Dr Carmel McGrath

Harmony Day 

Harmony Day Book Display. The books represent the students cultural background in the school. We have such diversity!

Possum Magic

COVID-19 Update

Thank you to all parents for continuing to follow and reinforce the key messages I have sent in directly from Education Queensland as advised by Health.  There has been a bombardment of messaging in the media and via social media, which has affected parents and staff.  The health and safety of students, families and staff remains our top priority and our challenge remains maintaining a calm supportive learning environment for students both at school and for those who have chosen to self-isolate at home.  

NAPLAN 2020

All Australian Education Ministers agreed that NAPLAN will not proceed this year. This decision was made in recognition of the disruption being created by COVID-19 to school routines and to enable teachers to continue their focus on student learning and wellbeing. NAPLAN Online practice tests that were to occur this week were cancelled.

School Operations

We continue to take advice from health authorities on the status of our school operations. The current health advice is that schools should remain open at this time.

Currently, the only exceptions to this is where a school may be asked to close when a confirmed COVID-19 case is identified that closely and directly impacts school students or staff and where contact tracing may be required or where a broader direction may be given.

Thank you to Nick Fenton and teaching staff for continuing to prepare for students and families to access through online or off campus learning locations. 

Increased allocations for school cleaning

We are continuing to ensure that we allow for even greater attention and frequency to cleaning activity in our school, particularly the high touch points around classrooms and amenities blocks.

Learning Content and On-line Platforms

We are fortunate that a variety of delivery platforms and online learning materials are already available and used in many state schools. As outlined in the recent State Schools Update, a range of resources and materials are available for Prep to Year 12.  You can find more information about these options on OnePortal.

State education systems across Australia have also agreed to share state developed resources with each other to ensure every state and territory has a variety of ready-made materials available for all schools. This will continue to build on the large number of curriculum resources already available here in Queensland.

Curriculum support for absent students

A number of staff have enquired about the level of curriculum support to be provided for students who are not in attendance during this event. While recognising that some families are electing to keep their children at home, state schools remain open as advised by all of Australia’s Chief Health Officers.

The department is continuing to develop 2 week units of work that are available in the event of school closures.

I encourage teachers to continue with their normal protocols with regard to ill students.  If parents/caregivers have elected to keep their children who are well at home, families will be able to access curriculum materials via the Department of Education learning@home website. The materials are from our existing Learning Place and are being made publicly available for families. Additional links to high quality public learning sites are also being made available.

Outside Classroom Activities

A number of extracurricular activities at the school, cluster, regional and state level have now been postponed or cancelled to curb the spread of COVID-19.  This includes:  large gatherings such as school assemblies, events such as excursions, camps, sports, and cluster initiatives such as High Achievers, Mini Festivals, Student Leader’s Legacy projects and Moderation sessions.  There are some of these activities, which have been postponed, and others, which will not happen this year.  As this is an evolving and dynamic situation, no firm decisions can made about the reintroduction of such activities until at least Semester 2.

Effective hand hygiene is vital

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, it is important to remember that effective hand and sneeze/cough hygiene is the best defence against viruses and can help prevent the spread of illness.

Lead by example and encourage your children to:

• wash their hands regularly with soap and water, before and after eating, and after going to the toilet
• use alcohol-based hand sanitiser if soap is not available
• cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or the inside of their elbow
• dispose of tissues in the bin immediately
• if they’re unwell, stay at home and avoid contact with others such as touching, kissing or hugging.

Check out the 20 second routine video for effective handwashing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpmB80pWUsk&feature=youtu.be

Traffic Around Our School

Arriving at Heal St: Thank you for your cooperation in the morning drop offs.  Just a reminder that the driver should remain in the car and students should get out of the car by themselves and then go straight into the school.  Staff are on duty to monitor and assist in the transition process. 

Leaving: While for the most part, the pick up area is working quite well, there is certainly still room for improvement.  Students should enter the car from the curbside only as entering from the driver’s side has caused a great deal of concern for student safety. Unfortunately, we still have some drivers encouraging this unsafe behaviour. 

In some instances, drivers have parked and left the vehicle to go and collect children from the school.  This is incredibly frustrating for other drivers delayed by further interruptions to ‘traffic flow’.  Your child will be directed to your car when you reach the top of the cul-de-sac area so please wait in line.  If you need or wish to go in to collect your child, that is absolutely fine but you should find a park elsewhere and not use the Hawthorne Street area at this time.

With everyone’s cooperation, the drop off and pick up procedures are very smooth and safe for all.  Thanking you.

At pick up and drop off, please remember:

• Drivers and other passengers remain in your car
• Display your family name on the car dash for staff to see
• Be Patient and stay in the flow of traffic
• Follow the instruction of the staff member

What not to do:

• Do not park and leave your vehicle
• Do not direct your child to the driver’s side door
• Do not encourage or instruct your child to walk across the road to your vehicle

Parent Involvement

Our school has an outstanding culture of parent and community involvement and we are very appreciative of the support given.  Our P&C is our key parent body, which supports the work of the school by aligning with the school’s strategic and operational priorities for both its 4 year Strategic Plan and its Annual Improvement Plan.  This year our P&C will be developing its own Strategic Plan and this will both align with the School’s Strategic Direction and provide continuity to parents as the executive and P&C members change from year to year.  I sincerely thank our current P&C executive David, Janelle, Sheroo and Belinda for their incredible volunteer work and for their support and guidance during the 2019 year. 

The P&C Annual General Meeting to be held on Tuesday 17 March at 6pm in the school library was postponed. 

This will be a forum for joining the P&C and electing the 2020 Executive members.  The P&C is a great way to learn more about the school and to get involved in the planning and consultation, which occurs throughout the year.  I welcome all newcomers to this year’s AGM, date to be advised.  Following the AGM, a general meeting is held and the newly elected Executive will lead the meeting.

Class parent representatives

Thank you so much to all parents who have volunteered to be this year’s class parent representatives.  The role of the class reps is to provide additional information sharing at the class level and support both teachers and parents to keep abreast of school activities and events.  The official school channels of communication remain the school website ( while schools are operational), SMS text messaging and schoolzine (newsletter, excursions).  Further details about the protocols of the role will be sent directly to the parent reps and again I thank all these parents for assisting in this voluntary capacity. 

If you have changed contact details recently please complete the Change of Details form and return it to the school office.

Wanted – we are still encouraging any parent interested in either Curriculum, Well-Being or Innovation (Science Tech Engineering Arts Math - STEAM) to email and let me know as we are very keen to ensure we have parents involved every step of the way on our learning.  Please email admin@newfarmss.eq.edu.au – address attention COMMITTEE INTEREST

Kay Bradley

Thank you for your support and understanding as we manage the unprecedented events relating to the impact of COVID-19. We have received numerous messages of support from our community and this means a great deal to our team.  Our teachers and support staff continue to do excellent work providing a calm, stable learning environment for our students.

From Tuesday 24 March, Queensland state school parents and caregivers have been offered a choice as to how their children receive their learning either at home or at school.

If you choose to keep your children at home, learning materials are now available on the Department of Education’s new learning at home website: learning@home .This website has downloadable learning materials, tips for parents and links to other well-regarded, free education websites that parents and caregivers and their children can use.

If you choose to keep your child at home, you must ensure they stay at home and that they continue their learning using the material and websites that you can access online. Teachers are currently collating additional resources and communication tools that we may use in the future and also have a full teaching workload. To help us manage staff wellbeing, in this current situation, I request that you do not contact teachers individually, seeking home tasks, but refer to the sites listed above.   

Student Attendance

As is always the case, I ask parents and caregivers to let our school know if your child will not be attending school, for how long and the reason why. Providing us with a tentative return date e.g. end of the term, which can be changed later, will ensure your student’s absence is marked correctly.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

At this point, face-to-face parent/teacher interviews have been cancelled. We are currently investigating alternative means of communicating student progress.

P.B.L. FOCUS OF THE WEEK

Colouring and Naming Competition

Can you name the possum that lives in Dr McGraths office?

Come to the library in your lunch break to colour and name the possum that lives in Dr McGraths office.

Leave your colouring sheets in the box in the library and a winner will be drawn!

IMPORTANT UPDATE…..

Tuckshop Closed Until Further Notice

We regret to inform you that our tuckshop will not be opening this Wednesday 25 March 2020 after all.

It was previously advised that we would be opening on the 25 March however this will no longer be the case.  All pre-orders placed on Flexischools will be cancelled and the money returned to your Flexischools account.  You should receive a notification from Flexischools stating this, please contact them directly if you don’t receive this notification.  If you require any further assistance, you can email me at the below email address, I’m more than happy to help.

We apologise if this closure inconveniences anyone in anyway.  The last thing we want to do in these unsettling times is to cause more disruption however we have made this decision for reasons we believe to be for the benefit of our school community.

Our tuckshop couldn’t run without your support and we’d like to say a very big THANK YOU for your custom to date. 

We will miss providing this service to the students and teachers more than you know and hope to be back up and running, along with the rest of the world, in the not too distant future.

Until then, please stay safe everyone.

Thank you again,

Michelle G, Rachael, Michelle L & Vanessa

Convenor:  Michelle Gerrard

email hello@nfsspandc.com.au

IMPORTANT UPDATE…..

Uniform shop Closed Until end of term.

Please be aware all school banking has been temporarily suspended, we will circulate information as it comes to hand.

School holidays are almost upon us

During this period empty schools provide an opportunity for criminal activity, becoming targets for unlawful entry, arson, stealing, graffiti and property damage – all of which become a cost to the community.

The School Watch Program is a partnership between Education Queensland, the Queensland Police Service and the State Government Protective Security Service.  It aims to reduce criminal activity in Queensland schools and encourages everyone to look out for after-hours crime in our schools.  If you see anything suspicious, please don’t attempt to intervene.

Call the School Watch number – 13 17 88

Let’s work together to help create safer school communities.

If you have information for police, contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.

You can report information about crime anonymously to Crime Stoppers, a registered charity and community volunteer organisation, by calling 1800 333 000 or via crimestoppersqld.com.au 24hrs per day.

We would like to thank our sponsors for their continuing support for 2020.