St Thomas More College, Sunnybank
St Thomas More College (STMC) is a Catholic, coeducational, secondary school located approximately 15 km south of Brisbane. It is a part of Brisbane Catholic Education.
| St Thomas More College | |
|---|---|
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| Address | |
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272 Turton St , , 4109 | |
| Information | |
| School type | Non-government, Co-educational secondary school |
| Motto | God's Servant First |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic |
| Opened | January, 1974 |
| Status | Open |
| Principal | Leslie Conroy |
| Teaching staff | 78 |
| Employees | 132 |
| Grades | 7–12 |
| Gender | Male, Female |
| Enrolment | 1060 |
| Average class size | 27 |
| Student to teacher ratio | 13.4:1 |
| Houses | Assisi, MacKillop, Nagle, Romero, Turton |
| Colour(s) | Black, White, Gold |
| Slogan | Faith Learning Community |
| Song | Servant's Song |
| Sports | Rugby, Netball, Basket Ball, Volley Ball |
| Publication | The College Weekly |
| Website | STMC |
History
St. Thomas More College, named after St. Thomas More, is a secondary school operated under the Brisbane Catholic Education system. The college was opened for the first time in January 1974, with an enrolment of 75 boys. The following year, the college made the move to become coeducational with an enrolment of 143 girls and 96 boys. Presentation Sisters were part of the staff until 1988.
The college adopted its name for the values that St. Thomas More stood for, more specifically, families and family values; scholarship and learning; justice and fairness; Christian principles and spirituality.[1]
Programs and Services
St. Thomas More College provides a variety of service to its students, including music and arts, health and physical education and curricular classes, such as Mathematics, Science and English studies. The college also offers Information Technology classes, several branches of science in senior years (Biology, Physics, Multi-strand Science), Music classes (composing and writing music, analysing music) and private music lessons (percussion, strings, piano, voice), drama and acting, wood and metal working, textiles and designs, food technology, LOTE and finally, business and economics.[2]
Music
The college offers music classes at no cost, but also offers one-on-one instrumental music lessons under a scholarship. Instrumental music lessons cover the following subjects:[3]
Acting and Drama
St. Thomas More College offers its pupils private acting and speech lessons for a cost,[4] much like instrumental music lessons, along with drama classes. The college has adopted a cyclical theatre production over each two year period. Generally, a Musical production is shown for the first year and both Junior (Years 7-10) and Senior (Years 11-12) productions in the second year.
Moodle
A moodle system is integrated into the college's daily running, with homework, assignments and courses being posted on the site.[5] Moodle has been incorporated at the college since 2008, with the use ramping up in 2010 when laptops are distributed to some students. The college often plays hosts to other school's teachers, learning how to use moodle as an effective learning tool.
Laptop Program
In early August 2010, loan-issued laptops were given to students in Year 9 as part of the Governments 1:1 laptop program. Since the funding for this program has finished the college has continued the program providing laptops to all grades. Quality Education series Dell laptops are provided with a suite of enterprise grade programs ready to go.
The chapel
Our Lady of Sacred Heart Catholic Church opened in Cooranga (then known as Cooranga North) on Sunday 11 September 1938 on land donated by Mrs Mary Gertrude O'Brien.[6][7] It was at 152 Cooranga North Niagara Road (26.7566°S 151.4056°E).[8][9] On 28 June 2017 in the middle of the night, the church building was relocated to St Thomas More College, where it is used as the school's chapel.[10][11] The relocation required two trucks, one for the church body and another for the roof, and the journey was 380 kilometres (240 mi).[12][13][14]
References
- No Author: College Diary, page 2. STMC, 2010.
- "Curriculum at St Thomas More". Brisbane Catholic Education. Archived from the original on April 22, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
- "St Thomas More College – Instrumental Music". Brisbane Catholic Education. Archived from the original on April 23, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
- "Private Speech and Drama". Brisbane Catholic Education. Archived from the original on July 19, 2008. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
- "STMC Moodle". St. Thomas More College. Archived from the original on 2010-06-03. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
- "DISTRICT NEWS". The Dalby Herald. Queensland, Australia. 14 January 1938. p. 5. Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 24 April 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
- "OBITUARY". The Dalby Herald. Queensland, Australia. 20 January 1939. p. 3. Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 24 April 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
- "Our Lady of Sacred Heart Catholic Church - Former". Churches Australia. Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
- Google (January 2008). "Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church (former)" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
- Google (February 2021). "St Thomas More College chapel" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
- "Our Chapels Journey - from Cooranga to Sunnybank". St Thomas More College, Sunnybank. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
- "Our Lady of Sacred Heart Catholic Church - Former". Churches Australia. Archived from the original on 2022-04-23. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
- Blake, Thom. "Our Lady of Sacred Heart". Queensland religious places database. Archived from the original on 2022-04-23. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
- "Cooranga North church that closed in 2013 brought back to life at Brisbane school". The Catholic Leader. 2017-07-26. Archived from the original on 2021-05-14. Retrieved 2022-04-23.