It certainly has been a very exciting couple of weeks at Yeronga State School.  We have had many events that have occurred as well as some exciting events that will be taking place in the near future.  The junior school children have had a busy week with the Under Eights Day celebration and working hard to create their canvas paintings for the fete!!

Assembly

Assemblies are continuing for the year. We look forward to parents being able to join us again as assemblies 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:

Juniors (Prep – Year 2) – Thursday 2.00pm (even weeks)

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

We look forward to seeing you there.

Before and After School Arrangements

All students who are not attending Yeronga outside School Hours Care (YOSHC) should aim to arrive at school 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 prior to 8:15am. At 8:30am students are to only go into the inbounds areas – there is to be no oval/ soccer play before school. 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 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.

Under Eights Day

On Tuesday morning, the junior school celebrated Under Eights Day – A celebration of play and outdoor learning.  The morning was a joyous celebration of the whole child.  The teachers planned many activities such as Bubble Blowing, Crazy Creations with coloured foam, nature playdough, skipping, story time, sack racing and many more.  The senior school also came down to support the children in this celebration.  We were very lucky to have many parents attend and share in this celebration as well as the local kindergarten attending with their children.  It was a fun day and an event we are hoping to continue annually.

Early Years Network

Once a term Yeronga State School organises and takes part in a learning community of early years educators.  During this time local state schools, catholic schools, kindergartens and day care centres come together to share learnings and also to facilitate successful transitions to prep.  The last meeting saw the network meet at St Brendans at Moorooka where we looked into print conventions and letter sound awareness.  We also discussed the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) gathering that was due to take place at a Prep level in the coming weeks.  This data collection addresses the following key areas of child development:

• Physical health and wellbeing – how fit and well our children are
• Social competence – how our children get along with others
• Emotional maturity – how our children handle their feelings
• Language skills and cognitive skills (school based) – how our children speak, understand and think, based on the types of educational activities they do at school
• Communication skills and general knowledge – what our children know, and all the different ways they communicate this.
  
  

Active School Travel

It is very encouraging to see the children actively travelling to school on Wednesdays.  We are enjoying seeing the children collect stamps in their active school travel diary and then receiving the prizes when they are eligible.  We drew the grand prize raffle draw, please see the winners below who were very grateful for their prizes.

Upcoming Events

Please note the upcoming events for the upcoming school weeks:.

They include:

• Free Dress Day: Friday 21 May
• School Fete: Saturday 22 May
• Year 6 Camp: Monday 24 May – Friday 28 May
• Back up Gala Day: Friday 28 May
• Year 3 Toohey Forest Excursion: 7June – 9 June (different classes attend every day)
• Triple P Parenting Program: Tuesday 8 June in Hall 6pm – 7:30pm

There will be more to come as we move closer to the end of term.

We look forward to working alongside you and your child throughout the 2021 school year.

Year 6 Camp

Next week the year 6’s are off to Tallebudgera Camp.  The theme of the camp is The Hero’s Journey. Students will leave behind the familiar surroundings of the ordinary world and journey to be an exciting new world, a special place where there are risks, challenges and new problems to be solved.  To successfully solve these challenges, students must venture outside of their normal ways of thinking and start to transform themselves.  These experiences contribute to personal development and the formulation of one’s identify. Four different types of heroes’ are explored, from the everyday heroes in our community to the great warrior heroes that feature in films and stories.  Students are confronted with challenges so that they can reflect on the type of hero they identify with and thus awaken the hero within them.

We look forward to hearing all about their hero’s journey. 

Have fun everyone!

Free Dress Day

The Fete Fundraiser Free Dress Day is on THIS Friday 21 May.  The Student Council has nominated a Hawaiian theme. Please remember to be sun smart when choosing what to wear (no sleeveless shirts, enclosed shoes etc). Gold coin donation will go towards the Fete.

Exceptional Learners

In week 7, nominated students in years 5 and 6 will be engaging in the Yeronga State High School exceptional Learners program. These programs are designed by the High School to challenge and extend already talented students to perform to their potential in a collegial network of students.  Students will engage in exceptional learners programs for maths, forensic science, music dance and drama, English/Humanities, HPE and visual art, animation and IT.  Congratulations to the students who are nominated for these programs.  We look forward to hearing about your learning journey.

Stef Kirk and Tracy Freeman