Term 1 - 2024 Week 7 Newsletter
- Principal's Message with Mr Ionn
- ANZAC Day
- 2025 Prep Enrolments Now Open
- Wynnum SS March Calendar
- Library Matters with Mrs Sutton and the Library Team
- P-2 Science and Technology with Mrs Crowe
- Sports Report with Mr. Blair
- Reconciliation Action Plan
- Wynnum Warriors ‘Step Up to Clean Up’ Day
- Walking & Learning Day at MBEEC
- P&C News
- PCYC - Before & After School Care
- School Facebook Page
- Qparents
- Absentee Line
- 2024 School Term Dates
- School Bus Services
- Community News
- Chess Mates
- Wynnum Vikings
Principal's Message with Mr Ionn
Queensland Women’s Week
Queensland Women’s Week (QWW), 3–10 March, recognises and celebrates the successes and achievements of women and girls across Queensland.
In 2024, the QWW theme Count Her In, aligns with the UN Women Australia’s International Women’s Day theme. International Women’s Day is globally celebrated on 8 March and falls during QWW.
The Office for Women has created a promotional toolkit to help promote QWW 2024 in workplaces, on social media and in communities. #QWW24 #CountHerIn
Profile Spotlight – Business Managers
Although I am surrounded by amazing women, Bianca Sweet and Jas Green are two shining examples of women that make a significant difference in our work at Wynnum State School.
Sharing different aspects of the Business Manager role, we are fortunate to have two experienced Business Managers (or BM’s) leading in our school.
The remit of their work is huge. Bianca and Jas’s responsibilities range from finance to facilities to Human Resources and so much more. Schools are responsible for significant budgets and fiscal resourcing, and I rely on them to literally keep our school running!
Their expertise allows me and the team the luxury of planning and delivering the school experience that we all want for our Wynnum Warriors. Their combined commitment to seeing kids are at the core of all business decisions is totally admirable and worth celebrating. The Business Manager is included in the executive leadership team in our school, as this is paramount to ensuring an inclusive and cohesive leadership footprint.
AGM
The Wynnum State School P&C Annual General Meeting (or AGM) will be taking place on March 14, 2024, at 6:30 PM in the school admin block. I encourage your attendance, and consider taking a role or nominating another member to play a crucial role within the P&C Executive Committee (President, Treasurer, Vice-President, or Secretary). It would be wonderful to see new and existing members at the meeting to continue the valuable work of supporting the learners of our school.
NAPLAN 2024
As highlighted in the last newsletter, we are about to enter into the 2024 NAPLAN period. The test window is nine days, from Wednesday 13 March to Monday 25 March 2024.
This will be the second year that NAPLAN takes place in March, and I wish all our Year 3 & 5 Warriors well during this year’s testing.
Being ready for NAPLAN looks like:
- Teachers and parents supporting positive self-talk with our Warriors - always focusing on what they can do, and focusing on them just having a go
- Parents ensuring in that window of school time that our Year 3 and 5 students have lots of sleep and come to school without feeling the pressure of the test
- Our NAPLAN team giving Warriors opportunities to see what the platform and questions may look like during the live testing period.
Let’s do it!
ANZAC Day
2025 Prep Enrolments Now Open
Wynnum SS March Calendar
Library Matters with Mrs Sutton and the Library Team
Scholastic Book Club, Issue 2 2024 is out now and orders will close on Wednesday 13th March. Spare catalogues are available at the library circulation desk. Ordering can be done on line or cash orders can be handed into the library. You can always check our Qschools app for notifications of closing times. By placing book orders through Scholastic our school earns points, which are spent on more books and resources for classrooms and the library. Take some time to look through the next catalogue.
Happy Birthday Dr Seuss! (Born 2 March 1904)
Fun fact…The Cat in the Hat only uses 220 different words throughout the whole book - and none of them are more than five letters long except for the word “SHOULD”. Cat in the hat is considered one of the all-time best-selling children’s books.
Also…did you know… His all-time best-selling book was created on a bet.
Dr Seuss’ editor Bennett Cerf bet him he couldn’t write a book using 50 or fewer words. The result is 1960’s “Green Eggs and Ham.” The story is about the character Sam-I-Am, trying to convince an unknown character to eat green eggs and ham!
Here are the 50 words used…
a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you!
Think and Wonder, Wonder and Think (Dr Seuss)
Just keep reading!
P-2 Science and Technology with Mrs Crowe
Prep to Year Two scientists have been very busy and excited while helping to set up and plant our new school P-2 Science Garden!
Every class has had a part to play in transforming a useless cement space into a green, productive area that is fast becoming a special place in our school where everyone stops, talks and feels good! The rain gauge has been filling some days which caused a buzz of scientific discussion and measurement! The natural rocks are great to sit on while chatting to friends and watching the new herbs and vegetable seedlings begin to grow. We have even seen birds having a bath in the bird bath!
Two worm farms have been set up nearby to recycle our school waste and feed the plants. There are more stages of gardening to complete this side of the Science Lab a healthy, happy and productive place for insects, birds and all our students and their family visitors! A very big thank you to our groundsman Mr Eric (AKA Mr. Scarecrow to the Preps!) for working with us to make this space great!
Year One palaeontologists created dinosaur models to show their understanding of the features of living things that assist them to survive in their habitat. Excellent models of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, with many features such as horns, sharp teeth, grinding teeth, armour, spikes and claws were taken home with pride!
Classes participated in ‘Step Up to Clean Up’ at our school on Wednesday of Week 7. Gloves on many hands collected all rubbish laying around our gardens and play areas. All participating classes received a participation certificate which is now proudly displayed on their classroom door. Check the next newsletter for results and photos!
World Science Festival Brisbane is here next week! Presale for ticketed events is open. Please click this link to see the range of enthralling events to book and to check out all the free science events.
Sports Report with Mr. Blair
As we come to the final lessons of Term 1 swimming during Physical Education, I would like to thank Bayside Swim School teachers: Rachel, Jemima and Zoe for their ongoing support and experience. Our students benefit from your well-prepared and caring approach to swimming teaching.
Pictured are some of our classes participating in recent lessons. Students have participated in survival scenarios, treading water, created whirlpools to learn about currents and their power, used floatation devices, floated without support, entered the water safely in ways such as pencil dives, safety steps and more, practiced survival strokes, practiced retrieving objects that sink by submerging, and overall increased their confidence whilst in the water- having fun while they learn!
In some photos students are participating in circuits or treading water with extra clothes on over the top of their swimmers. This is a challenge for students in Years 5 and 6 who are replicating the real world scenario of falling into the water with heavy clothes on. In small groups, students have to remove the extra, heavy clothes off whilst treading water and then swim a distance to “safety.” Students in Years 5 and 6 have one more opportunity to complete this challenge in their last swim lesson next week.
Younger grades have been participating in reach rescues, moving though the water in various ways with and without kickboards or pool noodles, learnt about beach safety and where it is or isn’t safe to swim and played games as a class making memories and strengthening friendships.
We will be having our last swim lessons during Week 8, and then focus our attention to cross country which is happening in Week 9 on the Friday, morning session for Years 3-6. Hope to see you there!
Reconciliation Action Plan
Each term we have a group of people from across the school, including parents, teachers, outside agencies and local area school colleagues, who meet and discuss the ways in which we can share First Nations experiences and cultural understanding across the school. Our Wynnum Bajara is always evolving and building, reflecting on how we are sharing information and planning our celebration or commemoration days. This year Wynnum State School is beginning the process to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan for our school. A Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is a formal commitment to reconciliation. It documents how our school will strengthen relationships, respect and opportunities in the classroom, around the school, and within the community. In order to establish a RAP, we need to form a working group. If this is something that you would like to be a part of or you have any questions, please email Nina Gibbs ngibb26@eq.edu.au
Wynnum Warriors ‘Step Up to Clean Up’ Day
Our Wynnum Warriors eagerly stepped up to clean up our school environment on Wednesday 6th March. Participating classes were all very determined to pick up every single piece of rubbish from all nooks and crannies in our gardens and pathways. Just under 14kgs of rubbish was collected over the day!
Walking & Learning Day at MBEEC
P&C News
PCYC - Before & After School Care
School Facebook Page
Please visit the page via this link https://www.facebook.com/WynnumStateSchool and click Like!
Qparents
Have you downloaded the Qparents app?
QParents is a secure, online portal that has been created to provide parents/carers of Queensland state school students with 24-hour access to their child's information.
Qparents allows you to securely access information about your child and communicate directly with your child's school.
Features of Qparents:
- attendance details
- report cards
- invoices
- payment history
- excursion permissions
Currently we have roughly 80 percent of parents/carers on Qparents. If you haven’t already made an account with Qparents, new invitation codes have just been emailed home.
Any further questions please contact the school office.
Absentee Line
To notify the school of your child's absence, please text your child's name and reason for absence to 0429 467 361.
2024 School Term Dates
| QLD school term 2024 | QLD school term dates |
|---|---|
| Term 1 QLD | Monday 22 January 2024 - Friday 28 March 2024 |
| Term 2 QLD | Monday 15 April 2024 - Friday 21 June 2024 |
| Term 3 QLD | Monday 8 July 2024 - Friday 13 September 2024 |
| Term 4 QLD | Monday 3o September 2024 - Friday 13 December 2024 |
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
Community News
Chess Mates
Wynnum Vikings
