Edition 16

Principal's Message

ENROLMENTS

Last year we started the school year with 202 students.  This year we have started with 402 actively enrolled students!  Now that Day 8 has passed, we are in the process of being able to finalise our school budget and staffing.

2024 Prep Enrolments will open early Term 2.  Please keep an eye out in our newsletter and Facebook for information.

TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT – TEACHING PHONICS AND SPELLING AT EVERLEIGH STATE SCHOOL

Commencing yesterday, Thursday 9 February, for the 2 consecutive Thursdays (16 February and 23 February), a number of our teachers are attending important professional development to learn about Everleigh State School’s Phonics and Spelling Program. This training is vital in ensuring all of our teachers consistently teach phonics and spelling from Prep to Year 6.

The presenter of this Professional Development, Mr Greg O’Keefe, is a very experienced teacher and trainer of LEM Phonics.  LEM Phonics is an intensive synthetic phonics approach which teaches students all of the sounds that represent the 26 letters of the English alphabet.  Through this approach, students are also explicitly taught reading and/or spelling rules related to the different sounds and letters. 

Many of you would be familiar with the language of ‘sight words’ either through your own schooling experience or your current experiences as a parent/carer of a student in primary school.  The term ‘sight words’ has been used for many, many years to describe words that we believe must be taught by rote learning (memorising) in order for children to be able to read and write; however, a ‘sight word’ in fact only refers to a small number of words in the English language where the rules to read or spell are very difficult to explain and therefore understand. The memorising of sight words is perfectly fine for those children who are able store these words in their memory purely by remembering what they look like, but for those students who are not able to process words by remembering what they look like, the rote learning of sight words often results in lower reading and writing skills.

‘Sight words’ really refers to the words that students read frequently, therefore should be referred to as ‘high frequency’s words.  As, and, the, was are examples of high frequency words and all of these words can successfully decoded (sounded out) once we know the rules that apply such words.

Over the course of the few newsletters, I will continue to share more with you on LEM phonics.  Mr O’Keefe also offers free parent information sessions. Once confirmed, we will share dates and times with you.

In the meantime, speak to your son/daughter about the different sounds our letters represent.  The letter ‘a’ is very popular, not only because it is one of the first letter-sound combinations they learn, but because it has 5 sounds… I wonder, how many of our parents/carers know what the five sounds of the letter ‘a’ are?  Here is a hint:

cat

baby

father

talk

wash

ROAD SAFETY

Last week, I met with representatives of the Safety and Regulation Division of Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) and Logan City Council to discuss road safety around our school. These visitors were present prior to the commencement of the school day to monitor the amount of road and pedestrian traffic. They were extremely pleased by both drivers and parents/carers and students using the pedestrian crossing safely on Ivory Parkway. 

We do not yet meet criteria for crossing supervisors for our crossing; however, TMR will supply the school with ‘children crossing’ signs to be placed out by school staff of a morning and afternoon to provide more visibility as vehicles approach the crossing.

I have also raised the visibility issues caused by the hedges along Ivory Parkway between the Anderson Drive round-a-bout and pedestrian crossing.  Logan City Council will be rectifying this issue. The P&C will also assist in expediting this issue by contacting Councillor Natalie Willcocks.

Can I also please ask that when dropping students off of a morning, or collecting of an afternoon that we adhere to:

1. the speed limit to ensure the safety of our students
2. only using the 2-minute zones for drop off or collection
3. maximising the number of vehicles within the ‘Platypus’ pick up zone by filling all of the spaces in front of you and not stopping midway or at the entrance to the pickup area for convenience

As our population increases, so will the traffic around our school.  We all need to work together and be patient and considerate of others. 

During our Stage 2 planning meetings, I have requested that the ‘Platypus’ pick up/drop off zone be extended when Stage 2 construction commences later this year.

2023 STUDENT LEADERSHIP INDUCTION

I am very much looking forward to inducting our 2023 Student Leaders.  Our school captains and vice captains and sports captains and vice captains will all be inducted at parade on Tuesday morning. Our student induction will occur at the beginning of parade, with our regular parade items continuing after this special event.

EVERLEIGH STATE SCHOOL P&C

Due to the auditor’s report not being available for last week’s AGM, this meeting has been postponed.  A new date is yet to be set and will be shared with you as soon as possible. I encourage you to come along.  In 2022, our P&C successfully raised over $20,000, a wonderful achievement for a very small group of volunteers and our wonderfully supportive school community. Our 2022 P&C Executive positions are being vacated and need to be filled. Positions to be filled are President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Nomination and general membership forms are available at Executive Services.  All 2022 memberships cease at the AGM, with membership renewal needed for 2023.  The AGM is the only meeting where membership can be accepted without physically attending the meeting.

INAPPROPRIATE USE OF SCHOOL TOILET FACILITIES

Unfortunately, at this week’s parade, I needed to address the misuse of our school’s toilet facilities with the students for a second consecutive week. It is unfortunate that there are some students who think it is acceptable to waste toilet paper, which is paid for by the school, by ‘decorating’ some of the cubicles or pushing large amounts of toilet paper into the toilet bowel, which occurred on four (4) separate occasions after Tuesday’s parade. 

As a result, Mrs Armstrong, Mr Morley and I addressed all students again on Wednesday morning just before first break, expressing our disappointment for such disrespectful behaviour towards our school facilities.  Students were again reminded of our expectations of respecting our school facilities and using them appropriately.  While we will never deny students the use of the toileting facilities, the continual mistreatment may result in the closing of some play areas to provide direct supervision of the toilets during play times. Teachers are keeping records of students who are using the facilities during class time in the event of this behaviour taking place during class time.

After this specific reminder there were another 2 incidents of misuse of toilets on Wednesday, one being of student/s urinating all over the walls of cubicles in the boys’ toilets and a gross waste of toilet paper.  Through the responsible reporting of our students, we believe we have identified at least one of the students responsible and relevant consequences issued.

I encourage you to speak with your son/daughter about the importance of respect, whether it be for:

• themselves
• other people
• property that not only belongs to them, but that of others, particularly shared resources and facilities

Upon enrolment, all families received a copy of our Student Code of conduct, which contains the matrix below of our school’s Expectations of Excellence.

Deputy Principals' Messages

Author Visit – Dr Cameron Stelzer, The Story Doctor

On Thursday 23 February, we have a special visit from Author and Illustrator Dr Cameron Stelzer. Dr Cameron is visiting Everleigh State School to run workshops with our P-6 students. P-1 students will enjoy an interactive Big Screen Book Reading with Cameron. Year 2 and Year 6 students will engage in a writing workshop exploring the combination of words and visual elements. Cameron will be engaging Year 3 and Year 5 students in a workshop exploring exciting and descriptive writing. Students and teachers are looking forward to a great day!

In conjunction with the Author Visit, Everleigh State School families have a special opportunity to purchase signed and personalised copies of Cameron’s books at special prices. Individual books are $10-$15 each and there are also exclusive book sets available. Students will receive an order form on the day of the workshops (payment is via the online payment portal listed on the form; no cash). Forms can be returned the following day, Friday 24 February, to the Office.

Year 5/6 Camp – 2023

Students in Year 5/6 were invited to attend the Sydney Canberra Trip taking place in Week 2 of Term 4 this year. During this trip, students will visit Taronga Zoo, Parliament House, Questacon and more. This camp will be a wonderful learning experience for our students particularly related to our HASS studies. Staff members attending include Mrs Wheatley, Mr Morley, Ms Davis, Miss Suter and Mr Alexandrou. This is an extremely exciting camp for our students.

We will be holding a parent information session on Wednesday afternoon in the Year 5/6C classroom following classroom Q&A sessions. All parents in years 5 and 6 are invited to attend.

Last year parents confirmed their child’s placement in the Sydney/Canberra Trip through completing an Expression of Interest as well as a $200 non-refundable deposit. We have a maximum of two spots remaining. Please see Executive Services if you would like to complete an Expression of Interest and pay the deposit if you would like your child to fill one of these spots.

PBL

This week we have been focussing on the PBL Focus of, “We use equipment as intended.” This includes our stationery, sporting equipment and our iPads. These items are intended to provide opportunity and learning for our students. Ensuring appropriate use extremely important so that our students are safe, learning and keeping equipment safe. Students in years 2-6 will receive an iPad Program Agreement on Monday that will need to be signed and returned to the office and all students will also receive an ICT Agreement. These documents outline the responsibility of staff, students and families regarding how iPads and devices are to be used for learning.

Next week our PBL Focus is, “We respect others privacy and our facilities.” This week we have had a string of incidents where our toilets have been misused causing some of our facilities to be unused for a time. On Thursday we had to reallocate staff members to increase supervision to prevent further matters. As such, our students and teachers will be focussing on this.

Our PBL Committee wishes to extend an invitation to parents at the school to be involved in our PBL Committee. We meet in weeks 4 and 8 of the term to discuss our focus, goals, procedures and how we are travelling and ensure we are using data and evidence to provide the best for our students. If you are interested in this, please email Mr Morley at jmorl37@eq.edu.au.

School Leader Induction

Our School Leaders will be inducted on Tuesday, February 14^th. Our parade will occur at 8:45am. Students will be inducted and then invited to attend a morning tea with their parents and special guests. We look forward to introducing our student leaders to our community.

NDIS Therapists visiting Everleigh State School

We value strong partnerships with parents and community and know that we can achieve the best outcomes for students when we work together to wraparound support. When families experience difficulty accessing therapy outside of school hours, a request can be submitted to the Principal for the service to be delivered at school.  

To request a therapist service be delivered at school, parents should:

• provide a completed NDIS access request form (DOCX, 83KB) requesting that a NDIS provider access the school, during school time to provide an NDIS support to their child. This can be handed in to the office or emailed to Deputy Principal Angela Armstrong aarms55@eq.edu.au.
• Provide all necessary information to the school to enable the principal to consider the request and make a decision. This includes frequency and duration of the service to be provided.

A member of the school team will:

• liaise with the therapist and class teacher to find a suitable time for therapy that does not impact upon specialist lessons or break times.
• Ensure that the therapist has all relevant registration, insurance and has completed Mandatory Training.
• Draft an Access Agreement between the Principal and the NDIS provider.

Parents and Therapists must:

• Comply with the terms of the Access agreement.
• Advise the school of any changes to the support being provided or change of NDIS provider personnel providing the support in writing or email. As NDIS therapy is a private service, it is the responsibility of parents and therapists to maintain communication and advise if a student is absent.
• Advise the NDIS provider of any changes to access arrangements at the school.

Further information can be found here.

Messages from Executive Services

Lost property

Please check your hats and jackets, in case your child has accidentally picked up someone else’s. We have a number of families who are currently looking for labelled items which have yet to be handed in.

We also have a number of un-labelled school jackets at lost property at the moment. If you are missing your child’s, please pop in to see Miss Marina in case we have your size. Name labels make all the difference in helping us to returned lost items to the correct students. We really appreciate your assistance with this.

Please see the attached photos of other treasures waiting for their owners to claim them.

Music Notes from Mrs Chivers

HAPPY 2023

Welcome back everyone and welcome to our new students and families.

We have hit the ground running in music this year already. Our Preppies have found the music room and we have started learning some songs and games.  The Ones and Twos are looking at music about places and will be writing a little song about a place.

Years Three and Four are doing songs of Australia. We have already looked at Waltzing Matilda and Botany Bay as well as having a go on our recorders.

Years Five and Six are exploring songs from around the world. We have been playing around with Frere Jacques from France and an American skipping rhyme called A, my name is Abbie. We will be continuing with recorder and other instruments this semester.

CHOIR

WOW! What a finish to our foundation year. The choir got to perform for the Premier and Education Minister at our official school opening. That night, we backed up with 2 songs at the end of year showcase.

The Everleigh State School Singers are already rehearsing for a music video for harmony day. We will then be learning a song for ANZAC day and some new songs to perform on parade throughout the year and at the end of year.

If your child would like to join the choir, we are accepting students from years 3 to 6.

Rehearsals are Monday and Friday at second play in the music room.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

MS McCullough will be starting lessons this week and students involved in the program should have received information around this.

Keep on singing.

Mrs Chivers

Instrumental Notes from Miss McCullough

Instrumental music lessons return with Miss McCullough this week! This year Instrumental Music will be conducted on Tuesdays, with both beginner and continuing students first lesson scheduled for Tuesday 7^th February. A lesson timetable, as well as any additional information will be uploaded on Seesaw. Please ensure that method books and equipment (instrument, reeds, oils) is brought to school for this first lesson.

Our continuing musicians will commence their morning Concert Band rehearsals from Week 5, on Tuesday 21^st February, students arriving from 7:30am.

If you are loaning a school instrument, please ensure that payment is made before our first lesson in order for students to take equipment home. If you may require assistance or further information around payments, please contact Robyn Gardner via email: rgard26@eq.edu.au

STEAM News

Our Year 3 and Year 4 students are studying sustainability.  Families are invited to donate one piece of clothing to assist their learning.

YMCA Everleigh

Welcome to Term One of 2023

Some messages from YMCA.

Pease ensure your child’s belongings are labelled to avoid lost property. YMCA have a lost property section to your left as you enter the room. YMCA staff will also endeavour to return any lost property to their bags each morning and afternoon to eliminate a pile up.

Please ensure you have followed up on the review of your child/rens enrolment via the my family lounge as per email that have been sent the last week of vacation care and week 1 of the term. If you need assistance with this please let the staff know and we will direct you.

Bookings are filling up extremely fast so if you are needing care please log into the My Family Lounge app and book or email aev@ymcabrisbane.org