3 December 2015

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

One week to go!

We are now officially in December! It is hard to believe but we are on the home stretch to Christmas!

Next week is a very big week at the school with the following events occurring:

• Monday 7th Upper school swimming carnival
• Tuesday 8th Lower school swimming carnival
• Wednesday 9th Class lists will be sent home
• Wednesday 9th final day for report cards to be sent home
• Wednesday 9th Graduation evening
• Thursday 10th Graduation and farewell assembly 9am
• Thursday 10th Year 6 Water park excursion

As we enter the last week of the school year, teachers will start to send home the books and equipment they will no longer need. Classes will continue to revise various aspects of their work from this year until the final day of school.

Our staffing for 2016 was only confirmed in the middle of last week so have been working hard to finalise classes. It is important to note that although we will start 2016 with 31 classes, we are very borderline in maintaining this beyond Day 8 2016. We usually gain students over the Christmas Holiday period and so we are hopeful the trend continues and we will not be faced with making changes to classes after Day 8. This is very important for the school community to understand ahead of time so you are aware of the possibility should it arise after Day 8.

Next year we will be saying good bye to a few teachers and welcoming some new teachers to the school. I would like to wish Mrs Christine Seeto the best of luck as she heads off on a new and exciting journey. I would also like to wish Mr Daniel Dempsey well as he takes on an Acting Deputy Principal position for 6 months of next year. I would like to thank Mrs Molloy and Mrs Hickey for the great commitment they have shown as contract teachers to our school this year. I am sure they will both keep aligned to the school and we hope to be able to offer them contracts again in the future.

I would like to welcome Ms Kerrie Byrne, Mrs Michelle Tink, Mrs Nicole Ford, Mrs Sanitha Mahabeer and Mrs Ailsa Hughes to our permanent teaching staff next year. All of these teachers have come highly recommended and with a range of skills that will enhance our current staff knowledge base. I would like to acknowledge the great commitment these teachers have already shown by attending the Curiosity and Powerful Leaning Professional Development we have accessed this year.

I am awaiting the final report from our Self Determined Review however shared a brief verbal report at the P&C meeting on Wednesday night. The review has provided a great starting point for our entry into the Curiosity and Learning project with a very loud and clear message from teachers, students and parents that an Inquiry based method of teaching and learning is essential as the next step for the development of our school. Our teachers will start their ‘curious’ learning journey in Semester 1 2016. I will provide more information on the outcomes of the review early next year.

If you see me Thursday afternoon, I am likely to have a painted face! Last year on our final assembly, the staff and children had voted for my hair to be sprayed multi colours. This year, the vote was for my face to painted! I have seen the possible patterns and all are lovely and in the spirit of having fun and coming together as a whole school to celebrate the end of a long school year.

I hope you have a great weekend and look forward to the last week of the 2016 school year!

Newsletter Articles

From the Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Term 4 Junior Assembly Calendar

Below is the calendar for the remainder of term 4 assemblies. All parents are welcome to attend. These assemblies begin at 2.15pm

Week	Date	Class Item
10	December 8	Prep T

2016 BOOK LISTS

Orders need to be placed no later than Wednesday 9th of December 2015.

Enhancement Program

Students involved in the Enhancement program are to purchase from the following lists:

Some important information for parents re. Booklists:

• Every year level and classroom operates a bit differently so from year to year there may be some changes when it comes to resource use
• All items purchased by parents ie. Booklist items, should be labelled prior to the start of the school year
• It is up to you, as a parent, whether you wish to cover your child’s books or not
• Items that are not used during the year are returned to students at the end of the year, however most items are used throughout the year.
• Certain brands of items listed in the Booklists are requested due to their effectiveness. It is better to have high quality consumables eg. gluesticks, pens, which last longer and work better, than having cheaper inferior products.
• Certain items from year to year are required the following year: eg. USBs, atlases, headphones, recorder
• All items on the booklist are required to start Day 1 of the new school year. The gradual bringing-in of items creates confusion in classrooms.
• When students don’t have all of their items on the first day it creates a high level of anxiety for some children.

From the Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Junior Rotary Award

This year fourteen Graceville State School Students successfully completed the Junior Community Rotary Award. This award acknowledges many months of commitment and giving up many hours of time out of school hours to complete the award. Over a 10 week period the students completed 1 hour a week of community service in which they gave back to the community; 2 hours a week of a new sporting skill; and 1 hour a week learning a new skill. That alone is 40 hours of extra activity to arrange and complete. They also attended a Commemorative Service, with many of the students attending an ANZAC Day service; a Community Meeting such as a P&C meeting; an Arts Event like a play or performance; participated in a Cultural exchange in which they discovered more about an unfamiliar culture; and a Religious or Spiritual Experience in which they explored an unfamiliar religion or spiritual belief. For each of these activities the students kept notes and created reports or posters about their experiences. As you can see, it is an incredible amount of work. But each and every child described completing the award as, “Worth it.” They learnt much along the way. Recently they attended a special Awards Evening during which they were awarded their certificates and medallions.

Congratulations Fergus, Max, Tom, Elliot, Jenna, Tihari, Ashleigh, Ella, Emily, Kate, Lili, Tilly, Tylah and Samuel.

Mrs Hornstra
Year 6 Teacher and Rotary Co-ordinator

Money Matters

Roberta Haryicki

Thank you to the families who have settled their accounts from the reminder statements sent home. To follow-up, staff will be calling families in regards to accounts not yet finalised. Please treat these overdue account with your immediate attention.

2016 Student Resource Schemes (SRS) for:

• Prep Requirements ($60)
• Instrumental Music Programs (Various)
• Mathletics On-Line Registrations ($10)
• Religious Education Resources ($10)

will be issued this term in readiness for 2016.

The completion and return of these forms this year, will allow office staff to invoice at the commencement of 2016.

Credit in Account: These will be applied to current invoices at the parent’s request.
Request for Refund form for an excursion paid and not attended is available from the front office. Prepaid ticketing excursions are non-refundable.

Payment of account days:

8am-3.15pm - 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.

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

The end of a busy school year is rapidly closing and while there are still some important matters to take care of, now is also a time to reflect on 2015 and all that has been done since the school year began. Our 2016 Prep students have had their orientation morning and it highlighted how much our current Preppies have grown this year. Not just in height, but also in knowledge, understanding and confidence. Our Year one students will transition into year two and become the leaders of the lower school, including hosting junior assemblies. Current year four students head into a new school year which carries a focus on future school leadership and our existing year fives take on the mantle of student leaders when they return after the holiday break. Much will seem very new next year. Our graduating year level will discover an incredibly different environment and for those students, this time of year can be both exciting and unsettling. Some long term school friendships will forever change as students venture to different secondary schools in 2016 and there will be some tears as the final curtain falls on their primary school experience. This change is also true for parents. The faces at school drop off and pick up may be very different next year, or as many parents of high schoolers discover, public transport with friends is way cooler than having parents drop off and pick up. Whatever your transition looks like, I hope you are prepared for change. It is inevitable. Though we often try hard to, we can no more prevent change than we can prevent the ocean waves from crashing on the shore. The winds of change will blow and, I trust, set you and yours on a course for incredible discovery and great success.

The Clowning for Chaplaincy event has run its course and there have been many stories to read, a plethora of coloured socks and numerous examples of crazy hair on campus over the past 10 days. Once again the support from school community for this event is incredible. Thank you to all who have contributed to the success of this event!

This week the school is advised regarding our application for Federal Government funding for chaplaincy from 2016 – 2018. Once this advice is received, the chaplaincy service, school administration and the P & C will be in a better place to determine what the chaplaincy service will look like moving forward. It is a big financial commitment to fund a 5 day per week chaplaincy service, although the consistent level of support and service a full time service provides is a positive for students and staff. The school community will be advised regarding funding as soon as we are notified.

As this is the second last newsletter for 2015, I would like to offer a huge thank you to the school community for not only the support I receive, but for the wonderful privilege I have in being invited into the school to work alongside teaching and support staff, to assist in delivering the most positive school experience possible for our students. May your holiday break be one filled with good times and memorable moments shared with those close to your heart. This Christmas, in a world where peace is fleeting and the worst of humanity is so often on display, may you experience the best of times and the best of people. May your home echo with love and laughter and may 2016 be especially bright for you and yours!

Merry Christmas

Music Notes

Naomi LINDH

As the year draws to an end, we would like to thank all families for their support with our instrumental and choral program throughout the year. Please ensure that your child has returned the music to their conductor, particularly band and orchestra students. All instruments should also have been returned to the school by this stage. If your child still has the instrument please ask them to return it to the music department as soon as possible.

I can confirm that we are unable to participate in the community carols event this year, as it is being held during the Christmas holidays and many students and families are unavailable.

All of our rehearsals have now finished for the year. At the beginning of next year we will send out a note to all students interested in joining the choir, which is for students in years 2 to 6. We are still finalising a few places in the instrumental program as well, which we hope to do before the end of the year if possible.

Thanks again for your support.

Creative Generation 2016

Amanda Nicholls

CREATIVE GENERATION – STATE SCHOOLS ON STAGE

Nominations have now opened for all students currently in year 3-5 who would like to participate in Creative Generation. Students who attended a meeting at school this week would have received an information pack to take home. If your student was unable to attend but is interested please see the link below for information. All forms must be handed into the School Office by Tuesday 8 December, 2015. Should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me via anich54@eq.edu.au

In just over a week CGEN 2015 will be on TV! Network Ten will be screening a 90 minute edit of the show on Saturday 12 December at 2:30pm (Check your local guides). How exciting!

Active School Travel

TACO TUESDAY!

(Travel Actively Coming-to-school On)

Can you help???

We are looking for parents / caregivers to join our committee next year. If you can spare a few hours a month to help with event organisation, fundraising, newsletter writing, or research this would be fantastic! We are also looking for people with bike knowledge or with a fitness interest to help us keep the students engaged in the program, and help the school community to keep up its fantastic level of activity. If you would like further information please contact Jo Richards at sajrichards@iinet.net.au Our next meeting will be Thurs 4th Feb 2016.

Keep reading the newsletters for more information on the program and for special stamping days.

P & C NEWS

We wish you a safe and happy holidays and look forward to seeing you in 2016. Keep a look-out for the 2016 P&C meeting dates in the newsletters next year. Thank you to all who have been part of the P&C and attended the meetings. You have helped to make Graceville State School a better place for our children.

Honour Avenue Street Improvement underway

You may have noticed that work has begun on the Honour Avenue Suburban Centre Improvement Project (SCIP). Council and local businesses are pumping $3.75 million into the street scape over the next six months. Work around the Bank Road shops parking areas has caused short term parking problems over the last week or so. All businesses will remain open during this time. It is important that we as a school community continue to support these local businesses through this trying time as these businesses are such strong supporters of the school.

Grants Working Group

The P&C is looking for a small group of school supporters to monitor and manage Grants for which the school may be eligible. As I'm sure you're aware money, to provide improvements to and maintenance of facilities, is always in short supply. Every time we miss the opportunity to apply for a Grant it is a big loss to the school and the kids. In fact this occurred at the last P&C meeting and this is the reason for this call-out.

Grants generally come from specific sources - it just needs dedicated people to monitor these with the Facilities Improvements Plan in mind and then help with the submission/s. It will not be an onerous task particularly if there is more than one person - in fact it could be quite social. If you'd like to help please email pandc@gracevilss.eq.edu.au

Booklists 2016

The 2016 Graceville State School Booklist have now been published. This booklist contains a list of required texts and workbooks and the necessary stationery needed for each individual year level.

Each year level has different requirements so to try and reduce some of the running around during school holidays, the P&C has once again worked closely with our recommended supplier, Brodies, to source the relevant items for Graceville State School students.

Whilst you aren’t required to purchase your books from Brodies, the P&C receives a donation from Brodies for Graceville families who order their goods through their store and references Graceville State School.

If your child has progressed through the years at Graceville and has accumulated a number of pencils, erasers, glue sticks or crayons etc., you can reuse these for next year if they are of a usable quality. It is up to you to decide which items you need to purchase or replace. Each year level has different text book and exercise book requirements, so these will usually need to be purchased. If you are unsure, please consult your teacher to discuss requirements.

For further information regarding the P&C or its activities, please contact the P&C at email:

pandc@gracevilss.eq.edu.au or visit the school website at

Contact Club

Thank you to our Contact Club members for your tireless work and commitment to covering our new library resources. Thanks to the P&C injecting $40,000 into our school literacy program, we have covered countless books, soft and hardcover, readers, picture books, you name it!

It has been good fun and interesting to see the new books coming through; a very rewarding year! I hope to see you again next year, there are still so many books and so little time! New dates will be given for 2016, so keep an eagle eye open for them! Also thank you to our ‘silent’ members who come in at different hours to collect books to cover at home in your own time. Your work is much appreciated too. Many thanks, Amanda.

TUCKSHOP

• Last day of Tuckshop is this Friday 4th of December!
• The Tuckshop will streamline to online ordering ONLY in 2016. Students will still be able to cash purchase ice blocks and packaged foods over the counter at 11am.
• Be prepared, get registered, and online now! If you need help to order online, click the following link to learn how to register for School24.

• Register your interest in becoming a volunteer for 2016 now! We have spaces left just for you. Pal up with a friend and do a shift together. Remember it is only one shift per month. You can have a cuppa and chat while you do great work helping to prepare first break lunches. Roster times are 8.40am-11.30am; just three hours. Your children will love to see you in the tuckshop and you will feel good having done something so important and rewarding. We need your help to keep our five day a week tuckshop open. Please email us on tuckshop.gss@gmail.com
• A big THANK YOU to all our volunteers for this year. We have appreciated your help and company immensely and could not have fed the students without you. Your willingness to help and pitch in at times of dire need has been gratefully accepted. To those volunteers who are hanging up their aprons and graduating to high school, thank you for your time and dedication. We will miss you! To our continuing volunteers, thank you, and we look forward to seeing you in 2016, Have a great holiday!

Amanda and Anne
tuckshop.gss@gmail.com

To start using School24 to order your children's tuckshop go to https://www.school24.com.au/ps_parent.asp to create an account.

Graceville's school ID is 25314963. Then follow the instructions. If you have any problems, please check out the school website for more information or email us at the tuckshop on the above email address.

UNIFORM AND STATIONERY STORE

Sue-Ellen Lockwood

The uniform store will be closed the last Friday of the year.

Back to school 2016 selling will be

• Monday 25th January 3pm to 6pm
• Tuesday 26th January 9am to 11am

Families already at Graceville School are encouraged to come during normal uniform store hours for their prep needs due to these selling days usually being busy days.

Booklists are up on the Brodies Bookstore website now and also attached to this newsletter.

The uniform shop will be open Wednesday to Friday of the 1st week of school 2016 from 8.15am to 9.00am.

The 2nd hand sale continues, with all 2nd hand gold shirts $5 each and all 2nd hand jumpers, culottes and long pants $8 each.

Tis the season to buy cookbooks. Cookbooks are in stock $10 each, once they are gone they will not be reprinted. A free packet of Christmas cards with each cookbook sold.

Christmas cards with students' adorable artwork also for sale $2 for 10 cards and $3 for 20 cards.

We sell swimming caps, goggles, towels, swim bags and limited rashies and boy briefs.

House shirts for years 3 to 6 are available for the swimming carnival in early December.

Order forms are available on the School website. New prices started from 1 November so download the new form. If you have trouble making it in to school, complete the order form and email it. The completed order will go to your child's classroom.

Email address for school uniform store is: uniformstore@gracevilss.eq.edu.au

SchoolPlus

This week at OSHC we are really excited about our new healthy breakfast option, Apple Cinnamon Muesli and Yoghurt! The children have voted and after a trial earlier in the week we are happy to add this to our breakfast menu for the rest of the term.

We explored with Ice Play this week too. Playing with the cool water and ice was so nice during the hot weather we’ve had this week. Dom loved the feeling of the ice and an opportunity to explore a new experience here at OSHC. We are going to continue to offer this Ice Play and will be adapting it every week to keep it interesting and exciting.

The children have also been involved in looking after our new worm farm. The worm farm, located in the garden outside OSHC, has been stocked with fruit and veggies every afternoon by the children. We are planning some activities to teach everyone more about what kind of foods we can feed our worm friends and how they can help our OSHC garden grow.

We are now taking 2016 bookings! We have a lot of new Preps starting next year and we are excited to get to know all our new families.

Community Notices

CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Discovery bird walk

Discovery bird walk – this Sunday in Sherwood Arboretum

This Sunday is another great opportunity to enjoy Brisbane’s wonderful birdlife.

One of our State’s most experienced bird watchers will be your guide for an exciting introduction to the summer birdlife of the heritage-listed Sherwood Arboretum beside the Brisbane River.

Australian and internationally-recognised ecologist, Professor Hugh Possingham of The University of Queensland will share his life-long passion for birds during this 90-minute walk through the Arboretum, starting at the Jolimont Street, Sherwood entry at 6am on Sunday 6 December.

The walk will take in the wetlands, home to many wader, water and bush birds, not to mention the rich variety of birdlife which make their summer home among the Arboretum’s stunning collection of more than 1000 Australian specimen trees.

After the walk, the Friends of Sherwood Arboretum Association (FOSA) will be your host for a relaxing morning tea on the banks of the Brisbane River.

The cost of $5.00 for adults supports FOSA’s on-going effort to help care for this unique Arboretum, which celebrated its 90th anniversary this year.

To join the walk, simply email info@sherwoodarboretum.com.au or call (07) 3278 6525 as soon as possible and certainly by noon this Friday.

Holiday Tennis Clinic

We will be running a Tennis clinic at West Brisbane Tennis Centre from Monday 18th January to Wednesday 20th January 2016.

Time: 8.30am -12 noon each day
Cost: $135

Enquiries & Bookings jim@westbrisbanetennis.com.au Phone 0417 771022

Wishing everyone a very merry festive season & a great new year.

Thanks Jim

Annerley & Districts Blue Light Disco

Unfortunately due to declining attendances at the dances we regret to advise that this will be the last Blue Light Disco held by the Annerley & Districts Blue Light. We will be closing our doors for the last time on 4th of December 2015.

We would like to thank all the schools and students for supporting us over the years.

ANNERLEY & DISTRICTS BLUE LIGHT DISCO

***Friday 4th December 2015***

AGES: 7yrs. – 14yrs
TIME: 7pm-9.30pm
COST: $10.00
PLACE: Marymac Community Hall, 616 Ipswich Rd, Annerley

• Live DJ & Light Show
• Free Jumping Castle & Tattoos
• Lucky Door Prizes
• Drinks and sweets available for purchase

CONTACT: Senior Constable Lisa VOYSEY or Constable Rachel CUCKSON
Annerley Police Station Ph.: 3892 8222

Life Church Free Kids Program