Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Week 3 was another great week of learning and opportunities at school and many more lay ahead in the coming weeks.  We had a very RED day at school today and raised $1330 as we recognised Day for Daniel (Red Day).  This is an annual event and we use it to highlight personal safety for students.  

Thank you to our community and P&C for their lovely tokens of appreciation as we recognised our staff appreciation day.  Our morning tea was delicious!

Student safety and personal development programs 2020

Come along to the P&C meeting this Tuesday to meet to discuss the programs and plans we are intending to have in place in 2020 regarding personal safety for children. 

• Prep - Year 3:  Keep me safe program - Teaches personal safety in a healthy positive way.
• Year 4: Looking after my body - Begins to address changes during puberty
• Year 5&6:  My life cycle - Growing minds and bodies - Covers puberty, reproduction and body image.  The program also looks at respectful relationships, decision-making and peer pressure, media and body image and puberty.

All of these programs link directly to the Australian Curriculum.  The session starts at 5:30pm and will conclude at 6:00 for the P&C meeting to begin.  Click here to visit the True website.

Swimming starts next week (Year 2&3)

The 'Learn to Swim' programs begin next week for Years 2&3.  The Prep and Year 5 programs will commence later in the term.  Please see your child's teacher should you have any questions.

Student Free Day

While students had an opportunity to sleep in on Monday, the school staff was hard at work.  The program for the day focused on better understanding learners and we completed workshops on Pasifika and Indigenous students and their needs.  We then dived into what is called 'Deep Learning' - an approach that will be visible in our school next year.  It is very exciting.  Part of our staff also invested time developing their digital learning skills, focusing on iPads to leverage learning.  It was a great day.

Respectful driving

Please remember to drive respectfully, patiently and safely in and around the school - especially the school car park area.  Please join the queue and never try to push into the traffic line.   Quite a number of accidents happen when motorists do this. 

Public speaking

The finals of the public speaking competition at AB Paterson were held this week and the calibre was outstanding.  What out Year 5 and 6 students are capable of never ceases to amaze me.  Delivering a public speech is never easy but to deliver a polished public speaking performance is even more difficult.  Our finalists this week made it all look so easy.  Congratulations to all of them.  Details of the performance are following in this edition.

Plovers

Our resident family of plovers have had 2 little additions this week.  The parent birds are understandably very protective so we are helping by staying back from them as much as we can.  The babies are up and walking and are looking very cute.  The students are absolutely amazed to watch them - but we don't like the swooping very much.  Mind you, the plovers will not actually hurt anyone.  They will simply squawk a lot and try to scare strangers away with their swooping.  We are hopeful that the babies grow quickly and safely.

Medical alert

We have a confirmed case on chicken pox in Year 3.  If your child is unwell, please consult your doctor for advice.  If the doctor diagnoses something that other families need to know, please contact the school office.

Kind regards

Vic

I wonder what was the best song from the 80s?  It was a memorable time as well as some awesome songs that have lasted many decades now and are still being sung along to - even by our kids.  And our disco was a return to the era of fluro colours, BIG hair and sunglasses at night while we danced to the YMCA, Footloose and Ghostbusters.

Thanks to our super P&C and volunteers for creating a great evening of dining, dancing and entertainment.  Once again, our mums were just amazing with their creative costume approaches that showed Paul Stanley (Kiss) to Cindy Lauper to Neil Finn (Split Enz) are still about.  I hope that everyone had a great night.

We had five students from Year 5 & 6 who qualified as preliminary finalists in the A B Paterson Public Speaking competition this week. If we thought the calibre of speeches at the heats were exceptional, the speakers at this level were simply unbelievable. They demonstrated maturity beyond their years, poise and the sophistication of their vocabulary was at a standard that could have quite easily been delivered as a Ted Talk. The adjudicators had an extremely tough job in deciding the top two from each of the preliminary final heats. Each and every one of our students clearly deserved to be there as they represented our school exceptionally well.

A massive congratulations must go to Kilarney as she made it through to the grand final. This meant she needed to stay on even later in the night. Although Kilarney didn't place in the grand final, it's important to note that she is now ranked in the top 10 speakers for her speech on 'Australia's Greatest National Treasure.' With over 173 Year 6 students in the competition, this is an incredible achievement.

Congratulations and well done must also go to Ruby, Imogen, Georgina, Isabella L and Isabella W for making it through to the preliminary finals and their praise-worthy performance on the night.

4R's of Online Behaviour

1. RESPECT - Everyone is allowed their opinion
2. REASONING - I question things if my mind says no - don't
3. RESILIENCE - I just try not to read into it too much
4. RESPONSIBILITY - I am responsible for what I do online

The students were also reminded to SOAR with the BIRDS as they plan online games. 

• Block
• Ignore
• Report
• Don't feed the trolls
• Share it with a responsible adult

Thank you to the sponsors of the day Nvoke Future Learning  and St Hilda's for hosting such a successful event.  

Exciting plans are unfolding for 2020 with many more schools coming on board, locally and interstate.

We are training in preparation for the All Schools Touch Football carnival later in the term.  Training is held:

• Tuesday (after school): 2:45-3:30pm (approx)
• Thursday (before school): 7:30-8:10 (approx)

Children will already be in their sports unofrorms but are welcome  to bring plastic/rubber studded boots to train in (and change back into their school joggers after training).

Thank you to Mr Burrows and Mr Murillo for their leadership with the squad.  

Learning about mindfulness and recognising when we need some chill out time has been our focus this week at OSHC. We talked to our students about the zones of regulation, so they are equipped with effective tools to manage their emotions and behaviour. The zones of regulation include the green zone; where students are calm and happy. The blue zone, for when students are feeling bored or tried. The yellow zone which means students could be feeling frustrated, silly or overwhelmed, and, the red zone where students are feeling angry or upset. When appropriate, educators ask students what colour they are feeling to help manage their emotions and in turn, their behaviour. If a student is feeling blue, yellow or red they are encouraged to use some of th strategies that they learn at school and take deep breaths, talk to a teacher and then spend some time in the chill out zone. Miss Kat has stocked the chill out zone with some awesome resources that promote calmness and help them build back up to feeling green.

Your recyclable containers can make a real change!

By recycling your plastic bottles and soft drink cans at school, not only are you helping the environment, you are also helping us raise funds for our school.

The Environmental Warriors have been reinvesting the funds raised from our recycling efforts this year into a range of environmental initiatives around the school. in fact, they are working on another one right now! Watch this space!

Our recycling bins are located near the flags each morning for your donations.

Prep, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 5 have the opportunity for swimming lessons this year.  The lessons are heavily subsidised from the department grant of over $16 000 but there is still unfortunately a cost to families for transport.  Information will be sent home so please beat the response and payment deadline.

• Prep $55 - November 18th to 29th - Monday to Friday - 2 weeks - Rackley Swimming Pimpama
• Year 2 & 3: $35 - October 28, 30, November 11, 13, 18 and 20 - Gullivers 
• Year 5 Surf Safety: $15 - December 3 & 4 - Burleigh Heads Beach

Our next Woolies Breakfast will be held on Wednesday 30 October and the lucky recipients will be Year 1.

The school and P&C conduct a tender process each couple of years to identify a preferred supplier for school books.  Kookaburra are the current suppliers after winning this tender process.  They offer a competitively priced and convenient option for parents however, you are still able to choose to visit the back to school sales to collect the items yourself should you prefer.  On-line ordering has opened.

The 2019 Year Book is under construction now and, as with previous years, it is going to be a fantastic reflection of a year full of wonderful activities and memories for students to keep for years to come.

2019 Year Book orders are now available to order on Flexischools and the deadline to order is 4:00pm Friday 1 November. We will only be ordering from the printer the required copies from orders received so please be sure not to be miss this deadline!

If you do require a deadline extension, you MUST email the P&C before the deadline to request one.

Please note - Year 6 students receive a complimentary copy of the Year Book at graduation (* Conditions apply)

Our Book Week character dress up prizes were provided by the sponsors listed below.  We would like to thank all of our Literacy Festival sponsors for their support of this event and our community.  We encourage families, when in the market for goods and services offered by our sponsors, to consider supporting a local business that supports our School community.

Join us at our next P&C meeting to be held on Tuesday 29 October at 5:30pm.  If you have an agenda item please email the Secretary with the details by no later than 9:00am Monday 28 October.  The early start is for a special guest from True who will be discussing our student safety programs and plans for 2020.  The the meeting will commence at 6:00pm.

P&C meetings are a great way to keep up to date with what is going on around our school. They provide our families with an opportunity to provide input and feedback on matters relating to school and community life.  Meetings are open to all families and we encourage families to come along and contribute to your school community which forms a vital part of your children's educational journey.

We look forward to seeing you there.​