Everleigh State School eNewsletter

Principal's Message

Welcome back to Term 4! In addition to being a week longer, this term is set to be very busy. There are a number of excursions, Year 5 camp, Year 6 Graduation, and our end of year concert to name a few. I have published our calendar to date on SeeSaw and Facebook and scheduled fortnightly reminders.

Welcome Mr Mark Waugh

This week, we welcome Mr Mark Waugh to the position of Deputy Principal in Mr Morley’s absence. Staff, students and families have made Mr Waugh feel very welcome, thank you. He will continue to spend time in classrooms getting to know our CAREing staff and students.

Mr Waugh has many years’ experience as a Deputy Principal in both primary and secondary school settings. His experience will support us as we continue to develop and refine our ways of working at Everleigh State School.

Inappropriate use of digital devices

Unfortunately, during the last week of Term 3, Mr Morley and I have been consumed with a number of senior students who have engaged in extremely inappropriate and offensive online communication.

While this behaviour has occurred on personal devices outside of school hours, it has had a significant impact on the wellbeing of students and good order and management of the school.

The content of this communication – via text messaging and use of apps with age restrictions above the age of the students involved – is considered bullying and contains highly inappropriate content and comments, some of which is directed to, or about other students.

I am extremely disappointed by the behaviour of a small number of students. Due to the proactive and supportive actions of parents/carers, I am confident each of the students involved have learned very valuable lessons and will receive the support they need by both the school and their families in moving forward.

Today, I spoke very directly to all Year 6 students about their responsibility to be respectful when interacting with others in an online environment. My message was simple – if it is not something you would say face to face, or in front of your parents/carers or other adults, do not write it. I also reminded them that what they write stays written. It takes seconds for someone to screenshot a comment or picture, which can be sent to many other people, or used against them.

We live a digitally connected world and, whether we agree or not, it is here to stay. It is our collective responsibility to educate our children on the benefits AND dangers of digital communication. This is a timely reminder to all parents/carers of children who have access to online messaging of any form to regularly monitor your child’s conversations and interactions.

A number of the apps being accessed by our students have age restrictions of at least 12 years. There are age restrictions for a reason. While I cannot control what apps you are allowing your child to access outside of school, I can ensure such interactions do not have a negative impact on the wellbeing of students and the good order and management of our school.

This has prompted a review of our Student Code of Conduct, which will be tabled at the next P&C Meeting. Any student/s who engage in harmful or inappropriate online messaging, be it to another individual or in an online group setting, will be managed within our Student Code of Conduct. Such behaviour may result in a suspension from school.

I encourage all parents/carers to review their child’s devices and have regular conversations about the dangers of inappropriate online interactions. Please take the time to visit https://www.esafety.gov.au/ for helpful resources for parents and children on how to be safe online. This site also allows young people to report any concerning interactions or content they are exposed to when online.

Should you require any assistance or support, please contact me.

Playing before school

Everleigh State School has a policy of no play before school. This applies for students who are waiting outside of the Resource Centre with parents/carers. Staff members who are in this area of a morning have reminded parents/carers of this rule. Please be respectful of this school rule and refrain from encouraging students to play games before school.

Kangaroo and Platypus Stop, Drop and Go

A reminder that both Kangaroo and Platypus drop off and pick up area is for dropping students off before school or collecting of an afternoon. Parents/Carers are NOT to use this zone for parking! There is a clear 2-minute parking signage.

Thank you to those parents/carers who are respectful of our staff of an afternoon as we do our best to ensure the safety of your children leaving our school.

During afternoon pick up at the Platypus zone, to ensure the safety of students, our staff will not release students to their car if there is not clear visibility. We will request that parents/carers drive forward as cars in front exit, to ensure students are safely entering vehicles and assist with the flow of traffic.

Everleigh State School Dress Code

Parents/Carers are reminded of our Student Dress Code. I am very pleased and proud of how well our students present to school each day, wearing their school shirt and shorts/skorts. A majority of students wear black shoes and white socks, thank you.

Unfortunately, there is an increasing trend of students wearing unnecessary jewellery, nail polish and/or false nails and temporary body art. False nails and nail polish do not form part of our uniform policy. For safety reasons, students are restricted to wear sleeper style or stud earrings, watch (non-cellular), and/or signet ring. Bracelets, bangles or necklaces with no cultural or religious significance are not to be worn.

Students who are in breach of our dress code will be reminded of what they may or may not wear to school and request unnecessary items be left at home. Failure to comply, may result in students being requested to remove such items. Please see below our school’s dress code, which has been endorsed by our P&C.

Message From The Head Of Department - Curriculum, Ms. Tanya Conway

Message From The Head Of Special Education Services, Mrs Rhiannon Kemp

DOE_CRU_s_Families_for_Inclusive_Education_Project_Overview_Term_4_2024_.pdf

Messages From The Executive Services

Student Absence Procedure

Attendance data for Term 3 2024 will be extracted by Central Office on Friday 25^th October. It is important that any outstanding unexplained absences are updated.

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.

Year 6 Students Leaving:

We will be sad to say farewell to our wonderful year 6 cohort at the end of this term. Families will soon receive a leaving form to complete and return to the office. We kindly ask that you return them as soon as possible so we can enter their new school details into the system, ready for us to depart them at the end of term.

Spare change of clothes reminder

Please ensure you pack 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, hats, lunch boxes, water bottles, etc. We really appreciate your assistance with this. Any item that is labelled gets returned directly to the classroom.

Now that the cooler weather is abating, all previously unclaimed and unnamed school jackets are being given to our guidance officer to distribute to families in need.

All unclaimed, unnamed items are disposed of or donated at the end of each term.