25 May 2022

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Worongary State School VEX IQ World Champions – Design Award

That’s correct – it is not a typo!!! – WORLD CHAMPIONS!! Team 19931B have won the DESIGN AWARD at the 2022 VEX World Championships.

We are so honoured to be awarded by the Judges, the DESIGN AWARD for our team’s engineering notebook submission that documented the team’s robot design process, effective management of time, talent and resources as well as their team interview via Zoom where they had to explain their robot design and game strategy demonstrating effective communication, skills, teamwork and professionalism.

We are super proud of the efforts of our team who needed to compete from the Elementary level up a division to the Middle School level against many experienced teams during the two days of competition.

We now cannot wait to have the winning banner and trophy arrive from Texas sometime soon. We are so so so proud. Congratulations students, Mrs P and parents!!

Active School Travel

What a launch! Staff, parents and students the support was overwhelming!

This was direct feedback to me from Gold Coast City Council staff. They shared praised around the positive culture of Worongary State School. Congratulations to Mrs Davies and the members of the AST team for their organisation, communication and engagement in the success of this day. It was brilliant.

Parent comments were also amazing. We are very much looking forward to the next three years as an AST school. Next term, keep a look out for information on our next breakfast for students. A huge thank you must go to Woolworths Nerang who donated $500 of breakfast items for the day.

From now on, every Wednesday will be our official Active School Travel Day. Students will have their bags tagged for arriving at school either by walking, riding, scootering, car-pooling or by public transport. It is encouraged for this to continue every day to assist in reducing the volume of traffic around our school. We will also continue to share safe travel messaging to the community through our Facebook Page, Newsletter and Class Dogo.

We are continuing to work closely with the Gold Coast City Council with the concerns raised by staff, parents and community members around the safety of traffic around our school. All concerns that have been raised, have been shared with our local council, who are very proactive in this space. If you have concerns, please email principal@worongaryss.eq.edu.au so I can raise these directly with the local council. Parents can also contact the council directly.

P&C AGM reminder

The AGM has been rescheduled for 31 May. If you are interested in joining our P&C or have questions in what being a member involves, please call me using the office number – 5502 4444. I know the P&C have many goals for the year ahead to benefit the students at Worongary State School, and continue to assist our school improvement journey. The venue will be at Nerang RSL, Tuesday 31st May 2022 at 5 pm.The meeting should be no longer than 1 hour.

Election BBQ

Thank you so much to the amazing teachers, parents and students who came down to volunteer and raise funds for STEM.

There was so much student, staff and community support - with too many to thank individually. We loved the signs, the laughter, the robots and amazing democracy sausages!!

It was also fantastic seeing future families who will one day be a part of our school community.

Thank you to an amazing team and an amazing day.

Have a brilliant week ahead.

Regards,
Adam Brandt
Principal

Save the Date

FROM THE MUSIC ROOM

END OF SEMESTER MUSIC CONCERT

Our students are all busily preparing for the End of Semester Concert, Monday June 13, 3:30 – 4:30pm in the School Hall. All students that learn a musical instrument within the Instrumental Music Program and students that participate in the School choirs will be performing at this community event.

DO YOU HAVE TO NAG YOUR CHILD TO PRACTISE?

This is completely normal! Keep nagging them! Developing the self-discipline to practise every day is a very difficult trait that takes time for children to develop. Eventually practise will become a habitual behaviour if you have encouraged it regularly.

Some tips to develop the ‘practise habit’

1. Do it often (everyday, at the same time, for a short amount of time 5 – 15 minutes)
2. Practise the ‘hard’ things. Rather than play a whole piece, ‘cut up’ the music and practise the tricky sections or bars.
3. Slow it down. Practise your music slowly.
4. Practise with a metronome - this will keep you with the beat. Metronome’s are free – just type it into google.

DO YOU HAVE A KEYBOARD AT HOME?

Have you always wanted to learn the piano/keyboard but not known where to start? Private or group lessons are a great way to kick start your child’s musical learning journey but can be difficult to source and expensive. Perhaps try engaging your child with some online tutorials to get them started and give them some confidence!

• YouTube – YOUCANPLAYIT.COM

EARLY MUSICAL ACTIVITIES TO TRY AT HOME

Many of our little people love to sing and this is definitely a skill to foster. Below is a website that offers many quick and easy songs for children to hear and then repeat, either using a singing voice or a talking voice. Enjoy!

• YouTube – Visual Musical Minds

MORE FUN FOR RECORDERS PLAYERS – YEAR 3 & 4

In the last newsletter, I shared a website that offers easy beginner recorder songs for students to play along with (If you missed it – YouTube ‘Visual Musical Minds’ Recorder Songs). These videos demonstrate how to make the note with a visual diagram, display the musical notation on the staff and encourage multiple practises of the one song or melody.

If your child is looking for a further challenge, some more advanced (classical & popular music) repertoires are available at the website below.

• YouTube - YOUCANPLAYIT.COM

ACTIVITIES FOR UKULELE – ALL AGES!

If you are fortunate enough to have a ukulele at home, why not try playing along with some of these beginner songs. Start with Level 1 songs and work your way up the levels!

• YouTube – VISUAL MUSICAL MINDS

TERM 2 ENSEMBLES TIMETABLE - MUSIC @ WORONGARY

• Worongary Voices (Singers Years 3 – 6) Wednesday mornings 7:45am - 8:45am, Band Room
• Worongary Piccolos (Singers Years 1 – 2) Thursday mornings 7:45am – 8:45am, Music Room
• YR 5 & 6 Band Ensemble Thursday mornings 7:45am – 8:45am Band Room
• YR 4 Beginner Band Thursday afternoons 3:00 – 3:45pm Band Room
• YR 4,5 & 6 String Ensemble Monday mornings 7:45am – 8:45am Band Room
• YR 3 Beginner STRINGS Monday afternoons 3:00 – 3:45pm Band Room (NEW!)

Ms Katheryn Jones
Instrumental Music Teacher Strings and Classroom Music Teacher

Active Safe Travel (AST) Worongary Walk and Wheel Wednesday

Walking and riding to school is a fun, safe and healthy way to travel to and from school each day.

It is also a great way for children to develop friendships and arrive energised and ready to learn.

Some important things to consider before encouraging children to walk or ride to school include:

• walking or riding several times with your children, highlighting the safest route with
• limited road crossings
• talking to other parents in your area and consider setting up a walking or riding group
• with other children
• utilising Park and Stride to teach your children to travel independently over a short
• distance initially.

More children walking or riding to school helps build a hive of activity around the school, encouraging a reduction in vehicle speeds and creating safety in numbers for students.

Please note WSS staff will not be at the park and stride zone each week. This was for our launch event only. Parents are encouraged to walk students over and plan a safe mode of travel e.g plan to walk with a neighbour or class mate. Breakfast will be once a term, in week four.

Don’t forget to direct your children to go to Central games to get their bag tag stamped. This bag tag becomes their ticket in our major prize draw at the end of the year - a $500 bike and helmet package for a senior and junior student!!

Book Fair – It’s here again. Classes will be viewing the books during Week 7 (Tues 31 May to Fri 3 June).

Sales start Monday 6 June until Friday 10 June, each morning from 8.15am to 9am, then again, each afternoon from 3 pm to 3.45pm.

Please limit cash purchases as much as possible, online or credit card are the preferred methods.

Many thanks
Jann Connor

From the Guidance Officer

Technology is a necessary part of all our lives these days. But is it good for our kids?

TV, computers, smart phones, video games, laptops, ipads…… our lives are filled with technology which can be incredibly helpful as well as fun. However, our technological, busy world ensures that our children are getting more and more time on screen and less and less time doing other things which are important for their development. More and more research is indicating that this is not a good thing. Too much screen time is bad for our children’s health, their socialisation with peers and their emotional state. It is important, as the adult, that we manage how much time our children are ‘on screen’.

It is really important for their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing that we set limits for screen time (phones, ipads, tablets, television, computers) and encourage them to participate in a range of activities. And this is good for us too!

Regularly we hear people complain about children being ‘addicted’ to their screens and even adults finding it difficult to put away their phones for a time. The amount of time we are ‘on’ screens is an issue that we all need to regularly assess and moderate. And this is particularly important for our children who have growing minds and bodies.

‘Limiting’ does not mean banning all technology or taking everything away – it indicates a healthy balance with other activities, such as sport, drama, kicking a ball, chatting over dinner…

One study of over 1300 families in the US found some significant long term benefits for children when parents set healthy limits on screen time (entertainment - TV, phone, and video games) and content.

After 7 months of setting limits on amount of time spent ‘on screen’, parents saw that their children:

1. were now getting more sleep
2. were getting better grades in school
3. had an indirectly positive change in Body Mass (because children were simply moving around more)

Seven months of limiting children’s content exposure (to violent media) resulted in:

1. increased prosocial behaviour – exhibiting more helpful and cooperative behaviors at school
2. less aggressive behaviour toward their peers

It is important to remember that the effect is not immediate and this makes it difficult for parents to see the changes. We don’t notice children growing taller in a day, but after a year? – well that is when we suddenly notice that our son has grown too tall for his trousers.

So, this also applies to media exposure. i.e our children are not going to become violent street brawlers after a few days of playing violent video games, or get an F in English after staying up for the World Cup, but over time the distributed effects on their lives are real.

We all love a good Youtube or TicToc video and we have our favourite tv shows. But we, as adults, are aware of the dangers to our wellbeing and relationships if we spent all day on screen. As parents, we need to be the controllers for our kids, until they are old enough to understand the issue and manage their behavior appropriately.

As always, Happy Parenting … and remember to breathe!

Image adapted from Iowa State University study

P&C NEWS

NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK

National Volunteer Week is Australia’s largest annual celebration of volunteering and was held last week. The theme this year was ‘Better Together’. Volunteering brings people together; it builds communities and creates a better society for everyone.

We would like to take this opportunity to recognise and thank all the volunteers that have helped in our community, the work you have done and continue to do is vital and is very much appreciated.

WSS AGM

Unfortunately, due to low 2021-member attendance to the AGM held on Wednesday the 4th May 2022 we were unable to make the required quorum and therefor the AGM had to be postponed.

Our AGM is now being held on Tuesday 31st May 2022 at 5 pm at the Nerang RSL. The WSS P&C requires as many of the 2021 P&C members to attend the AGM for it to proceed. All Apologies must be submitted in writing to the secretary of the WSS P&C prior to the meeting commencing.

Please note: If we cannot meet the Quorum currently set by our constitution of 10 current members in attendance, we will not be able to open or hold the meeting.

The Agenda for the AGM is strictly set by P&C QLD, members are unable to submit agenda items and items that would normally be discussed at a General Meeting will not be discussed at the AGM. We will be strictly following the AGM Agenda set for us.

We would also like to advise that ALL Memberships & executive roles lapse and are open for nomination or possible re-election. If you wish to get involved and be an integral part of your Childs school; please register your interest, request for further information, advise of your attendance and/or nomination and attention to the secretary Katie at pandc@worongaryss.eq.edu.au

A Parents and Citizens’ Association (P&C) is a group of community minded people, parents and citizens, who take on a more formal role to assist the school in providing:

• Feedback on school policies and activities
• Additional resources to be used to enhance student learning
• Parents with opportunities to be involved in their child’s education.
• To foster community interest in educational matters.
• To encourage closer cooperation between the parents of students attending the school, other members of the community, staff and students of the school.
• To provide advice and recommendations to the principal of the school on issues and concerns in respect of students and the general operation and management of the school.
• To provide or assist in the provision of financial or other resources or services for the benefit of students of the school.

Would you like to become a member? Or even hold/share an executive position? It is important that school communities know the importance and continued contribution that P&C Associations make to our school and the Schooling experience for our students.

Please see the last newsletter to read through the myriad of outcome the P&C has administered in recent years.

We would love to have some new people to help drive this passion, bring new ideas to the table and be actively involved. If you are that person that can be part of our WSS P&C Team, we would love to have you on board.

STEM ELECTION BBQ

Thank you to everyone in our community who braved the wet weather and attended WSS Hall to vote on Saturday and supported our STEM hub. We hope you enjoyed your bacon and egg roll or sausage sizzle especially knowing you were supporting our students.

CAN COLLECTION

We have only two dates left for Term 2 to collect as many can and suitable plastic bottles as possible.

Friday 3rd June
Friday 17th June

Please bring your eligible containers to the Blue Wheelie recycling bins located at the flagpole area near the school admin building. This term we are fundraising for Robotics Classroom Packages for our new STEM Innovation Hub. We hope you can continue to be part of our change- Recycling and fundraising. Remember; If every student in WSS donated 5 eligible containers per collection, we could have;

671 students x 5 items=3355 items
3355 items x 10c = $335.50
$335.50 x 5 collections per term = $1,677.50 per term
4 terms per year = $1677.50 x 4= Total $6,710 towards extra items for our school.

Our Scheme ID if you wish to directly contribute at a recycling facility is C10179198 or C10265867

BREAD BAGS RECYCLING

Worongary SS Families please assist by collecting Bread bags you use each and every week from now until September 2022. This initiative is for any soft plastic specifically for containing Bread; from loaves/ buns etc can be collected. Use one empty Bread bag to collect a bunch of other empty bread bags and then drop them off to the WSS Tuckshop where we will do the rest!

It's that easy, you can get the whole family in on it too!

**NB** it is important that the Bread bags are not contaminated by other products, if we can also ensure that they are free from crumbs to reduce any further contamination. They do not need to be washed. Just empty the crumbs outside for the wildlife to munch on and collect the bags for WSS. Not only are we doing extra recycling for our environment, but we have the chance of getting more sporting equipment for our school and going in the chance to win our very own REPLAS Exercise Circuit that is made completely from recycled soft plastics! Woah!

This Recycling incentive is only for the soft plastics specifically from containing bread, however you can still continue your general soft plastics recycling by either dropping your soft plastics (other than the bread bags:) ) to the specific collection bins at Woolworths or drop them to your nearest REDcycle soft plastics recycling centre.

TUCKSHOP NEWS

We would like to send out a big thank you to all or our community for the support and positive feedback we constantly receive in regards to our menu and service. Our Tuckshop Extraordinaires take great pride in preparing your children’s delicious meals and we are sure there are many who will soon be enjoying a delicious warm lunch on the cool days that are about to be upon us.

We would also like to remind the families of WSS that the Tuckshop no longer takes over the counter orders and are only allowed to conduct minimal cash handling (second break over the counter sales). All tuckshop orders are to be conducted through the QKR! App via 08:30am each day for your order to be available for THAT day. Please could you also ensure you add a Brown paper bag charge (compulsory) to each break order to minimise the costs to our Tuckshop. You may not be aware that we use a paper bag for each order per child per break. The costs can add up and we appreciate you supporting us in this area.

UNIFORM NEWS

We are open every Thursday from 8am-930am and are located just down from the tuckshop area. We do not carry or accept cash and all orders are either ordered online through the QKR! App or over the counter and paid via Eftpos. The Uniform store is mainly run by volunteers and is only operated once a week including packing of online orders. If you cannot contact us via phone or in person, please email us through uniforms@worongaryss.eq.edu.au and we will try to respond to you in a timely manner. Especially when we have minimal volunteers.

So, what's the process after an online order is made?

Our helpful volunteers on a Thursday will collate the orders, double check the contents through a two-step checking process, the orders will be 'bagged & tagged' and taken to the tuckshop. A coloured slip with your child’s name on it will be placed in the tuckshop boxes advising the teacher that your child has to attend the tuckshop with their slip and collect their order. They then return to the classroom and their teacher advises them to secure it in their bag, or in the classroom to take home that day. Once the uniform has left the Tuckshop, it is no longer our responsibility and becomes that of the child’s. If you do not wish this process to occur, please ensure that you advise in the notes section when placing the uniform order on QKR! App and attend the Tuckshop during opening hours and collect the order. You will be required to show proof of your order & order number at the time of collection. The tuckshop is open from 830am till 2pm. However, Service during our peak meal times is a priority and you may be asked to briefly wait whilst this is completed. Reminder- If you have ordered online, they are only collated on a Thursday morning every week and available for collection after 930am on that Thursday after your order.

SENIOR SHIRTS

We know our senior students are eager to receive their shirts, but our manufactures received extensive damage to their factory in the recent floods and are doing everything they possibly can to fulfil all their orders. Only a few days after the flood water receded, they were already cutting and preparing to sew. We were very excited recently to receive a sneak peak of the WSS senior shirts in production. They are looking amazing and we can't wait til they are finished and delivered. Once they have been delivered, the WSS P&C will attend the classrooms and hand out the orders to the allocated child. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to take any more orders.

MOTHERS DAY RAFFLE

We hope someday soon we can enjoy some fine weather so Elexie and her family can enjoy their CoolCabana. Thank you to all our families who supported the Mother’s Day Raffle. Any ideas what we should raffle for Father’s Day? Send us an email.

Thankyou
WSS Executive Team

EXCURSIONS

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