2 March 2018

Newsletter Articles

Message from the Principal

Always our Best,

Carmel Herbert
Acting Principal

Reminders from the School

Parent Teacher Interviews

We are holding Parent/Teacher interviews on Wednesday 14 March from 3:30pm - 8:00pm. These interviews will be for 10 minutes. At the time of your interview, please go to the hall.

Online bookings are open until 5:00pm Monday 12 March 2018.

By following the steps below, you can book a suitable interview time online. If you have any difficulties or queries, or are unable to book an interview in this way, please phone or visit our school office (3902 8333).

We recommend that you do not use public computers (e.g. at kiosk, libraries) to make a booking.

NOTE: Information entered into this booking system is outside of the school's network and therefore under the privacy information policy of the website sobs.com.au – their policy states that they will not disclose this information to any other party, nor will the information be used for any other purpose than managing these interviews.

How to book online

1. Go to: http://www.sobs.com.au/pt/parent.php?schoolid=511
2. Type in your email address (Note that we have not supplied you with any details; please use your email address as your Username).
3. You will be prompted for a password. Please insert one and then retype it.
4. Enter your full name.
5. Enter your child’s full name and select your child’s Year Level button. Note that if you have more than one child at this school, you will need to repeat steps 5-8 for each child.
6. You will then see a summary screen. Next to your child’s name will be a Book Interviews button. Select this to see the listing of the year level teachers.
7. Select your child’s Teacher Name then click next.
8. Choose a suitable time slot by clicking on it. Then use the Save button near the top right of the page to secure that time slot. To select a different time slot, click on the currently selected one to delete your booking, and click on another timeslot.

You will be returned to your summary page. From here you have the option of emailing or printing your interview booking times. If you select the email option, the schedule is sent to the email address you initially entered.

You may update your booking at any time. To do this, return to the booking page, enter your email address and password and then select the Adjust Interviews button.

Coles Schools for Sports

Gumdale State School is participating in the Coles Schools for Sports Program. For every $10 spent at Coles, you will receive one Sports for Schools voucher. Parents/students are asked to then bring vouchers to our school and place them in the collection bin, located in the Admin Building reception. Every voucher you donate to your school can be redeemed for leading brand sports equipment.

Messages from the Deputies

Planning

All of our teachers have been involved in planning sessions this week. Teachers plan with their year level teams to ensure alignment of assessment tasks and consistency of teaching and learning practices. During our planning sessions we have focussed on pre-assessment and how to provide quality feedback for students to improve their writing. Thank you to all our teachers for the time and energy they have given this week.

School Photos

School photos will be taken on March 5 and 6. Please make sure you check the photo timetable - this has been emailed to parents and is also available on the school website and the school Facebook page. We request that all students wear formal school uniforms and black school shoes for the school photos.

If you have any questions regarding the process, the website or the packages, please contact Geoff directly at geoff@littleimages.com.au

Volunteering at Gumdale State School

As we visit classrooms, it is fabulous to see our army of volunteers helping students with their tasks. The involvement of volunteers in children's education is vital to encourage the link between home and school and share the love of learning. We encourage the active participation of volunteers in our school in a variety of ways:

• work with small groups in classes allocated by the school.
• assist when children go on excursions outside school.
• help in your child’s own class.
• support in other areas of the school.

In whatever way volunteers offer their time, we are always extremely grateful. Please be mindful of the following requirements for a Blue Card when volunteering:

Parents that volunteer their services or conduct activities at Gumdale State School do not require a Blue Card however all other volunteers are required to hold a current and valid Blue Card prior to commencing activities in or arranged by a school (e.g. camps, sports or excursions). Non-custodial grandparents will require a Blue Card prior to volunteering to participate in school activities.

Volunteers must not commence until they hold a current and valid Blue Card. The link to complete this task is below:

Grip Leadership Conference

On Monday, 26 February, our School Captains took part in a GRIP Leadership Conference – designed specifically for students in leadership positions. Held at the Sleeman Complex in Chandler, this full day event provided valuable tips and insights into the morals, behaviour and actions of leaders. One of our School Captains, Pippa Letnic, described the day as follows:

“It was a super fun experience and we all learnt a lot of things about leadership. There were many other schools and it was a great opportunity to meet new people. We learnt that if you want to do something new or implement something new in your school you had to do many things, like clarifying what you wanted to do, in order to put that new thing in place. All in all we had an extremely fun time and we are looking forward to new opportunities like this throughout the year.”

Important Dates

2019 Enrolment Information

Year 6 Families

Key Dates to Remember

News from the Payment Desk

Statements

Thank you to all families who are continuing to make payments promptly. Statements will be issue at the beginning of each term.

Office Procedure for Payment of Excursions

Three weeks after an excursion has taken place One School will produce a Credit Adjustment for those students who have not paid. This is a system generated document which will clear your students account for this excursion. If your student attended and payment has not been received, you will be emailed a new invoice for this particular excursion.

Please ensure you advise the office and teacher if your child will not be attending the excursion, this will save you receiving another invoice.

Prompt payment is of invoices will also ensure that additional invoices are not emailed to you, payment due dates are stated on the excursion letter which you receive the day before you are invoiced.

As a reminder, here is a list of upcoming events / payments that might be relevant to your family:

Paying your school invoices

All excursions and events require payment and a permission form to be returned by the due date or your child will not be permitted to attend.

Please note that payments can be made one of three ways:

1. Online using the BPOINT Payment Gateway
   https://www.bpoint.com.au/payments/dete
2. Phone banking via BPOINT IVR (1300 631 073)
3. Online using the QParent App or
4. In person at our Administration Office during office hours (8.00am-3.30pm)

STEAM News

Year 1

Students have been exploring sound by plucking, hitting, scraping, blowing and shaking.

Year 2

Students investigated the pull of gravity and push of air by making their own paper helicopters and recording their observations with a labelled drawing.

Year 3

Students investigated how heat moves from a hotter to a cooler object until they are the same temperature.

Year 4

Students have made observations and created annotated diagrams of a variety of soil samples.

Year 5

Students are investigating a variety of animal and plant adaptations to see if they help them survive in a desert environment.

STEAM Club Years 3-6

STEAM Club members have been busy!

• Splitting and maintaining our worm farms.
• Researching compost bins – how they work, what they need and how to build one.
• Brainstorming how we can best educate the school community about how to use our soon to be introduced eating area bins
  - Recycling - paper, cardboard, plastic, metal & glass
  - Organics - fruit & vegetable scraps
  - Rubbish - landfill

The STEAM Club for 2018 has a Sustainability focus.

• Waste - recycling, compost and landfill bins in eating areas. Education campaign for students, teachers and families.
• Garden beds & Kitchen Garden – sponsored by IGA.
• Compost bin and worm farm design and construction

We meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday 11.15 – 11.40. Students are welcome to attend all 3 days, however if they can only make 1 or 2 that is fine too.

New members are always welcome!

STEAM Club Years 1-2

STEAM Club team members are thoroughly enjoying their coding sessions. Some of the programs they will be exploring are Kodable, ScratchJr and Code.org.

We meet every Thursday 11.15-11.40 in the STEAM room.

New members are always welcome!

Thank You

Thank you Mrs Kate Tatham and Mrs Belinda Thurstun for kindly donating worm farms. Our worm colonies now have room to grow and process our organic waste.

Exciting events

World Science Festival Brisbane – 21-25 March 2018

News from the Sports Desk

2018 Camps

This year there will be a change to our Year 4-6 Camp structure. This will allow three different settings and experiences for students in our Senior School. More information regarding camps will be made available as the camps draw closer. The camps will be as follows:

Year 4 – Sunshine Coast Recreation Centre, Currimundi (5-7 December 2018)
Year 5 – Emu Gully Leadership Camp, Helidon (21-23 November 2018)
Year 6 – Sydney and Canberra (22-26 July 2018)

Any questions - James Doherty jpdoh0@eq.edu.au

Metropolitan East Representative

A big congratulations to Ethan Brelsford who has competed at the State Aquathlon trials in Hervey Bay. Against some very tough opposition Ethan finished in a very respectable place.

Cross Country

The Gumdale State School Cross Country will be held on Thursday 29 March. Training for this whole school activity commenced on Wednesday on the lower oval before school. Training will continue every Wednesday and Friday at 8.15am. As students in Years 1-6 arrive at school, they are to drop their bags off in Hollis Hall and will be directed to the lower oval. Participating in Parkruns is also an excellent way to prepare for the school cross country. Local parkruns are available on a Saturday morning at 7am at Capalaba, Lota, Wynnum and Minnippi. These are a free 5km timed run. More information at

Bayside Swimming Trials

Congratulations to Ben Spall, Maya Brodie, Morgan Maclean, Ruby Walker, Pippa Letnic, Sienna Smith, Ethan Brelsford, Maximus Clunes, Oliver Sheather, Ruby Hawkins, Joshua Walker, Kahma Tangi and Lucy Jolly-Perrett who recently competed at the Bayside Swim Trials. All students represented the school well and were competitive in all events. From this event Maya Brodie has been selected in the Bayside team to compete at Metropolitan trials. Maya will compete in the 50m Butterfly. We wish her all the best!

Interschool Sport

Today, Year 5 and 6 students commenced training for next term’s Interschool Sport competition. We will field teams in football (soccer), netball, rugby league and volleyball. Gumdale State School will compete against other Bayside schools at various venues across the district.

Surf Lifesaving

In the near future, Pippa Letnic will be representing South Coast at the State Nippers Championships in the Beach Sprint. Good luck Pippa!

Oztag

Thank you to the Year 5 and 6 parents who have expressed interest in attending the All Schools Oztag Carnival at Sunshine Coast Stadium in July. Gumdale State School have entered a Year 5 Boys, Year 6 Boys and a Year 6 Girls team in the carnival. More details to follow shortly.

Sport Aerobics

Competition Aerobics Teams

We are into our second week of training and it’s great to see the commitment from most of our Aerobics students. Please make sure to remind your child of his or her training day so everyone is turning up to sessions each week it is a team sport so it helps when all team members are there.

Competition parents an email was sent out early this week in regards to the parent information night, this will be our main form of communication so if you didn’t receive this please email Ms Goddard so I can add you onto the mailing list.

Keep Moving!

Music Notes

“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning” - Plato

Upcoming Music Events

• Please note full formal school uniform with white socks and black shoes is required for ALL performances.

Choir Rehearsals

ALL choir rehearsals are held in the STEAM Music Room.

Instrumental Music

Commitment to choirs and bands at Gumdale requires:

• attendance at weekly rehearsals
• being a responsible team member
• learning new music and home practice
• maintaining music folders and equipment
• participating in performances
• wearing correct performance uniform

From the Music Department,

IT Support

How to Back up an iPhone or iPad

Anyone who's ever lost precious data knows that making good backups of your data is essential. All computers encounter trouble sometimes and having a backup can be the difference between successfully recovering your files and losing days, months, or even years of data.

Backing up your iPad is just as important as backing up your desktop or laptop. There a many ways to backup an iPad, iPhone and iPod. The best option for you depends on your needs, but make sure you use at least one regularly.

Please click on the following link to view instructions on how to perform back ups.

Messenger, Facebook and iMessage

We request that between the hours of 8:30am and 3:00pm you restrict the following applications: Messenger, Facebook and iMessage. We do this for the safety and good management of the school and students because we are unable to monitor what comes in or goes out through messages. Any communication between home, school and/or the community should be via our office: 3902 8333. Use of iPads may be restricted if your child infringes this policy.

Some parents may choose to enable restrictions on their child’s iPad. To enable students to utilise their iPads at school we ask that restriction codes are provided to the school IT technician to enable the following:

• Wi-Fi profile installation
• Internet access
• Apps and camera access to the internet
• Access to File Saving
• Airdrop

Restriction Codes

Restriction codes will be held securely in the ICT department of the school by our IT Support person and will not be shared with your child or other staff members. This will enable our IT Support to address any iPad access issues for your child at school. If a restriction is removed, your child’s teacher will be notified and you will be emailed regarding the changes. Please email Kyla Evison (IT Support) kevis2@eq.edu.au with the following information:

1. Your Child’s Name and class
2. Restriction Code
3. Your email address

Please note: You do not have to provide this information.

How to lock imessages from time to time

1. Go to your Home screen.
2. Open up the Settings app.
3. Press the Do Not Disturb button (with the moon icon).
4. Enable 'Scheduled' and enter the times. 8:30am – 3:00pm
5. The Do Not Disturb mode will not automatically be enabled between the selected times.

HR

Permanent Cleaning Position – five hours per week

Applications are invited to apply for a permanent cleaning positions at Gumdale State School.

Interested applicants can collect Application Package and Role Description from the Administration Office.

Successful applicants will be subject to a “working with children check” as part of the employment screening process. Further details regarding this check may be obtained by accessing the link below.

Applications should be marked “Private and Confidential” and forwarded with resume to:

The Business Manager
Gumdale State School
PO Box 6
Gumdale QLD 4154
Or via email: bsm@gumdaless.eq.edu.au

P&C News

P&C Fundraising Committee

The 2017 P&C Fundraising Committee reported an amazing result at the recent P&C AGM. Over $94K was raised from all the events and activities run throughout the year. Thank you to Executives Cath Cook, Katie Crowe and Angela Brown for heading up the Committee and leading the way. Thankyou also to all the Fundraising Committee members for your tireless efforts. Stepping down from Fundraising are Cath Cook, Katie Crowe, Angela Brown, Katrice Purcell, Michelle Moffatt, Lorie Zahradnik, Caroline Harrison, Gretchen Mander-Jones and Jacinta Colley. We appreciate all your hardwork and you have all made an outstanding contribution to raising funds for the P&C.

The 2018 P&C Fundraising Committee has now been formed. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome new Executives Harriet Campbell, Lauren Conde, Jasmine Davies and Sanjani Prakhash and new committee members Natalie Herity, Clare Hampel, Leigh Allen-Sympson and Leanne McLennan who are joining Liz Harding, Abhishek Bhasin and Shaunesy Pegg.

P&C Funds

After the amazing fundraising efforts of the 2017 P&C Fundraising Committee, the P&C members voted at the February General Meeting to spend $75k on air-conditioning nine (9) more classrooms. The students and teaching staff will benefit tremendously from the improved learning conditions in these classrooms. Please continue to support the fundraising efforts of the P&C in 2018 so funding can go towards air-conditioning the remaining classrooms by the end of the year.

Easter Raffle

The P&C Easter Raffle is now underway!

If you are able to help, please send donations of Easter eggs, chocolates, baskets and ribbon to the school office and place in the donations box. These generous donations will then be made up into Easter basket prizes. Donations of goods need to be delivered to the school office by Friday 16 March.

Please return the sold ticket books and money with your child’s name and class to school by Friday 16 March. If you do not wish to purchase or sell any tickets, please return the tickets in a named envelope to school. If you wish to sell additional books of tickets, you can collect these from the school office.

There will be a prize for the student who sells the most ticket books and also a prize for the class that collectively sells the most ticket books. These prizes will be announced and given out to the lucky winners on Monday 26 March.

Prizes will be randomly drawn on Sunday 25 March. Prizes will be delivered to the class room of the student who sold the winning ticket(s) on Monday 26 March.

Online Ordering

The Tuckshop and Uniform Shop offer an online ordering service called Flexischools. Online ordering is convenient, provides you with 24/7 payment and ordering system that can be accessed from home, work or on a mobile device. You won't be fumbling around for coins in the morning or looking for a brown paper bag. You can also purchase uniform items when the shop's not open and our volunteers will deliver the items to your child's classroom. Flexischools registration is free and only takes a few minutes so get online below.

Tuckshop News

We would like to take this opportunity to advise the school community that Flexischools is the only option available for ordering lunches from the Tuckshop. The bag system is no longer available due to a change in P&C policy and procedure.

Over the counter purchases for years' 1 - 6 students during breaks will still be available. Fruit, drinks and snacks can also be purchased over the counter before school.

Did you know you can set up a recurring order through Flexischools? When you place an order simple check the box at the end of the order to keep your order going every week.

Sushi

Friday's sushi orders need to be in by 11:00am on Thursday through Flexischools. Sushi orders cannot be cancelled once they are place as they are ordered specifically.

Tuckshop Volunteers

We need your help! The Tuckshop is looking for some extra volunteer help on Wednesdays and Thursdays. You don’t need to come the whole day…if you have time to drop by to wash the dishes or serve at the counter during the lunch break, this would really help us out and make the running of the Tuckshop much easier. Drop us an email if your able to help, we’d really love to see some new faces.

Contact Tuckshop

If you need to contact the tuckshop for any reason, please do via one of our contact methods: (please note – our emails are not checked in the mornings)

Phone: 3902 8304
Email: tuckshop@gumdalesspc.org.au
Stop by and see us anytime

Rachelle & Amanda
Tuckshop Convenors

Uniform Shop News

Mondays: 8:15am – 9:15am
Thursdays: 8:15am – 9:15am

The Uniform Shop has moved from opening on Friday mornings to opening on Thursday mornings. Any variations to the days and times will be published on the Gumdale State School P&C Facebook Page. Don’t forget you can still order online through Flexischools outside of the Uniform Shop opening hours and your order will be delivered to your child’s classroom.

Some students have been preparing for the cooler weather and we currently don’t have stock in Size 4 and size 8 fleece hooded jumpers. We have ordered replacement stock and this is expected to arrive in the shop in 4-6 weeks time, just in time for Term 2.

Single use plastic bags will no longer be supplied in the Uniform Shop for over the counter purchases in line with Queensland’s total ban.

Donations of second hard uniform items which are in good condition are most welcome. A donations box has been placed outside the door of the Uniform Shop.

There is a small supply of second hand uniform items now available for purchase, prices as marked. Included in the items are some Prep hats if you’re looking to purchase a ‘spare’ hat for your child.

The last order of Senior Shirts has been made and these items will be in stock in late March and will be delivered to your child’s classroom.

Don’t forget we are located on Level 1 of Block A so drop by and see our friendly volunteers when the shop is open.

Contact Uniform Shop

Phone: 3902 8335
Email: uniform@gumdalesspc.org.au
Orders: Online through Flexischools
Payment: cash and EFTPOS facilities

Contact P&C

Shaunesy Pegg
P&C President
pandc@gumdaless.eq.edu.au

P&C Fundraising News

Update from the Fundraising Team!

The AGM for the Fundraising Committee was held on the 21 February, hosted by our sponsors the Wynnum Manly Workers Club. The committee will now be led by Harriet Campbell and Lauren Conde who were elected as the Co-Chairperson, Jasmine Davies as Secretary and Sanjani Prakash as Treasurer. The new committee are very excited about the year ahead and look forward to working with all our wonderful volunteers and sponsors. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the 2017 committee for their amazing work and success.

As a result of their fantastic fundraising efforts, P&C members voted to spend $72,000 on air-conditioning 9 more classrooms! That means lots of very happy children and teaching staff that will benefit tremendously.

Volunteering in 2018

There has been a great response to our first call for volunteers, thank you! We are still looking for more parents to get involved. There is no expectation, an hour or two whenever you can spare it goes a long way. In addition to making a big difference in our school community, our children love when we are involved.

If you would like to be added to our volunteer pool, please email fundraising@gumdalesspc.org.au and you will be notified via SignUp Genius when volunteering opportunities arise throughout the year.

Volunteer of the month

A huge congratulations to our Volunteer of the Month, Elizabeth Jolly. Thank you for your help at Tea and Tissues! Elizabeth has won a voucher from our sponsor the Gumdale Tavern.

Fundraising Calendar

We are very excited about this year’s calendar. Please add a save the date for the P&C CRAZY HAIR school disco on 23 March. Full details are noted on our Facebook page.

Fundraising Programs

To stay up to date with all the Fundraising Events, follow us on social media:

• Facebook at Gumdale State School Parents & Citizens
• Instagram at gumdale_ss_fundraisers
• Twitter at gss_fundraiser

Or contact us on fundraising@gumdalesspc.org.au

Choose how to add this event to your calendar:

Apple Calendar iPhone, iPad, Mac - Download .ics file

Outlook Desktop Outlook - Download .ics file

Android Calendar Android devices - Download .ics file

Other Calendar Google Calendar, Yahoo, etc. - Download .ics file

Download Event