Term 1 Week 8

Prayer

From the Principal

Dear families and friends of St Anthony’s,

As you would be aware, Paul Mannion has been appointed as Acting Principal at Our Lady of Mercy, Deloraine for Term 2 this year. From today he is on Long Service Leave from STA and will then take up that position at OLOM. I am sure that you will join me in wishing him all the best in the role and we look forward to having him back on board in Term 3. In his absence, it is my pleasure to announce that Emma Marshall has been appointed as Acting Deputy Principal. We anticipate that this will be a seamless transition as Emma is already a member of our Leadership Team and is across all of the elements of the Deputy Principal role.

There have also been some changes on our School Board after our AGM last week. I am pleased to let you know that Michael Lowe has stepped up as Chair of our Board and Sara McIntee will be our new Financial Advisor. Mike French generously  vacated his role as Chair and I would like to acknowledge his great work in that role and previously as Secretary. Mike will remain on our Board and continue to use his expertise and business acumen to support our school. Ben Greatbatch and Andrew Vinson have come to the end of their tenure and I would like to acknowledge their work on behalf of the school during the last 6 years. I would also like to thank Ashlee Walker and Sara McIntee for their willingness to join the Board and welcome them to that role. Having a strong, united School Board is vital to the success of our school and I am pleased that we have members of our community that are willing to contribute in this way.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank those families that attended our Harmony Day/Welcome BBQ. I would also like to apologise for the miscommunication and confusion that came about because my messaging wasn’t clear, in particular around the sharing of food. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to communicate my vision for the event and the harder I tried to do so actually made it less clear. Although there were no complaints from anyone that attended, I am taking that as a sign of respect and understanding from you rather than there not being any concerns. In light of that, I am genuinely sorry and I will endeavour to make the communication around next year’s event much clearer.

Ironically, our PBS focus across the school this week is W.E.S.T. - S for Sorry. Our focus has been on an awareness to say sorry when it is needed but also to show that we are sorry. I encourage you to discuss this with your children at home especially during this Easter season.

WEST is one of the key tenets of MJR (Make Jesus Real) and we were fortunate to have Mitch (Peter Mitchell, author of MJR) visit our 3/4 and Grade 6 students yesterday. I stepped into the session with Grade 4’s while Mitch spoke about TAH (Teamwork at Home) and I would encourage you to ask them about how they show that at home. Hint - it’s the little things like doing jobs as soon as you are asked or using your manners.

Finally, you will notice that from Monday 8th April, signs advertising enrolments for Kindergarten will appear in Legana and on the West Tamar Rd near Tamar Marine. We organised this earlier in the year before enrolments opened but since then we have had an extraordinarily large number of expressions of interest. If you have a child turning 5 next year or you know of friends that do so and are interested in joining our school, please encourage them to get in touch as soon as possible because we face the prospect of reaching capacity very soon. 

On behalf of the school, I hope that you all have a wonderful, Holy and Happy Easter and I look forward to seeing you again on Wednesday of next week!

Sincerely,

Jason Perry

Principal

Would you like your child baptised? 

Please contact Father Martin to arrange a time to meet. 

West Tamar Parish are office hours: Tues. & Thurs. 9am-1.30pm and Friday 9am-11.30am

Phone: 6327 3971  Email: westtamar@aohtas.org.au 

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to speak with Mrs Marshall or contact her on emma.marshall@catholic.tas.edu.au

From the Deputy Principal

Paul Mannion

NAPLAN

Well done and thank you to all our Year 3 and 5 students who participated in the recent annual NAPLAN assessments. They joined 1.2 million other students across Australia. A big thank you to our Gr 3 - 6 teachers who administered the tests so professionally. When available, teachers will use the results to inform teaching and learning programs. 

Brixhibition

What an amazing display of creativity and effort we have witnessed as part of our annual Brixhibition Lego Competition. Thank you to all the students who participated and congratulations to our award winners as voted by their peers:

• Kinder/Prep: Henry Marshall
• Grade 1/2: Theo Spradbury
• Grade 3/4: Amara Spradbury
• Grade 5/6: Baxter Clark (overall winner)

Congratulations to Baxter Clark who, as our overall winner, is invited to showcase his winning Lego Model at the Brixhibition event, and participate in the “Grand Competition” to be judged by Tasmanian Brick Enthusiasts Inc. members at the Brixhibition event Saturday 20 - Sunday 21 April at the Door of Hope (Glen Dhu). The Grand Prize winners will be announced at this event on Sunday 21st April at 3:20pm. Good luck Baxter!

Grade 5/6 Gala Day

We had a fantastic time at Gala Day! We had fun hitting the ball in Cricket, as well as connecting with different kids and making new friends. At Table Tennis, we had heaps of fun playing at least 10 games. The instructors explained the rules to us and we did our best. 

By Angus Pettman and Francesca Roberts

PLEASE RETURN PROJECT COMPASSION BOXES

Caritas Australia would like to THANK YOU for supporting Project Compassion 2024. If you still have your Project Compassion box at home, please bring it back to school this week.

Your generosity will empower the world’s most vulnerable communities to grow stronger and lift themselves out of poverty. Together, we can help vulnerable communities face their challenges today and build a better tomorrow, for all future generations.

Students in Grades 3-6: If you would like to participate in the Sacramental Program this year please return your forms to the office by Friday 5th April 2024. 

If you have any questions please contact Emma Marshall at emma.marshall@catholic.tas.edu.au