9 November 2017

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

It is hard to believe there are only 4 weeks of school left until the end of the year!

As you can imagine it is very busy for students and teachers in this peak time with final assessment and preparation for end of year Report Cards. The outside school hours work commitments for teachers greatly increases from week 6 to 8 as I am sure you will understand. We appreciate your support in providing teachers with notice if you wish to see them for any reason.

Last week our Year 6 students heard some important messages about Cyber Bullying and online safety from the local police. We were very appreciative of the support of the local police to help us to provide consistent messaging about appropriate online behaviour. As a parent, are you aware if your child is using social media? Most social media sites have account ages of 13 or older? If you allow your child to use social media, how do you monitor how they are using sites and how often? These are all important things to consider to ensure your child under 13 years of age is safe while online and is acting in an appropriate manner whilst online.

Next week, Kath Murdoch our Inquiry expert will be working with us for the final time this year. Kath will provide professional learning for our teachers at a session before school and then model lessons using an Inquiry Approach for our teachers during the day. We are looking forward to seeing her next Tuesday.

From the 16th to the 27th of November, I will be working with teachers to establish teacher year level teams for 2018. The teachers who have been selected to teach in each year level for 2018 will come off class for a day and establish themselves as a team who will work collaboratively and start to make plans for teaching and learning for the New Year. The work of establishing stronger teacher teams is integral to ensure further success for the school. As I will be involved in all of the year level meetings, my schedule for parent meetings will be limited. The ladies in the office will take any messages and I will respond with the next most suitable time I have available. Mrs McKeaten and Ms Hass will be available to deal with any urgent matters.

Don’t forget the music concert is next Wednesday night. It is always a good night and wonderful to see how far the children have advanced in their learning over the course of the year.

Finally, as you may already know, there is a fundraiser to help raise funds to support some of our families who are going through difficult times at the moment as they manage a case of cancer. The families wish to remain anonymous to ensure the privacy of their children in particular. You can help us, to help them, by allowing your child to paint their fingernails the colours of the rainbow on Friday 17. All donations, big and small are welcome!

Have a great week,

Zoe Smith

Newsletter Articles

From the Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Date Claimer: Remembrance Day school assembly

All parents and community members are invited to attend our school assembly at the special time of 10:15 am on Friday November 10 in our school hall.

Poppies will soon be on sale at both gates before school leading up to November 10. Year 4 parents are providing morning tea after the assembly, thank you!

Milpera High School visit to Prep S

Students from Milpera visited one of our prep classes this week to read them books that they created and wrote about traditional stories from their countries. It was a great sharing experience for all students as you can see from the photos.

Getting Set for Prep at Graceville State School

Please see flyer attached for the final event we are holding during term 4 this year to assist in preparing enrolled students and parents to commence at prep in 2018. These opportunities provide pre-prep students some time at school with their parents familiarising with our school and some practical information for parents on ways to assist their children have the most positive start at school. Please RSVP!

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. Enrolled families will receive a letter prior to this day giving details of class, teacher and time to come on November 23.

Special Prep Uniform selling times:

14th November: 3-6pm
23rd November: 8.15-11am (Orientation morning)
28th November: 8.15-11am
16th January: 3-6pm (please note change of date from 17th to 16th)

Our uniform shop is open every Monday, Tuesday and Friday 8:15 – 9:00am.

Calendar for Junior Assemblies for Term 4

From the Acting Deputy Principal

Tracy Freeman

Social Media Awareness

Last Thursday the Year 6 students had Sergeant Darnielle Fioriti from the Queensland Police Service deliver a presentation on social media. Some of the key messages were:

• Keep your private information private – passwords (only share with parents or teachers if it is a school device), school information, banking, what you look like, name, address, phone number
• Use good manners online – use appropriate language and do not put something online that you would not say to someone in person
• Use devices in a common room where monitoring can occur
• Install a ‘Find my Phone’ type of App so that the phone can always be located
• Do not accept or connect with people that you do not know in person – this includes Facebook, Instagram or online games
• Be aware of your ‘Digital Footprint’ – anything you put on social media is there forever, potential employers use Google searches

Please click on the link below to access parent information on the social media tools of Instagram and Facebook.

Active School Travel

Melbourne Cup – Decorate Your School Hat

It was lovely to see so many children who had put effort and creativity into decorating their hat for the Active School Travel Decorate Your Hat Competition. The following children were awarded the tuckshop voucher prizes:

• Murphy 1H
• Reuben 5/6E
• Joseph 1H
• Emma 2F
• Olivia 5H
• Amy 5H
• Charlie McN 5GH
• Sana 2M
• Eliza 5/6E
• Lucinda 1H
• Dougal Prep K
• Annie 5GH
• Phoebe 3G

Thank you to Nicole Johnston for assisting in the very difficult task of the judging of the hats and for providing healthy snacks to start the day.

A huge thank you to the parents and the teachers who came on the day to help your efforts are recognised and appreciated.

Money Matters

Anne Nixon

As we are nearing the end of the year, we would like to advise Parents’ that no payments of Student accounts will be accepted after Friday 1st December 2017. This includes Bpoint transactions.

Payment will re-open on Thursday 18th January 2018. Hours for payments for the 18th and 19th January will be 9am-12pm.

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. This also may include excursions where transport has been arranged. These are also 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

It is a busy time of year for the music department, so please ensure you check the information listed below and contact your child's teacher/conductor if you have any questions.

Our annual evening concert is scheduled for Wednesday 15 November at 6pm. All choirs and ensembles will perform at this concert and families and members of the school community are warmly invited to the concert. This is a formal concert and all students are requested to wear full school uniform. All instrumental music students need to bring their instrument and music to school next Wednesday 15 November as they will have a rehearsal during the school day for the concert that evening.

Please note - the Junior Band rehearsal will be on at 7:30am on Wednesday 15 November but there will be no Senior Band rehearsal after school as they will rehearse during the school day. Mr Kukulies will be taking long service leave from 20 November so 15 November will be his last day with us for this year. We are asking students who have loaned a school instrument to return it to Mr Kukulies in the Oxley room as well as their music immediately after the end of year concert.

Mr Stiller is now on long service leave and during this time he is attending the Percussive Arts Society International Conference in Indianapolis. We hope he enjoys his leave and conference and thank him for his work with our students this year. We are very fortunate to have Mr Kukulies, our IM teacher and Junior Band conductor volunteer to conduct our Senior Band this week and next week at the evening concert.

On 15 November, the Beginner and Junior Strings will rehearse at first break in the hall and for a short time into session 2 of the school day to prepare for the evening concert. The Senior Strings will rehearse during the school day and due to the evening concert there will be no Senior Strings rehearsal on Thursday 16 November. The last performance for the Senior Strings is on Wednesday 22 November at the Grandparents' Concert. Senior String students will need to set up on 22 November in the hall at 8:45am then rehearse for the concert. There will be no Senior Strings rehearsals after 22 November. The Junior and Beginner Strings will have no lessons on Wednesday 22 November due to the Grandparents' Concert, however lessons will be swapped from Wednesday to Thursday that week, so Junior/Beginner String students will have their final lesson Thursday 23 November.

There will be no instrumental lessons in the last 2 weeks of this term, or from when your child's teacher is on long service leave (for Mr Stiller and Mr Kukulies' students). Please contact your child's teacher if you have any queries about lessons or rehearsals.

The Senior Choir will rehearse on Tuesday 14 November at 7:45am in the hall and on Tuesday 21 November in the hall to prepare for the evening concert and Grandparents' Concert. Tuesday 21 November will be the last rehearsal for the Senior Choir, with their final performance for the year on 22 November. Ms West will be in attendance on Wednesday 22 November to conduct the final Senior Choir performance for this year and we thank her for swapping her usual teaching day at Eatons Hill SS for this event.

The Junior Choir will continue Friday morning rehearsals until Friday 17 November. We will also have an additional rehearsal in the hall on Wednesday 15 November during the school day to prepare for the evening concert. The Junior Choir is singing at the Grandparents' Concert on Wednesday 22 November at 10am and this will be their last performance for the year.

Performance dates for term 4

15 November - 6pm - Annual Music Concert - all choirs and instrumental music students will perform at this concert - full school uniform

22 November - 10am Grandparents Concert - Junior Choir, Senior Choir and Senior Strings will perform for their grandparents/special guests then join us for a shared morning tea.

The Grandparents' Concert invitation and information notes have been handed out to students in rehearsals over the last week, but if you have not received them please find them attached.

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

We look forward to sharing our music with you at the annual evening concert.

We look forward to sharing our music with you at the annual evening concert next Wednesday.

Naomi Lindh
Music Teacher and IM Coordinator

LIBRARY NEWS

Melanie Hutchinson

The end of the school year is coming around fast, so please be aware that ALL STUDENT BORROWING WILL FINISH THIS FRIDAY (11 Nov).

However, even though borrowing ceases on Friday, the library will continue to be open for students before school and during lunch time, so please feel free to visit.

We are also asking those who are leaving the school community to consider donating their library bag to the school if it is no longer needed.

BOOK FAIR COMPETITION WINNERS

Congratulations to the students who won our Book Fair trivia competition: Sienna W. (Prep), Tyler (Yr.1), Julius (Yr.2), Zai (Yr.3), Miranda S. (Yr.4), Harry C. (Yr.5).

In addition, congratulations also goes to the three students who guessed the correct amount of ‘Book Worms in the Jar’ – 52 in total. Well done Charlie (Yr.1), Ruby (Yr.3) and Paige (Yr.3).

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

Last week’s School Disco was a great night, with so many children and some parents and teachers getting into the groove on the dance floor. Thank you to all the staff who attending the evening and ensure that students had tons of fun in a safe, supervised environment. A special thanks to Mrs O’Brien for all her work in organising the event, which ran incredibly smoothly. I especially love how excited our younger students get in lead up to disco night.

This Friday, our school stops and remembers the sacrifice so many have made during times of war and conflict, in the service of their country. Returned Servicemen and women join us in paying our respects to those brave men and women who gave so much, some their very lives, to protect our freedom and way of life. There is a powerful connection between the past and the present during this commemorative service and the expression on the faces of our special guests, as they watch school students and staff honour our fallen heroes, speaks a thousand words.

Lest we forget!

Friday afternoon is Grand Final day for our year five and six students as their Interschool Sport season draws to a close. I wish all teams competing in Grand Finals the very best of luck and may the best team win. I hope students have enjoyed the competitive experience, developed some new skills and made positive connections with their team mates over the past 10 weeks.

Have a great week!

Tuckshop News

Volunteers for the week commencing Monday, 13th of November 2017 are -

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers!

Tuckshop Tips:

If you have ordered tuckshop for your children, please remember to tell them they are having it. Sometimes class buckets or lunches are not collected because the student is unaware they are having tuckshop and lunches can sit there until we can locate them or their teacher. If your child is missing their lunch order, please tell them to come and see us at the Tuckshop and we will help work out the problem.

Once you have placed your order, please check for your confirmatory email that your order has been placed and for the right day. Also check that you haven’t ordered twice as this can sometimes happen.

If you need to cancel an order, you can easily do so on School24 right up until the 8.30am cut-off time the day of your order. Once you have logged in to School24, just look at the left hand of your screen for options available and cancel an order is right there! You can also view your order history to check orders you have placed.

Tuckshop is operated as an online ordering system. To open a Tuckshop account please visit the following link 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.

Prep selling days are:

14th November 3-6pm
23rd November 8.15-11am
28th November 8.15-11am
16th January 3-6pm

Families that are already at Graceville State School are encouraged to come during normal uniform store hours as the prep selling days are much busier than usual. The store will be open next Tuesday morning as well as the prep selling time later in the day.

Donations of 2nd hand uniforms are always appreciated, if you have some smaller sizes that you no longer need we would love to have them, it is coming up to our prep selling days and we are low in stock in dresses, shorts, culottes, skorts and shirts.

Backpacks and library bags are back in stock.

We have some swimming gear available including long sleeve rashies, lycra and silicone swim caps, swim bags and quick dry towels in your house colours.

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:

New volunteers would be greatly appreciated and will be needed as some of the current volunteers will be leaving the school at the end of the year. It only requires you to be there from 8.15-9.00am on Mondays, Tuesdays or Fridays, if you think you could help out please send an email to the above address or just come to the store and have a chat.

I have 4 plain navy blue backpacks for $55 each in stock that are perfect for high school, if you are needing something like this come and see me in store or send an email to the above address.

School Plus

MS Swimathon - Graceville Lightning Team

Every year at public pools throughout the State, MS Queensland hold 12 hour swimathons to raise funds to support Queenslanders living with Multiple Sclerosis. For the 2nd year running, Graceville Lightning entered a team into the Jindalee event on Sunday, October 29th. The club donated $500 from the money raised from the meat tray raffle ticket sales in the weeks prior to the swimathon to kick off the fundraising.

Here are some team statistics for the day:

• We had 34 team members of which 22 were primary school aged children from our club;
• 8 of our team members were 8 year olds! Well done Junior Dolphins;
• The team members swam in relay format for 12 hours non-stop;
• We covered a distance of over 37.25kms (745 laps of the 50m pool);
• We have raised $2,200 so far;

If you would like to support this great initiative via a donation through the Graceville Lightning Team, the link on the MS Queensland website will stay up for another 28 days.

Or just check out who swam! Thank you to all the parents for getting their young ones on board. The memory of the day will out live the exhaustion!

Graceville Lightning Swim Club Committee.

Community Notices

Make a Rainbow for our Mums Fundraiser November 17th

Two Mums at our school are currently battling quite aggressive cancers. To help these Mums and their families meet the high costs of their medication and treatment we are holding a fundraising day

"Make a Rainbow for our Mums".

All students are invited to paint their nails in all the colours of the rainbow on Friday November 17th and bring along a donation which we will then pass on to these Mums. If families want to make a donation directly to the Mums please can you contact Terriann MacDonnell 0418 766 312. We have not disclosed the names of the Mums as you will appreciate it is a very difficult time for their children and we need to ensure that we keep their lives as normal as possible during this time.

Our fundraising goal is $3000 (approximately $5/family). Please help us reach this target to help these Mums and their families.

Grade 6 Mums
(Terriann, Kathy & Gehann)

The Yeronga State School P&C is seeking expressions of interest for the role of P&C Business Operations Manager. The P&C would expect the successful applicant to possess computer skills, demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills and be motivated and innovative in their approach to the position. Essential skills for this position are: (1) a knowledge of finance and accounts payable and accounts receivable; (2) budgeting and (3) cash flow forecasting. Experience with Quicken would be an advantage. Finally, familiarity with P&C QLD accounting manual and constitution would be desirable.

The position is for 10 hours per week, with contact hours flexible and to be determined. Remuneration will be in accordance with the Parents and Citizens Associations Award.

We would encourage anyone who may be interested in the role to email their details to the Yeronga State School P&C at yerongasspandc@gmail.com and the P&C will forward a position description and further details.

Closing date for applications is 20th November 2017.

Sports Holiday Program
Mon 11th – Wed 13th December

School Holiday Fun

Game On Australia is running another 3-day multi-sport program in the upcoming holidays. Exciting sports, games and activities on offer.

Years: Prep - Year 6. All abilities welcome.
Where: Christ the King Primary School, Graceville.
Times: Activities from 9:00am-3:00pm
Operators: Game On is organised and run by qualified HPE teachers and coaches

Early Bird Special available.