8 August 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

I commence this edition of the Pipeline extremely humbled by the number of parents who have responded positively to the news that I was permanently appointed as your school’s principal. Since I commenced at Worongary State School I have been inspired to lead a school community that listens and sensitively responds to the needs of each individual. We all have so much to be proud of about our school and the people within it. Over the remaining few months of 2018, I am excited to draft our strategic roadmap. This collaboratively developed road map will focus on leading our school to once again be recognised as the school of excellence on the Gold Coast.

I wish to thank the members of William Duncan State School community for providing me the privilege of working with them for more than 5 years. The strength of any community is its people. The staff, parents and students at William Duncan State School have provided me multiple opportunities to learn and become a better school leader. I owe this school community so much gratitude. I trust my decision to relocate into this position supports a positive transition for their new principal. From the bottom of my heart I thank Regan Gant, Veronica Buhner, Amanda Murphy, Kristy Doolan and the many P and C Executive team members that I have served under for all of the support they have given me.

Learning Walks and Talks

Over the past two weeks Mrs Ready, Ms Kaia and I have been afforded the opportunity to visit each class and view an aspect of our teachers’ reading program. Learning Walk and Talk are a way school leaders can work collaboratively with our teachers and students to improve the learning environment for all (including teachers). On each occasion, school leaders are joined by the Year Level’s nominated representative for the 3-5 minute classroom visit. During the time in the classroom, the team observes the negotiated aspect of reading instruction. During this walk, school leaders may also speak with our learners about what they are learning about and why they are learning this skill. These visits do not interrupt the teaching and learning that is occurring and aims to build a common language across the school. A school leader or year level representative might talk to a small group or an individual student and ask them our 5 key questions about their learning.

• What are you learning?
• How are you going with that learning?
• How do you know?
• How can you improve?
• What do you do when you need help?

These Learning Walks and Talks have been an extremely positive experience for our school leaders. Following each opportunity to visit a class I have been celebrating my observations on the class Dojo app. I acknowledge and thank the large number of parents who have responded to these positive messages. I look forward to continuing to celebrate our students’ learnings with you in the future.

Attendance

During Semester 1, our school’s official attendance rate was 92.6%. The expectation from Education Queensland is that all schools in Queensland strive to achieve a 95% attendance rate. I wish to acknowledge the efforts of our Prep students and their parents, as this was our only year level that exceeded this Statewide target. During our Positive Behaviour for Learning meeting last week we commenced investigating why some of our students are away more than others and what we can do to support students and families to meet this target of 95%. I look forward to providing information to our school community about this work throughout the term.

Our school promotes the Every Day Counts initiative. This program – has four key messages:

• all children should be enrolled and attend school on every school day
• schools should monitor and create ways to improve attendance in schools
• attendance is the responsibility of everyone in the community
• children may find themselves in unsafe situations if they choose not to attend or skip school.

While most students attend school consistently, there is a small number of students who are absent from school without an acceptable reason and this may harm their education. Going shopping, visiting family, staying up late and being tired or extending school holidays are not acceptable reasons to be away from school. Research shows that if your child has a record of good attendance, they are more likely to achieve high results in the future. If your child is away, you need to let the school know the reasons beforehand, or within two days of returning to school.

Your support to ensure your child attends school on time each day is appreciated by all.

School Opinion Survey

The 2018 School Opinion Survey is currently being completed by our staff and students. We now invite all parents to join with us and reflect on our school’s progress over the past twelve months. The suite of School Opinion Surveys are undertaken each year by the Department of Education and Training to obtain information from parents/caregivers, students and school staff to identify what we are doing well and how we can continue to improve.

Opinions on the school, student learning and student well-being are sought from a parent/caregiver in all families and a sample of students from years 5 and 6, who will undertake the survey online at school. I encourage every family to complete the survey, as the greater the response rate from survey participants, the more closely the results will be representative of the overall opinions held at our school.

Tomorrow you will receive a letter with the instructions on how to access your individual online survey. It will provide a log in and password which can only be used once. Please follow the instructions and contact the school if you experience any difficulties.

The information we receive from these survey will help us to plan for the future and will allow us to know what we are doing well and in what areas we need to improve.

Once again, I encourage you to participate in our 2018 School Opinion Survey and to have your say. Following the 2017 survey data, our school has implemented several initiatives aimed to better meet the needs of your child and your family. We sincerely thank you for providing us your thoughts and I look forward to continuing to strive to improve our school.

2019 Prep Transition

During Term 3, we will continue our commitment to implementing the 2019 Prep Transition Program. This program significantly enhanced our 2018 prep students’ transition into formal schooling. Parents and students are cordially invited to attend the Information Session in the hall (21 August 5:30 – 6:30pm) and the Prep Expo in the Prep playground (20 September 9:30am – 11:00am).

Parents wishing to enrol their child in the Worongary State School 2019 Prep Transition Program activities are strongly encouraged to contact the school office and arrange for an information package to be sent home. Once these enrolment forms have been returned and processed, a member of the school’s administration team will make contact to provide information regarding the above-mentioned activities. Over the next few weeks, all 2019 prep parents will be contacted to arrange an enrolment interview. The majority of these interviews will be conducted prior to the Get Set for Prep Program. This weekly program will commence from Thursday 18 October.

Facilities Update

As you move around our school, you may notice a number of upgrades and improvements underway. I wish to thank Mr Chris Townson and Mr Glenn Bryden for their dedication and commitment to ensuring all of our students, staff and parents remain safe in our school. I have on a number of occasions outlined my commitment to ensuring our school’s physical environment promoted positive learning outcomes and safety of all. A number of areas have been cleared in preparation for a considerable revegetation program to commence once the ‘growing’ weather returns. While I acknowledge that some areas do not look very attractive at the moment, I am confident these areas will return to their former glory once the weather warms up. I sincerely thank everyone for your understanding and I look forward to seeing these areas improve in the near future.

Fencing

Over the past week, we have had a number of fences constructed throughout the school. I am delighted to report that the front fence (near the boom gate) has finally been completed. In addition to this structure, a fence was erected along the pathway leading to the internal crossing. This aim of this fence is to prevent the students from walking / running between the parked vehicles. This fence will also reduce the likelihood of students moving along the roadway – particularly during peak times (after school).

This contracting team then moved onto constructing a permanent fence around the Junior Playground. With this fence due to be finalised today, I will be delighted to return all of the temporary construction fences that have been throughout the school. This fence has significantly enhanced the safety of all students while playing on the school’s junior playground.

Seedlings Program

The Seedlings Program is in full swing from now on. Spring is around the corner and the garden is starting to look like a garden again!

For the next 2 weeks you are all invited to join their Seedling sessions every Wednesday morning from 9:30am. On August 15 the Regional Beekeepers will come to talk to us about Native bees and how we can help them survive through those tough times. On August 22 they will be part of our Grandparents day celebration where they will sell $3.00 - $5.00 cutting of pink geraniums to raise some fund towards the garden. It is also a great opportunity for all to go and meet them, ask them questions about the program and even see how you can help them :-)

Students & teachers are also invited to attend these sessions so that our children can get educated about different topics revolving around wellbeing, nutrition and environment.

You will start to hear about The Seedlings Challenge which involves trying the fruit or vegetable of the week to bring variety into their diet but also knowledge and encouragement about trying new things.

Loads of information will be available to all from their Seedlings Worongary Facebook group where you can get involved within the conversation, recipes & so much more...

Under 8’s Day

On Friday 25 May our school was joined by more than 120 children from our community and local childcare services to celebrate the 2018 Under 8’s Day. Unfortunately there was a mistake and the wrong Woolworths was thanked. Thank you to Woolworths Burleigh for you donation of apples.

Regards Landon Dare, Principal

Save the Date

Learning Vine Awards

From the Music Room

Book Week Performances

On Wednesday August 22 the Junior and Senior Choirs, Drumline and Senior String Ensembles will be performing a short selection of the music they have been studying this term. It is an expectation that all members of these ensembles are present at performances.

Times: 10:45am – 11:15am and 3:30pm – 4:00pm
Venue: Shade sail area outside Worongary State School Hall
Assembly Area: Students to assemble at the Music Room, 15 minutes prior to performance.

The Music Bus

The Music Bus has started visiting Worongary each week offering lessons in keyboard, singing, yukele, guitar and drums. If there are any interested students, please contact 1300 168 742.

Rehearsal Times for Term 3 and 4
JUNIOR CHORAL ENSEMBLE (Years 1 – 3): Tuesday Mornings 8:10am – 8:50am.
SENIOR CHORAL ENSEMBLE (Years 4 -6): Wednesday Mornings 8:10- 8:50am.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC (BAND): Monday 7:45am – 8:50am
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC (STRINGS): Tuesday 8:00am – 8:50am
DRUMLINE: Monday First Break 11:00am – 11:40am

All rehearsals are in the Music Block unless advised otherwise. Please be punctual and have all necessary equipment.

Remember a minimum of 10 minutes practise per day will assist students greatly.

If there are any students expressing interest in joining any of the ensembles, please do not hesitate to contact me on kjone416@eq.edu.au

Yours in Music, Ms Katheryn Jones

Read and Grow Update

Read and Grow is a fun interactive story sharing program for parents and children 3-5 year old children who are not yet attending school.

Throughout the program we will learn to listen, sing songs, share books and play together. This is a great way to develop your child’s oral language skills and help prepare them for school.

You’re invited to attend our FREE Read and Grow Program with your 3-5 year old children
(It is not compulsory to attend all sessions)

Regards Katie Huggard, PrepTeacher

Excursions

P&C News

P&C August 2018 Meeting

The next monthly meeting will be held in the Staff room on Wednesday 15 August 2018 at 4.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Volunteers

We desperately need a strong team of volunteers we can rely on to ensure our fundraising events run successfully, if you can assist in any way please send your details to pandc@worongaryss.eq.edu.au so we can add you to our volunteer register. As we need help throughout the year we will contact you.

Office Works Sausage Sizzle

Thank you to those volunteers that assisted with the Sausage Sizzle and those people that attended and purchased from us on Saturday 4 August.

Chocolate Drive

Please return monies and any chocolates you have been unable to sell to the Tuckshop. We will distribute a new box if required when full monies from the previous box are handed in. The prize for the most boxes sold is an IPod Touch 32GB and no one has hit double figures yet so keep selling as you could still be in the running for this prize. You have until Wednesday 22 August 2018 to sell the chocolates.

Facebook Page

Remember to join our Facebook page Worongary State School P&C Association so you can keep updated with our upcoming events.

Regards P&C

Tuckshop & Uniform

Opening Hours

Monday-Friday: 8:30am-2:00pm
Closed: Entire last day of each Term

Window Out of Order

Please be aware that for the safety of your children we are currently unable to open one of the Tuckshop windows. Some maintenance work is required to be undertaken on one of the roller doors and this window will remain shut until the work has been completed.

In the meantime, our mornings remain very busy as we serve children from our breakfast menu and will soon be even busier once Chocolate Drive monies start being returned to the Tuckshop. If you choose to order tuckshop manually, it would be very helpful to both yourselves and to us, if children could put their orders in the baskets in their classrooms rather than dropping them off to the Tuckshop in the morning, as many have been doing lately. Please be prepared for the possibility of a wait time if you choose to write orders out at the Tuckshop in the morning.

Product of the Month

Pork Sliders have now taken centre stage as our August Product of the Month. Available via manual and online ordering and are available for both first and second Break. Please see below for more information, including the accompanying offer for August.

UNIFORM SHOP

Opening Hours

Monday: 8:00am-9:00am
Wednesday: 2:15pm-3:15pm
Friday: 8:00am-9:00am
Direct Dial number: 5502 4409

Back in Stock

Our deliveries of Polo Shirts, Shorts and Hats have arrived on schedule. All items are now available to purchase both in store and online. Thank you once more for your patience and understanding while we awaited these deliveries.

Plastic Bags

Now that single use plastic bags are no longer available in Queensland, we ask that you please bring your own bag along to the Uniform Shop to carry your purchases home in. Thank you.

Regards, Michelle Lee Tuckshop/Uniform Convenor

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