3 August 2017

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

Monday was an amazing day with Kath Murdoch, our Inquiry expert, from Melbourne University. Kath spent most of the day modelling a range of pedagogical practices for Inquiry. Kath worked with our teachers before school to reinforce the 9 Pedagogical practices for Inquiry that we are trying to grow across the school over the next 3-5 years – Cultivating Curiosity, Noticing, Questioning, Collaborating, Releasing (responsibility of learning), Making Connections, Getting Real (relates to contexts for learning), Building Learning Assets and Getting Personal (inquiring into students and allowing time for personal investigations). Of course, each has greater depth of explanation and Kath works with the teachers to understand their practical implementations. Kath chose to model Noticing and Questioning on this visit. There is nothing better than seeing an expert in action! Each time Kath works with us, we select three different classes for her to work with and so the children are gradually getting to know Kath too! Kath makes the children aware teachers are learners too and what we are learning will greatly benefit the school and ultimately their learning!

Next Thursday, we are hosting school leaders and teachers from schools across Brisbane who are keen to learn how we are gradually working to shift our learning culture more towards an Inquiry Approach. We are not far into our journey of change but we are making progress and our colleagues are keen to learn from and with us. Six of our teachers have offered to open their classrooms to our visitors while they use an Inquiry Approach within a lesson, the Year 2 team have offered to have our guests view and listen in to a collaborative planning session, and four teachers have offered to share their personal perspectives of what has changed for them as a teacher and learner, as we are moving forward towards more of an Inquiry Approach to learning. We have also selected a group of Student Ambassadors who will assist on the day and share student’s perspectives of the Learning Assets. It will be an exciting day! I am very grateful to the teachers who have volunteered to take part. We could not host days such as these without such wonderful teachers who are proud of our progress and willing to share!

Don’t forget you can support the Year 4 students help spread the sustainability message by purchasing a coffee from the coffee cart on 3 and 10 August or Fridays from 11 August. You need to bring along a travel or coffee mug as no cups are provided! Also, please take the time to listen to the sustainability messages our students would like to share. It is a great way to both grab a coffee and be engaged in a meaningful way to help support student learning as they Inquiry into sustainability!

I would like to thank Ms Hass and the Prep teachers for hosting the Prep Information night last Wednesday night. There was a great roll up and we will now start organising times and dates for interviews for in catchment families. If you have a Preppie starting in 2018, please make sure you have handed in your enrolment forms ASAP!

IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT PARKING: Please do not park or walk through the small carpark near the tuckshop on Oxley Road. Reports are being made to the office about parents parking in the carpark and students nearly being hit by cars as they enter or exit. I have asked our Schools Officer to close the gates for a period of time to try and break the cycle of parents parking in the carpark and families walking through the car park. We will have signs made to ensure parents are aware they cannot park in these spaces. The space is for deliveries only and we can accommodate for parents/carers in cases of specific physical needs. No car parking for staff or families on the school site.

Finally, a reminder that School Photo Day is next Tuesday!

Have a great week,

Zoe

Newsletter Articles

From the Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

We have started contacting in-catchment families for 2018 preppies for our initial meeting together. At these meetings please ensure we have completed enrolment forms, original birth certificate and proof of residency in our catchment. Current school families require the enrolment forms together with the original birth certificate please. Also bring your prospective preppie to this meeting.

Date Claimer: our prep orientation meetings will be held on Thursday November 23 when new families will be invited to come to a session at prep, meeting staff and learning more about starting prep at our school.

Wenhua Study Tour: July 18 – August 6

The study tour draws to a close this weekend. It has been a big three weeks of learning for everyone! Thank you to the host families who are doing such an excellent job in caring for our visiting group. A big thank you also to our year 5 and 6 teachers who give integration and include the students in their classes during the study tour.

We will be having the farewell whole school assembly on Friday at 10am and all are 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 next week -Tuesday 8 August. Please make sure that your children are wearing the appropriate uniform – no house shirts.

Ordering for Sibling photos closes this Sunday 6th August. The photo company will notify me on Monday with a starting time for Tuesday. I will SMS all families to let you know what time to arrive. All sibling photos need to be completed by 8.45am, so that students can start the day in class.

2017 International competitions

We are nearly finished – only the maths to complete!

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

HRE for years 5 & 6 this term

All Year 5 & 6 students have received information in regards to the Human Relationships Education Program which students will participate in this term. Parents were also invited to an information session. If you are intending to go please return the RSVP slip to the office. The Parent information session will be held in the Waratah room next Monday 7th August from 7-8pm. Parents are also reminded to give their permission and pay the invoice for their child to attend prior to the 11th August. HRE lessons will be on Fridays (18th, 25th August and 1 September). Both year levels will have an hour long lesson on those days in the first session of the day, due to interschool sport starting on 25th August.

Interschool Sport for Years 5 & 6

Mr Daunt has already sent home the letters about interschool sport and students have chosen their sports for the upcoming season commencing on 25th August. Permission letters and invoices (where necessary for some sports) will be sent home very soon. Last day for half of the invoice for interschool sport will be Friday 18th August. The second half of the invoice will be due by Wednesday 13th September, prior to the holidays.

Life Education

All year levels will again be participating in the Life Education later in the term (1-15 September). Last day for payment is 25th August.

QParent Information

QParent has started! We have sent home student information for families to be able to register. If you have all children at high schools with Q Parents already functioning, please make sure that you use the link that we sent you to register. If you haven’t registered as yet please do so ASAP. It will make payments and accessing details etc. much easier for families. It also makes the invoicing process much easier for us and you, as you will be able to pay for multiple invoices in one hit. Soon there will be the facility to also give your permission for excursions through this system. All excursion dates from now on will also be automatically added to the calendar. Remember that next term you will no longer be able to ring up and pay for invoices over the phone. In person or on B Point/Q Parents will be the only options for you to pay.

Money Matters

Anne Nixon

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.

We would just like to advise parents that from Term 4 we will not be able to process payments over the phone. You will either need to pay via BPoint, or in the school office.

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 below. 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 instrumental teachers for their work at the WestCent Music Camps last week. The camps culminated with a concert on Friday evening and I'd like to congratulate all of our teachers and participating students for their fabulous efforts. We welcome our instrumental teachers back to lessons and rehearsals this week.

Apologies to our Junior Choir students and families for cancelling the rehearsal last Thursday. Unfortunately I had become increasingly unwell during the week and appreciate your understanding with this change. Our rehearsals will definitely resume this week on Friday morning! It is important that all students attend the next few rehearsals as we prepare music for the school fete on 26 August.

Upcoming performances

Fete - 26 August
12:00 Senior Band
12:25pm Junior Choir
12:35pm Senior Choir

31 August 2pm - Instrumental Music Concert - all students involved in the instrumental music program will perform at this concert (IMP only, no choir performances)

All families and members of the school community are invited to attend our upcoming performances.

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

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

Well done to our students who competed at last week’s District Athletics Carnival!

Our district is very strong and our students performed admirably with several making it to Regionals. Good luck to those at their next meet and again, well done to all our District athletes.

Next week, I will be away until Friday for the annual SU QLD Chaplaincy Conference. I will have my phone with me, so if needed, leave me a message and I will can contact you during breaks.

This Thursday’s assembly will be when Lapathon prizes are presented so it should be an exciting time for those successful students. Well done to the Graceville State School community for supporting the event and well done to our students for the high number of laps completed.

NAPLAN results are released today, so expect plenty of coverage regarding this in the media. NAPLAN results are important but we need to remind ourselves that it is one method of assessing a student’s knowledge and understanding at a given point in time. Children continually grow in knowledge and understanding and there are many other assessment methods identified and utilised by teaching staff throughout the year. At this time, when the NAPLAN snapshot is a media focus, remember that students are able to express their understanding in a myriad of ways and learning is a lifelong process.

Have a fantastic week!

John Erichsen

Library News

Melanie Hutchinson

CONTACT CLUB VOLUNTEERS

A great big thanks to those who helped out at the last Contact Club. We had a great turn out, and now have a heap of brand new class readers and library books to add to the collection. The children are so excited and the teachers are always appreciative of the new resources that they are now able to access and use in their classrooms.

There are always books to cover so if you are able to come in for the next club meeting that would be fabulous. Mark your calendar - Wednesday 6th September.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB

Book Club has now closed for the term. We expect delivery of the orders in the next 2-3 weeks.

Thanks to all those who placed an order – we have now earned the opportunity to get some new books and teaching materials for our school library and classrooms.

UPCOMING WRITING WORKSHOP

Have you always loved writing? Do enjoy inventing exciting characters and plots? Do you have great ideas but sometimes get stuck? Join Deborah Abela, author of over 20 novels, as she takes you through a series of fun activities to help you become a better writer. You will explore the writing process from developing ideas, to planning outlines and, most importantly, creating characters and plots readers will love.

Deborah Abela Writing Workshop for Children
Sunday 6 Aug 2017 10:30am – 12.30pm
State Library of Qld, Room 1B
Cultural Precinct, Stanley Place, South Brisbane Qld 4101

Melanie Hutchinson
Teacher Librarian

Fete News

Did you know....

Raffle tickets went home Monday. Do you have yours? If not, start questioning your youngest at school.

The POD arrived Tuesday. Let's start filling it with your pre loved saleable items.

Jam deliveries are staring to arrive in the tuckshop. Please keep them going.

Boxes for books and toy donations are outside the office. Remember, we can't take any soft toys.

Please don’t forget to buy your Ride Bands on School24.

Special Information for Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 Parents - Art Show

Each year the youngest students in the school celebrate the fete with special, personally decorated art canvases. These are done in class time in collaboration with their wonderful teachers.

The P&C buy all the art canvases and the children create gorgeous works of art which decorate the concreted area of the hall on fete day. Check out the "gallery" and treat yourself to coffee whilst you're there. There are any number of sugar hits to go with the coffee too.

The art show canvases are just $10 and are a really beautiful momento of the fete for each of your children. Mine are still on display around the house. Please support your little one's hard work by purchasing their art work.

All purchases can be made on School24.

An information sheet will be coming home this week which will tell you everything you need to know. Please keep an eye out for it.

Thanks.

Anne
Fete Convenor
gracevillefete@gmail.com

Fete Competition

Don’t forget to get your entries in!

The school fete committee has generously donated some prizes to Active Travel, which is great news for all those students out there who are active on TACO Tuesday! Active travel can be any of the following:

• Walking to school
• Park and stride – parking the car in the designate “park and stride” zones and walking a short distance to school
• Riding your bike or scooter to school
• Car pooling – arriving at school by car with some of your friends
• Public transport

Being dropped off at the front gate does NOT qualify as “active travel”.

In weeks 3-7 of Term 3 (25th July – 22nd August) you will have the opportunity to collect one entry each week when you have your active travel passport stamped at the designated stamping stations. All you need to do is fill out your entry form and put it into the entry box (either at the stamping station or the office). Entries must be received by 23rd August @ 3pm to go in the draw.

There will be one (1) ride band per year level to be given away. If your lucky enough to win and have already purchased your ride band, don’t worry we will organise a refund for you.

To win the free toss at the lob-o-choc get together with your class and get as many of your class mates to enter as possible. Its simple, the class with the most entries will win!

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. The next meeting will be held on 12th October @ 10:45am in the Waratah Room. Please contact Jo Richards at sajrichards@iinet.net.au for more information.

Tuckshop News

Volunteers for the week commencing Monday, 7th of August 2017 are -

Thank you to all our volunteers!

We are experiencing extreme volunteer shortage problems at the moment due to so much sickness and family reasons. Some days we are left with no volunteers and scrambling for emergency help. A giant THANK YOU to those volunteers who have generously fitted in with these unfortunate changes in the roster and who have worked extra shifts to help get the lunches out. We really couldn’t open without you; it’s that simple! We cannot operate our Tuckshop without volunteers.

If you are able to help in the Tuckshop, please let us know what days you may be available to pop in and lend an urgent hand. Call us if you like to see how we are faring or drop us an email at tuckshop.gss@gmail.com to let us know your availability. We will only text you if we are in need of help, and if it is suitable for you on the days we propose, we’d really appreciate your help.

The Fete is on School24! Purchase your Ride Bands and Art Show (Prep to Year 2) canvases on School24. It’s super easy. Just make sure your children are allocated to a class, or if they are a sibling not at the school, add them as an ‘Event guest’.

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.

Size 4 and 10 track pants are back in stock.

Size 6 and 8 polar fleece jackets are now 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.

Woolworths Earn & Learn Stickers

Woolworths is currently running a sticker collection promotion to help resource schools through partnership with Modern Teaching Aids. For every $10 spent at Woolworths, collect 1 sticker. These stickers are then to be stuck onto Woolworth’s sticker collection sheets (available at the register or from the school office) and placed in the collection box in store or in the school office.

P&C News

P&C MORNING MEETING

This week we held our second morning meeting for 2017. We trialled the idea of a meeting straight after drop off to allow for parents who find it difficult to get away from home at night. Of course this does not suit everyone but is just an idea to open up the meetings to more people who may be interested in contributing to the school community. We had a special guest speaker join us. A parent of the school, former Fete Convenor and recently appointed Life Member of the P&C, Kathy Whitefield. Kathy spoke to us about volunteering, why we do it, the benefits and how we engage others. Kathy shared her many years of experience volunteering and seeking volunteers to make our fete the celebrated event that it is. Thanks Kathy, awesome meeting.

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.

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.

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.

REMAINING 2017 MEETING DATES

For your diaries:

Wednesday 23 August (if required – fete week)
Wednesday 11 October
Wednesday 29 November

CONTACT: pandc@gracevilss.eq.edu.au