Dr Carmel McGrath

P&C and Fete

Just a reminder that we are discussing our final fete arrangements tonight at P&C, all welcome.  Thank you so much to all our dedicated parents who have given so much time and effort to this weekend’s biannual fete.  A special thanks to our dedicated Executive David, Janelle, Sheroo and Belinda and our Fete Convenor Laura for their untiring support.  I hope everyone comes along to support our school in a major fundraiser and enjoy the fun filled day.

All raffle tickets and money must be returned to the office by 1.00pm Friday14 June

Master Plan Community Consultation

Thank you to all community members, neighbours, parents and carers, staff and students who enthusiastically attended our first Master Plan consultation sessions at our hall last Thursday afternoon.  It was a wonderful turn-out and people flowed through from 3-6pm engaging with Departmental Master Plan staff and the Minister for Education Honourable Grace Grace.  There were some very productive discussions, ideas and suggestions provided on the day.  We look forward to seeing the collation of these and notification of further consultation opportunities.

Typing Club Start Up

I am pleased to invite students in Year 2-6 to our Typing Club which will run our new typing program each Tuesday 8:15 – 8:45am in the school lab A Block.  Typing skills are becoming more important for students to master and this is a great way to have a little extra practice.

Where:   The Computer Lab

When:    Tuesdays 8:15-8:45

First 25 students in, get a PC to work on.

This club is using the same typing program that the classes have access to at school.  Class teachers have the ability to create logins for their students to access this program.  If they have not, please ask your child’s teacher to do so. At this time, students can come and join the Typing Club using their class login and password.

This club will be run as a self-paced program.  Staff in the room with students are not there to teach but to monitor behaviour.

Come and join in next Tuesday.

 School Uniforms

We have definitely needed our jumpers over the past week.  It is timely to remind all families that our correct winter school uniform is the official NFSS jumper.  There are a number of students wearing various coloured jumpers and coats to school and they are being reminded that a school jumper is appropriate uniform. 

Reporting Period

Staff are currently finalising student assessment and collating results for the semester 1 report cards.  Over the next few weeks teachers will be involved in a number of sessions focusing on student data and improvement.  This week I meet with all year levels to review student progress and identify data trends with a view to developing intervention and extension strategies for continued growth and achievement.  Next week teachers will meet in year levels with Curriculum Coordinator Rachael Seibhur to review term 3 curriculum planning and assessment tasks.  In the final week of school teachers will again meet to focus more specifically on making adjustments to the planning and assessment to cater for individual students with specific identified needs.

   

Kay Bradley

Report Cards

 All our teachers are currently working on the assessment and reporting stage of the teaching cycle, with report cards emailed out just before the holidays.   These report cards will follow on from Parent/Teacher interviews and will provide some information on ‘where to next’. 

We use a five-point scale in our reporting; Becoming Aware, Exploring, Working With, Making Connections and Applying in Prep and E – A grades in year 1 – 6.  The terms, ‘Working With’ and ‘C’ grade indicate that a student is at the expected standard in a particular area of the curriculum.

P.B.L. FOCUS OF THE WEEK

On Thursday 6 June, the Department of Education held a consultation session to seek community feedback on the concept master plan for New Farm State School. Thank you to everyone who attended the event to provide valuable input.

This enables the commencement of further planning for our school which will include more opportunities for our school community to help shape this exciting development.

The valuable feedback you have provided will be considered by the department during planning for stage 1. There are a number steps that need to be undertaken in the planning phase as shown below and further consultation is expected to be undertaken in 2019.

Stage 1 is proposed to deliver a new general learning centre including 8 general learning areas (GLAs), 1 outdoor learning area, 1 practical learning area, staff offices and staff professional development area.

Master plan development

New Farm State School was selected as one of the 35 inner city schools to participate in the Building Future School Funds master planning program.

Master plans provide a visual snapshot of a school’s current state, and graphically assist in planning for future strategic infrastructure needs of school communities, as a holistic inner-city network.

The concept master plan for NFSS builds on the work undertaken with the school community to develop the 2014 master plan, and identifies opportunities to accommodate future growth on site.

School community representatives provided input into the development of the master plan at a visioning worship on 4 September 2018 and through an online survey in September/October 2018 to identify strengths and priorities to be captured by the master plan.

THE TUCKSHOP IS NOW OPEN 4 DAYS A WEEK

The tuckshop is open on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.

Here are our daily specials:

• Monday - homemade pies and sausage rolls
• Wednesday - pasta and pizza
• Thursday – sushi, sushi bento box and soup (alternating between pumpkin & chicken noodle soup)
• Friday - sausage sizzle and nachos

Orders need to be placed for sushi and the sushi bento box by the Monday.

TUCKSHOP VOLUNTEERING

We will be contacting the class reps to arrange volunteers for Term 3

Week 8 – 2P

Week 9 – 1/2N

Week 10 – 1F

We are also looking for volunteers who are happy to be placed on a back-up register to provide homebake and/or tuckshop help. Please come and see us at the tuckshop if you are able to help.

Have a great week,

Vanessa, Rachael, Leanne & Tarnya

There have been major improvements in the playing skills of both our netball teams. Well done girls! The scores for the junior team were 1-20, 9-0, 5-9, 2-1 and the senior team were 7-2, 9-6, 11-10, 14-0. Amazing job New Farm netballers! Miss Zayn al-Abidin.

From the organisors

After helping out with the canteen today for the Gala Day,  I thought I would provide a little feedback in the hope you may be able to pass it on to the participating schools?

Craig and I had the canteen and facilities open from around 8:30am and, as you can imagine, there was a steady stream of kids lining up for treats. Throughout the day we served dozens of kids from all sorts of schools and were blown away by a number of things;

Their manners and behaviour were outstanding. We were never short of a please or thank you and were always greeted with a smile The girls were delightful, engaging, always so polite and a pleasure to deal with.

The respect they showed for the grounds and facilities was very much appreciated. I regularly checked on the bathrooms and never had to do much more than top up the paper. Although in use all day, the girls obviously took great care to keep the areas clean. I don't think I picked up more than an occasional lolly wrapper from the ground all day.

We also noted how kindly the girls interacted with each other and between schools. It was lovely to watch them have such a great day all together, thanks, in no small part, the schools themselves and their parents for teaching this lovely group how to have heaps of fun but to do so with respect, courtesy and school pride.

 Well done to the staff and the girls themselves for setting such a great example for the schools they represented today.

 Regards,

 Jenn.

Students, Mika and Ashley, had been nominated by the City District to participate in High Jump at the Met North Regional Track and Field Trials last week.

 We are proud to say that they were successful in gaining places in their event.

Mika was awarded a Silver Medal with some equally placed jumpers and narrowly missed selection for the State Championships in a “Jump-off” which determined who of the equally placed jumpers would proceed to the State Championships for the Met north Region.

Ashley placed 3^rd in her event, won a Bronze Medal and now will represent Met North Regional School Sport at the Queensland School Sport State Championships to be held at QEII, 15/16 August.

Well done, to both!

Attendance- Parents please remember if your child is late, you will need to attend the office to sign them in and obtain a late slip for your child to give to their teacher.  If students are being collected early due to an appointment or similar, they must wait in the foyer and the parent will sign them out before leaving. All student movements must be recorded through the office.

Absence from School – Please contact the office absentee line on 3358 7333 option 1 or via email absences@newfarmss.eq.edu.au  All students need to be accounted for each day. Please leave the following information when calling or emailing. Your name and contact number, your child's name and their class, their reason for absence and length of absence if known. We cannot have any unexplained absences on our rolls each day. If you are going on holidays please contact the office prior to leaving on your holiday.

Please also remember that regular attendance is paramount to high achievement. 

Attendance + Effort = Achievement

Entry to school outside normal hours-

Parents please be aware that if you are required to collect your child during the day for an appointment or from first aid you will need to access the office via the Hawthorn street pedestrian gate or the Heal street pedestrian gate. You will be required to obtain a leaving slip from the office prior to collecting your child. All other gates will be locked by 9.15am and reopened by 2. 45pm in the afternoon.  

We would like to thank our wonderful cleaning team on all their hard work each day.

School Cleaners’ Day coincides with International Cleaners Day which provides the opportunity to draw public attention to the valuable contribution of cleaners in society.

Thank you to our regular team

Libby, Gebe, Dereje and Ana. We really appreciate your tireless efforts in the contribution you make to our school team. The Staff and students appreciate your continuing support.

Thank you to our various regular casual team, they are always here to support us when we require some extra assistance.

Thank you to Isadora, Carolina and Gabriele.

The team is always very accommodating with requests at short notice when needed.

On behalf of the New Farm SS Staff we say Thank you

Get involved in the School Banking program.

New Farm State School is excited to offer the Commonwealth Bank School Banking program to all students.

School Banking is a fun, interactive and engaging way for young Australians to learn about money and develop good savings habits. Children who deposit money into their Youthsaver account through School Banking earn Dollarmites tokens, which they can save up and redeem for exciting rewards.

The rewards available during 2019 are:

* Scented Stackable Highlighters 

* Snowy Origami Set                 

* Icicle Slapband Ruler 

* Yeti Fluffly Notepad 

* Arctic Owl Fluffy Keyring

* Scratch Art Cards

* Water Skimming Bounce Ball 

* Polar Pencils & Pencil Toppers

School Banking is also a great fundraiser for our school. Our school receives a Regular Savers Contribution of $5 for every 10 deposits processed per student as well as an Annual Contribution which is based on the number of students who made at least one School Banking deposit in the prior year.

Getting involved in School Banking is easy!

All you need to get involved in the School Banking program is a Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account. You can open an account for your child in one of two ways:  

1. Online

Visit commbank.com.au/schoolbanking and click on the link to open a Youthsaver account. 

2. In branch

Visit a Commonwealth Bank branch with identification for yourself and your child, like a driver’s licence and birth certificate.

If your child has an existing Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account they can start banking straight away. They just need to bring their deposit in every week on School Banking day using their Dollarmites deposit wallet. 

School Banking day is every Friday (except for the first and last Friday of each term). Each week you just need to hand in your bank book between 8.15 - 8.45am outside the Library.

If you would like to know more about School Banking, please ask for a 2019 School Banking program information pack at banking on Friday morning or visit commbank.com.au/schoolbanking

For further information, please contact Belinda Hill on bjyates12@hotmail.com

Our Fete is coming up this week on Sunday, the 16^th of June.

In previous years, all of the rides were located on the school oval.  This year however, the oval has recently been top dressed and is too soft to support our usual choice of rides (e.g. the Supa Slide, Chair Swing and Scrambler).  We have been advised that the oval surface will only accommodate light trucks.  As a result, we are limited to inflatables and the Tea Cups on the oval and the only place we have to put our major attraction is on Heal Street.

We would like to close the top of Heal St to external traffic for the day of the fete (and possibly the night before if we can). We expect this to involve a manned barrier, to allow access for residents and fete deliveries only. We need the road as clear as possible and keep as many cars from parking on the street.

   Key points:

• Road closed Sunday 16 June from 7am-4pm
• No parking on the road during this time
• Traffic controller to provide vehicular access to:

*local residents

*disabled permit holders

*fete delivery/service providers

*emergency services

On the day of the fete, from about 7am to 4pm, we would like to put our major ride on the street as close as possible to the entrance of the oval. This will necessitate the fencing off of a segment of the road and parking a large truck alongside the school.

The rides will be delivered from 6am on the Fete Day and removed by 4pm, at which point the street will be opened as normal.

If you have any concerns on the day of the fete, please contact our Rides Convenor, Louise Ware on 0458 906 666.