27 May 2021

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

It is quite amazing to think that there are only 4 weeks left of this school term!

Over the next two weeks, teachers will be finalising the information needed to write Report Cards. This is a very busy time for teachers and students.

As you may have heard, we now have a committee willing to organise a Spring Fair. The Spring Fair will be similar to the Fete with rides, fireworks, food and drink. To manage the workload in organising the event and on the day, the Spring Fair will have less stalls, activities and entertainment but don’t worry, we have kept all of the major favourites from the Fete. It sounds like it will be a great day and we hope all of our families will find a way to help or at least attend as it is our major fundraising event of the year. Many thanks to our committee for volunteering to organise the event!

Mr Daunt is busily organising the Athletics Carnival for our students who are 9 years and older. The carnival is held at the UQ Athletics fields which is very special for our students. The Carnival is being held on Thursday 10th of June.

Next week Mrs Payne and I will be attending a very special event. We will be travelling to Mackay to take part in a ‘walk on country’ with elders from the Cape Hillsborough area. Mrs Payne is one of our teachers who is championing our progress as a school in understanding and acknowledging indigenous culture. We are both very proud to represent Graceville as we learn and grow as a school.

On Thursday and Friday next week, Mrs McKeaten and Mrs Martin will join me in Mackay to take part in a state school leader’s conference. The conference theme, Challenging the Conversation, focuses on understanding diversity and equity as it relates to schooling. We are all very excited to take part in the conference. Ms Goeldner, our Acting Head of Curriculum will hold the fort while we are away. Ms Goeldner can be contacted by phone at any time. Mrs Cousins and Mrs Payne will help out in the office as needed. On Thursday and Friday next week, please contact the office directly, rather than our work emails, if you need any help or support. Ms Goeldner can then respond as necessary.

The next P&C meeting is being held on Wednesday 9th of June. All parents and carers are welcome to attend.

Have a great week,
Zoe Smith

Newsletter Articles

Acting Deputy Principal

Belinda Martin

SORRY DAY 2021

On Wednesday our Acknowledgment of Country group as well as our school leaders were invited to attend the 2021 Sorry Day Ceremony at the Sherwood Arboretum. With the assistance of Mrs Lindh and Mrs Payne students learned songs that were sung with the Sorry Day Community Choir. The morning ceremony was deeply reflective and focussed on moving forward to close the gap. Students were moved by Aunty Teresa’s childhood story that emphasised the importance of identity, community and compassion. Thank you Mrs Lindh and Mrs Payne for preparing our students and for allowing us to be part of this memorable experience.

CONSENT FORMS DUE FOR FOR FREE PREP VISION SCREENING

An email from your child’s Prep teacher was sent to all parents last week in regards to vision screening by a registered nurse for children in their prep year from Tuesday 27th through to Friday 30th July 2021. This free vision screening checks for common eye conditions that may impact your child’s ability to see and therefore impact their learning and development.

The email that was sent had an attachment with a parent link with more information and the online consent form. This link will remain active until Friday 4th June 2021 and after this date any consent forms due to be completed will need to be hand written ones that are obtained from your class teacher and returned to the school office in the provided sealed envelope.

Parents do not need to be present for screening, however if you would like to be, please contact the school to arrange this. If your child’s vision is screened, you will be advised of the results in writing. If a vision concern is found, you will receive a phone call from the nurse to discuss referral to an eye health professional for further assessment. If a vision concern is identified and your child requires glasses, eligible health care card holders may be assisted with free basic glasses through the Spectacle Supply Scheme.

Participation in vision screening is not compulsory. If you do not wish for your child to participate in screening, please complete the consent form and indicate that you wish to decline screening.

If you have any questions, please contact the Primary School Nurse Health Readiness Program on 1800 687 372.

Preparing for Prep 2022

Our Prep waiting list is now open for in-catchment enrolments and forms can be collected and returned from our 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 Information Night for 2022 will be on Wednesday July 28 at 7pm in our Hall

Prep interviews will commence in term 3. Bookings will be online via a link to be given out through the Information session. These meetings will still be face to face at school for 30 minutes, please bring your child to this meeting. Completed enrolment forms and Prep Profile will be required at the interview.

Junior Assemblies

Parents and care givers of those hosting or performing a class item are invited to join us for Junior Assemblies which will be held every second Thursday afternoon from 2.15pm in the hall. These assemblies will be for all Prep to Year 2 classes. Year 2 students have the opportunity to develop their skills of public speaking by taking turns in leading these assemblies and classes also take part presenting items for us all. We also like to recognise Birthdays and present awards to students from across all classes.

Below is the calendar for term 2 assemblies and other important dates.

Green Team News

Thank you to all the families who not only actively travelled to school on Friday but also collected rubbish from all over our community. It was a great team effort from the Green Team, AST and the council’s Litter Prevention team to organise the event. With the help of many, we were able to collect a whole bin full of litter that is now headed to the correct location. It was noted by a few that we may need to hold another event inside our school grounds, collecting up all the little pieces of rubbish in our gardens and on the ground. Watch this space! It certainly raised awareness of the importance of getting the rubbish into the bin in the first place. Thanks again to all the families helping to keep our community clean!

If you are interested in hiring the litter sets, either for the family or a larger group, contact the Litter Prevention Team at the link below.

We are looking for any Green Thumbs to help us with an upcoming gardening working bee after school where we will need some muscle relocating some existing garden beds and refilling with soil. Keep an eye out soon for requests for support.

And as always- when you are recycling your cans and bottles, put in the code: C10055214 to donate the funds to Green Team projects.

Metropolitan West Mathematics Team Challenge

A team of passionate mathematicians attended the Metropolitan West Maths Challenge on Friday the 25th of May. It was a great day to engage in mathematical thinking, and an excellent opportunity to show just how strong our communicator and collaborator assets are! The competition was strong across the many schools in attendance and the two Graceville teams are commended for their positive approach to the many challenges faced- such amazing representatives of our school! Well done to Sisu W, Khang D, Sana S, Jennifer K, Lola B, Jake C, Tom N, Chris W, Jack C, Anna M, Kajsa A, and Quinn M!

A big thank you to Heidi Marshall, Mrs Hutchinson and Ms Goeldner for helping with transport and supervision on the day.

Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Health Reminder

If your child displays any of the following symptoms they must go and get a COVID test:

• Fever
• Respiratory symptoms
• Coughing
• Sore throat
• Shortness of breath
• Runny nose, headache, muscle or joint pains

The following is directly from the COVID guidelines:

Any child or adult who is showing signs of illness COVID or other illness must stay home and go and get tested if they have COVID symptoms.

If a child is showing signs of illness or feeling unwell at school parents or carers will be contacted to come and collect the child.

Over the counter medications

The Education Department recognises that all medications, including over the counter ones eg. Paracetamol/ibuprofen, antihistamines, cough & cold medications, may cause side effects. As such, schools are required to receive MEDICAL AUTHORISATION from a prescribing health practitioner (eg. doctor, dentist, optometrist, but NOT a pharmacist) to administer any medication to students, including those bought over the counter.

While parents may administer over the counter medications at home, they are aware of the child’s medical history and can provide ongoing supervision and can recognise any side effects.

For these reasons, OTC medications will only be administered to students at school if medical authorisation has been received.

University of new South Wales Assessments

Attached in the newsletter is an Expression of Interest form if you wish to enter your Year 2-6 child in either the Maths or Science assessments this year. Your child must be available during the weeks of the tests. Invoices will be sent to parents once the Expression of Interest forms are finalised. Closing date for forms to be returned to the office is Friday 18th June. A confirmation email will be sent in Week 10 of this term to confirm.

Religious Instruction

In Semester 2, Years 3, 4 and 5 will be participating in RI on Friday mornings. These will start in Week 1, 16th July.

Recorded in One school, based on your enrolment information, students are allocated into the Co-operative program, No RI or Bahai classes. This information is used to organise classes for the lessons. If you need to change your permissions for RI please contact the office during the next week, as classes need to be organised ready to start Term 3. Once the classes are set we can’t make any more changes as this may affect the numbers and supervision by teachers. Class teachers will be supervising the RI classes and providing instruction to the students in the No RI classes.

Business Manger

Anne Nixon

Student Resource Schemes (SRS) for 2021 are:

• Prep Requirements ($70)
• Reading Eggs ($26)
• Instrumental Music Programs – Instrument Hire ($100), Percussion Maintenance ($50), Music Participation ($90) & Choir ($45)
• Mathletics On-line registration (Years 1 - 6) ($14)
• Origo Maths (years Prep to 4) ($8)
• Year 4/5 maths levy ($19)
• ESmart Digital Licence Yr 5 ($11)

Student Resource scheme forms have been sent home this week to new students. All forms need to be returned to the office by Wednesday 10th February 2021.

Invoices for existing students will be generated from Friday 5th February 2021. If you have not seen any invoices by Friday 12th February 2021, please contact the office.

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.

Credit in Account: Credits from 2020 rolled over to this year can 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 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

Our Senior Strings have had their first performance at the Senior Assembly this week. It is lovely to hear our instrumental students at live performances again. Thank you to Mr Chin and our students who have been working hard to prepare for this! We also greatly appreciate the family members who were able to attend and listen to the performance. This week we had the opportunity to hear Mandi S play a piece on the keyboard for us at the Senior Assembly. Mandi has entered an American piano competition called Carmel Klavier and has progressed to the semi-finals and finals which they are judging at the same time, from recordings. She will soon be recording 3 contrasting pieces for the semi-finals and finals in the age 10 and 11 intermediate category. Mandi played a grade 8 AMEB piece called Frangipani, composed by Ross Edwards, who is a current Australian composer. We would like to congratulate Mandi for her amazing achievements with this competition so far, thank her for playing at the assembly for us and wish her every success for the piano competition.

This week a number of our student leaders and students in the Acknowledgement of Country Inquiry attended the Sorry Day ceremony and joined in with singing some of the songs. Thank you to the students who attended this ceremony and participated in singing.

Due to a number of additional commitments and events, our choir rehearsals were cancelled this week. Thank you to parents and students for your understanding with this. These rehearsals will resume next week.

Please ensure that your child attends rehearsals regularly, unless they are unwell. If they are absent due to illness, please send an email to your child's conductor so they are aware of the absence. We appreciate your support in ensuring students attend rehearsals regularly, as it assists them with building their skills and repertoire, and preparation for performances which is important for the entire ensemble/choir.

Thank you for supporting your child's involvement in the music program!

Term 2 Performance Schedule

Week 8 - Senior Band - Senior Assembly, Wednesday 9 June, 2:15pm - two parents/adults per child are invited to attend

Week 10 - Junior Choir - Junior Assembly, Thursday 24 June, 2:15pm - one parent/adult per child is invited to attend due to the size of the choir

Rehearsal schedule for 2021

Monday 7:45am - 8:30am - Junior Choir (students in years 2 and 3) - in the music room
Tuesday 7:45am - 8:30am - Senior Choir (interested students in years 4 - 6) - in the music room
Wednesday 7:45am - 8:30am - Junior Strings (this is for second year string students) - in the hall
Thursday 7:45am - 8:30am - Senior Strings - in the hall
Thursday 2:50pm - 4:00pm - Senior Band - in the hall
Friday 7:45am - 8:30am - Junior Band (this will begin on Friday 21 May at 7:45am) - in the school hall

Music teacher contact details

Alex Chin - String teacher and conductor (Wednesdays and Thursdays) email: axchi4@eq.edu.au
James Kukulies - Band teacher and conductor (Thursdays and Fridays) email: jkuku2@eq.edu.au
Naomi Lindh - Classroom music teacher and choral conductor (Monday - Friday) email: nclos1@eq.edu.au

Uniform Shop

Michelle Fanning

Hi everyone!

Welcome to Week 6. It looks like the temperature will drop a little more next week just in time for winter to officially start.

WINTER STOCK

We are low in sizes 4 and 6 in a lot of our winter gear, but more stock is on its way. It should hopefully arrive before the end of term. Remember we also have the long sleeve Gold Polos available which are a great option for winter. 2nd hand winter gear has been flying off the rack too, so pop in and find a bargain while you can.

OPENING DAYS AND TIMES FOR TERM 2

We will remain APPOINTMENT ONLY as well as having the online store for easy ordering. The appointment days are Tuesday and Thursday each week from 8:15am – 10:15am

** PLEASE NOTE ** I will be closed on Thursday the 23rd of June (Week 10/last week of Term 2) but will open on Monday the 21st of June instead. So to clarify in Week 10 only, I will open Monday and Tuesday.

BOOKING APPOINTMENTS ONLINE

There is an option when booking online for new families joining us to make a 20 minute appointment to allow time for trying on uniforms etc. The usual 10 minute appointments will apply for current families who know what sizes and items they are after.

For any reason you cannot make your appointment, please let us know as soon as possible via the uniform store email or call the school office to leave a message.

When visiting the store, 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. All uniform items can be found online except for 2nd hand garments. Items ordered online will be sent to your child’s classroom.

The online store can be found on the link below

DONATIONS

We are always grateful for donations of 2nd hand uniforms that are in a freshly washed, saleable condition. We also ask that any donations are SCHOOL BRANDED ITEMS ONLY, so no items from any outside stores.

If you were thinking of going through the wardrobes, please do! When donating, please either drop them in on a Tuesday or Thursday morning when the store is open, or you may leave them with the ladies in the office any other day. Please DO NOT leave bags at the uniform store if it is closed.

Thank you for your generosity and understanding.

• 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.
• We encourage customers to use their EFTPOS or credit cards when purchasing.

The email address for uniform store is gracevillessuniform@gmail.com

Thanks everyone!

Michelle

Tuckshop News

Tuckshop News 2021 – week 7 & 8

Wow – we have made it over halfway through term!

Thank you to our volunteers for the last few weeks – it has been busy! We are especially loving the new faces that just pop in and check if we need help on their way past tuckshop after reading groups or drop off.

We are averaging 100 orders on a Thursday and over 200 on a Friday – a quick 30mins or an hour if you can spare it to chop some fruit or bag some pizzas is a huge help!

Please sign up and lend a hand using the link below. If you have 1 hour or 3 it is greatly appreciated.

SignUp.com:

MENU NEWS

Now that it’s getting a little cooler…don’t forget we have Beef Lasagna available EVERYDAY and Spinach and Ricotta Mini Sausage Rolls to warm everyone up! Don’t forget our daily specials as well.

Fried Rice – Monday

Sushi and Rice Paper rolls – Wednesday (order by Monday 12pm)

Beef and Chicken Burgers - Thursday

This Week’s Reminders

• Birthday Iceblocks need to be ordered 24hours in advance so we have time to organize a balloon with the iceblocks. We would hate anyone to miss out as the kids just love seeing what Brendan from Fun Xtreme brings them. And we love seeing the joy on their faces!
• Orders close at 8am every morning. Please do not use the Oops I forgot menu if you miss cut off. This menu is only to be used for emergency situations i.e., where kids have dropped their lunches or discovered they have no lunch at break. The menu is only checked after we have spoken with a parent or the office and is not to be used for any other purpose.
• We are still not taking cash over the counter this term. Please order any treats through the QKR! App.

If you have any questions or concerns and you’d like to speak with us please email tuckshop@gracevillepandc.org.au or pop in for a quick chat we’d love to hear from you.

See you at Tuckshop!

Alex and Emma
Tuckshop Convenors 2021

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

Yesterday, our nation remembered a very sad time in our nation’s history. A time where Government policy resulted in Indigenous children being forcibly removed from their families to be assimilated into white Australian culture. These children are known as the “Stolen Generations.” On National Sorry Day we reflect on the past, highlighting the strength of our first nations people and respecting the richness of their culture. We also unite to move forward together as a nation, committed to never repeating the mistakes of the past.

NAPLAN has come and gone, much to the relief of students and teachers in years 3 and 5. We are proud of how our students approach these assessments and the results they achieve and value the partnerships between school and home regarding student learning.

The senior students soon will have their Athletics Carnival at the University of Queensland stadium which is a fantastic experience for all participating. I would like to thank Mr Daunt, our PE teacher, for all the work and preparation he does in making this event happen. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be running prospective 200m and 800m runners to get their times and determine who runs in the finals of those events of the day. I wish all our students the best of luck for this time trials and for all the events on the day. The Athletics Carnival is on Thursday, June 10, for those interested in helping with supervising events on the day. I am sure Mr Daunt would be delighted to hear from available parents keen to assist.

This week our local chaplaincy committee met to discuss plans for the rest of the year. This committee is made up of parents, teachers and community members with the aim of supporting the role of the chaplaincy service, under the guidance of our principal, Mrs Smith. Any parents interested in finding out more about the chaplaincy committee or indeed, chaplaincy at Graceville State School are welcome to contact me via the school office.

Have an amazing week!

John Erichsen
Chappy

P&C News

Please be advised the next Graceville State School P&C meeting will be on Wednesday 9 June at 7.30pm. It will take place in the Waratah Room above the school office and will also be available via Zoom. We welcome all parents, carers and staff who may wish to attend. Please email our secretary Vanessa at secretary@gracevillesspandc.org.au if you would like to join via Zoom and you will be sent the link.

Spring Fair

“We are very excited to be able to confirm that we will be holding a Spring Fair this year on Saturday 28th August from 11am-7pm! Expect all the usual fun of the Fair with rides, games, activities and food galore! Look out for more information coming soon!

The committee for the Fair could still use some extra volunteers to help with both the planning and on the day. The main committee roles we still need to fill are those of:

Raffle Coordinator and Bar Coordinator

If you think you could fill either of those roles then please contact Faith Studd by email at fete.convenor@gracevillepandc.org.au

to express your interest. It is only with the time and commitment of a team of volunteers that this event can go ahead, so we really appreciate all offers of help! Here’s to a fantastic day for the school and our community! “