Edition 11

Principal's Message

I had the pleasure of attending Park Ridge State High School’s Senior Awards last night. It was a lovely celebration of student success from our feeder high school. As a Primary School Principal it was a very proud moment to watch students continue their success into high school. While we are yet to see Everleigh State School students graduate from high school, it will certainly be a momentous ‘first time’ occasion in 2028 when our Foundation Year 6 students end their school journey.

This leads into the realisation that we have 35 school days remaining from Monday, the final 35 days our Foundation Senior Students will attend Primary School. Please mark Tuesday 6 December in your calendar as the date of our inaugural Year 6 Graduation. More information will be shared with Senior Students and their families next week.

State Principals’ Conference

Last week I attended the State Principals’ Conference with the thousands of other Primary, Secondary and Special School Principals from across the state. Held over two (2) days, we were presented with the state’s new vision of Equity and Excellence. This may sound familiar, you say. And it is, as our school vision is Excellence Through Equity because we CARE. It is rewarding to hear that our state education system values the importance of equity to achieve excellence. The first day of the conference challenged all of us in the room to think about what we are currently doing and what needs to change to ensure we provide high quality learning opportunities for all students regardless of circumstance. There was a focus on how equitable access to resources – something I believe strongly in and work hard to achieve at our great school – to ensure those schools, teachers, students and families receive the necessary support to be successful, lifelong learners.  The second day of the conference is something never attempted before. Instead of creating vision and strategic plan for schools to implement, Principals were asked to provide feedback on the strategic plan which is focused on Achievement, Wellbeing, and Inclusion.  I look forward to sharing more with you as the department’s vision and strategic plan takes shape.

End of Year Concert/Showcase

In addition to the many inaugural events for this year, Wednesday 23 November (week 8) will be our End of Year Showcase evening. Mrs Chivers and Ms McCoulough are working extremely hard in the background to ensure our choir and band will perform beautifully for our school community. Mrs Chivers is also working with all classes to perform songs on the night that reflect our school values. Again, more information on the time and format will be send home within the next couple of weeks.

School Review

As mentioned in last fortnight’s newsletter, our first School Review is fast approaching. If you would like to have the opportunity to speak with one of the reviewers, please contact me via email at principal@everleighss.eq.edu.au

Official School Opening

To add to the excitement of Term Four, I have been informed that our school will be officially opened at some stage before the end of the year by both the Minister for Education and the Premier of Queensland. While I will do my best to give parents/carers as much notice as possible, this is based on when the actual date and time is confirmed.

Road Safety

Unfortunately, we received yet another phone call from a parent regarding one of students crossing Ivory Parkway unsafely. I cannot stress enough the importance of ensuring your son/daughter uses designated footpaths and crossings in order to get to school safely. The serious injury or loss of life of one of our students is not an experience I wish our community to have to deal with.  This message will again be shared with students at Parade. I plead with you to please ensure you talk about, model and practice using crossings safely with your son/daughter.

Planning for 2023

We are well underway planning for 2023 classes. We currently have 254 students enrolled at Everleigh State School, with our predicted enrolment for the start of the 2023 school year to be around 360. If your child is in a year level other than Year 6 and they will not be returning to Everleigh State School in 2023, can you please inform us via email at admin@everleighss.eq.edu.au as soon as possible. It is our intention to transition students to their 2023 classes in the last week of school in a ‘shuffle up day’. Information regarding this will be shared closer to the day. This activity will occur during the school day, where all 2023 students, including our new Prep students will meet their 2023 teacher.

Year 5/6 2023 Canberra Trip

A note will be sent home on Monday to current Year 4 and Year 5 students seeking interest in attending a five (5) day school trip to Canberra in Term Four next year.  This will be an exciting learning opportunity for our senior students.  Expressions of Interests need to be returned as soon as possible in order for us to gauge interest. The cost is anticipated to be between $1000 - $1200.  The details of this trip were shared at our previous P&C meeting, where it was supported by all attendees.  The P&C are committing funds from upcoming fundraising events to lower the cost for families.

Deputy Principals' Message

Social Media

Social media continues to present new challenges to students as they get older. Social media can be a wonderful tool to help us stay connected with each other and for our students moving into high school, it can present an amazing opportunity to remain in touch with friends from primary school. However, it also presents challenges.

As new research continues to come to light, the impacts of social media and recreational screen time depicts negative outcomes for students. Students have a number of opportunities at all ages to access social media whether through traditional apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and more to online gaming platforms that enable communication between players such as Minecraft and Roblox. This is not a comprehensive list of apps and games that students can access and this list continues to grow. A range of resources available for parents to help their children remain safe online can be found on the eSafety website.

At Everleigh State School, students are reminded that upon enrolment, all parents/carers and students agreed to abide by our Anti-Bullying Pact, our Student Code of Conduct and the ICT Agreement. The agreed national definition for Australian schools describes bullying as:

• ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm;
• involving an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening;
• happening in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert). Bullying behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time (for example, through sharing of digital records);
• having immediate, medium and long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders. Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.

These behaviours include online behaviour. As outlined in our Student Code of Conduct, misbehaviour online that impacts the wellbeing of students at school or impacts the reputation and good order of the school can be managed at school, even if this behaviour does not occur at school.

Parents/Carers are asked to monitor their child’s access to online platforms as we continue to discuss appropriate means to use the Internet to ensure safety for all students.

Messages from Executive Services

Outstanding Student Resource Scheme (SRS)/iPad Fees!

Parents/Carers are requested to finalise payment of any outstanding SRS/ iPad Fees as soon as possible. We have finally set up CentrePay, allowing families to arrange fortnightly deductions from Centrelink payments to assist in being able to pay off outstanding and upcoming school expenses.  If you are experiencing financial hardship or would like to arrange for regular deductions via CentrePay, please contact our Business Manager, Robyn Gardener via email at  rgard26@eq.edu.au or phone 2899 5111.

As we prepare for 2023, any changes regarding participating in our Student Resource Scheme must be communicated to Executive Services by Friday 4 November, as information regarding 2023 fees and invoicing will commence shortly. Supplementary learning programs (Reading Eggs, Mathletics etc) maybe disabled if fees remain outstanding, and a payment plan has not been discussed. For families with students currently in Years 3, 4, & 5, who are yet to pay for this year’s iPad instalment, access to this iPad in 2023 will be reduced to shared usage, as additional shared devices are required to support the large number of new Prep enrolments for 2023.

Lost Property

These items have been handed into the office and are in our lost property box waiting to be collected by their owners.  Please see Ms. Marina regarding these items.

Logan West Cluster Science and Touch Football Gala Days

Ms Suter and some of our future scientists visited Greenbank State School for a cluster Science day.  All students involved had a great time and represented our school beautifully.

Today, we attempted a Cluster Sports Day, the first in a number of years due to Covid.  Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side.  All teams were able to play one game before the rain started.  Thank you to Mr Morley for his time and effort in organising this cluster event, and Mrs Davis, Mr Alexandrou and Mr Johnson for ensuring our students were well supported on the day with supervision and referring games.

School Photos

Unfortunately, an error occurred when photos were intially printed.  MSP will be onsite on Monday to rectify this issue.  Student photos will be sent home with students early next week.  We apologise for the delay.

Everleigh SS P&C

Our next P&C Meeting is on Tuesday 25 October at 5.30 pm at Executive Services.  All parents/carers are welcome to attend.

Park Ridge State High School Year 7 Enrolments and Orientation