21 February 2020

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s News

Hi ELSS families and community,

It’s a pleasure to support your children every day in our beautiful grounds with our wonderful ELSS staff. We talk often about ensuring EVERY student succeeds. This requires flexibility, understanding and patience. In 2020, we have over 700 students that require different levels of support. State schools are great schools because we care for all.

The schools 2020 Focus is- An aligned culture of professional learning for EVERY student to succeed at ELSS. Our strategies include: 1. Mindset of BETTER. 2- Whole school Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL). 3- Professional Learning Teams. 4- Culture Foundations: Positive Relationships & High Expectations. 5- Literacy P-2 foundations. The goal is unleashing literacy for every student for a life of choice not chance. Literacy opens doors, provides opportunities and sets up success.

Below picture is Year 1 students continuing their journey of literacy in an English class. They are identifying the what, who and where.

Introduction-

We welcome Brenna Elllis, our new Prep teacher who has experience in early childcare.

Reminder-

Our school supervision starts at 8.30am, please do not drop students at school early, we cannot ensure safety. To support this we have a wonderful before and after school care provider onsite YMCA.

Stop and Go area at the start of each year in EVERY school requires patience and understanding. New families learning the system, students learning our processes and lots of traffic. Outside the school gates is council land supported by Queensland Police.

2020

Our new expanded Specialist curriculum areas are - HPE, ARTS, MUSIC, JAPANESE and TECHNOLOGY. The decision to expand is to ensure ELSS students are ready to SOAR into high school with the many different options. We are working with our 3 feeder high schools for extension programs –

Windaroo Valley SHS, Loganlea SHS and Beenleigh SHS.

Our three school wide expectations are:

At ELSS I am SAFE, I am RESPECTFUL and I am a LEARNER.

Our new school motto and expectations link closely, students can SOAR to success daily-

S- Safe
O- On time and on task
A -Attitude and effort
R- Respect

Families can help this through our STEPS to success at school: Had sleep – Breakfast - Healthy food - On time - In uniform - Ready to learn.

Operations-

School uniform: it’s great to see students in full school uniform. Don’t forget to support this with your next purchase of NAVY BLUE shorts, WHITE socks and BLACK shoes to align with the school uniform policy. Student uniform supports- Safety, cost, confidence, school spirit, saves time, reduce distraction, encourages discipline and high school ready.

We are committed to creating a school for your children/our students to thrive. Thanks for support.

Communication

This year at Edens Landing State School we are looking at improving the use of communication channels.

Website

We are building a new website to be the main source of whole-school information and is your first point of call. The website will provide you with the information you require. All enrolment information, various policies, staff contacts and permission forms can be found here, as well as current school news and the school calendar. We will endeavour to keep the website as current and relevant as possible.

Emails

Families may receive important information through this communication channel from administration and teaching staff. Parents are advised to regularly check their junk email if they are not receiving school emails. It is important that the school is advised when email addresses are changed, so vital information is received.

Facebook

Facebook is a snapshot of good news stories and celebrations, as well as for short notice announcements. This information is available to parents, students and community. If you have any queries please be sure to check the website in the first instance as this is where we communicate much of our information.

Newsletter

The Newsletter is an avenue where we are able to share information and stories in greater detail. We attempt to get numerous photos of events etc. that we cannot include on Facebook.

Face to Face

There are opportunities throughout the year to meet with staff face to face. We have Parent-Teacher meetings per year, regular Parents and Citizens Association meetings and many open events where students are able to share their learnings with parents. You can book a meeting with the classroom teacher outside of learning times.

Mr Curran
Principal

Deputy Principal’s News

Positive Behaviour for learning (PBL)

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is a whole-school framework used in our school to promote positive behaviour. PBL helps us to develop a safe and supportive learning environment, build positive relationships and improve student learning outcomes.

Our school community has worked together to establish simple, clear and explicit expectations for behaviour. Student behaviour improves when students know what is expected of them and when good behaviour is recognised.

Our school takes a proactive, preventative approach, ensuring that all students receive the appropriate level of support to help them to succeed. Our PBL team constantly works to ensure that all students benefit and identified students receive additional support when needed.

Find out more about PBL in this video and on our website.

Since the start of term, students have been learning about our new expectations – I am safe, I am respectful and I am a learner. Students have reviewed these expectations in all areas of the school, including in the classrooms, eating areas and play areas, where they have had opportunities to practise what these expectations look like, sound like and feel like.

The focus for Week Five is “I am safe when I listen to and follow directions.” This would be a great discussion to have in the home setting as students can transfer these very important skills into the broader community (e.g. home, shopping centre, park). You could even play games like Simon Says to highlight and practise students listening and following directions.

Student Council Fundraiser

2020 has seen the election of a very keen group of Student Council representatives. They are organised and hoping to raise significant funds to help with school projects and community support projects. The first fundraiser for the year is an Easter Raffle. Staff members have very generously donated chocolates and Easter Eggs to kick start the prizes. If you would like to donate Easter items towards this fundraising, please drop your chocolates at the office. The more donations we get the more prizes we can offer. Last year we ended up with almost 30 prizes. It would be great to be able to offer the same again this year.

A note went will go home in the next few weeks outlining how tickets can be purchased. The raffle will be drawn on the afternoon of Wednesday 1st April. Winners will be notified and prizes will be ready for collection on the last 2 days of term.

Save the date - Our annual Say No to Bullying ‘orange’ Day this year is on March 20. More information to follow next newsletter.

Year 4 Cohort

This term year 4 are exploring Life Cycles. They have been visiting the garden to get some real life experiences and watch the life cycle of tomatoes. While they are in the garden, they also discover the interdependence of plants and animals throughout their life cycles.

Year 5 Cohort

Our Year 5 students are currently creating “sizzling starts” for their writing. These examples are from 5K.

Safety First - Year 5 students have also been enjoying busy sessions in the kitchen with Chef Chris. They reviewed and demonstrated safe knife handling skills and appropriate hygiene practices in readiness to create some delicious and healthy dishes in the weeks ahead.

Year 6 Cohort

This term Year 6 students are learning how to use descriptive factual language to create news reports on current school events. Students are exploring how reporters establish a sense of time and place and use bias to present different perspectives on topics that are of interest and relevant to the community. By carefully using catchy headlines and starting paragraphs with topic sentences, students are practicing using techniques to draw in the reader. Here is a news report written by Rupert (6M) the shows how words like 'recently' establish time. Rupert has chosen descriptive words like 'extraordinary' and 'aesthetically pleasing' to show his positive bias about the changes in our school over recent months. We are sure you'll agree with Rupert's point of view that ELSS is SOARING to SUCCESS!

Yours in Education
Cheryl Gibson
cgibs2@eq.edu.au

Deputy Principal’s News

A great start to 2020! Children are settling into the routines and demonstrating their eagerness to learn and share their successes. I have been able to walk through classrooms and observe engaged, inspired learners, well done to everyone!

Homework, Home reading and Student Planners.

By now, all children in the lower school should have started home reading. This year we are encouraging the children to choose their own book – either for enjoyment, or to practise their reading skills.

We are investing a considerable amount of money from the Student Resource Scheme to purchase books and resources for reading, including home reading.

It is important that parents write the title of the book in the Student planner / diaries and return them EACH DAY, so your child can choose another book if needed.

We have introduced The Student Planner as an avenue for children and parents to plan and record homework tasks, as well as an avenue of communication between the teacher and parents.

Each week the children will be recording the “PBL Rule of the Week” which they are explicitly learning about in class. Parents can use this information to have conversations about the rule so that it is reinforced at home.

If you have chosen not to participate in the Student Resource Scheme then you will need to purchase the Student Planner from the office for a cost of $15.

Playgroup

Starting this coming Tuesday – Feb 25th. Spread the word, as this is a very valuable program for the young children of our community.

Please sign in at the office before attending with your child.

Office News

2020 Student Resource Scheme

Once again our Student Resource Scheme (SRS) has been well supported with the majority of our families participating. Non-Participating families should obtain a list of the required items from the office as soon as possible if they have not already done so. Throughout the year teachers will send home requests for non-participating students to supply additional items as required.

Thank you to those families who have returned their Participation Agreement forms and made payments.

For families who have elected to pay using the instalment option, please note that the due date for the first payment is Friday, 7 February. The second payment is due by Friday, 1 May and the final instalment is due by Friday, 24 July.

Education Queensland policy states that account statements are distributed at the end of every month. If you are making regular SRS payments, including by Centrepay or instalments, and there is an invoiced amount unpaid at the end of any month please be aware that you will receive statements as a courtesy notification of the amount owing.

We have been working diligently to supply stationery items to students as quickly as possible after a deposit is received and thank teachers, students and parents/caregivers for their patience during this process.

2020 SRS Participation Agreement Form

If your student has not returned their SRS Participation Agreement form, I request that you please do so urgently. The Department of Education changed the form for 2020 so that now one form is on file for the whole of the student’s enrolment at this school. A form for each student must be retained by the school. If a parent wishes to change their participation option for the following school year this can be done by submitting a new form by the end of Term 3 each year.

Unpaid 2019 SRS fees

Please be aware that where a student has unpaid 2019 SRS fees, these must be paid in full to be eligible to attend incursions, excursions and camps.

If you have any questions about these processes please contact the office staff for assistance.

ATTENTION TO ALL CONTRACTORS, VISITORS and VOLUNTEERS INFORMATION and REQUIREMENTS

It is a Department of Education requirement that all contractors, visitors and volunteers working in any school must complete the annual Mandatory Training program. ALL contractors, visitors and volunteers entering the school must complete the Mandatory Training program.

Payment Window.

You can pay for your student's activities or excursions via cash or EFT at Window 1 at the office between 8.15 and 10.30am WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY mornings. Cash WILL NOT be accepted outside of these hours.

Bpoint payments and bank transfers close 3 days before the cash due date listed on the activity information.

PLEASE NOTE that NO PAYMENTS made after 10.30am on the last payment date will... be accepted.

The Department of Education’s preferred method of payment to schools is Bpoint.

Upon the return of a completed Student Resource Scheme Participation Agreement and invoice will be provided for BPoint payment to be made.

Centre pay : Deduction application can be completed via MyGov website. Please ensure the target amount is the full balance amount.

Centerpay Service Provider Number
555-092-104-B

Report Student Absences

Text message your childs absence to 0429 904 926
Text first and last name of your child, date, duration and reason of absence.
to leave a message. Alternatively you may also use the absence email - absences@edenslandingss.eq.edu.au or Text to 0429 904 926. Please record your child's name, class, date of absence/s and reason for absence.

Late Arrivals

Students who arrive to school after 8.50am must report to the office windows for a late slip prior to going to class.

Excursions

When your student is involved in an excursion or activity at school which requires payment an invoice is issued by our system. Some families currently receive their invoices via email which not only helps to alleviate the amount of paper used but also provides all the required information for our preferred payment method BPoint.

The invoices will be sent directly to parents’ emails, we are asking that you ensure your details are current and that you have active email addresses listed at school on your child’s file. Payment of these invoices is only required if you wish for your child to attend the excursion/activity.

OVERPHONE or ONLINE CARD PAYMENT SYSTEM

PHONE: 1300 631 073

To access the QLD State School Card Payment System. Use the CRN and Invoice number located on your invoice.

Or Visit

Biller Code: 1002534 (Department of Education and Training)

*CRN and Invoice number can be found on your invoice.

Or by contacting the office on 3826 0333

*Please note: Due to changes in departmental handling of credit card payments we are no longer able to take credit card payments over the phone at school*

Change of Details

Please email the school on office@edenslandingss.eq.edu.au stating your child’s name and class to confirm your email address and if applicable advise of any contact details that may have changed, to ensure we are able to contact you in an emergency.

Thank you for your continued support

Charmaine Johnson
Business Manager

PE News

Program Delivery

This year, Health and Physical Education will now be delivered in a one hour block. Students will be exposed to a range of health and physical activities which are aligned to the Australian Curriculum, To cover this content, the school has been broken into 2 sectors (P-3 and 4-6). Miss Michelle Linsdell will be teaching prep to grade 3 and Mr Ken O’Donnell will be teaching grades 4-6.

Should you need to discuss anything related to HPE, please contact the following

Ken O’Donnell- kodon30@eq.edu.au (grade 4-6)
Michelle Linsdell- mhlin0@eq.edu.au (prep to 3)

School Representative Sport

Over the course of the year, students have the opportunity to participate in a range of sporting trials. This is offered to students who are born in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and are wanting to excel in their chosen sport/s and represent at a higher level for example Pacific Rim, South Coast and Queensland School Sport.

It is expected that any child wishing to undertake these trials has experience and demonstrated skills and knowledge in the chosen sport, generally having participated at club level.

All information needed to attend the trial will be handed out closer to the date. Please note that some sports have age and gender restrictions due to safety and number of teams being selected. A nomination note has recently been sent home and this must be returned as soon as possible. If your child hasn’t received one, they will be able to collect one form the office.

Representative News

Congratulations to Billy-Rose, Hannah and Jack who recently competed at their first district swimming carnival. All students swam incredibly well and gained a lot of experience from the meet. Well done!

Interschool Sport

As our students prepare for interschool sport, training sessions have been scheduled for those involved.

Training sessions will commence from week 5-24 February

Netball- Monday and Tuesday mornings 8:00-8:45 (Miss Linsdell, Miss Mitchell, Miss Trudinger)
Rugby League- Thursday and Friday mornings 8:00-8:30 (Mr O’Donnell)
Soccer- Monday and Wednesday mornings 8:00-8:30 (Mrs Hropic)

Hats

Over the course of the year, lessons will be held on the oval. It is essential that your child/ren has a suitable school hat for all lessons. A note will be issued to students who fail to bring a hat to lessons. If your child/ren is unable to take part in a lesson due to an injury or medical reason, please provide a note.

School Sport Dates

Cross Country: 6 March
Senior Sports Day (3-6): 29 May
Junior Sports Day (P-2): 11 September

Yours in Sport

Ken O’Donnell & Michelle Linsdell
Health and Physical Education Teachers

Chappy News

Parent’s afternoon tea will on again, every second Thursday afternoon of the month. This term it will be on the 12th of March in G-Block which is located down the stairs on the left of the office when facing the school. It runs from 2pm until 2.50pm. All welcome, please come and join us. The next one will be in term 2.

I was listening to the radio today and heard an interesting conversation, where they said that a university had done on study on mental wellness for children could be improved by just parents spending 9mins a day with your children. Three in the morning with a cuddle and chat when they wake up, three in the afternoon when school is finished and talking about their day and three at night as part of the bedtime routine. I know myself that children can sometimes be difficult to get information out of about their day, but I have found some interesting questions online that you may like to try. You could even put them in a cup and pull out a few questions every afternoon as a family, even at the dinner table.

1. If you could start today over, what would you not do?
2. What would you like to forget about from today?
3. If you had a camera at school today, what picture would you have taken?
4. What is the silent reading book your classroom seatmate or neighbor is reading right now?
5. Who in your class would you like to know better?
6. Does anyone have a parent who is stationed overseas right now? What can we do for that family?
7. What kind of book display is up in the school library right now?
8. Who in your class is the best artist, and what’s the last thing they drew?
9. Who had the best idea for what game to play at recess today?
10. Who made you laugh in class today? Why?
11. Who made you sad in class today? Why?
12. Was anyone sitting alone at lunch today? And if they are tomorrow, what can you do about it?
13. Was anyone playing alone at recess today? And if they are tomorrow, what can you do about it?
14. If your teacher had $500 to spend on the classroom, what do you think she would buy?
15. What kind of class pet do you think your class would have if they could have one?
16. Who in your class would make the best teacher?
17. Who would make the worst teacher?
18. If you had to teach tomorrow, who would you want to be your assistant?
19. What other job do you think your teacher would be really good at besides teaching? What would they be really bad at?
20. What rule did you almost break today? Why didn’t you break it?
21. What rule do you think the teacher needs to add? Take away?
22. What do you think your playground needs more of?
23. What other adult at school made you laugh today, and what did they say?
24. Did you hear a good joke today? Tell me.
25. What did your teacher do this weekend? Don’t know? Ask her about it next Monday.
26. What did you learn today that we can Google about tonight?
27. What do you wish you could have learned about today that you didn’t?
28. If you could teach tomorrow, what subject would you teach all day?
29. Tell me something you are going to do tomorrow that will make someone’s day.
30. What is one thing you want to make sure to do at school tomorrow?

Uniform News

The Uniform Shop is open on Thursday mornings 8:15 am to 9:15 am during the school terms and is located inside the hall between the Tuckshop and Volunteers Room.

Items in/out of stock: There is a sign near the Uniform Shop to let you know what’s in and out of stock. All Sports Shirts are low or out of stock in all sizes.

Sport Shirts: Sports Shirts are limited to 1 per child and have been asked to be warn only on the day that the child/children have PE sports. This is due to the sports shirts not being our everyday polo shirt to wear.

Sports shirt are not being ordered and we are unsure if we will be placing an order in the future.

For more information please contact the Uniform Shop:

uniform_shop@edenslandingss.eq.edu.au

Make sure you like our P&C Association Facebook Page:

If we have any extra open days or we aren’t open one Thursday or if items are out of stock it will be posted on the Facebook page.

For those who cannot make it in during trading hours you can order by FlexiSchools.

Getting online is easy and only takes a few minutes to register. Simply go to the link below and click “Register Now”. You will be sent an email with further instructions on how to complete the registration. Once registered, you can start placing orders immediately. If you have any questions, FlexiSchools provide a great help desk on 1300 361 769, or you can contact them via their website.

There are a variety of payment options supported, including Visa, MasterCard (credit and debit) and Bank Transfer. The system operates via a pre-paid account. FlexiSchools has a cut off time of 4.00pm Wednesday it’s the day before the Uniform Shop is open.

Pick up is between 8:15am - 9:15am Thursdays or will be delivered to your child’s class from 9:15am – 9:30am Thursdays. The system is now available, so we look forward to seeing your next order online!

If you have any uniforms your children have outgrown but that are still in good condition you can donate them to the Uniform Shop.

Outside School HOURS CARE- OSHC

This year we are moving to online enrolments and booking. To enrol you will need to go onto the My Family Lounge App and select YMCA Edens Landing and fill in the enrolment form, Upload Contact and Guardian Photo ID and current Immunisation Records. Once this s completed the service sends the Family an offer which once accepted will complete the enrolment.

The service is currently in the process of recruiting new Educators to fill positions by staff completing their Degrees and moving onto teaching careers. The service is also growing and the need for more Educators has increased due to growing numbers of families needing care.

WE welcome any ideas for programming or any ways the service can link with communities outside the school eg age care, places for excursions, parents the may be involved in clubs , scouting groups etc

Opening times:

Monday to Friday
Before school: 6am – 9am
After school: 2.30pm -6pm

Pay as little as $3.50 per session after ccs

YMCA Edens Landing OSHC

P: 07 3805 1233
M: 0459 899 887
ael@ymcabrisbane.org

Important Dates to Remember

What’s on weekly- all Free

Mondays

Breakfast Club 8am-8.30am,

Tuesdays

Breakfast Club 8am- 8.30am,

Running Club 8am-8.30am Senior Oval. Week 2-10, Years 1-6.

Wednesdays

Choir practice 8.15am- 8.45am Music Room. Sign up now

Kokoda Meetings Yr4-6, L Block, 11am Term 1&2 week 2- week 10

Thursdays

Breakfast Club 8am-8.30am,

Culture Club 3pm-4pm yarning circle

Student Council Meetings Yr3-6 L Block 2nd break.

Fridays

All school assembly 9am-9.30am

Garden Club Yr 4-6, 1pm Garden Shed - Term 1, 21 February – 3 April

Contact Details

• Have your contact details changed?
• Have you moved address?
• Do we have your current phone number in case of an emergency?
• Are your emergency contacts still current?
• Are you receiving our newsletters by email?
• Do we have your current email address?

PLEASE CONTACT THE OFFICE TO UPDATE YOUR DETAILS

Phone 3826 0333 or Email office@edenslandingss.eq.edu.au

Community News