19 May 2017

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Dear Parents/Carers & Community,

Congratulations to our Year 3 and 5 students who participated in NAPLAN last week. It was great to hear from students that the test was fun and everyone put in 100% effort. Top job kids!

Thank you to our teachers and support staff for their support of our students during NAPLAN. A very big thank you to Mrs Kym Clay (Acting Head of Curriculum) for her stellar organisation.

It is hard to believe we are mid-way into Term 2. The teaching and learning at our school is an absolute credit to our teachers and our support teams. Thank you parents – our attendance rate remains high and this assists greatly in our delivery of our required curriculum. Keep this up!

As we head into the last part of our term, it is really important that parents make appointments with our teachers to discuss any aspects of schooling that you need to. Our teachers have reporting and meeting requirements after school so I know that parents will respect this and arrange mutually convenient times with staff. Thanks for your support with this.

If you have visited our website, you will notice that there have been many updates. The school website holds key documents including the Responsible Behaviour Plan.

“The Willows Way” has three core values and rules and expectations for all members of our school community.

As responsible parents/carers, it is not appropriate to address a behavioural concern with another student at our school. These matters/concerns are to be discussed calmly with teachers and/or Deputy Principals (Prep to 2 Mrs McCoy, Yr 3 & 4 Mr Tod and Yr 5 & 6 Mrs Winter). I thank you in advance for your support with this.

Another key document on our website is the Executive Summary from our recent School Improvement Unit Review. As a staff, we have commenced identifying strategies around the key findings and recommendations. In upcoming P & C Meetings, this summary will feature in my report and I look forward to hearing parents’ ideas around our strategies.

Our P & C has been hard at work. The teamwork to pull together significant fundraising is absolutely appreciated and we thank all members and supporters for their work to date. The fundraising efforts will contribute significantly to the updates required for our technology (computers/iPads) resources.

In the next term we are expecting the major upgrade to our Wireless Internet across our school. This is costed at $120,000 (approximately) of which our P & C has contributed $60,000. Thank you The Willows State School P & C from us all!

An upcoming addition to our website is our Whole School Curriculum Plan. In our school, our teachers are working exceptionally hard (as are our students) on the 8 Key Learning Areas of the Australian Curriculum. These areas are:

• English
• Mathematics
• Science
• History/Geography
• Design Technology*
• The Arts (Music, Visual, Dance, Drama, Media*)
• LOTE (Japanese Yr 5 & 6)
• Health & Physical Education

The Whole School Curriculum Plan outlines the required units for 2017. For further information please visit the link below. I would like to thank Mrs Kym Clay (AHOC), our Deputies and leadership team and of course our teachers for their work to date.

Our school prides itself on providing a range of extra-curricular activities. One of these being our participation in the NRL Development Cup. Our team, under the coaching of Mr Sanim and Mr Theodore play on Monday 22nd May at 7.30pm at Brothers. Let’s get behind our team and cheer them on! Hope to see you there!

See you out and about!

Kind Regards

Helen McCullough
Principal

CALLING ALL 2018 PREPS!

Parents who have children already enrolled at our school are asked to come and collect and fill in the 2018 Enrolment Package.

Our school is enrolment managed and we need to have our numbers for our 2018 Preps so we can commence interviews and staffing arrangements.

These forms are due by 7th June 2017 to secure your child’s placement prior to us taking any new students.

Thanks for your support.

Any queries please speak with Mrs Debbie McCoy or one of the front office staff members.

SCHOOL CONTRIBUTIONS

Each year we ask parents to pay a very small contribution to assist our resourcing. Please support us by contributing. If you require a payment plan, please contact Mrs Chris Shann (BSM).

If we reach 80% of our contribution total (will update next fortnight) Mr Tod will do the Ice Bucket Challenge!

Let’s do this!!

THE WILLOWS 5!

The Willows 5! is intended to:

• provide our students with confidence and build their resilience
• give students a voice to stand up for themselves and encourage peers to make the right choice
• build a shared understanding of what really matters
• foster consistent language use throughout our school
• lead to a school that is safe, respectful and has a culture of learning

This gives students a voice to deal with conflict!

STUDENT COUNCIL

Last year the 2016 Student Council donated a “Buddy Bench” to our school. This year our student council is in charge of informing students about its purpose and deciding where to best place it.

Sometimes children are left feeling isolated and lonely at break times for many reasons. Their friends could be absent from school, they might not know where their friends are in the playground, they might like to play with other students or sometimes they might like to meet new people. To help that child make a new friend and connect with other children they can use the buddy bench. The idea is that you sit on the bench and another child will join you. That other child might then invite you to play in a new game or simply sit and talk.

Presently the buddy bench is being moved around the school and placed at various locations. The student council will be collecting some information to make the best decision about where it should be permanently placed. This information may help us to make some decisions about purchasing more buddy benches.

Buddy benches are a great way for children to make new friends. Together at the Willows we wish to create a friendly environment for everyone.

Sincerely
Student Council

PREP STUDENT WRITING

Our Prep Students are learning about the beginning, middle and end of stories. They are learning to use finger spaces, full stops and capitals in their writing. Great job Benny (PYSTE).

YEAR 1 FIRE SAFETY

On Friday 5th May firemen from the Kirwan Fire Station came to visit the year 1 students at The Willows State School. They taught us fire safety and showed us their fire engine. At the end they drove the fire engine past us with the lights and sirens flashing. It was a great visit and we learnt lots about fire safety. 1 ANN

U12 THURINGOWA TEAM SELECTION

Congratulations to Liam B on being selected in the U12 Thuringowa Football (Soccer) team to play at the NQ Trials.

RSPCA FOOD/TOY DRIVE

CHAPPY CHAT – HAPPY CHAPPY WEEK!

Hello! Thanks for a wonderful Chappy Week everyone, we have had lots of fun activities including face paint, lucky popcorn, colouring in, dress up day (very interesting!) and more.

Thanks to all of you and your children for your support this week, I know we have raised lots of money for the chaplaincy service.

5 Reasons why chaplaincy is important to our school:

1. Having a Chappy means that everyone at the school always has someone they can talk to. Chappy is often the first step for many students and families to seek additional help for things going on in their lives.
2. Chappy has a B Social Work which means she is trained to work with many people experiencing lots of different issues including grief/loss, family separation, mental health issues, bullying and more. Chappy is currently supporting more than 60 students and their families on a regular basis in the school and even more in a one-off, irregular way.
3. Chappy is a friendly, comfortable face at break times for all students to find if they are feeling lost, worried or lonely. Chappy does colouring in, plays uno, talks to new students, and runs lunchtime programs for anyone.
4. Chappy spends around 10-15 hours/week providing a free service for social and emotional support to many students which involves, mentoring and role-modelling. Chappy also spends 2-3 hours/week in classrooms, helping students with their educational goals.
5. Chappy works within the local community to ensure all opportunities are given for students to have the best social, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing as possible.

Three reasons why Chappy needs to fundraise each year:

1. Chappy receives $20 000 in government funding each year, which covers around 1.5 days/week. Chappy is currently at 3 or 4 days/week.
2. To help Chappy be at school more, we need to raise another $25 000 to cover the days/week she currently runs at, in order to do everything above, and more!
3. Because the more money we raise, the more days I can be here and the more support I can provide to the school.

I hope you have all had a great week, I know I have. Thanks again for your support, in helping me with fundraising, you are helping the overall wellbeing of many students at our school.

SMADD NQ

Come along to a Song, Music, Art, Dance, Drama - Day Camp 3-7 July in Townsville:

More information below or chat to Chappy Libbie.

Thankyou,
Chappy Libbie

P&C NEWS

Fun Run

Thanks to everyone for participating in the Fun Run, and for your fund raising efforts. Over $10,000 was raised, which is a fantastic result. Our prizes have now gone home, including two $100 sports vouchers and hand balls for those who raised more than $10 (and returned their forms by the due date). The winners of the two sports vouchers for highest fundraising efforts were:

Junior – Indiana (2DAV)
Senior - Jasmine (4DAR)

Well done!

Sports Shirts Order

Our next order has closed, and has been placed with our supplier. At this stage we are on track for delivery in time for the Athletics carnival. It’s great seeing these being worn each Wednesday – plenty of colour and team spirit around our school!

Mother’s Day Report

We hope all our mums and grandmothers had a wonderful Mother’s Day, and enjoyed their gifts. Our stall raised over $4200, and from feedback so far, there are lots of happy mothers out there. Thanks to all our fabulous volunteers, our two sponsors (Say It With a Biscuit, and Sue’s Patchwork And Other Useful Stuff), and our amazing teachers for ensuring all our students had an opportunity to shop. Our raffle winners were:

Jaxon (5ASH) - First Prize, Brynee (3KLE) - Second Prize, Riley (6SAN) - Third Prize, Sophia (4NOS) - Fourth Prize, Damon (PYWOO) - Fifth Prize, Michael W (2OBR) - Sixth Prize, Mason (4MIL) - Mystery Prize.

Fun Fair – 25th August

Our annual Fun Fair is getting closer, and we’re excited! Keep 25th August free, and come along for a great night of entertainment and fun. We will be asking for help with donations, and also for volunteers on the day, very soon. If you know of any businesses looking for exposure who would like to help or donate, please contact Tanya on tmeddy@bigpond.com

Tuckshop Convenor (Temporary Contract) – Expressions of Interest

An opportunity exists in our Tuckshop for a Tuckshop Convenor for an initial period of three months, commencing late term two or early term three (June/July 2017). Expressions of Interest are now being called for experienced applicants who meet the required criteria.

Applications will close once a suitable applicant is found. The Expression of Interest is available below.

OSHC Assistant Educator – Position Vacant

An opportunity also exists in our OSHC for an Assistant Educator, working 64 hours per fortnight in a permanent appointment. Applications close 11pm 27th May. The Position Description is available below. Applications via email only, to willowspandc@gmail.com

Next P&C Meeting is Wednesday 24th May, 6pm, in TCBC.

See you round!