Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Winter arrived late this week and for the next four to six weeks, we will be feeling the lovely chill each morning.  Please make sure that your children have the correct jumpers for school and layer up underneath on these cooler mornings so they keep warm.  It is also a great idea to make sure that jumpers are clearly named.   

AFL team

I am extremely proud of the school AFL team on their awesome representation last week.  You will see the results in the sports section of the newsletter.  Representing our school is one of the highest honours for a student and this group were individually and collectively brilliant.  Well done everyone and thank you sincerely to Mr Cope and Mr Longworth and Coach Trent.

Free dress day

To celebrate Queensland winning the first state of origin match this year (perhaps this is wishful thinking), we are holding a free dress day.  We are encouraging everyone to support their team (not just rugby league) by wearing team colours or replica jerseys and such.  The student council is also requesting a gold coin donation that will be collected at morning roll call.  

Kokoda challenge is underway this morning

Good luck to our Kokoda Crusaders as they tackle to kokoda Challenge today in the western suburbs of Brisbane.  15km and cool weather.  We are all fit and well and ready to go.  We will let everyone know how we went next edition of the newsletter.

Loads of events still to come this term

Make sure that you know about the school events.  June will be a busy month.

• Quiz Bowl (4 June)
• Free dress day (5 June)
• Regional Chess Tournament (11 June)
• Bingo night (14 June)
• P&C Volunteer afternoon tea (18 June)
• Grandparents Day (21 June)
• The Great Debate (21 June)
• Report cards sent home (26 June - Available on QParents from 25 June)
• Last day of Term 2 (28 June)
• And save the date for...

Have a great week

Kind regards

Vic

Congratulations to the following students who received a Student Excellence Award this week. Students who receive this award always have fun when they come down to the office to have their photos taken.

The works on the covered Kiss n Go have been started.  Signage is up everywhere and the area is fenced to maintain safety.  The GCCC are supervising and inspecting the area almost daily to ensure that it is as safe as possible for our school and community.  

The cover for the area is a canterlever design (supporting posts along the back of the structure) so that car doors wont hit them and the footings have been poured.  Drains with covered grates have been installed to collect and channel rainwater to the road.  Construction of the roof will commence in a couple of weeks.

Thank you to everyone for being so patient while this development is completed.  

Well done to the Year 4 teachers for their highly playful and engaging Convict Day.  Year 4 classes really are doing some amazing things this year.  

On Thursday you may have spotted some students walking around in some very worn clothing or suspiciously criminal attire. These were the Year 4 convicts! Students engaged in a full day of history learning about the journey of convicts from the streets of England, aboard the First Fleet and to their new colony in Australia. Students completed Freeze Frames to step into character and imagine what it was like to live in that time. They were ushered under tables and visualised rats and cockroaches scurrying across their skin to imagine the conditions on the ships. Throughout the day, students completed video dairies which will be used as a collection of work for their assessment.

A highlight of the day had to be the incredible student engagement and deep learning they gained. A bonus for teachers was handing out ‘sentences’ as we marched around in our Guard outfits! At the end of the day, students were released with a ‘Certificate of Freedom,' but I’m sure this is a learning experience they will remember forever.

(Written by Miss Bray)

Hundreds of excited faces were to be seen in the junior precinct on Friday morning as prep to year 2 students enjoyed an amazing array of activities for Under Eight's Day. The Indigenous face painting was a hit as was a tour of a police car and finger printing.  Cricket Queensland showed students how to throw a ball in an inflatable pitch and students showed off their art skills in creating an array of craft. 

Check out the galleries below to see the fun.

It has been a very busy week in the arts department at school, especially with our coming events.

Pizza Pizzazz

This is always an excellent concert and you will be disappointed if you miss it.  Please return your notes ASAP, concert is week 9 - Wednesday 19 June - please refer to information note for more information or contact your child's music teacher if you need another note.

Wakakirri

Rehearsals are going so well! Our performance date is set as Tuesday 30 July.  Notes with all the information will be distributed next week.

Beenleigh Eisteddfod

Choir performance date is Monday 22 July.  We will send home more information with students next week.

Drama

Year 3's enjoyed acting out their performance of stories studied in term two in class. Here is a picture of the ducks from Alexander's Outing in 3L

Preps have been having fun play "Artist and Playdough" (the artist moulds the playdough into a funny pose) and "Mirror, mirror" (they take turns copying each other)

Music

Year 5's have begun learning Ukulele and can now play both the melody and chords to our first song "Kangaroo Skippyroo" here is a picture of 5S having a go.

Interschool Sport

On Monday, we commenced the winter season of Inter-school Sport. We are fielding teams in Rugby League, Netball, Football (Soccer) and Touch Football. We also have an AFL team that are competing in a separate competition. All teams represented our school with pride and embodied our values of fun, fitness and friendship.

The results form Week 1 are listed below and the draw for Week 2, Monday 03 June are also detailed.

     

AFL

This week our school AFL team competed in the AFL Schools Cup. It was a carnival where they played three games and finished 3rd overall.

    
Kokoda

Good luck to our Kokoda Challenge Team. They are racing 15 kilometres through Brookfield reserve in Brisbane. We once again acknowledge the incredible sacrifices made by the brave young Australians who fought in the gruelling Kokoda campaign during World War 2 that ultimately denied the invasion of Australia.  And special thanks to our sponsor wildearth.

   
Cross Country

Good luck to Keagan and Amity at the upcoming South Coast Regional Cross Country championships.

       
Cricket

Thank you to the Brisbane Heat who supported our Under 8s day this week.  Our students had a great time having a go at cricket.

Our School's Cup AFL team competed in the carnival this week.  Their skills, sportsmanship and conduct were all amazing.  Well done team.

We played three games and won against Ormeau.  We lost to Guardian Angels in our second match.  In the third match we lost by 8 points to the eventual competition winners, Gaven.  

Thank you sincerely to Coach Trent and to Mr Cope and Mr Longworth on their wonderful team preparation.

This week we have been helping our groundsmen keep our school gardens healthy by watering the plants each morning.  As we walked around the school to water all the plants we could see, we discussed with children why it is important that we all do our part to keep our school and community looking beautiful for everyone.  The bottles that we used then went to the collection bins to be recycled.  Their engagement in the project showed they have a sense of belonging to the community our OSHC is part of.  We had lots of fun helping so many parts of our OSHC community this week!

Our Bingo Bonanza night will be held on Friday June 14 - please see full details on the attached flyer.  It will be a night filled with Bingo fun and much, much more!

Your entry price will include 15 games of Bingo, light supper, drink on arrival, lucky door prize and your chance to win one of the two $1000 jackpots on offer! One of these $1000 jackpots is guaranteed to be won on the night! Each round of Bingo has been sponsored by a local business and the prizes on offer will be sure to impress!

We will have drinks available to purchase on the night along with raffles and your chance to be 'In It To Win It'

This is our annual adults only event but to help with the little ones we do have baby sitting available.  To book your baby sitting place please go to Flexischools.

Tickets and baby sitting reservations are available to purchase right now - this event is open to your friends from outside of our school community - simply purchase their tickets through your Flexischools account.  Tickets close on Wednesday 12 June at 4:00pm sharp so start organising now.  We would love it to be YOU who takes home a cool $1000. 

Please contact the P&C if you would like any further information.  And of course, profits are directed towards our 2019 air-conditioning goal.

This much loved annual event will take place on Friday 21 June with sign in starting at 8:00am and activities and performances from 8.30am until 10.30pm.

Grandparents will be treated to a morning with their grandchildren enjoying classroom visits, music performances, PE & STEAM demonstrations along with morning tea and a photo booth!

REGISTRATIONS ARE ESSENTIAL and registrations close on Wednesday 19 June at 2:00pm sharp.

Click here to register

I noticed on the unaffiliated parents Facebook page this week that there has been discussion around the queuing lane as you enter the school driveway.  We have sought the advice from QPS and the GCCC regarding this area as it applies to our school.  While I am aware that at least one illegally parked car has received an infringement notices this year, this was not in the entry to the school but across the road from the school bus lanes.  I am not aware of any parents receiving an infringement in the queuing lane.  

The relevant legislation that applies to the queuing area at the entrance to the school is called the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act, often referred to by the acronym TORUM.

Section 168 relates to No Parking signs, stating:

(1) The driver of a vehicle must not stop on a length of road or in an area to which a no parking sign applies, unless the driver—
(a) is dropping off, or picking up, passengers or goods; and
(b) does not leave the vehicle unattended; and
(c) completes the dropping off, or picking up, of the passengers or goods, and drives on, as soon as possible and, in any case, within the required time after stopping.

Maximum penalty—20 penalty units.

(2) For this section, a driver leaves a vehicle unattended if the driver leaves the vehicle so the driver is over 3m from the closest point of the vehicle.

(3) Required time means—

          (a) if information on or with the sign indicates a time—the indicated time; or
          (b) if there is no indicated time—2 minutes; or
          (c) if there is no indicated time, or the indicated time is less than 5 minutes, and section 206 applies to the driver—5 minutes.

So in summary, the Act states that the driver needs to complete the pick-up of the passenger within 2 minutes of stopping in the No Parking Zone.  If the queue is moving (albeit slowly), this is not considered to be stopping.

The police and GC City Parking team (who enforce kerbside management) agree that a common sense approach to enforcing the No Parking Zone will continues to be used if they are in the subject area.  There are complaints being lodged by members of the public about parent driving habits.  

If families are stopping for long periods of time in the No Parking Zone (perhaps leading to safety issues), then the QPS and/or our City Parking officers may look at issuing infringement notices but we will try to avoid that. 

The police and GCCC will book drivers who push into the queuing line.  

Please remember that while we always want to assist our families, we do not police the roads and car park areas.  

It been a busy week for the cafe! A big thank you to the cafe team who stepped up and worked super hard to get the meals out and to the people that dropped everything to come in and lend a hand!

If anybody else can assist with the following it would be appreciated.

Cafe:

• Monday June 3rd: 1 Volunteer required
• Tuesday June 4th: 2 Volunteers required
• Wednesday June 5th: 1 Volunteer required

Woolies Rewards / Grandparents day:

• Tuesday June 4th: 8.30am - 10.00am in the staff room
• Wednesday June 5th: 8.30am - 10.00am in the staff room

    
Afternoon tea for volunteers

Don't forget to keep the afternoon of June 18 free for the Volunteer Afternoon Tea. Official invitations will be sent out shortly.