St Anthony's School - Term 3 Week 8 2021
Principal's News
I hope you’re all enjoying this amazing Spring weather! With only 10 school days remaining in this term it still feels like we have a lot going on and a busy end to Term 3!!
Thank you to parents, students and staff for the outstanding effort that you put into celebrating Book Week at St Anthony’s last week. The calibre of costumes each year is always so impressive and the enjoyment on the children’s faces make it all worthwhile. Thank you to Mrs Roche who single-handedly co-ordinated Book Fair and Reader’s Cup this year. Book Week is such an important spring board for promoting a love of reading all year round!
Thank you to everyone who supported our Trivia Night on Friday, whether that was through purchasing supplies, setting up or actually playing. I am forever thankful and admirable of our PPF group who are invested in coming up with innovative ways of engaging parents in the school. There hasn’t been a function such as a Trivia Night for a number of years and the laughter and enjoyment in the room on Friday certainly indicated that it was a great night out for the adults! A special mention to staff members Terri-An Nolan and Leigh Winters who assisted me with organising the trivia and games throughout the night!
Speaking of parent engagement, tonight we are all systems go for our Dads and Kids night, commencing with lawn games at 5.30pm until 6.30 and then a BBQ tea. This evening is being co-ordinated by the staff and we have been quite overwhelmed with the response rate with 213 RSVPs!! Many thanks to the PPF who have kindly donated $300 towards the cost of the BBQ.
Our next PPF gathering is in the staffroom on Tuesday, 7th September at 6.30pm and everyone is welcome. These gathering are an opportunity to provide feedback to the school, ask questions, have input or just sit and listen. We work together as a collective group. These gatherings are social, informal and an informative way to find out what’s happening at the school and throughout the diocese and we’d very much welcome some new faces! Gone are the days when you go to a meeting and walk away with a job!
Consistency of Teacher Judgement
Tomorrow on our Pupil Free Day, teachers will join colleagues from other Catholic Schools for a day of writing moderation whereby samples of student work will be presented and discussed at different levels against the achievement standard as prescribed in the Australian Curriculum. This day is officially referred to as a Consistency of Teacher Judgement Day (CTJ). CTJ supports student learning by building teacher capacity to engage with the curriculum, understand its intent, determine and develop appropriate pedagogical practices and make decisions about student learning. Through participation in CTJ, teachers focus on achieving consistency, comparability and consensus about the standard of student work. The conversations amongst teachers promote consistency of their judgements.
Parent Teacher Interviews
Don’t forget that our Term 3 Parent/Teacher interviews are being held next week from 6th – 10th September. Booking information and available times has been sent via our school portal. It is not too late to book a time slot. I strongly encourage all parents to take this opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss learning and social progression and any concerns.
St Anthony’s Has Talent
Recently, I had a student write to me to ask if it was possible to hold a talent show at St Anthony’s. I think this is a great idea soooooo on the last day of this term we are holding our first ever, ‘St Anthony’s Has Talent’. This talent may take the form of joke telling, dancing, poetry recital, performing a magic trick, singing…….the possibilities are endless! It might be an individual, small group or large group performance. Auditions will be held in classrooms next week, students vote and the best act in each class will go through to the grand final on Friday, 17th September.
Until next newsletter……..Go Bless!
Louise
louise.pfingst@twb.catholic.edu.au
A Reminder About After School Pick Up
Please ensure your child knows, every day, who is picking them up or if they have to catch a bus or have after school care.
On any given afternoon, there is at least one child still waiting to be picked up who does not know who, what , where or how they will be going home.
Dismissal duty finishes at 3.20pm. It is a safety requirement that every child has been collected by this time.
Staff are often involved in work related after school commitments and or have personal appointments or commitments to attend to.
PCYC is available each afternoon for care.
If you are running late, a courtesy call to let us know would be much appreciated. Children get very anxious when they are the last ones waiting and on many occasions we are unable to make contact with the parent.
APRE News.....
Father's Day
This Sunday the 5th of September we celebrate Father’s Day. This morning Prep KJ led us in prayer at assembly as we paused to be thankful for our fathers and all those who may care for us like a father would. The students did a wonderful job for their first time leading the school! We wish all the dads a special day on Sunday and hope you all get spoilt!
Loving God, we thank you for the gift of good dads, and everything that they do for us. Help them to have patience when we’re difficult, wisdom when we can’t see the way, strength when we need comforting, and love at all times, so that, through them, we get a little glimpse of how you feel about us, our heavenly Father. Amen.
Parish Family Mass
This Sunday the 5th of September 1HS and 6LW will be coordinating Parish Family Mass at 8.30am. Everyone is always welcome to attend!
Sacrament Information Session
Next week there will be an information session for parents who would like their child/children to receive the sacraments of Penance (Reconciliation) in November 2021, and Confirmation and Communion at St Anthony’s in 2022. Children should be baptised and be aged at least 9/ 10 years in 2022.
Place: St Anthony’s Parish Centre - 3 Memory Street.
Date: Tuesday 7th September 2021.
( Please NOTE THIS CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS CORRESPONDENCE It is no longer WED the 8th )
Time: 5.15pm for 5.30pm
For more information or if you are not able to attend this meeting and wish your child to be a part of the program please call St Anthony’s Parish 4636 1737
Middle Leader News
CTJ – Pupil Free Day
Tomorrow all teachers in the Diocese of Toowoomba Catholic Schools participate in Consistency of Teacher Judgement Day. We will be joining with teachers from Our Lady of Lourdes, St Monica’s Oakey, St Mary’s Goondiwindi and St Stephen’s, Pittsworth to investigate student writing and determine if our judgements around achievement are standard and in line with the curriculum. This constant process of analysing student data in consultation with our peers helps to develop our professional judgement whilst deepening our knowledge of the ACARA English curriculum in particular reference to Writing. This all leads to positive outcomes for students as we refine and build our expertise.
Parent Teacher Interviews
Don’t forget to book a time for a Parent Teacher Interviews with your child’s teacher next week. You can do so by going onto the portal and looking under interviews. I can’t help but think of our learning behaviours we are focusing on with the students and how as adults we can model these behaviours through our actions. The physical act of attending an interview is one way of demonstrating to students that their progress is important to you, as their parent! All five learning behaviours are reflected in this simple act-
Be Engaged: I’m interested in my child’s journey, I can share valuable information about my child to help their teacher and their progress.
Be a Communicator: I can ask questions. I can collaborate in the conversation and look for common ground. I can share my expertise of my own child.
Be Curious: I can enquire how they going? How can I help? What are they learning? What helps them to do their best work?
Be Persistent: What can we do together to help my child? Do I need to do something differently or continue something to support my child moving forward? Can we try different strategies for a different outcome?
Be Proud: What are my child’s strengths? What can I share about my child that we can all be proud of? How can I support a healthy self-esteem and build resilience within my child?
Love of Learning
Be engaged | Be curious| Be a communicator| Be persistent| Be proud
Prep KJ & SJ
Welcome to Week 8!
Our Preppies had a lovely Book Week celebration last week, with students participating in the Readers Cup competition, the Book Week parade dress up and the Book Fair. It was wonderful to see all the marvellous costumes and how involved students were throughout the whole week.
Students have been working hard on their creative writing and responding to texts. Through our fairy tale unit, students have explored how traditional fairy tales typically have a beginning, problem and solution. With this, students have been answering questions relating to characters and how they could change the way the story may have ended or begun.
In mathematics students have been learning a number of new topics. This includes exploring time to the O’clock and events that happen at certain times throughout the day. Students have also been looking at 3D shapes, their features and how they relate to real world objects. Over the coming weeks students will be collecting data and using this to create graphs and create questions.
In Week 9 we will hold Parent Teacher Interviews, if you have not booked an interview this can be done through the Parent Portal.
Please remember to return homework and library books on Tuesdays.
Thank you,
Samantha, Kylie and Jo.
kylie.jones@twb.catholic.edu.au
samantha.jaeger@twb.catholic.edu.au
jo.keleher@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 1 HS
Welcome to Weeks 9 and 10. It has been so wonderful to see all the parents who have booked in for parent teacher interviews in Week 9. I look forward to meeting with you.
We have been very busy this last week creating some wonderful gifts to bless our dads, stepdads, and grandads this Father’s Day. We wish you all a wonderful day!
In Math we are again focusing on Numbers (forwards and backwards) from 1-100. Children would love to practise counting with you at home, in the car and any spare moment you get, especially backwards as this is tricky for some.
We have had a lot of children bringing in toys to school on a daily basis. Toys are not meant to be brought to school so I would appreciate that you help with this. In Term 4 we will introduce a 'Show and Share' roster.
Don’t forget this coming Sunday the 5th of September (Father’s Day) is our Family Mass at 8.30am at St Anthony’s Church. Would love to see you there!
holly.sheehan@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 1 KS
Spring has sprung and the children are very excited about the special events of this week. Your lovely children have been a very busy making cards and gifts for the special men in their lives – so Happy Father’s Day to all of these wonderful fathers and father figures … the children have made these little tributes with love and we hope that you like them.
We have also been working on a tricky math concept - the difference between teen numbers ( 13, 14, 15 etc and ty numbers (20, 30 40). It is a very difficult concept and sometimes difficult to say when your front teeth are missing!
We hope you enjoy the lovely change in the weather and hope it stays around for Father’s Day. It will be lovely to meet some dads at the Father’s evening. Have a wonderful day on Sunday gentlemen!! Mums… we love and appreciate you too and hope you have a lovely weekend as well!
kathleen.spencer@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 2 OT
With all things Olympics in our classroom this term, we were very excited to have Patrick Tiernan talk to us about his early days at St Anthony's, through to the world stage in Toyko. Some of our students are writing their information report on Pat so they were able to ask him some questions that will support their research (they thought that was pretty cool).
We would like to wish our fathers & father figures a happy Father’s Day for Sunday. We hope to see you for our Dad’s & Kid's night tonight! Your little people have been busy making their presents, we hope you love them.
Don't forget to book in for our parent/teacher interviews happening in week 9. Limited spots left. I would love to see you all, so please email if times do not suit & I will do my best to see you.
Until next time, Mr Tattam & 2OT
ory.tattam@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 2/3 VN
Welcome to Week 8. This fortnight in Math we are learning about Calendars- knowing our days and months of the year, reading data from it and answering questions such as: What is the date one week from February 3rd? In English, we have been working extremely hard on paragraph writing and note taking skills. We are writing an Information Report and to write this genre we must first be able to:
-read information on a topic
-note take important information
- group that information into topics or categories
- then write our notes in to sentences to create a paragraph.
Sometimes we forget what we deem to be a simple task requires so many skills and learning before we can accomplish the goal of an Information Report.
In Grammar, we have learnt about Simple Sentences and have begun our learning in to conjunctions, complex and compound sentences and independent and dependent clauses. This learning will be a growth and development over time but once they understand these concepts it will greatly assist their writing in the future. If the students understand conjunctions, they can then make an authoritative decision to change that simple sentence by adding a conjunction to make a compound or complex sentence. Amazing learning!
vicki.nauschutz@twb.catholic.edu.au
emma.daniells@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 3 RM
It has certainly been a busy few weeks in 3RM. In Maths we are working on adding amounts of money to find the purchase total. We are then calculating the change from amounts up to $5. We have a lot of strategies available to us, but this has proven to be a very tricky topic. It would be great if you are able to work with your child on this at home. In English we have worked in small groups to research a country and create a fact file. Next week we will begin our individual research assessment tasks. In HASS we have learnt about how to interpret weather data and use this to compare the climate of two locations. In Religion we have been learning about Communion and how it links to The Last Supper.
Reminder: We have our swimming block coming up in Week 10 - This is the perfect time to check that all swimming attire still fits!
rebecca.more@twb.catholic.edu.au
barbara.hair@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 4/5 RS
Dear Families,
It is great when our students bring a smile and a friendly, willing spirit to class each day. As we approach the end of term, we reflect on our hard work and improvements. We had two very special visitors last Friday. Sister Maria talked to the studentsabout the upcoming Sacramental program. If you would like your child to participate and didn’t receive an information letter, please let me know.
Ex-student, Patrick Tiernan told us about his Olympic ambitions and success in the Games in Rio and Tokyo. It was a delight to hear him speak and inspire all the children to believe in their dream.
Parent / Teacher Interviews will begin next week. Thank you for signing up, as it is always a very enlightening two-way conversation about your young one!!
Remembering Mrs Mary in our prayers as she celebrated her 50th Birthday, then lost her dear mum, Pat Waters.
Have a week of blessings, everyone.
Robyn and Barbara.
robyn.smith@twb.catholic.edu.au
barbara.hair@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 4 SC
What a busy fortnight! All students are working hard to complete assessment tasks and presentations. It is pleasing to see how much they have grown as learners! They were excited about seeing Pat Tiernan and hearing his story about resilience and never giving up on a challenge. We are looking forward to completing our collage artworks on Thursday - hopefully, all will have a picture or photo to use as a springboard for their collage. One of our students went to 'Homeless for a Night' and slept out overnight with her family during a terrible storm. It is heart-warming that someone so young can show compassion for those less fortunate. God Bless.
Homeless for a night – Monday 23rd of August
On Monday night at 7pm my family and I participated in ‘Homeless for a night’. We brought pillows and blankets for us to use. We met about 100 people and then we went for a walk together around Toowoomba. After that we had some soup in The Basement. The Basement helps homeless people. After our soup we went to where we were going to sleep. The place that we had to sleep was where there were bright lights so we couldn’t sleep. There was a huge storm that night. The only shelter we had was the eaves of the shops. Some people got very wet. We were lucky that we stayed dry!
The Town Crier woke us up at 5 in the morning. It was very hard to get up after a tough night. The noise of the cars and trucks kept us awake. We went to a big hotel for breakfast that had a big buffet. Then because it was 10am we went home, and my sister and I didn’t have to go to school. Instead, we slept.
sharon.cox@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 5/6 TN
Can you identify a reason why 24-hour time is used? This is a question that 5/6 has had to answer in Mathematics. All things time has been explored from telling and identifying the time, time zones, reading timetables, creating timetables. Telling the time and understanding the length of time is a tricky skill for many and I am very proud of how hard and persistent everyone has been to further their abilities.
Over the coming week all students will be completing their final pieces of English assessment for our Editing Unit. Students have been busy working on skills and techniques to edit their work for improvement and correction.
The next 2 weeks are going to be very busy with assessment and finishing of units. It is very important that everyone is at school to complete these items as it will be very difficult to ‘catch up’ next term. If you are aware that you child is going to be away for any reason over the next two weeks, could you please send me an email.
Until next time, stay safe.
Mrs Terri-An Nolan
Terri-An.Nolan@twb.catholic.edu.au
My New Gallery
YR 6 LW
Learning in Year 6 has been very busy over the past two weeks. Everyone researched volcanoes for a science assessment, and practised many mathematical skills while completing the Fantasy Flight investigation. We are currently exploring equivalent fractions in maths and will soon move on to adding, subtracting and dividing fractions. As our English writing narratives unit draws to a close, we will spend some time drafting, editing and fine-tuning our own narratives, making sure we apply everything we have learnt to our own stories. In HASS, we’ve just begun an assessment about Australia’s connections with Asia.
Year 6 Camp – Tangalooma
Week 1 of Term 4: Tuesday 5 October - Friday 8 October.
To the best of our knowledge, we are still able to go ahead with our camp – despite the Covid situation.
Students will be coming home with camp lists, medical forms and other documentation within the next few days. Please complete and return the water sports waiver and medical forms as soon as possible.
OptiMinds
It has been a demanding time for the two OptiMinds teams, who have spent countless hours over the past 6 weeks writing, learning and rehearsing their responses to this year’s long term challenge. Due to the uncertainties around Covid, the organisers decided that all teams would present their entries virtually instead of in person. Recording of these presentations has been completed, and all that remains is to record and submit the teams’ responses to the spontaneous challenge. This will be on Thursday. Best of luck to both teams! Regardless of where you are placed on Saturday when the entries are judged, you have all put in an amazing effort and should be proud of yourselves, your teamwork and your perseverance.
leigh.winters@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yammer Group
Handmade sausage rolls and pancakes are just some of the things we have cooked up during Tucka Time over the past few weeks. We are now halfway through the Tucka Time course and the Yammer Group has enjoyed trying new foods and getting their hands dirty (washed hands of course). Everyone was also very excited to be gifted their very own bag filled to the top with different types of fruits and vegetables to take home. It has been lovely to hear feed back about students being more adventurous at home and trying new foods.
This week we will put our final decorating touches to our hanging basket which will be entered in the Cobb + Co Hanging Basket competition for the Carnival of Flowers.
All Yammer Group students have been sent home with a copy of clap stick template. This is to allow the students to design what they think we should include on our very own school clap sticks to use when we join as a community. Could these please be returned to me next week (Week 9).
Until next time,
Mrs Terri-An Nolan
Terri-An.Nolan@twb.catholic.edu.au
Swimming Lessons
The last week of Term 3, September 13th – 17th sees us back at Glennie Aquatic Centre for our annual swimming block. This is a compulsory part of the Physical Education programme for all students in Years Prep – 6 and is beneficial to not only learn vital skills in water safety but to enjoy the time in the pool after a long 10 weeks of learning.
Students will be bused to and from the pool. Each lesson, is taught by qualified swim instructors will run for 45 minutes, each day of the week. I will be present for all lessons and as in Term 1, in the pool to give extra support to those who require it.
All students must have suitable togs, a towel and footwear to wear to and from the pool (eg thongs). Goggles are optional, only if needed. Glennie Aquatic Centre will provide bathing caps which are colour coordinated for each ability-based group. ALL items must be named. Students change into their swim wear before going on the bus and change back into their uniform at school following the lesson.
The following grades go to swimming at the following times for the duration of the week:
10.00am 2OT and 3RM
10.45am 4/5RS and 2/3VN
11.30am 1KS, 1HS and 6LW
12.15pm Prep KJ and 5/6TN
1.00pm Prep SJ and 4SC
The cost of the swimming block is incorporated into the Activities Levy in the school fees.
As always, if you have any questions, please contact me on kym.yeabsley@twb.catholic.edu.au.
If there is a medical reason for non-participation in the swimming bloc, please put this I writing to the principal.
Warm regards,
Kym.
kym.yeabsley@twb.catholic.edu.au
Book Week
Children’s Book Week was celebrated at St Anthony’s with some great activities.
Our Book Warehouse Fair was again very successful, with the Library gaining a nice selection of new resources, with thanks to everyone who made a purchase during the week.
Our Reader’s Cup Challenge competitions were held once again. All students were keen to share their knowledge of the picture book and novel they had been studying. Congratulations to all students who participated.
It was wonderful to see so many staff & students involved in our book character dress up – clearly a favourite activity.
Thank you to everyone for supporting Book Week.
Jan & Holly
