Parent and Community – Code of Conduct 

In schools, much of our efforts go towards managing and supporting positive and prosocial behaviours in our students. According to research, the single biggest factor impacting on life outcomes is not how well a student has achieved academically, but their ability to get along well with others. It is not surprising given the nature of the workplace and home. We are social beings and in order to be successful, skills we actively teach at Yeronga State School such as emotional self-regulation, collaboration, contribution, communication etc. support lifelong learning and achievement. However, schools can only do so much. We know neurodiversity can also impact on social skills and the most functional and loving families, will still have children requiring life-long support to be successful socially and emotionally. We must all take personal responsibility for how our adult behaviour today shapes the behaviour of our adults of tomorrow. 

Sadly adult hostility, violence and aggression directed at school staff is increasing. Whilst in our beautiful school this is rare, when staff, those that are caring for young children, are exposed to acts of aggression significant psychological harm can occur (Chappell & Di Martino, 2006). As a school principal, I will always exercise my legislated powers to ensure such people, whether they are parents or other adults on the school site acting in an aggressive or threatening way are managed and my staff and students protected. It is timely, that I share with you the Yeronga State School Parent and Community Code of Conduct launched by the Department of Education last month. The document outlines the expected behaviour of parents and visitors to ensure our community is the very best place for our young people, our adults of tomorrow to be learning, growing and achieving. 

I am so looking forward to seeing you all at the 150th Celebration Fete on Saturday. 

I know there will be many thankyous and acknowledgements to follow. Please show your gratitude by coming along, enjoying each other’s company and supporting the many stalls.

Eunice Webb

Principal

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

Regards,

Office

Juliet Brooks

0417177199

150^th Anniversary and Fete Coordinator

Yeronga State School – Celebrating 150 years in 2021

Welcome to country at 11am at the YSS Fete!

If you’re like us you’re getting excited about the big fete at Yeronga State School on Saturday 22 May! 

Don't miss the opening of the Fete with a special 'Welcome to country' from local Traditional Owner, Elder and Yuggera man, Uncle Des Sandy, at 11am. The Welcome will be followed by a performance from First Nation children attending Yeronga State School who will interact with our visiting Elder and the audience in a ceremony and dance. The children have been rehearsing weekly and have attended two workshops in the holidays facilitated by Kalari parents Yolande Brown and Aren Healy. We’ve added a picture below of the kids rehearsing for their Fete performance.

Don’t miss this chance to immerse yourself in a respectful acknowledgement of the land the school sits on and to witness the opening of our Fete. 

Also – come and visit the Kalari stall at the fete to say g’day, have a yarn or for more information about Kalari!

What is Kalari?

Kalari means ‘message stick’ in Yuggera language and is name of the YSS Indigenous Working Group.

Kalari aims to increase the acknowledgement and celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and history at YSS, through an inclusion of Indigenous perspectives and in line with the YSS school values.

Kalari is made up of Indigenous and non-Indigenous volunteer parents and anyone can join! For more information or to get involved about contact Aren Healy at mamaaren101@gmail.com

Happy Reading,
Mrs Cowie and Mrs Hage 

Green Team News

According to our Litter Audit data last week, over 1/3 of our school families send their children to school with ‘NUDE’ lunches (that’s a lunch with no packaging)!  Well done to all those ‘Nude Fooders’!  That’s a pretty good effort for a school of our size, but we think we can do better!

Enter ‘Make No Rubbish Monday’!

EVERY Monday is now officially ‘Make No Rubbish Monday’! 

‘Make No Rubbish Monday’ is the Green Team’s new initiative which we hope will establish good habits, healthier eating and reduce waste in our school grounds.  It is completely optional, but just like our regular Active School Travel day every week, why not get into good practice bringing Nude lunches on Mondays, so that you are well and truly ready for our end of term Nude Food Day! 

Nude Food Day has fantastic class and individual prizes up for grabs for those who bring a Nude Lunch on the day! 

So how do you make a Nude Lunch?

1. Label every container or lunchbox with your child’s name.
2. Choose healthy foods, fruit and snacks that are free from packaging.
3. Fill a reusable drink bottle with your chosen drink.
4. Enjoy your guilt-free lunch, knowing you are not contributing to the school’s landfill bin!

For more information, click here! 

The Green Team thanks you for your cooperation!

Cash 4 Cans

Thanks to our students using the right bins, our school families bringing in their containers and even contributions from local community members, we have raised over $850 for our school through our Cash 4 Cans recycling program.  Some of this money has been spent on purchasing; paper straws for the tuckshop to reduce the plastic waste around our school; more litter pickers for our Waste Warrior Litter Green Team for their weekly playground clean ups; core-flute paper recycling bins for classrooms and even a cage and sign for our Native Bee Hive that was donated by the Kandel family (located between the hall and the library).  We have lots more ideas for the money, but if you have any ideas for what to spend our money on to improve our school’s sustainability, please send an email to nicoledeayton@gmail.com

Please encourage your children to use the right bins to ensure we make the most out of this opportunity to earn money for our school and feel free to bring in containers from home to contribute (no glass please).  Alternatively, you can contribute at bottle exchange centres by quoting our unique scheme ID: C10004300.

Yours for the environment,

The Green Team

FETE PERFORMANCES

The Senior Band, Senior Strings and Combined Senior/Junior Choir are all scheduled to perform in the 11:25 – 12:15 performance slot. Call times for all performers are as follows:

• Senior Band – meet/tune at 10:50am in the Music Room to perform at 11:25am (if there are any parents around to help move percussion instruments from the Music Room to the Senior Oval from 10:50am, we would love your assistance with this)
• Strings – meet/tune at 10:45am in the Music Room to perform at approximately 11:40 am
• Choir Members – meet/warm up 11:45am in the Music Room to perform at approximately 12:00 midday

To present as one unified group, all band/strings/choir members will be required to wear their full formal uniform. Note that students will have time after their performance to change into any applicable outfits for their year level dances. Furthermore, choir students may also wish to wear one or more of the following when they sing ‘Gary Galah’: 

• A bowtie
• Sunglasses
• A cowboy hat
• Braces/suspenders
• A velvet cloak

At the conclusion of the performance, all students will need to be collected by a parent or guardian. Students will not be permitted to leave the performance space on their own.

COMBINED WINTER SHOWCASE

This year, our Combined Winter Showcase will be held on Friday June 18 at Yeronga State High School, commencing at 6pm. This is our largest musical concert of the year with all of the musical groups performing (Junior Band, Senior Band, Junior Strings, Senior Strings, Chamber Strings, Junior Choir and Senior Choir). All students who are members of these ensembles are expected to attend and support each other. You will hear from your child’s ensemble teacher closer to the event to learn about what time your child is expected to arrive and tune/warm up.

EXTRA PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITIES

Thank you to those students who nominated to perform as ‘background music’ musicians before assembly each week. I will be in contact with you soon regarding your audition times/days. If your child is interested in becoming a ‘background music’ musician, they are still most welcome to come and see me for an audition form.

Also, remember that Yeronga’s Got Talent is returning this year and will be held on the evening of 30 July before Chappy’s Movie Night. Students, start organising your acts now!

MUSIC EXAMS

Good luck to Amelie M. in Year 5 who is preparing to sit her AMEB Grade 1 flute exam over the June/July exam period. Keep up that practise and we can’t wait to hear how you go!

MUSIC WEEK

In Term 3 from July 26 – 30, Yeronga State School is gearing up to celebrate ‘Music Week’ by showcasing the amazing musical talent that we have within our community. Over this week, all of our musical ensembles will be performing in and around the school and we will conclude the week with Yeronga’s Got Talent in the evening. Additionally, I am well aware that many of our Yeronga families have extensive musical backgrounds and experience and so family members/friends of students, if you are keen to join in the celebrations by volunteering to perform as acoustic “street entertainment” before school (8:30 – 8:50am) as students arrive for the day or, during a lunch break (11:15 – 11:40pm / 1:25 – 1:40pm) on any day during this week, I would love to hear from you via email at leeas0@eq.edu.au. Solo acts and duos/trios/quartets ensembles etc. are all welcome.

Lauren Easey

Music Teacher