2 August 2018

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

I hope you enjoyed the wonderful weather on the weekend!

It has been a big week for us at the school with a visit from Kath Murdoch. Kath was with us for three days, working with teachers in classrooms and in planning sessions. A highlight of the week was the parent evening Kath hosted on Wednesday night. We had a great roll up with around 60 parents in attendance. The feedback so far has been excellent and we greatly appreciate the support of our community as we move the school forward to incorporate more 21st Century learning practices and skills. The week ends with 100 leaders and teachers from schools in the South East corner attending a professional learning day hosted by Kath at our school. Car parking around the school will be more difficult on Friday due to this professional learning event.

As you know our school is currently hosting a Study Tour from Taiwan. The children and teachers have settled in and feel very welcomed by our school community. It is lovely to the see the children from both Taiwan and Australia, enjoying an amazing cultural experience and authentically learning to be global citizens! The Study Tour ends on Saturday 11th but we will host a farewell assembly on Friday 10 August at 11.30am.

The Fete is fast approaching! It is wonderful to see so many families chipping in to help out. The Fete brings out some of the best community spirit I have seen in any community and provides such a wonderful example of volunteering for our children. Thankyou for volunteering your time to help raise funds for the school.

Finally, a local resident has asked us to pass on a message about parking on Acacia Avenue. It would be greatly appreciated, especially at peak times of the day, that parents do not park across driveways or even slightly across a drive way. Local residents find it very difficult to enter and exit their homes in peak times and your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great week,
Zoe Smith

Newsletter Articles

From the Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

New Graceville Adopt-a-Cop!

At assembly last week we welcomed our new adopt-a-cop Senior Constable Glenn from Sherwood Station to our school. We look forward to getting to know Glenn more over the coming months and at different school events.

Study Tour 2018 – Minzu and Wenhua Schools are coming July 27 – August 11

I would like to thank Ms West and our Senior Choir who sang during our study tour welcome assembly last Friday. Our visiting group has settled well into home and school life at Graceville. Our home and school buddies are doing a fantastic job in looking out for our visitors! Homestay families – thank you so much for your care of these children, they are happy and settled which says that your care is wonderful!

Everyone is invited to attend our farewell assembly on Friday August 10 at 11.30am in our school hall.

Here is a photo of our visiting group on their first day!

Prep Enrolments for 2019

Throughout term 3 I will be conducting interviews with families of our new preppies and there is also a brochure available in the office regarding ‘Get set for Prep’ sessions and orientation information.

If you are an in-catchment new family or current school family with a preppie for 2019 I encourage you to now start the process by obtaining enrolment forms if you haven’t done so already from the school office.

Waiting List for Prep for 2019 – opened at the beginning of last term.

The waiting list for 2019 is now open. Please let any interested people know that forms and information can be obtained from our school office.

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.

Below is the calendar for term 3 Junior assemblies. Everyone welcome, we are on from 2.15pm on these Tuesdays in the hall.

Lisa McKeaten

Deputy Principal

School Photos – Monday 20th August 2018

This year we will be having our School Photo Day on Monday 20th August. Envelopes with the online ordering information will be coming home soon. Envelopes for the sibling photos, which will be taken before school on that day, will be placed in the office as of next week. Online ordering for all photos needs to be prior to 20/8/18. Sibling photo ordering will close at midnight on Thursday 16th August. On Friday 17th they will inform me about how many sibling photos have been ordered and I will let everyone know via a text message – what time they will start before school on Monday 20th. Sibling photos will be in the hall, the same as the class photos and they need to be completed by 8.40am. Starting time for sibling photos will probably be fairly early, depending on the number of orders.

2018 UNSW (University Of New South Wales) competitions:

• Mathematics 14 August $8.00 (Yr 2-6) Yr 3-6 7.30am; Yr 2 11.30am

Students who have been entered in any of these competitions need to make sure that they are present on the appropriate day.

ACTF 2018 My Place Short Story Competition

Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) is launching the 2018 My Place Short Story Competition, a national contest for students in Years 3–6.

The competition opens on 20 July and students will be asked to create an imaginary character in the 2018 My Place series and write about them.

Entries close 31 August 2018. Visit the ACTF website for more information

Money Matters

Anne Nixon

Thank you for your payments for excursions and resources to date.

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 2018 are:

• Prep Requirements ($70)
• Instrumental Music Programs – Instrument Hire ($100), Percussion Maintenance ($50), Music Participation ($80) & Choir ($30)
• Religious Education Program ($10)
• Mathletics On-line registration (Years 1 - 6) ($12)
• Origo Maths (years 3, 4 and 5) ($6)
• Year 4/5 maths levy ($17.50)
• ESmart Digital Licence Yr 5 ($10)

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

VOLUNTARY PARENT CONTRIBUTIONS

Your valuable contribution to this school’s Learning Targets is most welcome.

$100 single student.

You can either pay the Voluntary Contribution in the office, or by direct deposit into the school bank account referencing the payment “VC” with your child’s name. Our bank account details are:

BSB: 064-111
Account Number: 00090051
Account Name: Graceville State School

Credit in Account: Credits from 2017 rolled over to this year can be applied to current invoices at the parent’s request.

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

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.

Music News

Naomi Lindh

Thank you to the Senior Choir and Ms West for their lovely performance of the song "Eye of the Needle" by Paul Jarman, an Australian composer, at the assembly on Friday to welcome our study tour students. We hope they enjoyed the performance and their first day at our school.

Last week I sent an email to parents via teachers regarding upcoming performances including the recently scheduled excursion/performance at Milpera SHS for the Junior Choir and selected year 6 students. Please find a link to the letter below and ensure your child returns the slip to enable them to perform at this event. We are looking forward to sharing the song Yuggera Djarra-na at the Milpera SHS NAIDOC assembly.

Our choir students have been invited to sing at the opening of the Graceville Uniting Church "Our World Art Fest" on Friday 7 September. There is a limited performance space so our year 6 choir students will be the only students attending, with Ms Julie West and Mrs Lisa McKeaten. A letter with a permission slip will be given to students to attend this excursion and performance soon. Families and members of the community are warmly invited to attend this event, scheduled for 10am on Friday 7 September at the Graceville Uniting Church.

Next week our instrumental teachers will return to rehearsals and lessons after a busy week at the West Cent camps this week. We hope our attending students are enjoying their intensive week of music rehearsals and culminating performance on Friday night.

Upcoming dates for music events:

• 30 July - 3 August West Cent Intermediate and Honours Camp (selected students only). Please note there will be NO INSTRUMENTAL LESSONS OR REHEARSALS THIS WEEK - Wed 1 and Thursday 2 August)
• 17 August - Junior Choir and selected year 6 students performing at Milpera SHS (Yuggera Djarra-na song)
• Fete performances - Junior Band, Senior Band, Junior Choir and Senior Choir
• 28 August Junior Choir singing at Junior Assembly (songs from the fete performance)
• 29/30 August IM workshop for all instrumental students - performance 2pm on Thursday 30 August involving all instrumental students.
• 7 September - Year 6 Senior Choir students to perform at the Graceville Uniting Church "Our World Art Fest" (please note only year 6 choir students are attending this due to the limited performance area)
• 30 October - school music photos (students can bring their instrument in for the photo but this is not essential)
• 14 November - Annual Music Concert 6pm (all choirs and instrumental ensembles performing)
• 28 November - Grandparents' Concert - Junior Choir, Senior Choir and Senior Strings performing for their grandparents'/special guests

2018 Rehearsal schedule

Monday 7:45am Senior Choir (year 4/5/6 students) - Ms Julie West
Tuesday 7:45am Junior Choir (year 2/3 students) - Mrs Naomi Lindh
Wednesday 7:30am Junior Band (year 4 band students) - Mr James Kukulies (please note this will not begin until 9 May at 7:30am in the music room)
Wednesday - first break - Junior/Beginner Strings - Mrs Ruth Prout (All Beginner String students should now be attending these rehearsals)
Wednesday 3:00-4:00pm Senior Band (year 5/6 band students) - Mr Steve Stiller
Thursday 7:45am Senior Strings

Please contact your child's teacher if you have any questions or concerns about your child's involvement in the music program or if they are unable to attend a rehearsal.

Alex Grodecki - agrod3@eq.edu.au
Ruth Prout - rprou5@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

Naomi Lindh
Music Teacher and IM Coordinator

Library News

Melanie Hutchinson

Hopefully everyone is enjoying reading their favourite books for the Premier’s Reading Challenge!

This year in Queensland more than 900 schools and individual readers have registered for the challenge and are busily trying to read 20 books between 14 May until 24 August.

If you are planning to participate please make sure that you have a reading record sheet (available from the Library) and are recording the titles that you have read.

All forms MUST be returned to the Library before 24 August. More information can be found below.

Melanie Hutchinson
Premier’s Reading Challenge Coordinator
Teacher Librarian

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

Next week, I will be attending the annual Scripture Union QLD Chaplaincy Conference until Thursday. This conference will consist of professional development sessions, updates regarding chaplaincy legislation, networking with other chaplains and some keynote speaker presentations. I will be back at Graceville on Friday, but if you need to contact me, I will be able to respond at break times. I can be reached on 0418 446 021 but texting is best as my phone will be on silent during session times.

Last Friday, we welcomed our Study Tour students with a special assembly. I am confident these students will be made feel very welcome and thoroughly enjoy their time with the Graceville State School community. This is an extremely exciting partnership, providing amazing learning and cultural experiences for all involved. I would like to send a special thank you to our Deputy Principal, Maree Hass, for all her planning and organisation to make the Study Tour such a highlight.

The weeks are passing by and the Fete is not far away. Preparations are in full swing and this year promises another wonderful event. Fete season seems officially underway once the Dunking Machine roster is complete. As always, I am keen to find out how cold the water will be so I will see you there.

I wish to pass on my congratulations to all the athletes who participated at the District Trials this Tuesday and Thursday. There were many impressive efforts in the midst of strong competition. Our students should all be very proud of their performances. I wish those going on to the regional event the best of luck.

Have a fantastic week!
John Erichsen
(Chappy)

Fete News

Thank you! The free dress day for Lob-O- Choc was a HUGE success! Well done to everyone, especially 6J who advertised the day with great posters and brilliant reminder on Full School Assembly. Don't forget the next one is scheduled for Friday, 10 August when you get to donate your favourite chocolate blocks. The Lob-O-Choc stall will be MASSIVE on fete day. Don't miss it.

The POD has arrived! Bring your large items for the Grand Bazaar to the Tuckshop carpark and store them in the POD. We need household items and furniture, kitchenware, bikes, prams, DVDs, CDs and other items in good, saleable condition. We can NOT accept are TVs, computer monitors, BBQs, clothes, shoes and stuffed toys.

School24 sales are going brilliantly. Get online and get your discounted Ride bands and GSS Fete Cash Cards. For those of you with students in Prep, Year 1 and Year 2, buy your child's Art Show canvases.

Shelves in the Tuckshop are still bare. Please get jamming and deliver your tasty treats to the Tuckshop. Don't forget to include a list of all ingredients. Class 3G will take care of labelling and wrapping. We ask for 15 jars to be donated by each class to stock this stall on Fete Day. Thanks in advance!

Would you and your children like to make some Rocky Road or Coconut Ice? It's a great thing for Dads to do with the kids. Email gracevilefetestalls@gmail.com for an ingredients pack.

Raffle tickets were sent home this week. We ask each family to sell one book of 10 tickets. The prizes are amazing so it will be worth sharing with your family and friends. More books are available if you need them. Please email gracevillefetestall@gmail.com if you would like another book to sell.

This year we are giving out prizes for the class who returns all their raffle tickets sold the fastest! The kids heard all about it on assembly this week so they will be chomping at the bit to help get them sold.

Our third Fete Newsletter issues on Friday, 3 August. It will be emailed to you all and available to read on the webpage.

Finally, Class Rep Meeting, Thursday, 9 August, 7pm in the Waratah Room. Last one before the fete, so if you have any questions, being them along.

Fete Committee

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB

Scholastic Book Club is up and running again for this term.

This term’s flyer (Issue 5) has been handed out to the classes – to order, just look over the flyer with your child/children, select the books you would like 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 10th August.

Preferred method of payment:

CREDIT CARD payments online, or through the LOOP APP [LOOP: Linked Online Ordering and Payment available via the link below 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 10th August.

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

Uniform Shop

Fiona Fryer

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

Size 10 trackpants are out of stock. The supplier won't have more in until the end of August.

Polar fleece jackets and rugby shirts are available now in store.

As of 1st July stores stopped providing free single use bags therefore the uniform store will no longer provide plastic bags also so please make sure you bring your own if required.

Donations of 2nd hand uniforms are always appreciated, so please keep them coming but can you please make sure that all items are in a good, clean and saleable condition.

Please be advised that refunds will ONLY be given if you have the original receipt and items should not have been washed or worn. Also please be aware that if you paid by credit card you will need that card for the refund.

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 via the teachers pigeon hole in the main office.

Email address for school uniform store is:

uniformstore@gracevilss.eq.edu.au

WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS, PLEASE!!!! The uniform store lost some valuable volunteers at the beginning of this term and will be losing more at the end of this year so we really need more people to help out. At the moment it would require you to be there from 8.15-9.00am on Monday, Tuesday or Friday each week, if there are more people willing to lend a hand then it wouldn't have to be every week. So, if you think you could spare some time and help out that would be great, just send an email to the address below or come to the store and have a chat, thank you.

Tuckshop News

Tuckshop Roster for week ending 7th of August 2018

Thank you to all our volunteers, we really value your continued support! We are already experiencing a shortage of volunteers on some days. Thank you to those who answered the call for help on Tuesday; it was very much appreciated.

HELP NEEDED!

We now urgently need a volunteer for Thursday 20/9/18. This is the second last day of the school term and it will be busy. Without help we will not be able to get the lunches out.

If your child has Tuckshop and you haven’t volunteered before, please give it a try. It is only for three hours from 8.30am–11.30am and easy to do with a friendly chat along the way. Time goes quickly! Please email your availability for this day to tuckshop.gss@gmail.com You will love seeing the smiling faces of all the kids!

FETE Ordering

Use School24 for your Fete purchases of ride bands, children’s artworks, and the new cashless GSS Fete Cash Cards. See the Fete newsletters for further information or visit the links below:

Any enquiries please email gracevillefete@gmail.com

School Banking Update

Graceville SS’s banking day is MONDAY and deposits can be made from 8:20 to 8:40 at the hall kitchen and then via the grey classroom pouches.

School banking kicked off for Term 3 on Monday 16 July. Term 3 rewards items are a Mighty Handball and Heat Reactor Pencils and rewards can be pre-ordered at 9 tokens. Please remember to write your name and class on the rewards redemption flyer as recently we have received some blank ones and have been unable to order the rewards.

School banking is desperate for new volunteers, and as it stands there will be no school banking in weeks 6, 9 and 10 (20 August, 10 and 17 September) as there are no volunteers to help. If you have a spare hour after drop off on Mondays please drop by and give us a hand.

Entries close at the end of this term for the Major Prize (a Trip for 4 to Hawaii, USA). You need to make 15 deposits before the end of Term 3 to be in the draw. Terms and conditions can be found on the Commbank website.

If your child is not already involved, and you would like your child to participate in the school banking program it is now easier than ever. All that is required is a Youthsaver account with the Commonwealth Bank. Accounts can now be opened either online or at a branch. Once you have an account, the yellow Dollarmite wallet will be posted to you or you can visit us at the hall kitchen to pick one up before school Monday mornings.

Happy Saving!

Active School Travel

Active School Travel

WIN CHOCOLATE and RIDE BANDS!!!!!!!!! …..now we have your attention 

The Active School Travel committee would like to remind you that there are two amazing competitions running for the next month, combining actively travelling to school and our fete!

Win one of seven free ride bands by actively travelling to school on Footloose Friday, and filling in a ticket with your name and class, to be put into a box either at the stamping station or in the office. The more times you actively travel the more times you can enter the competition and the better chance you have of winning a ride band. Pre-purchased ride bands will be refunded if you have already ordered a ride band and win!

Win a free toss at the lob-o-choc stall for your whole class!!!!. The class with the highest percentage of students actively travelling to school for the next month will win a free toss to try and win a block of chocolate!

But today we have even more exciting news…..if that is even possible?

Do you find coming to school in your own car, all by yourself boring? Do you fight with your brother or sister? Does your Mum hate sitting in that endlessly long line in the 2 minute zone? Does your Dad hate having to drive around the block when you haven’t arrived and their time is up? Well we have the solution for you.

CARPOOLING!!

For the month of August Brisbane City Council are promoting Carpooling as a great way to actively travel to school. Here at Graceville we would love to see more families carpool. Carpooling can mean you can safely get to school, but Mum or Dad doesn’t have to drive you every day! By sharing the travelling with another family, you get to travel to school with friends, reduce the number of cars on the road and have some fun. If you carpool to school with another family, make a short video of yourselves and you could win some amazing prizes. This competition is called The Candid Carpool Camera Moments competition, and we hope you might have some fun showing us how much fun you can have carpooling to school and promote carpooling to the rest of the school. To give you some idea of just how much fun carpooling is some of our teachers and admin team have been carpooling too.

So keep an eye out for posters telling you what to do. You will need to collect an official entry form from the office from the end of July and the competition ends on the 5th of September. And it looks like so much fun I am sure you will all want to have a go at making your own Candid Carpooling Camera Moments.

Keep Actively Travelling to School!

We need you!!!!!

We are very lucky to have the year 5 students involved in Active Travel this year and Mrs Hornstra who does an amazing job each week with organising the students to ensure that passports are stamped and the AST messages are delivered on assembly (and many other tasks too numerous to list). Without their support this program would not be the success that it is.

The Active School Travel committee is very “Active’ in our community. We have great support from Councillor Nicole Johnston and Leesa Munro, who is the Project Manager for AST in the BCC. Mrs Hornstra and Mrs McKeaten from the school and Paul Rueberry (Prep parent who has come on board this year) as well as myself. We would like to adopt the P&C model of having someone “Learning the role” from me this year. This person would attend our once or twice a term meetings and do the newsletter article each week as well as attend any school events, if possible. You would be very well supported in the committee if you were interested. We are always after fresh ideas. If you are interested in talking to me about this please email Jo at sajrichards@iinet.net.au