Edition 25
Principal's Message
Welcome back to Term 3! It was wonderful to see all of our returning students’ and families faces on Monday. We also welcomed 12 new faces to our growing Everleigh State School community.
As some of you would be aware, there was incident on Wednesday afternoon. There was no threat to staff or student safety at any point. I would like to apologise to those of you who were witness to the incident as the behaviour and language of the individual involved does not represent our expectations at Everleigh State School. I would also like to thank those parents/carers who assisted in resolving the situation. I am privileged to be surrounded by such a supportive school community, thank you.
This week, we welcomed Mrs Teneale Harker, our substantive Deputy Principal back from maternity leave. Thank you for the very warm welcome Mrs Harker received upon her return. As I mentioned last term, Mrs Armstrong is currently replacing Mr Morley while he is on Long Service Leave with his family. Upon Mr Morley’s return on Tuesday 15 August, Mrs Armstrong will remain with us for the rest of 2023 to continue supporting teaching and learning at Everleigh State School.
SCHOOL OPINION SURVEY 2023
The annual suite of School Opinion Surveys will be conducted in Term 3 and will close on 18 August 2023. All families, school staff and students in target year levels (5, 6, 8 and 11) will be invited to participate. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what our school does well, and how we can improve.
An invitation to complete the Parent/Caregiver Survey will be emailed to one parent/caregiver per family in the week beginning 17 July. The invitation will be sent from the Department of Education, not the school, and it will have the subject line School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2023. Check your junk email folders if you can’t find it.
The School Opinion Survey is open until Friday, 18 August 2023.
The survey can be completed as soon as the invitation is received and will take approximately 5 minutes using a computer, tablet or smart phone.
Parents/caregivers who do not have access to the internet at home are welcome to complete their survey online at the school. School computers/tablets will be available.
Deputy Principals' Message
Every Day Counts!
Attendance at school every day is critical for long-term success. Our school target for attendance is 95 per cent. This is based on our understanding that illness, injury and personal circumstances sometimes arise. An attendance rate of 95 per cent equates to ten (10) missed days, or two weeks, of learning per year.
Cohort | % Year to date | This week |
Prep | 90.91 | 92.1 |
Year 1 | 90.24 | 95.4 |
Year 2 | 90.8 | 91.3 |
Year 3 | 88.21 | 92.3 |
Year 4 | 88.3 | 97.5 |
Year 5 | 88.3 | 90.6 |
Year 6 | 85.68 |
Congratulations to this week’s Attendance Champions – Year 4!
Let’s keep striving for attendance all day every day!
Great Start Back!
It is wonderful to return from leave and see the growth of our school community. The students are taller and wiser, the teaching team has grown significantly, as have the gardens, and it is lovely to meet new students and families that have joined our Everleigh State School community. I am very grateful for the warm welcome back and wish to thank Angela Armstrong for her leadership during my leave.
Learning at Everleigh State School
In classrooms this week, teachers have begun unpacking with students the Learning Intentions for the units of work ahead. This is a very important part of the teaching process allowing students to have clear purpose and objectives for their learning. The research tells us that when students know what they are learning and why, they are more engaged, purposeful and successful learners.
Students and teachers will then work together to detail the Success Criteria, whch are the are the skills students will work towards demonstrating to be successful in their learning tasks. Your children will be familiar with these terms and they will be able to access this information every day on the walls of their classroom. This information forms part of their classroom Bump It Up Wall. When students engaging with these visuals and the associated examples of work, they are able to set goals, measure growth and self-assess throughout the term.
Toys at school
A reminder to families that students are not permitted to bring toys or other personal property to school. When toys are brought to school, it can become problematic as things go missing or get broken and it can take away from teaching time as we try to resolve associated issues. At Everleigh State School we are very lucky to be very well resourced with high quality manipulatives for students to engage with when learning and modern and engaging play equipment for students to play with at play times. If you have any questions with regards to this please speak with your child’s teacher.
Teneale Harker
P-2 Deputy Principal
Messages from Executive Services
Student Absence Procedure
With the weather becoming cooler in the mornings, we are seeing an increase of illness at school. While we value attendance, please be reminded to keep unwell children home, so as to allow them time to recover as well as to stop the spread.
If your student will be absent, parents/carers have a legal obligation to notify the school, including advising the reason for the absence. We kindly request you let us know by 9am on the day of the absence. We have two preferred methods for advising absence:
- Via the Q-Parents App – please see reception if you require information on this.
- Via our dedicated Student Absence Line – (07) 2899 5160, where you can leave a message any time of the day or night. Please save this number in your phone.
Reminder: You will also need to advise YMCA if your child is booked in and will be absent.
YMCA absences should be advised before 2:15pm via email aev@ymcabrisbane.org or via text or phone call 0459 905 087.
Don’t forget to also cancel your canteen order if you have pre-ordered ahead: (07) 2899 5125
2022 Yearbooks
If you ordered and have not yet collected your 2022 yearbook, they are still available for collection at Executive Services.
Spare change of clothes reminder
With the colder weather we are seeing more toileting accidents in our junior years. Please ensure you have a spare change of clothes in your child’s bag just in case. Please include underwear, black shorts/skort and socks.
Lost property
Name labels make all the difference in helping us to returned lost items to the correct students. We kindly remind parents to name jackets, lunch boxes, water bottles, containers and also hats. We really appreciate your assistance with this. Please see the attached photos of recent treasures waiting for their owners to claim them.
Q Parents
We invite all parents and carers to set up their Q Parents app. This app is our preferred option and is a one-stop location to check on your account or pay invoices, as well as to report absences. It is quick and easy to use. If you require any assistance to set this up, please contact executive services.
Music Notes With Mrs Chivers
Welcome back to term three.
Next Tuesday, the 18th of July, our Everleigh State School Singers will be performing on parade. We also have some of our group receiving choir badges in recognition of their commitment to our choir. All students from years 3 to 6 are welcome to join the choir.
We rehearse Monday and Friday at second play in the music room.
This term, the curriculum focus is on drama.
Preps will be exploring role play around different places such as in the home, at the shops and imagined places.
Years one and two will be creating drama from stories starting with The Three Little Pigs.
Years three and four are looking at dreaming stories and before before time stories and creating plays from them.
Years five and six are delving into reader’s theatre and developing characters and roles.
Keep the music alive!
Mrs Chivers
Breakfast Club - Volunteers Needed!
Are you free from 7:45am to 8:30 am in the mornings? We need you!
From Week 4, Everleigh State School will be running a free breakfast club so children can enjoy a healthy breakfast before school. Breakfast club will be open to students, their parents and siblings as well as our staff. In order to make this happen, we need volunteers to help out.
Volunteers would need to:
- Arrive at 7:45 am and leave at about 8:30 am
- Assist in serving: make toast, serve cereal, pour milk etc.
- Wash up and pack away
If you are able to help, please contact Mel Bashford (Guidance Officer) on email: mbash3@eq.edu.au . Please specify how often you would be available (once a week, fortnight, month etc) and the days you could help.
Thank you for supporting our community.
STEAM News from Ms. Jenkins
TERM 3 WEEK 1
We’ve kicked off term 3 with lots of fun learning.
Here are some snap shots of our week.
STEAM clubs have also started again.
Junior Tuesdays second lunch.
Senior Thursday second lunch.
Tech Tip!!!!
Did you know that you can use the ‘Notes’ app on your phone or iPad as a scanner!
Park Ridge SHS - Information Evening
Everleigh SS - Disco
As you are receiving this newsletter our students will be getting ready to dance the night away at our 2023 school Disco. Thank you to the Everleigh State School P&C, teaching staff and volunteers that are giving up their time to make this a memorable occasion for our students. We will be sure to post pictures in our next newsletter of this special occasion.
Visit by Registered Nurse For Free Prep Vision Screening
Good vision is important for a child’s educational, physical and social development. Vision screening checks for common eye conditions that may impact your child’s ability to see and therefore impact their learning and development.
A Registered Nurse will be visiting the school on Tuesday 15 August May 2023 to commence vision screening for children in their prep year.
If you wish to have your prep child participate in this FREE vision screening program, please complete a Hardcopy permission form and returned to school by 26/7/23 (Some families completed this digitally and won't receive a hard copy form).Parents do not need to be present for screening, however if you would like to be, please contact the school to arrange this.