27 April 2018

Newsletter Articles

Message from the Principal

As we reach the end of Week 2, I would like to express how proud I am of Gumdale State School students since I arrived here at the start of term. The Anzac Ceremony held in our Hall at the start of this week has been a highlight – where students demonstrated tremendous unity, respect and patience in front of parents and guests.

A special guest at our Anzac Ceremony echoed my sentiments, having written a personal message of praise towards our staff and students:

“Thank you for allowing me to be part of Anzac Day Service this morning. I was so impressed by the manner in which your students conducted themselves. The ceremony also was first class. It is not easy for young people to sit still and be attentive for a long period of time, so it was great to see the students sitting still and really joining in and hopefully understanding what the Anzac Spirit is all about. I congratulate you and all the staff on a job well done.”

By the same token, I was delighted to be joined by so many Gumdale families at Manly/Lota RSL Sub branch Anzac Day ceremony. Our school Captains were wonderful Ambassadors to our school, laying a wreath to honour our servicemen and women, both past and present. Our staff and students really do embody our school motto – “Always our best!”

As Term 2 is now in full swing, I would like to remind families of a few key points and upcoming events that require your attention.

Curriculum Newsletters

Every student received a curriculum newsletter last week, highlighting key dates and learning objectives for this term. Parent/guardians can also download these from the homepage of our website to keep track on your child’s learning throughout the term.

Labour Day Holiday

A reminder that Monday 7 May is the labour day public holiday. School will be closed on this date.

Feedback Chain

A reminder to parents and guardians that your child’s classroom teacher should be the first point of contact to raise any concerns, complaints or queries. If a matter requires further consultation, your child’s respective Deputy will be involved. We ask that parents follow this process throughout the school year.

Prep 2019 Information Sessions

Towards the end of May, Gumdale State School will be holding Prep 2019 Information Sessions for families looking to enrol their child. These information sessions are open to all prospective families – those living both inside and outside of catchment. A postcard flyer with dates and times is noted further below in this newsletter.

Make Every Day Count

I wish to remind families of the importance of sending children to school every day unless there is a reasonable excuse for the student to be away (such as illness). Days lost do have an impact on academic and social outcomes for students. Please continue to help your child gain the very best from their formative years of learning and understanding - make every day count. We appreciate the commitment that each parent can and will give to ensuring that children are at our school every day.

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2018

NAPLAN is a strategy designed to assess our students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. This year NAPLAN will be conducted from the 15-17 May. Further information about NAPALN is discussed in this newsletter issue. Should you have any questions about the process please contact your child’s teacher.

As noted in my message to families last week, it is my great privilege to be appointed as the acting principal of Gumdale State School, whilst Mr Savill is filling the principal positon at another school.

I look forward to many more positive experiences throughout the term here at Gumdale. Thank you to everyone for your warm welcome.

Always our Best,

Susan Cowley
Acting Principal

Important Dates

Reminders from the School

Chess Club

Grade 3 Chess Club: 11.00am Tuesdays at 3S- bring your lunch
Grade 4 and above Chess club: 11.00am Fridays at 3S- bring your lunch.

Messages from the Deputies

Welcome Back

The students have settled back into our school routines beautifully. As we visit classes we are impressed by the work ethic of our students and the focus on learning that is evident across year levels. We are looking forward to the term ahead.

Planning

Last week all our teachers took part in year level planning. This is a fantastic opportunity for our teaching teams to meet together to discuss curriculum, teaching and learning for the term ahead. This ensures consistency with assessment across the year level. Thank you to our teachers for their professionalism and commitment to ensuring quality assessment and curriculum delivery for our students.

ANZAC Day

Our students demonstrated their pride in our school and their commitment to honouring the tradition of ANZAC Day at our school ceremony on Monday. We had feedback from our invited guests about the exemplary conduct of our students during the ceremony. A special message of thanks to extends to our teaching staff for preparing students for this special occassion.  We also acknowledge Michele Devlin & Daphne Gillies for their organisation of this event, along wtih Miss Slater and Ms Thomas for leading our band and choir.  Thank you to all our students and community members who represented Gumdale State School at the March on Wednesday.

NAPLAN

Our year 3 and 5 students will participate in NAPLAN testing this term. Quality teaching and learning programs prepare our students to perform their very best. Further details below.

2019 Enrolment Information

Year 6 Families

Key Dates to Remember

News from the Payment Desk

Statements have been emailed out this week. Thank you to all families who are continuing to make payments promptly.

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. 4In person at our Administration Office during office hours (8.00am-3.30pm)

STEAM News

Welcome back for Term 2. The STEAM Teachers are looking forward to an exciting, jam-packed term of STEAM! For information on STEAM curriculum for this term, please refer to your Year level curriculum newsletters.

Year 5 Planetarium Excursion

Last week our Year 5 cohort had an exciting day visiting Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens and attending the Cosmic Skydome Show at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium. The show was a great introduction to our next unit ‘Earth’s place in space’. We will commence this unit in week 5.

STEAM Club Years 3-6

STEAM Club started again this week and we are almost ready to start building our compost bins. To build our compost bins we require about 10 pallets. If you have access to old pallets and would like to donate them please contact Amanda Sheppard at axshe7@eq.edu.au so the school can arrange collection.

We meet Thursday and Friday 8.00 – 8.45am. Students are welcome to attend both days, however if they can only make one that is fine.

New members are always welcome!

STEAM Club Years 1-2

We meet every Thursday 11.15-11.40 in the STEAM room for coding fun!

New members are always welcome!

Exciting Events

Cicada Awards: Giving Youth a Chance to be Heard – A short film competition giving our youth a chance to be heard on how to protect our wildlife and their habitat for future generations. Entries close on World Environment day 22nd June, 2018. Visit one of the STEAM teachers if you would like assistance with your entry.

Previous entries -

Thank you

Thank you to all Year 5 students for behaving so responsibly on our recent excursion. Great GROW behaviours! Thank You!

News from the Sports Desk

Term 2 Sailing

A great start to our sailing program last week with six classes heading to RQYS in the new school bus.

Please find below the timetable for term 2:

Please contact James Doherty jpdoh0@eq.edu.au if you require any further information regarding the Gumdale State School sailing program.

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

Cross Country

Unfortunately, our second attempt at a Year 3-6 Cross Country had to be postponed last Wednesday due to inclement weather. This carnival will now be held on Friday 21 September 2018. On Friday morning we were able to hold a Bayside Cross Country selection event. Congratulations to everyone who participated. The following students have been selected to represent the school at the Bayside Carnival this Friday:

Ethan Brelsford, Daniel Toia, Ryan Pilling, Emily Ho, Imogen Williams, Loushus Cox, Matty Doherty, Cayda Kendall, Charlee Kavanagh, Sofia Ramos, Summer McShane, Oliver Murray, Sam Law, Rhys Wellings, Holly Bradford, Ruby Walker and Kami Regenet. Best of luck to these students!

Interschool Sport

Last Friday saw the commencement of interschool sport for our Year 5’s and 6’s. Rugby league was the only sport that saw some game time with the wet weather halting any action in netball, soccer and volleyball.

The GSS rugby league teams played really well considering it was a number of students first attempt at the sport. The U/11 team played Wondall Heights SS and came away with a convincing win. Sam Macinnis was a standout performer for the team. The U/12 team played against a very strong Wynnum SS team and went down by two tries. Harrison Palm was awarded player of the match.

Training for this team is on a Tuesday and Thursday during 1st break.

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 from 27-29 July. Gumdale State School have entered a Year 5 Boys, Year 6 Boys and a Year 6 Girls team in the carnival. Training for this event will commence on Monday 14 May. Training will occur during 1st break on a Monday.

Keep Moving!

Music Notes

Music Photo

Thanks to all our families and music students for coming in early on the first day back to be part of the music photo for 2018.

Thank you to Mrs Lane

We would like to sincerely thank Mrs Nicole Lane for her work at Gumdale teaching music and taking the Gumleaves Choir last term. From all the music staff and students, we wish you the very best in the future!

We will be celebrating the end of semester by bringing entertainment throughout our Gumdale grounds for the first ever ‘Busking Bonanza Week’ from June 25 - 28.

We are calling for singers and instrumentalists to combine in duets, trios, small ensembles or even as soloists to prepare items for this special week of music. Come and see the lovely music staff to secure your place and book a lunchtime to rehearse in the Music Room.

Upcoming Events

Gumleaves Choir

Gumleaves rehearsals will no longer be on Friday mornings before school. Rehearsals will now be Tuesdays 7:45am-8:30am with Miss Slater.

Instrumental

Beginner Band Week

The new Gumdale State School Bus will be made available to our Beginner Instrumental students to travel to and from school and the Beginner Band Week venue (Sleeman Sports Centre Arena). This service will be offered Mon- Fri each way (except Wednesday which has late finish (5:30 pm)). The cost for this service will be $5 per day per student. A letter will go home this week to nominate times, and parents will be invoiced prior to the event.

To help prepare for Fanfare competition we are hosting an afternoon of rehearsals followed by a pizza dinner (provided). This is for all Senior Concert Band members who will be attending the Fanfare competition the following Wednesday in school time. Come along in your best PJs for a fun afternoon

Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Perseverance is a hurdle we all face, especially musicians! It can take years to master the sound and technique on your instrument or voice and we only begin exploring this in primary school. This can be applied to both musical learning and life in general. So when practising seems tough, don’t take the easy road and give up, see it through until it gets easier. Good habits in persevering will set you up for success for the rest of your life!

NAPLAN

15-17 May 2018

The National Assessment Program –Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Students will participate in tests in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

NAPLAN tests provide parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests and they also provide schools, states and territories with information about how education programs are working and what areas need to be prioritised for improvement. These tests are one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process and do not replace the extensive ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance.

NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students have already been learning through the school curriculum. Teachers will ensure students are familiar with the test formats and will provide appropriate support and guidance. The best way you can help your child prepare for NAPLAN is to reassure your child that NAPLAN tests are just one part of their school program, and urge them to simply do the best they can on the day.

A NAPLAN report will be issued later in the year. The same report format is used for every student in Australia. Individual student performance will be shown on a national achievement scale for each test and the performance of individual students can be compared to the average performance of all students in Australia.

For more information please visit the National Assessment Program website:

IT Support

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.

P&C News

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 at:

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.

Tuckshop Volunteers

We need your help! The Tuckshop is looking for some extra volunteer help every day of the week! 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 or complete the form below if your able to help, we’d really love to see some new faces.

Contact

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 is now fully stocked with microfiber jackets and fleece hoodies in all sizes.

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.

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

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

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

P&C Fundraising News

Update from the Fundraising Team!

Disco

We are thrilled to announce that the Crazy Hair Disco raised a total of $4,277.19 for the school! A huge thank you to the parents and students who supported this event.

Pop Up Stall

There will be a pop up stall at Hollis Hall on Sunday 6 May. The fundraising team will be supporting this event by serving drinks from the canteen and holding a raffle. We are requiring volunteers for the canteen and if you are available to help please email
fundraising@gumdalesspc.org.au.

Mother’s Day Stall

The Mother’s Day Stall will be held in the foyer of Hollis Hall on Thursday 10 and Friday 11 May.

We are looking for donations of individually wrapped chocolates such as Cadburys Favourites or Cadburys Roses. If you are able to provide a donation, please drop it off to the P&C box in the admin office by Friday 4 May.

Gifts will be available from $2 up to $10, with cards available from $1. Students will be advised which day they will be visiting the stall closer to the time.

Fashion Parade - Havana Nights - Saturday 19 May

Grab your friends and join us for a fabulous night of fashion and fun with a Havana Nights theme! Enjoy drinks and canapés while watching our models walking the catwalk showcasing clothing from The White Owl boutique and Luxe boutique. Try your luck in the raffles and live auction and dance the night away to music from our awesome DJ!

Tickets will go on sale via Try Booking on Tuesday 8 May at 10am. Tickets are $55 each or $440 for a full table of 8. Purchase a full table of 8 and receive 2 complimentary bottles of champagne! A bus drop off service will be included in the ticket price. Drink cards will be available for purchase prior to the event at a cost of $25 for 5 drinks.

We are pleased to announce our Platinum sponsors for the Fashion Parade are McGrath Estate Agents and Todd Gerhardt Realty.

We are still looking for sponsors to come on board for raffle prizes so if your business would like to get involved please contact the team at fundraising@gumdalesspc.org.au.

Volunteers Needed

We are always in need of volunteers to make our fundraising events successful. The fundraising team needs volunteers for our upcoming events including the Mother’s Day Stall and Fashion Parade. If you can spare an hour or two to help raise funds for our school please email us on fundraising@gumdalesspc.org.au.

Volunteer of the Month

Congratulations to Amanda Van Wanrooy who has won the Fundraising Volunteer of the Month for March. Amanda volunteered at the disco. She has won a $40 voucher to spend in the bistro of the Wynnum Manly Workers Sports Club. Thank you Amanda!

Fundraising Calendar

Fundraising Programs

A reminder that if you make a purchase from any of the following organisations they give back to our school.

Stay Social

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

Please note the Fundraising Facebook page has now joined the P&C page. Make sure to follow the pages below to stay up to date.

• Facebook at Gumdale State School Parents & Citizens
• Instagram at gumdale_ss_pandc
• Twitter at gumdaless_pandc
• Or contact us on fundraising@gumdalesspc.org.au