18 July 2019

Domain and email change

Please be aware that due to the upcoming domain name change our school website address is now:

This domain name will also affect email addresses so please ensure that the following email addresses are updated in your contact lists:

principal@gracevilless.eq.edu.au
admin@gracevilless.eq.edu.au
newsletter@gracevilless.eq.edu.au
pandc@gracevilless.eq.edu.au
bsm@gracevilless.eq.edu.au
prepyear@gracevilless.eq.edu.au

Acting Principal

Maree Hass

Hello everyone,

Welcome to term 3!
I hope you all had an enjoyable break enjoying some family time and staying warm.

This term we welcome Miss Rankin who is now teaching 5/6E and welcome back Ms Gallagher who is returning from maternity leave and teaching 4A along with Ms Saddler who will be doing Thursdays and Fridays on 4A. Mrs Logan will be joining Mrs Brough on 1B each Friday. Mrs Smith will also be returning from leave next week.

Parent teacher interviews will be offered in weeks 3-4 of this term. The interviews are for parents who wish to discuss specific aspects of their child’s Report Card. If you do not need to discuss anything related to report cards, you do not need to book an interview. Our teachers are happy to meet with parents at times throughout the year as a need may arise.

CGEN or Creative Generation is on this week with 22 of our students participating, good luck with your performances and I look forward to coming to watch on Friday night. Thank you to Miss Nicholls and Ms Cousins who have been supporting the students through the practices and performances. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to be performing with other students from across Queensland and gaining from the expertise of professionals in the performance world.

Our fete is only 5 weeks away. Save the date for Saturday August 24! I’m sure you will start to hear more often from your class reps and the fete committee on how you can be involved and assist.

Our Study Tour from Taiwan arrives next Friday with 12 students and a teacher from Wenhua Elementary school in Taipei. 11 of our school families are hosting these students and I would like to thank them very much for opening their homes and including these students in their families for 2 weeks. I am sure our Graceville community will make our Taiwanese visitors feel welcome. We will have a welcome assembly on Monday July 29 at 2:15pm and a farewell assembly on Thursday August 8 at 2:15, everyone is welcome to attend. Susan, the Wenhua teacher will present a short slideshow about Wenhua School at the welcome assembly which our own students who will be visiting this school at the end of this term will find very interesting and during the farewell assembly the visiting students share some of their amazing talents with us.

Our process of preparing for Prep 2020 families will commence next Wednesday night, July 24 with our Prep Information evening at 7pm. Everyone is welcome to attend to hear about our prep program and how students will be transitioned into the Graceville community. I will be having interviews with new enrolments this term before our Get Set for Prep sessions start in term 4. Starting school is an important time in the lives of children and families. A positive start can help children develop a lifelong love of learning and this is our goal for all children at Graceville.

Next week on Thursday we have visitors from EQ Information and Technologies Branch presenting sessions for our year 4 – 6 students about Cybersafety. The visiting team has a diverse range of previous career experience, including police investigation, social media marketing, public relations and recruitment. They utilise this expertise to cover a range of topics such as:

• How to protect personal information when creating online accounts
• Cyberbullying and standing up for friends online
• Account privacy and how to create a strong password
• Responding to negative online content,
• How to handle yourself if you're having a difficult time online.

Just a reminder that due to NBN work being carried out on Saturday this weekend, the school grounds will be closed to everyone.

We are now on Instagram, our account is called: graceville_state_school
Please follow us to keep up to date on what is happening in and around the school.

Lastly, there has been a change over the holidays on bookings for our school tennis courts. This link will take you directly to the booking website and if there are any issues please make contact with the P&C rep

Lydia on 0433 444 794. This link is also available on our school website.

Regards,
Maree.

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

Date Claimers:

Prep 2020 Information evening will be held in our school hall on Wednesday July 24 at 7pm. All welcome to attend to hear more about our school, programs in Prep and the enrolment process in preparation for next year.
Get Set for Prep session 1: Tuesday October 22, 9 – 10:30am. Focus on Fine Motor Skills
Get Set for Prep session 2: Monday October 28, 9 – 10:30am. Introduction to Speech and Language Development by School Speech Language Pathologist
Get Set for Prep session 3: Tuesday November 12, 9 - 10:30am, Focus on Reading
Prep Orientation meetings: Thursday November 28

The waiting list for 2020 for out of catchment enrolments is now open. Please let any interested people know that forms and information can be obtained from our school office. Families from within our catchment area we also invite you to obtain enrolment forms to begin the process. For in catchment families a birth certificate and proof of residency in our catchment is required along with the completed enrolment form. In catchment families you may now contact the office to arrange an interview time for this term.

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.

Newsletter Articles

Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Year 5 Leadership Development this semester

From the beginning of this term there is a lot happening in the Leadership Development area for our Year 5 students. By the end of this term, our Year 5 students will be involved in several events in preparation for the Leadership application process for 2020. This week the Year 5s are involved in the Kokoda challenge at Mt Cootha. This involves a variety of Leadership/Team challenges throughout the day that gives the students some great opportunities to demonstrate their skills in a fun and exhilarating way.

Next Wednesday we go on an excursion to the Chinese temple for LOTE. This is an excellent cultural day for Chinese but it is also another opportunity for students to demonstrate the Learning Assets especially Self-Manager and Collaborator. These opportunities are also good for us to see leadership skill potential in action.

Week 2 of Term 4 is our Year 5 camp. Students who are interested in applying for leadership positions will be submitting their applications prior to camp. On camp, it gives us a great opportunity to again ‘look for’ good examples of leadership skills in action away from the school environment.

A busy term yet again!

University of New South Wales ICAS assessments for Maths and Science

Students whose parents have entered them in the Maths and Science assessments last term will be involved – Thursday 5th September (Science) & Tuesday 17th September (Maths). There will be no more applications taken as we have already enrolled for the assessments for a specific number and we will not be putting in any late entries.

This year the testing is online so they will only be given one opportunity on those days to complete the assessments. In the coming weeks I will develop a planning schedule for the groups involved. Some year levels may need to be before school as there is a limit to the number of devices we have to use for these assessments.

Life Education – this term

This term all classes will participate in Life Education sessions. These sessions are different for each year level and they cover certain aspects of the Australian Curriculum, specifically Health. The Life Education Van will arrive later in the term and classes will be scheduled to attend lessons during the last couple of weeks of this term (3/9/19-20/9/19). A permission slip and invoice will be sent home in the coming weeks.

Acting Deputy Principal

Tina Cousins

Welcome back to Term 3. I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday and are energised for the term. I have been around visiting classrooms and have noticed that curiosity and learning is in full swing. Students and teachers have been engaging in tuning in activities sparking their previous knowledge and expressing their wonderings.

I have been very lucky to be a part of the Creative Generation experience this year, helping Ms Nicholls prepare for this amazing performance. Twenty-two of our students have been attending Saturday and Sunday practices over the last few months. This week is show week! The Students have 2 full day dress rehearsals and then performances will be at 1pm and 7pm Friday and Saturday. Last year, I experienced the CGEN performance for the first time and was blown away by the talent in our Queensland State schools. If you would like to see the show, tickets are still available through the Creative Generation Website or Ticketek.

Business Manager

Anne Nixon

Student Resource Schemes (SRS) for 2019 are:

• Prep Requirements ($70)
• Reading Eggs for Prep ($25)
• 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 2, 3 and 4) ($6)
• Year 4/5 maths levy ($17.50)
• ESmart Digital Licence Yr 5 ($10)

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. Please note that there are a few Term 3 excursions that need to be paid before the end of Term 2.

We will be sending statements home next week. If you have a credit on your account and would like to apply it to any outstanding invoices please contact the office. We cannot automatically apply any credits to invoices without parent authorisation.

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

Welcome to term 3. We hope all of our students and families had a lovely holiday!

The Senior Choir has been asked to sing at the welcome assembly for our visiting students on Monday 29 July at 2:15pm. Families of Senior Choir students are invite to attend this performance.

The West Cent IM music camps are being held 29 July - 2 August. Please note that during this week there will be no instrumental music lessons or rehearsals. Choir rehearsals will still be on during this week as normal. Thank you for your understanding with this change.

As advertised last term, on 9 August our school is hosting a symposium which includes a focus on Indigenous Education which up to 100 educators will be attending. I am organising a performance of two songs at the symposium, after the Welcome to Country and the sharing of the Inquiry to develop a school acknowledgement. This performance will take place before school on Friday 9 August and students will be requested to meet me at 7:45am on that day (in the Student Services room near the hall). Students in the Junior Choir, Senior Choir and the students who have been involved in the Inquiry are invited to sing at this event. Please note that due to numbers these are the only students this performance opportunity will be open to. Interested students were requested to join our Junior Choir rehearsals on Wednesday mornings at 8:00am, starting on the first Wednesday of this term and continuing until the week of the performance, which will give us 4 rehearsals in total. The songs we are planning to perform are the Ngaree-ba Kaba Lullaby which the Junior Choir sang at the NAIDOC assembly and the song created last year, Yuggera Djarra-na. Both of these songs include Yuggera language. I am encouraging Junior Choir students to attend the performance on 9 August as they will be at our practices for this performance.

Please contact your child's instrumental or choral conductor if they are not able to attend a rehearsal (email contacts are listed below) or if they are experiencing any issues with their lessons.

2019 Rehearsals Venue - Music Room

Monday 7:45am - 8:30am Senior Choir (year 4,5 and 6 students) Ms West
Tuesday 7:30 - 8:30am - Junior Band - Mr Kukulies
Wednesday 7:45am - 8:30am - Junior Choir (year 2 and 3 students) Mrs Lindh
Wednesday 10:45am - 11:25am - Beginner/Junior Strings (starting in term 2 with junior string students only on 1 May, then beginner strings will join these rehearsals later in the term) - Mrs Prout
Wednesday 2:50pm - 4:00pm - Senior Band - Mr Stiller
Thursday 7:45am - 8:30am Senior Strings - Mrs Prout

Music teacher contact details...

Alex Grodecki - agrod3@eq.edu.au (at Graceville Thursdays)
Ruth Prout - rprou5@eq.edu.au (at Graceville Wednesdays and Thursdays)
James Kukulies - jkuku2@eq.edu.au (at Graceville Tuesdays)
Steve Stiller - sstil2@eq.edu.au (at Graceville Wednesdays)
Julie West - jwest269@eq.edu.au (at Graceville Monday/Tuesday)
Naomi Lindh - nclos1@eq.edu.au (at Graceville Wednesday/Thursday/Friday)

Important dates to note...

29 July - Senior Choir performance at welcome assembly - 2:15pm
29 July - 2 August - West Cent IM Camps - there will be no IM lessons or rehearsals this week
9 August - Symposium performance for interested students in the Junior Choir, Senior Choir or Inquiry to create a school Acknowledgement (students to meet in the student services room at 7:45am - performance at 8:15am)
24 August - Fete performances - Junior Band, Senior Band, Junior Choir and Senior Choir
28/29 August - Instrumental Music Workshop
29 August - Instrumental music concert at 2pm involving all IM students (no choir performances at this concert but all students who learn an instrument at school will perform at this concert with their ensemble)
13 November - Annual Music Concert 6pm - all choral and instrumental music students will be performing at his concert
27 November - Grandparents' Concert - students in the Junior Choir, Senior Choir and Senior Strings will perform at this concert for their grandparents'/special guests

Thank you for supporting our music program.

Naomi Lindh
Music Teacher and IM Coordinator (Wednesday - Friday)

Tuckshop News

Tuckshop Roster for week ending 26th of July 2019

Welcome back! Hope you all had a fabulous and restful break.

We are looking for more volunteers this term! Are you willing to come and join the fun? We are only asking for 3 hours of your time on any one of these days. Perhaps a little longer on a Friday if you can spare the time. But, if you can help, please email us on tuckshop.gss@gmail.com as soon as you can. We’d love to hear from you.

We need an extra volunteer on the following dates, yes, Mondays are very bare.

Thursday 25/7
Monday 5/8
Thursday 22/8
Thursday 29/8
Friday 30/8
Monday 2/9
Thursday 5/9
Monday 9/9

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS!. Why not become one of these fabulous people? Just email us at tuckshop.gss@gmail.com and we will set you up.

As advised to all S24 users via email, all orders placed on S24 will now incur a 25c S24 Administration Fee. Up till now, the P&C have been absorbing this fee. As voted on at the P&C meeting, this fee is now to be passed onto S24 users. Please note that the 10c bag fee has now been removed from all orders.

Should you have any queries about this, please email pandcgraceville@gmail.com

Uniform Shop

Fiona Fryer

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

Welcome back to term 3!!

Uniform Store Roster

Stock Update

We have new girl’s long pants in royal blue in stock for $30 and a new lightweight microfibre jacket in royal blue and gold for $33.

Size 8 dresses are out of stock until the end of the year.
Size 8 Kennedy house shirts are out of stock, due in soon.
Size 8 polar fleece jackets are back in stock.
School colour hair accessories are available; there are headbands, hair ties, bows and clips.

As of 1st July 2018, 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, please keep them coming in but can you please make sure that all items are washed and in a good 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

Tennis for Term 3

TENNIS HOT SHOTS – PLACES STILL AVAILABLE FOR TERM 3!

Places are still available for term 3 tennis coaching.

ENROL ONLINE at the link below.

PRIVATE AND SEMI-PRIVATE LESSONS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.

Should you have any questions please contact Tennis for Kids on info@tennisforkids.com.au or 0408 187 741.

ALL NEW CHILDREN ENROLLING IN TERM 3 WILL RECEIVE A FREE JUNIOR TENNIS RACQUET! (conditions apply)

Tennis For Kids is now a registered Get Started Club and therefore can accept Government Get Started Vouchers at the link below.

School Plus

The last week of Term 2 went so quickly! With all the excitement and celebrations for the holidays and upcoming vacation care, the children barely noticed the week fly by. The children finished their week with story times, a sausage sizzle, face painting, making their own party hats and a dance party! They also celebrated national Sunnies Day by wearing their coolest sunnies into OSHC and had the chance to make their own super cool sunnies.

Vacation Care has also been fun filled with an excursion to Inflatable World and a very colourful Rainbow Day being just a couple of our experiences from our Week 1 program.

We are very excited for Term 3 as we will be welcoming Senior Club after our successful start of Homework Club in Term 2. We are also super excited about the upcoming Hip Hop Incursion in Term 3 and luckily there are still a few spaces left if you would like to book in your child for the new term.

Community Notices

GO SPORTS Coaching Term 3:

Kids will improve skills a and be active in a FUN environment

NETBALL : Grades 1-4 commencing Wednesday 7th August 7.45-8.30am
SOCCER : Grades Prep-3 commencing Wednesday 7th August 7.45 -8.30am

To Register go to the link below and click on Register now