Dear Families and Carers

Over the last few weeks of last year our teaching staff and students focussed schoolwide on what it meant to be treated and to treat others with respect. This schoolwide focus was a catalyst for a positive and joyful end of year where classes nominated a student from their class for the Principal’s RESPECT award.

Sadly, this week we have observed isolated incidents of disrespectful behaviour from young people and adults in our school community. I refer you to the Schoolzine message sent to all staff and families on Thursday 8 February regarding conduct when on or near the school site.

As a school, we have a collective responsibility to offer every student the best opportunity for a life of ‘choice not chance’. That is, that they have every opportunity to progress to the best of their potential. Their positive contribution to the world, not limited by the barrier’s ‘society’ places upon them. Similarly, we are an educational institution with the entrusted role of preparing our students for a better world for all. The following is my newsletter insert from Term 4 last year which has ongoing relevance to us as a thriving educational community for our young people.

We learnt an acronym to help us with taking action

Remember Every Single Person and place Excels when we Cultivate Trust

We have been discussing what respect based on a culture of trust would like. We have talked about everyone having a role as a teacher and learner at school and being able to rely on each other to do our part. We have been talking about tone and how important that is when speaking. We have been talking about truth and how truth told and heard respectfully builds trust. We have been talking about tolerance and taking time to think before responding. Giving people the benefit of the doubt and not always jumping to conclusions.

Parent Teacher Information Evening

It was wonderful to see so many families attend the classroom information evening on Wednesday evening. This was followed by the Year 4 1:1 iPad Hire Scheme information session at 5.30pm. Again, I thank those families for making the time to hear about the changes from the 1:1 Bring Your Own Device program (BYOD) to our school owned and managed 1:1 program and procedures. The paperwork will be coming to all Year 4 families this coming week.

Parent Representatives

A crucial role of Parent Representatives in our school is to be a conduit for the distilling of information and parental engagement pertaining to your child’s class operations. This week I will be collating the list of all Parent Representatives for each class. Please consider nominating for the role and let your class teacher know. They will inform me and I will pass on the information to the 2024 PandC Parent Rep. Coordinator.

The Parent Rep Role

Parent Representatives are in integral part of our school community who:

1. Support home-school relationship by liaising between the teachers and parents of their nominated class.
2. Provide encouragement to other parents in the class to participate in classroom and community volunteering opportunities.
3. Welcome new families by making themselves known to new parents and help them transition into the Yeronga State School Community.
4. Organise social gatherings such as coffee mornings, family park outings or parent evenings to help build friendship networks within the community.
5. Support parents who are not able to be on the school site regularly due to work or other commitments, so they are informed of class and school activities.
6. Assist the P&C Events Committee with communications and event volunteer rosters.
7. Weekly communication between the class teacher and all parents.
8. Complete the Department of Education Mandatory All Staff Training (MAST) for volunteers and provide a record of completion to the office. (This will be provided to all parent reps as soon as they are finalised).

Parent Reps – how to nominate

• Please communicate with your class teacher that you would like to be a Parent Rep

I look forward to meeting many of our new families at our upcoming PandC AGM Meeting on Tuesday 20 February in the Curiosity Centre. Please enter by the T Block (office and reception) pedestrian gate then proceed up the internal stairs at the back of the building. The meeting commences at 6.30am with pizza and sushi followed by the formal meeting at 7PM.

Have a great week,

Eunice

Principal

Student Leadership Induction Ceremony

On Monday 12^th February at 9am, year 6 students in formal school leadership positions will be inducted into their positions at the Leadership Induction Ceremony.  Student Councillors from years 3-6 will also be inducted into their positions for the 2024 school year. Parents and community members are invited to join us for this special occasion.

House Captains

A big thank you to the House Captains this week who are beginning to dedicate their lunch times to supporting positive play in the year 2 and 3 playgrounds.  House Captains are targeting their support on the year 2 and 3 soccer fields, where they are coaching the students as they play alongside them, navigating the rules and social conflicts.  Thank you House Captains!

Student Council

Congratulations to the Student Councillors for 2024. 

Student Councillors are elected by their peers in all years 3-6 classes, and act as a representative for their class to drive school improvement. The Student Council has a couple of exciting events coming up including attending the GRIP student leadership conference, and a goal setting workshop with Miss Mac and Miss Kirk.  We look forward to exciting things to come!

New Staff Member

Yeronga State School welcomes new Year 2 teacher, Ms Sophie Page to our community.  Sophie and 2P have had a great start to the year and have been busy setting routines and expectations while they get to know each other.  Sophie is experienced in building positive relationships with learners and her teaching strengths align with the school vision of creating curious, literate, numerate, community minded citizens who make a positive difference in our world.

Healthy Lunches

The range of healthy, rubbish free lunches this week has been impressive! We are looking forward to bringing back ‘nude food’ lunch days, what a great start.  

All classes have been engaged in opportunities to set up for success and are well into learning in all areas of the curriculum.  Each year, all year levels explore our six learning assets, which are central to learning at Yeronga State School.  You may have seen the signs placed around our school grounds.  Next time you come across one with your child, why not stop to reflect on that area

As a school we focus on the concept of Community for term 1.  Classes are exploring big questions such as;

• What makes a community?
• How do we feel belonging?
• How do we contribute to successful communities?
• What are the roles and responsibilities of community members?

1Y demonstrated this sense of community beautifully when they were each gifted a crocheted flower key ring (lovingly made by Ms Young’s mum).

Dear Families,

I trust that you have had a great first few weeks back at school. It has been great to see lots of familiar and new faces in classroom music this week and I am looking forward to seeing all classes weekly this year. Rehearsals will commence next week for all choirs and I thank families for their patience with the announcement of Choir rehearsal start dates for 2024. 

In 2024, all YSS students in grades 2-6 are invited to be a member of our excellent Senior and Junior Choirs. Here's why EVERYONE can get the same thrill as the existing choir does and absolutely EVERYONE can take part

·       No auditions

·       No experience of singing needed

·       No experience of reading music needed

·       A recording of someone singing all the parts for the songs we sing is provided to learn from

·       You just listen to the tracks like you would your favourite songs and that's how you learn

·       Then just rehearse them together every week - easy!

All you need is to want to have fun, enjoy the buzz of being in a friendly team and work hard. The reward - the most amazing high when you stand there with your new friends in the choir and sing to a hall full of happy concert goers. 

Joining a choir is a lot of fun but it does also require some commitment. Choir members are expected to attend all rehearsals; except in the case of illness. Attendance is important for individual learning as well as the development of the whole group. Attendance is also a necessity in preparing for the performance opportunities offered throughout the year. These may include school concerts, community events and larger scale performances. Families will be notified of important dates over the coming weeks. 

All Instrumental Music students are strongly encouraged to join a choir to further their instrumental development.

You do not need to have been in a choir in 2023 to be in a choir in 2024. 

Junior Choir

Junior Choir is an un-auditioned choir open to all students in grades 2 and 3 with rehearsals being held on a Tuesday morning between 8:00 and 8:30 in the Curiosity centre. Rehearsals to commence Tuesday 13 Feb with children arriving between 7:50 and 7:55am

Senior Choir 

Senior choir is an un-auditioned choir open to all students in grades 4-6 with rehearsals being held on a Friday morning between 7:45 and 8:30 in the Curiosity centre. Rehearsals to commenceFriday 16  Feb with children arriving between 7:35 and 7:40am

Chamber Choir

Chamber Choir is an auditioned choir of students in grades 4-6 who are wanting an extension to the choir program. Chamber Choir will be performing repertoire in 2 and 3 parts, both accompanied and unaccompanied. All members of the Chamber Choir must also be members of the Senior Choir and must have a good attendance record for both ensembles. Auditions will held Monday first break in the music room in week 3 (Monday 5^th February) and students are to sing solo, unaccompanied, the attached choir excerpt. While the audition process can be daunting, those who have auditioned in the past have been glad to have taken that nerve-wracking step and overcome their fears.  Rehearsals will be held at first break between 11 and 1145 in the music room. Students will return to their class to eat their lunch. 

Audition Piece: You can't stop the beat up to bar 29. Recording beginning to 56 seconds. See attached. 

If your student would like to join any of our choirs, please complete the online expression of interest form below.

https://forms.office.com/r/5W6RHPuSKb

 If you have any further queries regarding the Choir program at YSS, please feel free to contact me via email.

I look forward to meeting all of your young singers and working with them to perform some fabulous music throughout the year.

Kind Regards,

Courtney Truce

Running Club

Running club will continue until the end of the year unless the weather makes it impossible to run safely. Sessions will be held on Mondays, from 3:15 to 3:45 and Wednesdays from 7:45 to 8:15 with Mr Bateman. Mr Sutherland will probably be holding his sessions on Fridays from 7:45 to 8:15. I will wait for him to confirm before I commit him to that time. Remember that all of these sessions will occur on the main, or years 3-6. Parents are most welcome to participate.

District Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to our students who will compete at the Sleeman Swimming Complex on the 7^th of February to qualify for the Eastern Taipans District Swimming Team. Congratulations to the following students;

Danny Mc, George T, Archie C, , Christopher N, Tane D-S, Felix B, Natalia A, Madeleine A, Charlotte R, Emily H, Isabel T, Mollie W, Lexie B, Zelda M, Skye W & Hope Mc.

No doubt these students have been doing some training over the holidays and are about to become a lot more serious as the term begins

Football Goals

Please remember, that although these goals are metal, they are not built to be climbed upon. Please do not climb on them as you will be endangering yourself, damaging the goals and be the unhappy recipient of a white slip.

Yeronga State School (YSS) District Trial Selection (Years 4 to 6)

The representative pathway for school sport is for students aged 10 to 12 years. Yeronga is part of a very strong district which consists of 28 schools (Eastern Taipans District).

In most sports we are encouraged to send only 2 students from the school that demonstrate a very high level of ability. The majority of these teams are under 12 teams. A good guide for this is:

• A representative club player
• A top performer in your sport outside of school
• Playing in higher age groups
• Consistently demonstrating outstanding performances in interschool sport fixtures and training sessions in the highest division.

In order to be considered to attend a District Trial students should make themselves known to either (Mr Bateman or Mr Curness) at least 2 weeks prior to the trials.

Rebel Sport Community Givebacks

Just a quick note to publicise our involvement with this scheme and how it works. For some time now Yeronga State School has been part of the above mentioned scheme. The scheme gives the school credit for purchases of equipment at Rebel as anyone who purchases equipment and nominates Yeronga State School as the recipient of Community Kickbacks. I have purchased Footballs and Netballs with this credit this year. It is an easy way to contribute resources to our school especially if you enjoy spending time and money in sports stores like myself. Thanks to all of those who purchased at Rebel over the break. We have a very useful amount for equipment.

Important Sporting Dates Term 1, 2024

 7 February 2024 – Eastern Taipans District Swimming

 19 February 2024 - Eastern Taipans 10 to 12 Yrs District Netball

 20 February 2024 - Eastern Taipans 10 to 12 Yrs Boys & Girls District Basketball

22 February 2024 - Eastern Taipans 10 to 12 Yrs Boys & Girls District Touch

23 February 2024 - Eastern Taipans 10 to 12 Yrs Boys & Girls District Squash (nominations due)

26 February 2024 - Eastern Taipans 10 to 12 Yrs Boys & Girls District AFL

1 March 2024 - Eastern Taipans 10 to 12 Yrs Boys & Girls District Golf (nominations due)

5 March 2024 - Eastern Taipans 10 to 12 Yrs Boys & Girls District Tennis

6 March 2024 - Eastern Taipans 10 to 11 Yrs Boys & Girls District Rugby League

TBC 2024 - Eastern Taipans 11 to 12 Yrs Boys & Girls District Rugby League

8 March 2024 - Eastern Taipans 10 to 11 Yrs Boys & Girls District Hockey (nominations due)

8 March 2024 – Gala Day 1

22 March 2024 – Yeronga State School Senior and Junior School Cross Countries

Roll up, roll up to the parent event of the year! The Yeronga State School trivia night and disco.

When: March 16

Where: YSS school hall

Theme: The Wonders of Nature!

How: Tickets $15 each on flexischools - no need to organise a table in advance!

There will be prizes for best dressed, best themed table and more! This is not your average stuffy go home at 10pm trivia night, this is your chance to dance the night away and meet fellow parents. We are super keen for prep parents to come along so the first 10 prep parents to sign up will get a free drink on arrival. Bring your friends but not your kids. If you have no friends to bring, you will have new ones by the end of the night. Go Wild!

Any questions contact rackllmack@gmail.com

Cavindish Road State High School - Accepting Expressions of Interest for 2025

Cavendish Road SHS is now accepting Expressions of Interest (EOI) applications for Year 7 2025. Parents can visit our website: https://cavendishroadshs.eq.edu.au/enrolments/enrolling-at-our-school to access EOI application forms.

Please complete and submit with requested reports to enrolments@cavendishroadshs.eq.edu.au