15 June 2017

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

One week to go!

The teachers have completed report cards and now Mrs McKeaten, Ms Hass and I are reading and printing them ready to go home next Wednesday. We are hoping this is the last time we will send paper copies of report cards home. You will receive your child’s report card in a sealed envelope next Wednesday afternoon. Next Semester our plan is to email reports home or use Q Parent. Our school will hopefully go live with Q Parent early next term. We are awaiting final confirmation on a start date.

Last Thursday afternoon, 15 teachers and I attended a professional development by Bill Lucas. Bill is a world renowned researcher on curiosity and creativity. Bill Lucas has just been appointed as the chair of the new OECD Creativity Committee who will be informing the writing of the 2021 PISA assessment on curiosity and creativity. 2021 will be the first year curiosity and creativity will be assessed as part of a global assessment regime for high school students. Bill suggests this move will trigger nations around the world, including Australia, to bring curiosity and creativity more to the forefront of curriculum. Bill stated the schools in the Curiosity and Powerful Learning Project are very well placed for these future changes. Our teachers were so excited to know that all of our hard work and new learning is in the right direction and that our school really is leading the way in QLD!

A few reminders for next week:

• School Athletics carnival Tuesday at UQ fields
• There will not be a whole school assembly on Thursday
• NAIDOC Inquiry Day Friday – whole school assembly at 8.45am

Have a great week,

Zoe Smith

Newsletter Articles

From the Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

All things Study Tour:

Inbound Tour: July 18 – August 6

A huge thank you to those families who have just come forward to offer a homestay place for a student during the inbound tour. I now have enough places, some families even offering to take 2 students! Host families should have received family profiles to complete and return as soon as possible, thank you.

Meeting for homestay families – Tuesday July 11 at either 3pm or 7pm in the Waratah room. At this meeting I will go over the tour itinerary, drop off and pick-ups, weekend activities etc.

Outbound Study Tour: September 13 - 24

Plans are progressing well, early next term I will start to meet with students regularly as we prepare to head out at the end of term 3 to Taiwan.

Date Claimer:

Prep 2018 information evening – Wednesday July 26 at 7:00pm.

All welcome to attend.

Waiting List for Prep for 2018 is now open.

Please let any interested people know that forms and information can be obtained from our school office. Families from within our catchment area we also invite you to obtain enrolment forms to begin the process when convenient. For in catchment families a birth certificate and proof of residency in our catchment is required along with the completed enrolment form.

Graceville State School recognises as its prime obligation the provision of access to an appropriate educational service for students resident within this community as defined by its local catchment area.

Please visit the following link which details our school enrolment management plan and also provides a link to the catchment area for Graceville State School:

This site also outlines the process for placing your child’s name on our waiting list if you reside outside of our catchment area.

From the Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Don’t forget about the Active School Travel Breakfast this Friday 16th June before school. Chappy will be cooking sausages on the BBQ!

Change in dates for the School Photos this year.

Due to the Study Tour arrival & Assembly on Tuesday 18 July, we have changed the School Photo day to Tuesday 8 August.

2017 International competitions

In 2017 we will be participating in the following competitions in the school hall:

• English 1 August (Yr 2-6) Yr 3-6 – 7.30 start/ Yr 2 school time 11.30
• Mathematics 15 August $8.00 (Yr 2-6) – 7.30 start/ Yr 2 school time 11.30

Religious Instruction Program Term 3 & 4

The RI program for Years 3, 4, 5 & 5/6E (Yr 6s) will commence in Week 1 of Term 3. All changes have now been made to the permissions and I have allocated students to classes & teachers, based on the information we have or parents have returned. Please be aware that I won’t be making any further changes to classes as this have a huge impact on the numbers of students in the groups, either doing the Co-operative program or the students not attending an RI program. If any families wish to make a change in their preference for their child this has to be done in writing and it will be taken into account prior to starting the Term 4 program. I am happy to re-adjust the classes & teachers ready for term 4, but there will not be any changes made during Term 3.

Money Matters

Anne Nixon

Statements for term 3 will be sent home this week. All excursions and events require payment and a permission form to be returned by the due date or your child will not be permitted to attend. Over the phone payments made through the office will be being phased out by the end of the term. Phone Payment will be able to be made to Bpoint on 1300631073. You will need to quote your CRN and Invoice number which appears on the bottom of your invoice.

Student Resource Schemes (SRS) for 2017 are:

• Prep Requirements ($60)
• Instrumental Music Programs – Instrument Hire ($100), Percussion Maintenance ($50), Music Participation ($30) & Choir ($30)
• Religious Education Program ($10)
• Mathletics On-line registration (Years Prep - 6) ($12)
• Origo Maths (years 3, 4 and 5) ($6)
• Reading Eggs (Prep only) $22.50
• Year 5 Digital Licence $11.00

All students involved in these programs must return a completed SRS form.

VOLUNTARY PARENT CONTRIBUTIONS

Your valuable contribution to this school’s Learning Targets are most welcomed.

$100 per student.

Request for Refund form for an excursion paid and not attended is available from the front office. Prepaid ticketed excursions are non-refundable.

Payment of account days:

8am-3.00pm - Monday to Wednesday
8am-12pm - Thursday and Friday

BPoint is the preferred method of payment; Eftpos, Debit Cards: Visa/Mastercard, cheque or cash payments are accepted.

BPOINT User Information

Please ensure when paying via BPoint, that you log onto to the following website. You must put the entire website address as this has the biller code.

For payment of multiple items on your statement/invoice, you will need to do a separate entry for each item, entering the invoice number and the corresponding payment amount for that item only e.g.

Separate Entries for each line must be done to ensure the payment is allocated to the correct Excursion/Resource Fee.

BPOINT payments must be processed in time to clear (usually 2-3 business days) before the Due Date for payment. If this is not done, your child might not be able to attend the activity.

Music News

Naomi Lindh

Thank you to our Senior Choir and Ms Julie West for your efforts in preparing for the Sing Together Day and evening concert this week! A further update will be provided about the event in the Newsletter next week.

The Junior Choir will be singing a song at the special NAIDOC assembly on Friday 23 June at 9am. Families and members of the school community are warmly invited to attend.

Please contact your child's music teacher if you have any concerns about their progress or practice.

Music staff emails:

Alex Grodecki - agrod3@eq.edu.au
James Kukulies - jkuku2@eq.edu.au
Ruth Prout - rprou5@eq.edu.au
Steve Stiller - sstil2@eq.edu.au
Julie West - jwest269@eq.edu.au
Naomi Lindh - nclos1@eq.edu.au

Thank you for supporting our music program.

Naomi Lindh
Music Teacher and IM Coordinator

Library News

Melanie Hutchinson

REGIONAL READER’S CUP COMPETITIONS 2017

OUTSTANDING SUCCESS FOR BOTH GRACEVILLE SS TEAMS!

On Wednesday 7th June, the Corinda Teacher Librarian Network held their annual Readers Cup Competition. This year it took place at Brookfield State School. The scores were close the entire competition, however our Graceville SS team competed at an outstanding level ending up in FIRST PLACE. This fabulous team was made up of five fantastic students: Sophie, Arabella, Sachiko, Isaac and Sophia.

On Monday 12th June, students from Year 6 competed in the annual regional Readers’ Cup organised by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. It was held at St John’s Anglican College, Forest Lake. This year 27 teams participated, the biggest reading competition to date. The competition from the other schools was fierce but the magnificent news is that our Graceville team, after a very tense tie-breaker, were the WINNERS of the region! This outstanding team was made up of five fantastic students: Tara, Vienna, Eunsu, Isla and Joshua.

All these students were required to read five books in preparation for the competitions and answered multiple rounds of challenging questions about each of these books during the event. Our GSS teams studied continuously during the term always working extremely well together. Students performed brilliantly as a team and had just 30 seconds to answer each question.

Our GSS teams are to be congratulated not only on their hard work but also on their self-motivation, teamwork and sportsmanship.

Congratulations teams – we are very proud of you and thank you for representing our school in these brilliant competitions!

GSS SCHOOL READERS CUP COMPETITION

DON’T FORGET our School Readers Cup Competition is happening next THURSDAY 22ND APRIL at 9am in the HALL.

After the unexpected cancellation of our school Readers Cup Competition at the end of last term, we have rescheduled this very popular reading contest for our Year 5 and 6 cohort.

Students are encouraged to come in costume, have table decorations and ensure they have a poster with their team name ready for competition day. Teams should have already read and re-read the SIX selected stories (Specky Magee - Felice Arena; Dragon Dawn - Carole Wilkinson; Hatchet - Gary Paulson; Spaghetti Pig Out (from ‘Uncanny’) - Paul Jennings (short story); Little Squirt (from ‘Unmentionable’) - Paul Jennings (short story); Amy and Louis - Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood (picture book). They should be ready to answer several rounds of questions on these books, as well as answering rounds of general knowledge questions on reading and other book titles.

We wish all the teams the best of luck for the day and most importantly, HAVE FUN!

Melanie Hutchinson
Teacher Librarian

NAIDOC DAY

Please join us next Friday, the 23rd of June at 8:45am where we will be celebrating our NAIDOC Day Assembly. The actual week of NAIDOC 2017 is during the school holidays, hence the early acknowledgement at Graceville State School. Our assembly will feature performances and presentations by Gaja Kerry Johnston, Year 4B, 4G & 3/4 BC students and other special guests.

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. For our school, it is definitely a great opportunity to participate in a range of learning experiences and to support our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community; whilst emphasising an inquiring disposition to enhance our understanding of this cross-curriculum priority.

It is also a great way for our students to grow some community connectedness within their own suburb and continue with their learning of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture. We have formed a fantastic community contact within the Benarrawa Community Development Centre (located at the end of Waratah Ave) who are assisting us with our plans for the day. Our connection with this team is one that we wish to grow and utilise in the future. John Maume & Paula Callaghan from the centre are equally enthusiastic about this connection and look forward to working with us.

After last year’s success we are looking forward to celebrating this with the students, parents and community members again. We hope you can join us.

Belinda Martin
Graceville State School

ATHLETICS DAY

Wayne Daunt

“The school athletics carnival is being held next Tuesday June 20 at the Qld University Athletics Centre. All children will travel by seat belted bus and need to be at school by 8.00am. On arrival at school students need to assemble in the hall in their houses and age groups. Any runners who made the 200m final will depart on the first bus at 8.15am. All other children will depart at 8.30am on the later buses. Any parents who have volunteered to help on the day if you could please meet Mr Daunt at the venue at 8.45am for a brief meeting regarding your roles for the day.”

ATHLETICS TIMETABLE TUESDAY JUNE 20

Active School Travel

TACO TUESDAY!

(Travel Actively Coming-to-school On)

Active Travel BBQ 16th June

With the cooler mornings it is a perfect time of year to put on your walking shoes and actively travel to school any day of the week! Remember on Tuesdays you can get a stamp in your passport.

On Friday 16th June we will be having a BBQ in the quadrangle and we will be doing bonus stamps in your passports. So get active…..walk, ride or roll to school and enjoy a sausage at the BBQ.

If you have a few spare hours a month to help us run this fantastic program we are looking for volunteers to join our Active Travel Committee. We meet once a term and plan one key event a term. Parents run our committee with three staff members so we are in much need of additional support. The next meeting will be on 20th July @ 10:45am in the Waratah Room. Can you help? Please contact Jo Richards at sajrichards@iinet.net.au for more information.

Tuckshop News

Volunteers for the week commencing Monday, 19th of June 2017 are -

Thank you to all our volunteers!

We have had feedback from customers that School24 order confirmation emails are not being consistently received by customers after placing their orders. If you are unsure if your order has been successfully placed, and have not received a confirmatory email, then please check your order history in the quick access menu.

Once you have logged in and are on your School24 home page, click ‘view history’ on the left-hand side of the page options (the last option under Tuckshop); this will give you your order history. Here you can see your last 5 orders, of which your latest order which you just placed, will appear. You can also go into ‘Transaction history’ to see your latest transactions, whether that be a top-up or order debit. If it is for an order, you can click on ‘order details’ to see the order you placed on that day.

We have logged the inconsistent confirmation email problem with School24 so hope to have the issue rectified soon.

*** Sushi – please note once sushi is ordered, you cannot cancel the order. It is pre-ordered and paid for, so if your child is sick and subsequently not at school, please notify us and we will hold it for you and keep refrigerated.

Tuckshop is operated as an online ordering system. If you need to open a Tuckshop account, please visit school24.net.au and use Graceville’s School Registration ID: 25314963 and follow the prompts. There is an information page and login guide on the Graceville State School website, under P&C and the Tuckshop, if you need any help.

If you have any questions or concerns, please see us at the Tuckshop or drop us an email at tuckshop.gss@gmail.com

Uniform Shop

Fiona Fryer

Opening Hours: Monday, Tuesday and Friday 8.15am to 9.00am.

Our supplier is out of stock of size 4 track pants so won't be available in the uniform store until early next term.

All size rugby shirts and polar fleece are in stock.

All House Shirts (Cook, Kennedy and Flinders) are available in size 4 and up.

Band folders are available for $15.

Order forms are available on the School website. If you email the order, the items will be sent to the classroom.

Email address for school uniform store is: uniformstore@gracevilss.eq.edu.au

Donations of 2nd hand uniforms are always appreciated. Good stocks are available for sale now.

New volunteers would be greatly appreciated, it only requires you to be there from 8.15-9.00. If you think you could help out please send an email to the above address, if you have any questions please ask.

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

Last Friday our Year 2 students had an Incursion learning day, with displays set up in the hall and presentations of Hands of History. These days are both exciting and informative for students, as they travel back in time and see how things worked in days past. Household items, toys and fashion from the past were available for students to experience. Early model telephones from the switchboard era, outdoor dunnies, butter bells and bed warmers were just a few of many items vastly different to what is experienced in the modern day. Judging by student responses, many eyes were opened to a very different world. Slate boards and glass milk bottles certainly reminded me of early school years. I wonder what memories our children will have of their early schooling.

With little more than a week to go in the term, many are hanging out for a break and understandably so. It has been a massive term with so many “Big ticket” moments. NAPLAN, Cross Country, Trivia Night, Anzac Day ceremony, Year 6 camp, Lapathon and the choir’s St Peters’ excursion and concert have ensured there has always been something happening at Graceville State School this term. We are almost there but there is still the Active School Travel breakfast, the Athletics Carnival at Queensland Uni and Readers’ Cup ahead. Sounds like an extremely full term when we consider that assessment and reporting were a major focus also. Well done to all who have made it this far and still have some fuel in the tank.

Sadly, the low pressure system of our coast played havoc with our plans for the Chaplaincy Lapathon on Tuesday and it is being rescheduled. That date will be circulated to families as soon as it is determined. I would like to acknowledge the work of staff and parents behind the scenes to prepare for this event. Hopefully, all your effort will eventually result in a Lapathon held in fine, sunny conditions in the near future. All parents are welcome to be involved in the Local Chaplaincy Committee, so please get in touch with me if you are interested in knowing more about the role of the Chaplaincy Committee. Or, for those with a sense of adventure, the date of the next meeting is Wednesday July 19, in 2E classroom and you are most welcome to join us.

The Chaplaincy Committee is initiating a warm clothing drive to assist the needs of Milpera students. Over the next few weeks, if you have any late primary – to high school age jumpers, trackies or closed in shoes that are no longer needed, please consider supporting our warm clothing drive. Every little bit will help!

Have a wonderful week!

John Erichsen
(Chaplain)

P&C News

*** IMPORTANT *** VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION

The school and the P&C have worked closely to identify and create a strategy to turn around the aging technology in our school. Rather than go down the very expensive route of a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy as many schools are forced to do, the P&C strongly supports a voluntary contribution of $100 per child which started this year. This voluntary contribution route only works if everyone contributes! Contributions are still below 50% of the children in the school. Contributions are voluntary and of course can be part payments. All funds are used for the technology budget of the school. Contributions can be made to the office at any time.

2017 MEETING DATES

At the P&C meeting on 3 May, updated meeting dates for the remainder of 2017 were agreed. For your diaries:
Wednesday 26 July (morning meeting)
Wednesday 23 August (if required – fete week)
Wednesday 11 October
Wednesday 29 November

UNIFORM SHOP

We are looking for more volunteers in the uniform shop and also in the tuckshop. Any assistance would be very welcome. These businesses do rely on volunteer labour.

LOST PROPERTY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Labelled lost property finds its way back to your children thanks to the work of wonderful volunteers. Are you able to help out for a couple of hours every few weeks? Our lost property team is ready to handover! Please email the P&C if you can help.

And PLEASE label all of your children's belongings with first AND last names!

BUILDING FUND

The P&C, like most other P&Cs, offers parents an opportunity to take part in a Tax Deductible Voluntary Contribution Scheme. If you wish to contribute to the P&C building work projects for the school, please contact the P&C Executive at the email below and we will send you the details. The building fund is going towards climate controlling the school, continuing to air condition the class rooms and the major project of fixing the ventilation of the hall.

CONTACT: pandc@gracevilss.eq.edu.au

Jim Joyce Term 3 Tennis Coaching

Before School, Lunch Time and After School Coaching will commence from Tuesday 18 July 2017 (during the second week back after the holidays).

Enrolments close on Friday 14 July 2017. Spare enrolment forms are available from the School Office, they can also be downloaded from the School Newsletter. To ensure a place in class, forms must be returned by this date to the School Office. Do not return forms to the School Office after this date contact Jim Joyce directly on 0417 771022.

Special Offer – All new students in Grade 1, 2 and 3 will receive a free tennis racquet when joining for the first time.

For further enquiries please contact Jim Joyce on 0417 771022

Holiday Tennis Clinic

We will be running a Tennis clinic at West Brisbane Tennis Centre from Monday 26th to Wednesday 28th June 2017. Time: 8.30am -12 noon each day Cost: $135

Enquiries & Bookings jim@westbrisbanetennis.com.au Phone 0417 771022

Thanks Jim

Community News