27 January 2017

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Welcome to the 2017 school year at The Willows State School. It is with excitement and it is an honour that I have been appointed as the permanent Principal at our school. Townsville is home to my family, I was born and grew up in my primary years locally and we are very happy to be back home.

The excitement of our students on Monday was noticeable and contagious. It is always great to start a new school year and I congratulate all families on how quickly students were settled into our school and ready for learning. Our staff have been back at work for a number of days and I thank them for their excellent preparation to start the school year. I particularly would like to acknowledge every staff member who assisted our students and families on Monday and welcomed all of our students back to school.

Our students have set very high standards in attendance, uniform and behaviour this week and I know that this will continue throughout the year. The Year 6’s have already commenced leading our students and have been a great help to our youngest in the Prep area. Our Prep students are ready for learning and have started to familiarise themselves with our school and areas that they will visit. Thank you students who welcomed new classmates also.

Our 2017 school improvement plan features Reading, Writing, Teaching with a Literacy Focus across all learning areas and Positive Behaviour Learning (including attendance). We are well resourced and our Annual Implementation Plan and Investing For Schools Plans will soon be available on our website after presentation at the P and C Meeting on 15 February in the OHSC building. Our school Responsible Behaviour Plan was also reviewed in 2016 and will be presented also.

In 2017 our school will complete a Quadriennial School Review. This review is done every 4 years in State Schools. This is an important part of our school year and we will be looking at key areas to improve that are aligned to the State and Regional directions. As part of this process the School Improvement Unit (scheduled for Week 8 of this term) will visit for 4 days and provide us with an overview of the school. I look forward to working with students, staff, parents, community and partners in the future to develop our School Strategic Plan (2018-2022). Further information will be provided throughout the year.

Our P and C have provided an excellent service to our school by organising the book packs (the easiest school shopping ever!) and are an active group of volunteers at our school. All monies raised through fundraising, Outside School Hours Care, Tuckshop and other initiatives contribute to our school and benefit every student. At The Willows we encourage and welcome parents to volunteer and be part of our school. We all have something to contribute no matter how big or small this may seem. If you would like further information on how you can assist, please speak with your child’s class teacher, front office, Deputy Principal or a member of the P and C.

I look forward to a great year ahead.

Kind regards
Helen McCullough
Principal

DAY 8 INFORMATION – IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

Each year Department of Education and Training determine the level of resourcing to support student learning in each State School. The process is done through Day 4 and Day 8 enrolments (students in regular attendance are counted and those who can provide acceptable evidence that they will be in regular attendance by 3 March). This ensures that we are able to resource The Willows State School and provide the total resources required for student learning and achieve class size targets. Class allocations, teacher allocations and resources are all determined after this process. If there are changes to your child’s classroom teacher, class location or the need to re-structure classes we will communicate this to parents after Thursday 2 February 2017. We thank you for your patience as we work through the complexities of staffing and structuring our school. If you have any questions, please contact our front office or your child’s Deputy Principal.

FAMILY CONTRIBUTION

Family contributions are due now - $40/child or $80/family. Please see attached form for information about the contribution.

SCHOOL INVOICES

Invoices have been sent out by email for;

• Diaries $8.50 (Yr 3 – 6)
• Music workbooks $3.50 (Prep – Year 6)

Books will be distributed to classes when available.

If you didn’t receive an email please check the school has your correct email address.

OVER THE COUNTER MEDICATION

The office requires a letter from a health practitioner for giving over-the-counter medication to a student. Please refer to the guideline below from the Department of Education and Training.

The Department recognises that all medications, including over-the-counter (OTC) medications, e.g. paracetamol or alternative medicines, may be drugs or poisons and may cause side effects. As such, schools are required to receive medical authorisation from a prescribing health practitioner (e.g. doctor, dentist, optometrist, but not a pharmacist) to administer any medication to students, including those bought over-the-counter.

Whilst parents may administer OTC medications to their child without medical authorisation, they are aware of the child’s complete medical history, and are able to provide ongoing, direct supervision for the course of the child’s illness. Due to these circumstances, a parent is also more likely to recognise if their child is having adverse effects and requires immediate medical attention.

The student’s prescribing health practitioner also has the knowledge of the child’s medical history to determine the appropriate OTC medication to administer and is therefore able to determine dosage and provide advice regarding potential side effects or interactions with other medications.

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

STUDENT BANKING

School banking packs have been handed out to students in Prep. If students in any other year level would like to participate in school banking, please contact the office for the pack.

This year the theme for student banking is ‘Future Savers’ and there are some great rewards to gain. New reward items from our Future Savers range include:

• Cyber Handball and Colour Change Markers, released Term 1
• 3D Chalk Set and Tablet Case, released Term 2
• Smiley Emoji Keyring and Volt Handball, released Term 3
• Pencil + Tech Case and Epic Earphones, released Term 4

Student banking will commence on Tuesday 14th February.

Please contact the office for more information about student banking.

ATTENDANCE

Every student in our school is important to us and we are committed to providing personalised education suited to their needs. The very first step in that is maximising learning time and we believe that if students attend every day and every learning minute of the day we are improving their opportunities for academic success.

Students can come to school from 8am. If they arrive at 8am they go to the Main CPA. At 8.15am year 3,4,5, and 6 students are escorted by a teacher to TCBC. Students are expected to be at school in the classroom ready to start work at 8.45am. Students who are late to school are encouraged to complete any work missed in their own time. Please note that lateness and early departure have an impact on student learning.

THE WILLOWS WAY IS 100% ATTENDANCE.

Just a little bit late doesn’t seem much but did you know…….

ASSEMBLY

School Assemblies are a great way to get together for a common purpose. At The Willows we use assemblies to communicate information, to share achievement, to reward the efforts of our students and staff, to make links with our community and to talk about “The Willows Way”. Every Friday we have an assembly in the TCBC at 2.20pm and parents are welcome to attend. We alternate our Junior (P-2) and Senior (3-6) assembly every week.

Next Assemblies are:

Senior Assembly Friday the 27th of January.
Junior Assembly Friday the 3rd of February.
Senior Assembly 10th of February. (Senior Investiture)
Junior Assembly 17th of February.

YEAR 6 CAMP

Last year our Year 5 students were given details about this year’s Yr 6 camp to Echo Creek.

Students will be away for 2 nights and 3 days and will participate in the following activities: low ropes and team building, laser tag, freshwater snorkelling, challenge course, under the stars movie night and damper by the fire. All of these activities are run by camp staff and our teachers will also do the team building and goal setting activities. Students will travel by bus and they will be housed in bunk style accommodation with meals included.

This camp will be in Term 1 2017. There will be two groups going.

Group 1 – Leave Monday the 6th of March and return on Wednesday the 8th of March.
Group 2 – Leave Wednesday the 8th of March and return Friday the 10th of March.

The cost of the camp is $240 and we must finalise numbers in the next couple of weeks. To assist with payment we are offering the following payment plan method.

• An initial non-refundable deposit of $50 (This will secure your child’s place)
• A second payment of $100 due on the 8th of February 2017.
• A final payment of $90 due on the 22nd of February 2017.

If you have not secured your place for camp please do so as soon as possible with the initial deposit. Full payment must be made prior to leaving for camp. Camp forms are available from the office.

UNIFORMS

Students at The Willows State School take pride in representing the school community by proudly wearing the school uniform, as represented in the photo below.

Our school colours are gold, jade and navy. School t-shirts are available from a number of distributors such as: Tropic T-Shirts, Georgio Clothing, Cueldee, and Lowes.

Students wear navy shorts (taslon, cotton/polyester, open weave basketball type) or skirt/skort as appropriate. Girls wear shorts or skorts for physical education classes and other sports activities. School jackets are also available from some distributors.

School hats must be a brimmed hat that matches the school colours and can be purchased through the school tuckshop. Visors, caps and inappropriate slogans or pictures are not permitted.

All students must wear lace-up or velcro closed-in shoes with short socks at all times while in the school grounds and for all sporting activities.

NEWSLETTER AND FACEBOOK

An e-newsletter is issued each fortnight, odd weeks. Parents can subscribe through this link to access the newsletter.

Using the e-newsletter will reduce paper, power and ink costs - reducing our carbon footprint and creating less C02. It is an interactive html newsletter.

The e-newsletter also provides a service feature of e-news flashes, dynamic calendar and forms. A dynamic calendar is a great way to let parents know what’s on and can be filtered by class, so parents can quickly see what’s related to their child.

The move to a digital newsletter is in-keeping with a trend for increasing numbers of schools and will allow us to better communicate with you as parents and will provide an enhanced method to showcase talents of our students.

Please also take advantage of our P&C Facebook page. Log onto Facebook and search for Willows State School P&C. We will share information here and you can ask our parent helpers lots of questions.

2017 INVESTITURE CEREMONY

We proudly invite FAMILIES OF STUDENT LEADERS and parents of students in Yr 3 to 6 to join with us in celebrating the Investiture of our student leaders of 2017. The Ceremony will be on Friday the 10th of February in the TCBC commencing at 2.15pm. This year we will continue our Willows Family tradition with parents/guardians pinning badges on our leaders. Our leaders will be settling into school for the first week and they will start to think about their goals for term 1. Our Captains, Vice Captains and Student Council Captains will be attend the Grip Leadership Conference so that they can network with other student leaders in Townsville.

OUR STUDENT PUBLICITY OFFICERS

Hello,

Our names are William and Lacey and we are your 2017 Publicity Officers.

Our role is to put The Willows State School out to our community and the public. Every term we will be publishing a student newspaper to notify the student body on the latest news and events. We will be writing about many wonderful things happening around our school. Every senior and junior assembly is hosted by the school principal, Mrs McCullough and the Deputy Principals, Mrs Winter, Mrs McCoy and Mr Tod. We will also present some of this news at assemblies. Over the next few weeks we will be putting our news team together. We can’t wait to share our stories and photos with others.

Your Publicity Leaders William and Lacey

CHAPPY CHAT

Hello and welcome to you all.

I am Chappy Libbie, I am looking forward to 2017 and everything it will hold. This is my third year here at The Willows as a school chaplain. As the ‘Chappy’ my role is to provide social, emotional and spiritual support to every member of our school community as needed or desired. You can see me at the back of F Pod or hanging out in most classrooms throughout the week to provide some more one on one educational support and mentoring students. Please get in contact with me through the school office if you would like to chat about anything. I work Tuesdays-Fridays.

I hope you all had a wonderful time over the Christmas and New Year break. I was fortunate enough to visit friends and family in Brisbane and have a couple of days at the beach in Currumbin. My husband and I have also just bought a house so we spent a bit of time packing, unpacking and settling in. Overall the holidays went very quickly as I am sure they did for many of you.

I know 2017 will go by just as quickly so make sure you take time each day to breathe, enjoy the little things and savour special times.

All our Operation Christmas Child gifts were delivered before Christmas, they ended up in Fiji and Cambodia. Thank you to the school community for helping to bless almost 70 kids last Christmas time. You did a wonderful job! Be on the lookout now for any bargains for soap bars, face washers, toys or stationery that might be useful for our 2017 shipment!

Triple P

I will be running the Positive Parenting Program again this term – Triple P. This is a great program for any parent interested in learning new skills or ideas for parenting and has been endorsed by Corey Parker amongst others. I undertook the training last year in running group programs and have enjoyed getting to know parents through it ever since. Please come see me for more information or have a look online.

If you would like to know more about me or my role, I would love to have you at F Pod for a coffee and chat sometime.

Thanks and I hope you have a blessed 2017!

Libbie “Chappy” Kutuzov

TUCKSHOP NEWS

Welcome to a new school year! Hope all families enjoyed the holidays. The tuckshop is back in full swing. Menus will be coming home this week. Please have a good look at the menu this year as there are some prices changes. For easy ordering you can place an order ONLINE at flexischools.com.au. Birthday Cupcakes will be available again this year. Make sure you give a week’s notice.

Volunteers are always welcome. So if you have any spare time, please don't be shy, come in and say hi. The children love seeing a familiar face at the tuckshop.

Please be on the lookout for our MONTHLY SPECIALS. January / February is Butter Chicken and Rice OR Honey, Soy Chicken and Rice $5.00!

The Tuckshop Ladies
Rosie, Karen, Megan

DEFENCE NEWS

Hello to all Defence Families and Welcome to The Willows State School for the start of 2017.

My name is Correna Wheeler and I am the DSTA (Defence School Transition Aide) here at The Willows State School. My role is to provide valued support and assistance to all defence students and families along with the transition to a new school and when a member is deployed or on course. I am available from Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 3:30pm at L Pod or via the office. Please make contact with me if you require any information.

EDUCATION ASSISTANCE SCHEME

All defence families can access financial assistance for education costs incurred as a result of postings. Students may be entitled to up to 14 weeks of tutoring in any subject that has been identified by the school as representing a gap in learning. Defence may reimburse fees for tutoring required to fill any gaps in understanding or curriculum caused by changing schools. Please see me if you would like a copy or you can ring the Helpline.

Are you on the DCO mailing List?

Join DCO Townsville mailing LIST NOW if you want to receive all updates from DCO.

Contact them directly at dco.townsville@defence.gov.au or phone 07 4753 6539.

If you have any enquiries or require assistance, the Defence Family Helpline will continue operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and can be contacted on 1800 624 608 or email defencefamilyhelpline@defence.gov.au.

Townsville Gone Troppo Newsletter

DCO Townsville's Gone Troppo Newsletter is available to view on the DCO website and click on the latest edition to download.

DATES TO REMEMBER

* Townsville Defence Families Welcome and Information Expo is on Saturday 4 Feb 2016 10am – 1pm.

All Defence members and their families are invited to DCO's Welcome to Townsville Information Expo to meet local community organisations, check in with Defence support organisations. Venue: Townsville RSL Stadium, Murray Sports Complex in Annandale – the event will be held indoors and is AIRCONDITIONED.

*Week 2 Friday 3rd February Welcome to New Defence students Morning Tea to be held on L Pod at 1sr break 11:00am. All new defence students will receive an invitation to attend.

*Week 3 Friday 10th February Welcome to All Defence Families Morning Tea to be held in L Pod from 9:00am. All new and present families are welcome to attend. Please attend for a cuppa and a chat. Look forward to meeting you all there. Please RSVP if attending.

CONTACTS

Defence Community Organisation is available to all Defence members and their families.

Contact Defence Family Helpline operates 24-7 on 1800 624 608.
Mates4Mates (Family Recovery Centre) 40 Anne Street – 4771 9600
Support and Mental Health Services for ADF Families
Townsville Community Mental Health- 4433 3000
Centacare-4772 9000
Relationships Australia-1300 364 277
Veterans and Veterans Families – 1800 011 046 www.dva.gov.au/vvcs (eligibly criteria applies)
DFA Defence Families of Australia – 1800 100 509 www.dfa.org.au
National Delegate for Northern Queensland - nth.qld@dfa.org.au

Remember I am available anytime from 8:00am until 3:00pm, Monday to Friday.

Parents are very welcome to stop by L Pod or contact me via email or phone. Students can call into L Pod throughout the day.

School Office on 47 991 333 or via e-mail - Correna Wheeler on cwhee36@eq.edu.au

Have a great start to the year
Correna Wheeler