St Anthony's School Term 3 Week 10 2023
Middle Leader/APRE
The Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office has a clear Parent Engagement Charter that all schools use as a reference when considering the important role of Parents in a school community. Parent Engagement Charter
It states;
“We know that a relationship between school and parents works best when it is based on mutual respect and acknowledgement of the value that each brings.”
As I look around at our school, I see examples of parents and staff working together to get the best outcome for the children in our care. In the last couple of weeks alone we had very well attended Parent Teacher Interviews, a PPF meeting and Dad’s and Kids night. There have been well attended prayer assemblies, St Anthony’s Has Talent and Early Years Morning. All of these events and activities add up to making a welcoming school that is inclusive of all, where respecting the dignity of each other is the underlying basis for all interactions.
Like the students, as adults in the school environment, we all have a part to play in also following the St Anthony’s Way. Being respectful, kind, fair, inclusive, and honest are the underlying values of our ‘love of others’ pathway. As an APRE I am also aware of my role in ensuring that the staff at this school are treated with respect within their workplace. It goes without saying that in any workplace, at times there may be misunderstandings, breakdowns in communication or emotion-fueled conversations that have the potential to cause distress. It is during these times that we must truly uphold the ‘love of others’ pathway. Staff and parents have a responsibility as detailed in the Parent Engagement Charter to display courtesy and respect towards each other. If this is not afforded to either party, there are ways to deal with this situation to ensure that it is addressed.
Another important way a parent can support the school and build partnerships is to put through a filter the things they may hear in the ‘car park’. A great way to consider the effects passing on a story may have is to remember the game ‘Chinese whispers’ that you may have played as a child. When a story is recounted multiple times, often in the retelling, key factors can change. The final story can often become completely exaggerated or different from the original. The international organisation Rotary use the following four-way test to reflect upon when considering sharing information.
Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
If there are things that you hear and concern you, please speak with Louise or myself to get the clarity you need; our doors, email boxes, phones are always open. Otherwise, putting the story through the above test may help to determine whether it is something that should be being spoken about.
Sacramental Journey
Please find below an announcement from the St Anthony’s Parish concerning the Sacramental program for 2023/24. Commonly, parents begin to consider their child may be ready to begin the Sacramental journey from Grade 3 onwards. The journey includes making three sacraments that confirm a commitment to the catholic faith; Reconciliation, Confirmation and Communion. In previous years we have many students from Grades 3 who begin their journey together, however older students from Year 4, 5 and 6 who may have not made their sacraments at this age are very welcome to begin the process also. Please speak to me if you have any questions, but you are all welcome to come to the Parent Information Evening in Week 2 of Term 4 in the Parish Centre to find out more.
Top Blokes
This week I was invited to the final ‘Top Blokes’ session that 12 boys from Years 4 and 5 have participated in across this term. This social education program specifically designed for boys addresses many of the emerging social issues facing boys and helps them develop key social and decision-making skills. It was exciting to hear in the boys’ own words what they had learned from the program as it was quite inciteful. Boys spoke of learning more about how to be respectful, how to deal with issues like bullying, appreciating the space to share their feelings without judgement, how to help de-escalate a problem and how much fun it was. I was pleased to be able to share that, reflecting upon my interactions with many of the boys and things I observe in the playground, there is real evidence of their learning from the program in their day-to-day interactions.
We are thankful to the Top Blokes Foundation that ran the sessions and will look to see how we can continue this program into the future.
R U ok? I am here to hear.
A conversation could change a life. Make space to really listen so you can build trust and create a safe place for them to share how they’re feeling.
Best Wishes for the Holidays
I would like to wish all the children a safe and relaxing holiday. I hope families have an opportunity to spend some quality time together and re-connect with the things they love. Next term will start on Tuesday the 3rd of October and kicks off with the Year 6 Musical on Thursday the 5th of October.
Thank You, loving God, for times of refreshment and opportunities to have a holiday,
so that we may be renewed in body, soul and spirit.
We thank you for the gift of enjoying different and new experiences.
May our time away be one that is filled with fun and the joy of friendship.
May our hearts be filled with happiness and peace and may we laugh often.
We praise you for this special gift,
Amen.
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.
Prep White & Prep Blue
Welcome to Week 10! They say time flies when you’re having fun and term three seems to have done just that! This fortnight we have had some busy and memorable days including our ‘Early Years Morning’ where we got to look inside a fire truck and play with some baby animals and performed in ‘St Anthony’s has Talent’. This term as part of our HASS we explored our community and special people in our communities. Thank you to Gina for coming in and talking to us about working in the call center for the fire brigade.
Even though the weather cooled down at the beginning of the week we had a fantastic week attending swimming lessons! During our swimming lessons we learnt some important skills to help us build our confidence in the pool including blowing bubbles in the water and stretching our legs out for kicking and floating.
We hope you all have a restful and enjoyable school holidays, and we will see you back at school on Tuesday the 4th of October.
Yr 1 Blue
This term we have been studying the "Cranky bear" book series.
We have written a character description about one of the stories. Here are some descriptions from some of the stories.
The Very Super Bear by Evie K
The very super bear sounds like a super man and is growly. He acts like he is really respectful.
He feels like he is sad and kind. He moves fast and quick. He looks enormous, furry, small eyes and brown.
The Very Itchy Bear by Wade D
He looks big and he looks wet.
He is growling because he is itchy.
He was twisting and floating and flipping.
He is sad and annoyed because he is itchy.
The Very Hungry Bear by Kayla S
The very hungry bear is a very big, black, quiet bear. He is so cranky because he couldn't get any dinner, but then he caught someone. It was a polar bear and he was shocked, but he had all of the fish! He said can I have some please. He acts helpful and he shares.
Year 1 White
Welcome to our last newsletter for the term. WOW, the end of Term 3.
This week we have had our swimming lessons each day at Glennie Swimming Pool. The students have challenged themselves with their confidence within the water and their stroke development. For some, it was a new learning experience and from their voices “It was fun”. After our swimming lesson, we have also looked at how we can be safe around a pool or when at the beach.
Before and after the students swimming lessons, we have continued with our handwriting skills letter formation and story writing, building on sentence structures and extending our sentences with verbs, nouns and adjectives.
We have also continued with some Maths revision of addition and subtraction, looking at numbers to 120 and filling in ‘missing spots’ on a number chart, as well as counting on from a given number and doubles.
We wish you all a safe and relaxing holiday. We shall see you all refreshed for Term 4 on Tuesday 3rd October.
Miss Houghton
Yr 2 White
Welcome to the final newsletter for Term 3. Year 2 White has had a fantastic week swimming and building teddy carriers! For our science unit, we learned all about push and pull forces before creating a teddy carrier to get our toys up a steep ramp. All of the carriers were successful which shows us we know exactly how push and pull works!
I hope all families have a lovely break and enjoy time relaxing. I look forward to seeing well rested faces ready for an amazing Term 4!
Yr 2/3 Blue
Hello from 2/3 Blue
The term has certainly flown by very quickly! The children have worked really hard during Term 3 and certainly deserve a break!
I look forward to a couple of weeks break myself and then we saddle up for Term 4 which will be busy and lots of learning will take place as we finalise all of our learning for the year! Have a great break with your children. Stay safe and God Bless – See you in a couple of weeks!
Kathy Spencer
2/3 Blue Teacher
Yr 3 Gold
In Maths we have been working with algorithms, identifying the importance of including all steps in order. In English and HASS we have continued to research and write our information reports about Indonesia. We have also really enjoyed our swimming lessons this week.
Last week as part of Child Protection week we participated in Australia's Biggest Child Safety Lesson, presented by the Morcombe Foundation. You can view this video here ABCSL 2023 Early Years and Lower Primary - YouTube.
Yr 4/5 White
Yr 4/5 Blue
Time has flown by, and we are excited to share the latest updates from our class as we wrap up this term.
Over the past two weeks, our students have been enthusiastically engaged in the process of creating persuasive speeches. Their task? To convince their fellow classmates why they should be elected as the class Prime Minister. It's been a wonderful exercise in public speaking and leadership skills, and we're proud of the effort and creativity our students have put into this project.
As promised in our last newsletter, we're thrilled to provide another update on our maze games project. Our students have been hard at work coding their own Scratch maze games. They've learned how to program their Sprite (the main character) to move in all directions - up, down, left, and right. It's been an exciting journey of trial and error as students detect programming ‘bugs’ and problem-solve issues within their coding.
Some of our students have taken their coding skills even further by introducing an enemy Sprite and collectible items into their games. These collectible items allow the main Sprite to accumulate points as it navigates through the maze. It's been fantastic to see their creativity at play as they design and develop these engaging games.
To encourage continued learning and exploration, we will provide students with copies of their Scratch login details this week. This will enable them to continue working on their coding projects from the comfort of their homes, should they wish to. We will also include a list of coding suggestions to support their progress and inspire further creativity.
We can't wait to see what the next term holds for 4/5 Blue! Stay tuned for more exciting projects and updates as we embark on the next chapter of our learning journey.
Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to an amazing Term 4.
Warm regards,
Miss Rixon and Mrs. Nolan
4/5 Gold
What a busy time term 3 turned out to be! We have squeezed so much learning into the past ten weeks that everyone in 4/5 Gold has earned the upcoming holiday! Our persuasive writing ended with everyone trying to convince me why they should be elected as class prime minister, with some interesting reasons being put forward as to why they’d be the most suitable candidate. Our unit on space and our place on Earth will be assessed in week 1 of term 4 because we’ve simply run out of time.
The thing that has stood out the most for me as the teacher, is the enthusiasm with which everyone has tackled the daily maths activities. We have moved from making regular mistakes while performing calculations using the four operations, to solving problems up to millions. (And we can read these large numbers fluently too.) That is phenomenal progress!
Have a relaxing holiday and I can’t wait to see what next term brings!
Yr 6 Blue
As we wrap up an exhilarating term, we can't help but take a moment to reflect on the incredible achievements and growth we've witnessed in Year 6.
One of the highlights of this term has been the remarkable class debates. The level of intellectual rigor and articulation displayed by our students was truly commendable. Each participant brought their A-game, showcasing well-researched arguments and eloquent delivery. It's evident that our students have been honing their debating skills, and it's a testament to their dedication and hard work.
The enthusiasm during the swimming block was contagious! It was heartwarming to see students of all levels confidently getting into the water and participating wholeheartedly. Everyone showed incredible determination and sportsmanship.
Wishing you all a joyful, safe, and restful holiday. See you in Term 4, ready to embark on another amazing term together!
Until Next Term,
Mrs Kingsford & Year 6
Performing Arts
Children’s Choir
Thank you to the lovely group of children who have been supporting St Anthony’s Parish by singing at mass on the first Sunday of the month. You are doing a wonderful job and are an absolute ray of sunshine for our parishioners. Thank you. Unfortunately the 1st Sunday in October is in the school holidays so we will not be singing again until November. I will let you know as the date gets closer. Thanks for supporting this wonderful ministry.
Senior Choir
It’s been lovely to have so many children continuing to attend choir from 8am on Thursday mornings. We have been preparing one new medley in particular to present at the St Anthony’s parish Friendship group next term on the 17th of October. We are just loving ‘Me and My Shadow/ By the Light of the Silvery Moon’… what a blast from the past! I’m sure the Friendship group will enjoy hearing us singing songs from so long ago. We are also preparing for our annual Xmas Visit to St Vincent’s hospital. Thanks for supporting the children by getting them to choir on time. It is very much appreciated.
Senior School Musical ‘Pirates of the Curry Bean’ – Thursday 5th October
We are SO CLOSE to our performance date! Make sure you are ready for Thursday 5th October! Most students have been allocated their costumes and will simply have to provide their own shoes and, in some cases, plain black pants/leggings and a plain black t-shirt or skivvy. Please check with your child to see if they need these items so that it’s not a last minute stress for families.
THANK YOU to all the people who have stepped forward to help get things organised.
Our Working Bee crew of fabulous Year 6 students who helped create props and sets.
The Kropp family for helping to paint our ‘Sea and Sky’ backdrop.
The Rub family for helping with the Isle of Lumbago trees and props.
The Schick family for creating a very cool Captains Wheel for our ships.
Mr Tattum for building us a Treasure Chest.
Mr Mark for putting things up and down in our stage area.
Mrs Hauser for sorting out approximate ticket numbers and seating for the show.
We only have THIS WEEK left to polish things up as the first week back will be full rehearsals and run throughs. Please try to be at school this week as we will try to grab whatever time we can.
Our final scheduled rehearsals are:
- Wednesday 13th September AFTER SCHOOL 3 – 5pm
- Thursday 14th September IN SCHOOL TIME 1.45 – 3pm
- EXTRA DRESS REHEARSAL – Monday 2nd October (The Public Holiday) from 8/8.15am to 12pm. FREE PIZZA LUNCH provided for students!
And then we perform!! Keep learning your lines at home.
Thanks for the support.
Anne-Maree Spalding
St Anthony's Uniform Shop
The uniform shop is located at St Anthony's, near the school office.
Opening Hours
Monday 8:30am - 12:30pm
Wednesday 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Friday 11:30am - 3:30pm
Parenting Support and Information
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
