3 February 2016

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL

We’re back!

2016 has started extremely well, students and staff alike have come back to school and the enthusiasm for learning is throughout the whole school. Congratulations to all students on a very successful start to the year. As I visited classes I saw many students earning Dojos as they strive to achieve their Bronze medal. I saw and heard a lot of ‘sizzling starts’ as students started to learn the ‘7 steps to writing’.

I have enjoyed welcoming students back to school and am very impressed with the high standard of student uniform, including the required black shoes. The students look very smart and are obviously very proud of their school. It is with great pleasure I celebrate the high standard that Worongary State School has strived for and is obviously achieving.

Who’s New?

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new staff to you:

Ms Jessica Ermer – 1 Maroon
Ms Gemma Williamson – 5 Yellow, formerly Behaviour Advisory Teacher
Mrs Shannon Simpson – 4 Green
Ms Kaia Clarke – Behaviour and Engagement Teacher
Mrs Kim Hepworth – LOTE, Japanese Teacher
Mrs Charmaine Johnson – BSM, replacing Mrs Gayle Rees for Term 1 while she is Acting BSM at Nerang High School

Welcome back to:

Mrs Peta Jollie – 2 Green
Mrs Kerry Cameron – 1 Green and 1/2 White

Learning History and Geography

Our students in Prep – year 4 are very fortunate to be taught Geography and/or History by a team of experienced and enthusiastic teachers:

Mrs Sue Ford
Mrs Belinda Fairweather
Mrs Jo Jackson
Mr Glen McNeilage

What is Day 8?

Every year schools are asked to predict their enrolments for the following year. This prediction determines the number of teachers the school will be allocated by Education Queensland. Last year we predicted that we would require 33 classes and constructed classes and class lists based on this prediction.

As you can probably imagine over the holidays there are some changes in new enrolments and students leaving for a number of reasons. Monday, 1 February is Day 4, I am required to submit our current enrolments and an explanation of why students have not returned to school yet. On Friday, 5 February, Day 8, I have to submit our final numbers for 2016, including those students we know will be returning to school before the end of February.

It looks very promising that we shall be able to retain our 33 classes, but due to the changes we may need to make some adjustments to classes to ensure that classes are balanced, that is to make sure that one class in the year doesn’t have 27 students while the class next door only has 22. A few parents have requested a class change, although I cannot guarantee that this can occur, no changes will be enacted until Day 8 as each change has other implications and it would be best to make any changes required by the school or requested by parents at the same time. I thank you for your patience and understanding. I shall be in touch with all parents informing them of any necessary or requested changes or inability to fulfil requests.

Getting Together – Assemblies

Assemblies this year will all be held on a Monday, starting this week with the senior (years 3 – 6) assembly. The junior (prep - year 2) assembly planned for Monday 8 February will have to be cancelled.

The reason for the cancellation is the installation of fans in the hall. The P&C has purchased fans for the hall and we are all looking for the improved air circulation and cooling in the hall. Thank you to the P&C for your continued support for our students and school community.

In Class, On Task and Learning

It is a requirement of Queensland law that parents and caregivers ensure that children come to school every school day unless there is an approved reason such as:

• illness
• work experience
• competing in school events, such as sport, academic competition, representing the school

If your child is absent from school it is necessary to let the school know the reason. You can do this by contacting the school via phone, email or face to face to the office.

Please avoid keeping your child home from school for non-approved reasons such as:

• birthdays
• shopping
• visiting family or friends
• slept in
• looking after other children
• minor check-ups or personal care (such as haircuts)

If possible make routine medical or other health appointments either before or after school or during the school holidays.

Establishing good routines around school can assist with regular school attendance, these include:

• having a set bed time
• having a set time to get up in the morning on school days
• have uniform and school bag ready the night before
• have a set time for starting and finishing breakfast and completing morning routines including shower, brushing teeth, making bed
• setting a time for daily homework
• setting a time for daily chores including setting the table, helping with washing up, feeding pets
• speak to your child positively about school, but don’t make promises that you cannot guarantee eg changing class
• send your child to school every school day including their birthday and the last day of term.

If you are experiencing difficulty getting your child to come to school please contact the relevant Deputy Principal, Mrs Kerry White Prep – year 2 and Mrs Kelly Ready years 3 – 7, or Mrs Kaia Clarke the Behaviour and Engagement Teacher or Mrs Kathy Bellamy the Guidance Officer for advice and support.

2016 School Term Dates

Term 1 27 January – 24 March (9 weeks)
Term 2 11 April – 24 June (11 weeks)
Term 3 11 July – 16 September (10 weeks)
Term 4 4 October – 9 December (10 weeks)

What’s happened? What’s going to happen?

Worongary State School keeps in contact with parents in a number of ways, please ensure that you avail yourself of any (or all) of these ways to keep in touch with what is happening around the school and how your child is progressing

• parent information afternoon/evening (10 February)
• assemblies and ceremonies
• newsletter – Pipeline –subscribe to Schoolzine or posted on the website
• Worongary State School website -

• Worongary State School Facebook page -

• QSchools App – available for Apple and Android phones and devices -

• Push notifications directly to your device, including notifications of upcoming events and emergency alerts and important updates. To receive push notifications, download the QSchools mobile app or ensure the app is up to date if you already have it.
• email
• face-to-face – please make an appointment
• phone call
• student reports
• notification notes
• interviews

Education Queensland Apps

SPEAK app

SPEAK (Speaking Promotes Education And Knowledge) provides lots of fun, free activities, ideas and information for parents, carers and educators to support and nurture language development in children from 0-6 years of age.

Out and About app

Give your child a flying start in literacy by helping them practise their sight words when they are 'out and about'. This app is aimed at Prep to year 2 students to help them master the first 100 sight words.

Take a Stand

Read up on tips and advice about bullying.

The Allen Adventure iPad app

This story is about Allen, a young visitor from another planet, who is new to school and learning how to get on with his Earthling classmates. It is suitable for children from 3 to 8 years of age. The Allen Adventure explores social and emotional skills that children need to make friends, to get on with others and to deal with unpleasant or difficult behaviour from other children.

Student Resource Scheme (SRS)

We have had an overwhelmingly positive response to our student resource scheme, with nearly 100% of students in all classes participating. All students whose parents are undertaking the scheme have received their resources for the school year (including a school diary, drink bottle, utility bag, school pencil case & USB), as well as their access to Mathletics and Reading Eggs. If you are not participating in this scheme, please remember that it is the individual parents responsibility to ensure that the books on the student list are purchased as well as accounts for the schemes listed above which are utilised in class & homework activities. If you are yet to sign up for the SRS and wish to do so please contact Mrs Charmaine Johnson our school’s Business Services Manager to set up an appointment.

Parent Information Session

Our school will be holding its annual Parent Information Session on Wednesday afternoon, 10 February. This session allows year level groups and class teachers the opportunity to share with parents class structure, rules and routines. Each year Level will be emailing out a team brochure to assist in communication between teachers and our parents. Please note that these meetings are not meant as Parent-Teacher Interviews, focusing on individual students. These interviews will take place in Week 8 of this term.

Student Services

Please be aware that each year teachers refer students that they believe need intervention or extension to the Student Support Services committee. The Student Support Services committee oversees all referrals for students regarding academic, emotional, wellbeing and behaviour. As support is assigned within a school year, students must be referred each year, by their classroom teacher. The committee meets each Thursday morning to evaluate the needs of individual students who have been referred and appropriate support services are assigned. If you have any concerns or questions regarding your individual child please consult the classroom teacher.

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY DEVICES

The following policy took effect in February in 2015.

Procedures

Bringing personal technology devices to school is not encouraged by the school. However, if they are brought to school, they must be turned off and handed into the office prior to 8:45am. These will be stored for the day and collected from the office when the student is leaving school for the day. Students will not be allowed access to the devices during the school day. These procedures include mobile phones. Parents are welcome to call the school if there is an emergency. Students are also permitted access to a school phone if they need to contact parents urgently.

Confiscation

Personal technology devices used contrary to this policy on school premises will be confiscated by school staff. They will be made available for collection from the office at the end of the school day unless required to be kept for purposes of disciplinary investigation, when it will only be returned in the presence of a parent.

Term 1 Week 2

Behaviour

Term Focus

Week 2 and 3 Focus

Religious Instruction

Non-specific denominational Christian Religious Instruction will be commencing in week 3 of term 1. If parents have enrolled their children with permission to participate, participation will continue unless a letter is received by the office to say otherwise. Please check with your child’s teacher if you are unsure if your child is recorded as participating or not.

The Religious Instruction booklets will be ordered soon. Please look out for notification that payment is due. We anticipate that student booklets for years 2 – 6 will cost approximately $3 for each semester, with the year 1 booklet costing $5 for the whole year.

International Student Visit

On Monday 1 February, a group of 20 students from China visited our school. They were excited to see how Australian schools worked and were able to complete a fun activity with year 6 Yellow students. They then attended our Senior School Assembly after play break where they received certificates and a small gift. We hope they enjoyed their time with us.

Regards Marilyn Moballe, Principal

GUIDANCE OFFICER

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome back families who attended WSS last year and to welcome the new families entering our school community this year. Guidance Officers generally work within a school, or across a number of schools. This year I am working across two schools. I am at WSS every Wednesday to Friday and am looking forward to again assisting students, staff and families in whatever way I can within the school community.

The role of a Guidance Officer is to provide support to schools and their communities to help students achieve their potential within the educational setting. This can involve working with students and their parents or caregivers, often in conjunction with teachers, specialist support staff and other community agencies. Guidance Officers help to identify factors that can be barriers to a child’s welfare, learning and development, and help school staff plan interventions or programs that can help overcome these barriers.

Support may include:

• assessing students’ developmental levels and abilities
• helping students adjust to new settings
• providing personal counselling for individuals and groups
• helping students manage relationships and behavioural difficulties
• assessing students’ placement and specialist support needs
• advocacy for the educational and personal welfare of students
• assistance with crisis management.

Should you wish to discuss aspects of guidance assistance for your child, please leave a message with the office staff. I look forward to working together with parents and school personnel in supporting student welfare, development and learning.

Regards Kathy Bellamy, Guidance Officer

CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY COACHES

As Curriculum and Pedagogy Coaches we aim to present a positive, proactive, and professional approach to Worongary State School. We are responsible for working with teachers, for modelling best instructional practices, providing professional development, monitoring student achievement and supporting the implementation of newly adopted signature programs such as Cars and Stars and Seven steps to Writing. In simple terms, our role is to coach teachers in teaching and learning at Worongary State School.

Regards Donna Ermer & Megan Taylor Curriculum and Pedagogy Coaches

BEHAVIOUR

My name is Kaia Clarke and I am working as the Behaviour and Engagement Teacher.

I am very excited to be working at Worongary this year and am looking forward to meeting many families. Please feel free to send me an email if you have any queries.

kclar45@eq.edu.au

Regards Kaia Clarke, Behaviour

MUSIC

A big welcome back to all students for an exciting 2016 with lots of fun things happening in the Music Department. Junior Lorikeets choir will commence next week Tuesday 9 February for year 2 and 3's only at 8:00-8:50am. Senior Rosella choir will commence next week Thursday 11 February for year 4 - year 6 only at 8:00-8:50am. Contracts will be given out to the students at these rehearsals, no fees are required excluding excursions.

Our string teacher Ms Futo will be at school on Monday 8:00am-12:00pm and our band teacher Ms Ashton will be here Wednesday 8:30am-3:00pm to organise lessons. However tuition and disbursement of instruments will not take place until week 3 or 4. If you have any questions please contact the respective music person via email and we will respond to your request when we are available.

Classroom Specialist bhapi3@eq.edu.au
Strings Teacher dfuto2@eq.edu.au
Band Teacher casht28@eq.edu.au

Regards Bonnie Hapi, Music & Arts

Our Leaders

TUCKSHOP

Welcome back to another exciting year everyone and we hope that you are somehow keeping cool during this crazy humidity! Your Tuckshop team very much enjoyed our break and we are looking forward to hearing more about your summer adventures.

ONLINE ORDERING PROFILES MUST BE UPDATED

As your child joins their new class for 2016, please remember to update their “Schoolshop Online” ordering profiles with that new class (this is done from the tab ‘My Account’ and then ‘Manage Student’). Updates do not happen automatically.

Online ordering with “Schoolshop Online” is our school’s preferred method as it allows us to be able to track those orders and reduces the risk of money falling out of bags.

Please note that for manual orders, cash payments are accepted every day as we no longer have EFTPOS facilities due to the Online service available.

NEW FAMILIES:

Welcome to Worongary State School and we look forward to meeting you ! To access “Schoolshop Online”, please use the link available on our school website homepage. You will then be able to create your new account profile before ordering. Please also note:

• separate paper bags are required for Little Lunch and Big Lunch as these items are given out at different times. If ordering online, these bags are provided for you, otherwise you will need to send one or two completed bags and money to school with your child
• frozen items (eg ice blocks, frozen fruit juice cups, etc) are to be collected from the tuckshop by your child bringing back their prepaid bag at either Little or Big Lunch time
• substitute items may be given if not enough money is supplied or stock is unavailable

***IF YOUR CHILD HAS AN ALLERGY: please ensure that your account profile and/or manual order is highlighted accordingly. You are also more than welcome to also come up to confirm your requirements directly with your Tuckshop Convenor, Jasmine***

WATER ! WATER ! WATER !

With many hot days still ahead of us, please encourage your children to drink plenty of water throughout their day. Cold bottles of water are always available from Tuckshop for $1.50 in addition to plenty of yummy, healthy frozen treats such as :

• Tubs of Frozen Pineapple pieces or Frozen Grapes for just $1 each
• Icebergs for 50c each (cubes of frozen yoghurt and fruit)
• Frozen Orange Wedges for just 20c each

NB: We are always busy with ‘Over Counter Sales’ for years 2-6 so please feel free to stop in any day to help serve our eager students between 1.30pm-1.55pm.

VOLUNTEERS:

“Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns”

It’s fantastic to have you back, Ladies - 2016 just wouldn’t be the same without you

Regards, Jasmine Smith Tuckshop Convenor

P&C INFORMATION

Welcome back – We hope everyone had a fantastic holiday break and you are all back for a new year of adventures.

Big “Happy Birthday” wishes go out to our magnificent Jasmine – who celebrated her birthday yesterday!

DON’T FORGET TO SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT – SEE BELOW

P&C MEETING

Our next P&C Meeting will be held Thursday 11 February 2016 at 5:00pm in the staffroom. New faces are always welcome!

UNIFORM SHOP

Operating Hours:

Monday 8:30am-10:30am
Thursday 2.30pm – 3.30pm
Direct Dial number: 5502 4409

TUCKSHOP

Operating Hours:

Monday-Friday 8.30am-2.00pm
Direct Dial number: 5502 4426

POSITION VACANT

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