Edition 42
Principal's Message
P&C Mothers’ Day Stall
Thank you to our P&C and volunteers for another wonderful Mothers’ Day stall. The joy on children’s faces when making the difficult decision of what to buy their special adult is priceless!
This year’s stall made a profit of $2500! Thank you to all of our families who support this event.
At this week’s general meeting, the P&C has also donated $500 towards our Under 8s Day activities on Friday, 24th of May.
School traffic safety
I would like to remind all of our families that the speed limit around our school from 7.00 am – 9.00 am and 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm on school days in 40 km/hour! Drivers are also reminded that the drop off zones, including the Kangaroo carpark are not race car tracks and speed limits should be reduced. I am investigating the installation of speed limits (although this should not be necessary, but common sense) for both the Kangaroo and Platypus pick up and drop off zones.
Winter uniforms
Students are expected to be wearing the Everleigh State School jacket and/or track pants. Black or maroon tights may be worn instead of the track pants.
In the event a school jacket/track pants cannot be worn, a plain black jacket or jumper/track pants may be worn.
Students are not to wear hoodies, bright coloured jackets, jumpers or track pants, or jackets/jumpers with sports or other logos.
Please ensure your child’s items are CLEARLY labelled.
Staffing update
Last week, we farewelled Mrs Corrina Townend (2B). We wish Mrs Townend all the best with her family relocating. To replace Mrs Townend, we welcome Ms Naomi Martin. Ms Martin has extensive teaching experience and is very happy to be joining the Everleigh State School family.
This week, we farewell Mrs Chelsea Maxwell. Mrs Maxwell is taking maternity leave in preparation for her and her husband to welcome their first child. We wish Mrs Maxwell all the very best and look forward to photos of her new addition in the coming months.
In other staffing news, the following teachers received and accepted an offer of permanency. Congratulations to:
Mrs Melissa Benstead (Prep D)
Mrs Lettica Welsh (1D)
Mrs Nicole Phillips (1D)
Ms Lauren Purdon (2C)
Mrs Kelly Twine (4B)
Ms Orienne Morgan-Melenhorst
While we have been fortunate to have these teachers made permanent employees, Everleigh State School is feeling the impact of the teacher shortage across Queensland and the broader country.
We are yet to be able to source a long-term teacher to replace Mrs Maxwell despite many advertising avenues. I continue to work with both regional and central offices to fill this temporary vacancy as soon as possible. For the next couple of weeks at least, Mrs Julie Morrell, a regular relief teacher at Everleigh State School, will be teaching 3B. 3B students and their families will be informed as soon as a teacher is appointed.
We continue to enrol new students on a weekly basis. This is causing ‘growing pains’ in Year 3 and Year 4 classes, who are all now full, or over the recommended class sizes of 25 and 28 students respectively. While having larger classes is not ideal, we are very limited in options due to (a) lack of physical classroom space and (b) our inability to fill classroom teaching positions easily.
The Executive Leadership Team are working with the impacted classes to provide additional support where possible. If we continue to enrol students who reside within our catchment area in Year 3 and Year 4, a restructure of classes will be considered for Semester Two. Students and the families of these classes will be communicated with before any changes to classes and/or teachers take place and will only take place as a last resort. Please contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns.
Sporty Staff!
Some of our sporty staff (not me!) entered a netball competition against other local schools to raise funds for SU Chaplaincy. The teachers played two (2) practice matches against Year 6 students earlier in the term. They also played two (2) practice matches against one of our cluster schools.
While there are no future Olympic players on the team, they played with passion, determination and great sportsmanship.
Thank you to Mrs Dewsbury for coordinating the team fun.
Deputy Principals' Message
Gala Day:
Students in Years 5 and 6 participated in Gala Day last Friday. Students competed in Newcomb and Touch football at Greenbank State School and Middle Road Fields. Feedback from staff said students showed excellent effort and behaviour throughout the day as they engaged with peers from across the cluster. Well done to all students for their efforts.
Parent Volunteer Session:
Everleigh State School will host a parent volunteer information session to provide training to those who wish to help out in classrooms. The session will be run from 08:30 on Friday May 31st and should last no more than one hour. This session must be completed prior to helping out in classrooms. Thank you to those who have already completed this session earlier in the year as this must be done annually.
PBL Focus Weeks 5 & 6 - Encouragement - From the PBL Team
Messages From Executive Services
Student Absence Procedure
If your student will be absent, parents/carers have a legal obligation to notify the school office, 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
Change of contact details:
Please advise Executive Services if any of your details have changed. For example:
- Address
- Best contact phone number
- Work details
- Emergency contacts other than parents/carers
Please pop into the office to complete a change of details form, or email admin@everleighss.eq.edu.au to update your details.
Spare change of clothes reminder
Please ensure you have a spare change of clothes in your child’s bag in case of accidents. Please include underwear, black shorts/skort and socks.
Lost property
JACKETS, JACKETS, JACKETS! And HATS, HATS, HATS! We have a number of unnamed school jackets, hats and tracksuit pants at the office! Have you lost yours? Some of these have been here since last winter. Please check your wardrobes to ensure you have yours. We also have a number of generic (non-ESS) jumpers, both black and maroon.
Name labels make all the difference in helping us to returned lost items to the correct students. We kindly remind parents to name hats, lunch boxes, water bottles, etc. We really appreciate your assistance with this.
Any item that is labelled gets returned directly to the classroom. We only hold unnamed Everleigh uniform items at the office. Please let us know if you are missing a non-labelled item.
Q Parents
We remind 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. The app will follow your child to any state school all the way through, including to high school. If you require any assistance to set this up, please contact executive services.
P.E. Message From Ms Beck - EVERLEIGH SS SENIOR SPORTS DAY - Wednesday 5th & Thursday 6th June, 2024
A reminder that the Senior Sports Day in on Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th of June 2024. A program of the events is still to come. Please make sure you keep checking Seesaw for any updates.
Thanks
Ms Beck