2020 is off to a great start at Yeronga State School! In the past weeks our dedicated staff have been working to set up classrooms and grounds for the busy year ahead. We have welcomed many new staff and it has been great to catch up with colleagues after the summer break.

During the Student Free Days our staff engaged in a variety of professional development centred on curriculum, student welfare and setting up for success. This is a very important part of the school year as it sets our focus and helps us chart the year ahead. The breadth of knowledge and experience of our staff, and willingness to learn from each other, was a pleasure to witness. Everyone is working hard together to ensure that learning, caring, growing and achieving continue to evolve at Yeronga.

Assembly News

Assemblies commence in week one and are held each week (alternating between senior and junior schools). These are a wonderful opportunity for parents and the school community to come together and hear about the happenings in our school.

This year we will continue to operate our weekly assembly as two groups:

Seniors (Year 3 – Year 6) – Thursday 1.45pm (odd weeks)

Juniors (Prep – Year 2) – Thursday 1.45pm (even weeks)

Community members are welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing you there.

Parent Information Evenings

During Week 3 and 4 we will be holding parent information sessions to provide an opportunity for parents to find out year level specific information for the year ahead. Details are as follows:

• Junior School (P-2) 6pm Wednesday 12 February
• Senior School (Yr 3-6) 6pm Wednesday 19 February

Parent Information Evenings are an opportunity to build relationships between school and home and to hear information about the year ahead. Topics to be discussed include school

priorities, Curiosity and Powerful Learning, communication between parents and teachers, home learning, year level curriculum, BYOD (Year 2,3 & 4), leadership opportunities (Year 5 and 6), camps and excursion information, assessment, reporting and NAPLAN information (Year 3 and 5).

Before and After School Arrangements

All students who are not attending Yeronga Outside School Hours Care (YOSHC) should aim to arrive after 8:30am. If students arrive between 8:15am – 8:30am they need to sit under C Block to read or talk quietly. No students should be in the school grounds before 8:15am. Parents who need to drop students at school before 8:15am need to enrol in YOSHC. It is a great safety concern to have children who are unsupervised in the school grounds. YOSHC is open every morning from 7am.

After school all students need to be collected by parents/carers at 3pm. Students remaining at school after 3pm must be with a teacher (e.g. sports training), their parent or attending YOSHC.

Parents who are later than 3:15pm collecting their children, will need to collect them from the school office. Please note that the school office closes at 3:30pm. All student and parents who are not part of the YOSHC program need to have left the school grounds no later than 4pm.

We understand that family life often involves unexpected changes to routines. We appreciate the efforts our families make to manage their schedule to work within these times and thank you for your understanding around this very important safety matter.

Help keep our children safe

For your child’s safety please ensure that students only enter the school grounds via the pedestrian gates (not the through any of the car parks). Cars are not to park in the school grounds. Street parking is available for parents. We also have a 2 minute – Stop, Kiss and Go area on Park Road.

The safety of our students is our priority, as these spaces have continual vehicle movement it is imperative that no student, even with and adult, walk through these areas. We thank you for your assistance in keeping our school a safe place to learn, grow and have fun.

Active School Travel

Active School Travel will start off next week with an AST breakfast.  Actively travel to school Wednesday 5 February, get your passport stamped and then join us for breakfast from 8:15am outside the tuckshop area.  A special thanks to Nicole Johnston and the team for helping us to kick off Active School Travel in 2020 with a breakfast.

If you actively travel to school please remember to bring your child to get their AST passport stamped.  Prep children will have their passport delivered to the room, new students to the school can collect their passport from the office, junior school passports will be at the lower school stamping station (L Block – outside Year 1 building) and students in the upper school will have their passports from last year.  The students who have moved from the lower school to the upper school will have their passports delivered to their classrooms.

If you are a parent who is passionate about our community actively travelling to school please email Tracy Freeman tfree19@eq.edu.au to express your interest.

Upcoming Events

We would love to see you at our upcoming events at the start of this term.

They include:

• Prep Welcome Picnic: Saturday 1 February 9 – 11am
• Parent Rep Information Night: Monday 10 February 7-8pm
• Student Leader Induction Ceremony: Thursday 20 February 9am
• Senior Cross Country: Tuesday 10 March 9am
• Triple P Positive Parenting Seminar – Cybersafety: 3 March 6-7:30pm

We look forward to working alongside you and your child throughout the 2020 school year.

Louise Vaggs and Tracy Freeman

Deputy Principals