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Edition 61

Principal's Message

This week, we welcomed back Ms Tanya Conway, our Head of Department – Curriculum and Mr Mark Waugh, Deputy Principal from 2 and 3 weeks of leave, respectively. We thank Ms Ashley Dewsbury and Mrs Dannielle Martin for ‘stepping up’ in Ms Conway’s and Mr Waugh’s absences.

2025 Cross Country

I would like to acknowledge and thank Ms Kimberly Beck and Mr Adam James for a great cross country event last Tuesday. A great deal of planning, time and effort is needed to make such an event occur with such success. Thank you to all of the parents and carers who were able to attend and support our students. With the sun shining, students tried their personal best during their events. This week, a number of students participated in the district trials, representing our school proudly and respectfully.

ANZAC Day March

12 students proudly represented our school at Greenbank RSL Sub Branch ANZAC Day march. Four of these students were from Prep, three Year 2 students, one student each from Year 3 and Year 4, two Year 5 students and one student from Year 6. Thank you to Noah and James for a laying a wreath in the pouring rain on behalf of our school.

One of our Year 3 students has attended all of our marches since 2022, with her brother attending every march since commencing Prep in 2023. This is wonderful commitment from this family, thank you.

While the rain held for the march, the skies opened as soon as the service started. Thankfully, we were well prepared with umbrellas. Thank you very much to the 8 families who braved the weather to ensure our school was represented to take part in such an important event.

A special thank you to Mrs Martin who also braved the wet weather to accompany us for the march and service. As is the case, our students were well behaved, despite the wet weather.

It would be wonderful to see more of our senior students attend future marches.

Attendance and absences

Our current attendance rate is 91.3%. We continue to have unexplained absences, a number of late arrivals and early departures. This is a timely reminder, that while none of us enjoy being stuck in traffic, collecting students early due to convenience is not a reasonable excuse. When parents/carers arrive without notice to collect students at inconvenient times – during lunch breaks, during the afternoon session – it creates additional, unnecessary work for our administration staff to have students sent to the office, for your convenience.

Unless arranged prior for a legitimate reason, or it is an absolute emergency, administration staff will not be interrupting classes for students to leave between 2.15 and 2.30 pm. Catering to your convenience to avoid traffic or not wanting to wait until the end of the school day is not our priority, and is an inconvenience to our core business.

Year Level	Number of students	Attendance rate	Unexplained absences	Late arrivals	Early Departures
Prep	165	91.7	22	40	28
Year 1	129	91.3	11	30	69
Year 2	130	92.3	14	32	64
Year 3	115	92	10	18	21
Year 4	93	91	7	19	20
Year 5	72	90.6	6	16	9
Year 6	77	88.9	23	11	15

Election BBQ

It amazes me that out of 584 families, there were only 5 volunteers at our P&C Election BBQ. Of those volunteers, 3 were our P&C executive and P&C member. We had two volunteers from the rest of our school community. In addition to these volunteers, a previous parent and member of our wider community gave up their time to support our school.

We are all busy. I have a life and family outside of work, yet I gave up my time to support our school, your students. Each of the volunteers below have jobs, lives and families, yet they were able to give some of their Saturday to support our school.

I would like to extend a very special thank you to the following volunteers who gave up their time on Saturday to support our school:

Parent volunteers

Mr Nathan Brown

Mr Samuel Gray

Other volunteers

Mrs Mandy Weir – previous parent

Mrs Kristy Daly – employee of Thom and Ann’s

P&C

Mr Russell Watt

Mr Ben Hawkins

Mrs Laura Gray

Ms Natalie Collins

No excuse for school abuse – parent/carer behaviour towards staff

Some of you forgot that our school is a workplace. Just like any workplace, including your place of work, abuse or aggression of any kind is unacceptable. While most interactions are positive, there's no excuse for aggressive or harassing behaviour either in person or online.

Believe or not, we are human beings – we have families and homes to go to. Just like you, we are not perfect and make mistakes.

Of late, the expectations some of our parents/carers are placing on staff are completely unreasonable and acceptable. The moment something does not go the way you or your child expect, it appears acceptable to make a complaint, lay blame and expect an immediate response.

It is our fault for student behaviour resulting in particular consequences. It is our fault a parent/carer has forgotten to order their child’s tuckshop and then expect a special order to be made. It is unreasonable we have not responded to a parent email, phone call, etc by the end of the day. How dare we correct a child for speaking disrespectfully to a staff member. Why do children have to wear hats to play? Prior to a student being spoken to a staff member, the parent needs to be contacted. These are some of the comments, concerns and complaints we receive.

I am a mum. It is important to me that my son’s school is doing their best for him. I advocate for my son when it is needed. As parents/carers, that is our job to advocate for our children. However, you need to understand that while you are advocating for YOUR child, it is my job to ensure our staff advocates for ALL students. Your child is important to you; EVERY ONE of our 779 students is important to us. At Everleigh State School, we cater for the needs of ALL students.

None of our staff come to work to do a bad job. However, we are human beings with lives away from school. There are days where we are not at our best. I have no doubt each and every one of you can relate. There are mornings where we are running late, the traffic is bad, one of our own children has been up all night and we did not sleep well, a family member is unwell, a pet has passed away, someone left the gate open the dog/horse/cow has disappeared, the list goes on. We are not robots.

Teaching is not an easy job. We welcome up to 28 students into our classrooms with 28 individual stories, 28 different needs, and it is our job to cater ‘perfectly’ as it seems, to the needs of each of these individuals. In addition to the needs of these students, are your needs and expectations as parents/carers.

Just for a moment, try to imagine what it is like to be a teacher. Here is what a morning can look like for our teachers:

Arrive at school for a meeting before school
Bell rings, open the door to welcome students. Someone has fallen over and is crying. Another student has forgotten their lunchbox. Two students are arguing as they enter the room
Two students need assistance to unpack their bag or require support after a rough morning. There are notes to collect for an upcoming event. Parent arrives at the classroom door as students are entering the room and request to speak to the teacher about an incident the previous day that was not reported
Start the day with a whole class activity. Begin giving instructions when a student does not want to separate from a parent/carer and is refusing to enter the classroom, clinging to or yelling at their parent/carer. Three students decide they need to go the toilet, despite being reminded to go before entering the classroom.
Settle student who did want to separate and return to the class. An unwell student vomits. Call the office for assistance to clean room and contact parent.
A student running late is brought into the classroom by a parent/carer with a younger sibling who runs around the classroom.
The phone rings as a reminder to mark the roll, which should have been marked 5 minutes ago.

While all of this happening, teaching and learning is expected, emails and SeeSaw messages are received by parents/carers throughout the day, with an expectation of an immediate response.

Fast forward to the end of the school day:

While teaching, there are 3 separate phone calls for students to take bags to the office to leave early
Another phone call for a change of afternoon pick-up
Parents standing outside of the classroom, peering through the window, taking photos; younger siblings banging on the door
Yet another phone call about a change of afternoon routine or early collection. Parents standing at the door, one requesting their child leave now. When this request is denied, the parent makes unnecessary comments towards the teacher
Bell rings and students are released. At least 3 parents approach, all requesting a detailed report on how their child’s day was
A parent returns to classroom demanding to know about an incident that was not reported
Attempt to end conversation to get to a staff meeting

This is just a glimpse of what a morning or afternoon might look like. Now add in the teaching and learning throughout the day. In addition to ensuring all students are given access to their learning, there is the behaviour management, replying to or contacting parents/carers.

What does your day look like? Do you have people peering through your window, taking photos of your working environment? Are you expected to respond to a request immediately? Do you receive emails and messages after hours with an expectation of responding?

What I love about teaching is every day is different, we get to make a difference in children’s lives. However, the demand from our parent community at the moment is taking its toll. The number of you who expect to come to administration without making an appointment or call the school, expecting us to be free is astounding. There is no other industry where you can walk into an office and expect to see someone at your convenience. You need to see a doctor you make an appointment. You present to the hospital; you wait until a nurse or doctor can see you. Schools are no different. If you need to see a member of our staff, make an appointment.

It is difficult to expect our students to behave respectfully towards staff members, when their first teachers – you as parents/carers – do not role model this behaviour. One of the biggest reasons for teachers walking away from this profession is the unnecessary stress as a result of student behaviour and the unfair and unrealistic expectations from parents/carers.

Again, I remind you that we are human beings. We have feelings, too. There is no excuse for school abuse!

Deputy Principals' Message

We will be 12-days into our Term 2 learning cycle when this edition of our Newsletter reaches you. With lots of events occurring over the first 3 weeks, and holidays landing, our staff focus is to get back to our routines and build on the consistency we achieved in Term 1. In week 9 of Term 1, we completed our oral reporting to our families via our Parent-Teacher Interviews. This information reflects the point-in-time progress of our students and together, with school and home, we use this point to project into Term 2.

Unit plans have been completed, and classes have enjoyed some early writing tasks as a Pre-Assessment tool for teachers to drive their classrooms. This student-based evidence is essential for the teaching process and allows our staff to build on each piece of student work. Pre-Assessment tasks guarantee students are extended where needed, and assisted when required. Each day starts with a recall of the prior learning to ensure retention of knowledge, and our English lessons commence with Daily Reviews aimed at building enthusiasm in the class by students recounting what they learnt!

This term completes Semester 1, and written reports will be sent in week 10 as evidence of your child’s progress. At Everleigh State School, we encourage continuous improvement and you can hear us regularly echoing the importance to know where your child is at in their learning. This allows Goal-Setting and having a line-of-sight to a written goal is a motivational tool that can assist improvement. These goals can be related to English, Maths or any subject, plus also to playground or how one builds a growth mindset. When we see goals set by students, it inspires a conversation and we as a staff, enjoy helping each and every student reach their goals.

Attendance is an important aspect of building consistency. It allows momentum and reduces stress. Whilst the winter months can impact on attendance and wellness, it is important to drink plenty of water and keep warm as we approach cooler days ahead. Please support us in keeping in touch with your teacher or Deputy is any concerns with attendance. Together we can solve little issues.

Solving student interactions that grow into conflict, is also something we can achieve together. These incidents are expected when we have multiple humans interacting in a space. The secret is to cease the issue escalating and we believe in our “Do the HIGH FIVE” behaviour strategy to do this. Our PBL messages occur over a 2-week period in response to our data. Building the capability of our young learners is an ongoing journey and we seek your support in helping us build some consistent skills within our students to do the High Five!

Kind regards,

Mark Waugh (3-6) and Teneale Harker (P-2) (Deputies)

Messages From The Executive Services

Important information regarding school attendance

Parent’s responsibilities – it is the parent or carer’s responsibility to ensure the following:

ensure their child arrives at school on time and attends their educational program every school day
provide their current contact details to the school to enable effective notification
contact the school either before or on the day of an absence, or as soon as practicable, in accordance with the school's communication processes and provide an explanation for each absence
notify the school if their child will be arriving late or leaving early
ensure their child follows the school’s processes and procedures for late arrival and early departure.

Late arrivals - It is expected that students arrive before class begins at 8:30am. Once the school gates are closed students arriving late should be escorted into school via the office by a parent or carer who must give a reason for the late arrival.

Where late arrivals are persistent and regular, you will be contacted to discuss the situation to determine if additional supports and/or strategies are required to strengthen engagement and improve attendance.

Early departures – It is expected that students remain at school for the length of the school day. Parents are encouraged to ensure their child misses as little school as possible.

Early departures should only be requested for reasons deemed reasonable. Routine appointments such as doctor or dentist should be made for outside school hours where possible.

Early departures should be advised ahead of time to ensure minimal interruption to class learning. Please phone the school office to request an early departure if necessary. (Please do not pre-advise an early departure via the QParents app as this causes a system glitch)

As classroom areas are out-of-bounds during lunch breaks, early departures during breaks that are not advised ahead of time will need to wait until the end of the break when students are permitted to access and collect their school bags.

Absences – school absenteeism and truancy can impact significantly on students' learning and wellbeing. Research shows that in Queensland, higher student attendance is associated, on average, with higher student achievement. Additionally, attending school every day helps children to build social and emotional skills such as communication, teamwork and resilience.

Under the law, you must make sure your child attends school on all school days unless there is a reasonable excuse. Schools must monitor attendance of students and follow up with parents and caregivers any unexplained absences.

It is expected that the school is notified of a student absence before 9am on the day of the absence, where possible. Our preferred method is via the QParents app. Please contact the office if you require assistance to set up the QParents app. Alternatively you may phone the Student Absence Line on (07) 2899 5160, where you may leave a message anytime of the day or night.

Absence for Family reasons – When the student is absent due to family circumstances beyond the influence of the student. Parents should be encouraged to ensure their child misses as little school as possible. Where these absences are persistent and regular, principals should discuss the situation with the parent and/or student to determine if additional supports and/or strategies are required to strengthen engagement and improve attendance.

Moving house
Transport issues
Family member is ill or in hospital

Absence for Holiday - Holidays during the school term are discouraged. If the absence is for more than 10 consecutive days, an application for exemption form should be completed.

Unauthorised absences – When an excuse given for a student absence is deemed as unreasonable by the principal it will be recorded as an unauthorized absence. This includes:

Leisure activities
Shopping
Visiting friends and relatives
Celebrating birthdays
Fishing
Truancy
Any other reason for absence that the principal does not consider to be reasonable

Where absences are persistent and regular, you will be contacted to discuss the situation to determine if additional supports and/or strategies are required to strengthen engagement and improve attendance.

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

This Wednesday the whole school participated in a hat & jacket check. All class teachers asked their students to present their hats & jackets to check name tags. We found a few stray items and have returned them to their correct owner, however, still have a number of parents still looking for lost property. We kindly ask all parents to check name tags on items at home to ensure you don’t have someone else’s belongings. Please return anything belonging to another student to the school office.

With the start of the cooler weather, we are beginning to see jackets being worn to school. These are often taken off during playtime and left in the playground. If they are clearly labelled it is easy for us to return them to the correct student. Last year we had dozens of unnamed jackets left over that were eventually donated to our guidance officer, as we had no way of knowing who to return them to. PLEASE ENSURE YOUR JACKETS ARE LABELLED.

Name labels make all the difference in helping us to returned lost items to the correct students. We kindly remind parents to name hats, jackets, lunch boxes, water bottles, etc. We really appreciate your assistance with this. Any item that is labelled gets returned directly to the classroom.

All previously unclaimed and unnamed school jackets have been given to our guidance officer to distribute to families in need. If you believe you have lost an unnamed jacket, please advise as soon as possible.

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