1 May 2020

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S PRIDE

The first term weeks of Term 2 have certainly been a very different start of term for us all and it has been excellent to see the positive partnerships across our school.

This week has been smoother online and it is fantastic to see the large number of students accessing the online virtual classrooms across Prep-Year 6. As students and teachers get more familiar with this virtual environment, I am noticing a great confidence in our students to use the microphones, web cams and have a go on the interactive whiteboards. Fantastic work Willows! It certainly is a lot of fun and I am enjoying joining in the collaborate sessions with you all!

What I love most from our school community, is the ability to work with our school to support our students. I have seen this time and time again over the years but the last fortnight has seen exponentially more examples of the fantastic community support of our parents and carers. It is wonderful to receive and see teachers receiving gratitude and appreciation for the amazing work that they do for our children. It is equally fantastic to see our parents giving it their best and doing a fabulous job supporting children with their learning. Keep it up Willows!

For those online and not at school, school looks and feels very differently. It simply is not the same without all of our students and we are doing our best to ensure that all of the safety precautions are in place and within the Director General Education guidelines. As a state system, we are governed by the Queensland State Government and we thank all of our community for supporting our school as we work across multiple platforms of learning across each year level.

During a school day, students at school are learning the same content as those at home. They are supervised in larger groups to complete these learnings as most of our teachers are required online to teach the learning@home materials. The limit in classes was initially 12 per class and as of 27/04/2020 4.58pm this has been lifted to ensure that schools are able to successfully deliver online learning.

The first stage of resumption, commencing on 11 May 2020 will be for students at the essential early years and critical senior years: community kindergarten, Prep, Year 1, Year 11 and Year 12. Children of essential workers, vulnerable children and children in designated Indigenous communities will also be able to attend school.

A decision about the remainder of Term 2 will be made by 15 May. During Weeks 1-5, all students who are able to be supervised at home and learn from home are to stay home.

There will be exceptions for some students who will continue to be able to attend school which include:

• Students whose parents or carers work in essential roles and must attend their workplace and cannot access alternative care; and
• Students identified as vulnerable or at risk.

These students can only attend school if well. Parents/caregivers will be requested to collect unwell students and they will be isolated until collection. The health, wellbeing and safety of our staff and students is our highest priority throughout this crisis.

Learning@home – Weeks 4-5 for students in Years 2-6

Every day parents will receive an email from their child’s class teacher as a check in process. This is also to ensure attendance is maintained and an opportunity for parents/teachers/students to interact and share learning examples and feedback on learning.

By now parents/carers and students have either engaged in the online learning virtual classrooms and/or the paperbased learning resources. Learning is designed for 2-3 hours per day so please make sure that you are also having regular rest breaks and engaging in physical activity.

Each night, we will advertise the approximate times of teacher availability in the virtual classrooms. It is fabulous to see high levels of student attendance and engagement in these sessions! Go The Willows!

Some hints and tips:

• Please DO NOT expect your child to be engaged in their schoolwork for hours and hours each day – doing work in ‘small chunks’ is recommended. Two to three hours of learning each day will usually be plenty.
• We do not expect parents/caregivers to turn into teachers overnight. The instructions provided will be clear and easy to follow and interactions online also provide some additional recorded instructions for students also.
• Establish a daily routine for your lives together at home – children thrive on routine and knowing what is expected. Students can start each day by engaging in the daily routines of reading, writing, spelling and handwriting.

Share your learning@home successes and experiences! Celebrate! You are doing a fabulous job and we appreciate your ongoing support!

Roll Marking and Absences from Learning

As per Department of Education policy schools are still required to monitor the ‘attendance’ of all students during Weeks 1-5 of Term 2. Students of essential workers who have to attend their workplace and are unable to provide supervision for their children at home will have their attendance monitored at school.

For students learning@home parents are asked to respond to a daily email from their child’s class teacher to indicate whether their child is engaging in learning that day or is unable to participate due to illness/some other reason. Schools are still required to send daily text messages if children’s presence/engagement is not accounted for by 11am each day.

Home-School Communication

We will continue to communicate with all students and families. It is important that we stay connected as we are sharing the learning journey. Please contact us regularly should you have any queries or require any support.

Our modes of communication include:

• Class parent/student email distribution lists
• Individual email between staff and families – staff will be available to respond within work hours and within reasonable timeframes.
• Individual phone calls between staff and families – please contact the school office in the first instance.

Teaching staff will be available to respond between 9:30am-2:30pm

• School website – www.thewillowsss.eq.edu.au
• Whole school text messaging service
• Official The Willows SS Facebook page
• School newsletter
• School phone number – 47991333 (available 8am-4pm)

Technician support – techsupport@thewillowsss.eq.edu.au

• Generic school email – admin@bohlevaless.eq.edu.au

School Operations – additional information

• School Playgrounds are not currently in use
• Social distancing in play areas where possible and practical is occurring
• All students attending school are requested to ensure they bring a water bottle to school to minimise the use of bubblers.
• Additional day cleaning of high touch areas is still occurring this term as is the provision of hand sanitiser, soap and paper towel in all teaching and toilet blocks
• Willows Warriors will NOT be operating until further notice
• The Willows Outside School Hours Care will be operating for the children of essential workers and vulnerable children.
• Classes are not regular classes and multiple supervisors across the day assist in classroom supervision of online learning
• Limited access to school premises including at drop off and pick up times each day

Please remember that we are all learning together and over the last fortnight we could not be prouder of our whole school community – their patience, support, understanding and respecting the whole of government decisions for school attendance and learning looks like for the first half of this term.

Please stay connected with your teacher, to our school and to one another.

Stay well and stay positive.

Kind regards,

Helen McCullough
Principal

DEPARTMENTAL MESSAGES

UPCOMING EVENTS

Positive Behaviour Learning

P and C News

SCHOOL BANKING

Message from Commonwealth Bank

The health, safety and wellbeing of our communities and our people remains our highest priority. Due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding coronavirus, the School Banking program will remain on hold. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed with any updates including how we will be managing Dollarmite tokens for students.

In the meantime, here are some handy online resources for parents who wish to maintain momentum with their child’s financial education:

• Start Smart: these resources have been created to improve children’s money management skills, and is aligned to the Australian Curriculum and the National Consumer Financial Literacy Framework.
• The Beanstalk: offers videos and fun activities for children to learn about money.

Defence News

HELLO TO ALL DEFENCE FAMILIES

WELCOME back to Term 2 everyone. Hope you are all safe and well. It has been a different start to this term and I know there are many of you who are still at home assisting children with online learning. Hopefully the routine of learning at home is smooth sailing, but as we know things change from day to day. Remember to always do what you can manage and don’t over stress the situation. BE KIND TO YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY. Some days the routine may have to change, so let it! Tomorrow is another day. Please email or phone me for a chat anytime from Monday to Friday and stay in contact with your class teacher who is always willing to assist in any way possible. Sometimes calling a friend or relative to say Hi when things become stressful can help. Be kind to yourself and others in these challenging times and remember there is always someone out there who will listen and who may be feeling the same way you are. I would love to receive an email from the students or photos of what they are doing at home. Looking forward to seeing everyone back at school soon.

Here is a list of 9 Mental Health Activities to do with your Children. It is worth a look.

Useful sites

Call Defence Family Helpline 1800 624 608 or Open Arms 1800 011 046 with any questions.

Wow, what a SPECIAL Commemorative Anzac Day this year! What did you do at home? If you have any photos, please send them to me so I can make a collage. My family celebrated in our driveway, with a wreath, flag raising, many neighbours and a big breakfast. At school we made a sign, wreaths in class and Remembered with a minute’s silence in the whole school. Some students assisted me with a wreath laying at the front of the school. A big thank you to Matilda, Hunter, Jett and Penny.

MOTHERS DAY is around the corner and I know there will be many students wanting to make something for Mum. I have attached a copy of some easy activities to do at home. Most of the items you should have around the house or you can improvise with other items. There is a card, a flower and a very easy necklace to make. I used a pipe cleaner to make the necklace and wrap it in twine or wool. If you don’t have a pipe cleaner just use a small piece of wire or cut a wire coat hanger. Smaller children may require some assistance with the necklace but the other activities are cutting and gluing. Send through some photos of your finished objects so I can place in the next newsletter. May you have lots of fun creating these special gifts for Mum? HAPPY MOTHERS DAY.

GECKOS FAMILY CENTRE IS CLOSED at Lavarack Barracks. Follow on Facebook or call 07 4411 7031.

Tutoring Assistance -There are changes to the EAS forms for families to access tutoring for students who have posted in to a new school. You can ring the Defence Family Helpline 1800 624 608, visit DCO website or collect the forms from me.More Information go to at the link below.

Please remember to sign up to the DCO mailing list for what’s happening for defence families at dco.townsville@defence.gov.au. If you have any questions, please give me a call at school/email or stop by my room in L Pod any day of the week for a cuppa and chat. Any questions regarding postings and deployments, please contact me anytime during school hours.

If you have a partner who has or will be Deployed and your child is not coping with the change, please send me an email or call me to discuss your concerns. This time can be very traumatic for a child who is missing this special person. I can talk to them and we can put some ideas and strategies in place to assist with coping at school and home. Remember the 3 “R”’s RULES, RITUALS AND ROUTINES. Please also talk to the classroom teacher so they are aware.

DATES TO REMEMBER

DCO-Great news! Our next virtual event will be open for registrations by the end of the week. The (almost) Amazing Challenge will be lots of fun and there will be prizes for creativity & the most points scored. Follow Defence Community Organisation on Facebook so you will be the first to know when the event is posted. Another option is to register for notifications on our Eventbrite page so you will never miss a DCO Townsville event

ALL VIRTUAL ACTIVITES PLANNED WITH DCO ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH EVENTBRITE, AS ABOVE.

DON’T FORGET to Register for DCO mailing list NOW at dco.townsville@defence.gov.au

Defence Family Helpline 24/7 1800 624 608

Open Arms call 1800 011 046

Mates4Mates – Email: townsville@mates4mates.org or call the Townsville FRC on 4771 9600

Café now Open from 9am-12.30pm everyday, welcome to attend for a chat and look around

DFA (Defence Families of Australia) Chandelle Derham 0418 796 561 nth.qld@dfa.org.au

Geckos Family Centre-Nth Qld Lavarack Barracks Contact for enquiries on 4411 7031

Kookaburra Kids Tvl-Louisa Calvert 1300 566 525/0410 896 923

Defence Holidays NQ 07 4725 3842 at Lavarack Barracks opp Gym admin@defenceholidaysnq.com.au

If you notice any changes with your child, please be sure to contact the class teacher and/or myself so we can best support them at school. My hours are Monday to Friday 8:00am-3:30pm, phone me anytime on 4799 1333 ext 323, or e-mail me cwhee36@eq.edu.au.

My aim to assist and support defence students at school by developing their RESILIENCE, CARING, FRIENDSHIP AND TRUST.

Email me if any concerns arise and hopefully I’ll see everyone at school soon.

Correna Wheeler
DSM Defence School Mentor

I BELIEVE IN MY DREAMS, I LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES, I CHOOSE MY ATTITUDE, I AM RESILIENT, I AM ENOUGH, I AM ME.

Music News (The Pitch)

Prep News

Prep April Newsletter

This term in Prep some students have been learning at home and some students have been learning at school. Everyone is doing a fantastic job!

Mathematics

In Maths we have been learning about 3D shapes and measurement. We had lots of fun making 3D shapes and measuring thing at home and at school.

Science

In Science we have been learning about our senses, searching for living and non-living things and drawing scientific drawings. We also made IPads for Digital Technologies to use to take pictures of the living and non-living we found.

Learning at home

Shayla has been learning at home and has been emailing work into school.

Year 1 News

English

In English we have been learning to recite and comprehend a poem. We have had some great online and in class learning occur, looking at the features of a poem such as title, verses, lines, rhythm, rhyme and repetition. We have been learning to recite poems using gestures, facial expressions, pace and volume.

Year 2 News

LEARNING FROM HOME IN YEAR 2

This term, Year 2 has begun learning from home in various ways. We have many students participating in online learning and virtual classrooms, while others complete paper resources provided by The Willows State School. Those students who are attending school have been participating in lessons using the same content as what is available online. Here is some of the great work completed by Year 2 students both at home and at school.

Math

Hass

Science

Spelling

Year 4 News

MATHS LEGO CHALLENGE

The Grade 4 students had to use their Place Value understanding and their Lego buildings skills to create a masterpiece that represented a number. Have a look at the amazing work that was completed by the students learning at home and the students learning at school.

Year 5 News

Year 5

In Year 5 we have been adjusting back to our new way of schooling! Our classes look a bit different and so does our learning. It has been fun meeting some new people from different classes and working a bit differently but we definitely all miss our classmates.

We have been learning to use Blackboard Collaborate at school so hopefully we will be able to get on a session and speak to our friends soon.

Year 6 News

Hello from Year 6

Year 6 have had such a great time completing our lessons online and we thought we could share some of what we have been doing.

Science

We have been researching renewable and non-renewable sources of energy. We have learned how energy is transformed into electricity and the advantages and disadvantages of each source.

Maths

Our brains have been working very hard to solve complex expressions using the order of operations. We have had lots of fun taking turns using the ‘pencil’ during our virtual classroom sessions to demonstrate our learning. The ‘chats’ have also allowed us to receive feedback from our teachers and peers on how we are going.

English

In English we have been learning about the text and language features of advertisements and how they persuade an audience to buy a product. We have been looking at still advertisements in our virtual classroom and identifying the persuasive techniques used. We are using Microsoft Power Point to design our own multimodal advertisement persuading our target audience to come to our holiday destination.