Term 3 - Week 3 2022

Principal's Message

As a school, we continue to manage our school site and staffing towards the ongoing peak of COVID-19. We acknowledge the impact the recent weeks have had on our families and staff. Thank you to every family for your diligence in keeping children home if they have any flu-like symptoms, as this certainly works towards lessening the spread to other students and staff.

Just like last fortnight’s message, we continue to be focused on maintaining 1.5 meters away from other people whenever possible, practicing good hygiene and staying home when sick. 

We continue to remind students, and I ask for your support at home to keep these good hygiene practises, such as:

• Cover your coughs and sneezes with your elbow or a tissue
• Put used tissues straight into the bin
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, including before and after eating and after going to the toilet
• Use hand sanitisers
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth
• Clean and disinfect frequently used surfaces such as benchtops, desks and doorknobs
• Clean and disinfect frequently used objects such as mobile phones, keys, wallets and work passes
• Increase the amount of fresh air available by opening windows or adjusting air conditioning

The requirement to isolate for a minimum of 7 full days after contracting COVID-19 remains in place.  Staff and students at schools who test positive for COVID-19 are asked to notify the school.

Wearing masks in state schools is a personal decision for individuals to make and any staff member or student who wishes to wear a face mask will be supported to do so.  Currently, there is no public health requirement for wearing a face mask in schools except in certain circumstances (e.g. for 7 days after having COVID-19, or being a close contact). We will continue to provide rapid antigen tests (RATs) to staff and students who develop symptoms while at school, and who are close contacts.

School Improvement Success

As part of our ongoing analysis of whole school data, it was pleasing to share with staff (and now the school community) the recent lift in academic performance in comparison with Semester 1, 2021.  We have seen across the board improvement in our A to E data in both English and Maths, with some year levels exceeding their targets for Semester 1, 2022.  At a recent metro regional leaders’ day, a day where all principals gather, Wynnum State School was recognised as having a significant lift in academic data, with a documented 5% improvement from this time last year. Whilst percentages often look like a cold statistic, this equates to 38 more children receiving a C or above in their reports. For these students, this lift can be the significant moment that changes their own expectations on learning and builds confidence for the future.

This result could not be possible without the significant and ongoing deep understanding of the Australian Curriculum, and a very strong commitment by teachers to deliver high quality first teaching, differentiate support and strong intervention support when required.  Our team consists of remarkable educators doing great work. Bravo! With the introduction of academic case management at Wynnum State School, I am really looking forward to seeing the results in Semester 2 and beyond. 

Term 3 Parent Teacher Interviews 

Coming out of the parent forums was a desire to expand the time at interviews, yet maintaining the approach.  We have made the time slots 12 minutes long.  I can hear people saying "so what?" Well, the extra 2 minutes (or 20% extra - going back to the previous article) will assist in the transition, so that each parent will get at least a solid 10 minutes at interview.  As this is our second go with the format, teachers are now better positioned to deliver the essential components at the meeting, to not only assist in communicating the next steps for your child, but forge a strong working relationship between home and school. 

Our Term 3 Parent teacher interviews will be held on Wednesday 7 September. To secure an interview spot, click on the link below to book.  

https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=70389 

School Opinion Surveys

Thank you to all of those who have already completed the Parent/Caregiver Survey. If you have not had a chance to complete the survey yet, please note that the online surveys will remain open until Friday, 12 August 2022. This is your opportunity to provide feedback about what our school does well and how we can improve.

To have your say, check your email for an invitation from the Department of Education titled School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2022. 

Can’t find your invitation?  If your family has more than one parent/caregiver, check that they haven’t received the invitation and/or check your junk email folder.

Kind regards

Mark

Habits of Mind and Loving Literature Link with Ms Connell (DP Years 1-3)

Our Habit of Mind this fortnight is Taking Responsible Risks. This Habit is about drawing on past knowledge, being thoughtful about consequences, accepting uncertainty and risk of failure as a normal part of the process. One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is the understanding that mistakes help us grow and taking responsible risks helps us in this process! The online book to bring this Habit to life is Too Shy for Show and Tell. Everyone who worries about public speaking will be sure to relate to the character of Sam in the story. Enjoy!

Science News with Mrs Crowe (Prep-3 Science Specialist)

Our Prep Meteorologists did a fantastic job of Striving for Accuracy as they recorded the ‘Bureau of Meteorology’ weather symbols in their Science Journals. Investigations of actual weather reports, and how the symbols provide access for everyone in our community, stimulated much discussion and learning. Look at the beautiful smiles from our young scientists proud of their work!

How does ‘Night and Day’ happen? How long does it take for the Earth to orbit around the sun? What does the moon do? Just ask our Year Three scientists! Working Interdependently, in groups of three, each group actively presented how this phenomenon occurs in space by modelling it in scale with a netball (Sun), a marble (Earth) and a very small sphere of Blu tack (Moon). It is so engaging to actually BE the Sun, Earth or Moon!

National Science Week is coming! Wynnum SS is very excited to have Street Science visiting for a whole school event on Wednesday 17^th August.

Permission and payment notes will be sent home this week. If you wish your child to participate in this amazing experience please send your form and payment back to school before the due date. See below for more information on this truly engaging presentation! https://www.streetscience.com.au/national-science-week/

Street Science celebrates National Science Week 2022 ‘Glass: More than meets the eye’ with our smashing stage show ‘BREAKING POINT’, touring across Queensland from August.

Glass: it’s been around for centuries and is everywhere in our lives – windows, doors, eyewear, screens; not a day goes by without touching glass… but what exactly is this marvellous material?

In this all-new action-packed show, Street Science will crack open the science of glass, with our presenters exploring common questions about how it’s made and used.   Audiences will get CHARGED UP learning lightning's role, ogle over the optics of glasses and magnification, and have a smashing good time testing the strengths and weakness of the glass types we interact with every single day.

This epic show has been designed and specifically tailored to align with the 2022 National Science Week school’s theme.  Your students will gain exciting insights into the chemistry, physics, and sustainability of this valuable resource, complementing curriculum learnings in a way they’ll never forget.

Library Buzz with Mrs Sutton and the Library Team

So, the countdown is on the for 2032 Olympics and Paralympic Games to be held in Brisbane.  Apparently, it is 10 years or 3 648 days away and the Organising Committee is using this milestone to get ‘Brisbane 2032 Ready!’  Well let’s put that aside because we need to get Wynnum State School 20-26^th August Book Week Ready!!  The theme this year is…Dreaming with Eyes Open which acknowledges Australia's First Nations People and their rich story-based culture.  

Book Week is a time for schools, libraries, authors, illustrators and children to celebrate Australian Children’s literature.  Of course, we celebrate books every single day at our school, but Book Week highlights those books that have been shortlisted for National Awards and closer to book week, awards are announced for some of the best books in Australia.  On Friday, we had a special delivery of all the books that have been nominated.  I could see Ms Sellars and Mrs Lakeman drawing straws as to who would get to open the rather large package!  We look forward to sharing these books with students and staff closer to Book Week.

Getting ready also means locking in our diaries our Book Week Dress Up Parade, held on our oval on Friday the 26^th August!  Take a walk through some of last year’s very creative and out of this world costumes, where princesses, knights, animal characters, super heroes and fantasy characters all came to life.  I wonder what you might create this year?

Our Book Week Scholastic Book Fair will be open on the 18^th, 19^th, and 22^nd of August too.  Book displays will be set up in Mega Central on these afternoons after school, for students and parents to view.  Flyers will be coming home very shortly for families to see what is available to buy. There will be a HUGE range of books starting from just a few dollars as well as stationery, posters, pens etc.   

And finally, our WSS Great Book Swap will also be part of Book Week and shortly you will receive information on your child’s participation.

Just keep reading and dreaming…

Readers Cup 2022

Last term Summer H, Atrina G, Kate C, Luke S and Camille O participated in the 2022 Regional Readers Cup Competition. We had to read five chapter books in a period of 10 weeks. Those books were

• The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson
• Worse Things by Sally Murphy
• We Are Wolves by Katrina Nannestad
• Help Around the House by Morris Gleitsman
• The Mummy Smugglers of Crumblin Castle by Pamela Rushby

There were five rounds in total and we tried our hardest to remember all of the important facts to answer the questions.

During the competition we met an Author called Pamela Rushby who wrote ‘The Mummy Smugglers of Crumblin Castle’. We tried our hardest and placed 15^th out of 19 teams. Even though we didn’t come in the top three, we tried our best and won in spirit!

We would like to thank Mrs Lakeman for giving up her lunch breaks and free time to help us prepare for this event, while holding meetings every Wednesday.

We loved every minutes of it and look forward to new literary adventures that await us in High School.

The Readers Cup team

Years 3-6 Enrichment & Extension (E&E) Program 2022

Next week (Week 4) will be an exciting week for students in Years 3-6 as they view the 2022 E&E offerings, discuss options with families and fill in their top four preferences! Families will receive an information email on 3 August. 

Teaching and Learning with Ms O'Donoghue (Head of Curriculum)

Why are vowels important?

Vowels are found in every syllable of every word.  They enable us to distinguish between words such as pant, pint, pent, punt or slip, slap, slop.  Unlike consonants, each of the vowel letters has more than one type of sound or can even be silent with no sound at all.  If a child doesn’t know vowel sounds, they will struggle with reading.

Practising reading and writing words will ensure our children are looking closely at the sounds of the vowels.  Thinking of words that have the same vowel sound and sorting them into their digraphs helps us to ‘see’ words and make decisions for reading and spelling.  Looking through books and trying to find words with that sound can also be a strategy to help.

Year 5 News with Mrs Colledge

The Story Dogs Reading Program launches again this term, with the Story Dogs team once again visiting the Year 5 cohort each Thursday morning. This program is a fun and unique way to support reading. Students are provided with an opportunity each week to improve their skills and gain confidence as they read aloud to Boss, a trained companion dog, and Kerrie his handler.

Young Writers Program with Author - Samantha Wheeler

The Young Writers Program, facilitated by Moreton Bay Environmental Education Centre, in partnership with published children’s author, Samantha Wheeler, is underway. Ten students from Year 5 are participating in this exciting enrichment opportunity by developing their skills and ability to write, edit and produce creative and engaging texts which will eventually become a collective publication. To stimulate and encourage the story writing, students are provided with a theme. This year the program is aligning with the 2022 Book Week theme of “Dreaming with Eyes Open” which is about stepping into your own story, listening to Country as the first storyteller and learning from friends who help you on your way. A presentation by a Quandamooka Cultural Officer and workshops with Samantha Wheeler over three days, will support our young writers on their journey to become published authors.

The Kilometre Club with The Student Council

The Student Council have some exciting news…the Kilometre Club has recommenced for 2022! If you want to run off some energy, maybe get fitter or just enjoy the morning sun, then this is for you. Every Friday morning at 8:15 till 8:45am, all students are invited to come to the terraces to run around the oval. This is open to all year levels and each lap earns points for your house. The following photos are from last year where we had huge participation from our students. We hope to see as many students as possible join in this energetic and fun event each Friday.

Ready, Set, GO for ICAS 2022

If you have registered your child for the ICAS assessments, please see the timetable below.  They will need to meet at Mega at 7.15am so we can start the tests promptly at 7.30am.  All tests will be held in the Year 5 classrooms H Block.

♫ Music Notes with Mrs Gordon (Music Teacher)

♫ Classroom Music

Year 6 students are currently training their brains in Classroom Music performing body percussion patterns whilst singing known songs.

Year 5 students are travelling ‘Around the World’ in Classroom Music this semester. Currently they are on the continent of Africa learning a traditional welcome song and playground games.

♫ Instrumental Music

Please contact Mr Cosic  jcosi7@eq.edu.au or Mrs Thomas vthom38@eq.edu.au if you have not received the Term 3 Version 2 Instrumental Music Timetable.

Letters will be sent home this week regarding the Manly Markets performance on Sunday 28^th August for the Concert Bands. Both Junior & Senior Bands will perform at this event.

Band Performance Date Claimers -          

• Sunday 28^th August: Music by the Bay - Manly Markets
• Tuesday 6^th September - WAMM (Wynnum and Manly Music Workshop) Intermediate: ALL Year 5 IM Students
• Wednesday 7^th & Thursday 8^th September - WAMM Senior: ALL Year 6 IM Students 

Please make sure your child is aware of their lesson time and prepared with a working instrument and music every Thursday.

♫ Choir                                                        

Please note the slightly earlier start to Senior Choir Rehearsals on a Wednesday morning 7:50am – 8:40am

Senior Choir Date Claimer – Thursday 1^st September Singfest

Junior Choir students are asked to bring an old display folder to Choir rehearsals to keep their word sheets in. This folder will go home (and needs to come back every Tuesday) so that students can learn the words to the songs we are singing.

♫ Overview of Music Rehearsals

Sports News with Mr Blair (PE Teacher)

In the following weeks Wynnum SS is sending Emma B, Mia B, Ezra D and Azalea T to district athletics representing the school in various track and field events. We wish them all the best. A reminder to families that our Smart Moves/Athletics Carnival will be on the 19^th August. It would be great to see families there cheering our students on. For students in Years 4, 5 and 6: students can bring their own shin guards to PE lessons as we continue with our soccer unit.
What a great Q Clash game of AFL with the Brisbane Lions winning with a great final quarter.

NAIDOC Week with Student Council

The Wynnum SS NAIDOC assembly was on the 13^th of July 2022. The Student Council would like to thank all those students who submitted an entry into the colouring-in competition. The library had an abundance of entries and they found it very difficult to select a winner with so many artistic and creative entries. Well done to all the winners. From all of us here, every drawing was a winner.

Thank you, Mr. Dion Skinner for attending the assembly as well and presenting the prizes to our winners.

Thank you to Mr. Ionn for presenting his amazing speech about what NAIDOC week really means.

Also, a huge thank you to the Bayside College dancers who performed three indigenous dances to showcase to our community.

We were astonished to see all the parents who came to this fantastic NAIDOC assembly. 

Upcoming Prep 2023 Tour - Wednesday 17 August

Creative Dance Industries - Unite Eisteddfod

Congratulations to our dance students who participated in the Unite Eistedfod. The students have been highly commended on their great efforts for their dance routines.  Well done Wynnum Warriors!

P & C News

The P&C would like to acknowledge the special role our PCYC Educators play in our community and thank them for the special role they play looking after our children. Wednesday 27^th July 2022 was National Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) Educators Day. A day to celebrate the safe, caring environment that is provided at before and after school hours care and vacation care. Wynnum State School Educators play an important role in our community by ensuring our children have access to play and leisure-based educational programs. 

The next P&C meeting will be held on the third Thursday of the month, the 18^th of August 2022.

The P&C Executive is currently working to determine the best format for engaging with our school community. While the online meetings, through Microsoft Teams, have enabled those who cannot attend in person to engage with the P&C, there are several technical challenges that must be resolved for this to work effectively. So please keep an eye on the Wynnum P&C Facebook page for more details closer to Thursday 18^th August.  

Tuckshop – Opening hours, winter special and volunteers

The Tuckshop is open three full days a week – Monday, Thursday, and Fridays. Please have orders in by 9:15am for First or Second Break.

The Tuckshop is also open Tuesday and Wednesday between 8:30am and 9:00am for drinks, fruit, yoghurt, or snack packs only.

Snack packs ($6 each) include popcorn, juice, a piece of fruit, a homemade muffin, a cheese stick, and crackers. 

This winter, the Tuckshop is offering a Term 3 special. Between 8:30am - 8:45am students can purchase:

• Warm milo - $2
• Raisin Toast - $1

The Tuckshop is always looking for volunteers, even for a few hours a month. Alternatively, if you are unable to volunteer the Tuckshop will gratefully accept donations. Please contact June to discuss volunteering or for a list of items the Tuckshop can accept - wynnumss.tuckshop@gmail.com

School Bus Services

Just a reminder that we have a bus service that runs from Wynnum State School. Below is a link to both services.

https://jp.translink.com.au/plan-your-journey/timetables/bus/T/815

https://jp.translink.com.au/plan-your-journey/timetables/bus/t/819/outbound/2022-05-31

A Go Card will need to be purchased to be able to utilise this Translink bus service. The following link lists retail outlets of where to purchase a Go card https://translink.com.au/tickets-and-fares/go-card/locations 

2022 School Term Dates

Term 3: Monday 11 July to Friday 16 September 

Term 4: Tuesday 4 October to Friday 9 December 

QSchools App

Don't forget to download the QSchools App to your Iphone or Android device.  The QSchools App is another great way for Wynnum State School families to receive and read our fortnightly school newsletter and also receive important notifications regarding school events.  Simply download to your phone and 'star' Wynnum State School as your 'favourite' school.  

Community News