30 August 2018

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

What a fantastic Fete! Although I was on sick leave all last week, I managed to make it to the Fete from 1pm until after the Fireworks. I love the community feel of the Fete and Fireworks in particular. I would like to thank the Fete Committee as well as all the families who chipped in and did their bit to make the Fete a success. Thankyou to everyone!

It is the time of year for all sorts of cold, flu’s and bugs to be going around. We greatly appreciate any families who can keep their sick children at home while they are ill. As you can imagine, illness travels fast in schools and so any help you can provide our school community by keeping sick children at home would be great.

We hosted our Annual Instrumental Music camp this week. It amazes me each year just how far the children progress in their learning. The camp always ends with a concert which is a joy to hear! I would like to thank and congratulate all of the Instrumental music teachers for their hard work as well as the students themselves for their enthusiasm and engagement!

I hope you all received the Class Placement Form at the end of last week. As the form states, you cannot request a particular teacher, however you can make us aware of any important social, emotional or family related situations which you would like us to take into consideration as we create classes for 2019. It is also very important that you make us aware as soon as possible if your child is not returning to Graceville in 2019. By the end of this term I hope to finalise our staffing for 2019 and as staffing is determined by enrolment, having a good understanding as early as possible of children not returning, is important. If you did not receive a form, please contact the office and they can send one home for you.

In a couple of weeks our school is hosting 60 teachers and leaders from schools in the South East Corner who are interested to learn about our Inquiry journey so far. We feel very honoured that word has spread in the educational community about the innovative approaches we are taking to engage students in learning. I was also contacted by schools in NSW and The Northern Territory just this week, keen to learn with and from us. We really are creating some wonderful interstate and international connections. Our success has been helped by Kath Murdoch (Melbourne University) and Dr Linda Kaser and Dr Judy Halbert (University of British Columbia), who work with schools all around the world and who are now using examples of our work with students and movement towards an inquiry way of working in their presentations.

In the last few weeks of term the school will be holding our Lower School Athletics Carnival. As Mr Daunt has been on leave for most of the term, he was unable to make a commitment for the event to go ahead. Schools do not need to host lower school athletics events but Mr Daunt likes to give the children the opportunity to take part in mini athletics carnival. Mr Daunt will set the date as soon as possible and let us know so you can plan to come along if you would like to.

Finally, don’t forget the Disco is next Wednesday night. The disco is always fun and as a rule the children are very well behaved. I am sure your children will enjoy coming along!

Have a great week,
Zoe Smith

Don’t forget it is Father’s Day this Sunday! I wish a Happy Father’s Day to all of our dads!

Newsletter Articles

Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Review of our Responsible Behaviour Plan

Over the past two terms we have been reviewing your school’s current Responsible Behaviour Plan with staff and this week reviewed our plan with student council representatives. We would like to offer an opportunity to parents to come along and review our intended Plan for the next three years at a special session on Thursday September 6 at 9am after drop off. This information session will be held in the Waratah room and you are invited to attend, please rsvp to mhass10@eq.edu.au so we know numbers for set up.

Prep Enrolments for 2019

I am currently meeting with new preppies and parents. If you do not have a time yet please contact the office to make a time to meet together to discuss your child commencing prep in 2019.

Date Claimers for 2019 prep families:

Get Set for Prep session 1 – Tuesday October 16, 9 – 10.30am
Get Set for Prep session 2 – Monday November 5, 9 – 10.30am
Prep Orientation meetings – Thursday November 29

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

Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Life Education 2018

The Life Education Program for Prep to year 6 commences next Monday 3rd September and finishes on Wednesday 19th September. All payments were due at the beginning of this week.

Father’s Day celebrations

Similar to our ‘flower giveaway’ that we had for Mother’s Day in May, we will be giving away chocolates to our Dads & grandfathers this week, Friday 31 August before school. Members of the Student Council will be around the school & stationed at gates/entrances on that morning to give away chocolates.

Annual Maths Tournament Monday 3 September

Next Monday 3rd September, we will have 20 of our Year 5 & 6 students participating in our Annual Maths tournament. We usually have around 20-25 teams from various schools coming here to participate.

Swimming for Term 4

Prep, Year 1 & 2 students will be involved in a paid intensive swimming program in Term 4. This program is run by paid coaches in small group lessons. Payment for the program will be due prior to the holidays. The program will run from Week 1-9 at a cost of $76.50. Notes and invoices will be sent out next week.

Year 3-6 students will also be participating in a swimming program with Mr Daunt in their regular HPE lessons, with no cost to parents.

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 all of the music students who performed at the fete on Saturday and teachers who have been working with our students to prepare their items, including our Junior Band, Senior Band, Junior Choir and Senior Choir. We appreciate all of your efforts and support from families to make this all possible. It was also Mr Steve Stiller's 21st fete performance with the Senior Band. Congratulations Mr Stiller, we really appreciate your efforts over the many years with our students, commitment to our school and enthusiasm for conducting, including often arranging pieces and music to suit the band.

Please find links below to upcoming events. The Uniting Church Arts Fest performance will need permission slips returned to ensure students are able to attend so please either download these or ask your child to come to the music room for a note and slip. Due to time constraints we have been requested to have the year 6s sing only 2 songs, with the 4 students involved in the Yuggera Djarra-na song singing it as a special request and all of the attending students will sing one song together. There is also an information note regarding the instrumental music workshop which involves all instrumental students, however we do not require a permission slip for this activity as it is part of our school music program and held on our school grounds within the normal school times.

The Junior Choir sang their pieces from the fete at the Junior Assembly. They have been an enthusiastic group and have thoroughly enjoyed their performance opportunities this term at Milpera SHS, the school fete and Junior Assembly. Rehearsals will continue until the end of term and resume at the beginning of next term, but please note, there will be no Junior Choir rehearsal next Tuesday 4 September due to another commitment. Rehearsals will resume on Tuesday 11 September.

This week we had our instrumental music workshop on Wednesday and Thursday. This is a fabulous opportunity for our students to work on new music and performance skills and culminates with a concert on Thursday afternoon, 30 August at 2pm. All families and members of the community are warmly invited to the concert.

Upcoming dates for music events:

• 29/30 August IM workshop for all instrumental students - performance 2pm on Thursday 30 August involving all instrumental students (no permission slip required)
• 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) - permission slip required
• 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 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

MARK YOUR CALENDAR - OUR BOOK WEEK DRESS UP DAY IS COMING!!

This year we will be celebrating Book Week with a whole school DRESS UP DAY!

On WEDNESDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER (last week of this term) students are invited to come to school dressed as their FAVOURITE (or any) STORY BOOK CHARACTER.

This will be a fantastic way to celebrate books and storytelling, and a great way to encourage reading for enjoyment, particularly for the upcoming September holiday break!

Please take the opportunity to talk to your children about their love of books, story book characters they like, and reading for pleasure. Start planning and/or suggesting what characters they could possibly come dressed as. Persuade them to come up with something creative and imaginative! There is no need to hire or buy a costume.

BOOK WEEK DRAWING COMPETITION

Students are invited to enter the GSS BOOK WEEK DRAWING COMPETITION. Choose your favourite book character and get sketching!

GUIDELINES:

• Draw any book character : person, animal or thing
• Maximum Size is one standard A4 sheet of paper or cardboard
• Criteria for judging - Creativity and Effort; Prizes for the winners
• Entries must be handed in to the Library by FRIDAY 14 SEPTEMBER (end of Week 9)

Please put your full name, class and the character details on the back of your artwork/submission.

CONTACT CLUB

Contact Club meets next week on Wednesday 5th of September in the Library straight after drop-off or reading groups. Come along and share your stories of our great Fete with some great volunteers doing great work for our Library!

No experience necessary, just a willingness to help cover our wonderful library resources so we can get them out into the catalogue for our children to read. Contact is super easy to use and you will love to see the new books and resources coming through the Library. Besides a great chat, there is the bonus of tea and coffee supplied. For more information please email contactclub.gss@gmail.com or just turn up on Wednesday, we’d love to meet you!

Fete

Cancel the fete due to rain? Why would we?

Bit of a shower (it settled the dust), then beautiful sunshine. Yummy food, great rides, brilliant prizes and a fantastic fireworks display.

What a great Fete 2018.

Thank you to our generous sponsors! Please support their businesses whereever you can.

Thank you to all the parents who helped out on the day or in the lead up.

Thank you to class reps. You are so generous with your time and we couldn't do this without you.

To the Fete Committee, from your community, thank you! Your dedication is inspiring to everyone, especially our children. Your tireless work benefits them every day and long after they leave our school. May they remember your generosity and follow your wonderful example.

So long, farewell and thank you to the retiring Fete Committee Members:

Sharon Fozard
Annette Bennett
Alana Teixeira
Kelly Steen
Caroline Dunne
Cath Cleary, and
Anne Canalese.

To the new Fete Committee, good luck. You will be amazing.

Like to get involved in this amazing community event? Rahul and Shilpie Roy, our new Fete Convenors, would love to hear from you. Email gracevillefete@gmail.com

Stay tuned for a financial result announcement in a few weeks.

Over and Out...
The very tired, but very happy Fete Committee

Uniform Shop

Fiona Fryer

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

Interschool sports start this week, we have the Representative shirts in stock.

As of 1st July stores stopped providing free single use bags therefore the uniform store will no longer provide plastic bags 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.

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 September 2018

Thank you to all our volunteers!

Like to help? Please email your availability to tuckshop.gss@gmail.com We would love to see you, and you will love seeing the smiling faces of all the kids! Come on in for just three hours a shift once a month or once a term. It’s so easy!

School Plus

Week 6 at School Plus was filled with lots of fun indoor, outdoor and sensory activities. Some our week’s highlights included Kite Making, Red Noodles and Finding Treasure that were all activities chosen by the children. The children did a fantastic job picking Jewls out that were buried in rice, by using chopsticks only!

The 2-6’s also tried out a new Group Game called The Simpsons. They picked up the rules quite quickly and thoroughly enjoyed the outdoor activity on the oval. Everyone got involved, even the staff! Although the children have had a fun jammed packed week, they were super excited for the highly anticipated Fete on Saturday and have loved watching the set up going on at the oval! A sneak peek into next week’s program includes Red Slime, as the children have been suggested the activity every day!

Community Notices