Term 1 Week 3
From the Principal
Dear families and friends of St Anthony’s,
Welcome to 2024! This year promises to be another great year of learning and fun. Students have settled in quickly across all grades and that includes our new Kinders who have had their first full three days this week. I was very proud of them during our whole school Ash Wednesday Prayer yesterday because they were so reverent and peaceful.
I would like to add a personal welcome to all of our new families across the school. I know that you’ll be made to feel welcome because it is one of the strengths of our community. Thursday 21st March we will hold a ‘Welcome BBQ’ in our courtyard as an opportunity to gather together as a community and more details will follow regarding this event.
Another focus on welcome this year has been a change in our PBS (Positive Behaviour Support) across our school. We have made a conscious decision to focus on positive behaviour and to highlight areas such as GTS - the way that we Greet, Treat & Speak to others. As I said, we are already great at welcoming but we’ve added a focus on using people’s names and asking how they are feeling, etc. to take the next step in being welcoming. We spoke about it at Gathering on Monday and that focus will continue for the next two weeks. I would encourage you to talk to your children at home about what it means to welcome others and why GTS is such an important personal attribute to have.
Commitment to Learning and celebrating success
In order to maximise learning time and to make the most of the time that our teachers have with their students, we have changed some of our timetable structures this year. We have restructured our bell times to start the day at 8.50am (see ‘School Hours’ below). Perhaps more significantly, we will not be having Assemblies fortnightly on a Friday afternoon this year. Birthdays and Footprints of Jesus will be recognised in classes and other items such as PBS will move to Gathering. Assemblies will now only occur in weeks 4 and 8 of our term and the focus of these will be students receiving awards. We have decided to reinstate awards for positive behaviour, academic achievement or encouragement as a mark of how well our students are doing in general and to celebrate those successes. We feel that this is an appropriate way to recognise the amazing students that we have.
Beginning of Year Mass
Next week we will hold our Beginning of Year Mass, led by Father Martin. We would encourage as many parents as possible to attend and we will use this as an opportunity to present our 2024 School Leaders with their badges. The Mass will be in the Assisi Centre on Tuesday 20th beginning at 9.30am.
School Board
Our School Board AGM will be held on Wednesday 20th March at 7.00pm at school. Two members will be stepping off the Board this year after many years of service and we will have vacancies that will need to be filled. For any parents interested in joining our Board this is an opportunity to contribute your skills, expertise or advice to our school. We meet on the third Tuesday of each month during term times via zoom. If you would like to know more about the Board, please contact me for a time to chat.
Sincerely,
Jason Perry
Principal
From the Deputy Principal
Set Up for Success (St Anthony’s Explorers)
Explorers is our free early learning and parent engagement program for children from birth to five years old.
The sessions are held every Thursday morning in our Kindergarten room during term time from 9:00am-10:30am.
Please spread the word to any families you may know to come and join us for an morning of engaging activities, music and stories.
Explorers will commence on Thursday 15 February. There is no need to book.
Car Park
To model road safety for our children, when walking through the car park, please use the pedestrian crossing and footpath around the turning circle, rather than crossing the driveway or through the turning circle.
School Hours
Classes commence each day at 8:50 am and finish at 2:55 pm. The first bell will sound at 8:45 am to alert students to move to their classroom. The supervision of students at school begins at 8:30 am. If your child is arriving late to school (after 8:50am), you will need to sign your child in at the school office.
CatholicCare Tasmania do provide before and after school care on site at St Anthony’s, please click here for further information.
Pick-Up
School finishes at 2:55 pm each day and our driveway and West Tamar Road can become very congested at this time. To avoid vehicles blocking the driveway and consequently banking up on West Tamar Road, which poses a safety risk to commuters on this busy road.
We love to see you around the school, so if you are able, please park in the car park and collect your child from their classroom or from the parent pickup shelter.
If the car park is full, please start to queue behind the buses, leaving space in other vehicles to use the inner turning circle if needed.
If you are unable to collect your child before 3:30pm, then please contact CatholicCare Tasmania, as previously mentioned.
iPad and Internet Usage Agreement.
Thank you to all the parents who have completed this agreement to enable your child to access ICT for their learning. If you haven’t had a chance to complete it yet, you can access the forms here:
Our preference is that smart devices (i.e. watches, phones) are not brought to school. If your child needs to bring these to school, please ensure they are placed into ‘flight mode’ during the school day. Phones must remain in bags whilst at school.
Instrumental Music Program
If your child in Grades 3 - 6 wishes to participate in this program, operated by St Patrick’s College, please refer to the information in the flyer below. Please note there are additional fees for this program. Any enquiries regarding this program can be directed to the College at music@stpatricks.tas.edu.au
Communication
There are a variety of platforms where we communicate and share information with families and the wider community. Our primary means of communication is Compass. It is vital that all parents download the Compass app and check both Compass and email regularly for updates. Therefore, if your child will be absent, please notify the school using the Compass app.
Please refer to the communication infographic attached for further information on the various online platforms utilised by the school.
If you ever have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s schooling experience, your child’s classroom teacher is the first and best port of call.
Class Sharing: Grade 1
We have had a very busy first few weeks in Grade 1. On the first day, we welcomed Sienna Howard-Goss to our class and school community ~ Welcome Sienna, her sister Vouge and their parents, Jason and Melissa.
Our focus for the first few weeks has been exploring the fact that we are all different, but we fit together to create our unique class, ‘Grade 1’! We have explored this theme through many picture books and activities.
Religion:
Week 2 started the season of Lent. On Tuesday, the 13th of February, we celebrated Shrove Tuesday and learned about Ash Wednesday. We explored why Catholics celebrate these days. We celebrated Ash Wednesday with a prayer service with Father Martin on Wednesday. Father Martin reminded us that during Lent, we should pray more, give to the less fortunate members of our community and fast.
Here are some of our Lenten Promises. Please stop by our classroom to see all of our Lenten Promises.
We hope all classes have had a fabulous start to 2024, just as we have!
Thanks for reading Grade 1 News!
Prayer
God of new beginnings, new ideas, new creations and new hopes,
We come to you at the beginning of this year with many feelings, expectations, anxieties and dreams.
Help us to recognise that we are given NEW opportunities to hope, to create, to think and to begin again each and every day
Help us to accept these opportunities as ways for us to
grow as an individual, as a teacher and learner,
as a parent, as a friend, as a grandparent,
as a community member, as a follower of Jesus.
This we ask through Christ our Lord,
AMEN.
Shrove Tuesday
A huge thank you goes to Woolworths Riverside Tas for their extremely generous donation of not just pancake mix, but all the delicious toppings. Our students loved it and we are extremely grateful for your generosity! It was great to see the community come together to mark the beginning of lent.
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a new season in the Church’s year. The tradition of the Church has been to see Lent as a period of renewal and preparation for the great feast of Easter. Ashes on our foreheads mark the beginning of our journey through Lent. This quieter time is a time to reflect on Jesus’s life and suffering and the ways he continually showed compassion to those around him.
