19 March 2018

Newsletter Articles

DATE CLAIMER

PRINCIPAL’S NEWS

Dear Parents/Carers and Community,

I’d like to take this time to thank you all for your patience and ongoing support. The last week has been a difficult time at our school and it has taken a combined effort of multiple government agencies from the Tully QPS, Townsville QPS, to the State Disaster Management Team who worked relentlessly with me and our leadership team to return our Echo Creek Adventure Camp 1 students and staff. The weather event was described as a 1:100 year event by the Bureau and State Disaster Management Team and our main priority was to get children home to parents and staff to their families.

I extend a special thanks to the students and staff at Echo Creek, who despite being in a unique situation, were calm, continued on with camp activities and forged friendships, leadership and team building skills that are exceptional. Some favourite activities that featured included Laser Tag, Adventure Course, Raft Building, Archery and of course the disco with D.J. Schimke! Mrs Outtrim, Miss Smith, Mrs Bridson, Mrs Platt, Mr Armit, Mr Schimke, Mr Theodore, Chappy Libbie and Mr McBride, along with the locals of Euramo, Tully State School staff and the activity providers of Camp Echo Creek, thank you!!. Students of 6OUT, 6THE and 6SMI you were exceptionally behaved demonstrating The Willows Way (Safe, Respectful, Responsible) and represented our school to an exemplary standard – congratulations!

It is great to see most back at school after some well-deserved rest. I also would like to acknowledge various members of our school who worked around the clock at various times with me - Mrs Winter, Mr Tod, Mrs Souter, Mrs Clay, Mrs Haines, Mrs Franklin, Miss Narelle, Mrs Shann, Mrs Gausden, Mrs Ganly, Mrs McCoy, Mrs Cavanagh, Mrs Snelson, Mrs Buse, Ms Hastings, Ms D’Arcy and members from other state schools and Regional Office.

I would also like to thank the significant show of support from our parents. In times of hardship, our parent group’s support was much appreciated and I thank you for your kind words, encouragement and sincere gestures of appreciation. They all came just at the right times.

The student/staff gear has now arrived back at school and our School Disco equipment has been electrically tested. The Disco (postponed) will now go ahead in the last week of this term. A flyer will be provided next week with details.

We thank all involved in that situation including our students and staff back at school that continued to work and learn.

Yours sincerely

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.

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…….

LEARNING STARTS AT 8.45AM

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.

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.

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. Reminder that we have another induction scheduled for 2.30 on Friday the 23rd in TCBC Conference Room.

BULLYING – NO WAY

PREP NEWS

Prep – Our Little Learners

YEAR 1 NEWS

Year 1

In maths this term we have been learning about chance. We have had to classify outcomes of simple familiar events and justify our classification.

Will happen because there are about 1000 students at The Willows State School.

Won’t happen because I am only in year 1 this year.

YEAR 4 NEWS

Year 4’s second unit of English is focusing on Narratives and the language that authors use to develop characters and to build tension in a story. All classes are currently reading ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl and will create an imaginative new chapter of their own written in the style that the author has used for this story. These are some photos of the students’ illustrations of Mr and Mrs Twit and descriptions of the characters using language features like noun groups to describe their appearance.

Some of the other language features that we are currently learning and applying to our writing are; verb groups, adverbs, prepositional phrases, text connectives. The students are excited to be able to put their creative skills into practice!

YEAR 6 NEWS

A Week in The Wet

Our extended stay at Echo Creek was certainly one to remember. What an adventure it was – from our first day to our last. The first few days were filled with activities as planned – albeit some rather wet activities. As the week went on, we were mostly confined to dry areas of the camp and were happy with the breaks in the weather. It definitely brought us closer together and while we all missed our families, it was a pretty cool experience to be a part of!

Information regarding Camp 2 will be coming out soon.

GUIDANCE OFFICER NEWS

Helping kids become resilient

Definition: ‘Resilience – the ability to cope in times of stress or hardship.’

As parents we work to equip our children with the tools they need to solve their own problems, to respond to difficulties, to feel good about themselves and others, and to perceive the future in a hopeful and confident manner.

It would be great if all children arrived with a Do it Yourself Manual but here are some ideas to help your child become resilient.

Brooks and Goldstein talk of 10 key principles for resilience:

• Be empathetic – teach understanding of how another person might feel, recognize your own feelings
• Communicate and listen effectively – and respond to what your child is saying
• Love your children in ways that make them feel special and appreciated – let them know you love them unconditionally.
• Accept your child for who they are and help them to set reasonable goals – goals for today, and goals for the future. It’s good to work towards something.
• Help them experience success in what ever they show competence in (even if it’s collecting bugs)
• Focus on positives, reword negative talk – sometimes the positive may be hard to see, but it’s there. Always end a conversation with something positive. Instead of saying `don’t do ,,,,,.’- say what you want your child to do.
• Help them to understand that `mistakes’ are just things yet to be learnt
• Develop responsibility, compassion and social awareness by providing opportunities where you child can contribute or give back to others.
• Teach your child to solve their own problems and make appropriate decisions (What’s the problem? What are the choices? Which is the best choice? Try it. If it doesn’t work review your choices.) This also helps them to take responsibility for their actions.
• Discipline in a way that promotes self- discipline and self worth. Punishment is one form of discipline and often a least effective form as it teaches the child what not to do rather than what to do, and can often build resentment. It is difficult to teach your child a better way to behave when you yourself are angry and upset. So be calm, tell your child what you want them to do and praise your child for doing the right thing. Have though, a plan in place for dealing with noncompliance, but STAY CALM. Your child is watching you and will copy how you behave.

In following these principles we will contribute to helping our children be resilient, to be emotionally healthy, and equipped to successfully confront challenges, and bounce back from setbacks.

Adapted from ‘Raising Resilient Children’ by R.Brooks and S. Goldstein

Student Council News

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

School Disco – The new date for the School Disco is Wednesday the 28th of March.

Harmony day was a big hit with our students dressed in orange on Friday. Over the next week our seniors will be performing skits and doing activities at year level parades regarding ‘Bullying – no way”.

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 Run4Fun Colour Explosion!

Thank you to date for your support with our School Run4Fun Colour Explosion. Fundraising is full steam ahead!

How are you tracking towards your fundraising goal? If you haven’t already, create a Profile Page at the link below. There are some awesome features like setting your fundraising goal by choosing your favourite prizes.

You can also register for online fundraising – it’s the key to your success! Share your Profile Page to family and friends anywhere around the world and request support! The average raised is over $120 per student.

Don’t forget to see if you’ve won FREE sponsorship donations by using your unique code on page five (5) of the Sponsorship Form. Once logged in, view the school’s leaderboard and see where your child ranks. The highest fundraising student at the completion of the fundraiser will go into a draw to win a HUGE Apple Prize Pack.

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 if you haven’t already done so.

Happy fundraising!

School Buy

Do you shop online generally? Perhaps you use Millers, Petbarn or Woolworths? Maybe even Webjet, Interflora, Australian Geographic or Smiggle?

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. You don’t pay any extra, and just by doing your usual shopping, you can fundraise for the school!

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

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.

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!

DSTA NEWS

Welcome Back Year 6 students from your camp, glad to hear you are all safe. What an amazing adventure you have had. Sure to be the most exciting school camp ever.

This has been another busy week, with only 2 weeks until Easter break. This week was our last session for the Kidsmart program. All students have been enjoying the program with Julie and Megan from DCO. If any parents are interested in their children attending the Kidsmart Deployment program please forward me an expression of interest so I can monitor numbers who are interested in attending the program.

Tyla from Kirwan High (winner of The Premier Anzac Prize) returned this week to collect the 5 crosses she left with us 4 weeks ago. In that time the Year 6 defence students have had the opportunity to showcase their very creative talents with the decoration of the crosses. They have all had a great time and done a wonderful job. Tyla will be placing the crosses on graves when she tours the Battlefields of Gallipoli and France in April. We wish her all the very best in her travels and look forward to hearing all about her journey when she returns.

Kids Club or Defence Room is always open every break for defence students to call in to play a game, make a craft, read a book, meet new friends or just have a chat. Thank you to those parents who have been emailing me in regards to a parent being away on deployment or other work related absences. It is always helpful and beneficial to know those students and be able to support them when they may be feeling sad, lonely or other changes.

Deployments are a part of the Defence Force family lifestyle. PLEASE LET ME/TEACHER KNOW IF A LOVED ONE IS GOING AWAY. The impact of a parent’s absence due to a deployment can have a huge impact on the whole family, especially children. Sometimes, children lack the language to communicate or understand their feelings and can often express themselves with behaviour that is inappropriate or out of character. At TWSS we aim to support students during parental absence due to a deployment. Make sure you let your child’s teacher and DSTA know if you or a partner will be away for an extended period of time. Having this knowledge will go towards supporting the student at school.

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

Defence Family Helpline operates 24-7 on 1800 624 608 or e-mail defencefamilyhelpline@defence.gov.au or Contact VVCS on 1800 011 046 for support.

Defence Families noticeboards are located in the office and Junior CPA with flyers and information relating to all things defence. Please stop and have a look anytime.

You are always welcome to come to L pod for a chat/cuppa, any day from 8:00am until 3:00pm. The office can phone ahead to make sure I am in my room or you can email me to arrange a time.

IMPORTANT FOR STUDENTS - 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. You have 18 months from starting at a new school to access and complete the tutoring. This scheme is very beneficial for students’. Please see me if you would like assistance to complete the form. Or you can ring the Helpline for updates 1800 624 608.

If you want to know about upcoming DCO programs, events, and activities or information about events and services in the wider North Queensland community you need to be on the mailing list. E-mail DCO office in Townsville dco.townsville@defence.gov.au and leave details, name, member name, address, email, mob/home number, children’s names. Form attached.

GECKOS FAMILY CENTRE is holding another KIDS MEDALLION PRESENTATION on Wednesday 18th April. RSVP by 12th April. More information details are on flyer attached.

MANAGING MWDU FOR PARTNER AND DEFENCE MEMBERS 21st March at Lavarack Barracks, 1st session 13.13-14.30, 2nd session 18.30-19.30. RSVP DCO on 4753 6539.

Are you on the DCO mailing List?

Join DCO Townsville mailing LIST NOW if you want to receive updates from DCO. Contact them directly at dco.townsville@defence.gov.au or phone 07 4753 6539.

DATES AND ACTIVITIES TO REMEMBER

IMPORTANT NUMBERS AND CONTACTS FOR YOU TO ACCESS.

Defence Community Organisation is available to all Defence members and their families. Defence Family Helpline operates 24-7 on 1800 624 608 or e-mail defencefamilyhelpline@defence.gov.au

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 applies)

DFA Defence Families of Australia – 1800 100 509 www.dfa.org.au

National Delegate for Northern Queensland - nth.qld@dfa.org.au

ALWAYS KEEP THE LINES OF COMMUNICATION OPEN WITH CHILDREN AND PARTNERS.

Correna Wheeler
Defence School Transition Aide