6 December 2018

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

One week to go!

We have nearly made it to the end of the 2018 school year! Although classes start to wind down and enter into revision and end of year activity mode, the office is at the peak of its busy time. We appreciate the patience of our parents who understand that timeframes for responses may be a bit longer than usual (unless an emergency) at this time.

Next week is a big week for our Year 6 students. As they enter their last week of primary school they will have mixed emotions. On Wednesday night, our Year 6 students and their parents will attend the official Graduation evening. On Thursday morning, the school will hold the badge ceremony for school leaders for 2019 and our whole school farewell for our Year 6 students. All family and friends are welcome to attend the final assembly from 9-10am next Thursday morning.

As you know, Report Cards will be emailed home from next Tuesday. Please make sure you have updated your email address with the office if you have made any changes. On Tuesday, you will also receive a letter with information regarding your child/ren’s class and teacher for 2019. In 2019, the school will have 31 classes. Due to the way enrolments fall across the year levels in 2019, we will have a Year 4/5 composite class in 2019. All other year levels will remain similar to previous years. As always, teachers take part in collaborative conversations to construct the classes. Teachers do their best to take all child and parent feedback into consideration in the class placement process. As a team they use their professional judgement to finalise classes based on their current knowledge of the students. If you have any concerns with your child’s class placement, please see your class teacher immediately on Wednesday morning. Once classes are completed is very difficult to make changes however teachers will listen and make admin aware if any concerns are raised.

Don’t forget the Year 1-3 Swimming Carnival is Tuesday.

The last day of the school year is Friday 14 December. The last day is a time to finalise all work that needs to be taken home, clean-up the classroom and enjoy a class party to end the year.

I hope you have a great week.

Newsletter Articles

Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Study Tour to Taiwan 2019

We are off and running! We have 19 students in total going on the Study Tour next September. I have emailed all families with next steps which before the end of the year is the payment of the deposit of $200. If your child doesn’t have a current passport this might be a good holiday activity to do as the passport will be required to book the tickets early next year.

Junior Assemblies

We farewelled our year 2s at our last assembly for the year this week as next year they move to senior assemblies. Prep K and S performed at this assembly and it is amazing to see how much they have grown and matured over the past 12 months as we have also introduced our new preppies for 2019 recently too.

Graceville Gotchas and Bronze Certificates

I have been handing out many Bronze certificates lately at assemblies which is great to see! When students gain 20 Gotcha tickets for being safe, respectful and responsible they receive this commendation for consistency in their positive behaviour both in the classroom and playground. Two Silver certificates have been given, to Lucinda, year 2 and Emily, year 6 who have both received 40 Gotchas to receive the silver award. Well done to all of those students, we only commenced our Gotchas at the end of last term so we will be ready to commence at the beginning of term one next year as they will run throughout the year.

Acting Deputy Principal

Belinda Martin

Last week, the Student Learning Ambassadors, Mrs Hornstra and myself were able to help make Graceville a “little greener” as we planted trees around surrounding streets of the school. Supported by our local member, Nicole Johnson, some “Green Thumb” parents and Treescape we not only got our hands dirty, but were able to ask questions about how what we were doing will help the environment and provide many positive benefits to our community for the future. Another wonder-filled example of how we “take action” with purpose and how we learn “by doing”!

Sun Safety & Staying well hydrated

Just a reminder about Sun safety & keeping well hydrated. Please ensure that your children have sunscreen on before they leave home in the morning and are wearing their hats if they are in the sun coming to school e.g. walking. Try to encourage your children to take a water bottle with them and have it at school. We are expecting a hot summer and these good habits are important for long term wellbeing.

ICAS AWARDS CEREMONY 2018

Last Saturday I had the honour and privilege to attend the 2018 ICAS Medal Ceremony and the Brisbane Convention Centre. Each year around 1.5 million tests are undertaken in over 20 countries. The medal winners represent the very best of those students and here at Graceville we had 4 recipients. It was also very pleasing to see a number of past students receive medals as well.

Congratulations to the following students who won the Queensland Medals for 2018:

Sue Bourke
Junior Enhancement Teacher

Music News

Naomi Lindh

Thank you to the students for their performances last week at the Grandparents' Concert and the Community Carols evening! We had around 100 guests who attended the Grandparents' Concert followed by shared Christmas carols and morning tea which the performers also enjoyed. It is a lovely way for our students to share their music and finish formal school performances for the year. We had a number of parent helpers and we couldn't manage without your assistance to set up for the morning tea and serve our guest and students. Your assistance was greatly appreciated, thank you!

On Saturday night the Riverside Church held their Community Carols evening and invited our combined choirs to sing. We had approximately 50 students attend and sing 2 songs together, then an encore and many families from our school community attended. Thank you to the students and families who attended this event!

Thank you also to our dedicated music captains this year who have assisted us and supported our music students and programs throughout this year, Emily R, Megan B and Zara M. We have greatly appreciated your leadership and commitment to the music program.

We would like to thank all of our graduating year 6 students for their years of commitment to the music program and wish them all well for their transition to high school. We hope they continue their involvement and enjoyment in music in the future.

Instrumental students who have been in the instrumental music program will be given an IM student resource scheme note this week and we will ask that you return it by Wednesday next week. This form has already been sent home with students who have been offered a place in the program starting in 2019 so beginning students will not need to complete another one. All current students in the IM program will have a place until the end of year 6 so no other paperwork needs to be completed for their continuation in the program.

If your child has a school instrument on loan could they please return it this week, as well as any music their conductor has given them throughout this year.

Thanks again to our students and families for their support and involvement in the Grandparents' Concert and Community Carols performance.

Music teacher contact details...

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

Swimming Carnival

Wayne Daunt

“The Graceville School swimming carnival will be held this Friday from 9am – 2.50pm for children in the Year 4-6 classes. It is also open to children in Year 3 who are born 2009 and train in a swimming squad regularly. If there are any past students interested in assisting with timekeeping on the day they are more than welcome to attend and help. I have attached an order of events for the day; however, I cannot give an accurate indication as to the time of day that any events will be held. The carnival normally takes the entire day to complete with the allocated lunch breaks being adhered to. Families are welcome to come and watch their children compete on the day.”

Wayne Daunt
P.E. Teacher
Graceville State School

Uniform Shop

Fiona Fryer

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

Prep selling day is:

23rd January 2019 3pm - 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.

There are only a couple of days left this year to purchase uniforms and booklist items (chairbags and art smocks), the last day being Monday 10th December as the store will be closed for stocktake on Tuesday 11th December and Friday 14th December. We will be open on the first day back to school, 29th January 2019, please note, I will NOT be opening up the store for anyone who may want to buy uniforms during the school holidays, also please do not ask the office staff to open the store, if you need uniforms before back to school you can come on the prep selling day.

Thank you to all those people who have offered to volunteer in the store next year, your help is greatly appreciated and we are now able to cover all the days, but any extra help is always welcome!! At the moment it would require you to be there from 8.15-9.00am on Monday, Tuesday or Friday each week, but if we get 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 on those mornings and help out I would really appreciate it, just send an email to the address below or come to the store and have a chat, hopefully see you soon :)

Large size hats are back in stock.

We have new school colour bows in store now for $5 each.

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

Tuckshop News

Tuckshop Roster for Week One 2019!

Tuckshop Roster for Week Two 2019!

THANK YOU FOR VOLUNTEERING!!. We are giving advance notice so you can plan ahead. If you cannot attend, please let us know as soon as possible

2019 TUCKSHOP ROSTER – Thank you to those people who have newly signed up to volunteer for Tuckshop next year. We are looking forward to meeting you! And thank you also to our existing volunteers; we look forward to welcoming you back!

We are still in need of a few more volunteers. Please send us an email at tuckshop.gss@gmail.com or drop a volunteer form into the P&C box in the school office to let us know when you can help. We need you to stay open five days a week!

Volunteering is only three hours once a month or term from 8.30am until 11.30am. You’ll meet new people, have a laugh while preparing the student lunches and help keep tuckshop prices reasonable. Many working parents VOLUNTEER in the tuckshop, they use flexi-time, rostered days off or work part-time and find just a few hours per term to come in and help. It’s satisfying work with a happy outcome; the students love to collect their tuckshop class buckets and buy a treat at the tuckshop window. Give it a try!

This has been a big year for Tuckshop with the full transition to the Queensland Government healthy choices menu. Judging by how busy we have been, it’s safe to say that most people have enjoyed and embraced the menu! We have noticed how many people use the tuckshop as a regular lunch option and not just as a treat.

We are a P&C run service and we need volunteers to stay open. If you are a Tuckshop

Active Travel

THANKS!!!!!!

As the school year draws to an end I need to thank those who have made AST possible this year.

We have been lucky enough to have the support of the BCC AST team during 2018. Thank you to Micheline and Leesa for attending our meetings and providing us with the tools to support the program. To Paul, our “Stat-Man” thank you for taking time out every week to compile and collate all the surveys collected in the school. This information assists us to see how the program is working and where we can improve.

To all the Year 5 Students who every week, get to school early to do the stamping, and collect all the surveys I say THANK YOU!!!! You have all show great leadership as you have worked as a team to ensure the job get done.

Thanks to Mrs McKeaten for supporting AST and helping us to facilitate the program and keep it running.

Cr Johnston has been supporting AST at Graceville for many years now. Many parents would not know that she attends all of our AST meetings and is a great supporter of AST assisting with issues that need Councils attention, providing advice and donating prizes for the students and all of our great breakfasts during the year.

Last….but certainly NOT least…. MRS HORNSTRA!!!!! Without you this program would not be what it is. It is difficult to explain just what she does on a weekly basis for AST. Most Fridays you can find her doing a walking bus from the corner of Oxley Road and Harte Streets. She has helped deliver road safety messages at assemblies during the year. She has been the motivator of the year 5 students as they ran the AST stamping. All our wonderful posters and promotion is because of her, and this is in addition to all that she does with her class and students. Mrs H you are awesome and I cannot thank you enough!

We need you!!!!!

To continue this wonderful program in 2019 we need more parent volunteers. Many hands make light work….if we can get just a few more parents to help share the work load this would be wonderful! If you can help in any way please email Jo Richards at sajrichards@iinet.net.au

Remember over the holidays:

STOP
LOOK
LISTEN
THINK

Holiday Swim Clinics

Bookings are now being taken for the two holiday swim clinics being held at the Graceville school pool this Christmas holiday. The first will be run from Monday December 17th until Friday December 21st and the second from Monday January 21st untll Friday January 25th. All ability levels are catered for with learn to swim, stroke correction and squad classes on offer. You do not need to attend every day of the clinic as long as you mention your availability when enrolling. Children in holiday school care may also join the program, as staff are able to bring students to the pool and pick them up after their lesson. You will need to do some paper work with schoolcare if this is the case. The number of sign ons for the group lessons will determine the start time of the private one on one lessons. As a rough guide, squad will start at 8am followed by Advanced Stroke Development at 9 am and then Beginner stroke development at 9:30 am. I will then have teachers on hand for the one on one program from about 9:30 am. The one on one lessons will be available at this stage from 9:30 am onwards every day of the week. When booking please state which hour you are available [e.g. between 10 am and 11 am]. To really help me with making the schedule the best response is....' available anytime'. See you at the pool...

Pete Geraghty
ph. 0432407442

School Plus

Week 8 of Term 4 was filled with lots of fun activities and games but, who would have thought that one of this week’s highlights would be helping with dishes! The children loved being in the kitchen helping Coordinator Karina with cooking as well as the dishes! They have really been growing and getting involved with helping staff even with breakfast and afternoon tea pack up! Aside from helping with cooking and cleaning the children also enjoyed activities including designing their own book marks and paddle pop creations in craft, making sensory snow dough and outdoor activities including cricket and tug of war. We do want to thank our children/families for the donations that we have received so far for the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal. There is still time to donate to a great cause! With another fun week ending, the children are looking forward to the last two weeks of the school term and celebrating the end of the year!

Community Notices