Our very own Chappy Sarah will Co-Captain the Australian team at the 2020 Invictus Games. Chappy will be one of 500 competitors at these Games, which will be held in May in The Hague. The Invictus Games are not about winning medals, but instead focus on finding potential through building inner strength. We will be following Chappy’s journey with interest!

As mentioned in previous newsletters, we have spent some time developing the strategic direction for our school. We have now developed our Annual Implementation Plan and a plan for our funding allocation under the Investing for Success program. Over the next year, we will be focusing on writing, supporting diverse learners and implementing Digital Technologies and have already begun to develop programs in these areas. Last week, for example, I was lucky enough to catch a class of Prep students programming a BeeBot, a fun way of learning early coding skills.

Thanks to our committed student leaders, we have opened the sports shed for students to borrow equipment at lunch times, with balls, racquets and other equipment up for ‘hire’.

Carol Butler

Principal

Hi and welcome to 5A’s first newsletter item for 2020.

Now that we are ‘big kids’, Mr Chinn treats us like young adults and we, the students, have been charged with creating our newsletter.

What we have done so far this year;

• This term we have gotten straight back in to Spelling Mastery. It is a spelling program for the year 4 to 6 students which goes for 30 minutes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We are learning strategies related to spelling rules in a fun way. By Jazzy
• Some of us have started doing fitness club before school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We get to learn new skills while playing lots of fun games. I recommend you let your child join. By Will
• In Drama we have been doing an assessment on a play or an act and everyone is super excited! By Leni
• I’ve been enjoying maths so far this year. We’ve been learning various strategies in addition and subtraction, which make doing basic maths easier. It also means that when learning new concepts, we don’t have to use all our effort in the simple calculations. By Subrat
• In English we are comparing Storm Boy the book to Storm Boy the movie. It is based on a boy who saves three baby pelicans and they grow up together. I think it is a very heart felt story. By Luca
• On Monday we got to see a show called Matilda. It was put on by the students at Hillbrook. They did a fabulous job and I enjoyed it very much. By Luca

What we are looking forward to;

• We have just begun our technology unit. We have to design and create a solution to an existing problem that will enable animals coexist with people at our school. I’m looking forward to finding out if my solution will work! By Jazzy
• I’m looking forward to Wakakirri this year because of the theme of ‘what happens to toy waste and how to help’. Almost our entire class will be involved this year. By Oliver
• Hi, does your child like getting squirted with water, sprayed with coloured powder and going through obstacles? If the answer is yes than the Colour run on the last day of Term One is for them. Look out for more details from the P&C. By Subrat.
• Very soon, in fact just over a week now, the Grade Fives will be attending camp! There will be extremely fun activities such as flying fox, low ropes and regaining (whatever that is). Some of us have already packed a bag to make sure we have everything and that we can carry it ourselves. It will be sooo much fun! By Rachael

Year 5 Teachers

Peter Chinn - pchin4@eq.edu.au

Alison Leeson - ajoyc23@eq.edu.au

Darren Roxburgh - droxb5@eq.edu.au

Dance

Senior Dance Ensemble will commence Tuesday 10^th March in EPAC from 8-8.40am. Students have been invited to attend for enrichment in the Arts through dance. The ensemble will be learning repertoire throughout the year culminating in performances at assemblies and Arts on Stage. If your child has received an invitation letter, then please complete it and return to Mrs Wilcox before our first lesson.

Matilda Excursion

Last week the Years 3-6 students attended the musical, Matilda at the Hillbrook Anglican School. It was wonderful to see some of our previous students in action either backstage, dancing, playing in the orchestra and/or singing. The purpose of the excursion was to provide students with an opportunity to view a live performance integrating music, dance, drama and visual arts to inform their own art making. There has been some fabulous conversations post show where students have used arts language such as roles, tone, lighting and choreography during feedback. Thank you to all parents and guardians for returning the consent forms so speedily.

Melissa Wilcox

wilcoxm@eq.edu.au

Digital Technologies

In Prep, we are learning about algorithms. Algorithms are a key concept in Digital Technologies and fundamental in computational thinking. They help us follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions needed to solve simple problems. Prep students will be working towards writing a sequence of instructions to navigate the floor robots, Bee-Bots.

Year 1 students are recognising and exploring digital systems and their purpose. Students will learn about some basic functions of Microsoft Word as an example of software.

In Years 2 & 4, we are learning all about data. Year 2 students are working towards collecting, sorting and organising data to share with the class in an online space. Year 4 students are exploring different ways to represent data largely through Microsoft Excel.

Year 3 are learning to define simple problems and to design and implement digital solutions using algorithms. Students are currently exploring the visual programming language, Scratch. We are all having a great deal of fun in the new computer room!

Don’t forget

Years 3-4: please hand back your completed Third Party Website Consent Form. The form is due to the class teacher by Friday 6^th March.

Coding Club: each Wednesday first break in the computer room.

Melissa Wilcox

wilcoxm@eq.edu.au

It has been fantastic to see so many of the students remembering their library bags on their library borrowing days. If for some reason students forget on their allocated days, the library is open every first break and students are more than welcome to return and borrow books then.

Our Prep students started coming in to the library at lunchtimes a couple of weeks ago. I would like to say a huge thank you to some of Year 5 girls who gave up their lunchtimes to help show them around and arranged to do activities with them. You have helped make the transition simple and enjoyable.

At times over the year families and staff very generously donated resources to our library. We would like to thank The Truselle, Flegler, Rourke, King, Preston, Bodrog, Hunt, Muston and Fitzpatrick families for your generous donations at the end of last year and this year.

We hope everyone had a chance to share their love of books on LIBRARY LOVERS DAY. It happened to coincide with Valentine’s Day which was nice. So there was a lot of love going around in the ESS Library.

The second Issue of Scholastic Book Club will be going out to students shortly. To place orders follow the instructions on the order form attached to the brochure. Preferable payment option is online (details on Book Club form). If paying by cash, payments can be made to the office on either Tuesday or Thursday mornings. Please ensure correct money as we do not hold cash on the premises (cannot give change). There are some great offers available including free books with some purchases and the school also earns free books and resources to assist in the library and classrooms.

Coming up on the 15^th – 21^st March is Harmony Week where the message is ‘EVERYONE BELONGS’. The idea of Harmony Week is to promote diversity and acceptance of other cultures. ... Harmony Week aims to start a conversation about heritage, culture and community. We will have a display in the library with some activities for students at lunchtime.

Happy Reading

Donagh McKenzie dmcke25@eq.edu.au

Shannon Green sgree207@eq.edu.au

Assembly performances coming up:

Term 1

Junior Choir: Term 1 Week 9 – There have been quite a few Prep students coming to Junior Choir the last few weeks. If these students would like to be part of the performance it would be great to have parent help at home learning the lyrics for our song, Clancy in the Moonlight. Please email Ms Hopper mxhop2@eq.edu.au for lyrics and audio of the track if you’d like to help.

Recorder Ensemble: Term 1 Week 9

Senior Choir: Term 2 Week 4

Ms Mariel Hopper

Classroom Music Teacher

mxhop2@eq.edu.au

Class Swimming:

Thank you to all those parents/grandparents/carers who have been coming to the pool each week to assist with swimming for Prep, Year 1 and or Year 2 Classes.  Your assistance is really appreciated and makes such a difference to the students.

Can all parents please check that UNIFORMS and SWIMMING GEAR is named. We waste considerable time each week during lessons sorting out the missing shirt, lost shorts and left behind swimming gear.  Naming it makes this much easier and quicker, not to mention fewer losses for you and your students. 

Over the last few weeks there has been an increase in the number of students not bringing all of their gear swimming.  Please ensure that your child has everything they need for our swimming lessons, to save us precious time.

• Swimming Cap
• Sunsafe Shirt – students cannot swim without something covering their shoulders – a rashie/sunshirt or T-shirt. The only exception to this is the swim suits which have built in long or short sleeves.
• Goggles – while these are not compulsory – many students are more comfortable wearing them, if your students wishes to wear these please make sure they have their own. While there are some spares at the pool a lot of time can be wasted with the sheer volume of students borrowing goggles – it takes a lot of time and hands to adjust so many goggles, which inevitably is needed when they are borrowing our spares – if they have their own they will fit them without needing adjustment.

Students Unable To Swim due to illness – if your child is unable to swim on any particular week, please send a note to school with your child or email me at jjard16@eq.edu.au

Kilometre Club:

Students who are keen to prepare for Cross Country can participate in Kilometre Clue. We meet on a Wednesday morning starting between 8am and 8.15am and run through to about 8.30. Students are to wait under the building until I collect them.

Cross Country:  

Our School Cross Country will be held Wednesday 1^st April at Enoggera School between approximately 9am and 11am.  Program to come in next couple of weeks.  

This year we will involve all students from Prep through to Year 6 and is an inter-house competition. 

Students born in 2007 to 2011 may be eligible to compete at the District Carnival next term.  Students will be advised after our event if they have qualified for the District Carnival.

District Sport Trials:

Term 1 & 2 are particularly busy with City District Team Sport Trials. Depending on the sport, students born 2010, 2009 & 2008 may be able to trial for City District Teams and ultimately commence a Representative Pathway.  This is an optional extra for students. It involves costs to parents in terms of trial fees, all trials are during the day with transport and supervision the responsibility of the parents. If students are selected in a City District Team there will be additional costs including, uniforms, team levies, possibly some travel to larger venues around the city. There will also be additional training sessions. Parents and Students need to be fully aware of the commitment that will be needed if they consider trialling.  

As a general guide, the student should be participating in club sport or tournaments of the particular sport for in excess of one year.  Forms will be distributed by PE teacher if they are eligible to participate in trials.  They will need to be completed by parents, signed off by the Principal and taken to the trial by the student. School nominations will be submitted by the PE teacher for those students who have been provided with forms. If your student does not wish to trial please, let me know ASAP after you have received forms and I will withdraw the school nomination. If your student is participating in the trials there will be a trial fee which is payable to the district, details of how to make this payment are included in the student information pack provided to students when they are nominated for these trials.

For some sports a trial will be held at school to select those attending trials as our nomination numbers are limited. Students who have expressed an interest will be advised of trials when they arise.

Please remember this is an opportunity at REPRESENTATIVE SPORT not an opportunity to try something new. 

A calendar of events is available from the City District Website. Please go to the link below and when on that page select the City District 2020 Calendar.   Please note there are a number of sports for which the trial notices have been handed to schools – if appropriate these will be given to students this week.    https://metnorthschoolsport.eq.edu.au/Districtsports/city/Pages/City.aspx

Key Dates – this term.

• Enoggera Cross Country – Wednesday 1^st April

Jo Jardine

HPE 

jjard16@eq.edu.au

EVENTS   

Crazy Colour Fun Run Day - April 3^rd 2020 (last day of term 1) SAVE THE DATE!!!

One week until we launch the event of the year! Keep your eyes peeled on Monday 9th March as we launch this crazy and colourful event. Information will be sent home with students shortly. For any assistance, information or if you’re wanting to help out please contact Ainslie via email ess.pcsecretary@gmail.com

Growing up online- Susan McLean 19^th May at 7pm – Strictly 18+ Event

Tickets to this event are now on sale and ESS families will have priority access until 16 March 2020. Tickets are available via the following link https://ess-growing-up-online.eventbrite.com. This event will sell out quickly so please get in early to avoid missing out.

An educational and entertaining session for parents and carers. Susan’s unparalleled knowledge leaves audiences shocked at the reality of the online world. It is a wakeup call to even the most switched on parent and is delivered with Susan's famous 'no nonsense' approach. The session will cover the positive benefits of technology as well as what parents need to be aware of.

If there are any parents or carers wanting to attend the session but feel like the costs may impact on their ability to attend, please contact Mrs Butler via email: cbutl32@eq.edu.au

Frozen Fridays - This term we see the return of $1 ice blocks for sale at 3pm every Friday outside the tuckshop. Thank you to our wonderful local sponsors each week for helping our P&C, you can find out more about our sponsors via our Facebook page.

Please get in touch if you would like to sponsor a Frozen Friday!

TUCKSHOP 

Thank you to our wonderful tuckshop volunteers! We appreciate your time and effort in helping at The Tuck Inn! 

We are now looking for volunteers for Term 2. If you are interested in helping Wednesday or Friday from 9 -11.30 am, please contact our Convenor Rosetta at the tuckshop or via email for more information or to be added to the roster rosettadimauro@bigpond.com 

UNIFORM SHOP

The uniform shop operates Tuesday from 8.15 -9am. Uniforms can be purchased over the counter, or via the QKR! App.  Orders made Via QKR can be collected by students or caregivers from the uniform shop the following Tuesday, or from the office if you are unable to attend the uniform shop.

CONTAINERS FOR CHANGE

WE NEED YOUR CONTAINERS

Unsure which drink containers to bring to the school?

Just check the back of the bottles for the 10c refund symbol. If the 10c refund is noted on the bottle they can be collected and brought to the school for disposal in big the purple bins.

For a full break down of the included and excluded containers, please follow this link to the Containers for Change website: how-it-works.

Unsure how to collect your containers?

You can collect your containers using whatever you like! There is no need to have special bags for the collection. Just put your containers in a bucket, tub, storage container or even an old shopping bag and when it is full, put it in the boot of your car and empty the containers into the purple bins located at the front and back of the school at drop off or pick up time. It's that easy. 

Remember, a little bit of effort on your part will make a big difference for our school and the environment.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Term 1 

Friday 3 April       Crazy Colour Day Fun Run                                                                            1.30-3pm

Every Friday         Frozen Friday                                                                                              3- 3.15pm 

Term2 

Tues 19 May       Susan McLean - Cyber Safety Solutions Presentation                                        Evening Session 

Sat 20 Jun          Trivia Night                                                                                                   Evening Session 

Term 3 

Mon 20 Jul          Steve Biddulph -Raising Boys Presentation                                                      Evening Session 

Tues 21 Jul          Steve Biddulph -Raising Girls Presentation                                                      Evening Session 

Sat 29 Aug          Family Fun Day                                                                                            Afternoon 

Term 4 

TBC                    End of Year Community Celebration        

GET IN TOUCH

We welcome any questions or feedback. Please get in touch with anyone from our committee via email

P&C MEMBER DETAILS

President – Jacqui Phillips                     Vice President – Patricia Cabrera

Treasurer – Bec O’Donnell                    Secretary – Ainslie Fiene

In 2020, Percussion Club will be run for students in Grades 4, 5 and 6 on Thursday at second beak (1-1:40pm) in the EPAC. Students will meet outside the library to eat at 1pm, and then move to the EPAC for the remainder of the session.

Students who join percussion club will be provided with a ‘percussion pack’ containing sticks, drum pad and music to borrow for the year to allow for home practice. A hire agreement form will be provided and must be completed and returned to receive this pack. There is no cost to join the program, or to hire the equipment.

Learning an instrument is a rewarding and fulfilling experience but also requires dedication, perseverance and a time commitment. If your child joins percussion club, they will be expected to:

• Attend percussion club every week and be on time,
• Be prepared for their session by bringing their sticks, practice pad and display book, and
• Practice at home – 10-20 minutes per day is recommended.

I look forward to working with your students this term, getting to know them and passing on some of my knowledge and love of music and drumming. Please do not hesitate to contact me by email at jess@emmanueluca.org.au if you have any questions.

A little bit about me…

I (Jess) have been playing music (both violin and percussion) since I was in primary school and went on to study music at UQ. I played with the Queensland Youth Orchestra (Violin), UQ Symphony Orchestra (Violin & Percussion) and The Boys’ and Girls’ Brigade Marching Band (Bell Lyre & Drums) for many of my teen and young adult years. I have been running percussion club at ESS for the last 3 years as a volunteer role within my role as Families Pastor at Emmanuel Uniting Church (next door). I have a husband and 3 primary school aged children who also love and play music.

Jess Pinkerton

Emmanuel Uniting Church

jess@emmanueluca.org.au

6:00pm Thursday 5th 12th & 17th March, 2020

Karate class - for kids in year 3 to adults. Wednesday nights from 6.00-7.00pm during school term. Small weekly charge and discount for family groups.

English conversation class - free weekly class for those new to Australia wanting to improve their English. Tuesday evenings 5.30-6.30pm.

The follow link connects people to our website which includes more information. 

https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/stafford/come-along/