10 October 2019

Domain and email change

Please be aware that the school’s domain name change for our school website address is now:

This domain name change also impacts upon the following email addresses, please ensure you have updated 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

Officer in Charge and Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

I hope you all had an enjoyable two week break and that students are ready for the final term this year, it is always a busy one!

Zoe is on Study Leave this week and we look forward to hearing about some of the things she will bring back from her trip to the University of Pennsylvania about ‘Inquiry as Stance’.

Next week we see our year 4 students attend camp on Monday and Tuesday, and our year five students will undertake camp Wednesday to Friday. These are always great experiences and children learn so much. Thank you to the staff who give their time and evenings for these camps to be possible.

We had a wonderful Study Tour to Taiwan and Wenhua Elementary School for 10 days including the first week of the holidays. It was such a great cultural experience to be part of a Taiwanese family and attend school with school buddies. In coming newsletters I will have some student recounts of their experiences. One of the students today asked why we only go once every two years as he is in year 5 and would like to go again next year!

Here are some photos from our tour.

We were welcomed by over 1000 students on our first day at Wenhua.

The group had lunch with the Deputy Major of Taipei and members of the Council.

We visited a Traditional Taiwanese village on an excursion.

Story Workshop

At the end of Term 3, some of our teachers went to St Helen’s State School in Sydney to take part in training on Story Workshop, Loose Parts and Materials.

Story workshop operates under the belief that everyone has a story to tell and that stories can be communicated in many different ways. Students develop their language and literacy development by building and representing stories with a variety of objects.

In the workshop, children are presented with a variety of loose parts and materials such as blocks, paddle pop sticks, pipe cleaners, stones, feathers etc. The children build a “Page” selecting materials and make the story come alive as they tell the story that they have created. They capture these stories through photographs, video recordings and writing.

Our teachers were inspired at this workshop and returned on the last day of term to give it a go in their own classrooms.

Storyathon

Throughout term 3 the children in 3/4BH took part in a challenge called Storyathon. Students were challenged to write a story that was exactly 100 words long. It was certainly a challenge. They needed to think about every word they used and if there a word they could use instead of a phrase – very thought provoking. Storyathon was inspired by the work of the highly acclaimed high school English teacher and university lecturer, Paul Grover.

Once the challenge was completed 3 stories from 3/4BH were submitted and then all the children that participated got to vote on the stories submitted by all the schools in our division. After all of this, Walter P’s story finished in the top 10 for the year 3 and 4 division across Australia and New Zealand. What an amazing effort Walter, congratulations!

Please read Walter’s story below:

Prep 2020

Term 4 commences our Get Set for Prep series, so make sure you know the days and times of those three sessions. You are welcome to attend if you are on our waiting list for prep in 2020 also. Next term is when we will start to get an idea if we will have any prep spots for out-of-catchment places.

If you are a current school family or have an in catchment enrolment for prep next year please come into the office to collect enrolment forms and arrange for a meeting asap. This will enable us to get a good idea of numbers for classes and assist in our planning.

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 and Wednesday January 22nd 2020 3-6pm

Below is the calendar for Junior Assemblies in Term 4. Everyone welcome, we are on from 2.15pm on these Tuesdays in the hall.

Newsletter Articles

Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Naplan Online School Readiness Test

This week our Year 2, 3 and 5 students have participated in the Naplan Online School Readiness Test. This process was to ‘test’ the school’s capabilities to run the Naplan online tests in the future. The sessions we did ran very well. Our network coped well with having 3 classes participating on the same App at the same time. Our teachers had a practice at running the tests in the online platform and our students had a ‘real’ opportunity to practice their ICT skills as well as testing their knowledge. Our teachers and students went very well in the sessions and I believe that the online process is actually much better for our students than the paper versions. This may have a positive influence in the future for our students. No student data was collected in this process.

Year 4 & 5 camps next week

We have a very busy week with 2 camps next week – Year 4s Monday & Tuesday off to Mt Tamborine and Year 5s off to Noosa North Shore from Wednesday to Friday. I am certainly looking forward to going on the Year 5 camp next week. I am sure we will have lots of fun.

Inquiry HOC

Belinda Martin

It is with much excitement that the Wonder Garden is almost complete and we are closer to being able to use this “wonder-filled” space for outdoor learning or even as a calming, mindfulness area. The design and organisation of the project has been “in the works” for a year and was initially made possible by the family voluntary contributions from a previous year that was dedicated to inquiry learning. Through community, staff and student consultation it was decided that we would create a garden which would evoke a sense of wonderment and have a focus on sustainability and a connection to place. In the planning phase of the project, students had the opportunity to design their own Wonder Garden landscape and these drafts were shared with the creative Everscapes Landscaping team who were able to include students’ ideas within their final design. We look forward to sharing this with our community and would like to make a special mention to our Graceville P & C and Everscapes Landscaping (Click here for more information); who have generously contributed to the our project and have made this become a reality– alongside Centenary Landscaping Supplies (Click here for more information), Abda Stone (Click here for more information) and Urban Turf Solutions (Click here for more information) who also donated their materials towards the project. To see how the Wonder Garden was created head over to our Instagram Page to see the progress.

Music News

Naomi Lindh

We hope all of our students and families had a lovely holiday! It is always a little easier to attend morning rehearsals in the warmer weather and all of our ensembles will be rehearsing for the end of year concert, with some groups having additional performances. These dates are listed below - please note them in your calendar as we need all students to attend for successful performances and to share the music they have been working hard on during the semester.

Mrs Prout will be on leave this term as she has had surgery on her knee. We are thinking of her during this time and wish her a speedy recovery.

Students in the Junior and Senior Choir have been invited to sing at the Riverside Church Community Carols evening on Saturday 30 November at 5:30pm. All students in the choir are welcome to attend and sing in a combined Junior/Senior Choir. This is a voluntary performance opportunity for our students. The evening starts at 5pm, with singing beginning at 5:30pm. Further information will be given to students about the event next term but we are letting you know so you can schedule this in your calendars for families who would like to attend. This will be our last choir performance for the year and it would be lovely to see our students singing some fun Christmas songs at the community carols evening.

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...

30 November - 5:30 - Christian Riverside Church Community Carols - all students from the Junior and Senior Choir students are invited to sing (performance scheduled for 5:30pm)
13 November - Annual Music Concert at 6pm - all choral and instrumental music students will be performing at his concert
27 November - Grandparents' Concert at 10am - 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!

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

Welcome back everyone! I have seen so many excited faces as the final term of the year commences. Students excited to be back at school to reconnect with friends and share tales of their holiday adventures. Teachers excited to get back into the swing, knowing Term 4 will race by and there is still much to be done. Parents and caregivers excited about just a hint of self-indulgence in the form of a quiet read or even a coffee with friends, following two weeks of being constantly available to energetic children. However, your school holidays played out, I trust you had a great break and made the most of your time with family and loved ones.

This term sees our students back in the pool for swimming lessons. With some warm days ahead, I expect swimming to be very popular as well as important for water safety. This term the focus of swimming lessons will be life saving. Students will learn and develop skills which will help them survive in deep water, learn life-saving strokes that can be used for long periods of time and also learn life-saving techniques in case they ever had to assist someone struggling in deep water. Our Year 5 students will also participate in a beach awareness session as part of their camp next week.

Have a wonderful first week back!

John Erichsen
(Chappy)

P&C Update

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the P&C is in Week 2 of Term 4 on Wednesday 16 October at 7:30pm.

Tuckshop News

Tuckshop Roster for week ending 18h of October 2019

Welcome back!

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers.

Below, are the order numbers from last 3 weeks of term 3. Traditionally, the numbers keep getting bigger as the year draws to a close. Who wants to make lunches?

Of course, we LOVE making lunches but we’ve got a few gaps in our term 4 roster. Can you help on any of the dates below?

Friday 25th October
Wednesday 30th October
Friday 1st November
Wednesday 6 November
Friday 22 November - need two volunteers
Wednesday 27th November
Friday 29th November
Wednesday 4th December

Should you be able to help on any one or more of the above listed dates or you have any questions pertaining to anything Tuckshop related, please don’t hesitate to contact us at tuckshop.gss@gmail.com

Uniform Shop

Fiona Fryer

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

Uniform Roster

Term Term 4

Prep Selling Days

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

Stock Update

We have girls long pants in royal blue in stock for $30 and a lightweight microfibre jacket in royal blue and gold for $33. Size 6 microfibre jackets are now out of stock.

Size 8 Flinders shirts are out of stock until the beginning of term 4.
Size 8 dresses are out of stock until the end of the year.
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

Term 4 Swim Program

Spaces are still available in the 4th term swim program. The program will begin the first Friday of Term 4 on October 11th. All students will begin the term in the SAME ABILITY LEVEL as term 1 as a starting point. During the course of the term the coach may move students to different levels where appropriate.

To join the entry group class of Beginner Stroke Development (BSD), children must be in Year 1 or older and be able to swim 25m freestyle non stop. Any children not of this age or ability may enrol in private lessons on offer Friday afternoons and Monday afternoons.

Spaces are limited, so to avoid disappointment, respond to this email asap with your preferred days and available times. Feel free to contact me via return email or phone if you have any questions (ph: 0432407442).

Beginner Stroke development will run Mon to Thurs from 3 pm until 3:30 pm. Advanced stroke development will run from 3:30 pm until 4 pm on the same days and this will be followed by Junior squad and squad from 4 pm. If you are new to my swim school YOU WILL NEED to call me directly to discuss your child's ability and needs.

A terms and conditions agreement will be given to all the new students at their first lesson. This needs to be signed and returned no later than the 2nd lesson. Those who have enrolled previously do not need to complete a new agreement as the terms and conditions are unchanged and it is an ongoing agreement whilst participating in my Graceville swim school. Please advise if you would like another copy of the T's and C'c. Parents will be invoiced for the term once the program is settled.

Please send me ALL YOUR AVAILABLE DAYS and times and also days and times you are DEFINITELY NOT AVAILABLE. You will receive an email regarding your booking which will need to be confirmed by you before the commencement of the program.

See you at the pool.

Pete Geraghty

School Plus

The last week of term 3 was filled with much excitement leading up to school holidays! The children enjoyed celebrating the end of another term by having a sausage sizzle and dance party.

We kicked off our Vacation Care program with a What I Want to Be When I Grow Up Day. We had guest speakers from three of our wonderful families that came in to inspire the children and talk about what they do for a living. There were many busy days where we reached over 100 children a day including our Build a Bear Incursion, Lone Pine Excursion, Master Chef Cook Off and Build Your Own Rocket.

We also planted some beautiful flowers for our next project which is our Spring Garden. The children did a fantastic job with the vegetable garden project that began in March and were ready for another challenge.

School Plus is excited to continue the journey in the last term and support the children with transitioning, particularly the preps transition to grade 1! We have some more exciting events and programmes planned for term 4 and can’t wait to share them with our wonderful families.

Tennis for Kids

Community Notices