St Anthony's School Term 2 Week 2 2023
Principal's Report
Welcome to Term 2! I hope everyone had a chance over the Easter period to spend quality time with family and friends. We are off to a running start this term. Lots happening! A few short weeks due to public holidays and pupil free days.
Thank-you to all the students and families who represented St Anthony’s on Tuesday at the Drayton Anzac Day march. We appreciate the commitment and support of parents to ensure their children attend such significant events that connect us in an important way to our nation’s history.
With the commencement of a new term, it is timely to reflect on what extraordinary work is done at St Anthonys School by all our staff, students, and wider community. We are dedicated to improving the social and educational outcomes for our students. Let’s celebrate and share some of the great achievements so far this year.
- Classroom routines and relationships established that foster the engagement and rigour of learning expected in all of our classrooms. I often walk people around the school who comment about how quiet our school is. This is testament to the dedication of our WHOLE school invested in the learning outcomes of our students and the consistency across the school regarding the language and expectations around learning.
- School wide Berry Street Education Model professional development for teachers, classrooms and students has seen an improvement in overall classroom behaviour and successful implementation of high standards of behaviour to support and develop a caring and safe environment for our students. We explicitly teach and model ‘The St Anthonys Way’.
- The Grounds and school facilities are looking A1!! Our most recent refurbishment as part of our school’s master plan, was our administration block – both upstairs and downstairs. This is nearly complete and we thank all of the tradespeople involved in this. To complete the majority of the work over the 2 week holiday period was a mammoth undertaking! Pop in and have a look if you haven’t already! We’re still getting lots of ‘WOWS’ from students as they walk into the front office!
Let’s have a great term ahead, with home and school working together. Please always bring any concerns or feedback to us. We value your input and working together, we can solve any problems brought to the table.
The Sentral Portal continues to be our point of truth for all things St Anthony’s and it’s important in the busyness of schools, that parents check the portal for updated and relevant information each day.
New Behaviour System
At the end of last term, as a staff we reflected on our current system of behaviour management. Towards the end of last term, we experienced a spike in a small number of students repeating serious and unacceptable behaviours that resulted in suspensions.
We concluded that the vast majority of our students consistently follow the expected behaviours that are talked about and modelled consistently and this term we are trialling a new points system.
There was much excitement when this was announced at parade on Monday.
In a nutshell, we are trialling a system of Gold, Silver and Bronze end of term rewards.
All students have begun the term on 100 points and are able to gain points through such things as assembly awards, SAW (St Anthony’s Way) tickets, wearing the uniform correctly and maintaining a 90% or higher attendance rate.
Points are deducted for RTC’s, suspensions and minor and major behaviour misdemeanours.
Teachers are tracking individual student points and at the end of term, those students who are at 300 or above will be at gold level, 200 – 300 at silver and 100 - 200 bronze and there will be various rewards for students at each level. Watch this space!!
Staff Updates
At the end of last term, Richard Reading resigned from the position of groundskeeper and we are excited to have appointed Mark Davis to this position. Mark brings a lot of previous experience to this role and can already be seen around the school tending to our lawns, gardens and minatenance. Welcome Mark!
Sandy Sullivan who accepted a contract school officer position at St Joseph’s College last year has now resigned after many years at St Anthony’s. We have appointed Jacinta Rixon as a school officer. Jacinta commenced during last term and has been a familiar face around St Anthony’s. Jacinta has worked previously in our St Anthony’s TCKC service and is also studying her Bachelor of Education and has completed teaching pracs in various classrooms. Welcome Jacinta!
Year 6 Camp Fundraising
The final tally from the Bingo evening was $1700. Our next event for fundraising is a Mother’s Day brekkie on Friday, 5th May from 7.00am in the sports hall. This will be $10 per adult and $5 per child. Please complete the Microsoft form that has been sent regarding this event for catering purposes. We’ve decided to hold this event a week out from Mother’s Day to avoid clashes with events at other schools.
We still have a number of amazing donated prizes left over from our Bingo night and these are now part of a multi draw raffle. Books of 10 tickets are being sent home with the eldest in the family. Tickets are $1 each and will be drawn on Friday, 12th May at assembly.
PPF News
Our PPF AGM is being held on Tuesday, 2nd May at 6.00pm in the staffroom. All welcome!
Our PPF are co-ordinating a Mothers Day stall on Thursday, 11th May throughout the day for students to purchase a new and special gift for those special mums and mother figures. All gifts are $5.00 and students will purchase throughout the day. There is an opportunity to purchase multiple gifts if stock is available.
Until next newsletter….God Bless!
Louise
The newsletter will be an e newsletter emailed to parents on a Thursday every fortnight. Community and parent notices can still be included in the newsletter by emailing the item to the school stanthonys@twb.catholic.edu.au.
Middle Leader/APRE
Happy Easter
I hope you all enjoyed Easter celebrations and were able to spend some quality time with your children. On Easter Sunday the scriptures revealed the wonder of the empty tomb. Just like the women who discovered the empty tomb and the disciples who met Jesus along the road, we need to spread the message of hope to all we meet. The joy of Jesus’ resurrection encourages us to step out from the darkness into the light and be light filled people that share the love and peace of Jesus with others.
Be Kind
This term we will be focussing on the touchstone of ‘Be Kind’ from the Love of Others pathway along the St Anthony’s Way. Kindness is not something that we aspire to because it is a nice thing to do. Our Catholic ethos determines that we follow in the footsteps of Jesus and learn from his message of love.
Last week the Prep and Year One class looked at the message from the Bible of the ‘Golden Rule’ where Jesus explained the need to ‘do unto others as you would have them do to you’. Even at this early age, children can comprehend that if someone does something to them that they do not like, someone else may feel that way as well if it was done to them. Similarly, the Year 2 and 3 students reflected upon the story of the Good Samaritan. They learned that Jesus wants us to be kind to others, even when they may not be part of our group of friends or family. Choosing kindness can sometimes be difficult when faced with expectations around us that point us in the opposite direction. Building children’s resilience to be able to offer kindness, even when it is hard, is important learning for life. This does not mean we accept bad treatment, or that we do not assert our needs respectfully. It does mean however though that we can put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and respond with compassion, rather than hostility.
Parish Family Mass
Next Sunday, the 7th of May all families are invited to celebrate Parish Family Mass at 8.30am in the church. Year 6 Blue and Year 1 White are responsible for helping to co-ordinate the Mass this month so we would love to see as many students and their families from these grades attend. Please respond to the Microsoft form to RSVP your attendence. Everyone is welcome to attend and stay for morning tea after Mass.
Middle Leader
Be Engaged
At St Anthony’s a very common phrase that is asked repeatedly is ‘Are you ready to learn?’. Back in the old days (when the students think that I went to school) this phrase may not have been such a common utterance. Students came to school to learn whether they were ready or not! Effective teachers from any era have fundamentally known that students will struggle to learn when there are outside factors affecting their social and emotional wellbeing. At St Anthony’s we strive to create consistent and predictable routines and teach students strategies to support them in regulating their emotions and therefore their behaviour. This investment in proactive strategies is designed to set children up for success within their learning. We teach them what it looks, sounds and feels like to be ready to learn and how to help them reach this state with strategies that support a regulated, calm state of being.
The next step is to work towards diplsaying the behaviours of the ‘Love of Learning’ pathway. Unpacking how to be engaged when you are learning is often easier said than done. To be engaged means you are active in your learning behaviours, not passive. Merely sitting in class and listening does not necessarily mean you are learning and improving. In the Year 6 class today I saw a good example of students being active learners who engage in their learning. They were asked to reflect upon their understandings of a concept they have been learning about since the start of the term.
Using the ‘Learning Pit’ as a proforma they plotted where they were in their learning journey after their lesson. Were they still stuck in the pit? Had they progressed out of the pit and were confident enough to teach this concept to someone else? It was encouraging to see students being engaged learners, reflecting on their learning and striving to succeed, not passively ‘waiting’ for the learning to happen ‘to them’. The students I worked with all expressed that they understood more after this lesson than they had last week. They could confidently pinpoint where in the learning journey they were. They are well on the journey of the St Anthony’s Way.
Performing Arts
Eisteddfod News
Only a couple of weeks to go! Keep up the good work rehearsing at home! My apologies for sending out confusing information on the first Eisteddfod Note. Please check below in case you have the wrong location or dates from that note. I’m so sorry for inconvenience and confusion caused!
All SOLO and DUET PERFORMANCES are on Thursday 4th May in the Armitage Theatre (behind the Church Theatre, next to Empire Theatre in Neil Street). Students are to wear their formal summer uniform.
Remember that all times are approximate. We won’t know how efficient the Adjudicator is until we get there! Entry to these sessions is free for students and $9 for adults.
8.30 (please be there by 8.15am) Year 5 Vocal Solos – Abut M, Emily M, Flo C, Sophia S, Hayley L, Jennessarae C
9.00 (approx) – Year 4 Vocal Solos – Ivy S, Juliette L, Caiden F
9.20 (approx) – Year 3 and Under Vocal Solo (a) - Josie H, Adut M
9.45 (approx) – Year 3 and Under Vocal Solo (b) – Flynn D, Martin B, Shelby P, Lara W, Georgia L
10.15 (approx) – Vocal Duet – Ivy S and Juliette L
2.30 (approx) – Year 6 Vocal Solo – Puondak M
The CHOIR sings on SUNDAY 7th MAY in the Empire Theatre Auditorium. The Choir should meet me on the lawn in front of Encores Restaurant at 1.45pm on Sunday. The session starts at 1.30 but our section is not the first of the afternoon, so we have a little more time to get organised. This will be a long afternoon of beautiful music! It can sell out because there are so many choirs taking part. I strongly suggest you buy your tickets in advance!
TCS ARTS FEST NEWS
The Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office is proud to highlight the importance of the Arts in our schools and are funding an amazing Arts Fest from the 19 to the 23 June this year. There are many exciting opportunities for our students. Watch this space for more information next newsletter!
Children’s Choir at St Anthony’s Parish
Sunday 7th May will be a great day for singing! Our students lead the singing at the 8.30am mass at St Anthony’s Parish in the morning, and then many of them will attend the Eisteddfod Choral Section in the afternoon. Thank you to all the students who support the parish mass. It means so much to the members of our community.
Please email me if you need any information regarding these different events. anne-maree.spalding@twb.catholic.edu.au
Thanks for supporting The Arts at St Anthony’s
Anne-Maree Spalding
Prep White & Prep Blue
Welcome back to Term 2!
We have had a busy week in Prep revising our learning of letters and their sound. We have been busy making predictions about text by using picture prompts and identifying known sight words and our letter knowledge to help us decode words for reading.
This term as part of our science unit we will be investigating living things and what different living things need to survive. To begin this unit, we started with a ‘creature hunt’ in our school do document the living things we found in our school grounds.
As part of our history unit this term children are learning about celebrations and commemorations. This last week we have been focusing on ANZAC Day. We have read stories about Anzac Day, created artwork of ‘Anzac Ted’ based on the picture book by Belinda Landsberry, baked Anzac biscuits and discussed what we do with our families to commemorate Anzac Day. Thank you to all who attended the Anzac march in Drayton.
Visit by Registered Nurse for Free Prep Vision Screening
Good vision is important for a child’s educational, physical and social development. Vision screening checks for common eye conditions that may impact your child’s ability to see, and therefore impact their learning and development is a valued health check.
A Registered Nurse will be visiting the school on Thursday 22 June to conduct vision screening for children in their prep year.
If you wish to have your prep child participate in this FREE vision screening program, please complete a consent form-
Online by 01/06/2023 - a QR code will be available on posters outside each prep classroom.
Participation in this free vision screening program is not compulsory. If you do not wish for your child to participate in screening, please complete the consent form and indicate that you wish to decline screening.
Parents do not need to be present for screening, however if you would like to be, please contact the school to arrange this.
If you have concerns about your child’s eyes at any time, please take your child to see an eye health professional (optometrist/ophthalmologist).
For further information visit the Program website or contact the Primary School Nurse Health Readiness Program on 1800 687 372.
Yr 1 White and Yr 1 Blue
Welcome to Term 2. Year one classes are working well on their new units of work for this term. In Religion we are studying the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. If your child has been baptised, it would be lovely if he/she could bring a photograph or a memento which is able to be shown safely in the classroom. If your child is not baptised but has had a naming ceremony or another special occasion, they may like to share this experience with their group. You may help your child by writing some dot points, so that the teacher can help lead a discussion about their special occasion. Any items for ‘show and share’ will be stored in the classroom throughout the day and sent home in the afternoon.
As a part of our English unit, the students will engage in an Australian Animal study, including the 'Aussie Animal Stories' written by the Author, Jackie French. Students will research Australian animals and create an information report. They will also compare the difference between fiction and non-fiction books.
During Math lessons, students will work with numbers 1-100, skip counting on a number line, addition and subtraction strategies, 2D and 3D shapes, and begin language concepts in fractions.
Our Science unit focusses on light and sound. Students will learn how light and sound are produced. They will develop their understanding of the roles light and sound have in our lives and the community.
In history, the children are identifying days of personal significance and ones that are important in our school and the community.
We will also continue our exploration on past and present. Students will investigate how the present is different from or similar to daily life in the past.
Jacque Houghton and Jo Keleher (Emma Daniells)
Yr 2 White
Welcome back to Term 2. I hope you all had a lovely Easter break.
Year 2 White has begun the term with a BANG! The behaviour of the class has been fantastic and I hope to see this continue as the term progresses. In English, we have started exploring narrative texts and the students are very excited to be creating their own imaginary character.
We have started looking at fractions in Maths and realising that a fraction isn’t a fraction if it isn’t equal. History has us looking to the past and to the future, discussing how technology has changed and how it has made our lives better. I’m very excited to see where this term takes us!!
Until next time, Mrs Collis
Yr 2/3 Blue
Welcome back for Term 2! I hope you all had a great Easter break and that you are ready to roll for another term! Some important events on each day are listed below:
Library - Monday
PE - Tuesday
Music – Wednesday
Technology – Wednesday Wks 2- 6
Assembly - Friday of odd weeks
Homework – booklets for the term have been sent home today – return to school when complete.
Reading should be completed every night
Spelling practise will be completed at school and will not be part of our homework as some students do not complete homework and miss out on practise – so we will all do it together at school.
Congratulations to our hard working awards winners for Week 1 of the term – Toa, Kristian and Chloe settled back into school quickly and have been on fire! I’m looking forward to our next group of winners – it will be hard to choose – so many of the children are working well!
This term we are including attendance as part of our reward system. I would hope that all of 2/3 Blue can get full points for above 90% attendance.
Just as a point of interest – if your child misses one day of school each week, by the end of year 12 they will have missed 8 weeks of school each year and 2 ½ YEARS of school overall … no-one can afford to miss that much school! I look forward to seeing your children every day so please send them!
If you have any concerns don’t forget I am just at the other end of the email…. Kathleen.spencer@twb.catholic.edu.au
God Bless and have a lovely week!
Yr 3 Gold
Welcome back to a new term. We welcomed two new students to our class last week - Aaradhya and Shany.
In English we have continued to improve our writing by using vivid vocabulary to engage our readers.
In Maths we have started learning about fractions.
In Religion we have investigated how Nano Nagle displayed the quality of kindness and how we can also be kind in our daily lives.
Yr 4/5 White
Yr 4/5 Blue
Welcome to Term 2!
It has been wonderful to come back and see such eager learners, ready to go!
This term we have another curriculum packed program just waiting for the students to dive into.
This term I am setting the challenge to all of the students to be able to define and identify what “being ready to learn” looks like and feels like in our classroom. This can look and feel different for everyone. For example, I am ready to be a learner when I am organised and feeling calm. Please feel free to chat to your child about what this looks like to them.
Did you know we had a class full of amazing artists? Last term the students worked on character portraits from the story, Fantastic Mr Fox. These have been completed and are now on display in our classroom.
Mr Tatum and I are already thinking about what we can create next!
Enjoy Term 2 and stay warm as the weather is changing.
Yr 4/5 Gold
Hello and welcome to another exciting term in 4/5 Gold! We have a jam-packed term ahead of us, filled with learning, laughing and lots of challenges.
The English focus this term is examining information reports, culminating in researching and writing our own animal reports. Maths will cover various concepts, including money and budgeting, multiplication and division and working with decimal numbers.
We are learning about solids, liquids and gasses in science, while HASS will cover colonisation and how the arrival of the First Fleet impacted life for the Indigenous peoples of Australia.
Now is possibly a good time to pause and consider what goals we have set for ourselves this term, so that we can consciously work towards achieving them. So many of us worked extremely hard last term, and we know we have to keep up the effort so as to have this diligence reflected in our marks on our reports at the end of term.
Here’s to a productive and successful Term Two!
Mrs W
Yr 6 Blue
Welcome back to Term 2!
We have had a fantastic start to the term. We welcome back Miss Paterson to our classroom. Miss Paterson will be with us until midway through the term. So far, we have had some great lessons with her, and we look forward to many more.
During the first week back, we spent some time completing our STEM Projects that were connected to our learnings around natural disasters. Many groups were able to come up with some great ideas around natural disaster warning systems.
We commemorated ANZAC Day this week, it was wonderful to have a few faces representing our school and class at the Drayton Anzac Day March. On Wednesday we enjoyed creating some art pieces showing the symbols and significance of the day.
Until next time,
Mrs Kingsford, Miss Paterson, and Year 6.
Yamma Group
Welcome to Term 2 Yamma Group,
I am very excited to be able to offer Yamma Group on a Thursday afternoon from 3pm to 3.45pm this term to our students who identify as Indigenous. This term we have an exciting project that we are going to dive into and I can’t wait to share this with the whole school when the time is right.
This term we will also as a school commemorate Reconciliation Week and hold our own NAIDOC celebrations before the end of the term.
If you have any suggestions or offers of support of either of these events, I would love to hear from you.
Mrs Terri-An Nolan
Mini Vinnies
Mini Vinnies held their first meeting for Term 2 on Wednesday 18 April where a new committee was elected:
President: Vann
Secretary: Kristopher
Treasurer: Puondak
Spiritual Advisor: Jamil
Congratulations to the new committee. We look forward to a new and exciting term of Mini Vinnies activities.
Parenting Support
Parentline
Parenting can be tough. But you don’t have to do it alone. When things
become challenging, it’s important to know that you can always talk to
someone about what’s going on.
If you’re a parent, carer or family member living in Queensland or the Northern
Territory, you can call Parentline from 8am – 10pm seven days a week, for the
cost of a local phone call.
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
