31 March 2021

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Dear Parents, Carers and Community,

Congratulations to all of our students, staff and parents for a fabulous term of learning at our school. The term has seen significant focus and improvement on student writing across all learning areas and our involvement in many extra-curricular offerings that have been fun and engaging for participants.

Well done to Mr Menzies and his team of engineers who competed in the Junior School Engineering Competition on Monday, coming in 2nd place!

March On School Challenge

Our school is recognised for its strong reputation providing excellent teaching, learning and educational offerings. This is a credit to every member of our school. In the educational community we have a number of staff who have been promoted into positions at other state schools and we certainly want to thank and acknowledge these people for the tremendous contribution to our school over the past couple of years:

Mrs Kate Haines – Acting Deputy Principal at Aitkenvale State School commencing Term 2
Mrs Bonnie Nagy – Literacy Coach – Kelso State School commencing Term 2
Mrs Jodie Gausden – STLAN – Belgian Gardens State School commencing Term 2

The movement of staff, enables a group of aspirants who have been working toward their career progressions over the last couple of years. I would like to congratulate Mrs Sam Carter who will step into the Head of Department (Student Services) role. Mrs Carter has been part of this team for the past 4 years in her role as Behaviour Support Teacher. She is very excited to be joining our school leadership team and we look forward to her continued work at The Willows State School. Further information about backfilling of the roles of STLaN and BST will be communicated early in Term 2.

Over the holidays, please stay safe and please be aware of the Covid-19 updates through Queensland Health. Things can change very quickly and we do our best to provide information as this comes through the official channels. I thank you for your ongoing patience and support.

Kind regards,

Helen McCullough
Principal

GENERAL NEWS

SCHOOL REVIEW AND PLANNING

We are proud of our school improvement over the last 4 years. Early in Term 2, the Education Improvement Branch reviews our school over 3 days and our team is excited to share the fantastic work that The Willows as a collective team have achieved. Once the review is finalised, our school receives a report which then enables us to work with all stakeholders to develop the 4 year plan (2022-2026). Further information about the review can be found at the link below and in future information through our newsletters.

PARENT CODE OF CONDUCT

SCHOOL PARKING

We are aware that pick up and drop off times can be difficult due to the size of our school. We are working closely with the Queensland Police and the Townsville City Council in relation to the current parking and pick up issues. To ensure the safety of all who access our school, please note the following:-

• Do not park in no standing zones. Please see the below map
• Please use the pedestrian crossings and encourage your child/children to use the pedestrian crossings as well
• Do not walk through the traffic at the Stop, Drop and Go area
• Staff provide supervision at Stop, Drop and Go until 3:30pm every school day. These staff are responsible for ensuring the safety of your children inside our gates.
• Please be mindful of residential properties that surround our school – please do not park across their driveways
• Do not park on traffic islands or footpaths

Queensland Police have advised that they will be doing regular patrols and issuing infringement notices.

Thank you for your support in this important issue.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Year Level Parades

Prep – Mondays 8.45am in Junior CPA
Year 1 – Mondays 8.45am in Junior CPA
Year 2 – Tuesdays 8.45am in Junior CPA
Year 3 – Tuesdays 2.40pm in Multi-Purpose Learning Centre
Year 4 – Mondays 2.40pm in Main CPA
Year 5 – Mondays 2.40am in Multi-Purpose Learning Centre
Year 6 – Tuesdays 8.45pm in Multi-Purpose Learning Centre

Parents/Guardians are most welcome to attend.

Positive Behaviour Learning

Defence News

HELLO ALL DEFENCE FAMILIES

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL FAMILIES, ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS, STAY SAFE AND SEE YOU IN TERM 4. A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL STUDENTS, PARENTS AND STAFF who participated and supported our March On Monday morning. We had 96 energetic students and 10 amazing staff complete the 4 laps of the oval to register 1km. The students enjoyed the morning walk and the weather was perfect for us. Thank you to the families who have donated online you can still do so if you wish. Donations are for Soldier On – Schools Challenge to help prevent veteran suicide and support our modern-day veterans and their families who have been impacted by their service. To show your support for a worthy cause, we ask you to donate to the following link.

We appreciate your support.

Update on seedlings. Students have transplanted them to larger pots and flower and vegetable growing continues. I will take them home for the holidays to keep them watered.

During Week 10 we have been enjoying celebrating 100 year of Royal Australian Air Force with colouring competition-with prizes for each year level, craft making, paper plane activities, model airport with planes to play with. The Defence Room has been decorated with items relating to Air Force with stickers and posters to give away for this event. Students have enjoyed completing the picture as neat as possible and comparing who can fly their plane the furthest. Many students are visiting the room to be involved in the fun and activities.

REMEMBER OPEN ARMS is available to YOU and your family - Veterans and Families Counselling provides 24hr support and confidential counselling, group programs and suicide prevention training. Former and current serving ADF personal and their families can use the service. Call 1800 011 046 for more information.

Geckos Family Centre at Lavarack Barracks is a tri-service facility providing services, support and activities to enhance family resilience in the North Queensland Defence Community. Geckos offers a range of formal and informal activities catering to Defence members, partners and families such as playgroups, parent groups, boot camps, yoga, and sewing group. Check out their Facebook page to keep up to date with the activities and events held throughout the year.

Australian Military Wives Choir Townsville

The AMW Choir welcomes wives, partners, girlfriends, mothers, daughters, sisters and female ADF members. If you love to sing, we’d love you to join us. No auditions or experience required.

For more info, or to register your interest, contact Michelle at coordinator.townsville@amwchoir.com

Some parents have been sent to different locations to support borders for an unknown period of time. This can be a difficult time and if your child is experiencing some separation anxiety please inform teacher and myself so we can best support them. Conversations are an important part of a child’s learning. I have found some practical tips for starting conversations with children. Let me know how it worked for you.

WELCOME TO YOUR NEW LOCATION There is an amazing online resource available for ADF members and families to find information regarding their posting location. Go to the link below for loads on information about your new location. Must see.

Deployments or going away to support Covid and this can be a very challenging time for all involved. While your partner is deployed and you are at home with the children, there may be times when you feel like a single parent. Though the situation is temporary, there are financial, emotional and day to day adjustments you will need to make as you adjust with this deployment. I have information I can give to you to assist at this time. If you inform me before the deployment starts I can support and check in with you child at school during this emotional rollercoaster. Remember the 3 “R”’s RULES, RITUALS AND ROUTINES. Also talk to the teacher. Check DCO website for more details.

Defence Social Workers are available for you to access at DCO office. Appointment required.

Please remember to sign up to the mailing list for what’s happening for defence families at dco.townsville@defence.gov.au or to register collect a sheet from me.

EVENTS TO REMEMBER

Geckos School Holiday Activities-register NOW to secure a place.

Geckos has some great activities organised for the upcoming school holidays!

Check out the fun events planned for the Easter break.

Please note, tickets are essential via the below links:

Kingpin – Tuesday 6th April – https://www.trybooking.com/BOQCF
Inflatable Kingdom - Friday 9th April - https://www.trybooking.com/BOPZQ
Ninja Parc – Tuesday 13th April – https://www.trybooking.com/BOQAU
Reading Cinema - Friday 16th April - https://www.trybooking.com/BOQDC

TO BE UP TO DATE WITH WHATS ON IN TOWNSVILLE CHECK whatson.townsville.qld.gov.au, follow on Facebook or call 07 4411 7031.

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

Defence Family Helpline 24/7 1800 624 608 www.defence.gov.au/dco

Open Arms call 1800 011 046 www.openarms.gov.au

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

DFA (Defence Families of Australia) nth.qld@dfa.org.au

Beyondblue.org.au www.australia.gov.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 www.kookaburrakids.org.au

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

My hours are Monday to Friday 8:00am-3:30pm, phone me anytime for a chat on 4799 1333 ext 323, or e-mail me cwhee36@eq.edu.au.

School is FUN for all students by staying positive and developing RESILIENCE

SKILLS AND FRIENDSHIPS.

Just a reminder that when we return to school in Term 2, our Anzac Day ceremony will be held on the first week back, Friday 23rd April. Information will be provided about the Anzac ceremony and the Anzac marches and services when we return in Term 2.

Correna Wheeler
Defence School Mentor

FAMILY IS NOT AN IMPORTANT THING IT IS EVERYTHING

Music News (The Pitch)

Prep News

We are down to the last week of the term. All of the children should be so proud of themselves for making it through their first term of school.

We have been practising presenting our favourite stories using our retell planners. The children are becoming more confident in front of their friends. We are giving each other positive feedback.

At the end of this week, we have our reward sessions for reaching 75 stars and having no majors for the term.

Year 1 News

This term in art, the students have been exploring the representation of different emotions by creating self portraits and responding to a range of portraiture designed by famous artists. The students have thoroughly enjoyed expressing an emotion, either happy, sad, excited or angry and were provided with the opportunity to use different materials to express their emotions. The students really engaged with this process and loved having the agency to choose their own materials. Crayons, paint and collage materials were widely used among the students in 1MOU to create their own self-portrait.

Year 2 News

In Science this term, Year 2 have become designers! We have created our own lunch boxes using recycled materials. After creating our lunchboxes, we conducted two tests. One to test the strength of our lunchbox and another to test the water resistance. We had a lot of fun making the lunchboxes and learning about the properties of different materials!

Year 3 News

Over the past 8 weeks in year 3 in HASS, we have been learning to identify and describe aspects of the community that have changed or remained the same over time, specifically Flinders Street in Townsville.

We also looked at how and why people participate in and contribute to their communities. In our lessons we examined some information and identified the different point of views that people from the community had. We then communicated our own ideas in a ‘point of view’ using the ‘strong modality’ words learnt in our English lessons.

We are now starting to look at the importance of different celebrations and commemorations for different groups in our community, inparticular ANZAC day and how certain aspects changed and remained the same over time.

Year 4 News

This term in Health the Year 4’s have been learning about eating healthy. We have been using the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating to create healthy lunches. Students had to choose a week of lunches from the school tuckshop menu making sure they considered the Guide.

Year 5 News

Over the past two weeks, our year five students have been working hard on their Maths Guided Inquiry. The Guided Inquiry allows the students to enhance their problem-solving and reasoning skills to answer a question. The students conduct their own learning through this inquiry to come to a conclusion regarding the question. They choose what evidence and data they collect that they deem necessary to support their justification.

For term one, the inquiry question was “Is 3-player Scissors Paper Rock fair?”. They had to use their knowledge of chance to be able to answer this question. Hands on activities were completed and the students played the game in groups of three to witness the actual data.

They had specific rules that related to the different outcomes that could be played in each round. They then needed to create evidence based on the expected outcomes which showed the students how many times each player could win.

To finish off their inquiry, they wrote a paragraph where they had to state their point on the question. They then had to explain their justification using the evidence they had created. They have all worked really hard on this and were consistently engaged.

Year 6 News

Maths:

In Maths we are investigating our guided inquiry question by using simple strategies to reason and solve a measurement inquiry question (how many chairs ‘best fit’ into the TCBC for a concert).

HASS:

In HASS, we are learning about the three different levels of Government and the process of passing a bill. We recreated The House of Representatives and had discussions whether the bill of ‘Banning Homework’ and ‘Lowering the age of voting’ should be introduced to Australia. Students enjoyed playing important members such as The Prime Minister, The Clerk, Sergeant-At-Arms, Speaker and The Opposition Party.

Community Events & Notices

LEAGUE STARS

SCHOOL WATCH