30 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

DATE CLAIMER

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Dear Parents/Carers and Community

Congratulations to our 2018 Student Council and Student Leadership Team. This year, our students sponsored a special school community event in celebration and appreciation of our volunteers. At The Willows significant voluntary contributions (time, money, resources) have been provided to assist us in various parts of our school. From the P and C to the daily reading, sight words, homework reader changeovers, donations to our breakfast club, donations of prizes, covering library books…the list is abundant and at the heart of this is the willingness and generous contributions of many. We recognise and value each person for their valuable and positive contribution to our school. On behalf of us all, thankyou and see you next year!

Thankyou to all of volunteers and out Student Leaders/Council and staff for a great celebration on Friday afternoon. A shout out to Mrs Evans, Mrs Andersen, Mrs Shann, Mrs Ganly, Mrs Carter and Mrs Simkin for assisting with this year’s organisation.

Out and about across our school this last fortnight has been a highlight for all members of our school leadership team. The significant improvements that we can see in student behaviour, learning and engagement is an absolute credit to our students and our staff. Students are actively engaged in their learning, identifying ways to improve and reaching for the stars!

Our Willows learners are certainly in fantastic hands with our teachers ensuring that each and every student is progressing and achieving their best possible work.

This year has certainly gone quickly and we are now at our final preparations for the special ceremonies and traditions at The Willows State School. Coming up in the last two weeks of school are significant milestones for our students:

1. Annual Christmas Carols on our oval – year levels have been busily preparing to entertain our community on Wednesday 5th December. We look forward to seeing you there!
2. Student Leadership Handover – this year a special full school parade will be held on Friday 7th December where our current (2018) leaders handover the leadership to 2019 recipients.
3. Year 6 Graduation and Awards – this is a closed event to our Year 6 families on Wednesday 12 December followed by Rite of Passage where our school will formally farewell our senior students. Families, teachers and Year 6 students will then have a special morning tea.
4. Year 6 Celebration Dance and Disco – Wednesday 12 December in TCBC (Year 6 only)
5. Year 6 Fun Day at Barra Farm – Thursday 13 December

This year we have secured significant funding from our P and C to upgrade some of our playgrounds. The contribution of $245000 is a fantastic investment for all of our students and we thank our P and C for their generous donation. This work will commence in Term 1 of 2019 as the building of the play equipment is now currently underway. Each playground will be fitted with shade and softfall. The fundraising efforts and services of Tuckshop and OSHC are significant contributors to such a donation. Our students are excited and we look forward to opening these when they are ready. A big shout out to our 2018 P and C Committee for their excellent support in 2018!

We look forward to a positive finish to our school year. Thankyou for your ongoing support of our outstanding school!

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.

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.

Music News

End of Year Financial Processing

Please note that due to end of year financial processes there will be NO EFTPOS payments accepted after Friday 7th December.

End of Year Student Banking

The last day for student banking for 2018 will be Tuesday 4th December. Thank you to all students who have participated in student banking this year.

Chappy News

Hello to our wonderful school community

It is excellent to see the support extending to our Chaplaincy Service at The Willows. Chappy Adam has been working hard to establish the routines of our Toast Room, Games Room and supporting our students across P-6. It was fantastic to see the support and joy at Willows Shopping Centre and we thank all of our families for representing our school community.

Icy Cups

Icy Cups are continuing Tuesdays and Thursdays after school for Chappy Fundraising.

Students can come and buy an icy cup for 50c as soon as school finishes from the TCBC kitchen window. With summer here icy cups are a great way to beat the heat.

Willows Christmas Concert

On the 5th of December The Willows will be hosting a Christmas concert where students will be performing for their families. At the concert will be a sausage sizzle in support of chaplaincy fundraising. Drinks will also be on sale.

Chappy Riddle

Each newsletter I am going to include a riddle, the first 2 kids to come up and tell me the correct answer will win a free icy cup. (Google not allowed)

At night they come without being fetched. By day they are lost without being stolen. What are they?

Chappy Adam

Tuckshop News

As we come to the end of year, the tuckshop will be running down stock, so not everything will be available the last couple of weeks of school.

The tuckshop is CLOSED THURSDAY 13th December and FRIDAY 14th December for end of year cleaning.

Thanks for a great year and for supporting our tuckshop. We look forward to the new year.

Last but not least, thank you to our volunteers who continually help out, we appreciate you and the hard work you do.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Cheers

Rosie, Nadine, Robyn, Sandra
The Tuckshop Ladies

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!

School Playgrounds

Our P&C has made a significant contribution to our school by donating $200,000 towards playground upgrades! We are very proud to be a part of this, and look forward to seeing the new playgrounds that will benefit all of our kids.

Kookaburra Student Packs

Kookaburra Student Packs

Once again, the P&C have partnered with Kookaburra to supply our 2019 booklist needs and online ordering is open now!

So easy to order all your booklist needs, order from the comfort of your own home and no running around finding everything! Fantastic prices on quality brands. And you will be supporting your P&C.

2019 Prep families can order too!

Go to www.kookaburra.com.au
Select "Order a Student Pack"

Username: thewi003
Password: Student9 (is case sensitive)

You can either select a complete Student Pack which will contain all the items from our booklist, or you can customise and select items individually (the suggested quantities are the quantities from the school booklists). You can order extras for home if you like! There are also some optional items available for your shopping convenience, such as contact paper, book covers and left handed scissors.

Ordering and Delivery Dates:

SCHOOL DELIVERY this was previously advertised as free, but actually has a small fee of $2 per child)

Order Cut-Off Date: order by 7th December 2018 for school pick up from our OSHC building. Please note dates and times below. If you can't collect personally, send a friend, relative or neighbour!

School Pick Up Times (from our school's OSHC building):
Saturday 12th January 2019 02:00 pm – 04:00 pm.
Sunday 13th January 2019 10:00 am – 12:00 pm (midday).

HOME DELIVERY (Courier fee applies – about $11)
Order Cut-Off Date: order by 14th December 2018 for delivery to home by 18th January 2019. Home delivery will still be available after this date but may not arrive before school starts.

Note: Tissues/A4 Paper/Laminating sheets are bulk delivered to the school just before school starts and these will be distributed to classrooms on your behalf.

The School Locker

The Willow State School have partnered with The School Locker and a rebate will be made to the school 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 and new style hats with toggle! (from January 2019)

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).

The Athletes Foot

Purchase a pair of shoes for any family member and just mention you are with The Willows State School, and The Athletes Foot will donate $5 back to our school. The Athletes Foot offers quality well-fitting shoes that will last the distance.

School House Shirts

School House Shirts are available in various sizes from the tuckshop for $30. For any new families to our school (and our new Prep 2019 families), these are not a compulsory shirt, and are only worn on Wednesdays and official school sports days.

Label Partners

If you’re already getting prepared for the new school year with personalised labels and lunchboxes, don’t forget our label partners!

We have partnered with two personalised label companies (Stuck on You, and Bright Star Kids) and a percentage from every sale goes towards the P&C, providing you select our school’s details at the checkout.

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

Bright Star Kids - At checkout, click "Link a Fundraising Account", enter "Willows" in the search and select our school.

These suppliers also have many other products available other than personalised labels, such as t-shirts, bento boxes, and backpacks.

EZ Covers

At EZ Covers they have created an easier and cheaper way to cover school exercise books.

Their unique covers are made in a range of sizes that fit all school books in many colours and designs. And the best part is they are reusable from year to year.

It's easier than 123! Simply slide in the front and slide in the back. Hey presto, you're finished! No more wrangling with contact paper.

Go to

Use the code – EZ15 at the checkout and select The Willows State School! (please be sure to use the EZ15 code to give us a rebate of 15c per cover, rather than the standard 5c)

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 P&C meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month at 6pm in the TCBC Conference Room, and will recommence in February 2019. Our AGM will be held in March .

See you round!

Defence News

Hello Defence Families.

On Thursday at second break we held a farewell party for defence students who are leaving the school. For the year 6 defence students leaving for high school a very popular pizza party was held at second break Wednesday.

Farewell packs for all defence students who are leaving will be handed out in the next few days. If your children have the defence passport please bring them in to me to be stamped before you leave

I would like to wish you all the best for the future as you move to different schools.

Most of the postings are out, so if you are moving please contact me and the office ASAP. Information regarding your student/s 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. Look forward to hearing from you. A must website to have a look at if you are moving is 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. Or 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.

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

Lots of activities are on in December in Townsville so check website whatson.townsville.qld.gov.au for more details.

Tips for staying healthy and safe in the heat

Prevent heat related illness - advice for babies and young children

Information about heatwaves

Foster Carers Required

Would you like to help a child reach their full potential? If you are interested in becoming a foster carer contact Althea Projects on 4779 3332.

For more information on becoming a Foster Carer: