2 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

DATE CLAIMER

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Lest we forget – Let us remember

On Friday, 9 November The Willows SS students will commemorate Remembrance Day through a special assembly in our school hall at 10:30 am. Parents and community members are most welcome to attend.

Tuckshop Day

Schools across Queensland are encouraged to give a special thank you to their tuckshop workers and volunteers on Tuckshop Day, the first Friday in November. In 2018 the date is Friday 2 November. Tuckshop Day recognises the great work of thousands of people across the state each and every school day.

It also highlights the important role tuckshops play in school life. Providing nutritious food and drinks means families can have one less task to worry about at the start of their day and helps students to concentrate and learn well in class.

On behalf of the school community I would like to thank our tuckshop convenors, Rosie and Nadine, for their tireless efforts in providing our students and staff with tasty and nutritious meals throughout the school year. A massive thankyou to all parent and community volunteers who help out also.

Changes to Family Details

Changed your home address or phone number recently? Perhaps you started a new job. If you have changed any of your family details in the past few months, the school office staff needs to be advised of new information as soon as possible. These details are extremely important, particularly in the case of emergencies. Please send along advice of any changes to the office or email us at admin@thewillowsss.eq.edu.au

P&C Meeting – Tuesday 13 November

Our next P&C Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 13 November, starting at 6:00 p.m. in the conference room. All parents and carers are welcome.

Kind regards,
Helen McCullough
Principal

BEFORE SCHOOL PROCEDURES

All students are seated and supervised in the Main CPA from 8am.

At 8:15 am

Yr 3 – 6 students move to TCBC
Prep – Yr 2 students move to Junior CPA
Please remember your hat every day.

Students will have a quiet activity and the opportunity to have some outside movement time prior to learning.

At 8:45 am All students move to classrooms to commence learning.

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 families 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 8.50am. 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

Reminder that students arriving after 9am need to come through the office.

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.

ICAS Success

Last week 81 of our students received certificates for participating in the Educational Assessment Australia ICAS tests for English or Mathematics. ICAS is an independent, skills-based assessment program, which recognises and rewards student achievement. Some of our highest performing students in these tests were:

Congratulations to all students who participated!

Reading at Home

A recent study by Oxford University “Books beyond Bedtime” revealed that just 10 minutes of reading with a carer can make a big difference. This report can be found on the World Book Day website. The report revealed the top 6 strategies that parents and carers can engage in at home when reading with children.

1. Make the time – Just 10 minutes each day can support your child in their reading journey.
2. Choose different types of books – Find interesting stories, poems, informative texts, recipes (just to name a few).
3. Take turns to read – children reading aloud helps to develop their fluency and expression but it is also great to model the expression and ‘funny’ voices, letting them enjoy the story.
4. Talk about the book – ask lots of questions! Some sentence starters are below

What will happen when…?
Who will …?
Why do you think … did that?
How did …?
Why did the author ….?

Feel free to share your own thinking with your reader. Statements beginning with ‘I think’, ‘I remember’ or ‘I know’ are a great way to show how you can find and connect to information from the text.

5. Pay attention to the language – don’t assume your young reader understands the words or phrases, even when they read them correctly. Check their understanding.

“What does the character/author mean when they say…?”

6. Just enjoy reading! Reading together is a great way to promote a love of reading and learning.

Each newsletter will feature a different focus on reading and ways to assist our readers to be successful at home and school.

Our reading targets are

Prep – Level 8
Year 1 – Level 16
Year 2 – Level 20
Year 3 – Level 24

Life Education Term 4 – Year levels 1, 2, 4

The Willows State School has chosen to partner with Life Education, a specialist health education provider. The Life Education Mobile Learning Centre will be at our school visiting our year 1,2 and 4 students from the 14th to the 22nd of November. Information and permission forms have gone out and payment is due on Wednesday the 7th of November.

Life Education is a health promotion charity, and the largest non-government provider of health and drug education to children. They work in partnership with schools to enhance and reinforce children’s learning about nutrition, the benefits of physical activity, staying safe online, the health impacts of smoking and alcohol, and strategies to cope with peer and social pressures. Life Education is about prevention through education – providing children with important knowledge, skills, confidence and self-esteem to help them live a healthy, safe life. Life Education is well known by its mascot ‘Healthy Harold” the giraffe.

The following programs will be offered.

What’s coming up at The Willows State School

YEAR 6 END OF YEAR EVENTS

Information regarding end of year events with Year 6 has been sent out. Keep these dates and times handy.

Year 6 Graduation Ceremony – Wednesday the 12th of December 9.00 to 11.30am
Year 6 Graduation Dance – Wednesday the 12th of December 5.30 to 8pm
Year 6 Fun Day – Thursday the 13th of December 8.45 to 3.00pm.

P & C News

TWSS Logo Water Bottles

Available now from the tuckshop for $5 each in house colours.

Keep the kids hydrated for the upcoming warmer days. Don’t forget to write your child’s name on the space provided!

2019 Enrolled Preppies will receive one free in their house colour at the Prep Open Day (8th November).

Upcoming Projects

We are excited to share a few of our upcoming projects with you all:

Playgrounds – we are looking to refresh our school playgrounds with some major changes! This will be an expensive project, but will benefit our kids for years to come.

Tuckshop – we are planning a major refurbishment of our aging Tuckshop. Exciting times ahead!

OSHC Play Area – our Outside School Hours Care outside play area is to be landscaped to continue the great work done on the first part of this project. This will provide a full synthetic grassed area outside for our children to play on.

Fun Fair – our Fun Fair will be back, bigger than ever in 2019. Our Fundraising Sub Committee have kicked off initial planning for this. Let us know if you want to be involved!

Kookaburra Student Packs

Once again, the P&C have partnered with Kookaburra to supply our 2019 booklist needs online.

Buying your book pack online saves you having to run around finding everything, it’s a very competitive price (in fact, cheaper than most whilst not compromising on quality brands), and the P&C receive a rebate direct from Kookaburra to help with our fundraising.

We’re in the final stages of having this all setup – it will be announced on our Facebook page as soon as it is finalised.

The School Locker

The P&C have partnered with The School Locker and they will provide a rebate to the P&C on absolutely every purchase made in store!

The School Locker offer parents the convenience of shopping at a local store (Domain Central) for all your school needs, including music and sports equipment, shoe fittings, stationery and technology. They are open 7 days, including late night trade with ample parking. Soon they will be stocking The Willows State School uniform!

If you don’t want to order your bookpacks online through Kookaburra, The School Locker can help you pick your book pack from their supply of stationery items (they have all of our booklists ready to go).

Bunnings Sausage Sizzle – 11th November

Once again we will be having a sausage sizzle at Bunnings Northshore on Sunday 11th November. Why not bring the family down for a sausage on bread!

We are needing some helpers to serve and cook, so please if you can help, even for just an hour, we’d love to hear from you.

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 will be the last one for the year and is on the 13th November at 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!

Cash Rewards

Buying airline tickets? Online shopping at your favourite supermarket? Get to their website through our CASHREWARDS website (once you’ve registered), it knows where you came from, and you will earn dollars for yourself and for our P&C.

Simply join CASHREWARDS through our unique landing page. Not only can you take advantage of all the special offers and Cashback, CASHREWARDS will donate up to $20 to our fundraising efforts just by you registering through the link below (it's free for you!).

The way it works is simple. Just use the direct link to shop at over 1,200 of your favourite brands and they will give you up to 25% Cashback (not points!) on your purchase (for you to spend). Not only will you save money, a percentage of your purchases will go to the P&C!

From groceries to getaways you can earn Cashback and help raise much needed funds for our school all while stretching your own shopping budget that little bit further.

Remember it’s free to join and only takes 15 seconds to register (and helps fundraise for your P&C). Join up by visiting our unique webpage at:

The P&C earn as soon as you register! Even if you choose not to do any shopping.

Please share with your friends and family. They can benefit too

See you round!

Defence News

Hello Defence Families.

It has been another busy couple of weeks here at school. During that time I have had the great pleasure in welcoming 4 new defence families with 8 students to our school. Welcome to you all. Hope your transition has been a smooth one.

Last week we had a defence Morning Tea for parents and a special thanks to all those who attended.

The last parent get together for the year will be in week 9. This will be a Farewell/Christmas Morning Tea. This is an opportunity to come together and talk with defence families to form a support network for each other. Hope to see you there.

The second session of the Kidsmart Relocation Program was last Wednesday. We have 18 students attending the program. The majority of the students are from The Willows with a couple of students from Kirwan SS and Bohle SS. The program will continue for the next 2 weeks. There will be another program next year in term 1 for all new students to attend.

This year marks the Centenary of Armistice and as a commemoration to all those who have lost their lives and served our country I have organised a school project. At the moment we are painting 100 plastic poppies made from water bottles. These will be fixed to a stake that will be placed in the school grounds leading up to Remembrance Day. Please encourage your children to join me at 1st and 2nd breaks on a Tuesday and Wednesday to be part of this wonderful task. This should look awesome.

This year we will be commemorating Remembrance Day with a service here at school on Friday 9th November at 10.30am. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Please let me know ASAP if you will be leaving our school due to a posting as all defence students receive a Farewell Pack and Signature Bear before leaving. Students are very excited and look forward to receiving their Farewell pack.

Most of the postings are out, so if you are moving please contact me and the office ASAP. Information regarding students last day of school and where you will be moving to is important to the school. This information is much appreciated by myself so I have time to visit and talk about the transition to another school and also give a Farewell Pack to the student. If your children have the defence passport please bring them in to me to be stamped before you leave. Look forward to hearing from you. A must website to have a look at if you are moving is available below. It is full of awesome stuff about your new location.

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. We may reimburse fees for tutoring required to fill any gaps in understanding or curriculum caused by changing schools. 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. You can ring the Helpline for updates 1800 624 608.

Are you a member of the FREE ADF Family Health Program? If you said No you should be. Just read the fact sheet below and register now to access the FREE health benefits available to all defence families.

Geckos is holding the final Kids Medallion Presentation on the 7th November at Geckos Community Centre. Please note RSVP is by the 31st October and if interested you will need to email HQ3BDE.familynq@defence.gov.au

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. You can e-mail DCO office in Townsville dco.townsville@defence.gov.au and leave details such as member name, address, email, mobile/home number, children’s names or collect a form from me. I have attached a copy of the form below.

If you are finding life’s challenges overwhelming my door is always open. Don’t forget you are 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. Talking with others can help to put things in perspective. See you soon.

Deployments are a part of the Defence Force family lifestyle. PLEASE LET THE SCHOOL 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 by; engaging the children in a variety of activities that allow them to identify the emotions they may feel during a parental absence; share their experiences with other defence children who may also have a parent away; read books especially written to help children cope with deployments; and create craft items at Kids Club to help the child communicate with the absent parent. 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.

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.

Townsville Gone Troppo Newsletter

DCO Townsville's Gone Troppo Newsletter is available to view on the DCO website and click on the latest edition to download

DATES AND ACTIVITIES TO REMEMBER

GECKOS CHRISTMAS PARTY AND CAROLS 24TH NOVEMBER $10-CHILD, $5-ADULT INCLUDES FOOD, DRINKS AND ACTIVITIES. BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL.

Are you looking for a Job? Come and join Employment Pathways Workshops.

CONTACTS

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 – Chandell Derham at nth.qld@dfa.org.au

Remember I am available anytime from 8:00am until 3:30pm, Monday to Friday.

Parents are very welcome to call by L Pod for a chat or contact me via email or phone. Students can call into L Pod any break time every day.

School Office Monday –Friday on 47 991 333 or e-mail on cwhee36@eq.edu.au

Correna Wheeler
Your DSM - Defence School Mentor
STAY SAFE AND TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.

Christmas Card Competition from Member for Herbert

A reminder that this competition is now open, with final entries to be sent in by Wednesday 21st November, 2018.

The winner of the competition will have their design as the cover of my Christmas Card which will be printed and sent out to Members and Senators of Parliament House, Business Leaders and Community Organisations in Townsville. The winning entry will also receive a prize voucher valued at $100 and the runner up entry will receive a prize voucher valued at $50. I will personally select, notify and hopefully meet the lucky winners.

All entries should be returned either via email to cathy.otoole.mp@aph.gov.au or dropped into my office at the Nathan Business Centre, 340 Ross River Road, Cranbrook or mailed to:

Cathy O’Toole MP
PO Box 226
Aitkenvale QLD 4814
Please remember to send both sides of the entry.

All submissions must be received by the Wednesday 21st November, 2018, in order to allow time for a winner to be established and printing and delivery timings met. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact my office on 07 4725 2066 or get in contact with my Community Organiser Jonathan McCarthy at jonathan.mccarthy@aph.gov.au

Last year I received so many phenomenal entries and I very much look forward to seeing the creativity and artistry of all the designs again this year.

Please download the attached form to submit your entry.

Learn to Sail

Australian Sailing's TACKERS program is specifically designed for primary aged children. The course is fun and challenging. Tackers 1 through to level 3, starts Saturday, November 10th, running for 4 consecutive Saturdays 8am-1pm. For more information please visit the link below or contact Townsville Sailing Club Ph: (07) 4772 1105, townsvillesailingclub@gmail.com