2 November 2017

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL REPORT

Curriculum with an Inquiry Stance

Creating literate, numerate and curious learners is the YSS mission which is reflected in the 2020 school vision - Connected Individuals, Curious Learners and Community- minded citizens. We know that our children need to be given the space in their teaching and learning environment to develop skills as well as acquiring content knowledge. With this in mind we are undergoing curriculum redesign that will include English, Maths and multi-disciplinary subjects Inquiry units. In 2018 Prep and Year 5 &6 will lead the way with this approach. We recently held a curriculum sharing session, led by our Head of Curriculum Louise Vaggs for interested parents. Those who attended found it very worthwhile. We will hold another Curriculum session early next year and Louise will share some information in digital format in the near future.

Inclusion- What Makes A Positive School Community?

Children come from an endless range of different families, backgrounds, cultures and religions. They also have a variety of interests, learning styles and abilities. Despite all of these differences, everyone should feel included and welcome within their school community. Positive school communities create opportunities for children, families and staff to feel included. They make help and support accessible and find lots of ways to invite people to take up the support being offered. They help everyone benefit from understanding experiences and cultures that may be different to their own. (Kids Matter)

World Teachers Day

Thank you to everyone for their efforts in making our teachers feel so valued and special. Great teachers have a strong moral purpose to make a difference for every child. Yeronga State School teachers advocate for their own class and every other child in the school because they want to ensure all children are set up for success. Thank you for taking the time to express your appreciation.

School Captain Candidates

After a rigorous round of seeking endorsement from teachers and being interviewed, the 2018 School Captain candidates have been selected. The candidates are:

Girls - Margaret G, Lauren G, Rose G, Huong M, Alexia S, Tiggy T, Isabel W;

Boys - Jeffrey B, Josh M, Harvey P, Corey S, Noah W.

Students from Year 3, 4 &5 select the School Captains each year. Candidates have been given clear instructions on behaviour expectations leading up to the elections on Friday 17 November. These include:

• Please do not solicit for votes in a manner that is unethical or coercive. No bribes - neither candidates, parents, siblings of candidate friends can offer bribes such as treats like lollies or cakes. You could approach other children and talk to them about what they like or don’t like about school and what they would like your help to improve.
• Publish three posters with only your name, school photo, slogan - must be submitted for approval by this Friday 3 November
• School Captain speeches - 1min 30 sec speech – submitted and approved by class teacher. No gimmicks, tricks or magic tricks. Speeches will be presented on Thursday 16 November from 2pm on School Assembly.

The elections will be held on Friday 17 November as Year 5 will be on camp next week. We wish all the candidates every success.

Save The Date: International Men’s Day Breakfast

Following on from the success of the breakfast earlier in the year to celebrate International Women’s Day, the school will host a Father & Son Breakfast to celebrate International Men’s Day. The breakfast will be held in the School Hall on Tuesday 28th November 7.45 – 8.30am. The guest speaker will be Mr Andrew Howell, CEO of The Right Direction Australia.

Class lists for 2018 – not released until Jan 2018

Predicting 2018 enrolments has been challenging this year as numbers seem to fluctuate every day and a few year levels are just over capacity. For this reason we will not be publishing class placements until Friday 19 January. It is less disruptive to children for them to find out where they are going later than to have to change before Day 8 because of number changes, and allow us to take into consideration any last minute changes. Thank you for your understanding.

Carla’s Retirement

It was lovely to have our community celebrate Carla Walker’s contribution to education, in particular, Yeronga State School, on Saturday night. Carla has worked at Yeronga as Deputy Principal for 25 years, retiring earlier this year. A special thank you to Ruth Bennett for coordinating such a beautiful occasion for our school.

Booklists to Student Resource Scheme

We have worked hard this year to reduce the costs for booklists. We are also encouraging parents to choose to be a part of the student resource scheme, where the school provides the necessary resources for your child during the year, rather than you collecting items on the booklist. The reason for this is to allow greater flexibility on behalf of the individual teachers to source the resources they need and reduce the wastage we can have when books are not used. Information was sent through an e-mail earlier this week.

Please complete the form as soon as possible so we can place orders for resources for next year. Please also note that Communication Bags and Library Bags are no longer part of the booklist for any year level and must be purchased directly from the uniform if you require these.

Student Resource Scheme Participation Link – a separate form must be completed for each student.

Lost Property

Lost property is quite a problem at our school. Teaching children to take care of their belongings is part of helping them to become a responsible adult (and also helps to reduce landfill). Please check lost property areas prior to purchasing replacement lunch boxes etc. We are looking at how we can recycle some of these items through the uniform shop when we do our regular clear out. If you don’t check the lost property areas you may find you will have to buy your item back at the uniform shop.

Annual Leave

Mr Craig Kerwin, Moorooka State School Principal, will be my replacement during my short holiday in Week 6 & 7. Craig is looking forward to his time with us and said he feels like he is going to look after a `neighbour’s house’ which is a lovely notion.

Craig is a certified Apple teacher and will hopefully share his wisdom with the Year 2 team as we prepare for 2018 BYOiPad implementation.

Craig visited our school yesterday. I will see everyone in a few weeks for the busy end of the term.

Debbie Spanner, Principal

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL REPORT

Student Council Disco - “Summer Sensations”

Date: Thursday 2 November
Times: Prep to Year 2 from 5:00 – 6:00pm
Year 3 to Year 6 from 6:30 – 8:00pm
Ticket pricing: $5.00 pay at the door
Glow Products: On sale at both Junior and Senior discos
Disco Tuckshop Meal deals available
Sausage sandwich or Pizza and popper $4.00
Sausage sandwich or Pizza and can of soft drink $5.00
Cookies $1.00

Please remember, parents are not allowed inside the hall at any time during the discos. If you need to speak with your child, please ask the staff at the door to bring your child out. Also remember that before posting any photos to social media you must have permission from all relevant parties.

BYOD

Year 2 will be BYOD classes in 2018. Our parents are looking for the best prices available and are working together to ensure they get the benefits of bulk pricing. The service providers who have committed to offer Yeronga State School parents discount are Apple, JB HiFi and Harvey Norman. Apple and JB HiFi have portals, which will go on our web page and Harvey Norman say that you just need to mention the school name and they can offer you the negotiated school discount price. Please watch this space, as the portals have not been set up due to a technical hitch, which should will be resolved by Friday. Our Year 1 parent reps have gathered additional information from suppliers. The good news is that these offers are not exclusive to year one parents. While the rest of the school will not be BYOD, parents in other year levels are welcome to take the opportunity to purchase these items at the discounted rate, if they are considering purchasing an ipad. If you are interested, please contact Debbie Cowie dcowi11@eq.edu.au and I will forward the information to the appropriate people.

Keeping our students safe - Carparks

I personally have had to stop my car a few times recently as there were children running across the car park. When you drop your child at school, particularly if they have early Chess, Tennis, Music or Coding lessons, remind them as they get out of the car to “Stay on the pathways” and not run across the car parks.

Using school grounds before and after school

We request that if you are using the grounds before or after school that you actively supervise your children. We have had incidents where our staff have had to step in to help children who have gotten into some difficulty without their parents being aware, as they have either been on their mobile phones or chatting to other parents. Please also stop your children from opening the sandpit. We have protocols to follow to ensure that cats do not get into the sandpit and use it as a toilet. This includes ensuring that there are particular staff who open and cover the sandpit.

Thank you for your co-operation

Debbie Cowie, Acting Deputy Principal

P & C REPORT

pandc@yerongass.eq.edu.au

Trivia Night – 3 November

Don't blame it on the sunshine, don't blame it on the moonlight, blame it on the trivia night!!!

This is the night when Yeronga State School grown-ups get to let their hair down - guaranteed Sno Cone free zone. Grab your playground buddies and party like it's 1979.

The deets:

Friday November 3rd at the Yeronga Primary School hall - 7pm sharp

Cost: $10 (if that's not a 70s flashback I don't know what is) if you pay via flexischools or $15 on the night. Places are limited so get in early...

What to bring: a plate of 70s delicacies (there will be prizes but, seriously, bring something you might actually like to eat) , fantastic plastic or cash for the bar and your funkiest 70s threads.

You do not have to have a team beforehand and you sign up individually. Whilst we do recommend 3 weeks of 70s pop culture immersion prior to the event to give your team the "orange edge" there will be plenty of 21st century questions to keep you on your toes and of course there will be in between round activities for those who have other talents.

Telstra Kids Fund

Telstra has just launched its next round of Telstra Kids Digital Grants.

Schools are eligible to receive up to $1 200 to help with a digital project that supports kids to be great digital citizens (cybersafety and online behaviour), explorers (code, robotics and making) and change agents (enterprise sills to use digital to solve problems). For the school to apply for the grant, we need someone (parent, Aunt, grandparent) who is a current employee of Telstra to sponsor the application. The grants are assessed on a first in, first served basis. The grants open on 30th October 2018.

If anyone would like to sponsor this digital grant application and is current fulltime employee of Telstra please contact Ruth Bennett on 0403 252 536 or rbenn127@eq.edu.au

Help Needed

Senior swimming carnival will be held on November 20th from 9am - 2pm and we will be needing volunteers to run the snow cone stall on this date. Traditionally this is a hugely popular snow cone day and the proceeds go towards funding the P&C contribution for your children's year books the following year. Please mark this date in your diaries now. We know term 4 can get pretty crazy, so we're giving you plenty of notice! Have a great week!

Yellow Sport Shirt

2017 will see the phasing out of the yellow sport shirt, which has now been replaced with the navy sport shirt.

If you would like to order a navy shirt for 2018, please ensure you visit the uniform shop or order on Flexischools as soon as possible. The uniform shop is open on Monday afternoons between 2:30 and 3:30 pm, or Thursday mornings between 8:30 and 9:30 am.

Jo Thomson, P&C Committee

MONEY MATTERS

QParents

QParents is an online portal that provides parents with a snapshot of information surfaced from OneSchool about their child and allows them to:

• view attendance details, report cards, invoices and a history of payments
• provide reasons for unexplained absences and to notify the school of future absences
• view and pay school invoices online
• update student details including residential and
• postal address as well as medical conditions

Please contact Nicki at nalla6@eq.edu.au for a personal invitation.

Statements & Outstanding Payments

Statements will be issued in the following few weeks. A reminder that if your statement shows a negative amount ie -$15 this is a credit and does not require any payment. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact the office.

If you do have any outstanding payments it would be greatly appreciated if you could attend to payment. Should you wish to pay in instalments please contact me by email nalla6@eq.edu.au or by phoning the office on 3426 0333 so that arrangements can be made.

Nicki Allardyce, Business Manager

REMINDERS

Payments Now Due

The following payments are now due:

FROM THE OFFICE

Chess Tournament

The 2017 Chess Tournament will be held on Friday 24 November. This year the tournament will be run by Chess Mates and is open to all students from Prep to Year 6. Start time is 8.55am in the Resource Centre and it is expected to finish by 1.00pm. Students should have their name marked off the roll in their classroom and go to the Resource Centre with their lunch as soon as possible.

If your child would like to participate please complete the attached nomination form and return with payment by Monday 20 November to the Office Payment Box. Nomination forms will also be available at the payment boxes.

Launching SchoolZine App

We are excited to be expanding our communication suite with the introduction of the Schoolzine App – SZapp.

By using SZapp, parents will have easy access to school newsletters, the latest school calendar and links to the absentee line and website. In addition, in the event of an emergency, change to the school routine or whole school reminders (eg school closure, postponement of Gala Day, photo day reminders) the app enables the school to send out messages to parents.

Once installed, ensure you go to the ‘Manage’ tab and select all the groups you wish to receive messages for. These can be changed at any time. You will also need to ensure Push Notifications are on for your phone, as well as the app.

Follow the link for further information on how to install SZapp.

If you have any issues installing SZapp, please email npavl0@eq.edu.au.

RESOURCE CENTRE

Book Fair

We are again hosting a book fair in the library from Wednesday 8th November until Tuesday 14th November. Come along at the following times and purchase some books and help the school raise money for our library. All students appreciate your support in helping us purchase books for the library. Scholastic provides the school with 20% of all sales.

Book Fair Opening Times

Online Library

Our school loves to read. In support of students and their love of reading the school has signed up to the wheelers eLibrary platform. This means all students can borrow books from this platform using an app on any device. This eLibrary allows student access to reading material 24 hours a day 7 days a week. That includes holidays, so now just because the school is closed students are not left without something to read. Students have all been issued a user name and password which they will need to use to log in.

You can follow this link to access the Yeronga State School Wheelers Online Library

Make anyplace your reading place by downloading the ePlatform app

Faith Hage, Teacher Librarian

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Go Harvey Go!

Best of luck to Harvey P in his quest for selection in the Qld Primary Schools Cricket Team. Harvey will be competing for selection from 5 to 9 November. Best of luck again Harvey!

Sporting Schools’ Tennis

We have been using our sporting schools grant, for the last three terms, to provide tennis coaching for a variety of our year levels within the school. These session have been delivered as an additional lesson to normal PE. They have been extremely popular and I would like to thank Dave from Rise Tennis for facilitating them. I have had only positive feedback. Thanks again to Dave and his team.

Golf

Last week the Year 6’s had the chance to participate in a modified golf clinic with Josh and Kylie from the PGA. The children enjoyed the clinics and so did the coaches. Well done to the year 6’s for participating so positively in these sessions.

School Swimming

Swimming lessons continue successfully. These are being held at the times stated in the permission note, with the exception of a minor change to 5JK. They now go later in the day with the other year 5 classes at 12:30 on Thursdays. Please remember to refer to the list on the permission note so that your children have everything they need for their lessons.

Swimming Carnivals

Preparations are underway for these very important event on the Yeronga State School Calendar. Students need to be thinking, exactly which events they would like to swim in this year. Please remember that for the senior (years 3 to 6) carnival in particular.

Once the program is written there will be very little room for changes. If children wish to withdraw from events that they can swim they will need parental permission. A form will be uploaded to the school web page for this purpose. As this year’s carnival will be held in the 25m pool at Yeronga Park there should be less concern over the completion of 50m events.

We would be most appreciative of parent helpers at these events. As can be appreciated it takes a great deal of organisation and many hands to run an event of this nature smoothly. If you can contribute your time, like our wonderful Ruth Bennett, you would be contributing to these events’ success significantly.

On a lighter note the big question is; who can end Lawson’s 6 year dominance in swimming? Can Kendall, who won Cross Country and Athletics? Can Evans, who almost won the Athletics? Could Paterson, who are yet to chalk up a win this year? Only time will tell who will be the winner of our new swimming trophy.

School & District Events

Students Aged 10 – 12 years This Term (Except School Swimming Carnivals (open to all in the correct year levels)

Qld Boys Cricket 5 to 9 November
Senior (Years 3-6) Swimming Carnival 20 November
Junior Swimming Carnival (Years 1 & 2) 30 November
Year 1 Behaviour Celebration (TBC) 30 November
Prep Water Rampage 1 & 5 December
Year 2 Behaviour Celebration (TBC) 7 December
Break up Day Swims (Years 2 to 6) 8 December

Sunnybank District Sporting Trials

The representative pathway for school sport is for children from 10 to 12 years of age. Yeronga is part of a very strong district which consists of 28 schools from Yeronga State School to the Calamvale area. In contact and skill team sports those aged 11 and 12 possess the advantages of size and speed, if not skill on most occasions. Selectors are choosing those with the skill and the resilience to compete at a higher level. Remember that selectors give up their time for these trials meaning that it is important for us to send only those ready to go to a higher level. Very seldom is it appropriate to send students for experience. An indicator of readiness for participation at a higher level would be being among the best 3 or 4 players in most games for your club under 12 teams.

In order to be selected to attend a District Trial children should make themselves known to me (Mr Bateman) for either a selection trial with the appropriate teacher or so that they may be given the appropriate forms. Remember that children must give at least two weeks’ notice that they wish to attend a district trial to allow for a school selection trial to be held in the event of a great deal of interest being shown in a particular sport.

Cameron Bateman, P.E. Teacher

MUSIC

Brisbane Bands Festival

Last Saturday, Brandenburg strings, under the Direction of Charise Holm, represented YSS at the Brisbane Bands Festival. Travelling to Centenary High on a rainy morning, all members looked confident and very well prepared as they took to the stage. Brandenburg’s performances have been steadily improving and this performance was no exception. With great repertoire selection and rehearsal preparation that clearly focused on musicianship and teamwork, the team were recognised with a Silver award rating. This group of young musicians are an ensemble that clearly loves working together and is evolving each rehearsal. They have already taken on board the judges feedback and are now rehearsing without chairs and working on going to the next level.

This performance was followed up last assembly with a showing from the String Quartet. Eloise, Ye Jin, Milly and Huong directed their own performance of a four-section piece showing maturity and musicianship well beyond their years.

Bravo to Miss Holm! It has been wonderful to work with her over the past 18 months. We will be farewelling her at The Big Play, November 17 as we welcome back her sister Tamsyn Eastgate after maternity leave. Congratulations Miss Holm and Brandenburg – you have achieved so much.

Instrumental Music Place Offers for 2018

Offers for Band and Strings places for current years 2 and 3 were made this week via email. Official offer packages were distributed to students today. Please ensure that all forms are returned to the Senior School payments Box (Music) next week, and payment is made by November 22.

Next week, continuing students will receive a loan agreement and new form that the Department requires for participation in resource payment schemes, including music. This form is being sent retrospectively as invoices have already been raised. A reminder that these fees are also due November 22.

ACTIVE SCHOOL TRAVEL

Active School Travel Breakfast - Friday November 3

Celebrate what a great year of Active School Travel we have had at Yeronga State School this year with a free breakfast on Friday November 3.

There'll be muffins, fruit and juice served in the tuck shop area from 8.15am.

A walking bus leaving from outside River City Cycles on Fairfield Rd (corner of Cowper St) at 8.10am or maybe you could ride a bike or scooter, catch public transport or car-pool with another family.

If you are driving, try and park away from the school grounds and walk the last few hundred metres.

I wonder if we will get any classes with 100% of students actively travelling to school that day?

Scooters at Lunchtime - Prep to Yr 2

On Friday 3 November, students in Prep, year 1 and year 2 can bring their scooters to school to use at first break.

Don't forget your helmet!

Active School Travel Survey

Active School Travel (AST) is all about creating healthier, more active students and parents, greater road safety awareness among students and families, and safer streets and reduced traffic congestion at the school gate.

The award-winning program promotes road safety and sustainable and healthy travel modes such as walking, cycling, scootering, carpooling and public transport.

We are always looking for ways to encourage more families to participate in the AST program.

Please take a few minutes to complete the following survey to help us grow AST at Yeronga State School.

GREEN TEAM

The Green Team are asking for the help of the school community in collecting used beauty products for a recycling competition that will put us in the running to win a new playground.

2017 Garnier & TerraCycle Recycled Playground Competition

RECYCLING PROGRAM: Beauty Products Recycling Program
TIMELINE: 9 October - 8 December 2017
PRIZE: A recycled playground for your school!
HOW TO WIN: The school with the most beauty products recycled wins.

Grand Prize: The winning school will receive a playground made of recycled beauty products! TerraCycle will work with the winning school to coordinate the installation process (Approximate retail value: $45,000. Actual playground may differ from illustration above. If the winning school is not able to receive a recycled playground, TerraCycle will work with the school to find a suitable alternative prize of the same value).

First Runner-Up: The school that is the first runner-up will receive a $2,500 donation for their school and $500 worth of Garnier products.

Second Runner-Up: The school that is the second runner-up will receive a $1,000 donation for their school and $500 worth of Garnier products.

What you can recycle in this program

Beauty Product Recycling Program accepted waste:

1. Cosmetics packaging such as used lipstick and lip gloss, mascara, eye shadow, bronzer, foundation, eyeliner, eye shadow, lip liner, and concealer packaging.
2. Hair care packaging such as used shampoo and conditioner bottles and caps, hair gel tubes and caps, hair spray and hair treatment packaging.
3. Skin care packaging such as lip balm, face moisturiser, face and body wash soap dispensers and tubes, body and hand lotion dispensers and tubes and shaving foam packaging.

Best practices for recycling

In order to recycle this waste stream properly, please make sure all excess product has been removed (i.e. face wash and foundation).

Collection Points

The Green Team will be visiting classrooms every morning to collect the used products. There will also be collection points behind the stairs in the administration block, at the desk in the library, under the year one brick building and one near the prep classrooms.

This is a great opportunity to help us get a fantastic resource for the students at the school and also help the environment by recycling our waste.

Thank you in advance for your support
Mrs Hage and the Green Team

CHAPPY’S CHAT

Be the best you can be.

A recent little visitor to my office declared, “Life is not fair”. It is a common mantra for most of us to say when things are a bit tough. In this situation, my friend was going through a difficult time, but as an adult with a greater perspective I could see that really it was just a little hiccup, and valuable life lessons were being learnt.

I could also see that my friend wasn’t helping things by making unfair comparisons to her classmates. When we start comparing ourselves to others, it brings unhappiness, self-doubt and we experience greater stress and anxiety. Comparisons are unfair, and are often made on uneven playing fields and without the perspective that older and wiser people can see. When we look at the surface of other people’s lives, we only see what is presented to the world. We can’t see the journey that they have had, the struggles that they have faced, or even what they might be currently going through behind closed doors.

It is important to recognize that we are on our own journey, and that path takes us over mountains, down valleys, and through alley-ways. Some days are easy, calm, and come with lots of sunshine, while other days are dark and stormy. So help yourself by not making those unfair comparisons, and definitely don’t say, “Life is unfair”. Be thankful for the good things in your life, and the people who are there to support you along the way. Don’t worry about what others have and you don’t. Be motivated to make small changes each day to work towards some goals. Use and develop your strengths, skills and talents, and make time to do things that make you feel good. Finally, be kind and help find ways to help someone else.

Enjoy you. Know who you are. Be the best you can be.

Blessings, Jennifer Bennett
jenniferb@chappy.org.au

SCHOOL BANKING

26.10.2017: 79 Bankers

Junior Banker of the Week – Chloe P1
Senior Banker of the Week – Alexander 5JK

02.11.2017: 66 Bankers

Junior Banker of the Week – Eve P2
Senior Banker of the Week – George 3L

COMMUNITY NOTICES

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