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Dear Parents and Carers,
Resilience is one of those skills that all kids need and should have. It refers to their ability to cope and adapt in situations when confronted with challenges such as adversity, trauma, tragedy, or even stress. It is essential to their mental health and wellbeing as part of their journey to adulthood. It is a skill that can be learned from an early age through the support of an adult role model.
Being resilient does not mean your child won't experience any difficulties, but it will better equip them to manage those situations. Over-protective parenting can be viewed as being unhelpful towards the building of resilience. Although this may be a natural instinct, potentially experiencing failure is all part of the process. Encouraging children to take healthy risks will help them trust their capacity to deal with uncomfortable situations and increase their capacity for courage.
Class Placements 2020
The teaching staff and Leadership Team will soon begin the process of creating the class groups for next year. When compiling classes, teachers are asked to take into consideration several factors; learning styles and abilities are of first concern; behavioural issues and special needs are also a high priority. To ensure the best learning environment for all, the teachers will determine which students should be together. This process takes many weeks. If you have a specific request regarding class placement that you would like to discuss with me, please contact Julie Ogden to make an appointment. If you made a request last year, you will have to make a time with me again – the requests do not carry over from year-to-year. I do not take requests for specific teachers.
Uniform
Thank you to all parents for ensuring your child is wearing the correct uniform. Please ensure your children are wearing school shoes with their school uniform – runners are only to be worn with the sports uniform.
Boorowa Touch and Netball Carnival
A huge thank you to the parents who provided transport and took on various roles, so the students could participate in the Boorowa carnival last Friday. Your generosity and time are very much appreciated. Thank you also to Mrs Gwen Tarleton and Mrs Cassie Neuifi for their organisation and attendance.
Open Classrooms
On Nov 7, before and after school, you are encouraged to visit your child’s classroom. They will share their work with you, and even perhaps teach you something!
Yours sincerely,
Julie Wiley
Principal.
One Community
in God’s Love
WE are a Community
CENTRED in FAITH
Welcome to Week 3.
This Friday is All Saints Day. It is a day where we gather as a community to celebrate the Eucharist and remember the many Saints who have shared the gift of Jesus in communities around the world.
St Thomas More’s staff, students and community will be attending ‘All Saints Day’ Mass on Friday at 9:30am.
As part of their ‘MIGRATION’, unit Year 5/6 students explored how Saints were centred in FAITH and shared the Gospel with everyone they came in contact with.
Sophie
Saint Josephine Bakhita,
She showed PEACE by being able to stay calm and still being able to love people despite everything she had been through. Josephine showed COURAGE to be able to survive her time as a slave and then being able to work in a convent as a nun and talk about her experiences. Saint Josephine Bakhita made a positive impact on her community by talking about her experiences as a slave and by raising awareness of what slaves haD to go through, she made such a large impact that she now has a movie about her. I think Saint Josephine is a great inspiration for everyone.
Kobe
Fr Damien was a priest in Molakai, Honolulu. He was known as ‘Fr Damien, the leper priest. He used the gift of COURAGE when he worked with all the people who had leprosy. He was filled with compassion and chose to help them. Fr Damien shared the Fruit of KINDNESS when he worked hard to build community, provide clean drinking water and construct schools and churches to preserve the FAITH.
Tara
Although St Peter Canisius was not the Patron saint of anything he was a famous Priest and doctor. He used the fruits of KINDNESS and GENTLENESS and often visited the sick or prisoners in his free time.
He became known for his strong faith and support for the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation in many European countries. This would have required COURAGE to ensure the Catholic faith was preserved.
Luke
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first woman who was born in the United States of America to be canonized in a Roman Catholic Church. Elizabeth is the patron saint of American Catholic schools.
She showed the fruit of KINDNESS by building a Catholic School that was free. She showed the fruit of JOY by being happy and never looking down and always keeping her head up. She showed the Fruit of FAITHFULNESS by following the same faith for 16 years. She showed the gift of KNOWLEDGE by building two schools and two orphanages
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Donna Victory
Religious Education Coordinator
STM Remembrance Day Liturgy
The first Remembrance Day was 100 years ago, the first anniversary of end of World War 1. In the week prior, King George V issued a proclamation to all Commonwealth countries:
To all my people,
… it is my desire and hope that at the hour when the Armistice came into force, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities.
During that time, except in the rare cases where this may be impracticable, all work, all sound, and all locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead…. I believe that we shall all gladly interrupt our business and pleasure, whatever it may be, and unite in this simple service of silence and remembrance.
On 11th November, 1919 King George hosted an event in the grounds of Buckingham Palace which included the two-minute silence and reading a poem, “For the Fallen” written by Laurence Binyon to honour those who died.
It is reported that all around the British Commonwealth, people stopped and stood in silence for two minutes. It was acknowledgement of immense communal respect and grief.
There are two sources to whom the idea of the Minute of Silence is credited. Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, a South African businessman and politician advocated:
It is due to the women, who have lost and suffered and borne so much, with whom the thought is ever present.
It is due to the children that they know to whom they owe their dear fought freedom.
It is due to the men, and from them, as men.
But far and away, above all else, it is due to those who gave their all, sought no recompense, and with whom we can never re-pay - our Glorious and Immortal Dead.
Australian journalist Edward George Honey published a letter in a London newspaper. An extract of it:
Five silent minutes of national remembrance. A very sacred intercession… communion with the Glorious Dead who won us peace, and from the communion new strength, hope and faith in the morrow.
Since World War 1, many more Australians have fought and died in wars and peace-keeping operations and Remembrance Day has come to embrace sacrifice and service from past and recent times.
May the sentiments and the intention of the Minute of Silence never become outdated.
You are invited to the St Thomas More's Remembrance Day Liturgy on Monday, 11 November 2019 (Week 5) commencing at 9am in Holy Faith Hall.
Remembrance Day Poster
The Department of Veterans' Affairs produces a Remembrance Day poster every year commemorating a particular theme or anniversary from our wartime history. This year the poster is ‘The Ode of Remembrance’. It can be viewed at https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/resources/remembrance-day-poster-2019 . Click button ‘Wartime Snapshot #26’.
Tyler Turtle
The Tyler Turtle Program is being offered to Kinder and Year 1 children of Defence Families at St Thomas More’s Primary School in week 4 of this term.
The Tyler Turtle Program is one 90-minute session designed by the Defence Community Organisation and aims to help younger Defence kids to understand their feelings and develop strategies to manage and cope with the challenges that can arise from Defence life, for example, associated with parental absence or relocation.
The program will be facilitated by the Defence School Mentor in the School Library. Please return the permission slip if you want your child to participate in the Tyler Turtle Program.
Feel welcome to visit or contact me on 6249 8869 or send an email to sonja.mingay@cg.catholic.edu.au .
Sonja Mingay DSM
Work hours: Mon-Wed 9am-3pm, Thu 9-11am
Mini Vinnies
The last Mini Vinnies meeting was postponed until this Thursday, 31 October.
Mini Vinnies Social Justice Day
The Mini Vinnies Social Justice Day will be held at the Australian Catholic University on Friday 22 November (Week 6). There are a limited number of places available, therefore the children who have shown the most commitment throughout the year and attended the most meetings will be invited to attend this excursion. Permission notes will be sent home by the end of this week.
Feel welcome to visit or contact me on 6249 8869 or send an email to sonja.mingay@cg.catholic.edu.au .
Sonja Mingay
School Chaplain
Work hours: Thu 11am-3pm, Fri 9am-3pm
