ICAS SUCCESS!

Each year students are identified who have achieved the highest possible result in the ICAS assessment programs and awarded medals. Year 4 student Edward Bowles was awarded an ICAS medal for English for his outstanding achievement in the 2019 ICAS English assessment. Year 2 student Tong Truong- Ba (Tony) was awarded an ICAS medal for 2019 Spelling Bee achievement.

The medal ceremony was held on Monday 2 December at the Brisbane Convention Centre and it was so wonderful to be able to celebrate the outstanding achievements with Edward, Tony and their parents.

INFLATABLE OBSTACLE COURSE

The Yeronga Memorial pool have kindly offered to allow children from Year 3-6 to use the inflatable obstacle course as a replacement for the Fun Mudda, the usual Term 4 Behaviour celebration. Thank you to Yeronga Memorial pool for their generosity in forgoing the entry fees to allow this to happen. Thank you also to Sarah Cordingly for working so hard to negotiate a solution for us – we appreciate your generosity and effort. There are 10 parents who are willingly helping with supervision next Wednesday to help keep costs down also. The school will pay $1200 for Lifesavers to ensure that we are creating the safest environment possible. The joint effort of the community has allowed us to find a great solution.

Please complete the permission note that has been sent home to ensure your child can participate. Given this is a behaviour celebration, there may be some children who will not be attending or will only be participating for some of the time. Class teachers will have been in contact if that involves your child.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT – 2019 AND BEYOND

2019 could definitely be called the year of the air-conditioning as every classroom in the school enjoys the cooler learning environments and we are so grateful for the efforts of our community in providing this. The P&C Presidents and myself are meeting with Member for Miller, Hon Mark Bailey, to discuss air conditioning additional rooms, including replacing the resource centre air conditioning.

The school improvement priorities this year were to focus on improving writing outcomes and to develop an inquiry approach in Science for Year 1-4, whilst continuing our multi-disciplinary approach in Prep, Year 5 and 6. Using split screens to show learning intentions and success criteria that include content and skill development (Learning asset) goals has been a key piece of this work. Over the last few weeks we have been meeting individually with teachers as part of their Annual Teacher Performance Review and celebrating progress they and their students have made against these school improvement priorities. Our children are developing skillsets through this teaching and learning approach that gives them real opportunities to engage with the Australian Curriculum general capabilities. Students are encouraged to think creatively and critically and regularly collaborate with peers, engaging in productive conversations that deepen their understanding of key concepts.

Student agency, voice and choice have improved significantly this year. Class teachers collect pre-assessment data to inform the development of English, Maths and Inquiry units. Children are brought into the planning process at different points in the Inquiry planning schedule. Parents expertise has also been another inclusion in Inquiry planning this year to help increase the rigour of units as we utilise the expertise of other professions to support the learning.

We are excitedly looking forward to 2020 when we will partner with Cam Brooks, University of Queensland researcher, to improve the quality of feedback students receive to help them further improve their performance. Looking forward to 2021 we will have Kath Murdoch, Inquiry consultant working with our school to further grow our work in this area. We are delighted that such high quality experts are willing to work with us to continue to grow the quality of teaching and learning we provide.

CELEBRATING PERMANENCY

Congratulations to Rachael Brown, Ryan Henry, Annabel Wheeldon and Tarnee Southwell for becoming permanent teachers at Yeronga this week. We are so excited to have you as a permanent addition to our team and look forward to working with you all in the coming years.

FAREWELL TO 2019 STAFF

There are a number of staff leaving us this year – Miss Ruby Owen, Mr Keegan Peace, Mrs Danielle Legovic, Mrs Jolie Barrett and Miss Amy Ward are leaving for many different reasons and we wish them well. We were lucky to have them all with us for a short time and we appreciate all they have contributed to the school and done for our children. We wish them all well in their next adventures.

Mrs Gaynor Couchman was the Learning Support teacher at Yeronga State School for many years. Mrs Couchman’s expertise in the learning support area was widely recognised across the region and many of our students were very lucky to have her working with them, encouraging and supporting them as she tried to solve the exact nature of the learning difficulty each child was facing. Mrs Couchman was exceptional at monitoring and tracking progress of cohorts and individual students, ensuring resourcing was targeted where it was most needed. We wish Mrs Couchman well in her retirement and thank her for her contribution to Yeronga State School.

LEARNING CARING GROWING ACHIEVING

It was so lovely to talk to one of our quiet achievers at last week’s swimming carnival who shared that her goal was to complete three races because she was a little worried. Congratulations Cleo for achieving your goal and tackling your fears head on!

2020 STAFFING

We will publish class allocations on Wednesday 22 January however the teacher allocations for Year levels are published below, keeping in mind that changes can happen due to unforeseen circumstances.

Class lists have already been constructed and there will be no changes as shifting children at this stage usually means that other important considerations that informed decision making can be lost.

Prep – Amanda Harland/ Julie Nolan (F), Sharon Prestridge/ Christine Pollock(F), Leanne Ford, Deb Quinn, Sandra Mathias

Year 1 – Annabel Wheeldon, Felicia Chapman, Emma Moller/ Clarissa Fraser (Th/F), Tammy McNeil, Cameron Petersen

Year 2- Vidisha Bhatia/ Sue Holden (F), Rachael Brown, Luke Marchant, Jessica Watkins, Emma Powlett

Year 3- Ronelle Dunn, Kathy Lyons, Joshua Newby, Danielle Martin/ Kathy Wallace (F)

Year 4 – Katie McDermott, Ryan Henry, Lindsay Jobbins, Gemma Chase

Year 4/5 Kal Masselos

Year 5 – Aaron Hartin/ Kate Thomas, Hamish Curness, Nick Landbeck,

Year 5/6 Rachel Wise

Year 6 – Alex McShane, Kate Middleton-Pol, John Quirk

Inclusion Teachers – Lizzy King, Kathy Wallace, Tarnee Southwell, Sonja Wise

Acting Principal – Kate Paynter

Deputy Principal – Tracy Freeman    

Acting Deputy Principal – Louise Vaggs

There are two multi-age classes in 2020- Year 4/5 and 5/6. Whilst multi-age classes are formed in our school due to cohort enrolment numbers, we strategically choose teachers who are keen to teach multi-age, are familiar with both year level curriculum and are excellent teachers. Both teachers are confident and familiar with multi-age teaching and are proactive in maintaining close relationships with individual cohorts. Multi-age provides an opportunity for children to expand their support network into another year level and learn from and with each other in a new setting. Children in multi-age classes participate in the same camps and excursions as the rest of their year level.

SHORT GOODBYE

Thank you all for the good wishes that I have received in the last week as I step away for a short while to Indooroopilly State School. It is an absolute delight to lead such a caring, connected, professional and positive community. Thank you in advance  for the support you will give Kate Paynter and the staff. I look forward to seeing and hearing about all the successes Yeronga has enjoyed in my absence.

Debbie Spanner
Principal