14 September 2016

Newsletter Articles

Swimming – Term 4 Week 2

Payment is due this week.

School swimming lessons will be conducted every day of Week 2 in Term 4 at Cotton Tree Aquatic Centre.

All swimming lessons will be conducted by accredited experienced swimming instructors working with small groups of children.

We believe that this delivery of swimming instruction will be of greatest benefit for the children as it will allow for an intensive program and cater for the needs of all the different swimming abilities of our students. Thanks to Swim Fit at the Cotton Tree Aquatic Centre, we can provide this program at an economical cost.

DATES: Monday 10 – Friday 14 October (5 lessons)
COST: $55.00 (swimming lessons and hire of coaches)

Swimming must be paid for by Friday, 16 September 2016

Please return your payment with the signed permission form attached.

Today’s Under 8 Activities

Our P – 2 students experienced a range engaging activities - painting, kite making, disco, sensory station, icing and decorating biscuits, beaded name bracelets and even a visit from the emergency services.

Monday’s Parade

Special thanks to Lachlan Smart who visited our school on Monday and spoke on Parade to our students about his recent achievements. Lachlan is 18 years old and is the youngest person to have flown solo around the world. He shared a few of the highlights and concerns of his travels and in a nice touch, our students enthusiastically applauded him when he showed the arrival at the Sunshine Coast Airport. Congratulations to our weekly award winners who were presented their certificates by Lachlan.

Prep will be compulsory from 2017

The Queensland Parliament recently made important changes to the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006. From next year, it will be compulsory for all Queensland children to undertake the Preparatory (Prep) Year, prior to entering Year 1. The legislation identifies specific exceptions that can be determined by principals on a case-by-case basis. To minimise disruption to schools and families, the new requirement will not apply to children already enrolled in Year 1 for 2017. There has been such positive learning outcomes since the introduction of Prep. The Education Department is pleased all children will now enjoy this important start to their learning.

Playgrounds after school

It is great to see students and families enjoy the wonderful facilities and playgrounds straight after school. However, I need all of the community to please support this practice in the following way. If students are to use the playground after school, their parent must be actively supervising their child from right next to the playground. I appreciate everyone’s support with thi

Term 4 Dates

Term 4 commences - Tuesday October 4
Swimming Sessions – Monday October 10 to Friday October 14
Pupil free Day - Monday October 17
Year 6 End of Year Night – Tuesday December 6
Prep to Year 5 Movie Day – Thursday December 7
Term 4 finishes – Friday December 9

School Review 2016

Thank you to a number of parents who spoke to the school review team last week.

Two principals and an external reviewer from USC spent three days at our school and their feedback will help us to continue to deliver a quality education for our students and shape our Strategic Plan for 2016 – 2020. The final report shall be sent to the school in early term 4 with the Strategic Plan aligning to the key recommendations.

Father’s Day Breakfast

Thank you to Chappy Sam and all who assisted with the Father’s day breakfast, and, to all the fathers who were able to support the breakfast and spent time at school with their children.

Prep Enrolments

Now is the time all parents need to complete enrolment forms for any new students wishing to commence Prep at Maroochydore SS in 2017.

Students eligible for Prep are those born between the 1st July 2011 and the 30 June 2012.

Planning is well underway and so please ensure if you or any of your friends have a 2017 Prep enrolment that you collect the enrolment forms from the office and return asap so that you get all of the information about upcoming open days and transition sessions.

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Our student attendance average is just over 91% - we still think we can obtain 95%

Every day counts

Parents are reminded of the importance of sending children to school every day. Being at school every day is important, if with one day absent each week quickly adding up to two months of missed lessons in a year.

Unless your child is ill, it is expected that your child will be at school learning every day of the school year.

More information on the importance of regular school attendance is available at the link below. The videos associated with this link highlight issues often faced by parents and dispel some myths about absences form school and are worth a look.

By sending your child to school every day we are together developing good habits for success at primary school and beyond. When parents do not support developing a solid routine of attending school every day issues of truancy and poor work habits can emerge.

If you have any concerns regarding your child’s attendance, please do not hesitate to contact the school for support.

P&C News

Special thanks to Bronnie and her team for last Friday’s treat day. This was a very popular ‘menu’ with many students being very open eyed and stunned when they got to the front counter!

Just a few things from the P&C…

Tuckshop Volunteers

We also have our usual request for volunteers to help in the tuckshop. We cannot keep the tuckshop open without volunteer help, and we are desperate for people to help on a Friday. Anytime you can give is great, even if it is just an hour or two every now and then – we don’t need you to make a regular commitment. Morning tea is provided for volunteers, and there are a range of different things that need doing, so Bronny will be able to find something you feel confident doing (and most of the tasks are things we do daily at home anyway!) Please see her at the tuckshop, email me on doncobeth@gmail.com, or leave your name at the office and we can contact you back.

Little Lifesaving Legends

Surf Life Saving Queensland has an introductory nippers program running here on the Sunshine Coast in the upcoming school holidays. Our Little Lifesavers program is for children ages 5-11 years old to learn lifesaving skills during a week long program, to assist their pathway into lifesaving, or just to learn some skills to help save their own lives.

We also have a brand new program starting this year called Little Lifesaving Legends, which is an altered Nippers program for children with challenges such as Autism, ADHD, ADD, Cognitive or Social delay, and other challenges that may effect their ability to keep up in mainstream sports. This program is starting this school holidays running for a 4 morning Saturday program.

The Little Lifesaver Legends program is catered for children with challenges. The website for this program contains all the information necessary, with my contact details. http://lifesaving.com.au/community-programs/littlelifesavinglegends/

Police News

Local Police would like to remind all school families to take care when using our roads, especially over these school holidays. The roads around the coast are busy with an influx of visitors and Maroochydore police will out in force over the holiday period.

The community’s safety is our priority and police will continue to target the fatal five which are speeding, drink and drug driving, not wearing a seatbelt, driving while fatigued and driving distracted.

Too many Queensland drivers are being distracted while on the road by things like mobile phones, complex sound systems, on-board DVD players and satellite navigation, to name a few.

The message is clear these school holidays if motorists continue to make poor choices on our local roads and endanger other road users they can expect a fine and a loss of demerit points.

Please remember to plan your trip ahead, take a break, rest, revive and survive.

For traffic and road conditions please visit the 131940 Traffic and Travel information website