12 August 2022

Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

I hope you enjoyed the Ekka Show Holiday!

We have our own version of the show with rides, food, performances and fun, on Saturday 27 August! With only a few weeks to go, we are very grateful to the families who have signed up to volunteer on the day. I am looking forward to the fireworks, which I have heard are going to be much more spectacular this year. I hope you can come along and support the school on 27 August.

The upcoming Parent Cyber Safety session has unfortunately been cancelled next week. A new date for the session will be identified soon. The numbers to attend the session were very good and we look forward to finding a new date, so that it can go ahead.

Senior Student leadership applications for 2023 will be sent home to interested Year 5 students next Monday. Applications close on Thursday 1 September. This year students who nominate will be eligible to take part in an Oxley Road Student Leadership day, with student leaders from Sherwood, Corinda and Oxley schools. We are very excited about this opportunity.

In other exciting news, we hope to hold a school disco in early Term 4. We are currently negotiating a date. We also hope to hold the Student Markets in Term 4, as a Christmas Style Market. We hope to put out an Expression of Interest in a few weeks, to see if we have enough student stall holders to make the day a success. We are open to ideas to make the Christmas Style market a cosy experience in the lead up to Christmas and would love to help from any interested parents.

Don’t forget Friday 2 September is a Pupil Free Day. Students do not come to school that day.

I hope you have a great weekend,

Zoe Smith

Newsletter Articles

Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Cybersafety Presentation for GSS Parents now postponed from Wednesday 17 August to Wednesday October 5, at 6pm!

The Department of Education's Cybersafety and Reputation Management team (CRM) advises, investigates and supports schools to manage online behaviours and digital reputation issues. Within this scope, the team draws on their diverse experience, including police investigation, policy, social media marketing, and recruitment, to deliver up-to-date informative sessions about positive social media use.

The CRM team will be visiting Graceville State School on Wednesday 5 October. The parent session is an overview of cybersafety, trending platforms, online dos and don’ts, and useful settings to be aware of. This session goes for about 60 minutes, and will allow parents to ask questions throughout. A link to register for the new time will come out in the next few weeks.

There will still be student sessions on Wednesday August 17 for our year 5 and 6s during class time.

You can read more about the department’s cybersafety program and resources on their Facebook page:

Preparing for Prep 2023

In catchment families - please obtain enrolment forms from the office and commence this process now. Remember that when returning these forms that 2 sets of ‘proof of residency’ documents will be required as well if you aren’t already a school family.

Prep interviews are happening now during term 3. Bookings can be made via the link below.

These meetings will 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.

Give kindy the tick

Starting school is an important milestone in your child's life.

The transition to Prep is a critical time, both exciting and challenging, and a positive start supports your child’s confidence and ongoing learning success.

Transition statements contain valuable information about your child's learning and development at kindergarten as well as suggestions for supporting their continued learning at school.

Kindergarten teachers develop the transition statement in November with input from parents/carers and children.

When shared with the new school, transition statements assist us in planning for the continuity of learning and wellbeing of your child.

If your child attended a kindergarten program ensure you tick the kindergarten box in the previous education activity section on the school enrolment form. This will help us to understand your child’s prior learning experiences.

Together, let’s make the big moves smaller.

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 using our online booking system also which will be live from October 4.

Session 1: Tuesday Oct 18 OR Thursday Oct 20, 9 – 10:00am Focus on Fine Motor Skills
Session 2: Tuesday Nov 1, 9 – 10:00 Speech and Language Development
Session 3: Monday Nov 14 OR Wednesday Nov 16, 9 – 10:00am Focus on Reading

Prep Orientation meetings: Thursday November 24
Meet the class session: Thursday December 1, 9 – 10am

P-2 Assemblies this term

Assembly next week on Tuesday August 16 will actually be a full school assembly with the choir performing.

Term 3 Calendar for P-2 Assemblies

Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

The 2022 My Place Competition opens from 15 August.

The My Place television series, based on the classic picture book by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins, is a ‘time machine’ which takes audiences back into the past. It depicts the history of one Australian community through the eyes of the diverse children who lived there, highlighting the ways that people and places shape our personal, local and national histories. Drawing on the text’s themes, the 2022 My Place Competition prompts students to reflect on change and continuity in their own evolving places and communities.

Jointly presented by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, ABC Education and Reading Australia, the 2022 My Place Competition is open to primary students in Years 1 – 6, secondary students in Years 7 and 8, and special education students of all ages.

The 2022 My Place Competition asks students to reflect on change and continuity throughout time in their own communities. Participants are invited to submit a short piece of creative writing that captures the history of their own local area and/or the people living there. This could include narratives, historical recounts, letters, diary entries, news reports, poetry, or other forms of creative writing.

Key dates

• Entries can be submitted through the competition page between 15 August – 16 September.
• Winners will be announced in early Term 4.

Categories

• Years 1 and 2 – Up to 200 words / 2 pages
• Years 3 and 4 – Up to 500 words
• Years 5 and 6 – Up to 750 words
• Years 7 and 8 - Up to 1000 words
• Special Education – No word limit

For more information, please visit the My Place Competition website .

Music News

Naomi Lindh

Instrumental Music Workshop

What an amazing week we have had in the music department! On Thursday and Friday last week, we had our annual instrumental music workshop which all students who play an instrument at school were involved in. The workshop involves students alternating between full ensemble rehearsals and small group tutorials with specialist tutors. It culminated with a concert for students in years 2 - 6. Thank you to our instrumental teachers and students for the time and energy you have put into making these two days successful, including lots of learning and preparation prior to the workshop days! We have received some lovely feedback about the concert. Thank you to all involved and staff in the school for supporting our workshop.

Upcoming Performances

We are very excited to confirm that our instrumental and choral students will be performing at the Spring Fair, in the hall. Please note the performance times below, as it will be very important to have all members of the ensembles/choirs attend the performance, unless your child is unwell. Instrumental conductors will let you know what time students need to meet them to set up and tune instruments, prior to the performance time listed below. Choir students should come to the hall 10 minutes before their performance and sit at the front of the hall, near the stage, ready for their performance. As we have had limited performance opportunities this year, we would greatly appreciate the attendance of students at these performances being prioritised over other weekly commitments. It will only be one Saturday of the year which we are able to perform. Our students and conductors have been working hard to prepare for these performances and are looking forward to sharing their music for audiences at the Spring Fair!

Spring Fair Performance Times - Saturday 27 August (in the hall)
Students are able to wear free dress for these performances.

11:20am Junior Band
11:40am Senior Band
12:05pm Beginner and Junior Strings
12:30pm Senior Strings
1:00pm Junior Choir
1:10pm Senior Choir

The Junior Choir will be singing at an Assembly in week 6, on Tuesday 16 August at 2:10pm. Parents will be invited to attend this event. We have a large group of keen singers in the Junior Choir who are looking forward to sharing their songs with everyone! Our Junior Choir will also be performing these songs at the Spring Fair, so those who are unable to attend the assembly will be able to hear the choir sing then.

Instrumental Music Recruitment

We have begun the instrumental recruitment process for 2023. Notes have been given to students in years 2 and 3 as well as emailed to families regarding our IM program. If students in year 2 are interested in learning a string instrument in 2023, they should return the expression of interest by Friday 19 August. If students in year 3 are interested in learning a band instrument in 2023, they should return the expression of interest by Friday 19 August. Please be aware that this process takes place over a number of weeks and offers for instruments will not be sent out until later this year. Please find further information in the notes which are also accessible via a link in this newsletter.

Please ensure that your child attends rehearsals/lessons regularly and contact your child's conductor if they are unable to attend due to illness or another commitment. We appreciate your assistance with ensuring this consistency as we work towards performances this term.

We are looking forward to sharing our music with the school community at our upcoming performances!

The music rehearsal schedule for 2022

Monday 7:45am – Senior Band (in the school hall)
Tuesday 7:45am - Senior Choir (interested students in years 4 - 6 - in the music room)
Wednesday 7:45am - Junior Strings (in the school hall)
Thursday 7:45am – Senior Strings (in the school hall)
Friday 7:45am - Junior Choir (interested students in years 2 - 3 - in the music room)
Friday 7:45am – Junior Band

Music Teacher Contact Details

Alex Chin - Instrumental Music Teacher - Strings - Email: achin4@eq.edu.au
James Kukulies - Instrumental Music Teacher - Band - Email: jkuku2@eq.edu.au
Naomi Lindh - Classroom Music Teacher/Choir Conductor - Email: nclos1@eq.edu.au

Uniform Shop

Michelle Fanning

Hi all

Welcome to week 5!

CASHLESS STORE

Starting next week we will only be accepting payment by Eftpos card or credit card when purchasing at the store.

DRESSES

Please note we have very limited stock in our dresses. We now only have small quantities of sizes 1, 8, 12, 14 and 16 left in stock. I also currently have 2nd hand dresses in size 2, 4 and 6.

I will not be ordering more so if you’re a new family and you would like a dress for Prep 2023 please don’t delay.

PRICE INCREASES

Due to price rises in fabric our supplier has increased the cost of our Polar Fleece jackets and Sports/Track jacket. Sadly we cannot absorb this cost so both jackets are now selling for $38 each.

HAIR ACCESSORIES

The wait is over and our range of ever popular hair accessories are back! Yes that includes our best selling headbands too!

LONG SLEEVE GOLD POLOS

Last summer we introduced the long sleeve Gold polo to our range as a sun safe option. Now that winter is here these shirts are also perfect for the cooler months and layering under our winter jackets on those extra chilly days. We are well stocked and the size ranges from 4 to 16.

2nd HAND WINTER STOCK

Why not look at our 2nd hand rack that is overflowing with Polar fleeces, Rugby shirts, Track pants and Leisure pants. Items start at just $5 and are always marked at 50% off or less! Pop by the store on a Tuesday or Thursday morning for a look or send me an email with what you’re after so I can help.

DONATIONS

Could donations please be given during opening hours only or handed in at the office if absolutely necessary. Please DO NOT leave bags outside the uniform shop. Thank you.

OPENING DAYS AND TIMES

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

For any reason you cannot make your appointment time, please cancel online asap so others don’t miss out. When visiting the store, it’s important to enter and exit the school grounds via the Oxley Road gate near the tennis courts. The uniform store is located just to the left of the courts.

ONLINE STORE

The uniform shop has an online store, so if you already know what your child needs you can order and pay online and it will be passed on to their teacher.

PLEASE NOTE – When buying online via your pc or laptop, please add your child’s FULL NAME and CLASS in the notes section. If ordering via your mobile device, please add your child’s details beside yours. Thank you.

The online store and appointment bookings can be made via the following link -

DONATIONS

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

REFUNDS

Please be advised that refunds will only be given if you have your receipt originally sent to you via text message or email. Items should not have been washed, worn and any tags should still be attached.

Email address for school uniform store is:

uniformshop@gracevillepandc.org.au

Thanks everyone!
Michelle

Tuckshop News

Tuckshop News 2022

Welcome to the halfway point of term! Can you believe it’s moving this quickly!

We love a drop in visit before and/or after reading groups to help out so if you’re at a loose end please drop in and see us. You would be surprised just how much 10 minutes of your time can help us with the morning.

Just follow the steps below to sign up in QKR! Or pop in and we can put your name down for you.

Thank you to all those volunteers that pop in regularly to see if we need help we couldn’t do it without you!

Menu News

NEW MENU ITEM

Butter Chicken with rice has been added to the menu and for only $6.00 a serve its great for this colder weather.

All your children’s favourites are still available we have been trying very hard to maintain the menu even with quite a few supply issues.

Remember:

Monday – Butter Chicken
Tuesday – Chicken Burger
Wednesday – Sushi and/or Rice Paper Rolls (to be ordered by 11.30 Tuesday using the sushi menu)
Thursday – Beef Burgers

Reminders

Please be mindful that

Cutoff time for ordering is 8am every morning

If your child is sick please cancel the order before 8am on your app, if it is after that time please call us and we can help

As always, 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 2022

Trivia Night 2022

“G” it was a Great Night!!

Held on Saturday July 16th the annual GSS P&C Trivia night at Sherwood Magpie’s Football Club, did not disappoint and was another fabulous night out. This year’s “G” themed event definitely brought out the imagination and hidden (or maybe not so hidden) creativity of all those who attended. Garden Gnomes, Gangsters, Geriatrics, GI Joes/Janes, Google maps, Ghostbusters – the teams, the costumes and the decorations were just incredible!

Thank you to everyone who came along and supported this year’s trivia night, and to everyone who got involved in planning such a successful event. Due to the support from our GSS parent community and our local sponsors, we are proud to advise that the night raised a total of $12,896 in profit. Money raised will be used by the P&C to support the school and fund various projects and resources that will benefit all the students at Graceville State School.

A massive thank you all our amazing sponsors for the night, and to our wonderful Gyroscope captain (MP – Mark Bailey) for getting into the spirit for night and being our fabulous MC. Thank you also to principal Zoe Smith, for helping out on the night and supporting this event, and to our fantastic DJ Chappy (John Erichsen) for putting together team songs and providing the tunes for us to dance the night aways. Finally, a big thank you to this year’s dedicated and hardworking trivia convenors for this year – Carrie Grassick, Prue Duff and Jade Matheson – you guys did an incredible job!

Finally, a big congratulations to our winning trivia team – The Golfers - as well as to all other best dressed people, teams, and raffle winners.

Next P&C meeting date

Please be advised that the next P&C meeting has been scheduled for 24th August 2022 at 7:30pm in the Waratah Room. You can also attend virtually via Zoom – details will be sent out closer to the time. Everyone is welcome.

Voluntary contribution

Given that we are now halfway through the year, we would like to take the opportunity to remind everyone of the voluntary contribution scheme that the P&C is again supporting in 2022. Voluntary contributions are payments made by families and collected by the P&C on behalf of the school, with all funds transferred directly to the school. This year the amount is set at $100 per student, but we understand this may not be affordable for all families, so we encourage you to make whatever contribution you are comfortable with. Funds raised will be used to improve and maintain IT resources as well as other learning resources for the students.

Payments can be made by electronic transfer directly to the P&C (see below for details) or via the Qkr! App (under the P&C Payments section). Thank you so much for your generous contributions.

Chappy’s Chat

John Erichsen

It was exciting to visit some classrooms today and observe our year 2 scientists investigating interesting content for their information reports. Our students were learning about and putting into practice the need to look closely at details, see what our eyes are telling us without guessing what the big picture is. Of course, scientists are very curious folk and our year twos have many questions in need of answering. Learning these observation skills is a key aspect to answering many of those questions. Encourage this type of careful observation at home. It can be quite enlightening what the students do notice.

Next week our Year 5 students head up to Mt Cootha for their excursion to the Botanical Gardens and Planetarium. This will be a great opportunity for strong connections to be made between classroom learning and the natural world. Our year 5’s are very fortunate to have this fantastic experience.

Next Friday sees the commencement of our Interschool Sport season for year 5 and 6 students, where they compete for Graceville State School against teams from other schools in our district. This competition provides an excellent and quite different opportunity to apply the Learning Assets in another setting. Doing so strengthens connections and builds on the great work done in the classroom. I wish our sporting teams all the very best for the season. Success on the sports field is often connected to the scoreboard, which is a valid measure. However, it is by no means the only valuable measure of success. I trust our students achieve success on all levels as they build their skills and understanding, develop trust and bond with team mates. I also hope our students succeed in displaying the highest level of sportsmanship, both on and off the field.

Have a great week!
John Erichsen
(Chappy)

P&C News

Spring Fair

The Spring Fair committee is in full flight as we prepare for our 2022 event on 27th August. If you haven’t read the first Spring Fair Newsletter click here. Two more dedicated newsletters will be issued prior to event day including a full event programme. We have also created a printable ‘Countdown Calendar’ to stick on your fridge and a Spring Fair ride information flyer with instructions about pre-purchasing ride bands. Both flyers will also be emailed out very soon.

In the meantime, here are some useful dates:

• Ride Bands are now available for sale via the Qkr! App until Wednesday 17th August
• Bring in large moccona-style glass jars for sweets stall - Friday 12th August
• Free Dress Day - Friday 12th August (donate a family block of chocolate for lob-a-choc)

Calling all volunteers! There are many ways you can support the Fair, so please speak to your class reps who are coordinating our parent volunteer crew (thank you class reps!). We are still specifically looking for an MC, raffle convenors, a volunteer auctioneer and performers. Also, if you are part of a business/service and willing to donate sponsorship, time, services and/or goods we would love to hear from you!

Feel free to get in touch with any questions or feedback, by email at fete.convenor@gracevillepandc.org.au or fair.co-convenor@gracevillepandc.or.au. Please also follow our Facebook page for up-to-date information:

Thanks and kind regards,

Faith Studd (Fair Convenor) and Deepa Dasari (Fair Co-Convenor)
Graceville State School Spring Fair 2022

School Plus

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks, check out all the exciting things we’ve been up to the past two weeks here at OSHC.

We celebrated Educator’s Day with a bunch of fun activities with one of the favourites being the always popular Students vs Staff Tug of War. The children also celebrated their favourite educators by making a big poster and making some fantastic cards. It was sweet to read the really lovely messages they wrote and to hear them talking about their favourite educators. They loved sharing everything that makes their favourite educators so special.

We’ve been getting very creative with our recycled materials the past two weeks building aquariums and animals from boxes. The animal box creations turned out amazing, the children made some fantastic creations.

The children also loved this messy, hands on tree craft where they were able to use their hand prints to create some brilliant trees. The children also used recycled paper, kindly donated by parents and those in our local community.

We’ve continued our exploration of culture as we are lucky enough to have parents and community members share their amazing ideas for creative cultural projects. Last fortnight we had games and craft from India and the Torres Strait. This fortnight we have had some activity ideas from our German community. The children have absolutely loved learning some new words in German and couldn’t wait to share them with their parents at pick up time! The children also learnt about German artists and recreated some famous artworks. We were lucky to have an educator and some of our children who know a little German so the children painting also learnt the German words for the colours they were painting with.

We had lots of fun with Prep group games in the mornings with this one, Colour Bean Toss, being a favourite. It was lots of fun and the children were doing a great job at cheering each other on. They also had a lot of fun with finding different ways to make the game more challenging.

We’ve been doing some bright and colourful sensory activities, including this fun colourful rice activity. The younger children really love these sensory activities and promotes a fun way to calm down and take a break from running around the oval. The children also get very imaginative turning the colourful rice into magical gems, special potions and more.

The children also build some lovely works from clay. The children really enjoy clay and got very creative with different techniques they had learnt from an incursion last vacation care. They loved using their imagination to be as creative as possible, making tiny tea sets with cups and teapots, animals, flowers and more!

We've been enjoying the sunshine here at OSHC. Tag is always a popular choice at OSHC and the children have been playing lots of variations this week with Turtle Tag, Rip Tag and Chain tag. Turtle Tag is a favourite with the children as it combines two of their favourite things - playing tag and making each other laugh as they roll around on their backs once tagged - hence the turtle name. Rip Tag is one of the most popular oval activities here at OSHC and requires a lot of teamwork, strategy and is very beneficial for children. Rip Tag encourages fairness, as you need to be honest (about whether a tag truly did 'just fall off'), you need to be working with your team to corner and catch the other team. It's a very engaging and collaborative game and the children enjoy cheering on their friends.

We also celebrated International Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day with fun activities such as Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander games and crafts. The children have loved the new games and have practiced writing Indigenous symbols.

We also celebrated turtles, with these fantastic turtle masks and posed for photos with our OSHC pet, Squirtle the Turtle.

In other very exciting OSHC news, Addy’s famous (and very popular) cooking club resumed this week – booking out both days in just minutes! The children had a fantastic time learning about safety in the kitchen while learning to make some delicious treats!

Reminder: School Plus will be at the school fete, so if you have any questions about OSHC please pop by the popcorn stall to have a chat to our friendly coordinators, Tiff and Oliver.