13 July 2017

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

I hope you enjoyed the winter holiday break!

This is an exciting Term with many interesting events. As you know the Fete is the 26th of August and although it seems a long time away, it will come quickly! We have two Free Dress Days in the lead up to the Fete as well as much preparation. The first Free Dress Day is being held next Friday and if students come to school in Free Dress they need to donate a Gold Coin.

On Tuesday, we have a group of students from Taiwan starting a Study Tour at our school. We are very thankful to the families who are hosting the students. I am hosting the teachers again this year and am looking forward to learning more about Taiwan and its culture before heading off on our school’s own Study Tour to Taiwan later this term.

The next P&C meeting is being held at 9am next Wednesday morning. The P&C agreed to have a few ‘in school hours’ meetings this year to try and make the P&C meetings more available to a broader range of parents. I will be sharing information about how we will be spending the Spell-a-thon funds and providing updates on various aspects of the school.

In Term 3, the school offers Parent Teacher Interviews for those students or parents wishing to speak with the class teacher about specific aspects of their Report Card. It is important to note, these interviews are not mandatory and are only for those seeking clarification around Report Cards. The teachers will be offering interviews in week 3 or 4. Graceville teachers and parents usually keep in contact throughout the school year, as the need arises, so there is no need to attend this round of interviews if you are not seeking clarification about your child’s Report Card. If you are choosing to attend an Interview, please make your child’s teacher aware of your point/s of discussion as part of the interview booking process. This will allow the teacher to be prepared so the 15 minute time period can be used most effectively.

I would like to thank Chappy and the Chaplaincy committee for being able to reschedule the LAP-A-THON for Friday. I am sure the day will run smoothly and Chaplaincy is grateful for your support.

As you may be aware, Mrs Des Jardins, a long standing teacher at Graceville, retired at the end of Semester 2. We had a lovely send off for her and she will be greatly missed! I would like to welcome Ms Grace Bailey to Graceville for the remainder of the 2017 school year.

Finally, I would like to wish the students participating in Creative Generations, at the Brisbane Convention Centre, the best of luck this weekend. I am attending on Friday night and taking my mum along. It is a fantastic show! Good luck!

Have a great week,
Zoe Smith

Newsletter Articles

From the Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Inbound Study Tour: July 18 – August 6

A huge thank you to those parents who came forward earlier this week to offer a place for one of our Taiwanese students following on from the newsflash that went out, we now have all of our 20 students coming with a homestay place.

There will be a welcome whole school assembly next Tuesday afternoon at 2.15 and everyone is invited to attend. There will be a farewell assembly on Friday August 4 at 10.00am also if you would like to come along.

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.

Calendar for Junior Assemblies for Term 3

From the Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Don’t forget - School Photo day is 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 next week (Week 2). 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 has 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.

QParent Information

QParent will be starting shortly at our school. We will be sending home some information this week for parents. Be on the look out for your email in the next couple of weeks offering the program to you.

Hear Me, See Me children’s art exhibition

Entries are open for the Queensland Family and Child Commission’s Hear Me, See Me art exhibition , encouraging children aged 5–18 years to share their voices and vision about the kind of world they want to live in.

Young artists are invited to submit an original artwork on the theme: What does safety, love, joy, hope, trust and family look like to you?

Artists can focus on one or two words, or all of them, and all types of artistic expressions are welcome. Entries close 23 July.

Shortlisted artists will be showcased in an exhibition held in Brisbane on 1 September.

Lost Property

Volunteers are needed this Friday 14th to help with sorting out the mountain of Lost Property in the hall at 9am.Could parents please ensure that all items are labelled as this makes our job easier to return the items.

Money Matters

Anne Nixon

Term 3 accounts were sent home at the end of last term. 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.

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

Welcome to semester 2. We hope you had an enjoyable holiday! Most rehearsals will resume this week but please note there will be no Junior Choir on Friday 14 July. The Junior Choir rehearsals will resume on Friday 21 July.

The Senior Choir will be performing at the special assembly next Tuesday welcoming our Taiwanese study tour guests.

The West Cent Music Camps will be held from 24-28 July. All of our instrumental music teachers attend this to support our participating students as well as many students from surrounding schools and it is also a fabulous professional development experience for them working with each other and the students as conductors. This means all instrumental music lessons and rehearsals will be cancelled in week 3 of this term (24-28 July), however choir rehearsals will continue during this week.

Thank you to the Junior Choir students for their performance at the special NAIDOC assembly on the last Friday of term 2. It was a lovely assembly and it was a pleasure to be part of the NAIDOC celebrations at our school. There will be no Junior Choir rehearsal this week (14 July) and their rehearsals will resume in week 2 on Friday 21 July.

We have a number of performances organised for this term. The Junior Choir, Senior Choir and Senior Band will be performing at the school fete from 12 - 1pm. Our approximate performance times for the fete performances are:

12:00 Senior Band
12:25pm Junior Choir
12:35pm Senior Choir

This is a fabulous opportunity for many parents and families to attend the performances of their child/ren and all members of the school community are warmly invited to attend.

The instrumental music workshop will be held on Wednesday 30 and Thursday 31 August. All students in the instrumental program will attend the workshop which involves our students alternating between working in small groups with guest tutors and full ensemble rehearsals. The workshop will culminate with a concert on Thursday 31 August at 2pm in the hall. The cost of the workshop is $40. Please note participation in the workshop and concert is a mandatory part of the instrumental music program. Our students thrive on the opportunity to work on their musicianship, rehearsal and performance skills with the tutors and the focused time playing over the 2 days. All members of the school community are warmly invited to the concert on Thursday 31 August at 2pm in the hall.

Music staff email contacts:

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

Fete News

Welcome back. Term 3 is FETE time!!! Woohoo.

Second fete newsletter is set for release on Friday, keep an eye out for it, as usual, it is bright yellow!

If it doesn't come home in your youngest child's take home case/ school bag, DON'T PANIC!!! It will available for viewing on our fantastic website:

Don't forget to "like" us on FB too!

Boxes for empty, clean jars are now outside the office. Bring your empty jars so that the "jammers" amongst us can fill them. Remember, no coffee jars or plastic lids. They've got to be metal lids so that they can be sterilised and sealed properly.

Tuckshop News

Welcome back! Hope you all had a fantastic break and are ready and refreshed to face the new term.

Our generous Volunteers, donating their time and feeding your children this week are:

Mon, 17/7 Michelle Kimber-Fanning
Tues, 18/7 Elissa Brown and Nadeeka Senevirathne
Wed, 19/7 Carrie Flux and Rebecca Collett
Thurs, 20/7 Karin Verae and Leanne Gordon
Fri, 21/7 Yasmin McNally, Amanda Wright, Shona Luke and Briony Kachab

Have a great week.

Uniform Shop

Fiona Fryer

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

Size 4 trackpants will hopefully be available in the uniform store early next week.
All size rugby shirts are in stock.
Size 4 and 6 polar fleece jackets are low 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 and can be emailed to the uniform shop at the below address, 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

Chappy’s Chat

It is fantastic to be back after the school break, with great expectations for Term 3. It will be a very busy and productive term so I trust everyone had a wonderful break and are fully refreshed for the term to come.

This Friday, the postponed Chaplaincy Lapathon will take place and the revised timetable is listed below-

Lap-a-thon Program Friday 14th July

Unfortunately, the change of dates hasn’t aligned with the availability of a coffee van so we are unable to offer that service on Friday. Popcorn will be available at break times for $2 for students.

Fingers crossed the weather is cooperative and the students can have some fun walking or running with their peers.

Week 4 this term is Chaplaincy Conference week so I will be off site that week attending the annual conference. This week is a great opportunity for professional development to elective workshops as well as presentation by some experts in children and youth work. Last year, the keynote speaker was Steve Biddulph and I cannot recommend his books or seminars highly enough. He is a leading parent educator and author of the books “Raising Boys”, “Raising Girls, “Happy Children” and “10 Things Girls Need Most”. The week also provides many opportunities to network with other chaplains, as well as receive updates on available resources, care agencies and support programs.

Have an awesome week!

John Erichsen
(Chappy)

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.

2016 MEETING DATES

At the P&C meeting on 3 May, updated meeting dates for the remainder of 2016 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.

NEXT MEETING

The next regular meeting of the P&C is to be held in the Waratah Room on Wednesday 7 June at 7:30pm.

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

Community News

Speech and Drama and Musical Theatre classes at Graceville State School!

We are excited to invite all students at Graceville State School to join us for an obligation free trial class in speech and drama on Friday 21st July!

+Chatterbees "Amazing Creatures, Speech & Drama (prep - grade 2) Friday 3.00pm - 3.30pm
+Discobees "Lion King the musical", Musical Theatre (prep - grade 2) Friday 3.30pm - 4.00pm
+Chatterboxes "Crazy Characters", Speech & Drama (grade 3 - 6) Friday 4.00pm - 4.45pm

Speak Up Studio is dedicated to creating exciting and engaging drama programs that build confidence and encourage children to be positive about speaking up! Our programs aim to develop confidence, creativity and communication skills, and to foster a love of reading and literature in all our students.

For more information or to register for a class please visit

Email: info@speakupstudio.com.au or Phone: (07) 3367 8572