25 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

Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

I hope you had a great week!

This week was our Quadrennial School Review. Kath Murdoch our Inquiry expert and two Principals from interstate have been helping to review our school to help us both affirm the progress we have made as a school over the past four years and to understand our next best steps as a school to ensure we continue to enhance our practices. Once we receive our report, I will share some feedback through the newsletter.

Year 5 camp was a great success! I am so thankful to the teachers who attended for volunteering their time to take the students on camp. One of the things that is always beautiful to see is the more informal and personal relationships the teachers and students share. I was so proud to see all of our teachers choosing to engage with the students in the free time, playing cricket, soccer or just simply sitting and chatting with groups of students. It was really a very heart-warming experience. I think the night lazer tag was a big hit with both the students and adults!

World Teachers Day is on Friday. Thank you so much to the P&C for adding to the morning tea we put on for the teachers. It was very much appreciated! Our teachers are amazing and they go above and beyond for our students and community. Our teachers are continually engaged in learning as adults to ensure our practices are as up to date as possible. I feel very lucky to have a group of great teachers AND great people to work with!

Thank you to the families who supported Day for Daniel. It was lovely to see so many red shirts helping raise awareness for child safety.

Don’t forget next Friday is a free dress day to support the Student Council. If you come in free dress it is a gold coin donation - $1 or $2 gold coin!

Have a great week,

Zoe Smith

Newsletter Articles

Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Some more photos from Study Tour 2019 to Taiwan!

Get Set for Prep!

We had a great roll up for our first Get Set for Prep session this week! Here are some photos of our new preppies enjoying some finger gym activities in our prep classrooms. Our next Get Set for Prep is on Monday next week, please see details below.

Date Claimers:

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.

Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Next Tuesday we have our Sports & Music photos.

Please remind all students to wear their school uniform only (no house shirts), badges on & looking presentable. If they play an instrument - please bring it along on Tuesday.

Sports photos – only students who have been in District, State or National teams. Ie. In a District team to a Regional competition.

School captains & Vice captains need to be at school by 8.25am.

Music News

Naomi Lindh

This week Mr Thomas Adeney has joined our teaching team for the remainder of the year. He will be teaching strings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as emailed to parents last Friday. If your child is in the string program and you have not received this email with lesson times, please contact me. We welcome Mr Adeney and hope he enjoys his time working with our string students.

All of our music students in ensembles and choirs will be performing at the end of year evening concert on Wednesday 13 November at 6pm. Please ensure your child is attending rehearsals and lessons regularly to prepare for this.

On Saturday 30 November our choir students are invited to sing at the Christian Riverside Church Community Carols evening. This will be a combined choir of any students in the Junior and Senior Choirs who are able to attend. The performance from our combined choir will be at 5:30pm. As there has been disruption to the normal Senior Choir rehearsals with the public holiday and PFD this term, any students in the Senior Choir who would like to join Junior Choir rehearsals for some additional practice of the songs we will be singing for this performance are welcome to join at 8:15am (on Wednesdays in the music room).

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
Tuesday 10:45 - 11:20 - Senior Strings - Mr Thomas Adeney
Wednesday 7:45am - 8:30am - Junior Choir (year 2 and 3 students) Mrs Lindh
Wednesday 10:45am - 11:25am - Beginner/Junior Strings - Mr Thomas Adeney
Wednesday 2:50pm - 4:00pm - Senior Band - Mr Stiller

Music teacher contact details...

Alex Grodecki - agrod3@eq.edu.au (at Graceville Thursdays)
Thomas Adeney - taden3@eq.edu.au (at Graceville Tuesdays and Wednesdays)
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...

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

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)

We look forward to performing for you at our upcoming concerts!

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

Library News

Melanie Hutchinson

BOOK FAIR IS COMING…

It’s that time of year again - the school library is hosting its annual BOOK FAIR!!

In WEEK FOUR, from Wednesday 30th October – Wednesday 6th November, Book Fair will take place in the LIBRARY.

It will be a huge event for everyone – there will be lots of fabulous books from publishers all over the world, with exclusive titles and great-value books for every child’s reading interest and level, so don’t miss out! (Don’t forget books make fantastic gifts - come in and get your Xmas shopping done early!) Remember, every purchase you make the library earns a percentage to gain great books and other resources for our library and classrooms.

So, if you love bringing children and books together, help us celebrate reading with our students and the school community. Keep an eye out for the Book Fair Flyer which will be sent home shortly.

BOOK WEEK DRAWING COMPETITION

A big thank you goes out to all those students who took the time to create an art entry for our BOOK WEEK DRAWING COMPETITION this year. A huge congratulations to the following winners and highly commended students who scored themselves first place, runner up and of course some wonderful prizes:

Prep [1st]: ANYA T; Prep [High Commended]: CHEHAN R
Year One [1st]: HARRY H; Year One [Highly Commended]: SOPHIA G
Year Two [1st]: SIENNA D; Year Two [Highly Commended]: FLYNN G
Year Three [1st]: LUCINDA J; Year Three [Highly Commended]: GABBY D
Year Four [1st]: CAITLIN D; Year Four [Highly Commended]: RUBY N
Year Five [1st]: ISABELLA N; Year Five [Highly Commended]: MARCUS K
Year Six [1st]: DANA J; Year Six [Highly Commended]: OLIVER D

Please feel free to come to the library and check out all the AMAZING artwork.

BOOK CLUB

Please be aware that we will not be running Book Club Issue 7 through the school due to the upcoming Book Fair. However, anyone who wishes to order from this brochure can view it and place orders online.

We will participate in the final Book Club (Issue 8) in the last few weeks of this term.

Melanie Hutchinson
Teacher Librarian

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

After last week’s Year 4 and 5 camps it is good to be back onsite, although I do love school camp experiences. Every camp is a brand new adventure. I expect parents and siblings heard excited recounts of camp fun and activities.

This Friday we celebrate World Teachers Day and recognise the invaluable contribution our teaching staff makes to the school community. We acknowledge the partnership between school and home and its positive impact on student learning and social development. The teaching team at Graceville State School are professional, passionate about learning, enthusiastic about engaging students and providing a safe and supportive; environment where curiosity abounds. I would like to thank our wonderful teachers for everything they do to empower students to be all they can be.

A sea of red will wash through our school on Friday as we support the Day for Daniel. Meeting at Memorial Park basketball court from 8am and leaving for school at 8.15, students and families are encouraged to wear a red shirt to show their support. It is also a great opportunity to talk with students about how to stay safe around and about in the community. I look forward to seeing you Friday morning wearing red.

Our Student Leadership process is in full swing and in the coming weeks we will hear announcements of those shortlisted for leadership positions, listen to speeches from the candidates and wait anxiously to discover who has been successful. I would like to wish all the candidates good luck in this process and trust the experience is one they gain greatly from.

Have an awesome week!

John Erichsen

P&C Update

Clarification – fete fundraising

In the newsletter last week, two different amounts were reports as the funds raised through the fete. One of these figures was the gross amount raised ($97,498) and the other was the net amount raised ($63,314).

We were pleased to receive further sponsorship funds in the past week, which brings the net amount to $64,783.

Volunteers

We really need a couple of people to step forward for some important volunteer roles in the school community next year. We are currently looking for people to run the Spellathon and school banking. The Spellathon is a great fundraiser and this year raised $13,000 for the school and we are sure the children would love to see school banking back if it’s possible.

If you are interested, please contact the P&C at: pcgracevilless@gmail.com

Voluntary Contributions

If you haven’t made a voluntary contribution yet this year, you can still contribute to help fund technology resources at Graceville State School.

You can make your Voluntary Contribution of $100 per student (or your preferred amount) by transfer to the P&C account, at the School Office or in $10 instalments online at

The P&C account details are:

Account name: Graceville State School P&C Association
BSB: 064-111
Account number: 000900130
Ref: VC “Child’s name”

P&C meeting

Please join us for the final of the year at 7:30pm on Wednesday 4 December.

Tuckshop News

Tuckshop Roster for week ending 1st of November 2019

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers.

Please note, the price increase announced in last week’s newsletter and further advertised via S24 last Friday.

Iced Monys and icecreams have increased in price so please note that you will need to send $1.20 with your child to purchase these items over the counter in future.

Should you have any questions about this price increase please email pandcgracevilless@gmail.com

There will be big changes in staff in the Tuckshop at the end of this year and we are already starting to transition our new Tuckshop Convenor. We are so excited to introduce our new Convenor to you. Please join us in welcoming the wonderful Alex Bentley who will be starting in Tuckshop in the convenor role on Friday, 25 October. Welcome Alex!!!

At the end of this year we say goodbye to Amanda Carpenter and Anne Canalese who have been in the Tuckshop for many years.

A farewell dinner is being planned for Thursday, 12/12 for them and Fiona Fryer who is finishing up in the Uniform Store this year. If you’d like to come along to say goodbye to these wonderful people, please drop us a line at tuckshop.gss@gmail.com

Thanks.

Uniform Shop

Fiona Fryer

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

Uniform Roster

Term 4

Prep Selling Days

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

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.

Stock Update

We have great quality swimming bags for $12 and swimming caps for $10 in various colours.

We have 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 back in stock.
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.

We will need some new volunteers for next year, if you are interested please send an email or come and see me in store.

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 the last term began with some morning yoga and meditation. The outside educator had yoga mats, meditation music playing and the children doing some light stretches and deep breathing to get ready for a morning of play.

The children enjoyed other morning activities this week including making playdough, construction, designing healthy meal plates, the food alphabet game and many more for Nutrition Week.

As of next week, we will be starting our Prep Independent Project, to help support our children with transition to grade one next year. It is separated in to 3 stages over the next 6 weeks with the end goal for the preps to transition to and from School Plus independently. We are excited to be a part of the preps transition to grade one and have loved watching the children grow and excel throughout the year.

Lastly, we would like to remind families to book in for our fun Pupil Free Day at School Plus with the theme Celebrating Everyone’s Birthdays. There will be cake making and lots of fun party games! Bookings can be made via our app or email!