25 May 2018

Newsletter Articles

DATE CLAIMER

PRINCIPAL’S NEWS

Dear Parents, Carers and Community

The Deputy Principal position for The Willows State School was recently advertised. I am pleased to announce that a highly competitive application pool allowed the recruitment and selection process to occur.

Please join me in congratulating Mr Cameron Tod who will commence as substantive Deputy Principal on July 17.

NAPLAN 2018

Last week approximately 140 Year 3 students and 150 Year 5 students sat the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests in Language Conventions, Writing, Reading and Numeracy. The tests were well aligned to the curriculum so students were well prepared by their day-to-day learning. The Willows SS has identified Literate and Numerate Learners as a focus area in our 2018 Explicit Improvement Agenda. This ongoing work is aimed at continuing to improve student results in the basic literacy and numeracy skills that NAPLAN tests. Well done to all of our Year 3 and 5 students, teachers, parents and support staff!

FOOTBALL

Adopt-a-School is the Cowboys' cornerstone community program and this year The Willows State School’s cowboy is Te Maire Martin.

Te Maire Martin came to our school on Monday and worked with many of our students. He participated in reading activities with our year 6 students, writing activities with PYSTE and even gave our school mascots Waldo, Olive and Willow a footy lesson out on the oval. We look forward to seeing Te Maire again soon.

WALK TO SCHOOL WEEK

On Thursday the 24th of May The Willows State School participated in ‘Walk to School Week’. Thank you to all of our families for joining us at this event. We had a good turn out and it was lovely to finish the morning with a light snack and chat. We would like to thank Woolworths Avenues for their donation of fruit. A reminder that this is an event that promotes healthy living and encouraging our families to walk, ride or scooter to school. It is about healthy eating and exercise.

FANFARE

Congratulations to all of our students and staff who participated in FANFARE this year. We were very well received and finished with a bronze award for the Junior Strings Orchestra, a gold award for senior concert band, a silver award for senior strings orchestra and our senior concert band was also selected for regionals. GO WILLOWS.

We are very proud of the musical achievements of our students and acknowledge the hard work of our music staff Fiona Coleman, Trevor Schimke, Caroline Lloyd-Doolan, Ruby Johnson, Kelly Clarke-Flesser, Carla Mulligan, Ian Brunskill.

THE ATHLETE’S FOOT

A huge thank you to The Athlete’s Foot who presented a $400 cheque to us at the full school parade last week. So far 80 of our families have purchased shoes from them and $5 is donated to the school for each purchase.

2018 PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is an annual state-wide initiative for state and non-state schools and home-educated students from Prep to Year 9, as well as children (aged up to five years) enrolled in an early childhood centre. The Premier’s Reading Challenge aims to improve literacy and encourage children to read for pleasure and learning.

In 2017, over 155,000 young Queenslanders from 850 schools and 410 early childhood centres took part in the challenge reading a total of 2.16 million books.

Many of our students and some full classes will be participating in the challenge and we look forward to seeing our students actively engaged in reading. If your student is interested in participating please ensure that they let their teacher know. All students who participate will receive a certificate from the Premier.

More information can be found at the following website.

RESPECT OUR STAFF

RESOLVING ISSUES SCHOOL FACT SHEET

BEFORE SCHOOL PROCEDURES

In the morning at The Willows, we are supervised from 8am in the Main Covered Area. The students are expected to be seated and following instructions from the student leaders and staff. To help our students we ask that parents and family members model the following behaviours at our school

• Sit quietly
• Listen to the speakers
• Follow instructions
• Keep noise to a minimum

We appreciate you being a part of our Respectful community and modelling our expectations.

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.

UPDATE PERSONAL DETAILS

Accidents, illness and emergencies can happen. Please make sure your Emergency Contact Details are kept up-to-date.

This includes:

• A change of address
• A change in phone numbers for parent/guardian and all other emergency contacts
• Email address for school notices and invoices
• Register with QParents so these details can be changed by a parent/guardian

Changes can also be made by sending a note to the school office, signed by the parent or guardian.

Changes will not be accepted over the phone.

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…….

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 8.50am 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.

PREP ENROLMENTS 2019

Enrolment packages are now available from the office for Prep aged children for 2019. Eligible children must be turning 5 before 30th June 2019.

If you already have other children enrolled at our school you only need to bring the child’s Birth Certificate to collect your package.

If you don’t already have children enrolled at our school you will need to bring the child’s Birth Certificate as well as proof of your residential address, which can be a lease agreement or rates notice.

Please see our office staff for an enrolment package today.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB ISSUE 4 - 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 8th June.

Thank you
Sarah Platt
Teacher Librarian

YEAR 1 NEWS

Year 1 are learning to write a Character description using writing and images. They wrote about Mr Wintergarten from the story Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten.

YEAR 5 NEWS

Currently year 5 students are fully involved in creating an interactive game on the coding program Scratch. Students are designing and coding their own maze game to solve an identified problem. The year 5 students are loving being creative and many have even worked on their projects during lunch time.

YEAR 6 NEWS

Year 6 have been working on creating multimodal advertisements. Their job was to persuade a target audience to visit a chosen destination and then explain how this was achieved. The task was highly engaging and all students have experienced success. Here is an example from one of our students.

UPDATE: GLOBAL TROPICS FUTURE YOUNG SCHOLARS PROJECT

Last Friday was the last lesson of the Qld Virtual STEM Academy program (Skill Builder). The students presented new knowledge and understanding of the scientific model including forming hypotheses, analysing results and evaluating a chocolate experiment.

Congratulations Jenna C and Zoe L.

The Willows State School - Expression of Interest
Temporary Part-Time Teacher Aide Positions

Expression of Interest Temporary Part-time Teacher Aides

Semester 2
Hours to be determined
Must be prepared to work across Prep - Year 6
Closing date Monday 4th June at 3:00pm.
Interviews will be held for suitable applicants.

A one page Expression of Interest addressing the Role Description can be either delivered to the school office or emailed to the Business Manager, Christine Shann bsm@thewillowsss.eq.edu.au

A Role Description can be emailed out or collected at the front office by ringing or emailing the Business Manager on 4799 1310

P&C NEWS

Family Movie Night

We think the Family Movie Night was a great success, and a great night was had by all. Thanks to Mr Schimke and the rock bands and to all those who helped on the night.

We hope to bring more such events to the school, bringing our families together.

Entertainment™ Books

We are selling the popular Entertainment™ Books, to raise money for our School. The Books sell for $60 and the P&C get to keep $12 for every one we sell.

The Entertainment™ Books are available as a Book (with a gold card and vouchers) or as a Digital Membership that puts all the offers on your smartphone to redeem at the touch of a button.

Be sure to select your child's class for a chance to win them an Ice-Cream cake party!

Order online through the P&C directly at this link:

Once ordered online, if you opted for the book version, they will be available to collect from the office or the OSHC.

If you have not received an order form, you can collect one from the office or OSHC, and collect your book immediately (or an email will be sent to you for the digital version).

The Athlete’s Foot

If you are needing to buy shoes, for yourself or your kids, don’t forget our support from The 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.

The Athlete’s Foot have already donated $400 to the P&C, what a great effort and please keep it up!

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.

Contact Us!

Like us on Facebook to keep up to date with school and P&C events. (Search for The Willows State School P&C.) You can contact us by sending a pm to the page. Alternatively, you can contact us via email at willowspandc@gmail.com

P&C Meeting

Our next P&C meeting is on the 12th June 6pm in the TCBC Conference Room. Don’t forget you can bring the kids if you need to!

See you round!

KIRWAN HIGH OPEN DAY

DEFENCE NEWS

Hello Defence Families,

Correna will be away on leave until the end of term and will be returning back to school on 16th July, which is the first day of Term 3. In her absence Loretta Nawrocki who is the DSTA at Good Shepherd Catholic School will be filling in and overseeing all defence students and programs. Loretta has many years’ experience in the role. If you wish to contact Loretta you may do so through the office, by email lnawr0@eq.edu.au or stop by L Pod to see her. Loretta will be available Monday, Thursday and Friday from 8:45am-3:00pm. Please make her welcome.

Just a reminder that if you have been posted into Townsville this year your child/children may be eligible for EAS (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 a Maths and English 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 DEFENCE HELPLINE on 1800 624 608.

Please remember to call or e-mail me or the teacher if a parent is going to be away due to a deployment. I rely on your communication to me so I can best support the student during this most challenging time. I appreciate all those parents who have been e-mailing me in regards to parent being away on deployment or courses/training. 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. Having this knowledge will go towards supporting the student at school. It is always helpful and beneficial to know those students and be able to best support them and regularly communicate when they may be feeling sad, lonely or just not coping. 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.

Thanks to the many defence students who have participated in the Creative Arts Competition-Life of a Military Family in Townsville. The Creative Arts competition was held on the 16th May. We had lots of lovely entries and one winner from Grade 4. All winners have been notified.

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, mobile/home number, children’s names. Form attached.

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

PATH TO WELLBEING FORUM - HELD AT RSL

HOLLYWOOD THEMED CHARITY BALL - FUNDS RAISED FOR MATES4MATES

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 (VVCS) – 1800 011 046 (eligibly applies)

DFA Defence Families of Australia – 1800 100 509

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

Call by for a chat or call me Monday, Thursday or Friday from 8.45am – 3.00pm on 47 991 333 (ext. 323) or send me an email Loretta lnawr0@eq.edu.au

Loretta Nawrocki
Defence School Transition Aide