15 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Reflection

Have you ever seen those pictures of angels? They are like babies with delicate gossamer wings. How sentimental, how pathetically trivial, how untrue. Angels are more like the light-swords wielded by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. The good angels are lightning flashes of energy serving God’s purpose in the battle against evil forces which can seem to dominate our worlds, private and social.

God loved us into existence in order to share in his life, but there are forces at work trying to frustrate that. There is a cosmic-scale battle going on. Who is on our side in that battle? The angels. Who are they?

They are non-bodily beings of great intelligence and power. Those are the angels, and those who have chosen to love and serve God are on our side.

Some are archangels with a cosmic-scale brief. We hear of one in the first reading: ‘Michael, the great Prince who stands guard over your people’. Others are our individual Guardian Angels so that when powers of darkness seem to engulf us, we can turn to our Guardian Angel and say: ‘Fight for me’, and that light-sword of God will engage in battle because that is that sort of angel’s way of serving God.

We could pause a moment to pray, thanking God for the Archangels who guard our church community and for our personal Guardian Angels, and asking our Lord Jesus Christ to command those angels to gather us as his chosen to share His glory.

© Fr Michael Tate

Dear Parents and Friends of our School,

Last newsletter I spoke about our teams who were entering the First Lego League Championships, I am now pleased to announce that our boys’ team came 3rd in the robot mission and our girls’ team won, which allows them to move to National Championships to be held in Sydney at the beginning of December. We wish them all the best as they prepare.

On Thursday our Athletics Team competed in the NIJSSA Carnival and I am proud to inform that our team came second. During the day we had a number of outstanding performances by our young athletes and our students’ behaviour and sportsmanship was commendable.

Recently, I attended a talk by Melinda Tankard-Riest an advocate for women and girls, however her talk also included our boys as well. Everywhere we look, our children are negatively influenced by the media, being TV, internet, billboards, music, magazines or newspapers. I am personally concerned for my own daughter’s well-being knowing the influences that are accepted by our society. As a parent I like to have an open channel of communication with my children where we can discuss things without judgement on them. By doing this we create trust with children. This is not always easy, so to help you gain that extra insight, we have established a parent library with books from authors like Melinda. Please see our librarian, Mrs Thomas, or one our office staff for more information.

Kind Regards,

Shayne Kidd
Principal

Family Mass

Family Godly Play

Godly Play has been an integral part of our RE program at STM for some time now. We would like to extend our Godly Play to any families who might be interested in attending a session. We envisage that this would happen after school from 3:30pm - 4:15pm in the Oak Tree Room. Godly Play involves listening to a story from our Faith tradition, reflecting on the story and responding through art materials. It is an opportunity for personal faith formation that we think some families may like to experience together. There is no expectation on participants to do anything more than come along and enjoy the time together. If you are interested please contact Jacquie Wood by email (jacquie.wood@catholic.tas.edu.au) or in person and we will make a time that suits the respondents. Grandparents and other family members also welcome.

Launceston Parish Picnic

We need your help!

On Saturday the 3rd of November 10 of our St Thomas More's Year Five and Six Girls competed and won The Lego Robotics League Tasmanian State Tournament. They have been given the exciting opportunity to represent St Thomas More's Catholic School as well as Tasmania in Sydney to compete against other schools across the Nation.

Each team was judged on programming, robot building using EV3 Lego Robotics, core values, how the team worked together and problem solving.

With such short notice and the competition taking place on the 8th and 9th of December we are asking for you help to get our girls across to show them what Tasmanians are made of. All funds raised will go towards the student's flights, accommodation, food and transport.

Please hit the donate button below to show our girls the support they deserve and spread the word. Every little bit helps and is much appreciated.

This will be a trip these girls will never forget.

Please follow the link below to donate at our ‘GoFundMe’ page, the student’s will be looking at holding a range of fundraisers.

URSTRONG

Dear Parents,

We’re excited to be hosting URSTRONG, an internationally recognised Social Emotional Wellbeing program, that empowers children with the skills, language and self-confidence to be better friends and develop healthier relationships. To learn more about URSTRONG and their programmes please watch a short video describing the impact of URSTRONG on children and parents around the globe here.

URSTRONG’s Language of Friendship parent-child workshops will take place after our Parent Information Evening and Welcome BBQ on Wednesday the 13th of February 2019. The cost of the workshops is generously being subsidised by the St Thomas Mores P&F and St Thomas Mores Catholic School. When you register for the workshop simply enter the discount code STM to register and purchase tickets at a hugely discounted rate of $5 per person. For full details see the poster attached.

During the past school year, our entire staff has been focusing on social-emotional learning programs, implementing tools and strategies to support our efforts in creating a safe and caring school. We believe that empowering our students with these skills will create a school community where children are better able to manage their relationships in a safe and respectful environment.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions!

Thank you!

Shayne Kidd

And a massive Thank you to our sponsors from our St Thomas More’s School Fair which was held 26th October.

Important notices:

Traffic & student’s safety

The school urges all parents to support road safety by obeying signage displayed, and also asks you remind your child(ren) to be very aware of potential traffic related dangers around the school.

Sometimes for example, motorists do not abide by road laws, and if students are crossing inappropriately (with or without you), or just not aware of their surrounds by always looking either way, we could have an accident.

The education and care of our students is a partnership between the staff and parents and we all need to do our bit by acting appropriately and not showing a disregard for road laws, even if only to demonstrate your support to any children watching.

2019 Enrolments

If your child/children are not returning to St Thomas Mores in 2019, can you please notify the school office as soon as possible.

Bus from Hadspen/Carrick to St Thomas More’s

Thank you to all who responded and showed their interest in having a bus route from Hadspen/Carrick to St Thomas More’s. The information has been collected and passed onto Redline who are looking at starting a route in 2019. Further information will be announced if our application is successful.

Reminders:

Dates to Remember for Term 4

Orientation Day – 6th December
Carols on the oval – 6th December
End of year Mass – 18th December
Term 4 ends - 20th December

Summer Vacation Care

We are very excited to announce that St Thomas More’s Outside School Hours care will be offering VACATION CARE from Monday 7th January to Wednesday 6th February 2019.

The vacation care program and booking form will be available next week. Please call 1300 119 455 or email ccs.admin@aohtas.org.au for a copy of the program.

Students Need School Libraries

Students Need School Libraries

• Did you know… that your school library supports your child to engage with a diverse range of books to extend their imagination and develop a lifelong love of reading?
• Did you know… that school libraries are responsive and collaborative learning spaces that provide students with access to a wide range of resources that are relevant and appropriate to their learning needs?
• Did you know… that school libraries support your child to reach their potential by teaching them how to become capable researchers and to navigate the world of online information and fake news?
• Did you know... that teacher librarians hold specialised qualifications as both a teacher and a librarian? Quality library staff are trained to support keen and reluctant, successful and struggling learners.

Students need school libraries. If you are keen to ensure that EVERY child in Australia has access to a quality school library, check out the information available via the link below:

STM Techspot

iPads FOR SALE

We still have a number of iPad 2s for sale at $40 each. These iPad 2s are 16GB and run a maximum operating system of iOS 9.3.5 (some newer apps may not work on this operating system). They come with a rubber case and are sold as is. Please note that these do not come with a charger. If you would like to buy one please see the school office.

Messages from P & F

P&F Mettings

Wednesday 5th December 2018

All are welcome!

Awards

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

Prep Foot

Mikaela

Prep Greig

1/2 Carr/Rooney

1/2 Tams

Isobel Hill
Asher Curtis
Sophie Shelton

1/2 Scharapow/Atkins

Olive
Zack
Charlie

3/4 Love/Chugg

Matilda
Grace
Victoria

3/4 Morgan

3/4 Wilson/Edwards

Harry
Elliott
Myka

5/6 Healey

Will
Grace

5 / 6 O’Neill

Hervé
Abbi
Maverick
Khale

5 / 6 Pearce

Marcus
Ella
Toby

Japanese years 3/4

Rebecca Howell 3/4M
Nevaeh Taylor 3/4M
Lucas Shelton 3/4LC
Harry Brown 3/4LC

Japanese years 5/6

Brodie Mathews 5/6H
Hannah Miller 5/6P

Library

NIJSSA Report 2018

The NIJSSA was held on Thursday the 8th November, this event took place at the athletics track in St Leonards. The first events took place at 9:30am. After the first events the 800m and 400m races had started. Then the relay took part at the end of the day, in grades 5 and 6 you only do a 4x100m relay so not everyone competes. Special mention goes to first placements in division one. Gr5 800m Toby Callow, Gr5 Javelin Holly Miller, Gr4 70m Georgia Harmey, Gr5 Long jump Toby Callow, Gr4 400m Georgia Harmey, Gr4 100m Georgia Harmy, Gr4 Long jump Campbell Target and Gr6 800m Declan Rae. The results of 2018 are 3rd to Scotch Oakburn College, 2nd was St Thomas More’s Primary School and 1st to Sacred Heart School. In the end the NIJSSA 2018 was a great success for St Thomas Mores being our best placing ever.

Lego League

Our two First Lego League teams had a great day on Saturday 3 November competing in the First Lego League State Tournament at UTAS. Both teams competed extremely well and represented the school with honour. The boys team (Block Busters) came third in the Robot Game, which is where the Lego Robot they build and program from scratch does particular missions (they had second place tied down for quite a while too). The girls team (Galaxy Gurus) won the competition overall and now have the opportunity to travel to Sydney in early December to compete in the National First Lego League Tournament at Macquarie University.

2018 Term Dates

Gallery

Lego League

NIJSSA

Outside School Notices