21 February 2019

Newsletter Articles

A new school year – our 2019 School
Leaders

On Monday’s Parade our school leaders received their badges from Miss Simpson and Mrs Pool as they were introduced to our school community.

Congratulations to:

We will present Sport Leader badges in a few weeks as Mr Turner gets to know the students and the way they participate in sports and lunch time activities.

February News

Hats, hats, hats – a school hat is needed for all break time activities.

Our teacher aide staff:

ECDP TA – Denise Ormerod

Prep to Year 6 TAs: Julie Jorgensen, Toni White, Mandy Brown, Robyn Nugent, Tracie Kennedy, Robyn Nugent and Cath Coleman

The Year 6 shirts have arrived and can be collected from the office upon payment. *Please note for this week only, due to Office staff absence payment can be only made on Friday.

The Year 5 and Year 6 QLD Science Centre and Museum forms and invoices have gone home. ALLPAYMENTS are due by March 4 when numbers are confirmed and group tickets purchased.

The Human Race Performance

Last Thursday our Year 1 to Year 6 students attended a production in the school hall. The Human Race is an anti bullying and resilience performance that reinforces positive relationships, and provides resources to help reduce the incidence of bullying at school and online. It encourages tolerance, kindness, respect and empathy. The two actors did a wonderful job and hopefully your children spoke about Deedee and Dunc and the message they shared. Thank you to our P&C who fund these performances for all of our students.

Reading

Reading is so important for us all.

As parents, the most important thing we can do is read to our children early and often. Reading is the path to success in school and life.
When children learn to love books, they learn to love learning.”

- Laura Bush

Our school leaders are reading:

Students are also given an opportunity to read for their own enjoyment too and it is encouraging to see the students beginning to settle in some good self-reading practices.

You might also note that when the students are reading, their teachers are also reading and modelling good reading practices.

How far ahead then can our students go if parents are reading aloud to their child at home and teachers are reading aloud to their class at school?

Parent/Teacher Meetings

As always, if you are unable to make this time, please contact your child’s teacher and arrange another mutually convenient time to catch up.

NAPLAN Year 3 Year 5 News

14 – 24 May

Again this year our Year 3 and Year 5 students will access the NAPLAN test online with the exception of the Year 3 writing test.

All students will need to have their own headphones to hear the instructions and access the test components. Could all parents please check now to ensure their child has working headphones.

PE News

Last Thursday we had 9 keen runners turn up for some running games and early cross country practice. All are welcome to come along each Thursday from 7:50am on the Oval. Students in 10, 11 and 12 years age groups will need to be consistent participants to attend any representative competitions.

NAMBOUR DISTRICT DATES

P&C News

The P&C Annual General Meeting will be held on March 11th at 8:45 am in the staff common room in the office. All parents and carers are invited to attend.

What happens at the AGM?

The AGM is when the election for P&C positions is held. Positions include President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Fundraising Officer as well as other roles.

You're welcome to nominate yourself or someone you know OR you can just come along and find out what's going on around the school.

If you cannot attend but would like to be on the P&C mailing list to find out about future meetings, events and other P&C news, please fill out a membership form in the office, uniform shop (on Monday mornings) or the tuckshop (on Friday mornings) or email Mel at maroochydorestatepc@gmail.com for a digital copy.

Who is the P&C?

Parents and Carers volunteering in the school.

What does the P&C do?

We fundraise for extra resources for every child in the school. The fun run with colour and the Christmas raffle were two of our major fundraisers last year. We also:

• Run the uniform shop
• Run the tuckshop
• Run the Mother's and Father's Day Stalls
• Run the Scholastic bookclub

None of these things happen without volunteers! So if you can give a couple of hours of your time this year to help at upcoming events, please sign up to the mailing list to stay in the loop and let us know when you can help out.

Some things the P&C have helped fund in recent years:

• We fund incursions each term like the science show
• We helped fund part of the new playground
• We've helped fund iPad purchases
• We've helped fund new books for the library

5 reasons to lend a helping hand at school

1. Your kids love seeing you at school
2. Meet new people and make new friends
3. Learn new skills or build on the ones you have
4. Find out what's going on at school
5. Science says community participation makes you happier!

Hope to see you on March 11th at 8:45 am for the AGM.

Helping Hands

As you will be aware, on 2 July 2018 the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) replaced the Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate. The Australian Government’s new child care package provides more support for more families and is targeted at those who need it most.

An important and significant change to the way families access eligibility to this subsidy has been implemented. Notably, if a child is absent from their Outside School Hours Care program for more than eight consecutive weeks, the Government ceases the child’s CCS enrolment.

This change means that if a family was previously paying reduced fees for gap or out of pocket expenses only they will now be charged the full amount. Additionally, when the Government ceases their enrolment, the parent is no longer able to access their online account through the iParentPortal to make or change any bookings.

At Helping Hands we understand we have to work differently with the new CCS in order to make it easier and more convenient for parents and our focus is on evolving our technology platform over the next 6-9 months to do this. We are also aware that in the short term there may be some frustration by parents and to help this we are implementing some changes.

What are we doing to help?

1. Helping Hands will be sending clear communications to Parents/Guardians, alerting them to the 8-week absent rule and the steps they need to take.
2. We are upskilling our Service Coordinators to enable them to quickly and easily re-activate a child’s CCS enrolment and support / instruct parents in their role
3. We have stopped late booking fees for a period of time – it’s the right thing to do
4. We are increasing the number of people within our Customer Service and Billing team to support the additional call volume.

We thank you for your understanding during this period of change. Helping Hands strive to lead the way in Outside School Hours Care with communication and service and value your feedback.

Thank you again for all your support this year, we look forward to continuing our relationship through 2019.

Routines and Expectations

Wearing the correct school uniform including a broad brimmed hat for play times.

All students should be dropped off at school from 8:20 to 8:30am.

School learning starts at 8:30am sharp.

There are high expectations around student work, personal achievements and behaviour.

For any student absence please call the school before 8:30am on the day of the absence. 5475 1555

Our 4 School Rules are:

All student mobile phones are to be taken to the School Office for safe keeping during the school day. Students collect them at the end of the school teaching and learning day at 2:30pm.

Hats – all students should have a green bucket hat for outside activities including both breaks. Parents please ensure your child’s hat is named.

Toys – all students are to leave their toys at home for play at home and to not disrupt the teaching and learning of the teacher and other students.

We are encouraging all students to actively play and socialise during first break this year and as such the Library is closed during this time.

School Learning Times

As it is the start of a new year it is also a good time to remind everyone about being prepared for the school learning day.

Remember classrooms at open at 8:20am at the latest every school day. This allows time for students to unpack their bags, come in and get their learning space organised.

This ensures all students are organised and ready to start learning at 8:30am every school day.

Please note after 8:45am, if students and parents are running a little bit late you BOTH must come to the Office for a late slip as ONLY the parent is required to give a reason for the lateness.

School Absence and Text Messaging
Service

A reminder:

If your student is absent - Phone the Student Absence Line before 9:00am to advise of any/all occasions when your child/ren will be away from school. This is a 24hr recorded service, you can call it anytime (convenient if your child is up ill during the night!). The Maroochydore State School Student Absence Line number is 07 5475 1555 – then dial 2 and leave clearly state your child’s name class and a reason for your child’s absence.

If your student is late and the class teacher has marked the rolls - Children who arrive after the roll has closed will be required to go to the office WITH THEIR PARENT to collect a LATE SLIP for presentation to their teacher. Legally a child’s explanation for their lateness is not acceptable and is recorded as an UNEXPLAINED ABSENCE.

If/when you receive an SMS message, reply to the SMS with the reason for your child’s absence and their name immediately OR if you believe your child/ren is/should be at school contact the school office immediately to notify us.

Playground Use

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 this.

The Sky Above

A special look out for Venus and Saturn between Feb 16 and Feb 21. They are close in the morning sky.

Jupiter meets a waning crescent Moon on Feb 28.

NASA’s insight mission on Mars – aside from measuring Marsquakes, the temperature on SOL 81 (Feb 17 here on Earth) showed a high of -17 Celsius and a low of -95 Celsius. Perhaps somewhat on the chilly side for a visit.

Chappy Sam

Chappy Sam is here on a Monday and Thursday again this year. All parents and students are invited to catch up with Chappy Sam in her room or to make an appointment please ring the Office 5475 1555

Breakfast Club – on a Monday and a Thursday with toast and a drink. * Please note the food delivery has not arrived at the time of finalising this newsletter so it may not happen this Thursday.

Students and families are welcome to come to the main forecourt area from 8:00am. and join in the Breakfast Club social start to the day.

School Dates 2019

Term 1 Dates

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Every day counts

Parents are reminded of the importance of sending children to school every day. Being at school every day is important, 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.

This week’s rules of the week is – We have 4 school rules. Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful and Be a Learner.