St Anthony's School Term 4 Week 6 2022

Principal's Report

Welcome to our Week 6 newsletter and second last newsletter of the school year!

Our 2023 Staff

The end of our 2022 school year is fast approaching. The sounds and excitement of Christmas can nearly be heard and felt. I remember our interesting start back in January… it feels like a lifetime ago. It’s obvious that our students and staff are getting tired but there is a sense of togetherness as we make it to the finish line together…

I am pleased to be able to inform parents of the class structures and teachers  for 2023.  It is exciting that we are able to maintain 11 classes for next year.

At the end of this year, we farewell Sharon Cox and Barbara Hair and thank them for their contribution to St Anthony’s and wish them well in the future.

Vicki Nauschutz is leaving temporarily on maternity leave to await the exciting arrival of a brand-new bundle of joy in the new year.

Next year, we welcome Jayne Cameron who has been a familiar face at St Anthony’s in the past. Jayne is a very experienced, passionate and dedicated early childhood educator who nurtures, inspires, guides and leads children to reach their full potential.

We also welcome Nicole Collis.  Nicole has been teaching for 7 years and describes herself as being strongly committed to achieving the best academic, social, emotional and spiritual outcomes for all students. Nicole models to her students that anything is possible through effort, dedication and persistence.

Joanne Stark will also be joining our team and has been teaching for 5 years.  Jo has experience across a range of year levels, learning areas and educational settings. Jo is committed to the development of young people cognitively, socio-emotionally, spiritually and physically.

We look forward to welcoming both Nicole and Jo in 2023 and in the last week of term we plan to have a ‘step up’ morning once students are allocated to classes and students will have the opportunity to spend the morning with their 2023 class teacher.

In our next newsletter, we will announce our school officers for 2023 also.

There is room in the majority of our classes to welcome new children and families to our wonderful school community. I encourage any parent who is aware of a colleague, neighbour or friend who might be seeking enrolment for their children to contact us for a tour and a meeting.

The Berry Street Model

Recently, our leadership team attended the Berry Street Model training in Toowoomba over 4 days.

The Berry Street Education Model provides schools with the training, curriculum and strategies to engage all students. This education initiative is based on proven positive education, trauma-informed and wellbeing practices that enable students’ academic and personal growth.

The model incorporates 5 Key Focus Areas:

• Body: Building students’ capacity by increasing physical regulation of the stress response, de-escalation and focus.
• Relationship: Nurturing on-task learning through relational classroom management strategies.
• Stamina: Creating a culture of academic persistence by nurturing resilience, emotional intelligence and a growth mindset.
• Engagement: Motivating students with strategies that increase their willingness to learn.
• Character: Harnessing values and character strengths approach to instil students’ self-knowledge for future pathways.

We endeavour to implement various strategies across our school to enable teachers and staff to increase engagement of students with complex, unmet learning needs and to successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth and academic achievement.

One of the first strategies we will be implementing in the new year will be a whole school understanding of what it means to be 'Ready to Learn'. Each classroom will implement a Ready to Learn scale - a standard system used by students in classrooms to identify difficult emotions and stress, both collectively as a whole class and individually. 

Another school wide Berry St strategy we will implement in each classroom is a 'Morning Circle' - a daily routine that includes rhythmic activities, healthy touch, positive affirmations, intention setting and gratitude reflections.

End of School Year Anxiety and Worries

As we near the end of another busy year, many parents might notice their children having a mixture of feelings. Some children may be presenting as having more worries or appearing more anxious. The end of the school year is a stressful time for students, staff and parents as class work and reports are finalised, there is also the impending threat of big changes approaching. This is typical for many children, having fear of the unknown, change and talk turning to preparation for next year which can all contribute to increasing anxiety.

Anxiety is a response to a perceived threat or can result from being overwhelmed. Often when we are faced with something we see as threatening, we will respond with a fight, flight, or freeze response. Many children are more likely to demonstrate psycho-somatic symptoms of anxiety, rather than express their fear with words. This may look like school avoidance, complaints of sore tummies, headaches, increased clinginess or having more emotional outbursts than is usual for them. While this time of year can cause increased feelings of stress or there are some things families can do to minimise stress:

1. Stick to schedule. End of year may mean that some schedules fade away, however now is not the time to let go of routines. Sticking to routine can help create a sense of calm and familiarity and can help your child to relax and feel confident about what’s happening.
2. Help your child grow a ‘STRONGER’ brain. Make sure they are maintaining each of these areas:

- Sleep - are they still getting enough sleep each night? Government recommendations are for 9-11 hours of uninterrupted sleep for 5 to 13 year-olds

- TV (and Screen Time) - Guidelines recommend no more than 2 hours per day for children 15 to 17 years old (not including schoolwork)

- Relationships - how are they tracking with friends and family?

- Organic - is there anything medical going on?

- Nutrition - what are they eating?

- Games - what activities give them purpose?

- Education

- Routine

1. Stay active. With the weather heating up it is time to make the most of it. Keeping our minds and body busy can help with worries.

1. Plan ahead for school holidays. Not knowing what is coming up can be a major cause for stress. Providing your child with a plan for what they will be doing in the holidays can let them know what to expect and alleviate some stress. Involving your child in creating this summer holidays plan can help them to feel comfortable and have a sense of control over their routine. Having a summer holiday plan is also a great way of helping your child stay motivated over the last few weeks of term when fatigue begins to set in.
2. Make time to talk to your child about their feelings. By starting a conversation about worries and stress this can help normalise your child’s feelings and let them know they aren’t “bad” emotions and that everyone experiences them.

Until next newsletter……God bless!

Louise

Middle Leader/APRE

Parish Family Mass

Thank you to all the students who attended the last Parish Family Mass of the year. Everyone is always welcome to attend the weekend Masses at St Anthony’s.  They occur at 6pm Saturday night and 8.30am Sunday morning.

Sacramental Program

Last newsletter we farewelled Sr Maria from her official role within the school community.   Sr Maria has been the leader of the Sacramental program through the parish and as she has left this role, how the program is facilitated is being determined.  If you are interested in your child undertaking the program to become initiated fully into the Catholic faith with the sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation, please keep an eye out in the newsletter early next year for notices.

St Anthony’s Way

‘Be kind’ and ‘Be fair’ are two more touchstones on the ‘Love of Others’ pathway that have deep connections to our Catholic faith and presentation Charism. With Jesus as our guide, we reinforce his message of compassion and aspire to be people of action who live our faith through the kindness we show.  To be fair is just a natural extension upon this.  Jesus in his times was always challenging those around him to look for the marginalized, and vulnerable, acknowledging their common humanity.  Nano Nagle the Presentation Sisters foundress modelled her life of giving to those who needed help, on Jesus’s story.  We seek to do the same at St Anthony’s as we walk the St Anthony’s Way.  We as a community cannot underestimate the effect of people who display these qualities on those around them.  However big or small, our actions have an impact which is something that we reinforce every day.   

St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal

A real life example of being kind and fair is supporting the organisations that serve to help those in our community who need some extra assistance.

“The Vinnies Christmas Appeal is all about bringing joy and festivity to families and individuals who may be in need of some extra support. For most of us, Christmas is a time of celebration with family and friends; the joy of exchanging gifts, making precious memories together and enjoying delicious Christmas treats to eat. However, for 2.2 million Australians, including families and 750,000 children living below the poverty line, Christmas can be a time when meeting their most basic needs, like putting food on the table or a place to call home, is a real struggle.”

We will be collecting goods for Christmas hampers over the next couple of weeks. Below is a suggestion of ideas for year levels, however any donations will be greatly accepted.   We would ask that any food items donated please be either non-perishable or not out of date for the Christmas period.

Prep SR & TF

Only 4 weeks left until Preppies are big Year Ones. We are very busy consolidating our knowledge of what we have learnt this term.  We are continuing to develop our Letter Writing skills and the children wrote letters to next year Preps telling them about all the things they have enjoyed this year.  The list was very long and it was lovely to reminisce about our year. 

We still need a few more volunteers for helping out at the Fair in Week 8.  If you can spare 15mins, please email one of us. Once the Roster is finalised, we will send it out. 

Preppies will be performing a song at the Fair. They will wear Christmas gear-it could be just a Christmas novelty shirt or red/green outfits.  

Tracey & Siobhan 

Yr 1 ED & Yr 1 KS

Year One have been busy completing lots of assessment. We have been learning about procedure writing.  If you see some wonderful things come home, they are part of the process of following instructions on "how to."

We have also been exploring Book Creator on the ipad and developing our skills of inserting pictures and text. The students have really done a great job of this!

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our toy raffle for the upcoming Christmas fair. They are looking great!

Thanks Emma and Kathy 

Yr 2 BH

This fortnight we’ve listened to a lot of poetry. Now we are beginning to write our own.

Here is just a little sample of our talent. They are acrostic poems about us!

ENJOY!

Yr 2/3 VN

This term we have been learning about poetic devices such as rhyme and rhythm.  Our Year 2 students were asked to adapt a poetic piece out of a picture book and Year 3 had to create a new page for a rhyming picture book.  Here are some of our pieces of work:

There was a snail

Who needed to sail. 

The snail was shy

And he needed to cry.

The whale splashed in the water

And then he got even shorter.

Jordan (adapted from the Snail and the Whale)

These are the other snails in the group,

Who all stuck tight to the smooth black loop.

And said to the snail with the name Will,

Be Quiet!  Don’t wriggle!  Stay put! Sit still!

But the tiny sea snail sighed and said a myth,

 Then cried, ‘I’ve for it!  Ill hitch a lift!”

Alexander (adapted from the Snail and the Whale)

I remember when the water stopped.

When day by day we just thirst,

All that water just did was dropped.

In the creek it was just the worst,

Hills turned skulls as the grass got dry

We wish will stop, nobody knows why!

Adut (adapted from Drought)

Super Edward who could jump out of the cage,

Better get out the lions having a rage.

I stood on a lion’s head to get out,

Just kidding…I stood on a waterspout. 

Sophia H (page added to Edward the Emu)

Yr 4 SC

The last fortnight has been filled with many interesting learning experiences. The Year 4 students successfully made ziplines to demonstrate how forces act on leisure activities. They enjoyed the challenge, and many recognised the importance of planning before creating. Our poetry presentations are underway and the quality of work is impressive. It seems that some students who find writing difficult are actually poets in disguise! As we approach the end of the year there will be many more opportunities for students to grow as learners and continue to develop greater independence. Please encourage your child to read, read, read! God Bless. Mrs C

Yr 4/5 PK

We are rather busy in 4/5PK, finalising lots of assessment and having fun along the way.  Students have put in a fantastic effort completing their Poetry Anthologies. I have been rather impressed with many students.  In Year 4, students had some fun completing a toy zipline activity and kite making during their science lessons to assist us to learn how forces can work.  Tuesday was a great day at the swimming carnival.  It was wonderful seeing lots of smiling faces and everyone have a go! I was very proud of all of the participants on the day. A reminder to parents to check your emails.  On Monday a form was sent home seeking volunteers to help out at the spring fair.  If you missed the email, a link to express interest in volunteering at our Fairy Floss Stall is below. 

Until Next Time,

4/5PK.

Yr 5/6 TN

Life is busy when you are in Year 5/6. Students have been working very hard towards completing assessment items and testing. I have been very impressed with the time management and organisation that I am seeing this term with little to no late pieces.

As I am writing this newsletter item, I am watching the students prepare a multi model presentation about the different ways that Jesus is represented. Together we read John 1:35-51 and discovered that there are at least 9 different names that Jesus is referred to as. Listening to the student’s research and discover images of Jesus that represent each of these different references has really shown me how much the class has grown together this year. The discussions today have been mature, thoughtful and respectful. I do hope that they all take these invaluable skills with them into the next stages of their education journey.

Please note in your emails that I have sent home a form to sign up for helping on our stall at the Christmas Fair. Once I have some responses in, I will email out a final roster for the night.

Until next time,

Mrs Terri-An Nolan

Terri-An.Nolan@twb.catholic.edu.au

Yr 6 LW

In the Year 6 Classroom …   

Another week closer to the end of term, and so much to do between now and then! Our weeks seem to be jam-packed with activities; from the swimming carnival to numerous assessments and tests, from practising our Indonesian carol for the Christmas Fair through to learning songs in preparation for our Farewell Liturgy.  We’re creating poems in English, revising multiplication and division in Mathematics, wiring electricity circuits in Science, learning about being informed consumers in HASS and writing an autobiography in Indonesian. Busy, busy, busy!! 

Next week all library books will need to be returned, but we will continue to have a daily reading session in the classroom. Therefore, all students are asked to bring a suitable book from home that they can read.  

Leigh 

Performing Arts

Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard this term to make the Performing Arts at St Anthony’s such an exciting place to be. I loved seeing the amazing visual art work created by classes with Mrs Lucht while I was away in the USA. I had a fabulous time attending the wedding of Patrick Tiernan (former St Anthony’s student!) and his beautiful wife Angel. We visited some incredible art galleries and museums and I was lucky enough to see Billy Joel at Madison Square Gardens, Billy Crystal in ‘Mr Saturday Night’ and Hugh Jackman in ‘The Music Man.’

Congratulations to our two school choirs.

Our Children’s Choir lead the singing at the 8.30am mass at St Anthony’s this weekend. It was the first time at the microphone for some of our students. They sang with so much energy and confidence.  I also loved the way they included young people from other schools who wished to join in and sing with us. You make me so proud to be your teacher.

Our Senior Choir was truly inspiring when they performed for our Grandparent’s at Grandparent’s Day and when they sang at the ‘Walk of Hope’ – supporting those who are travelling through the difficult journey of breast cancer treatment. Councillor Paul Antonio, Mayor of Toowoomba, came to see me to congratulate the children on their beautiful work. Their behaviour through the long ceremony was exemplary. Thank you!

Our Senior Choir has been invited to sing at St Vincent’s Hospital one afternoon.  The hospital is sending a bus to pick us up and will return us to school in time for usual dismissal. We will visit many of the different wards at St Vincent’s and spread some Christmas Cheer.

School Councellor - Jen Fenn

Autism Hub Queensland

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