St Anthony's School - Term 1 Week 6 2022
Principal's News
Stop, Drop and Go
We’re now getting into the routine of school again, which is a good time to revisit the expectations around the school drive-through / pick-up process. Stop, Drop and Go operates under staff supervision from 3:00 pm to 3:20 pm on school days. When your vehicle becomes visible, the staff member on duty will call the students to wait behind the yellow line at the gate. The children are not permitted to proceed to the vehicle until the car comes to a stop. On occasions, if the teacher on duty believes it is safe to do so, multiple children will be directed to make their way to their respective cars. We encourage everyone to enter Stop, Drop and Go from the left on Memory Street to prevent obstructing traffic trying to make their way to Harristown High. It is the cars trying to turn right that are causing the traffic to back up.
We have a number of parents who are waiting in Stop, Drop and Go from as early as 2.15pm. These parents are strongly encouraged to park their vehicles and the teacher on duty will escort children safely to cars. As Murphy’s law would have it, these cars parked early often don’t have the first passengers to arrive at Stop, Drop and Go and therefore this causes traffic to back up. This is a drive through zone, not a parking zone. This zone should only be used from 2.45pm.
If a younger child is not able to put a seat belt on independently, you are encouraged to park and collect your children until they are able to do so. On occasions we have grandparents or drivers who are not used to using the pick-up. When these occasions occur, can you please ensure they are aware of the procedure which is designed to benefit all. Please note, the entire pick-up process has generally concluded by 3:20 pm.
I happened to be in this traffic chaos one day last week, returning to school after a professional development day and I witnessed firsthand, the frustration of drivers unable to move along Memory Street to Harristown High. These drivers then take dangerous risks by driving on the wrong side of the road to gain access to their destination. We often receive phone calls from motorists not associated with our school voicing their frustration at the traffic chaos.
So our points to remember:
- If you arrive prior to 2.45pm, find a park.
- If your child cannot do up his/her seatbelt, please find a park.
- As the signage indicates, adults are to remain in their cars.
- Enter the Stop, Drop and Go zone left off Memory Street to allow the flow of traffic through Memory Street.
Recognise, React, Report!
All members of the school community are entitled to a safe, secure and caring environment. At St Anthony’s, everyone has the right to feel respected and valued and every member of the school community has a responsibility to ensure that this happens. We have a behaviour management policy, a bullying policy, a clear statement of our values, behaviour expectations and a curriculum that is explicit and implicit in this area. We also promote the students’ sense of concern and responsibility by providing positive role models and building self-esteem. These are among the myriad of ways we seek to ensure that we are providing a safe, caring and respectful environment. However, despite everything that we have in place there can still be occasions when bullying occurs. So how do we deal with bullying in the Primary Years and how can you as parents help at home?
The students should understand that Bullying is a repeated and unjustifiable behaviour. It is intended to cause fear, distress and/or harm to another. The students understand that there are 5 main types of bullying:
Physical - Unwanted touching that intends to harm (e.g. punching, pushing, throwing stones etc.)
Verbal/Written - Using language to intimidate or cause hurt (e.g. putdowns, notes, forms of cyber bullying such as texts, emails etc.)
Exclusion- Behaviour that deliberately leaves someone out in order to hurt their feelings.
Extortion/Blackmail - Using stand-over tactics to control someone else’s behaviour (e.g. unless you give me your lunch I won’t be your friend.)
Gesture or Non-verbal - Using body language or other non-verbal methods to offend or hurt (e.g. threatening or obscene gestures or removing/hiding and/or damaging others’ belongings.)
How are students taught to deal with bullying? Students know that if they are being bullied they can:
- Ignore the person who is bullying
- Walk away
- Try to stand up for themselves in a positive and assertive way
- Report it to an adult always (e.g. teacher and parent)
Students should know that if they see someone being bullied they can:
- Tell the person bullying to stop
- Be a friend to the person being bullied
- Report it to an adult
The Daniel Morcombe Curriculum is taught across our school also as part of our health curriculum and students are explicitly taught to
Recognise – keep your eyes and ears open to your surroundings
React – if you see something you know is wrong, do something about it
Report – tell a staff member or a parent
Students know that ‘dobbing’ is when a person tries to get attention or to get someone into trouble.
‘Reporting’ is when someone (yourself or another person) is being hurt and you/they need help. It is also important to note that we separate the child from the behaviour so we refer to ‘bully behaviour’ rather than a ‘bully’. How do we, as teachers, deal with bullying at school?
Bullying situations are often complicated and finding facts to define a clear account of the incident/s takes time and patience to resolve the situation properly. The age/stage of the children involved and the type/frequency of the incident will determine how each situation is handled and what consequences are meted out. Essentially the steps that we follow, as teachers, are:
- Arrange a meeting with all concerned (individually then collectively).
- Explain the rules. “We’re here to solve a problem, no blaming, no excuses, no interrupting.”
- Everyone listens. Each person in turn tells what has happened, just the facts. When each finishes, he/she listens to the others while they tell their story. The teacher repeats what has been said and then each person tells how they felt.
We try to reflect, repair and reconnect to resolve conflict. Each person states what they need if the problem causing the conflict is to be solved. The teacher helps both sides to work out strategies and to reach agreement. Appropriate consequences will be followed up. As each case is different these will vary. Consequences may range anywhere from detention to suspension. If the incident is serious, parents of all parties will be contacted. How, as parents, can you help if your child is being bullied?
Encourage talking. It may be difficult but be patient. Try not to overreact. Listen calmly and try to workout the facts. Be aware that you will not have access to all the facts. Give assurances that the situation will be changed.
Tell your child that bullying is wrong and remind them that they have the right to feel safe and happy. Reassure your child that it is not happening because there is something wrong with him/her.
- Report the matter to the school.
- Tell your child that physical or verbal retaliation on their part is not the answer.
- Always try to work through the school but talk with your child about what you are doing and why.
- Get help from a counsellor for your child if needed.
If it is a school matter please do not deal directly with other children or their parents but work through and with the School.
How as parents can you help if your child is bullying others? Make it clear that bullying because of revenge, for annoyance or fun is unacceptable.
Help your child to understand the difference between assertive and aggressive behaviour.
Make it clear that hurting or distressing another person who is unable to defend him/herself is a form of weakness and proves nothing.
Explore the need for development of self-confidence and success in another area to counter poor self-esteem.
Here at St Anthony’s, we use a behaviour ladder in our lower primary classrooms to provide a visual behaviour and on task learning tracker. In all classrooms, we have a warning system and for the majority of students a gentle reminder is all it takes for students to right their behaviour. For students whose behaviour is having a significant impact on the teaching and learning in the classroom and despite 3 warnings this behaviour has continued, the child is referred to the Responsible Thinking Classroom (RTC). This process is facilitated by Mrs Hauser or Mrs Pfingst whom are both trained Restorative Practices Facilitators and during this reflection we work through a series of recorded questions during first break play:
- What happened?
- Who has been affected by your actions?
- What would you do to make things right?
- How can we help you to do this?
This reflection is then sent home to parents and a text message and follow-up email is sent to parents for follow up at home also.
On occasion, I hear from parents who say that RTC (Responsible Thinking Classroom) does not work for their child. We realise that a child receiving an RTC does not always result in miraculous behaviour changes. (If it did, I could probably retire early!!) But there has to be a consequence for inappropriate or unsafe behaviour. It is quite rare, that we have a child receiving more than 3 RTCs in a term. 98.5% of students in our school have never received an RTC and we make a point of recognising these students as well as teaching them that you are not always rewarded extrinsically for positive behaviour but when you do the right thing, you feel good inside.
We are so fortunate at St Anthony’s that our behaviour is low level. I don’t believe that this is by chance but rather a result of a staff who are all invested in instilling consistent and explicit expectations and committed to valuing each child as an individual, teaching what is expected and holding everyone accountable for their actions in the most supportive way. It is so powerful to facilitate a restorative conversation when there is a breakdown in a relationship and for the perpetrator to hear the impact of their actions on the victim. In most instances, the natural reaction is an apology and quite commonly ‘I said or did that as a joke’ and in the majority of cases that behaviour will cease. We believe that all children are inherently good natured and with guidance and a supportive environment, all behaviour is able to be corrected.
We are very excited to participate in a whole staff, Restorative Practices professional development day on Tuesday, 19th April. This day had to be postponed from the beginning of the year.
Parent Partnership Forum (PPF)
I would like to extend a personal invitation to all parents to come along to our first gathering of our St Anthony’s PPF on Tuesday, 8th March at 6.30pm in the staffroom. Children are welcome but must be supervised by parents.
We adopted this model of parent engagement in 2019 and parked our P and F and School Board for the time being.
During these gatherings we work to an agenda and discuss current educational and organisational school matters, school budget, parent engagement ideas and initiatives and much more. We only have 7 gatherings each year and our 8th gathering is a dinner. These gatherings give insight into how the school operates from an educational and management perspective. Parents have a voice and can contribute to discussion or just sit and listen. These gatherings are not fundraising focused, but more focused around how parents can become engaged in their children’s education. We do try to have one event each term where we can come together as a school community. In the past, we have had a welcome BBQ and disco, a Christmas Fair, Art Showcase. We’re always interested in other suggestions for engaging as a school community and these gatherings provide a perfect opportunity to discuss different ideas. Historically, we think if we attend a ‘meeting’ we walk away with a ‘job’. This is not the case. By the end of the year, our regular attendees were quite significantly low in number. Surely from a school of 241 students, we could have at least 20 parent attendees? This is a great way to get to know parents from across the school also. WE NEED YOU!!!!
Just a reminder that our last day of this school term is Friday, 1st April and the first day of Term 2, Tuesday 19th April is a Pupil Free Day. TCKC will be providing care on this day.
Congratulations Phoebe!
A huge congratulations to Phoebe Tulilo-Seremaia who was recently selected in the Central Zone touch football team. Phoebe will now attend the upcoming Darling Downs touch football trials on March 17. We are so proud of you, Phoebe!
Until next newsletter…….God Bless!
Louise
Louise.Pfingst@twb.catholic.edu.au
APRE News.....
Lent and Project Compassion
This Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent. In the Christian tradition, Lent is a time of prayerful reflection and preparation for Easter. Every year throughout Lent, many people pray, fast and give alms. These are the three pillars or traditions of Lent.
PRAYER: During Lent, Christians pray for themselves and others. Pope Francis has declared Ash Wednesday a day of prayer for Peace which in the current world climate is especially important.
FASTING: Fasting is about giving something up for a time. Many people give up something they love to eat. This can help them to understand a little more about what it's like for somebody who is different from them. Others give up something they like to do, like spending time watching television or giving up a bad habit, such as gossiping. T
ALMSGIVING: Almsgiving means donating money, items or time to people who have less than you. It is a way to show that you care for others and that you are thankful for all God has given you.
Every year schools and organisations throughout Australia work with Caritas and their Project Compassion Appeal during Lent. Caritas Australia works with local partners around the world to help end poverty, uphold dignity and promote justice. This annual project helps to enable people to see how their almsgiving can have real world positive consequences. The theme of Project Compassion 2022 is ‘For All Future Generations’.
On Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, all classes participated in a classroom prayer service that explored this significant day. We look to turn our focus this Lent to how we can be people of hope in our family, our school community and with our global family. We were reminded that the good that we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. Students will have come home with a Project Compassion Box that we ask they consider donating whatever they can during lent. The process of giving to others is a great ‘real world’ example of compassion in action. Sometimes tying fasting and almsgiving together is a way to further encourage the idea of gratitude for what we have and the gaps with what others may have. For example, if someone decides to give up having a weekend ice-cream during lent, they may donate the money they would normally spend on the ice-cream to Project Compassion.
We ask that the boxes be returned in the last week of term.
Keesha, Olivia and Xavier represented St Anthony’s at the Project Compassion Launch Mass led by Bishop Robert McGuckin.
Parish Family Mass
This Sunday the 6th of March is the first Parish Family Mass of the year for St Anthony’s school students and families. On the first Sunday of every month during term time, the parish invites the school to participate and lead the liturgy at the 8.30am Sunday Mass. Year 1KS and Year 4SC will be the classes leading the liturgy this weekend, however everyone in the school community is invited to attend! It would be wonderful to see lots of students and families at this Mass. Parents of 1KS and 4SC students should have received an email to nominate their interest in their child helping to lead the liturgy.
There is a catch up for the Sacramental program students this weekend before the Saturday night 6pm Mass or after the Sunday 8.30am Mass.
Middle Leader
As is common practice at St Anthony’s, we have been looking closely at the data we gather on student achievement and development to ensure we know exactly where students are in their learning journey. Looking at the data in an overall way we can identify areas for focus to improve aspects of student's learning. This year an item of interest that keeps popping up in various ways is the vocabulary skills of our students. From our standardized testing, Naplan results and speech language assessments, just to name a few data points, we have identified vocabulary as an area in need of focused attention. Vocabulary refers to the ability to understand words, at a basic level. However, there is so much more to it than this. Students will have a listening vocabulary ( words they understand when heard), a speaking vocabulary ( words they can use effectively in their speech), reading vocabulary ( words they can understand when read) and writing vocabulary ( words they can use effectively in their writing). Teachers will be exploring ways to encourage the explicit development of students’ vocabulary through teaching practices that encourage identifying, exploring, and using words in their everyday language. Like all skills, we get better with practice and teachers will be ensuring with our ‘Be a Communicator’ learning behaviour as our goal, that student talk is prioritized. Practices that encourage collaboration with their peers where they question, explain, agree, disagree, justify, empathise and critique will be the norm.
Parents have such an important role to play in the development of children’s vocabulary! Consider how many times you interact with your children using words that would be considered more than ordinary? Research has found over time that children are beginning school with oral language skills less developed than previous generations. Some research has pointed to the emergence of Technology as a factor, with children engaging less in ‘conversational’ language where they watch and listen to a device, rather than practising and exploring words with a more competent user of speech ( adult). Children also may have more practice with ‘directional language’ ( stop, sit here, hurry up, put your shoes on, turn it off, make your bed, find your socks etc) than conversational language experiences where they are encouraged to share their thinking, hear different words explained and take turns in conversations.
Some simple steps parents can take to improve their child’s vocabulary are;
- Use new and interesting words in natural conversations. Give practical examples that help explain it and try and re-use it a few times over a small period.
- Talk with children and encourage children to talk with one another! Keep the conversation going by asking questions, making comments, and inviting children to think and share their ideas.
- Read to children daily, taking time to point out words you think they will not know/understand. Ask children if they can explain a word meaning and put it in a sentence.
- Challenge children to use their new words in conversations and be ‘word aware’. “What is a new word you learnt today?” “What does it mean?”
Katie.Hauser@twb.catholic.edu.au
Prep SJ
Since the commencement of the term, the Preps have been very busy learning new concepts and exploring themselves as individual learners within the classroom setting.
We have been delving deeper into our learning areas and have had many insightful contributions from students.
In Religion over the past three weeks the Preps have learnt about what it means to be a ‘bucket filler’ and how the choices you make affect you and others. We have explored sacred places around the school, have toured the church and looked at sacred symbols. Students are enjoying learning about ‘What is special about St. Anthony’s’ and how we are all part of a team.
Our English unit ‘On the Farm’, which focuses on Joy Cowley’s texts, explores characters related to farms and uses repetition to expose children to the early stages of reading. With this unit we are expecting ‘The Travelling Farm’ for a visit on Thursday March 24th (note to come soon). Students are looking forward to this fun and engaging experience.
Students are continually showing how much they are learning, and it is wonderful to see them settling into learning.
Samantha and Katie.
samantha.jaeger@twb.catholic.edu.au
Prep SR
What a great start we have had to the Prep year. We have been busy fine tuning our fine motor skills. Our “On the Farm” theme has continued, with us reading big books about farms and Mrs Wishy-Washy. In Maths, we have been exploring shapes with circles, squares, triangles and rectangles and numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. In English, we have been learning about letters s, a, t, and p and practising their sounds and writing these letters. You will find both the letter of the week and the number of the week in the Write2Spell folders we send home each week. We ask that the children practice writing over the letters and numbers every afternoon with coloured pencils or crayons to create ‘rainbow writing’ and repeating the writing talk included on the page. This helps reinforce what we are learning. We are adjusting our homework due back day to Mondays with library books to allow time over the weekend to complete activities. We also ask that children have water in their drink bottles rather than cordial or juice.
Siobhan and Ange
Siobhan.Rush@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 1 RS
The past fortnight has seen us very busy exploring numbers to 100 in maths. We have learnt a lot and students have enjoyed building up their number knowledge by using a lot of hands on material.
The students have also been enjoying reading the "Pig the Pug" book series as part of our English and have built up their vocabulary knowledge as we read the various descriptions of Pig and his friend Trevor.
It is also great to see some of the students returning sight word booklets to be tested. While this can feel tedious at times, it is integral in learning reading and is of such great benefit. Please continue to work on these at home and bring them in when you feel your child is ready to be tested and move onto the next set of words.
We are so proud of how everyone is working in Year One and coming to school everyday ready to learn.
Thank you, Emma Daniells and Jo Keleher
Emma.Daniells@twb.catholic.edu.au
Jo.Keleher@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 1 KS
I hope that the rain over the last week has not dampened your spirits and that life is treating you well! Firstly, congratulations to our Class Award winners from our very first assembly of the year! Well done to Kyrie for showing such a wonderful attitude towards his learning and receiving his award for his “Love of Learning” and to Greta who also worked well in class but showed exceptional compassion and care for her classmates and received an award for “Love of Others”. These awards help us to remember exactly why we (St Anthony’s School) exists – to educate the heart and the mind and to help our next generation make the world a better place. Good work Kyrie and Greta.
Year 1 have been revising many of the concepts from Prep … it was such a long holiday that some of our memories have required a little more reminding than others … so while we are not yet on to totally new content every day the revision has given our learning a focus on which to add the new content. I am so proud of how well the students are taking responsibility for their learning and following our routines and behaviour expectations. Well done to you all! It is going to be a very tricky job for Mrs Spencer to choose our next assembly award winners!!
Take care and God bless.
Kathy Spencer
Kathleen.Spencer@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 2 BH
Our class mealworms are changing into pupa! We have been studying lifecycles and watching the changes in these fascinating creatures. It’s very exciting! The pupae don’t seem to do much, especially compared to their larva stage. I wonder what will happen next.
In other news: we are looking at numbers above 99. Tricky because you have to get the three digits in the right order. We are also doing LOADS of counting!
A quick reminder to check ‘Teams’ for class messages and homework.
Thank you for sending in all those lovely photos. They were well used and SO cute!!
Mrs Hair
“Nothing is forever, except change. -Buddha
Barbara.Hair@twb.cathoic.edu.au
Yr 2/3 VN
Welcome to Week 4. We have been busy learning about Number and Place Value in class. Students are learning how to add 10 more, 10 less, 100 more, 100 less, 1000 more and 1000 less than a set number. They are also learning about what place a digit sits in a place value chart and what that value is. For example: 248, the 2 is in the hundreds PLACE and the VALUE is 2 hundreds which is 200. Additionally, students are learning addition and subtraction strategies, both mentally and written. In Science we are learning about living and nonliving things and have identified that for something to be living they must have MRSGREN. Movement. Respiration. Sensitivity. Growth. Reproduction. Excretion. Nutrition. We have also been looking at offspring and what the term means. In spelling we are currently looking at: or, aw, au and ee, ea.
Reminder: Library is a Wednesday and no bag, no borrow.
Yr 3 RM
In Maths we have continued to work with place value, adding and subtracting by using our understanding of how place value works. In English we have learnt about parts of speech and how using these in our writing can help to make it more interesting for the reader. In HASS we have started to look at climate around the world. In Religion we celebrated Ash Wednesday and thought about what we could do to help others as our Lenten promise.
Yr 4 SC
4SC has really enjoyed the last two weeks of learning. We especially loved our science lesson where we investigated the parts of a flower by pulling some apart. 'Here's the sepal!', 'I found the stamen!' and 'is this sticky stuff the nectar?' was heard as we made our discoveries. In maths we are looking at the relationship between multiplication and division. We continue to work on writing an entertaining narrative and using WOW words to engage our readers. We celebrated Ash Wednesday together and made our Lenten promises. We look forward to another fortnight of learning and engaging activities. Henry's picture below is what one would look like when everyone else is singing along to their favourite songs after most children go home during a massive storm. God Bless. Mrs C
Sharon.Cox@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yr 4/5 PK
Wow – can you believe we are halfway through the term? We are immersing ourselves into our learning experiences and having lots of fun. In our Year 4 HASS lessons we have been delving deep into finding out what it was like for Indigenous Australians before the arrival of Europeans in Australia. While in Year 5 HASS lessons, we have been exploring how colonisation has affected Aboriginal People, colonists and convicts. We have spent some significant time in our mathematics lesson working on our multiplication and division strategies. Science lessons have seen us delve into some fun investigations. Over the remainder of the term, we are continuing our deep focus on our vocabulary development. Some of the words we have explored so far are: privilege, wisdom, mystify and glimpse. I have been challenging students to use these words within conversations and within their writing. How about having a go using them at home too!
Until next time,
Year 4/5 & Mrs Kingsford
Peta.Kingsford@twb.catholic.edu.au
Year 4 Exploring Parts of a Flower
Yr 5/6 TN
In Mathematics so far, we have looked at representing data, 2D and 3D shapes and now we are exploring all things numbers! This week we have been learning the difference between multiples and factors and practising the very tricky task of estimating so that we can make statements about if we think our answers are reasonable.
We are also beginning to edit our Narrative texts. The students are being asked to take a deep look into their writing and editing for improvement and correction.
In addition to normal homework, the students also have the option to bring home some multiplication games. Most of these games will need someone to play with them. If games can be returned to school after a day or two and swapped, it will allow everyone the opportunity to play all of the different games.
Until next time, stay safe.
Mrs Terri-An Nolan
St Anthony's Outside School Hours Care
Our Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) services provide the opportunity for children to grow and develop their social skills in a leisure based environment nurtured by our Catholic ethos.
The services offer a combination of before school, after school, Pupil Free days and vacation care led by a team of qualified educators. Our educators work with all children to create fun and recreational experiences so that a child’s wellbeing, learning and personal development are a priority. The services provide a variety of indoor and outdoor activities to support the diverse interests of all children.
St Anthony's OSHC Toowoomba
Coordinator: Jacinta Rixon
Phone: 0458 937 154 or 0458 897 293
Email: ANTcare@tckc.qld.edu.au
Cyberbullying
A message from Constable Rebecca
55% of kids ask their parents for help with online issues…how can you help your child to navigate cyberspace safely – start a conversation, listen, know about security and privacy and how to report concerns.
Parentline offers free cyberbullying training for parents, carers and grandparents. There are resources available online and a Parenting in…Cyberspace podcast.
Parentline is a service available to parents and caregivers in Qld offering online and phone assistance with parenting dilemmas.