5 March 2018

Newsletter Articles

DATE CLAIMER

PRINCIPAL’S NEWS

Dear Parents/Guardians and Community,

Congratulations to HEATWAVES! HEATWAVES is our red sporting house and last Thursday we celebrated the results of our Interhouse Swimming Carnival. Heatwaves dominated in the swimming pool and also in the team spirit (cheers, sportsmanship, house pride). Congratulations to our Captains and Vice Captains for their participation in a great day. Well done to all other participants and competitors and all teachers involved in this carnival.

Another fortnight has passed at our school and we celebrated 5 weeks of teaching and learning last week with our Positive Behaviour Learning Rewards Afternoon. At the beginning of the year we launched a range of initiatives designed specifically to promote better behaviour: better learning which is the departmental framework for schools.

We have unveiled our latest enrolments Willow (Wallaby), Olive (Owl) and Waldo (Wombat). Together our mascots are The Willows Warriors and they represent the 3 rules -Safe, Respect and Responsible...The Willows Way. We also celebrated the artistry behind the concept from 5 ASH 2017 with a special cake and presentation. Thanks Aiden for your inspiration!

I am pleased to say that the vast majority of our students reached for the stars and had a fantastic time at their negotiated rewards activities. Taking the time to celebrate builds stronger partnerships with teachers and allows students to enjoy activities that we don’t often get the time to do. Teaching and learning is rigorous and every day counts. Thankyou for supporting and working with us to ensure our students are here every day and progressing towards achieving the achievement standards of the Australian Curriculum.

Have a great fortnight!

Kind regards
Helen McCullough
Principal

Communication & Parent-School Partnerships

The importance of parents and teachers working together is strongly supported throughout the school. It is well recognised that when parents express confidence in the school and are involved with it in some way, the children are likely to be happier and more successful at school. If children see their parents and teachers modelling productive interactions, they will follow the example.

Clear communication is very important. Many difficulties can be avoided and misconceptions resolved if parents contact the school when confusion exists.

Our staff have a range of professional commitments throughout the morning and afternoons each week. For this reason, if a meeting is required with a teacher, a time may be arranged through the school office. This allows discussions to take place at a time that can afford parents a confidential space and appropriate time particularly when you are raising information that is sensitive such as a family issue with the teacher. At no time should family matters be disclosed in front of the children nor in a public space.

Contact with teachers is important, however, teachers are not able to attend to telephone calls or meetings with parents during learning time. Therefore a short note in the Student Diary (Year 3-6) or a short note in students communication books/homework (Prep-2) may be an effective way to clarify issues with a teacher.

Any queries or complaints about any aspect of our school’s functioning should be referred to the school office as soon as possible. School staff will then arrange a time to resolve the issue.

"Meet and Greet" gatherings are arranged early in the year to give parents and teachers a chance to get to know each other. Parent-Teacher-Student Meetings are held each semester and will be advertised online and in the newsletter. Report Cards are issued each semester and parent are welcome to make appointments to speak to classroom teachers at this time.

Regular communications of classroom events will ensure that this relationship is strengthened. Teachers will phone parents directly whenever communication is needed. Parent information sessions about how best to support teaching and learning will be advertised in the school newsletter.

Unfortunately, from time to time, school staff are forced to deal with hostile people on school premises. These interactions range from relatively mild to some that are very serious, causing severe disruption to school routine and sometimes injury to staff who are just doing their duty conscientiously. In response to these concerns the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 was changed in November 2014 to give more power directly to school principals and to make taking action easier and more timely. These increased and improved powers to deal with hostile people on school premises took effect from 27 January 2015:

• state school principals able to give an verbal direction to a person to leave school premises for 24 hours
• state school principals able to issue a person with a 60-day prohibition (s.340) from entering school premises
• where state school principals are unable to issue a s.340 direction, there is a new power to ask the Director-General (or delegate) to make the direction and obtain a 12-month prohibition for a person from school premises, as the Director-General can now issue a prohibition notice without reference to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

We value respectful communication and we model this at all times. Please help us to resolve concerns respectfully and afford appropriate time for concerns to be managed, monitored and resolved. Thank you to the vast majority of parents/carers and community who work positively and proactively with us.

EMERGENCY CONTACTS UPDATES

It is important that your child’s emergency contact details are up to date in the event of an emergency. There are student update details forms available from the front office which you can use to update your details.

BEFORE SCHOOL ROUTINE

At 8am we have limited supervision which is why we have the following in place as part of our duty of care:

All students who arrive from 8am onwards are to go to the Main CPA.

At 8.20am Years 3-6 students are taken to TCBC where they wait until they are released to go to class. Prep-2 students remain in the Main CPA and are released in time to go to class by 8.45am.

No student should be arriving at school prior to 8am. The school is not open and there is no supervision provided.

The Outside School Hours Care facility is an option for parents to book/use and parents/carers who have early starts and late finishing times are encouraged to access this facility.

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 at 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…….

WAYS TO MAKE PAYMENTS TO THE SCHOOL

There are a couple of ways to make payments to the school.

BPoint

• secure online method of payment – you don’t have to come to the school to make the payment.
• payment details are listed on the bottom left hand corner of the invoice.
• a receipt is issued immediately as the payment is automatically matched.
• return any permission slip noting that you have paid online to the school office the next day. Both the invoice and permission notes are issued within a day of each other.

School office

• payment may be made at the school office by EFTPOS, cash or cheque. Please note that EFTPOS must be a minimum of $10.
• a clearly marked envelope listing child’s name, class, item being paid for and amount of payment must be with the payment. The permission note must also be returned at this time.
• if you are paying for more than one item for more than one child, please use a separate envelope for each child. We will do one EFTPOS transaction for the total amount. This will help with ensuring that receipting is processed correctly.

Please be aware of the activity you are making a payment for. Recently we have had several instances where the same item has been paid for more than once. We are currently contacting parents regarding these payments.

When payments are past their due date, any invoices that have not been paid are cancelled. These invoices are then sent as an Adjustment Note and should not have any payment made against them.

Please do not pay any items online if you do not have an invoice e.g. senior shirts. These must be paid at the office using EFTPOS/cash/cheque. If payments are made online without an invoice, the payment has to be manually matched which may result in the payment being allocated to the incorrect student.

STUDENT BANKING

Student banking day is Tuesday. By now all Prep students should have received an information sheet which details how to setup a Youthsaver bank account. The bank will organise for your child to receive a deposit book and wallet when the account is opened.

If your student is new to the school, or would like to commence banking, they may pick up a form from the library during their class library lesson. Just make sure they let the teacher know they would like to start student banking. Alternatively, you may pick up a form from the office.

Every classroom has a plastic student banking envelope. Each Tuesday, complete the deposit slip and return the money, book and wallet to the classroom and place in the envelope. The envelope will be sent to the office so that the deposit can be processed. You will receive the deposit book and wallet back by Thursday.

After 10 deposits your student can select a reward by simply returning the reward order form to the office. The reward is then ordered from the Commonwealth Bank and sent to the school.

SCHOOL DIARIES

Does your student in year 3,4,5 or 6 have their diary? Are you seeing it every night? This is great way to know what your student is doing for homework and any upcoming events.

If you haven’t yet purchased your diary please do so. The cost is value for money at $10.00 as we have personalised this diary to suit the needs of our students.

YEAR LEVEL PARADES

This year our students will have year level parades weekly and full school parades as scheduled on our school calendar.

Note the time and place for all year levels.

Prep – Monday 8.45 am in Junior CPA
Year 1 – Monday 12.50pm in Junior CPA
Year 2 – Tuesday 8.45am in Junior CPA
Year 3 – Monday 2pm in TCBC Conference Room
Year 4 – Tuesday 2.30pm in TCBC Conference Room
Year 5 – Mondays 11.40am in TCBC Conference Room.
Year 6 – Mondays 2.30pm in TCBC Conference Room.

Parents/Guardians are most welcome to attend.

Please note that there will be no Year 6 parade Week 7 as our year 6 students will be on camp.

PARENT VOLUNTEERS

We had an excellent turn out at our first induction session for volunteers last Friday. Blue Card application forms were given out and we need them returned to the office as soon as possible.

Thank you to all of our parent volunteers. We value your assistance and support.

APPOINTMENTS WITH STAFF

Throughout the course of any day and week, the administrative and teaching staff of The Willows have significant commitments to the Teaching and Learning of our students. If you are needing to see one of the staff, please help us by arranging an appointment time at a mutually beneficial time. This can be done by contacting our office, email or by talking with us.

FROM THE GUIDANCE OFFICER

From the time they are born children need to know they are loved, and that people will care for them.

Healthy food, warm clothes and a comfortable home are very important to help children grow – but they are not enough in themselves.

It is important to help make ALL children feel SAFE and secure. This is a very important part of caring.

All children need to be treated as individuals in their own right. We should respect their feelings and encourage children to talk about them. We need to be aware that the way they feel may be different to the way we feel. We also need to set good examples to children in our everyday lives – as they grow, children learn from adults how to behave.

Some Good Examples are:

• Adults who show respect for others and for children in their care have set sensible limits that are in line with the child’s age and stage of development.
• Talking with children and listening to their joy and problems is a good way to show children we care.
• Parents showing affection for each other provides a good lesson in living.
• Sharing our thoughts with our children makes them feel needed, but be cautious of exposing your school –aged children to your problems - they do not necessarily have the capacity nor resources to cope with another’s problems.
• All children love to have their say – sharing meals at the table is a great way to encourage discussion. (Turn the T.V. off)
• Supporting children in their chosen sport or activity shows we care.

Source: NAPCAN FOUNDATION www.napcan.org.au

Enjoy your week and your children
Narelle Thomas - Guidance Officer

YEAR PREP NEWS

Look what we are learning in prep!!

YEAR 2 NEWS

In Digital Technologies, the Year 2 students have been learning about digital systems and how to program Bee-Bot to solve a challenge.

YEAR 3 NEWS

In Year 3, we are about to embark on our new English unit. We will be reading the novel Matty Forever by Elizabeth Fensham and writing a story about friendship.

We have also started our Digital Technology journey. We are designing a game using software about our science focus, living and non-living things.

Home reading and homework are well under way and parent volunteers would be greatly appreciated to assist with the changing of the readers.

YEAR 4 NEWS

Last week in Year 4 we celebrated the end of our first 5-week cycle of “Reach for the Stars”. Students were excited and enjoyed the PBL Reward afternoon. In Year 4 students were rewarded with an afternoon of board games and it was a great seeing our teachers fully involved and having fun with those who reached the target. Well done everyone, what an awesome way to finish 5 weeks of learning! Keep up the great work Year 4 and we are now looking towards the next 75 star reward at the end of the term…….…

Below are some pictures from 4NOS and 4MIL participating in our Friday afternoon fun!

YEAR 5 NEWS

This week year 5’s are beginning English unit 2. They have already started to create some very intriguing stories. In this task they have to write the first chapter of a fantasy novel, creating a ‘good’ and ‘evil’ character and establish the setting. The students are learning how to create interesting orientations through the use of sizzling start based on the 7 Steps approach. The students are including figurative language, noun groups, verb groups and adjectives to help create an engaging first chapter. One of our students started the story below:

YEAR 6 NEWS

This week the Year 6 students who achieved 75 stars in the first 5 weeks of the term celebrated their success with a board game session. Our senior students have all worked very hard to achieve their first goal and it was great to see so many students participate in this first reward.

The students will begin collecting 75 stars for the next reward session which will take place in Week 10 of this term. Keep up the fantastic work Year 6’s!!

YEAR 6 CAMP

Our Year 6 are away on camp next week and students have taken home their last note re requirements and organisation. Please ensure you have read this note and if you have any questions please ask your classroom teacher.

Students who are not attending camp will be placed in year 6 classes that are remaining. Their teacher will let them know which class to go to.

PE & SPORTS

Queensland Oztag have notified us of the recent success of 3 of our students. They have been picked to compete at the upcoming Tri Series Tournament to be held on 15th - 17th June 2018. This event will be attended by 78 teams from Queensland and New South Wales.

Student Council News

Just a reminder to all of our families regarding the upcoming events being organised by our student leaders.

School Disco – 15th of March

Harmony Day - 16th March

Free Dress Day wear Orange (no donation required).

Our student council will be doing a presentation at each of our year level parades.

Earth Hour for Schools – 23rd of March

This year TWSS is participating in Earth Hour for schools, on the 23rd of March. Earth Hour is an annual event, which focuses on the reduction of pollution and electricity.

In order for our school to have a fun and energy saving Earth Hour, each class is coming up with an idea to save energy and pollution. In our next newsletter we will share with you what happened for Earth Hour at TWSS

Regards,
Environmental Officers

P&C News

School Buy

SchoolBuy has partnered with hundreds of great retailers to turn online shopping into money for schools. Shop at over 200 online stores listed on SchoolBuy and a percentage of what you spend goes to your chosen school. It’s fast, it’s easy and it can make a difference!

There are millions of items that can be bought through SchoolBuy to support our school – and every purchase helps. Just remember to visit SchoolBuy first before shopping online. Simply by clicking the link on the SchoolBuy site, the online store you are visiting will know that SchoolBuy sent you and which school you want to support. Plus you still get all their best online deals and can take advantage of any special offers or sales on the retailer’s website.

Just go to the link below and select The Willows State School.

School Run4Fun Colour Explosion!

The School Run4Fun Colour Explosion Fundraising has kicked off!

Students have now been supplied with a Sponsorship Form and it’s time to fundraise! How exciting!

Students who raise as little as $10 will receive a prize for their efforts, but why not aim higher? The more money we raise the more we can provide back to the school to benefit our kids.

Sign up now below and create your child a Profile Page. Use the unique code on page five (5) of the Sponsorship Form and see if you’ve won FREE sponsorship donations. The highest fundraising student in our school will also go into a draw to win a huge Apple Prize Pack. It’s great to see the online donations already rolling in, keep it up!

The event is being held on 23rd March 2pm, with the competitive run in the morning. Please return your consent forms to the office ASAP.

Happy fundraising!

The Athlete’s Foot

If you are needing to buy shoes, for yourself or your kids, don’t forget our support from Athlete’s Foot. For every pair of shoes you buy, The Athlete’s Foot will donate $5 to our school! Simply mention that your kids go to our school when you buy shoes from the Castletown or Willows stores.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Our AGM will be held Tuesday 13th March at the TCBC. We welcome anyone to come along to be part of our P&C. As part of this meeting, all executive positions and sub committees will be declared vacant and elections will take place.

Facebook

Like us on Facebook to keep up to date with school and P&C events. (Search for The Willows State School P&C.)

See you round!

Book Club News

WELCOME TO OUR FIRST ISSUE OF BOOK CLUB FOR 2018

Book club brochures were handed out this week. If you have not received your brochures please check with your child’s teacher.

Scholastic offer an easy way to place your book club order. Order and pay for your purchases online before the due date for free delivery to your child’s classroom.

Any orders received online after the due date will be charged a delivery fee and delivered direct to your home address.

Book Club orders close Friday 16th March.

Thank you
Sarah Platt
Teacher Librarian