BULLYARD BULLETIN Term 1, Week 3 www.bullyardss.eq.edu.au “Freedom Through Knowledge” email: [email protected] Newsletter Date: 12/02/2021 Schoolwide Positive Behaviour Respect From the Principal... Responsibility Safety Learner It has been wonderful to see everyone experiencing such a great start to the new school year. I have been very excited to see students so eager to learn Dates to and am so proud of the effort I am already seeing across our classrooms. Next week our school captains and sports captains will be attending the GRIP Remember leadership conference and in just over a week’s time we will also be holding our special Leadership Investiture parade for our new school captains, sports Week 4 captains and student council representatives, where they will formally receive Monday 15th their badges from Cr Wayne Honor. This year Bullyard has implemented a Parade @ 2.30pm renewed focus on developing the leadership skills of our school leaders along with all of our students through a specific focus on developing our personal th Tuesday 16 and social capabilities. I have attached a copy of these to the newsletter and GRIP Student Leadership encourage you to discuss them with your children or post them on the fridge. Excursion They are an excellent reflective tool for all of us and can be used to raise Friday 19th important discussions around character development. Year 4-6 Interschool Sport Health Guidelines – What to do if your child is unwell. Week 5 A friendly reminder that the QLD health guidelines remain in place. Specifically Monday 22nd February any child or adult who is showing signs of illness such as COVID-19 symptoms, or Leadership Investiture feeling unwell, must stay at home and get tested. Please DO NOT send your child to Parade @ 2.30pm school if they display any of the symptoms shown below. Week 6 Monday 1st March Parade @ 2.30pm Thursday 4th and Friday 5th Whole School Review Friday 5th Year 4-6 Interschool Sport Symptoms include Week 8 th Monday 15 Fever Sore Runny Loss of smell Cough Shortness Fatigue Parade @ 2.30pm Diarrhoe and/or taste of breath Vomiting or throat nose a nausea Other symptoms people may experience include muscle or joint pain and loss of th Tuesday 16 appetite. If a child is showing signs of illness at school, the school will contact P&C ANNUAL GENERAL the parent or carer to collect the child. If you have any COVID-19 symptoms, no MEETING @ 3.30pm matter how mild, call your doctor or 13HEALTH (13 43 25 84) and get tested. Gin Gin Hospital is the closest testing centre and bookings can be made by calling 07 4157 Friday 19th 2222. For more information, visit National Day of Action https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid- against Bullying 19/stay-informed/symptoms-of-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-comparison Volunteers A big thanks to those parents that have already returned their volunteer slips to help out in the school in various capacities. You should have received a letter in the last few days confirming and providing further details. If you haven’t or would like to get involved in any way, get in touch with a member of staff. Join us for Reading Groups Join the P&C Help in our school garden vegetable patch Volunteer in the classroom Volunteer in the tuckshop Register for ClassDojo. Come to our fortnightly parades Join us for special events Assist your child with their homework Request a Parent Teacher Meeting Parent Teacher Information Session Parent Teacher Information Sessions Last Monday parents of students in Prep to Year 3 were invited to attend an information session about our P-3 classroom. If you weren’t able to make it, you can still get in touch and schedule a private meeting with Teneil. Just contact the school to confirm a mutually suitable time. Parents with students in Year 4 to Year 6 are invited to attend this coming Monday 15th (Week 4) from either 8.00-8.30 am or 3.15-3.45 pm. If you are not able to make this time, our staff are happy to meet with you individually at another time or arrange a phone call instead. Our Explicit Improvement Agenda This year our school has prioritized the following 3 areas as key priorities for 2021. 1. Oral Language and Phonological Awareness skills in the early years. 2. Embedding Cognitive Verbs throughout our core curriculum to enhance higher order thinking skills. 3. Developing student social and personal capabilities through a positive behavior for learning approach. Inter-school Sport Years 4-6 T-Ball We are excited to see the return of Inter-school sport recommencing next Friday with our local partner schools (Maroondan, Wallaville, McIllwraith, Gin Gin). A permission note has been sent home today with students and will need to be returned for students to attend. Bullyard State School is funding transport costs so there is no payment required for this activity. Sporting Schools Grant Bullyard State School has again received an $1800 grant through the Federal Government’s Sporting Schools program and are finalizing details of an AFL program which will commence shortly and run from 8am on selected days. A note will be sent home once dates have been finalized. Leadership GRIP Conference and Investiture Parade In week 4 on Tuesday 16th February our student school leaders and sports captains will be heading to the GRIP leadership conference being held in Bundaberg. I know they are looking forward to this exciting opportunity as the first step on their leadership journey. Following this, we will hold a special leadership investiture parade on Monday 22nd @ 2.30pm where all of our leaders including our student council representatives will be presented with their badges. I invite parents to join us for this special parade. Tuckshop Pre-payments QKR Unavailable Unfortunately, we have had to discontinue the use of the tuck-shop prepayment through our QKR payment platform due to some unexpected technical issues. All payments that have been made up to this point have been successfully processed and added to students accounts, however you will not be able to make any additional pre-payments using this function until this is resolved. When existing credits run low, you will receive a notification from the tuck-shop and you can choose to continue pre-paying in cash or alternately pay each week. We apologise for this and are looking at how to bring this functionality back online. Please note all other QKR payments for camps, iPad program, uniforms, musical instrument programs etc are all still fully functional through QKR. Year 4-6 Loan for Home iPad Program Bullyard State School is proud to provide a 1:1 iPad program for Year 4-6 students as well as a shared 2:1 ratio for our lower classrooms in 2021. Following consultation last year with the school P&C association, Bullyard State School is now in a position to offer an opt in extension of this program. In short, parents are invited to pay a small term-by-term fee, which allows students to take the device home across the school year and use it at home for educational purposes including homework, revision and enrichment activities. If you choose to participate in the program the total maximum loan cost will be $240 whether you commence the program in Year 4, 5 or 6. At the end of year 6, parents and students are then given the opportunity to outright purchase their device for a $10 final payment. See the table below for a breakdown of costs If you would like to express interest in this program, please fill in the form attached to the end of the newsletter and a full agreement form will be sent home for you to consider. Should you have any questions, please contact the principal to discuss. If this program has successful uptake, we will look to extend it into lower year levels in the future, further allowing the cost to be spread over a child’s schooling. ABSENCES NOTIFICATION PROCESS Student absences can be submitted via any of the following methods on the day or in advance if known. A reminder that unexplained absences will be followed up in the same day via sms. If SMS does not work for you and you would prefer to be contact via phone, please advise the school. If an absence is anticipated to continue over multiple days. For example due to sickness, please advise of this when you contact the school, otherwise we are required to contact you on each subsequent day. PHONE: 4157 4165 SMS: 0409 249 252 EMAIL : absences @bullyardss.eq.edu.au Please note class-dojo or facebook is not an appropriate channel to communicate absences as these are not always checked on a daily basis. Instrumental Music (Year 4-6) If your child is continuing Instrumental Music in 2021 or commencing an instrument, please ensure you have paid both the instrumental music program fee and the Instrument Hire Fee. These can be paid online using QKR, otherwise invoices have been sent home if your child has returned the instrumental resources scheme form sent home last week. Loaned instruments cannot be taken home until fees have been paid. You are invited to participate in our school review Every four years schools undergo a review by the Education Improvement Branch of the Education Department. In Term 1, Week 6, Bullyard State School is having our review. This is an excellent opportunity for our school to find out what we are doing well and how we can improve.