Carmel McGrath

Welcome Back

It was great to be back at school this week, after a break free of lockdown.  Many students and staff reported how refreshed they felt on return.  We have a busy term ahead of us and lots to do, including class and teacher placements for 2022, resource lists 2022, review of our pillar work as outlined in our Annual Implementation Plan and budget, and student leadership selection, finalising prep 22 interviews and our Year 6 Graduation events.  This term is already warming up and students will definitely enjoy their swimming lessons which begin in week 3.  Year 5 & 6 students begin Gala days this Friday and are sure to make the most of this fantastic interschool competition.

2022 Student Leadership Selection Process

This term we hold our 2022 leadership selection process across a number of weeks.  The process will involve current Year 5 students applying for positions with a framework of selection including:  speeches, student voting and administration interviews.  The positions will include: School and Vice Captains, House Captains and Project Captains.  Our students are generally very eager to apply and the roles can be well contested.  We have had excellent quality of candidates over the past years and we support students’ participation.  We encourage parents to support children in developing their resilience throughout the selection process.  As we know, not every student will be successful in gaining the position for which they apply.

Staffing Update

This term we welcome Cath Eurell to our school community.  Cath has been appointed to our Inclusion Coach and Judy Loudon has now replaced Mel Norman as Head of Department (Curriculum).  Cath comes to us with a wealth of experience and qualifications in the inclusion and special needs.  She will be focussing on in class support for students and teachers and supporting our school use of Alternative Augmented Communications and our 2022 prep transition program.

For the first 5 weeks of this term Business Manager Jenny Deans will be working across two schools but will return to us full time in week 6. 

Kay Bradley

Classes 2022  

We will now begin to form 2022 classes.  We endeavour to ensure classes are balanced in terms of gender, learning styles, academic results, English as a second language, specific learning needs and friendships. The link to provide parent information, which was live during August and September is now closed.   

Learning Walks

During term 3, I was able to visit all Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 classes and talk to students about their learning. I asked a number of students the following questions: 

What are you learning?  How are you going? How do you know?  How can you improve? and Where would you go for help? 

The answers the students provided were the basis for a feedback conversation, that I had, with each class teacher. 

I was really impressed that so many students, even from Prep, could talk about their work and were able to articulate what they were learning and how they could improve.  This comes from the implementation of class ‘Bump it up’ walls that explicitly show what is expected for a particular grade.  

Judy Loudon

Welcome back to Term 4. I’m excited to have the opportunity to be the Head of Department Curriculum this term. On Friday this week you will receive the completed Year Level Overviews. These overviews provide snapshot of what each year level is focusing on for the term. Some learning areas, such as HASS may have a focus continuing from Term 3.

My focus this term will be on-

• Establishing the grammar program
• Supporting the 3L Professional Development program
• Aligning the whole school Writing Plan
• Continuing consistency of planning, teaching, assessment and reporting
• Supporting classroom Bump It Up Walls
• Transition to Prep and Secondary

I’d like to acknowledge the amazing work of our Captains, Vice Captains and House Captains during our assembly this week. Thank you!

Jo Minto 

Queensland Mental Health Week 9-17 October, is an annual awareness week that aims to shine a spotlight on mental health and wellbeing.

This year's theme is 'Take time for mental health' which focus on the six actions are: 

• get healthy— being active and eating well is good for your mind as well as your body
• keep learning— learning new things can make you more confident as well as being fun
• show kindness— practising small acts of kindness, volunteering time, or simply helping a friend in need can help you feel more satisfied with life
• connect— spending time with other people is important to everyone's mental wellbeing
• take notice— paying more attention to the present and the world around you helps relieve stress and enjoy the moment
• embrace nature— connecting with the outdoors and taking care of the planet is the best recipe for world wellbeing.

• October is Safe Work Month which is an annual event aimed at putting the spotlight on the importance of safe and healthy workplaces, improving rehabilitation and return to work outcomes for injured staff, and taking time for mental health.
• It also means doing what we can to reduce the prevalence of work-related violence and aggression, supporting injured staff to safely return to work and supporting those going through domestic and family violence.
• The department's theme for Safe Work Month this year is 'Work safe, learn safe, be safe' which reinforces our ongoing commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, students and anyone else who steps into our schools and workplaces.