10 November 2021

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Pride

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Community Members,

Welcome back to Week 6 of Term 4!

It is difficult to believe we are already half-way through the final term of the 2021 school year. Keep reminding your child to ‘make their words worth it’ (our PBL fortnightly focus) and to ‘finish strong.’ This week we have our 2022 Instrumental Music Recruitment Evening, final P&C Meeting for the year, 25 Year Anniversary Committee Meeting, Remembrance Day Ceremony and 2022 Prep Open Day sessions to name but a few extra and co-curricular events occurring.

Lego League Competition

Congratulations to our First Lego League Competitors!

On Sunday, our team of Lego innovators shared their journey of problem-solving, creating, innovating, sometimes failing but always persisting. The team were recognised for their positive attitude and inclusive team approach, and won the First Lego League ‘Team Values Award’. This award is presented to the team who demonstrated skills in discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion and teamwork.

Instrumental Music 2022 Recruitment Evening

Congratulations to all staff involved in our Instrumental Music Recruitment Evening on Monday night. It was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic new recruits across Percussion, Woodwind, Brass and Strings for 2022. Thank you to our Instrumental Music Teachers, Cara Mulligan, Tina Greenfield, Kelly Clark-Flesser, Ian Brunskill and our school Music Teachers, Mrs Fiona Coleman and Mr Trevor Schimke, for their investment of time and energy into making the music program at The Willows SS a program of excellence.

Remembrance Day

Every year, on the 11th day of the 11th month we stop for Remembrance Day. On this day we remember and take time to reflect on the service and sacrifice of Australian servicemen and women in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations since the First World War. We will be holding our Remembrance Day Ceremony at The Willows State School on Thursday 11th November at 10:30am in the TCBC Hall. We will commemorate and pause for one minute’s silence to Remember all those service personnel past and present who have served or are still serving. If you are from a Defence family and would like to join us, please contact the office as we have limited seating available due to Covid Restrictions. Lest We Forget.

Positive Behaviour for Learning – The Willows Way – Safe, Respectful, Responsible

Congratulations to all of our PBL Team, teachers and support staff who organized 75 Stars Rewards celebrations last week. Students had a fantastic array of activities available across our school and it was excellent to see the vast majority of our students achieving 75 Stars at the end of Week 5. I look forward to safe, respectful and responsible behavior continuing across the remainder of the term.

2022 TWSS Strategic Planning Day

On Tuesday, 9th November, the leadership team engaged in strategic planning for 2022. The work that has already occurred this semester with the Quadrennial School Review and development of the endorsed School Strategic Plan 2022-2025 formed the basis of the development of the 2022 Explicit Improvement Agenda, 2022 Annual Implementation Plan (strategies and targets), 2022 I4S Agreement and DRAFT 2022 Budget. This work will be discussed with our ARD, Mrs Lesley Pecchiar, at her next scheduled school visit in Week 8 and then shared more broadly with all staff in the final few staff meetings of the year and through the January Student Free Day Program.

DATE CLAIMER: Student Council Free Dress Day – 19 November

Final P&C Meeting – Many Thanks

On Tuesday evening the final P&C Meeting for 2021 was held. I would like to sincerely congratulate the 2021 P&C Executive, Sub-Committee chairs and every single member for their amazing efforts across 2021. The P&C is a small, yet active and incredibly passionate group of caregiver volunteers who are working hard behind the scenes in conjunction with the school to make The Willows SS the very best it can be. Their efforts are very much appreciated by the entire school community.

2022 Marks the 25th Anniversary of The Willows State School!

On Tuesday evening an initial meeting of anyone interested in participating in the 25 Year Anniversary Organising Committee was held. It was wonderful to see so many passionate community members keen to make this a celebration to remember. Keep an eye out for further opportunities to contribute in 2022. Feel free to advise the school office of your interest in assisting.

2022 Student Leader Announcements

Year 5 students who nominated for student leadership positions will be notified during Week 7 whether successful or unsuccessful. The number and calibre of applicants was outstanding and it was a challenging process for the panel and class teachers. All student leader applicants will also receive a letter to share with their caregivers. The school community will be more broadly officially advised of the 2022 Student Leaders at the conclusion of the Senior Academic Excellence Awards ceremony in Week 10.

2022 HR Update

I am pleased to advise that Ms Barbara Anderson (TWSS Business Manager) has been offered the opportunity to continue in the promotional Principal Education Officer role, up to, and including, the end of Term 3, 2022 and has accepted. Mrs Natalie Schifilliti has accepted a continuation in the A/Business Manager role at TWSS during this time.

I am also pleased to announce that Mrs Helen McCullough will continue working as an Assistant Regional Director in NQ Region for Term 1, 2022. I have been asked to extend as Principal at The Willows SS during Term 1, 2022 and have very happily accepted. I look forward to continuing to work with the wonderful TWSS team to progress our explicit improvement agendas.

Traffic rules and regulations -Stop, Drop and Go

For the safety and wellbeing of all students, community members and staff, caregivers are reminded to continue to obey all traffic rules and regulations around the school especially during busy drop off and pick up times. Please note the signage indicating where parking/standing is permitted to avoid disruption to traffic flow.

Christmas Card Competition – Phillip Thompson OAM MP – Federal Member for Herbert

Mr Thompson has invited our school to participate in a fun activity which could see our students’ artwork take pride of place on his 2021 Christmas card, which will be going out to all constituents in the electorate of Herbert.

Students in years Prep to Year 3 are invited to draw and colour a Christmas-themed artwork to fit the theme Christmas in the Tropics. Designs must be done in landscape orientation. The worksheet entry form can be collected from S Pod.

The worksheet would need to be signed by a parent/guardian before being returned to the school office by Friday 12 November 2021. Mr Thompson’s office will then arrange to pick up the artworks on Monday 15 November 2021. We have been advised artwork cannot be considered after this date.

A winner, second and third place will be selected from each year group from Prep to Year 3, with the selected entries to be printed on the official Christmas card. The winning student from each year group will each receive a $50 Toyworld gift card.

The Willows State School Attendance Strategy – Every Day Counts!

School attendance is compulsory under the Education Act. If children are going to be absent from school for any reason parents are requested to inform the school by phoning 47 991 333 or emailing admin@thewillowsss.eq.edu.au. Students are encouraged to come to school every day they are well enough to attend – so much new learning occurs every day. We have an AIP goal to achieve whole school attendance at 93% across 2021. After Term 4, Week 5, we are still sitting at 91.3% YTD.

Is your Prep-Year 5 student transferring to another school in 2022?

We will shortly be starting the process of organising class composition for 2022. We would appreciate early notice if your child, or children, will be transferring to another school in 2022. Please inform the office by phone on 47 991 333 or email admin@thewillowsss.eq.edu.au at your earliest convenience.

Requests for specific factors to be taken into consideration for your child when organising class composition for 2022 are also able to be emailed to admin@thewillowsss.eq.edu.au.

2022 NEW STUDENT ENROLMENTS – NOW OPEN FOR ALL YEAR LEVELS – ONE FINAL SESSION THIS YEAR

Our school is now taking new enrolments for the 2022 school year, please get your enrolment forms in early if possible. Should you know of friends or family looking to join our great school, please inform them that they are also most welcome to contact the school for further information and to obtain an enrolment package.

Prospective 2022 Prep students and parents/caregivers may like to consider attending a Willows Warriors Pre-Prep Program session on a Wednesday during Term 4 to support the transition and orientation process to school. Please contact our school office to obtain further information about this free program. The final Willows Warriors session (Graduation and Christmas Party) will be held on Wednesday, 24 November.

Our final P-6 Bulk Enrolment Session for 2021 will be held on Thursday, 25 November 3:30-5:00pm – please contact the office ASAP to request an appointment time if needed.

Our next P-6 Enrolment Session will be held on Wednesday, January 19, 2022.

Have a wonderful week. Our next newsletter for Term 4 will be issued on Wednesday, 17 November.

Warm regards,

Michelle Donn
A/Principal

General News

FREE DRESS DAY - 19 November

WILLOWS WARRIORS

Upcoming Events

Year Level Parade

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

Parents/Guardians are most welcome to attend.

P and C News

FAMILY PORTRAIT FUNDRAISER - Sunday 21 November 2021

Bookings are now open for our family portrait fundraiser. The team from North Point Photos will be visiting our school to take professional family portraits in an indoor studio setting. The cost is only $20 and this includes one 8x10 photo.

Simply visit the link below and select the Willows State School and then choose an available time slot. Limited spots are available so book early to avoid disappointment.

LOCAL MATTERS AT THE GRILL’D WILLOWS

HOW IT WORKS

1. You probably know the drill. Order up and you'll get a token to vote in-restaurant or online. Use your token to vote for The Willows State School P&C.
2. Every burger equals a vote. You’ll get a token to vote with in-restaurant or when you order online.
3. Place your vote. At the end of the month the jar with the most tokens receives $300, the 2nd and 3rd are given $100 each.

Positive Behaviour Learning

Defence News

HELLO ALL DEFENCE FAMILIES

UPDATE for Week 6 – I hope everyone has a memorable Remembrance Day tomorrow and I am looking forward to our ceremony, watching our performers and listening to our Guest Speaker from 27Squadron RAAF Base. It is always a great time to Stop, Remember and Reflect. Thank you to those who are able to attend.

Some of the Year 6 students cooked Anzac Biscuits with me on Tuesday at both breaks. All the students who requested to participate had a delicious time, stirring, measuring and were able to take home what they had made. I hope parents had the opportunity to share the treats also.

I have started to deliver Farewell Packs to students this week and I will continue to deliver them over the coming days. During our chat we talk about moving, where we are going, what it will feel like and how we will feel about our new school. Please take the time to talk about feelings with students. The signature bears they receive are for them to keep and have their friends and teachers sign or write a special comment on. This is a keepsake for them to remember their time here at The Willows and a special gift to keep from the DSM.

Defence Leavers Farewell Party is planned for next, Friday 19th November and invitations will be included in the Farewell Packs for those students posted. Please remind students to attend in L Pod at second break next Friday. There will be party food, drinks and a fun time for all who attend.

A Pizza Party for Year 6 Defence Leavers will be held on Friday 26th November at second break. Invites will be sent out to students soon.

An Afternoon Tea for Parents will be held on Friday 3rd December. Please email me or give me a call if you would like to talk further.

Posting - If you know you/and your family will be moving on this year, please contact me so I am able to support each student with their transition to a new school and deliver a Farewell pack before they leave our school. Students can become very emotional leading up to their move and have lots of questions for you. All posting students look forward to receiving their farewell pack and signature bear to take with them. If I am not informed I cannot support or make sure they receive their pack.

REMEMBER OPEN ARMS is available to YOU and your family - Veterans and Families Counselling Former and current serving ADF personal and their families can use the service. Call 1800 011 046 for more information.

DCO is now DFMS (Defence Families and Family Support) Townsville office call on 07 4430 3879. Online you can find them at www.defence.gov/members-families, Facebook @DefenceMemberFamilySupport. Defence Member and Family Helpline is 1800 624 608. Defence Social Workers are available for you to access at DFMS office. Appointment required.

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. Check availability due to exercise.

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

EVENTS TO REMEMBER

THURDAY 18TH NOVEMBER OUT FOR LUNCH – If you can’t make it to Coffee Connections this month, here’s another chance for us to catch up before the craziness of school holidays and the silly season begins. Let’s enjoy a relaxed lunch at The Bohle Barn. The Bohle Barn is a family friendly establishment, has great meals and a state-of-the-art kids play area. There is also plenty of parking available on-site and it’s easy to find! This is a self-funded lunch. Attendees are responsible for the cost of purchasing their own food and drinks. Children are more than welcome under parent/guardian supervision. Register your attendance through Eventbrite so that accurate numbers for tables can be booked.

Where: The Bohle Barn
When: 11.30am-1.30pm – Thursday 18th November
Register: Out for Lunch @ The Bohle Barn - Eventbrite

SAVE THE DATE: Geckos Xmas Party – Saturday November 20

Keep an eye on Geckos’ Facebook page and our November e-News for more info!

Register for these events on the DMFS Townsville Eventbrite page

TO BE UP TO DATE WITH WHATS ON IN TOWNSVILLE CHECK THE LINK BELOW or follow on Facebook or call 07 4411 7031.

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

DMFS Townsville Office: 07 4430 3879

Need to find them online? New home is

Defence Family Helpline 24/7 call 1800 624 608 memberandfamilyhelpline@defence.gov.au

Open Arms call 1800 011 046

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

The Oasis Townsville - 1 Staging Camp Ave, The Village, Oonoonba, Townsville hello@theoasistownsville.org.au 07 4759 8777 and Facebook

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

Geckos Family Centre-Nth Qld Lavarack Barracks, contact WO2 Nicole Lickorish 07 44446 1238

Kookaburra Kids Tvl - 1300 566 525

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 full of learning and FUN for all students when they stay positive. They also develop RESILIENCE SKILLS AND FRIENDSHIPS.

Correna Wheeler
Defence School Mentor

BE AWESOME, BE CARING, BE YOU!

Music News (The Pitch)

Prep News

In English this term, PYE ROW has been learning how to innovate on a text. The children have enjoyed listening to various stories, making puppets and changing the middle and ending events.

In Mathematics the children have been working with teen numbers and counting sequences beyond 10.

Year One News

How fast is Term 4 flying! As usual, we are hard at work in our Year 1 classrooms and being part of some great learning moments.

In Maths, we have been completing a Guided Inquiry into what it is we can do, as successful learners, to improve our number fact recall. The students have been very creative coming up with ideas and activities for how they can do this with suggestions such as singing all our ‘Rainbow/friends to 10’ number facts, using different objects to rehearse doubling number facts and even shaving cream sums to recall how we can quickly add 1, 2 or 3 onto numbers.

In Science, we have continued our learning about what the purpose is of sound toys and how we can create sound toys using every day, at home, objects. The real challenge we now have is, now we have our noisy instruments, what can we do to change HOW they make noise? This is a task that has lots of testing and makes lots of sound.

We were also able to have our first 75 Stars celebration this week. Our Grade 1’s got to spend some time using the Beebots, Spiros and Ipads as our reward this time. It was technology overload!

Year Two News

This week Year 2 students participated in the annual RACQ Road Safety lessons. They learned all about how to be road safe when crossing the road and how to correctly behave when travelling in a car so they don’t distract the driver. Students thoroughly enjoyed interacting and participating in these lessons!

Year Three News

This semester in Media Art, Year 3 students have been learning how to use digital technologies to create a television-style advertisement to protect an imaginary place. The students have enjoyed this interactive learning, building on their team work skills and are very proud of their creations.

Year Four News

In Science this term, the 3/4 class are going to investigate how forces can be exerted on an object by either contact or non-contact forces and communicate findings based on data collected. We have already experimented with games that include force and we also looked at magnetic forces.

In 4D BAL, students were investigating physical properties of materials and considering how these properties influence the selection of materials for particular purposes. They built a tower to learn about Katie risk properties.

Year Five News

What’s the MATTER?

In Year 5 this term we have been looking at the different states of matter. Solids, liquids and gases and all their properties. We have conducted a variety of experiments to look at compressing the states of matter, how gas has mass and takes up space with balloons and whether a cup that has no water or solid in it is empty or not.

One of the most interesting parts of Science for this term was the build up of air pressure in a container. The students witnessed this with a bottle rocket. We pumped air into a bottle until it had increased air pressure, we could feel the increased pressure by touching the outside of the bottle. Then we slowly released the lid causing the bottle to fly off like a rocket. This is just one of the many experiments Grade 5 are looking at in Science for Term 4.

Year Six News

Everything is full steam ahead as Year 6 students enter their final 5 weeks of primary school before heading off to high school. At this time of term, learning is always our main focus.

Students are doing a great job making sure assessments are getting done ready for reporting. In Design Technology, students are working hands on creating a service that provides an edible plant that can be used to create a healthy food product. During Science, students are having a great time growing mould to determine the best place where bread should be stored to minimise mould growth.

Community Events & Notices

Little Lifesavers

Learn to Live Disability Services

POSITIVE PARTNERSHIPS