13 August 2020

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

We are now half way through the term! How time flies!

Don’t forget tomorrow, Friday 14th is a Public Holiday. I hope you can enjoy the long weekend!

Thankyou so much for the support you have shown the school as we navigate our way through the challenges of Term 3. As you know, in week six we are maintaining limited access to the school. We will inform you of any changes to access to the school in a letter home at the end of next week.

A group of very enthusiastic and dedicated parent volunteers are working hard to design an amazing event for our children. The team have listened to the voices of the children, via the Student Council, and are doing their best to include all of the ideas that have been suggested. The event, ‘Rainbow Ninja Challenge’ will happen in school time on Thursday 17 September. The event team are conscious of the COVID regulations for the event and are working to make a fun day which fits within the guidelines. We hope you can support the Lob a Choc Free Dress Day on Friday 28 August by donating at least one, hopefully more, blocks of chocolate for the Lob-o-choc game which will be part of the event. Keep any eye out for future communication about the event! This is going to be great fun for the children and help to raise funds for the P&C.

A second fundraising event is now in the planning. I am excited to say we will be able to host an ‘Arts’ type event in mid Term 4. We are considering ‘Arts’ rather than just visual art to include a wider range of talents to be showcased. After meeting with some enthusiastic parent volunteers this week, we have a basic plan to get us started and will build upon the plan over the coming weeks. Of course, we also have to work within the COVID guidelines. So far, we have seven parents with a range of creative backgrounds who are keen to help us with the event. It would be lovely to have more parents with creative ideas to help us shape the space and curate the spaces too! Our next meeting is Wednesday 19 August at 6.15pm. This meeting is prior to the P&C meeting. If you would like to learn more about the event you are welcome to come along and we are hoping we can set up a zoom for those who cannot attend face to face. Please consider how you could help even if just part of a set up team on the day to help curate spaces or pack up that night or next day. Many hands make light work and this event has the potential to be beautiful and showcase the talents of our children and possibly even our parents, past students and other community members. The date will be confirmed after the P&C meeting next week and advertising will go out shortly afterwards. If you are a parent who would like to showcase some art (we are looking at arts broadly in the event) we are keen to have a parent/past student/local friend section to the event. We are also keen to find donations of items, experiences etc. linked to the Arts to raffle or auction as part of the event. If you can help us or have any connections we can draw upon would love to hear from you! We also have an idea for a Designer/Art/Craft market at the end of the gallery walk and so if you are interested in making and selling items, we may have a creative space for you to sell your wares too! Keep an eye out for more information over the next few weeks.

Finally, the P&C meeting is next Wednesday night. Our P&C are working hard to make the end of this year a memorable one for the community. You are all welcome along or zoom in to the meeting at 7.30pm.

Have a great week,
Zoe Smith

Newsletter Articles

Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

In-catchment enrolments

If you are a school family or new family within our catchment area and you have a preppie for 2021, please enrol now. This will enable us to start planning for our prep classes for next year.

Technology Update

We have had some voluntary contributions come in over the past term, thank you! This has meant that we have just been able to send away an order for 5 more laptops to be used in our upper school classes. I look forward to posting some photos of them in use when they arrive. We do have many laptops currently being used that are old and out of warranty so any voluntary contributions coming in will be put to good use.

Prep Information for 2021

If you are interested in viewing information about prep please use this link and password to view a video about the prep program and steps to enrol and prepare for prep entry for next year (this is instead of our annual prep information evening):

Password is GSSPrepInfo

Preparing for Prep 2021

Some key dates have changed this year due to COVID-19.

Our Prep waiting list for 2021 for out of catchment is now open. The waiting list must be done in person at the school office.

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:

Prep interviews

Interviews for in-catchment families are now open for booking and interviews will start from Monday July 27, these will be done in person at school.

You will be able to use a home computer, a tablet or mobile phone to access the parent booking system. Depending on your configuration you will be required to enter an email or uniquely identifying value.

Please use the following URL to make a booking:

Prior to your interview you will need to complete the 2 school enrolment forms and also bring the completed prep profile to the interview with your child.

Term 4

Get Set for Prep proposed sessions

At this stage we will plan to proceed with face to face sessions although we will have to wait and see health and safety directives to come. Families must RSVP for these sessions either by email to Prepyear@gracevilless.eq.edu.au or phone the office as we will have a limited number of spaces for each session.

Session 1: Tuesday Oct 20 OR Friday Oct 23, 9 – 10:30am Focus on Fine Motor Skills
Session 2: Thursday Oct 29, 9 – 10:30 Introduction to Speech and Language Development with our School Speech Language Pathologist
Session 3: Tuesday Nov 10 OR Friday Nov 13, 9 – 10:30am Focus on Reading

Prep Orientation meetings: Thursday November 26

Meet the class session: Thursday December 3, 9 – 10am

Junior Assemblies in term 3

Despite not being able to hold our assemblies in the hall each fortnight we have still been coming together each fortnight online from classrooms to celebrate the achievements of our students with class awards and Gotcha certificates. I’m sure the children have been proudly bringing home their certificates to share with you. We have also been sharing class items as well, using the new technological skills we have gathered over the past few months.

Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Just some information about upcoming events:

• Year 5 students will be involved in the ‘Kokoda” excursion on Tuesday 25 August
• School photos will be held in Week 1 of Term 4 – Thursday 8 October. This year there will not be any siblings photos.
• Year 5 camp will go ahead in Week 2 of Term 4, 14-16 October at Noosa North Shore

UNSW assessments schedule: (all in the library)

Science:

Maths:

Years 2 & 3 will use ipads & years 4-6 will use desktops in the computer lab. Year 4-6 students will need their school log in & password.

Please ensure that students arrive a couple of minutes prior to their allocated time.

If any students are absent on the day the will need to come to see the office staff to see if a make-up can be arranged, in their own time. Class time won’t be used for any assessments. The testing ‘window’ is only for that week of the two tests eg. Science is only open next week, Maths is in that week 31/8-3/9.

Year 3-6 Assemblies in term 3

Despite not being able to hold our assemblies in the hall each fortnight we have still been coming together each fortnight online from classrooms to celebrate the achievements of our students with class awards and Gotcha certificates. I’m sure the children have been proudly bringing home their certificates to share with you. Our four School Leaders have been running the assemblies and have been doing a great job!

Music News

Naomi Lindh

Thank you to the students who have been attending rehearsals over the last few weeks. We are continuing to sing/play music for enjoyment and skill building while developing a repertoire of music to share with the school community. Thank you for your understanding with the changes to our rehearsals this term. Rehearsals will be continuing to take place in the school hall. We are currently finalising plans for the sharing of our music with the school community and families. Please check the next newsletter article for further details.

We are following Education Queensland guidelines and physically distancing students during rehearsals as well as cleaning equipment and sanitising/washing hands. Thank you to our students for assisting their conductors with these protocols. We hope students are enjoying their rehearsals and making music with their peers and conductors!

If you have any questions for teachers/conductors, please note their email details below. It is important for students to wear warm clothes for the early morning rehearsals. If your child is sick and unable to attend a rehearsal, please send an email to their conductor.

Music Teacher Contact Details...

Mrs Ruth Prout - string teacher and conductor - Wednesdays and Thursdays - rprou5@eq.edu.au
Mr James Kukulies - band teacher and conductor - Thursdays and Fridays - jkuku2@eq.edu.au
Mrs Naomi Lindh - classroom music teacher and choir conductor - Mon - Fri - nclos1@eq.edu.au

Rehearsal days (rehearsals are all currently held in the school hall)

Tuesday 7:45am - Senior Choir (Year 4 - 6 students)
Wednesday 7:45am - Junior Choir (Year 2 - 3 students)
Wednesday first break - Junior/Beg Strings
Thursday 7:45am - Senior Strings
Thursday 2:50 - 4pm - Senior Band
Friday 7:45am - Junior Band

Thank you for supporting our music program!

Naomi Lindh
Music Teacher and Choral Conductor

Library News

Melanie Hutchinson

PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE 2020

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).

Please be aware that the Premier’s Reading Challenge concludes NEXT WEEK on Friday 28 August 2020. If you are participating please make sure that you have your reading record sheet returned to the Library before August 28.

It should include the books you have read or experienced - books and e-books may be selected from our school library, your local library, home libraries and/or reading resources at school.

P&C News

Next P&C meeting – Wednesday 19 August

The next P&C meeting will take place on Wednesday 19 August at 7:30pm. You have two options if you wish to attend, either in person in the Waratah Room (above the staff room/office) or online via Zoom. If you wish to join the Zoom meeting, please email secretary@gracevillepandc.org.au before midday on 19 August and we’ll send you the link.

Attention all Graceville State School Ninja Warriors

SAVE THE DATE of Thursday 17 September for the inaugural Graceville State School RAINBOW NINJA CHALLENGE.

In the absence of the fete this year, the Rainbow Ninja Challenge will be a fun day for our children, as well as an important fundraising event of the year for the P&C. This event will involve lots of colour and some fun obstacles, designed to put smiles on the faces of our children in what has been a very unusual and challenging year.

Throughout this year, our school and community have faced many challenges with COVID-19, but our resilience, strength, ability to adapt and positive community spirit has been admirable.

The Rainbow Ninja Challenge will be a day to celebrate our school and community, and for our children to run, laugh, play and enjoy! On the day, there will be food stalls, Lob-O-Choc, prizes for children who have raised funds or obtained sponsorship, and lots more.

Look out for information coming home with your children and FOLLOW Graceville State School on Facebook for regular updates the link below

Lob-o-choc free dress day

To support the lob-o-choc at the upcoming Rainbow Ninja Challenge, there will be a free dress day on Friday 28 August. Kids come in free dress and bring a family block (or two) of chocolate to participate.

For any new families who aren’t familiar with the fete favourite, the lob-o-choc, kids throw 50c coins and if one lands on a block of chocolate, the chocolate is theirs to keep. This is a wildly popular game and it requires lots of chocolate as there are lots of winners! A block of chocolate is a small way to donate to the making it a fun day and is in place of the usual gold coin donation on many of our free dress days. It also means there is lots of chocolate!

Start collecting your 50c pieces!

Trivia Night – date claimer

We are hoping the parent’s trivia night can still go ahead and 7 November has been set as the date we are aiming for. Mark it on your calendars and keep an eye out for further details on the Facebook and Instagram in future newsletters.

Arts Event

Many kids rediscovered their love for various forms of art, craft, design, music, dance etc. as they had more time at home in term 2. The school and the P&C would love to support this renewed interest with an arts event early in term 4. We need some parents to help organise this event and we’re calling on anyone with an interest in the arts, craft, media, design technology etc. who might be interested in helping. Please get in contact with Zoe at zsmit24@eq.edu.au to express you interest.

Tuckshop credit with School24

The P&C have decided to move to a new online ordering system starting from term 4 in 2020. The new system will be much easier to use and we will provide more details later in the term. In the meantime, any families that have an existing credit with School24 should try and use this up this term to minimise disruption during the changeover

Voluntary Contribution

Thank you to those families who have recently made a Voluntary Contribution. Over $4,000 has recently been transferred to the school to purchase literacy resources and new devices to replace the ageing fleet of desktops, iPads and laptops. Rather than implementing a Bring Your Own Device scheme, which requires families to purchase devices for each child, our school aims to provide the technology resources our children need to learn. This will result in much lower costs to individual families.

While 2020 has been a difficult year, our children’s needs for learning resources at school continue to grow. We are asking all families who can make a Voluntary Contribution to do so again this year.

The Voluntary Contribution scheme is again $100 per student. While this is much less than the cost of a laptop or iPad, we understand this amount is still not affordable for all families, particularly at this time, so we also encourage families to make whatever contribution they are comfortable with.

Payments can be made by electronic transfer to the P&C (see below for details) or via the Online Uniform Shop at the link below.

Account name: Graceville State School P&C Association
BSB: 064-111
Account number: 00900130
Ref: VC “Child’s name”

Containers for change

Did you know that the Graceville State School P&C are registered with Containers for Change? You can drop off your bottles at any Containers for Change depot and quote our ID, and your funds will automatically be credited to the P&C. The closest Containers for Change depot is located at 78 Andrew Street, Rocklea and our ID is C10055214.

Uniform Shop

Michelle Fanning

Hi all! Welcome to week 5.

Can you believe we're half way through the term? Only 5 more weeks and we'll be much closer to warmer weather. The ‘Ekka winds' have not disappointed this week that’s for sure...brrrrr!

OPENING DAYS AND TIMES FOR TERM 3

Until we hear of further restrictions being lifted, we will remain appointment only for the remainder of Term 3 as well as having the online store for easy ordering. The appointment days this term are Tuesday and Thursday each week from 8:45am – 9:45am.

For any reason you cannot make your appointment, please let us know as soon as possible via the uniform store email.

When visiting the store it is important to enter and exit the school grounds through the Oxley Road gate near the tennis courts. The uniform store is located just to the left of the courts.

To book an appointment click on the following link -

ONLINE STORE

The uniform shop has an online store, so if you already know the sizes you're after you can order and pay online with ease. The order will be delivered to your child’s classroom via their teacher.

The online store can be found on the link below –

DONATIONS

We are always grateful for donation of 2nd hand uniforms that are in clean, saleable condition. We also ask that any donations are SCHOOL BRANDED ITEMS ONLY, so no items from any outside stores. Thank you for your generosity and understanding.

• For the remainder of Term 3 we will be cash free and accept cards only when purchasing.
• Please be advised that refunds will only be given if you have the original receipt. Items should not have been washed, worn and any tags must still be attached.

Email address for school uniform store is:

gracevillessuniform@gmail.com

Thank you all for your ongoing support and understanding during this time.

Michelle

Tuckshop News

Hi Everyone

A reminder that it’s a short week this week - Yeah!!

I think we are all settling back into routine so remember we are open 5 days a week, but we are still cashless. If your child would like an ice block or treat including Ice cream on Fridays, please place an order in school24.

When placing orders remember that cut off time is 8am. No orders can be placed in the system after that time. Also, if your child is sick and you ordered tuckshop the night before or early that morning – give us a quick call or drop us an email asap so we can cancel your order.

Any cancellations received after 9am will still be charged to your account as the order would have already been made.

Birthday Ice Blocks are a hit! We have seen some very happy faces coming by to collect their ice blocks and their balloon surprise. It’s a great way to celebrate when you’re at school and a great substitute to bringing in cupcakes or anything from home as this is still not allowed with current restrictions.

$10 for a Class Box of Jelly Joys
$20 for a Class Box of Quelch Fruit Sticks
$30 for a Class Box of Ice Monys

Ordering is easy – just log on to your School24 account and select the Birthday Ice Block category, select which ice blocks you’re after and we’ll take care of the rest!

N.B. A Class Box is reflective of how many children are in the class

Our Monday special Fried Rice has been a hit especially with this cold weather. For only $4.50 you get 1 serve of Fried Rice and for and extra 10c you can add soy sauce and for 25c Sweet chilli sauce!

A quick reminder on our daily specials:

Monday – Fried Rice
Tuesday – Pasta
Wednesday – Sushi and Rice Paper Rolls
Thursday – Hamburgers
Friday – Ice Cream

Hope everyone enjoys their long weekend - as always if you have any questions about volunteering or ordering please drop us an email. We’d love to hear from you!

Thanks everyone, we look forward to seeing you at tuckshop soon.

Alex and Emma
Tuckshop Convenors 2020
E: tuckshop.gss@gmail.com

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

Despite the absence of the “Ekka” this year, Monday was a fresh reminder of the chilly westerly winds we often associate with this time of year. Thankfully those blustery conditions didn’t hang around too long and the normal 2020 conditions return with warm days welcoming us once again. As the mornings can be quite cool, it is important that jumpers. Including non-school jumpers are named. This ensures jumpers located around the school can be reunited with their owner quickly rather than misplaced and forgotten.

Plans are full steam ahead for an exciting day later this term. Keep an eye for news from the school Parents and Citizens for more details. It promises to be a great day, with loads of fun, for all the students.

In the media, we hear of some people, including high profile sportsmen and coaching staff, failing to comply with the current COVID restrictions. We are very fortunate in Queensland to have dodged a second wave and I know families at Graceville State School are working hard with the school to keep our community safe. I just want to thank you all for your cooperation and participation in the processes our school Leadership have implemented. It is a wonderful example to our children of how we can collaborate in protecting those vulnerable people in our communities With Queensland having opened up in recent weeks, it is great to hear of day trips and weekends away, which can be fantastic options to clear the head and bring a little more normality back to life. Weekend sport and park fun are other way for families to feel less unsettled in these ever changing times. I hope with all that is going on, you can find creative and adventurous ways to connect and normalise your corner of the world.

I have been witnessing some very interesting learning taking place in classrooms right across our year levels. The students article most clearly what they are learning and although methods look rather different to my primary school memories, the conversations around learning are rich and deep.

In closing, I have to admit that when I saw this I couldn’t help but find it clever…

Have a great week!

John Erichsen
(Chappy)

School Plus

Over the last fortnight, the children have been very busy at School Plus during Before and After School Care! We have swapped our Home Corner for a Hospital Zone which the children have been loving! With lots of role play and teamwork, the Graceville Hospital has been very busy!

Gym Mats, Rip Tag and Wiggle Karts outside have also been very popular outdoor activities. With the early drop offs and cold mornings, the children have enjoyed special hot breakfasts including chipolata sausages, eggs on toast, pancakes and lots more!

Our Seniors have also been excited with the commencement of Senior Club again. As a part of the Senior Club we have in place at School Plus, the senior’s will be starting an exciting project! Senior Leader Harry will be starting a Time Capsule with the children over the coming weeks.

We are nearly halfway through the term already and the September Vacation Care Program is in the final stages of completion and will be sent out to families soon! If you would like to enrol your child/ren into School Plus it is not too late to secure your spot!! Pop us an email or give us a call.

Karina, Tiff and the School Plus team

Community Notices