11 November 2022

Newsletter Articles

Date Claimers

Acting Principal

Finishing the Year Strongly

Term 4 is historically a busy time of the school year with assessment to be completed and report card writing. We also need to consider the wet season “build-up” – rises in temperature and humidity. To support students in the last four weeks of the school year, I ask that parents and carers are conscious of the school and climate demands on students and ensure that they are set up for success and finish the year strongly with plenty of rest and sleep. Thank you in advance for your ongoing support.

Keeping the community safe

New Covid-19 precautions

The Premier has today announced that Queensland is moving from the green traffic light status to Amber (Tier 1).

This means there are moderate rates of community transmission of COVID-19.

In addition to precautions you should take for the green traffic light status, such as staying home when sick and testing for COVID-19 if you have acute respiratory symptoms, the amber advice recommends:

• wear a mask
  - in healthcare settings
  - indoors, if you can't physically distance
  - on public transport
  - if you are older or medically at risk
  - if you're around people who are vulnerable to COVID-19
• take a rapid antigen test (RAT) every 2 days if someone in your household has COVID-19.

Effective hygiene practices are key to limiting community transmission of disease. Remember to wash your hands regularly, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing and open windows to promote air flow.

Personal safety

It has come to our attention that there was an incident in the community this week involving a man approaching some children unsafely. I encourage you to use the Daniel Morecomb resources below that help you support your child with these types of incidences.

Linda Sippel
Acting Principal

Deputy Principal

Preparing For 2023 – Transition Days

PREP 2023 Visits

We continue the 2023 Prep visits throughout the rest of the term. If you have a Prep aged child who has not yet been enrolled, please call the office on 4940 6333 so we can assist you with the process and get them involved in the Prep visits as soon as possible.

Whole of School (WOS) Transition Day 1

We had a very successful first transition day in Week 4 when students and teachers had an opportunity to meet together in their new class groups and visit their 2023 classroom.

WOS Transition Day 2 –Monday Week 8 – 21st November

At the end of this day teachers will give their class a note to bring home for parents to complete and send back by the end of Week 9 (02 December). The information parents provide on that note will assist teachers with preparing for their 2023 class, so please ensure you complete this in a timely manner.

WOS Transition Day 3 – Monday Week 10 – 5th December

One this day Year 6 will be at Proserpine State High School all day, and our future 2023 Prep students will be visiting us for the morning session. All students in Years Prep – 5 will do their final step up day with their teacher in their classrooms on that day – giving them another opportunity to spend time together and begin to gel as a class.

WOS 2023 MEET AND GREET– Friday 20th January - 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

On the final Friday of the student’s school holidays, teachers will be in their 2023 rooms from 2 – 3 pm so families are able to come into the school to drop off the student’s books to their new rooms and for parents to have the opportunity to meet their child’s 2023 class teacher. This will be for one hour only and we will require everyone to have left the grounds as soon as possible after 3:00 pm so alarms can be set for the end of the day.

Upcoming Events

Week 7 Wellbeing Week 18 Nov Instrumental 2023 notes due to office

Week 8 21 Nov Transition 2 23 Nov Year 2 Strings recruitment demonstration 25 Nov RE Ecumenical Service

Week 9 Planning Block for Term 1 2023 29 Nov 2023 School Captains speeches and voting Prep Excursion – PKE & PAB 30 Nov Carols by Candlelight 5:00 p.m. for 6:00 pm Student Council Break-up Party – 1:30 pm (Hall) 01 Dec Year 6 Think You Know Program (9:00am) Year 5 Cyber Safety Talks (10:00 am) Prep Excursion – PEW & PCD 02 Dec Academic Awards – 9:00 – Prep – Year 2, 12:00 Years 3 - 6

Week 10 05 Dec Transition 3 06 Dec Year 6 Ocean Rafting, End of Year celebration day for Prep – Year 5 2023 House Captain Speeches and Voting 07 Dec Year 6 Graduation and Disco 08 Dec Class Party Day 09 Dec Clean Up / Last Day – School Farewell to Year 6

Swimming Carnival

A number of our community members have contacted us enquiring as to whether the school will be holding a swimming carnival this year. Our swim program will not finish until the end of Week 9 – with Friday Week 9 also being our Academic Awards ceremonies for Semester 2. Week 10 is also going to be action-packed, so we have decided that if/when swimming carnivals occur they will be done in Term 1. As such, there will not be a carnival in the next 5 weeks.

Shiralee Morris Blair
Acting Deputy Principal

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)

Gold Awards

Prep – Year 2
Weeks 2, 3, 4 ,5 & 6

Year 3 – Year 6
Weeks 3, 4 ,5 & 6

Platinum Awards

Jillian Karon
Behaviour Support Teacher

Curriculum Matters

Regular breaks throughout the school day—from short brain breaks in the classroom to the longer breaks at morning tea and lunch—are not simply downtime for students. Such breaks increase their productivity and provide them with opportunities to develop creativity and social skills.

However, when longer breaks occur such as will happen at the end of the school year, some research suggests that students lose an equivalent of two months of their grade-level maths computational skills over that time. I’m sure you’ve all hear the expression, “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.”

Over the forthcoming holidays, it would be beneficial for our kids to still Be a Learner; after all, you are their first teachers and they’ve been learning with you their whole lives. Some suggestions include:

• Keep reading – it’s free to borrow books from the public libraries. You could always put sub-titles on TV and turn down the volume too.
• Do the grocery shopping together. Ask your child to write items on a list, to look at the masses and prices of items, to collect the receipts and add shops together. Give your child the errand of buying the milk or bread and being responsible for paying with money.
• Cook together. Reading the recipe and measuring ingredients helps build literacy and numeracy foundations.
• When driving in the car, play games like Scattegories, I Spy, Car Cricket. Look at the scenery and read billboards. Download books on apps like Audible and listen to them, and talk about them, as you drive.

• Talk, talk, talk and listen. With little people, as you climb stairs, count out loud. When you see a bird, ask what colour it is.
• Have a Scavenger Hunt to help build vocabulary. Your kids could find something flexible, sturdy, durable, tactile etc
• Play board games or card games. These can sooth anxiety, encourage healthy brain activity, boost language skills, sharpen a child’s focus, teach the value of teamwork, show how to be a good loser, and are a great way to unplug.
• Sand or water + plastic containers = learning about full, empty, half-full

Head of Department (Curriculum)

Lee-Anne Dougherty
ldoug20@eq.edu.au

Student of the week

Student of the week

ICAS Certificates

SPORT NEWS

Swimming

Learn To Swim Program

Weeks 6 to 9 Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Classes 5AD, 5PT, 5WS and 5/6HM

Parents, please be aware that the first swim lesson for students in 5WS, 5/6HM will be on TUESDAY 8th NOVEMBER with 5PT and 5AD having their first lesson on Wednesday 9th NOVEMBER.

Learn To Swim Program

Weeks 7, 8 and 9 Thursdays and Fridays

Classes 1MH, 1DB, 1MV and 1MJ

Parents, please be aware that the first swim lesson for students in 1MH, 1DB, 1MV and 1MJ will be on THURSDAY 17th NOVEMBER. There will be no swimming Friday 18th November.

Happy holidays. Yours in Sport

Wendy Henshaw and Trevor Nosworthy

What’s Happening In General

Japanese Club

Konnichi wa!

Hard to believe the end of year is approaching so fast.

In Japanese Club students have made ‘hachimaki’ (headbands) recently, and proudly wear them around the school and to Japanese Club. They are currently viewing Totoro, a Japanese anime film, and will continue watching this over the next few weeks.

Last term, Year 6 students practiced kanji script writing outside, using water and paint brushes. This is a fun learning activity that you can do at home! Year 5 and 6 students are preparing for end of year assessments now, and they are all doing a wonderful job.

Enjoy the photos attached

Sayoonara,

Rice Sensei.

Sarah Rice
LOTE (Japanese) teacher

Student Council

Last Thursday the Student Council held a Superhero Dress-Up Day followed by a Superhero Disco. It was a great success with about $900 being raised for the Student Council to put towards the end of year activities.

A special thankyou to the staff who assisted in making this day and evening a success.

Donations

Parent and Citizen Association

As we fast approach the end of term 4 and a well-deserved break for all students and teachers, I would like to thank all of our tuckshop staff and volunteers for an amazing effort this year. It is not an easy feat trying to please over 700 students and staff, but our staff and volunteers do that.

I would like YOU to think about volunteering next year. Volunteering plays a crucial role in the P&C, the running of the tuckshop and uniform shop. Without volunteers, we simply, cannot over these services or undertake all of our fundraising activities. All it takes is 3 hours once a month per parent to make a difference. Please volunteer and keep these services happening.

As you are well aware, the tuckshop is only open Wednesday, Thursdays and Fridays for the remaining weeks of term 4, with Week 10 being completely closed and unavailable.

The uniform shop requires volunteers to keep those doors open as well. At the moment, we are managing to open Monday, Wednesday and Fridays for very limited hours. It would be wonderful to expand those hours. 1 hour a month per parent would help immensely.

We will be having our first General meeting in February 2023. Please follow our Facebook page to be kept informed of date and time. Come along and join our committee to help continue making Prossie State School great!

Last week we celebrated Tuckshop Day. A huge thank you to our staff and volunteers for everything you do, day in, day out. We love you all.

On Friday 28th October we helped celebrate World Teacher's Day. At Prossie State School, we call it Staff Appreciation Day. We appreciate all of our staff, every single day. Without every single one of our staff, our school would not be possible. So, thank you to ALL of you.

Enjoy the last few weeks of school. We look forward to celebrating some great achievements with you all in the last few weeks of term.

Keep Smiling

Amanda Yuskan
P & C President
P | 0458 511 981
E | ayusk3@eq.edu.au

Lost Property

There seems to be lots of lost property from last term. These items can be collected from the lost property area in the C Block stairwell.

Casual Position Vacant

A casual position exists for a School Crossing Supervisor at Proserpine State School.

The School Crossing Supervisor may be required to work five days per week in all weather conditions. The hours of work for School Crossing Supervisors are 1 hour and 30 minutes a day and usually comprise of 1 hour in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon Commencement date (to be advised) with a Pay Rate of $28.18 per hour.

The successful applicants will be dependent on:

• The suitable outcome of a health assessment carried out by a GP of your choice according to the guidelines in the “Notes for Medical Practitioner” on the School Crossing Supervisor Scheme – Health Assessment Form; (this is paid by the Department)
• A Positive Blue Card Notice (This is also paid by the Department and means you do not need to have a blue card to apply for the position)

If you are interested in the position, please collect an application form from the School administration or contact Karen Cantoni (Road Safety officer) on 49 518331.

The School Crossing Supervisors Application is to be returned to the School for the school Principal’s recommendation.

2022 Term Dates

QParents

Access your child’s student information online and stay connected with your school.
Access to report cards, attendance records, invoice and payment details, online payments.
Visit qparents.qld.edu.au and register online
Contact the school’s office if you require further information

Facebook Page

For the latest news and any important school alerts please LIKE the Proserpine State School Facebook page.

It is a key point of information regarding changes to school routine, upcoming events, good news stories etc.

To visit the page click the link below.

Uniform Shop

Opening hours are

Monday 8:30am-9:15am
Wednesday 8:30am-9:15am
Friday 8:30am-9:15am

We are unable to sell ‘over the counter’ items outside of these times. We understand parents are busy and can’t always make it to the school during opening hours. The solution is the QKr! App, which is online ordering that is delivered directly to your child’s classroom. There are no fees to customers for using this ordering system and uniforms are delivered on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday to the students classrooms.

We have adult size school polos XS, S and M back in stock to purchase. Unfortunately the only new size jumpers we have are size 4, or sizes 12 to 16. We have a wide range of second hand school jumpers for sale coming next week for $5 each.

Uniform shop is completely run and managed by the school P&C and volunteers. To keep offering the service of staying open 3 mornings a week, we need more casual volunteers to join our team. If you can help out at all, please pop in and see us at Uniform Shop or email us at PandC@proserpiness.eq.edu.au

Tuckshop

Community Notices

Whitsunday Swimming Club

Whitsunday Regional Conuncil Library

Whitsunday Shire Family Daycare

Proserpine Farmers Markets

Netball Disco

My Gym Club

Ronald McDonald Learning Program