2 August 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

Newsletter Articles

Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

The count down to the Fete is now on! I would like to thank all of the hard working volunteers who are now in full swing preparing their parts for the fete. Please know your help is greatly appreciated and hopefully when you see the big smiles of the children on the day, you will feel rewarded to have been part of making the day a success.

The Study Tour from Taiwan arrived last Friday afternoon. The students are settling in well and feel very welcomed by our friendly students and families. Thank you so much to our host families and Ms Hass, who so kindly look after the students while they are in Australia.

We would love to see you at our special review celebration assembly next Wednesday afternoon from 2pm. This is no usual assembly, it has been planned to be filled with fun, love and great memories. It will give you a good understanding of the how the students and staff feel about the changes we have made as a school and the impact inquiry learning in particular has had on them as learners and people. We are committed to continued improvement as a school and for now, we feel is it important to pause and reflect and enjoy what we have achieved before entering the future focused part of our review. We hope you can join us. Although I am aware of the information being used in the assembly, the staff and students who are working together to plan the assembly were keen for the assembly to be a surprise for us all. I have been told by some students that I will need tissues (for good reasons) so I will come prepared!

Next Thursday is Mrs Mackenzie’s (Lee from the office) last day at Graceville. Mrs Mackenzie has made the decision to leave based on personal reasons and as much as we are sad to lose her, we understand and wish her well. We are grateful for having Mrs Mackenzie work with us and will have her back in a heartbeat if her circumstances change in the future. I would like to wish Mrs Mackenzie the best of luck and pass on all of our best wishes to her for the future.

Next Friday is a big day for our school. We are hosting a two day Inquiry, Innovation and Indigenous Education Symposium at the school. Our school was selected as a host venue this year for our work in inquiry and innovation in particular. I am very grateful to our teachers who have volunteered to open their classrooms for participants to see inquiry teaching and learning in action. I am very proud to work alongside a group of educators who are willing to share their own learning for the benefit of the profession. Of course, we will be learners over the two days as well. We will have the privilege of learning from and with educators from across Australia. We are also looking forward to welcoming back Dr Linda Kaser and Dr Judy Halbert from the University of British Columbia, the leaders of the international Networks of Inquiry, Innovation and Indigenous Education and committee members of the OECD Innovative Learning Environment committee. As stated in last week’s newsletter, please be aware that parking around the school next Friday will be limited. Guests will be arriving from 7am for an 8am start to ensure minimal additional traffic around the school at peak times.

Don’t forget Wednesday 14 is a public holiday and our next Free Dress day to support the Fete is Friday 16 August.

Have a great week,

Zoe Smith

Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Remember we are now on Instagram, please join us at graceville_state_school to keep informed on what are the latest happenings in and around the school.

Inbound Study Tour 2019 – Wenhua School

We are enjoying hosting our study tour with 12 students from Wenhua and teacher Susan currently. Thank you to our host families who are doing a fantastic job in caring for these students in their homes.

Outbound Study Tour

I have sent home information with our group for Taiwan this week that we will have a meeting together next Tuesday at first break to meet with the teacher from Wenhua and talk about the school that we will be visiting.

Cybersafety – more information from last week’s sessions with our year 4-6 students

Social media tips

• Know which social media (apps or websites) your child uses.
• Create your own social media accounts and add your child as a friend/follower

Strong passwords

• Teach your child how to create a strong password. Passwords should feature a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.
• Encourage the use of passwords for online accounts that differ from school, banking or email logins.
• Make sure they keep their passwords to themselves and have a routine for changing/updating them.

Effective privacy

• Ask your child to regularly update their privacy settings. Make sure their profile is private and only accessible by people they know.
• Limit the personal details your child shares in online accounts. For example, remove identifying photos, full name, date of birth, home address and telephone numbers. Sharing these can lead to misuse of this information by others.
• Ask your child to use a cartoon avatar for their profile picture or share a photo that doesn’t show their face.
• Encourage them to use an online nickname that doesn’t contain their full name or give away too much personal detail.
• Teach them to protect their identity.

For further information please go to the following websites:

Cybersafety website:

Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner:

Cybersafety Help Button:

Prep 2020

Exciting times ahead, please see important dates below about upcoming events to help provide a smooth transition to school for our future young students. If you haven’t done so, now is the time to book a meeting with me to discuss your child and complete the enrolment part of the process. The office staff have available times to choose from, please get in touch with them.

Date Claimers:

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
Prep uniform selling morning: Thursday November 28, 8:15 – 12:00

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.

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

Bronze Certificates have been handed out and students congratulated at Junior Assembly last week:

Prep: Chehah R, Danny W, Evie N, Kaisey L, Henry M, Christian H, Ustat S, Samson B
Year 1: Eliza C, Sasha H, Jessica R, Ariana S, Theo B, Benjamin M, Callum M,
Year 2: Thomas G, Paige T, Sanugi G

Extra special congratulations to Silver Certificate recipients: George T, Leo S, Verity S, Samuel C, Elsa, J, Roisin M, William W, Lucy L, Sophie J

GOLD CERTIFICATES to Benjamin D and Felix H – Congratualtions!

Well done to these students for being consistently safe, respectful and responsible!

Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

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 students 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.

For the students who will sit these assessments in September, I will be running a practice session to introduce the students to the new online format and processes. I will be releasing the participating students from classes on Tuesday 27th August to do some practice questions and show them what the process will involve and what they will need to do on the actual days of the assessments.

Students will need to bring their headphones with them for the practice sessions as well.

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 in 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 (6/9/19-20/9/19). A permission slip and invoice will be sent home in the coming weeks.

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.

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

Thank you to the Senior Choir and Ms West for their lovely singing at the welcome assembly for our visiting students on Monday afternoon. It is a great way to welcome them to our school. We hope they enjoy their time here.

This week all of our IM teachers and some of our students who completed successful auditions earlier this year have attended the Intermediate or Honours West Cent Instrumental Music Camps. We hope our students have had a fabulous week, learning new music and skills, developing their musicianship and making new friendships through a shared love of music. They will be performing at a concert on Friday night with students from various other schools in this region. Thank you for your understanding with the cancellation of IM lessons and rehearsals. They will resume as normal next week.

On 9 August we have a performance for the Junior Choir and invited students who have joined our rehearsals at the symposium.  They will be singing after the Welcome to Country and the sharing of the Inquiry to develop a school acknowledgement.  Students involved including as many Junior Choir students as possible, are 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 have been invited to sing at this event.  Both of these songs include Yuggera language. 

This year at the fete we have the Senior Band, Junior Choir and Senior Choir performing in that order from 11:50pm. Details of times will be given in the Newsletter next week. Please note that all of our instrumental ensembles will be performing at the workshop concert, at 2pm on 29 July. The workshop is an instrumental performance only (no choir performances).

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...

9 August - Symposium performance for students in the Junior Choir, Senior Choir or Inquiry to create a school Acknowledgement who have been attending choir rehearsals on Wednesday mornings this term (students to meet in the student services room at 7:45am - performance at 8:15am in the hall)
24 August - Fete performances - Senior Band, Junior Choir and Senior Choir from 11:50am
28/29 August - Instrumental Music Workshop - all instrumental students
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)

Library News

PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE 2019

Hopefully everyone is enjoying reading their favourite books for the Premier’s Reading Challenge! This year in Queensland more than 800 schools and individual readers have registered for the challenge and are busy trying to read their 15 (for Years 5 & 6) or 20 books (for Prep to Year 2). The Premier’s Reading Challenge concludes shortly on Friday 23 August 2019. If you are participating please make sure that you have your reading record sheet returned to the Library before August 23. If you are interested in getting involved, there are still reading record sheets available for collection in the library. More information can be found at this web address:

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB : TERM 3

Scholastic Book Club is up and running again this term. This term’s issue’s flyer (Issue 3) 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 9th AUGUST.

Preferred method of payment:

CREDIT CARD payments online, or through the LOOP APP [LOOP : Linked Online Ordering and Payment available on 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 17th of May.

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

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB 2019 PROMOTION:

Scholastic is offering a FREE BAG and a PRINTABLE PERSONALISED CERTIFICATE via email to each child on their second order for the year, regardless of the Issue. On their third order for the year (regardless of the Issue) each child will receive a FREE POSTER and BOOKMARK with their order. On their fourth order for the year (regardless of the Issue) each child will have the OPTION TO SELECT A FREE BOOK. There is no minimum spend on this promotion program.

Melanie Hutchinson
Teacher Librarian

Contact Club

‘Contact Club meets first Wednesday each month in the library after school drop or reading groups.

Next Contact Club is on 7th August. We would love to see you, even if for a short while. There’s plenty of new books to be covered before our children can borrow them, so pop in for a cuppa and friendly chat!’

Chappy’s Chat

Last Thursday our Year 5 students participated in their LOTE excursion. This day is a fantastic experience to learn much about some important aspects of Chinese culture. The excursion includes a visit to a Buddhist temple, where students engage in meditation, calligraphy and much more, before enjoying a delicious meal at a Chinese restaurant on the way home. I am sure the students thoroughly enjoyed what is a wonderful learning opportunity.

Since returning to school, I have had a number of excited students share about their amazing time at Creative Generations, which took place on the holidays. This experience is an awesome celebration of music and dance and students work extremely hard for many weeks to be part of this spectacular event. Miss Nichols does an incredible job with our enthusiastic group of C Gen performers. Thank you, Miss Nichols for all your hard work.

Have a fantastic week!

John Erichsen
(Chappy)

P&C News

P&C meeting

The P&C met last week on Wednesday 24 July.

Some key decisions made at the meeting resulted in the P&C purchasing:

• five laptops for use by the senior robotics club
• a new BBQ for use at fundraising and school community events.

These are both great examples of how the P&C contributes to the school through the funds it raises with the help of the parent body and broader local community.

If you would like to help contribute, look out for opportunities to donate to or participate in the Graceville State School fete!

We are also pleased to be contributing to the development of the Wonder Garden, planned for construction over the September school holidays. Look out for an update on this exciting development at the school fete.

The next regular meeting is scheduled for 7:30pm on Wednesday 16 October.

Tennis court bookings

Tennis court bookings are now made online through Book-a-Court via the GSS website:

For any questions, please contact Lydia: 0433 444 794

Transitioning to Tennis Australia’s Book-a-Court system has been a welcome development to help promote the use of the school’s tennis court as a community facility.

Members of the community can now see court availability, book and pay for bookings online. Access to the courts is through a security code provided on booking which is then used to unlock the tennis court gate.

Sincere thanks to Tennis Queensland for their assistance in implementing the system and to P&C Assistant treasurer, Lydia for all of the work she has done to get the system working.

Active School Travel

Fete competitions

The Fete Committee has generously donated one ride band per grade and free “tosses” for one lucky class…..want to know how you can be in the running to win these fantastic prizes?

To win the lob o choc free toss:

• Actively travel to school on the 2nd, 9th and 16th of August (walk, ride, roll, public transport, or park and stride)
• Your Teacher will collect stats each Friday
• We will work out the class with the highest average percentage of active travellers for these three weeks – this class will be the winner!

To win the ride bands (one per grade):

• Individuals who have ACTIVELY TRAVELLED will need to collect stamps and paper slips from the stamping stations on the 2nd, 9th and 16th of August.
• Entry Slips must be put into the box at the office

Your teacher will receive further information about the competition. You have to be active to win it! So get out your bikes, scooters and walking shoes and get the whole class involved.

Tuckshop News

Tuckshop Roster for week ending 9th of August 2019

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers.

We are still looking for a few more volunteers. Can you help? Dates still needing help are as follows:

Friday, 9/8
Thursday, 22/8 (Fete Week)
Friday, 23/8 (Fete Set Up Day)
Thursday, 29/8
Thursday, 5/9
Monday, 9/9, and
Thursday, 19/9.

Please email us at tuckshop.gss@gmail.com if you could spare 3 hours of your morning to come in and help.

Thanks.

Uniform Shop

Fiona Fryer

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

Uniform Store Roster

Prep Selling Days

Thursday November 28th 2019 8.15-11.30am
Wednesday January 22nd 2020 3-6pm

Stock Update

We have new girls 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 back in stock.
All sizes of the 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

School Plus

Week two of Term 3 has been jam-packed with many different and very fun activities. The children have been enjoying their time very much at School Plus Graceville this week, with some awesome sponge paintings, waffle block creations (even a goat was made!), spontaneous soccer, yoga, cup-catch, music and dancing and much, much more!

The preps have been full of energy at their morning group games and had lots of fun dancing with ribbons, playing ‘1,2,3 Clap’ outside in the fresh morning air and thinking outside the box with some very clever ‘I Spy’ suggestions.

That’s all for this week! Watch this space to hear about next week’s exciting and fun news.

Community Notices

Brisbane State High School Enrolment Opportunities

Graceville Presbyterian Church Kids Club

UQ Parent Perception Survey