29 March 2023

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Yours in education,

Leanne Odorico
Principal

Student of the Week

TERM 1 WEEK 8

TERM 1 WEEK 9

Top Kurwongbah Kids

Congratulations to the following students who have recently received Top Kurwongbah Kids Awards by showing our School Values:

TERM 1 WEEK 8

Top Kurwongbah Kid – Term 1 Week 8

TERM 1 WEEK

Top Kurwongbah Kid – Term 1 Week 9

Outstanding Students for Term 1

Each term, teachers nominate an Outstanding Student from their class. The nominee is a student who independently models our school values reflecting pride in themselves, pride in our school and displays care and concern for those around them.

There will be a special morning tea for all nominees this Friday.

We would like to acknowledge all nominated Outstanding Students for Term 1:

Term 1 2023 Outstanding Students

Date Claimers

Due Dates for Payments

Staff Update

Farewell to Kay Mitchell who finishes her work at the Uniform Shop this week. Thank you for all of your years of dedicated service to the Kurwongbah school community. We wish you every success and happiness in the future. There will be a farewell on school Parade this Friday.

Farewell to Cassie Parcell and Vanessa Gishford (Teacher Aides) that finish their service at Kurwongbah at the end of this week. We wish you all the best at your new High Schools and thank you for your service to our staff and students over many years.

Bruce Hamlin (Instrumental Music – Percussion) is on long service leave in Term 2. Mr Hamlin will be replaced by Diane Munns during his leave.

NAPLAN 2023

Congratulations to our Year 3 and Year 5 students who completed NAPLAN Online over the last two weeks. The students felt they were well prepared, took their time and did their best with the tests. Well done students and teachers! Results from the NAPLAN tests will be distributed to parents when they are available. This is expected to occur in later part of Term 2.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent Teacher Interviews are scheduled for the beginning of Term 2. We encourage parents to take this opportunity to meet with your child's teacher to discuss their progress and goals for the remainder of the year. Please click on the link attached to book from the sessions available:

2024 Prep Enrolments

We are now taking names of Prep students for 2024. Children who were born between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019 are eligible to commence Prep in 2024. Parents are invited to contact the school office (Ph: 3481 4333) if they are intending to enrol their child at Kurwongbah for Prep in 2024. Enrolment forms can then be completed and student interview times booked. Please contact the school for further information.

School Holidays

A reminder that the last day of Term 1 is this Friday 31st March. We wish all our students and families a safe and enjoyable holiday. School will resume on Monday 17th April.

School Watch

We are asking our community to report any suspicious activity in our school grounds during the holidays to the School Watch Team on 13 17 88. We take pride in our school facilities and trust you will work with us to prevent any damage occurring during the vacation period. We need to reduce vandalism, theft and arson in Queensland schools.

ANZAC Day Ribbons and Badge Sales

Our Student Leaders will be selling ANZAC Ribbons, Poppies and Badges near our ANZAC Garden adjacent to the school office before school from Monday 17th April to Friday 21st April (while stock lasts). Prices range from $1.00 to $3.00.

Our whole school ANZAC Parade will be led by our School Leaders on Friday 21st April from 8.55am. A special guest from the Bray Park Strathpine RSL will also be in attendance at the ceremony.

Harmony Day Free Dress Day – Thank You!

The Kurwongbah State School community raised a generous $553 on Harmony Day in support of the Marsden Road Neighbourhood Centre – Encircle. We have a number of families in our area from non-English speaking backgrounds and Encircle run a program with around 30 English tutors supporting 30 families in learning English. The Neighbourhood Centre runs sessions for families at Warner and North Lakes as well.

Absences

State schools are required to notify parents on the same day any student is absent from school without explanation. Rolls are marked at 8:50am and 2:10pm each day. An SMS message will be sent to any parent of a student with an unexplained absence by 11am. Students who are not in their class at 8:50am will be marked absent and MUST collect a late slip from the office. Parents collecting their children early must sign them from the office before collecting from the classroom.

Absence Notification Process

Please remember to contact the school early in the morning if your child is going to be away or late for school so your child’s absence can be recorded correctly. The preferred method of reporting an absence is via the SMS number 0429 919 560. Otherwise, you can contact the school absence line on 3481 4366 or the main school admin line on 3481 4333.

Please be sure you indicate the following when reporting the absence:

• Name of child (especially if there is more than one child in your family)
• Absence reason – Please indicate if your child is sick or at an appointment etc. Indicating that your child is not coming to school, does not give a true reason for the absence
• Late Arrival – If your child will be late due to an appointment, please indicate an approximate time of arrival
• Dates of absences, if longer than 1 day

Same day notification

Our school will contact parents as soon as practicable on the day if a student is not at school and we don’t know why. If you are advised by the school that your child is away without a reason, please contact us as soon as possible by reply text to let us know where your child is. We will follow-up with parents if no response is received.

Parade Presentations 2023

Whole school parades are held each Friday morning from 8.55am in our school hall. Parents are most welcome to attend. During the year each class or year level will present a presentation on parade. Below is the 2023 parade presentation schedule:

Contact Details

It is important that the school have the correct contact details. This is especially important in emergency situations or if your child presents as unwell during the school day. If you have changed your mobile phone number, address or email address, complete the attached form and forward to the office. Please be also aware if you have a change in emergency contacts. If parents are registered through QParents they are able to update details through this app.

Parking in Local Streets

When you are collecting or dropping off your children at school, we request that you consider our neighbouring houses and ensure that your vehicles are not blocking driveway access for these residents. A reminder that our school zone has a speed limit of 40 km/h before and after school.

Business Manager News

I’m delighted to say that I will be staying at Kurwongbah for the foreseeable future! I have loved the past year working for this amazing community and I am excited for the work and challenges ahead.

Grounds & Facilities – Keeping our School and Community Safe

We’ve had several instances of unauthorised access to the school after hours recently. Police have been involved for incidences of vandalism and charges laid. Please ensure your children are not coming onto the school grounds to ride bikes, scooters etc as not only is this considered trespass but, given that we have had unauthorised adults on site, your children’s safety may be at risk. Over the Christmas period the vandalism damage bill was very high and this comes directly from our school budget so as we race towards our next holiday period, we ask you to help us by:

It’s also important to note if you see people dumping rubbish in the school’s waste skips. We have had a lot of residential rubbish in our skips. The cost of waste removal is a big one for the school so this illegal dumping comes at a huge cost to our budget. Report unauthorised dumping to the School Watch number above!

Grounds & Facilities – Holiday Work

During the holidays we will have workers onsite doing a rework of the Senior toilet block and plumbers working on the Prep block. Our next portion of the electrostatic painting is being completed this week so we will work with suppliers to source our new privacy screens.

Finance

We are working to fast track our new excursion process. This will mean more reminders for you and a simplified process BUT it will also mean that we will not be able to accept late payments so it will be vital that you reach out to Lucy or myself ASAP if you think you may not be able to pay in full for an excursion or camp by the due date.

QParents

In the coming term we will be working with families to get you registered on the QParent app. If you are already using the app at another school/s you can add your Kurwongbah SS student and start accessing information, reporting absences etc now!

The exciting news for our community is that soon QParent will manage our excursion permissions electronically! No more lost notes, no more missing out because a permission note went missing AND you can pay at the same time! This is a fantastic opportunity for us to communicate and connect and ensure all students have equal opportunity to attend all school events.

This is what QParents could look like at our school:

You can learn more at:

Watch this space as we work to make our communications better!

Family Accounts - CAMPS

I encourage all Year 5 and Year 6 parents and carers to take advantage of our new payment plan services. I have previously emailed to offer the opportunity to commence payment plans for 2023 camps. We can accept payments for any amount, for any reason to sit as credit on your family account, so that when camps, excursions or music fees are invoiced, we can apply your credit balance and let families know how much, if anything, is left to pay. We can also help with payment plans. Parents/Carers can opt to set up a regular direct debits, use Centrepay or make random payments of any amount at any time that suits. Contact Lucy or myself, care of the school office for further information.

Debtor statements are coming home this week! This is a courtesy to let you know if you have outstanding accounts and/or to help families keep track of their account credit. Credit balances will be matched to your oldest invoice unless you instruct us otherwise.

Please feel free to contact me at BSM@kurwongbahss.eq.edu.au should you require further information.

I wish everyone a safe happy holiday and look forward to a busy Term 2.

Kind regards
Karen Grant-Freeman
Business Manager

Eco-Marines News

Over the past fortnight, Year 4 students have trialled sorting their lunchtime waste into the multi-sort bins. With the assistance of the EcoMarines and support crew, who sit near the bins and help the Year 4s, we have recycled more containers for change and increased the amount of organic waste going into the compost bins.

In Term 2, more junior school classes will be provided with the opportunity to recycle containers for change. The goal by the end of the year is for all classes at Kurwongbah State School to be recycling; therefore, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.

Kurwongbah Kids Playgroup

Inclusion News

Knowledge is power. I am sure someone famous said that, somewhere in history. I would definitely agree. There are so many aspects to learning, of which understanding and ability to recall knowledge is one, but another aspect is the application of what we know. I have amazingly expert knowledge what plants require to flourish, however, when you see my garden, and my application of the knowledge, then you may question my knowledge!

For our students, as parents/carers, you have been their first teacher. From your modelling of language before they learned to speak, to your support in them learning how to talk, to pronounce, to form sentences, to build vocabulary knowledge, to understand what they are being asked to do and how to ask for things that they are wanting to obtain. And that’s just in the area of language, let alone all of the other interest areas, including sports, hobbies etc that you have piled in for the students.

On Friday mornings, we are lucky enough to have had Four Wheel Expresso come to school and provide coffee to get us through the last day of our week. In Term 2, we are looking to provide some parent information sessions on rotations through fortnights, commencing with information about reading development.

Last year, our school dipped into the emerging research on the Science of Reading, which has informed our decision on implementing Structured Synthetic Phonics. Our research built our knowledge base and we, as a staff are learning in the applying space. We feel that sharing our knowledge and then looking at ways to support the development of reading, spelling, writing, speaking, sharing with parents as student’s first teachers would be of benefit. Team work provides strength, and from a learning perspective, in language development, overlearning as a strategy is most effective. This means having repeated, short exposures to sounds, words, letters, over a period of time is the strongest determiner of learning success. This means it is better to have multiple lots of 5 minutes across a week, rather than one or two lots of 30 minutes in relation to learning and language development.

But enough about that for now. I might be jumping the gun! We hope to see many of our amazing community members at our information sessions during Term 2.

Cameron Brown
Head of Special Education Services

Guidance Officer (GO) Greetings

Greetings Kurwongbah Families!

Have you heard of the Starfish Program? This is a FREE counselling service offered in the Moreton Bay area (it is funded by the Federal Government). Starfish supports children and young people up to 18 years who may be experiencing emotional health and wellbeing challenges. Along with supporting children, they also support families and carers.

If you are concerned about how your child is coping with a challenging situation or they are having ongoing issues at home or at school – contact information for Starfish is shown below:

Olivia Devereux
Guidance Officer

STEM & Enrichment Education News

Makerspace Lunchtime Timetable

We-Do Lego Robots

We-Do is a hands-on solution that enhances pupils' curiosity and skills in computing and science. Students use a Smarthub, motors, sensors and Lego to create a variety of robots.

Students in the STEM room are enjoying creating designs and coding to make their robots perform a variety of movements and sounds.

Come to the Makerspace and join in the fun!

Create a Makerspace in the home - Holiday Fun!

Makerspaces inspire creativity, problem solving, collaboration and critical thinking. Creating a simple version of a Makerspace at home is easy with some basic items you might already have.

Here are just some ideas to start the process – provide building sets like Lego, Duplo or K’Nex, play dough, boxes, cartons, paper towel rolls and any other craft items, a variety of paper types, fabrics, threads and ribbons, timber dowels, straws, alfoil, felt pens, tape, scissors and crayons. Add in technology like a tablet or iPad, robotics or a Makey, Makey and students can make their own movies, commercials or gadgets.

Premier’s 2023 Coding Challenge

The 2023 Premier’s Coding Challenge is on again! This challenge offers great prizes of coding and robotics kits and an excellent opportunity for students to create some interactive and innovative coding. The challenge in 2023 is to develop an interactive digital solution to create change in your local community or beyond.

Entrants from Year 3 -6 can develop an app, game, animation or website, and they must submit a short video showcase with their entry.

For more information see the teachers in the library or visit the link below for more details.

Entry portal closes on the 18th September 2023.

Resource Centre News

Term 1 is over and students have been busy borrowing all Term. Congratulations to those students who continue to borrow weekly. Don’t forget that if you have an overdue book, you need to bring it back to borrow another one!

Term 2 sees an author visit for Years 5 and 6, the return of our Book Fair and the National Simultaneous Storytime event. Please see below for further details:

Exciting News for Year 5 and 6 Students

Louise Park https://www.louisepark.com.au/ is coming back to Kurwongbah on Tuesday 18th April (first week back) to speak to Year 5 and 6 students about her latest book “Last Man Standing”. She introduced this book to us last year and it’s all about her grandfather’s memoirs during his time as a soldier involved in an ANZAC military exercise.

Click on the link to see a bit more about this special book:

Louise will be available for book signings during 2nd break from 1:30pm and then will speak to our upper students at 2:15pm.

The book can be pre-ordered online at various online stores including:

Dymocks:

QBD Books:

or, Mrs Turner will try and get some for you to purchase on the day and get it signed. The price will be about $25.

If you are not able to purchase the book but you are interested in reading it, don’t worry as we will have copies in the library for you to borrow.

Book Fair 2023

Book Fair will be open on Monday morning 22nd May to Wednesday afternoon 24th May.

National Simultaneous Storytime

Kurwongbah State School always takes part in this great annual event on Wednesday 24th May.

This year’s book is about a resilient sloth called The Speedy Sloth.

Further information regarding this event can be found at the link below:

A great Term to celebrate our love of reading. Hope you have a great holiday from school and spend a bit of time reading a book!

Many Thanks and Happy Reading,
Your Friendly Library Crew

Music News

All parents have now been invoiced via email for their child's involvement in the music program for 2023. Thank you to everyone who has already paid. This is a gentle reminder that payment is due by this Friday the 31st March.

Performance Uniforms

All choir students have now been fitted for a performance uniform and instrumental students are being fitted this week. If your child has not been fitted yet, please be assured he/she will be fitted soon. This is a long process due to the number of students involved in the program. All students except for year 3 beginner strings are required to have a performance uniform. Once your child has been fitted and full payment has been received and processed by the office, your child will be able to take the uniform home. Please get your child to try it on to ensure it is a good fit. If there are any problems, please send a message to Mrs. C and return the uniform to the music room and it can be changed over if there is a better size available. Please keep it in the bag for safe keeping. When the students are required to wear it, a message will be sent home via an email, Facebook post or note. Students are to wear white ankle socks with plain black school shoes. Please note that ballet flats, boots, high tops and black with other colours are not appropriate to be worn with the performance uniform when representing the school. The socks need to be visible - no low-cut socks please.

Please see the examples below of what is acceptable and not acceptable:

Save the Date

The Mid Year Night of Music will be held on Tuesday the 6th June.

Enjoy the holidays and please remember that rehearsals commence in Week 1 of Term 2.

Physical Education & Sports News

Kurwongbah Cross Country Selection Trials

Book Club News

How Book Club Helps Your Child’s School

Every time you place a Scholastic order, your School is being rewarded! For example, for every Book Club order you place, Scholastic receives 20% of your total order spend to your school as Scholastic Rewards. This allows the school to purchase books and resources for your child’s classroom and the library, helping students reach their highest potential.

How To Order

The Book Club LOOP platform for parents allows you to pay by credit card. Your child’s order is submitted directly to school and the books will be delivered to your child’s class. You can place your child’s order at the link below or using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

Cash orders can be handed into the library. Simply fill out the order form on the back of the catalogue, place the form and the exact cash amount into an envelope or clip seal bag and drop off to the LIBRARY ONLY!

Julie Collins
Book Club Coordinator

P&C News

We say thank you and farewell to Kay Mitchell, who has been serving as the Uniform Shop Convenor for just shy of 11 years. Kay, all your hard work has been a great support to the school community, and we wish you every success and happiness for the future.

We thank Michelle and Carol, who will continue to provide this great service in our Uniform Shop.

Become a P&C Member

Our P&C association is a friendly group and the meetings are a good way of finding out what is happening at our school. Each year members work together to grow community spirit and work towards the benefit of all children at the school. Members may choose to volunteer in the classroom, library, tuckshop, uniform shop, at sporting events and organised activities/working bees.

Drop your membership form into the school office, or email it to: secretary@ksspca.qld.edu.au

Save the Date

Our next P&C meeting will be held on Wednesday 10th May at 6.30pm in the Staffroom.

The P&C wish you all a safe and happy holiday and look forward to seeing you all in Term 2.

Fundraising News

Easter Raffle

Thank you for the generous donations and support for the raffle so far, it is not too late to purchase your tickets.

Entries close on the 30th March and the raffle will be drawn at 8.00am on the 31st March with winners announced on our whole school Parade.

Click the following link to purchase tickets:

We are also happy to announce our next school disco will be held on Friday 5th May, so please save the date!

Tuckshop News

When ordering on QKR, please make sure your child’s class for 2023 is updated. This ensures your child’s tuckshop will be in the appropriate place at break time.

Our meal deals this term are:

• Liv’s Hot Diggity Dog Meal $7.20
  Hot Dog, Pikletes and Drink
• Emerson’s Flavourful Feast $6.00
  Fried Rice, Blueberry Muffin and Quelch Stick
• Billie’s Bites Meal $8.00
  Hotdog, Moosie and Drink
• Rogue’s Pizza Hut Meal
  Cheese Pizza, Garlic Bread and Drink
• Chappy’s Party Pack $8.50
  Beef Pie, Chocolate Mousse and Drink
• Yahirah’s Magnificent Mac and Chases $8.30
  Mac and Cheese, Moosie and Drink
• Hayden’s Nugget Meal $9.70
  6 Nuggets, Honey Soy Chips and Drink

All meals come with a popper however this can be upgraded to a flavoured milk for an additional $0.55. Sauce can also be added for an additional $0.40.

End of Term Reminders

Last day for Tuckshop this term is Thursday 30th March with over the counter sales only on Friday 31st March, with a limited menu as we are running down our stock to ensure minimal stock onsite over the holidays.

Ordering

The preferred method of ordering is online via the QKR app, as all details of in stock items are available. We also accept over the phone orders and cash orders over the counter.

Cash

Tuckshop is once again accepting cash sales via the bag system and for over the counter items in break times.

Phone Orders

Parents can place a phone order, by phoning the tuckshop directly on 3481 4337 and paying by credit card. Cut off for phone orders is 9:00am.

Online Ordering

Parents can order via the online QKR app. Cut off for online ordering is 8:00am. Please ensure you have your child’s correct class, so your child’s meal is prepared and ready in the correct collection place.

Allergies

We currently cater for many students with allergies. If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact our team and we will be able to give you up to date information regarding our products.

Tuckshop Hours

Sandra and Carol
Tuckshop Convenors
3481 4337
tuckshop@ksspca.qld.edu.au

Uniform Shop

It is with great sadness that I am leaving the Kurwongbah School Community. I will be finishing up in the Uniform Shop of Thursday 30th March. I have greatly enjoyed my time in the Uniform Shop getting know all the wonderful Kurwongbah parents and students.

If you have an hour to spare and would like to volunteer in the Uniform Shop please email or call me, volunteers are urgently needed.

Don’t forget to wash your Kooringa shirts with light colours and to wash the Jade polos and other house shirts inside out. This will help retain the colour.

School Backpacks

School backpacks are available for $50. These backpacks are chiropractic approved and have a guarantee for the full time your child is at school.

Second-hand Uniforms

If you have uniforms that you no longer require, please bring them into the Uniform Shop. We urgently need all sizes.

You can either sell them through the shop or donate them. If you can’t get into the Uniform Shop to drop off your second-hand uniforms you can leave them at the Office with Uniform Shop written on the bag.

Ordering Through Uniform Shop

The following options are available:

1. Email Orders
   Email your order through to uniformshop@ksspca.qld.edu.au . This will be processed next time the Uniform Shop is open.
2. Phone Orders
   You can phone the Uniform Shop during open hours and pay by Credit Card.
3. Qkr! Online Orders
   Download the Qkr! App, or use the web-based version of Qkr at https://qkr-store.qkrschool.com/store

The preferred payment options are by Eftpos either by email order or over the phone by credit card or direct deposit.

Uniform Shop Hours

Delivery days are Monday and Thursday.

Thank you
Kay Mitchell
3481 4323
uniformshop@ksspca.qld.edu.au

Containers for Change

Community Notices

Cloncurry Prize – Poetry Competition

Bray Park State High School – Open Afternoon

KindyLinQ

Queensland Government Spectacle Supply Scheme

Flu Vaccinations – Amcal Pharmacy Petrie