St Anthony's School Term 3 Week 6 2022

Principal's News

Welcome to our Week 6 newsletter! Last week, I enjoyed 4 days in Cunnamulla for our Term 4 Leadership Forum, where all of our 31 principals and executive leadership team met for professional learning and an opportunity to connect with each other and hear the latest on our organisation’s direction and focus.

One of the personal highlights for me during my visit, was visiting Sacred Heart School.  Having lived, taught and led a small school in a remote community, I can certainly relate to the challenges of these communities and the hard work that goes into the success of students.  Last Monday, during our visit to the school we were able to visit classrooms and observe and speak with students directly about their learning.  The focus for the school has been on students focusing on their ‘job’ at school of learning and articulating what they are learning and how they know they have learnt it.  We call this the learning intention….. 'we are learning to’ and success criteria…… 'how will we know we learnt it’.

I shared with our St Anthony’s students on Monday at Parade, how impressive it was that students could articulate this from basic Prep language to more articulate language in the upper grades.

This is a big part of our St Anthony’s student learning also at the moment and  learning intentions and success criteria are mandatory in teacher’s unit plans and evident in classrooms and students are on the path of being able to articulate the learning  with their teachers and classroom visitors, monitoring their progress and articulating the next steps to experience growth and success.

At the forefront of our learning at St Anthony’s is our St Anthony’s Way and I think we would all agree that engagement is a vital part of the learning process for every one of us, no matter what our age. From a teaching perspective, we view engagement as central to learning for all children and in all areas of the curriculum. When children are really engaged in learning, they show concentration, persistence and eagerness in their inquiry. They have a positive attitude towards the tasks they are working on and importantly, they expect to succeed. 

 For some time now at St Anthony’s, we have been implementing a language of “learning dispositions” as a means of building optimum levels of engagement for our students. Dispositions (or behaviours) are enduring habits of mind and action that encourage learners to respond to experiences in particular ways. Dispositions are linked to our attitudes and feelings about ourselves and our views about the different identities or possible selves that we can be and become.

Hopefully you have heard your children speaking openly and confidently about ‘The Learning Pit’ and in order for great learning to take place, there has to be time in ‘The Pit’ and this is OK, essential, in fact for learning.  It’s very important that while in ‘The Pit’ you never give up, keep persisting and use a variety of taught strategies for getting out of ‘The Pit’.

 So in essence, a learning disposition is a quality that, with practice, becomes engrained as a personal trait and gives us the tools we need to become lifelong learners. By supporting our children in developing these dispositions early in life, we are setting them on the path to learning success. 

As a school, we continue to speak a common language of learning and refer to following The St Anthony’s Way on a daily basis. On our pathway of ‘Love of Learning’ we are embedding a whole school language of learning where students must:  Be Engaged, Be Persistent, Be Curious, Be Proud and Be a Communicator.

Book Week

One of the highlights of our St Anthony’s calendar each year is Book Week. Book Week runs from August 20 – 26 and this year’s theme is ‘Dreaming with Eyes Open’. This provides a great opportunity to promote reading and a love of literature.

All students are invited to dress up as their favourite book character on Monday, 22^nd August and bring along their book.  Monday’s book character parade will be in the Sports Hall at 8.40am and parents are welcome to attend.  Please let us know if we can assist with finding a book for your child.  As I said to all students, no one has to go out and hire or purchase a fancy costume.  There are 1000’s of books with regular characters. 

Next week, each day from 8.00 – 8.30 and 3.00 – 3.30 we have a Book Fair in the library.  It is preferable that students come to Book Fair with a parent. This is an opportunity to purchase some quality literature with a percentage of sales coming to the school to purchase texts also.

Please contact jan.watkins@twb.catholic.edu.au or naomi.rigby@twb.catholic.edu.au if you are able to volunteer for a morning or afternoon.  You do have to complete the Volunteer Code of Conduct prior to assisting.

Father’s Day

It is hard to believe it is nearly that time of year again where we spoil our dads and those significant father figures in our lives.

After the success of last year’s Dads and Kids event, the staff once again will be hosting an evening on Thursday 1^st September from 5.30 – 7.30.  There will be various games and we even have an astronomer coming along.  There will be a BBQ with hamburgers and sausages available and soft drinks will be available for purchase also.

Students are able to bring along Dad or a father figure to this event.  A Microsoft form has been sent out on the portal to complete for catering purposes.  Food and drinks will be paid for on the night either via cash or Eftpos. 

Our PPF are also co-ordinating a Father’s Day Stall on Thursday 1^st September, where all students will have the opportunity to visit during the day and purchase a new gift for $5.00. Students can purchase multiple gifts depending on availability.

Colour Fun Run

It is not long until our Year 6 school trip to Tangalooma Island in Term 4.

As the final fundraiser for this event, we have a Colour Fun Run on Thursday 15^th September on our school oval from 2.00 – 3.00pm. The cost of participation is $15.00 per child and younger siblings can participate on the day for a gold coin donation.  The participation fee has to be paid at the office by Friday 9^th September. The fee includes participation, sun glasses and an ice block at the conclusion of the event.  The powder is corn flour based and non toxic. Students can wear their Colour Fun Run clothes for the day.  The colour is more effective on plain white garments. Everyone is welcome to come along!!

Please let us know at the office if you are available to be a ‘colour thrower’. 

We also had a Year 6 parent donate a brand new Electric Razor Scooter to raffle.  Each Year 6 student has taken home a book of 10 tickets and Year 6 students will be selling tickets for $1.00 at first break each day.  The scooter will be drawn at the conclusion of the Colour Fun Run.

Extra tickets are available in the office for anyone who would like to sell some.

Just a reminder that Friday, 2^nd September is a Pupil Free Day.  Our teaching staff will travel to Oakey to join with 3 other schools for a day of professional development on consistency of teacher judgement, looking specifically at assessment in religion and writing.  TCKC will provide care on this day.

Until next newsletter……God Bless!

Louise

APRE News.....

Mary MacKillop, the first Saint of Australia, is celebrated in August each year and Year 5/6 TN led us in prayer assembly last Friday to acknowledge her legacy.  Mary MacKillop famously told her sisters, ‘Never see a need without doing something about it.’ She is recognised for her commitment to the poor and helping those who needed it the most in any way she could.  She created the Order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and like Nano Nagle our patron Saint, Mary of the Cross Mackillop inspired others with her determination to never give up, to always persevere in helping others, even when there were obstacles in the way.  We are challenged to see Mary of the Cross as an inspiration in walking in Jesus’ footsteps.

Sunday Parish Family Mass

Thank you to all the families who came to Parish Family Mass for August.  Weekend Mass times are Saturday 6pm and Sunday 8.30am.  Everyone is welcome at St Anthony’s Parish and there is always morning tea on Sunday morning in the Parish Centre.

Breakfast Club

As a staff member who has the privilege of greeting many students most days, Wednesday morning has become a bright spot in my week!  Whether students are arriving early to enjoy the novelty of a school breaky, to relieve a family of one breakfast responsibility during the week, or just to enjoy the camaraderie of sharing a hot milo and piece of toast with their friends, there are not too many students missing from the school.  This service is being run totally at this stage by volunteering school staff.  Just another example of how staff as well as students, can follow the St Anthony’s Way; being kind, fair and inclusive.  If you would like to offer your time from 8.15-8.40 on a Wednesday morning to spread toast and make hot milo please email me to sort a day!

Middle Leader

Over the last two weeks I have had many moments where I have been able to reflect upon the St Anthony’s Way and how it is contributing to student’s learning journey.

Visiting Yr 1 ED I observed students interacting with the class Maths Bump It Up Wall, which is a visual display that helps students to develop clarity around what they are learning, how they are going and where they are heading.  At six years of age these students could communicate their personal learning journey in this subject.  They were so proud to be able to share this with an adult and were keen to explain how they were going to persevere to reach the next level.

I have witnessed students taking responsibility for their learning by identifying their own learning goal for writing in Yr 5/6 TN, based upon success criteria.  They have then delivered and received constructive feedback around their attempts from their peers as they continue to persevere with improving their writing.

I’ve also had conversations with students around their performance at Zone Athletics, the Eisteddfod and Friday afternoon Interschool sport.  They could communicate how they went, what they could improve upon next time and were clearly proud of their participation in these events.

Observing the Opti-Minds teams prepare for their challenge, I have marveled at the student’s curiosity in solving their challenge creatively.  They have displayed persistence when things got tough and shown great engagement and communication skills to work collaboratively.

All these observations point towards the touchstones of our Love of Learning pathway along the St Anthony’s Way. Teaching students the skills of curiosity, persistence, engagement, and communication and providing opportunities for them to use these skills is integral to their lifelong journey of learning that is just beginning at St Anthony’s. Developing in them a sense of pride around their work ethic and acknowledging their progress along the way will contribute to their willingness to strive into the future.

Prep SR & TF

Welcome to Week 6.

Next week we will be celebrating Book Week with children dressing up as a character from a book. Children are to bring a copy of the book with the character they have dressed up as. There has been a change of date and the book parade will now be Monday the 22^nd of August at 8:40am.  Thank you for your support with the change to our drop off and pick up routine Children have transitioned well and are becoming more independent in preparing for Year One.

We have had a busy few weeks with children participating in reading tests. It has been lovely to see their confidence grow. Please continue to practise their sight words and ask comprehension questions about the books at home as this is an important part of their learning.

In English we are now beginning to look at the traits of characters in texts. In Maths we have examined 3D shapes and are looking at representing and interpreting data.

We are looking forward to seeing the characters that the Preppies dress up as on Monday the 22^nd August.

Siobhan, Tracey, Ang, Katie

Yr 1 ED & Yr 1 KS

Hello again and welcome to the second half of Term 3.  We are over the hump and heading towards an exciting end to the term.  Leading up to holidays, Yr 1 have a number of interesting events heading their way.  On 30^th August we have a visitor who will present an afternoon of fun, teaching us about the seasons.  We have a visit from the Fire Service and they will bring their truck and teach us about fire safety.  1 KS will be leading the Father’s Day Prayer at assembly and 1 ED will be leading the following assembly.  We also have swimming lessons in the final week of school.

As you can see, there is a lot happening but in between these events our learning program is continuing as expected – continuing to learn about 'The Cranky Bear' and other books, looking at where we live, the weather and of course continuing to learn about numbers to 120 and beyond and addition, subtraction and number patterns.  All in all, we are working hard and making good progress.  Library remains on Mondays and we continue with PE on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Have a good week!

Emma and Kathy

Yr 2 BH

This last fortnight we have continued to look at persuasive texts.  This time we have examined ‘visual persuasions’ – advertisements. We are looking at how their style, colours and words can be used to convince you to do something or buy something.  Next time you watch TV together, have a conversation about how the ads are being persuasive. What are they trying to convince you to do or to buy and how are they getting your attention?  How do they make you feel?

This week we are in the middle of Science Week - an exciting week for us!  We are celebrating it by having lots of lovely science!

BOOK WEEK is coming up next Monday!! What will you be dressing up as?

The next thing we are collecting in Year 2 is shoeboxes!  Can you help?  We are planning to make dioramas soon.

Remember, Library has changed to Tuesday.  Return homework activities on Friday.

Mrs Hair

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”  -HH Dalai Lama XIV

Yr 2/3 VN

Welcome to our Week 6 newsletter!  Over halfway through the term; who can believe it?

This term, in addition to our learning about Information Reports, our class is also spending some significant time on a Friday for the rest of the term on writing a narrative.  We are taking an author approach to this.  We have started with drawing an image including a character where we have added details to describe.   This will help with our idea development.   We will then move to planning and collaboration with our peers to refine our ideas.  Next, we will begin writing, part by part and we will seek feedback from our peers to edit each draft.  So often in our writing we write it once, add some full stops and capital letters and say it is done.  This term we are going to spend TIME on refining and doing several edits before our end product.   We are hoping this will refine writing, improve collaboration skills and result in a piece of writing the students are proud of!  

Reminders:

Book Week Dress Up:  22^nd August (Please note this has changed from Tuesday to Monday)

Parent Teacher Interviews will be 6^th September 1pm-7pm.  These booking are out on Sentral and you can book a time slot that suits you.

Yr 4 SC

4SC students continue to work hard to achieve their best. They are learning about units of measurement and beginning to find the perimeter and area of shapes. In Geography, we will begin investigating the environments of Madagascar and Brazil. On Monday we began our Bike Safety lessons. All students participated with growing confidence, learning how to ride a bike safely on the road at Groom Park. There were many challenges and little falls but nobody gave up! We look forward to another busy week. God Bless. Mrs Cox

Yr 4/5 PK

Week 6! We are over the halfway point of Term 3 and we have been extremely busy.  The last two Tuesdays have seen the Year 4s participate in Cycle Safety at Groom Park.  Some of us have been physically pushed to our limits.  I have seen great encouragement and perseverance amongst all.   Year 5 have shown fantastic independence with their HASS tasks to date – be sure to ask them about the impacts of liveability according to environmental factors.  We have all enjoyed learning about various artists and we have explored how they have seen the world and how this influenced their work.  Recently we have learnt about Vincent Van Gogh.  We had a go at recreating his famous artwork – “Wheatfield with Crows”. Students who had completed the task, have had their work displayed in the office.

Until Next Time,

4/5PK.

Yr 5/6 TN

This term is flying past, with just four weeks to go!

This week the students have begun to lead the class in the meditation experiences they have prepared. It has a wonderful experience to watch the students prepare these sacred moments in their teams and how well everyone has been participating and reflecting.

This week we have begun some new topics.  In Religion we are looking at the elements of the Mass. In mathematics we are looking at all things mapping from directional language, the use of grids over maps, all the way to cartesian coordinates for the Year 6 students.

We are continuing to experiment with informative writing and have been placing a lot of importance on creating paragraphs that follow the structure of a topic sentence, three fact sentences and a concluding statement. I am looking forward to seeing the students put all these good writing practices into actions within their science assignments which are due over the coming week.

The last few weeks are going to be busy, busy with lots of things happening. I encourage you to keep up to date through our different forms of communication through the Portal and our class calendar!

Until next time, keep warm.

Mrs Terri-An Nolan

Yr 6 LW

Next time you go shopping, ask your child to help with calculating the discounts on various items – a skill we’ve been mastering in maths! We’re putting our knowledge in practice this week as we undertake an investigation which asks us to plan a party – and calculate the cost thereof, including discounts.  

I’d like to thank parents for the support over the past few weeks as various assignments have  been taken home to be completed. The leaf wreaths are absolutely stunning, with so many different interpretations of the leaf patterns. A reminder that the volcano assignment is due on Friday the 19^th, and the HASS is due next Monday – the 22^nd August.  

As we continue to read 'Wonder' as part of our English unit, the focus is turning towards enhancing our critical thinking skills and how to approach reading a text to understand the deeper meaning. We’re undertaking a character study of August, the main character in the novel, before exploring how the other characters relate to him and his abnormalities.  

All students are able to access Mathletics at home if they feel like a bit of maths practice – they just need to remember their login details. The Indonesian site – LanguageNut – is also available. Again, students need their login details.  

Till next time 

Leigh 

Yamma Group

For the past few weeks in our Wednesday afternoon Yamma time, we have been exploring symbols and how these symbols can tell a story. The students have been using some of these symbols to design their boomerangs. Last week we began to paint our own personal boomerang. While I was at home with COVID I spent some time making some story telling stones. These stones each have symbols and pictures on them. The idea is that the students use these stones to sequence out a story that they can then share.

In Week 10 of this term the Yamma Group students from Year 1 to 6 will be attending an excursion to the Ngutana-Lui Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Cultural Studies Centre. Please note that a permission form with all the details will be emailed home by the end of this week.

Finally, I have had word from Goolburri about the students 715 health checks. They were hoping to have already been here this term, however, they, like other businesses, have been short of staff due to COVID and this flu season. We are hoping to have dates locked any day now! Again, I will communicate all necessary information as soon as I have it.

Until next time!

Mrs Terri-An Nolan

Eisteddfod

Book Week: 22nd – 26th August

Our Book Week activities will be held this year in Week 7 (Aug 22nd – 26th) 

The theme for Book Week this year is “Dreaming with Eyes Open” 

There will be the usual favourites: 

Book Week Dress Up Parade – Monday 22nd August at 8:40am in the Sports Hall.

Students are invited to come dressed as their favourite book character or dress up around this year's theme. 

• Short Listed Titles: Reading of shortlisted titles & follow up activities.

• Reader’s Cup Competition: Monday 22^nd for our Prep and Year One students

• Book Fair opening times: August 24th – 29th

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 8:00am– 8:30am, 3:00pm – 3:30pm

                  Monday 29^th 8:00am – 8:30am ONLY

We will be holding our annual Book Warehouse Book Fair during Book Week. There will be a large variety of books for sale at prices to suit everyone. An Online option will be available for those who cannot get into the library. Look out for Wish Lists, which will be coming home on Tuesday 23rd. This is a wonderful opportunity to buy some great books and help the library gain new resources, as the school receives 30% of the total sales as our Commission. 

We are looking for volunteers to assist with the running of the Book Fair. Please contact the library if you can help during Book Fair opening times. 

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

Phone: 0458 937 154 or 0458 897 293

Email: ANTcare@tckc.qld.edu.au