16 November 2017

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

Three weeks to go! Hard to believe I know!

Last Thursday afternoon the School Captain nominees for 2018 presented their speeches to the student body. The speeches were excellent and the students should be very proud of themselves! On Monday Ms Hass and I has the pleasure of meeting with each nominee for an interview. After combining all of the information from the nomination forms, speeches and interview we were able to make a final decision about who the School and Vice Captains would be for 2018. The official announcement was made on assembly on Thursday. As the newsletter sometimes goes out prior to the assembly, I will hold the official announcement off until next week’s newsletter. I can tell you it was a very hard decision as the depth of leadership capability and potential among our students is very high!

On Tuesday, Kath Murdoch, our Inquiry expert from Melbourne University worked with teachers to further enhance their pedagogical practices. Kath modelled lessons for teachers in a Prep, Year 3 and Enhancement classroom. We try and release nine teachers at a time to observe Kath model lessons as the teachers love seeing her in action.

I would like to remind students and parents that the school is hired by School Plus for outside hours care purposes. School Plus and the school have an arrangement that all students and parents can have access to the school facilities for a reasonable amount of time after school. The school is a shared space until 3.15pm. Only students who are supervised by a parent/carer should be in the school until 3.15pm. Any student who has not been collected by a parent by 3.10pm should be at the office. At 3.15pm School Plus have a right to ask parents and students to move on from the any area/s they need to use. School Plus will always ask in a respectful manner and I appreciate our families will respond in an equally respectful manner. I hope students and families have a clear understanding and can work together to ensure a good time is had by all.

Finally, I would like to remind all families a fundraiser has been arranged to help support some families going through tough times due to serious health concerns. There has been a lot of community support and it has also raised some challenging conversations for some families. I am sure you know there is good intent behind the fundraiser. The parents who organised it can only work on what they know and so if there are other families out there we who are experiencing similar situations and would like any help or support please let us know. We can find a way for you to access help and support. We are also aware that some families may have dealt with serious health issues in the past and this fundraiser may take children or families thinking back to those times. If the school can support you or your children in any way please let us know. I can try and put you in touch with our Guidance Officer or seek support from other agencies. If you would like to support the fundraiser, donations can be made on Friday and children may come with fingernails painted in the colours of the rainbow.

I hope you have a great week,

Zoe Smith

Newsletter Articles

From the Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Remembrance Day school assembly – a big thank you to the parents of year 4 classes who assisted with the morning tea last Friday, much appreciated.

Getting Set for Prep sessions for 2017

We have now held two very successful sessions here at school where 2018 preppies received an introduction to our school, the facilities and some fun experiences. I also hope that parents were able to take away some useful information around preparing their child for this important step in their lives. Here are some photos from our fine motor experiences this week!

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. Letters of placement and information about resource schemes and the booklist for prep have been mailed early this week so information about orientation should be in your hands now. See you all next Thursday!

Special Prep Uniform selling times:

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 remainder of Term 4

From the Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Sports & Music Photos

The proofs & envelopes are at the school office for you to have a look at, prior to ordering. You can order the photos chosen online, the same as you would have for the school photos. Orders need to be done by Monday 27th November in order to be back at school prior to the last day, 8th December.

End of Year RI Christmas service

On Friday 24th November our Religious Instruction volunteers will be holding our End of Year Christmas service in the hall. The service starts at 9.00am and finishes at approximately 9.30am. Everyone is welcome to attend.

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.

Various student resource scheme forms are being sent home with your students over the next couple of weeks. Can you please ensure they are all returned to the office asap.

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

Thank you to all of our music students, families and instrumental music staff for their performances at our evening concert this week! It is also a time to congratulate and thank our year 6 students who are graduating from the program. Learning an instrument and singing in a choir takes significant time and commitment and we appreciate all of the students and families who have committed to our program this year and in previous years. I would also like to thank and acknowledge our fabulous music staff, Ms West, Mr Kukulies, Mr Grodecki, Mrs Prout and Mr Stiller for their efforts with our students throughout this year, and Mrs Jones who has replaced Mrs Prout this term. We were very fortunate to have Mr Kukulies to step in and conduct the Senior Band when Mr Stiller went on leave as he was not replaced.

There will be no more Junior Band, Senior Band, Junior Choir, Senior Choir and Beginner/Junior String rehearsals after this week. The Senior Strings will set up and rehearse next Wednesday 22 November at 8:45am in the hall as they are performing at the Grandparents' Concert. The Junior Choir will also have their rehearsal on Friday 17 November as usual and this will be their last Friday morning rehearsal. Students in the Junior and Senior Choir will be requested to come to the hall at 9:50am on Wednesday 22 November for the Grandparents' Concert.

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 Beginner/Junior Strings lessons will be swapped from Wednesday to Thursday where students will have their last lesson and return their instrument and music to Mrs Jones (if they have hired a school instrument).

Performance dates for term 4

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, 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
Steve Stiller - sstil2@eq.edu.au
Julie West - jwest269@eq.edu.au
Naomi Lindh - nclos1@eq.edu.au

Thanks to all of our instrumental and choral students for their commitment to our music program this year and performance at the annual concert.

LIBRARY NEWS

Melanie Hutchinson

Scholastic Book Club is up and running again for the last time this year.

This term’s flyer (Issue 8) has been handed out to the classes – to order, just look over the flyer with your child, select the books you want and mark them on the order form on the back of the flyer.

Then ORDER ONLINE WITH THE CORRECT PAYMENT, by the closing date FRIDAY 24TH NOVEMBER.

Preferred method of payment:

CREDIT CARD payments online, or through the LOOP APP [LOOP : Linked Online Ordering and Payment available on the following link or download the LOOP Apple or Android app]. The order forms do not need to be returned to school.

If paying by credit card on the phone or with a cheque made to Scholastic Australia, return the order form to the school library by Friday 24th November.

NO CASH ORDERS PLEASE – GRACEVILLE STATE SCHOOL IS RUNNING A CASHLESS BOOK CLUB.

CONTACT CLUB

The last Contact Club for this year is on Wednesday the 29th of November, as usual in the library straight after drop-off. Tea and coffee supplied.

There are still loads of books to cover! If anyone has spare time, and would like to take some books home to cover, there are many sets of readers to cover at your leisure. Just ask Melanie or Christine and they would love to give you some readers.

Thank you so much to everyone for coming along to the Club this year and making it such a great group of people to catch up with while contributing to such a great cause and helping our students and school. It is really greatly appreciated. Thanks too to our home coverers, you have helped get the books on the shelves!

Volunteers like yourselves have enhanced the literacy and reading enjoyment of our students by getting the books out into our fantastic library catalogue.

If you would like to help, it’s never too late to join, the Contact Club will return next year. We always need helpers! Please come along on Wednesday 29th November or email contactclub.gss@gmail.com for more information.

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

Chappy’s Chat

Last Thursday, our candidates for 2018 School Captain positions delivered their speech in front of a full school assembly. Given the quality of the speeches, I don’t believe the job of selecting our school captains was made any easier. I would to congratulate all the short listed candidates and am confident each one of them will be a great leader and positive role model, in whatever position they have next year.

I was so proud of our students at Friday’s Remembrance Day Ceremony. In front of many special guests, including local members of parliament and returned service personnel, our students participated respectfully and with keen interest during this special school event. Speaking with some of our guests after the ceremony, it was clear that our students had made a wonderful impression. Well done everyone!

This year, I have been fortunate to hear our instrumental music students develop and grow in their skills and knowledge. This learning was showcased at the Music Concert last night, and I can honestly testify that our aspiring musicians have come a very long way since the start of the year. I wish to pass on a huge thank you to all our music teachers who passionately journey alongside the students to create something so special.

Have an awesome week!

John Erichsen
(Chappy)

Tuckshop News

Volunteers for the week commencing Monday, 20th of November 2017 are -

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers!

Only two weeks left of Tuckshop! Last day to order is Friday 1st of December. It is extremely busy at this stage of the term, we are experiencing a high number of orders. If you are ordering, it is best to do so well before the cut-off time as high order volumes can make the School24 system slower.

Please be aware that as we are near the end of term, some food items may not be available as we run food stocks down toward the end of the year. Please let your children know they may be required to substitute a food item if the first choice is unavailable.

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:

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.

Prep selling days are:

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.

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.

Size 8 gold polo shirts are out of stock.

We have some swimming gear available including long sleeve rashies, lycra and silicone swim caps, swim bags and quick dry towels in the 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: uniformstore@gracevilss.eq.edu.au

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.

Swimming

Due to a maintenance issue the school pool was closed for 3 days in November. [Monday 6th, Tuesday 7th and Wednesday the 8th. The last week of term was set aside for makeup lessons for this kind of situation with no lessons planned. We will now use the first 3 days of the final week of term to cover the 3 days lost. Monday December 4th will have the usual after school program. Starting with the 3pm Beginner Stroke Development class followed by the 3:30 pm Advanced Stroke Development class and then the 4 pm Squad class. On Tuesday December 5th the normal school program will be held for the preps during school time to be followed at 3 pm by the after school program for both the Beginner Stroke Development followed by Advanced Stroke Development. [No squad on Tuesdays]. On Wednesday December 6th the normal school program during school time will be held for the Year 1's. This will be followed by the after school program for BSD, ASD and squad.

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. Please help us reach this target to help these Mums and their families.

Grade 6 Mums
(Terriann, Kathy & Gehann)

For sale 3/4 (21.5") This violin comes with a case, bow and rosin. one string needs replacing hardly used in very good condition. $150.

For sale 1/2 Violin 1/2 size great for beginners with case and bow in very good condition. $150

Pls contact Nicola 0400 589 566