachlan Bardenhagen

3/4 Love/Chugg

3/4 Morgan

Fraser MacKenzie
Alex Wright
Elyssa Langham
Caleb Holloway

3/4 Wilson/Edwards

5/6 Healey

Mackenzie Kilby
Brayden Bunton

5 / 6 O’Neill

Scarlett Morrison
Theo Duff

5 / 6 Pearce

Jordan Devine
Oliver Belsak
Zali Towns
Rhys Lawson

Music

Kaitlyn Hernick

Japanese

Fraser Mackenzie 3/4M
Liliana Langham 5/6H
Alex Towns 5/6O
Laura Fulton 5/6P
Ella Manshanden 5/6P
Kayla Hendriksen 5/6P

RE

Jess Lehner

Japanese - Family

This week students in Years 5 and 6 completed a family portrait task where they selected 6-8 members of their families, drew a basic sketch of them and labeled them in Japanese. The photographs are of work from Anna Herd 5/6P and Liliana Langham 5/6H. The girls included their family members' names, age, gender and titles. They used two Japanese scripts to complete this task: Hiragana and Kanji.

PLAYGROUP

Jess Lehner took the initiative to organise a number of band students to visit Playgroup this week. The students showed their instruments and played a few pieces. We all joined in Old McDonald Had a Farm. Thanks Jess for organising the visit and thanks to Elena, Felix, Fraser, Lucas, Josie and Georgia for sharing your music with us.

Come and join us for

All parents and friends welcome for Bingo 22nd June 6.30pm-10.00pm

$10 Per Player

Held in the Josephite Hall

UPCOMING EVENTS

For upcoming events please see left side bar.

2018 Term Dates

Outside School Notices

Dance for Maddie

Legonauts