Edition 12
Principal's Message
School Review
Next week is our Full School Review, where we are looking forward to welcoming three (3) people with knowledge of school operations to provide us feedback on our journey to date. Our Review Chair, Mr Noel Baggs is a previous Foundation Principal, opening Baringa State Primary School in 2018. With the experience of opening a school, Mr Baggs will have an appreciation of what it takes to open a new school.
Mr Baggs will be joined by Ms Leah Mulllane, an internal reviewer, and Mr David Manttan, an external reviewer.
Our reviewers will be speaking with a majority of staff and some students and will also make contact with parents/carers by either phone call or impromptu chats of an afternoon. If you would like the opportunity to speak with one of our reviewers, please contact me via email at principal@everleighss.eq.edu.au
Official School Opening
We have been given a date for our Official Opening for later this term. I am yet to receive confirmation of when this information can be formally shared with the school community. Once this confirmation has been received, it will be shared with our school community.
2023 Planning
We are well underway our planning for 2023 staffing and class structures. I sent an email out earlier this week to our current Year 1 and Year 2 parents/carers regarding changes to our 1-1 iPad program due to our plans for a 2/3 composite class. From 2023, our 1-1 iPad Program will include Year 2 students. Our preference is that students bring their own iPad; however, we have a limited number of school iPads which will be available for rent only. There will no longer been an option to purchase iPads from the school due to the financial and management impacts on the school. For this year we had the luxury of our Establishment Grant to assist in purchasing a large number of iPads. Unfortunately, our school budget moving forward will not be as generous as it was leading into our first year. Any Year 1 or Year 2 students moving into Year 2 or Year 3 next year with a preference to rent an iPad need to contact me as soon as possible, as we have limited iPads available.
Our currently have 254 students enrolled at Everleigh State School. Base on 2023 enrolment applications, we are projecting around 375 students to be enrolled at the commencement of next year. This has created many headaches with class organisation due to smaller numbers in Years 2 through Year 6. Where possible, we are avoiding composite classes; however, this cannot be avoided as our enrolments dictate the number of classroom teachers funded by the department. Currently, we are funded for 16 teachers but we are currently looking to form 17 classes across the school. On Thursday 8 December, all students from Prep – Year 5 will participate in a ‘Shuffle Up’ session where students will meet their teacher/s and peers for 2023. Students will be able to share their teacher with you at the end of the day.
Preparations for 2023 for our staff, current and new, will commence with a staff retreat on Saturday 19 November. We will spend the day on Saturday engaging in professional development with a guest speaker and will then have the opportunity work in teams on focus areas for 2023.
Messages from Executive Services
Winter Jackets
Now that winter is over, you’ll all be popping your school jackets aside for the summer season. Before you do so, we request all families please check your children’s jackets for possible mix-ups. We have quite a lot of jackets with no names in lost property. We also have a number of families who have lost jackets with their name labels inside. If you have a jacket belonging to someone else, please return it to executive services, and while you’re there you can check the lost property box for your own one. Name labels make all the difference in helping us to returned lost items to the correct students. We really appreciate your assistance with this.
Finance
Outstanding Student Resource Scheme (SRS)/iPad Fees!
Debtor statements have now been emailed to families.
Please ensure you pay your outstanding SRS/ iPad Fees as soon as possible. Families can now arrange with us to have fortnightly repayments deducted from Centrelink payments via Centrepay to pay off SRS/iPad Fees. If you are experiencing financial difficulties or would like to repayments deducted via Centrepay please contact Robyn Gardener rgard26@eq.edu.au or phone 2899 5111.
Moving into 2023 any changes to the SRS participation must be communicated by the end week 5 as invoicing for 2023 SRS will commence shortly. Supplementary learning programs (Reading Eggs, Mathletics etc) maybe disabled if fees are outstanding, and a payment plan isn’t in place. For families with students currently in Yrs 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.
Music Notes from Mrs Chivers
Here we are almost at the end of our first year at Everleigh State School. In the music department, we have been growing our little choir and now have almost 20 committed members. We have 2 big performances coming up in the next few weeks. One is our school showcase concert on Wednesday evening of the 23rd of November.
The second will be at our official school opening. Date still TBA.
The choir have decided on red or white tops for our concert performance this year and plain bottoms. I am so proud of the effort they are putting in. Our focus this year has been on participation and they are all certainly keen.
Our instrumental students are starting to sound like a band. They are looking forward to playing for you all at our showcase concert.
Ms McCullough has begun the recruitment process for new students to begin next year. Look out for some notes home around this.
A reminder that instrumental lessons will be on Thursday next week.
All students will be involved in the showcase concert and we hope to see as many families attending as possible.
The P and C will be running a sausage sizzle from 5:30 to 6:15pm. With the concert starting at 6:30pm. More information will come out soon.
Keep on singing!
Mrs Chivers
Student Council News
The Student Council is here to represent the student body and where possible, help to raise funds to contribute to the school. Next Friday, November 11, The Student Council invite all students to have free dress. Students can wear their chosen attire on the day ensuring they are being sun safe. Students also need to remember to dress safely by wearing appropriate footwear for school. All students are asked to contribute is an item to add to End of Year Hampers which will be raffled off at our end of term parade on Wednesday December 7. The item doesn’t need to be anything special. Just take a look in the pantry and grab something to take to school for collection. This might be canned goods, poppers, pasta, flour or luxurious soaps if you choose. All funds for the raffle will contribute to the 2023 Year 5 & 6 camp to Sydney and Canberra.
Fundraising
The P&C held a wonderful event in Term 3, the first Everleigh State School Colour Run, whcich was a huge hit in the school community with the P&C raising a huge amount of money. Congratulations to Prep D who managed to raise the highest of money across the school with $4430 out of the whole school’s collection of $19668.25. Congratulations to Arthur who was the highest fundraiser across the whole school. This is an amazing effort by the Everleigh community.
Prep Start
We are so excited to be welcoming in our future prep students for 2023. Our final PrepStart session occurred this Thursday. Some of our families and lovely preps have enrolment meetings still to come as well as participating in our shuffle-up session in Week 10. Thank you to all parents who have attended and given the time to help your little ones get to know Everleigh State School and teachers.
P&C News
Our P&C is proud to announce they are producing a Foundation Year yearbook! At just $25, this special keepsake will contain the many highlights from our first year. Funds raised from purchases will assist with reducing the cost of our Year 5/6 Canberra trip next year. To purchase, please use this link. https://www.eventbrite.com/.../everleigh-state-school...To guarantee delivery by the end of the school year, please place your order as soon as possible.
YMCA Everleigh
We are half way through Term 4 and the Christmas holidays are fast approaching. YMCA have been busy incorporating children’s interests into our Vacation Care program. We have a variety of incursions and excursions booked and ready for action. There is laser tag, our indigenous friend Steve, Subway, Event cinemas and so much more.
If you are requiring vacation care and yet to be enrolled with YMCA please follow the below link to start the enrolment process.
https://www.ymcachildcare.com.au/outside-school-hours-care/everleigh
2023 enrolments are in the process of completion and if you are requiring care please follow the above link also.
Bookings for 2023 will be open approx. November 10th and I will email with instructions.
Enriching Communities Christmas Appeal
Enriching Communities Greenbank invite Everleigh State School families to donate gifts to their Christmas Appeal. A Christmas Tree will be placed in our main foyer on Wednesday 9 November. Our families are invited to donate unwrapped gifts suitable for babies, toddlers and children of all ages to be gifted to those less fortunate. Please avoid donating food and/or clothing. Gift ideas include:
- Books
- Boardgames
- Outdoor games
- Toys
- Sports equipment such as soccer balls, etc
- Puzzles
- Card games
2023 Year 5/6 Canberra Trip
Thank you to those families who have returned their Expression of Interest for our Canberra Trip next year. A number of fundraising activities will take place to assist in reducing the cost, starting with festive raffles coordinated by our Student Council. Our P&C is also committed to donating towards this exciting trip to enable as many students as possible to attend.