22 June 2018

Newsletter Articles

DATE CLAIMER

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Dear Parents, Carers and Community

Congratulations to all of our sports participants and competitors. The Senior and Junior Athletics Carnivals were held earlier this week and our Sports Captains, teachers and students enjoyed the events and fun spirit of the days. It was great to see many parents come and cheer our students on – a fantastic school community we have!

I would like to thank Mr Tod, Ms Deuble, Mrs Pilcher and Mr Rose for their excellent organisation of the days and the lead up to our events. Our P.E. teachers have worked with students over the past term to provide practice in the events and provide sports trials and training for the running events. All in all, a great team effort!

This fortnight I have had the pleasure of visiting many classrooms. It is great to see excited students sharing with much pride, confidence and joy their learning from this term.

Our Year 4’s are stars in the field of Digital Technology. The Students have been designing their own True/False game – not an easy feat for those new to the technology “algorithms” however…our kids have nailed this! As students excitedly shared their games, they were also able to evaluate the components of each other’s game. It is excellent to see students reflecting upon the work of others and their own learning. Thankyou Mrs Nosworthy and Mrs Milne for inviting me to share in the student learning. Top work everyone!

Our Year 3’s have produced their procedural text/presentation using Charlotte’s Web and oh, my goodness the writing has been outstanding along with the presentations where the impersonation of their character traits was not only entertaining, but also simply so much fun for students to do. Again, students evaluating and reflecting on their own and the learning of others was a magnificent and truly rewarding process to watch. Thank you for sharing Kylie and Kayleigh.

Well done to our NRL DEVELOPMENT CUP TEAM! A big shout out to Brad, Cameron, Jenny, Jackie Nos, Scott Nos and the support crew of tonight! A big thanks to staff - great to see The Willows team at the game cheering the boys on! The Willows are undefeated and played a great game defeating Cathedral 10-4 tonight!

Next game - early Term 3.

Please congratulate these students - they pulled together as an almighty team tonight!

Every Day Counts at our school – it is an 11 week term and over the last part of our school term the learning continues, Positive Behaviour Learning Rewards Sessions are planned and our report cards will be distributed. Over the holidays, much planning will be taking place for our NAIDOC Parade and celebrations that take place from Day 1 (Monday 16 July) Term 3 – please stay connected with regular events and information through the Facebook Feed also found on our main website.

I would also like to thank our P and C who actively are looking for great initiatives in their fundraising. The latest Holiday Raffle is a much wanted prize – please support our P and C as they support each and every student at our school through their efforts

Have a great end of term and a safe and well deserved June/July break.

Kind regards
Helen McCullough
Principal

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.

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…….

Arriving late and leaving early can take up a lot of learning time

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.

FROM THE GUIDANCE OFFICER – MISS NARELLE (NARELLE THOMAS)

Hello parents and guardians. I hope this Newsletter finds you well. I have recently been liaising with staff from Centacare and am pleased to announce that they will be offering the parents of The Willows State School an opportunity to participate in a course called “Tuning In To Kids”.

This emotionally intelligent parenting course assists parents of young children to encourage and support their child to understand and express emotions in appropriate ways.

The aim of this program focuses on:

1. The emotional connection between parents/caregivers and children;
2. Assisting parents/caregivers to respond to their children's emotions in a way that helps the child to understand and manage their emotions.

The course is held for 2 hours per week over 6 weeks and is suitable for parents/caregivers for parents of children 2 to 9 years. It is the expectation that participants attended each week for 5 weeks. Unfortunately, there are no babysitting facilities.

The number of participants is limited to 12 so it will be first in best dressed. Minimum number of participants is 10 for this course to proceed. Please register your interest with Narelle Thomas.

Expression of Interest

Details

Coffee, Tea and biscuits provided.

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.

YEAR 1 NEWS

Year 1 students had a fantastic time at our recent Under 8s Day! Children had the chance to be involved in many fun hands on activities such as face painting, puppet making, dancing and slime etc.

YEAR 2 NEWS

FARM SAFETY CALENDAR COMPETITION

Last year’s Farm safety calendar competition for schools received such a good response that it is being run again in 2018!

The competition raises awareness among primary school children and their communities of common hazards on farms and other rural properties. Children are encouraged to draw a picture to illustrate one of four farm safety topics.

Twelve winning entries will be published in a 2019 calendar that will be distributed free in October this year. Winning students will receive a $250 voucher, and $500 will be awarded to their school.

Entries should illustrate a key safety message from one of the four topic areas below (see the full list at Worksafe.qld.gov.au):

• Quad bikes, motorbikes and machinery
• Animal handling
• Sun safety and healthy lifestyle
• Kids on farms

Entries should be submitted on white paper, using the template from our website, and include the student’s name, school and the school’s contact details. Each entry should also have a consent signature from a teacher or parent.

Entries should be posted to:

Awareness and Engagement Unit
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland
GPO Box 69
Brisbane Q 4001

Entries must be received by Friday 29 June 2018. Winners will be announced in October.

Visit the link below or call 1300 362 128 to find out more about the competition and its terms and conditions.

We look forward to receiving your students’ entries.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland

TOWNSVILLE RUNNING FESTIVAL

This year the Townsville Running Festival are celebrating 20 years! The Townsville Bulletin is proudly supporting the event by sponsoring the 5km Junior Fun Run. We are encouraging students aged 3 to 17 years to register early for the event for the chance to train with North Queensland Cowboy Michael Morgan. The school who receives the most registrations by 9am Sunday, July 22 will receive a free catered lunch for the students who had registered along with a visit from Michael Morgan.

P&C NEWS

P&C Wall

Have you noticed the start of our P&C wall in the main CPA area? The painting has begun, and soon there will be a fundraising target sign, as well as an information noticeboard. We are looking forward to bringing you the finished product soon!

Holiday Bonanza Raffle – 25th June to 11th August

How does a $2000 Flight Centre voucher sound for your family? Even better still, how about being able to redeem it at any time of year, for any destination of your choosing? That’s our major prize in our upcoming Holiday Bonanza Raffle. This raffle is unique to our P&C, so any ticket that you sell or buy, has a good chance of being a winning ticket!

The prizes up for grabs are (tickets are $5 each):

• 1st Prize - $2000 Flight Centre Voucher
• 2nd Prize - 2 night stay at Mission Beach Resort for a family up to 5, including breakfast (valued at $600)
• 3rd Prize - The Ville $250 voucher to spend on accommodation or an onsite restaurant
• 4th Prize - 2 night stay at Rollingstone Beach Front Resort at a beachfront powered site (or put towards an upgrade to a cabin if you wish!), valued at up to $104.

The ticket sales start 25th June, closing on 11th August. The prizes will be drawn at our trivia night on the 11th August.

We have sent home an expression of interest to aid our team to know which families are willing to sell tickets for us and make the process as efficient as possible. Tickets are limited, and are strictly tracked to ensure they are returned to us sold and/or unsold. Therefore, tickets will only be allocated to families who indicate they will sell them, or who would like to buy them themselves. If you are interested in selling tickets for us, be sure to return the form ASAP! We will send home tickets to those families from Monday 25th June.

If you don’t wish to sell tickets, but would like to buy some, there will be tickets for sale in the tuckshop from 25th June. We will also be selling tickets at The Willows Shopping Centre on the weekend of 7-8 July, so be sure to look for us there!

Trivia Night – 11th August

The P&C have a trivia night planned for 11th August, so please save the date. We are planning on a movie theme, and hope to see many of you there forming teams with your friends and family. We will have food available, games in between rounds, as well as raffles with some great prizes up for grabs. We will also be drawing our winners of our Holiday Bonanza Raffle on this night.

There will be more information to come, so stay tuned!

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. It’s not too late to purchase one as the offers inside are valid until June 2019.

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.

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

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

If you have not received an order form or have misplaced it, 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 order your groceries online with Woolworths? Maybe even Webjet, Interflora, Australian Geographic or Smiggle? Please consider ordering through the SchoolBuy website.

There are millions of items that can be bought through SchoolBuy to support our school – and every purchase helps with a percentage of what you spend going to our school. 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.

You don’t pay any extra, and just by doing your usual shopping, you can fundraise for the school! Plus you still get all their best online deals and can take advantage of any special offers or sales on the retailer’s website. Tell your friends and family too!

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

Label Partners – Bright Star Kids and Stuck on You

If you are purchasing name labels or personalised items, please consider ordering online through our label partners. A percentage of every sale will go towards the P&C.

For “Stuck on You” go to the link below

At checkout, click "Have a Crew/Fundraising Code?" link, type in "thewillowsstateschool" (no spaces).

For “Bright Star Kids”, go to the link below

At the checkout, click “Link a fundraising account”, enter “Willows” in the search and select our 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 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 17th July 6pm in the TCBC Conference Room. We’d love to welcome some new faces. Don’t forget you can bring the kids if you need to!

See you round!

DEFENCE NEWS

Hello Defence Families,

As from the 18th May Correna will be away on leave until the end of term. Correna will be returning back to school on 16th July, which is the first day of Term 3. I will be filling in for Correna during term 2 and overseeing all defence students and programs. I can be contacted through the office, by email lnawr0@eq.edu.au or stop by L Pod to have a chat. I am available Monday, Thursday and Friday from 8:45am - 3:00pm.

WELCOME HOME

A big welcome home to our defence members who have recently returned from deployments. There has been a lot of excitement in the weeks leading up to the homecomings. The defence students involved enjoyed designing and decorating welcome home poster.

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.

Please remember to call or e-mail me 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. 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

Just a reminder if you have been posted into Townsville this year that 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 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.

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.

DATES AND ACTIVITIES TO REMEMBER

HOLLYWOOD THEMED CHARITY BALL-FUNDS RAISED TO MATES4MATES

GECKOS SCHOOL HOLIDAY ACTIVITY PROGRAM

Geckos is running some fabulous activities for children over the school holidays. Bookings are essential. These activities are very popular so book early to secure your space.

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.

DEFENCE COMMUNITY ORGANISATION TOWNSVILLE – UPDATE FOR FAMILIES

It has been a busy time for Defence families with serving members training hard and away from their families on exercise while other families are welcoming their loved ones home from deployment. It has been fantastic to see lots of Welcome Home banners at the airport when soldiers return.

For the Mums & Dads waiting at home, make sure you take time out for yourself to recharge your batteries. Why not join the DCO team for Coffee Connections, 1st Thursday of each month. We visit a different venue each month and it is a great opportunity to meet and chat with other families. Next coffee morning being held 5th July at Hudsons Coffee.

Australian Military Wives Choir to sing at Invictus games – Join now

The Australian Military Wives Choir has been invited to sing at the Invictus Games Opening Ceremony in Sydney on Saturday 20 October. The Townsville choir would like to add more voices to our region. The choir is open to women connected to an Australian Defence Force member such as partner, sister, mother, daughter or female ADF member. Why not head along to a rehearsal and see what it is all about?

When: 1st, 3rd & 5th Thursday of each month from 7.00pm
Where: Weir State School
More info: Email amwc.townsville@gmail.com

We NEED High Shine parade Boots

Do you still have your old high shines sitting in the back of the wardrobe collecting dust? The team at DCO is on the hunt for old high shine parade boots for a family activity.

If you have boots that you are happy to donate, please email dco.townsville@defence.gov.au or call 4753 6539.

Information about upcoming DCO events is available via the link below.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

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

LORETTA - TERM 2 AVAILABLE from 8:45am – 3:00pm, Monday, Thursday, Friday Call by for a chat, call through to the school on 47 991 333 (ext. 323) or send me an email Loretta lnawr0@eq.edu.au

CORRENA - AVAILABLE TERM 3 from 8:00am-3:30pm, Monday to Friday. Call by for a chat or call me anytime on 47 991 333 (ext. 323) or send me an email Correna cwhee36@eq.edu.au

Loretta Nawrocki
Defence School Transition Aide