Wynnum State School eNewsletter

Principal's Message

I want to congratulate all students and staff for such a smooth start to our 2022 school year. I applaud the way parents and caregivers have partnered with us in preventing large groupings on the school site and at drop off and pick up areas at peak times, during this next phase of the plan.

I wish to extend a warm welcome to new and existing families. It has been tremendous seeing all our warriors return in our state-wide delayed start. I’m so looking forward to a great year of learning.

2022 Priorities

At Wynnum State School, we are committed as a professional learning community to Believe, Achieve and Succeed. In 2022, our focus is “To seek clarity, knowledge and engagement for all learners”.

Our key 2022 is based around the four improvement priorities:

Know our Curriculum
Know our Students
Knowing our Teaching Practices
Knowing our Community

Our vision is for our school to embed a range of inclusive practices to foster student engagement for all students, so that they know where their learning sits, and have clarity for the next step in their journey. Secondly, for teachers to have the capability to ensure this occurs for all students as teachers work together in professional learning teams.

Our professional learning community is committed to see students and staff grow, develop and progress these goals in order to make significant gains in improvement. I look forward to unpacking each improvement priority in upcoming newsletters.

In accordance with the Back to School Plan for the first four weeks, there is a suspension of school camps, excursions, assemblies, and large gatherings, including our usual curriculum evenings.

Curriculum Evenings

Due to the continuing restrictions surrounding the limited number of people allowed to gather within indoor spaces, our teachers will not be able to provide their traditional face-to-face Curriculum Evenings which would normally take place in Week Two. Instead, each homeroom teacher will provide their families with information to ensure the year a successful one. This will arrive by email on Wednesday, 16^th of February. Whilst this is not our preferred method to begin communications with families to start the school year, at this point in time it will be our next best available option. Thank you for your patience and understanding of this arrangement.

Students/Parent CURRENT contact numbers, email addresses and residential addresses

If your contact details have changed (phone/email/home address), kindly ensure that the school office has been informed of the latest information - emergency contact details are essential. It is advisable to have several trusted contact persons/numbers in order to support students in the event that parents are unable to be reached. This is essential both at school and when students are participating in excursions and school camps.

School Reminders

School begins at 8:45am each day. Every minute counts. 15mins late each day over the life of school life would equate to a loss of 1 year’s instruction. Students arriving after this time will need to sign in at the office. Teachers start their instructional day at this time, and in line with our improvement priorities, the quality of the beginning session of the day is crucial to overall success at school for every child.

Uniform – A big thank you to the many parents who have enthusiastically supported the School Uniform Dress Code by outfitting returning students in correct versions of the Wynnum SS uniform - particularly the wearing of BLACK shoes. Shoes are an important part of the uniform.

2022 School Term Dates

▪ Term 1: 07 February – 01 April (8 weeks)

▪ Term 2: 19 April - 24 June (10 weeks)

▪ Term 3: 11 July - 16 Sept (10 weeks)

▪ Term 4: 04 October - 09 Dec (10 weeks)

Mark Ionn
Principal

Habit of Mind and Loving Literature Link with Ms Connell

In each newsletter this year, you will find a Loving Literature Link (LLL). While I have the pleasure of writing the LLL, it was not my idea. We remember and appreciate a past student called Ruby who in Year Four worked with school staff to enable all students to enjoy having a story read to them. Ruby may have graduated from WSS in 2019 but her influence lives on through the LLL and her story can be a reminder that no one is too young to make a positive difference.

The LLL each newsletter will take you to an online book being read aloud. The book is specially selected to bring to life our Habit of Mind for the fortnight. We hope our LLL can be helpful for families. It can bring reading into the car when driving between activities. It can be a way of sharing a book when you have more than one child to read with. It can be a way of introducing a change in the usual way of reading to keep home reading ‘fresh’. It can be an especially engaging way of completing homework for those students who love a little extra screen time. The LLL can also remind you how easy it is to read aloud, especially if it has been a while or you might be wondering how it 'should' sound. One family even described sharing the LLL with a faraway relative.

This fortnight’s Habit of Mind is Thinking Interdependently which is all about working with and learning from others in reciprocal situations – Teamwork! It is an awesome Habit to focus on at the start the 2022 school year and the book that has been chosen to bring this Habit to life is the very entertaining Pig the Pug. Many readers will be familiar with this character and this book is a great example of what happens if we DON’T Think Interdependently. Enjoy!

Literacy Update with Ms O'Donoghue

As we ease into the first term of 2022 we thought it would be useful to share some ideas on reading that will benefit your child.

Here is a short video you can watch that explains the importance of reading, singing, playing and talking with young children. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdfg8gvCKuE

For older children the benefit of playing games is also a way to build vocabulary knowledge. These can be board games and also games such as ‘eye spy’, ‘I went shopping and I bought a …’.

Discuss the book they are reading – ‘Who is the main character?’

“What have you learnt about the characters?’

‘What has happened so far?’

‘How do you think it might end?’.

Library Buzz with Mrs Sutton and the Library Team

Welcome back to our new school year.
Here at Wynnum SS we are all about growing lifelong readers. Our school library offers our students and our community many opportunities to be immersed every day in literature.
I look forward to sharing some of our library expectations, borrowing information and all the exciting learning experiences on offer in our library space in forth coming newsletters.

All homerooms are scheduled for weekly library borrowing time and your child’s teacher will share this information with you. Library staff will be informing all students of our expectations in the library during this time. Please note, Preps, Years 1 & 2 students are required to bring their library bags to transport our precious books to home and back.

Please check out the titles of the books below that capture the feelings and emotions of students (Oh… and Mums and Dads!) starting school for the first time. These types of books are great at making everyone feel comfortable about taking that next step. We have all these titles in the library so hopefully you can get the chance to read one with your child.
The library has been busy at lunch breaks right from Day One, with lots of break away activities from board games, building and construction, making and crafting and a place where students can just relax and read.

Thank you to Mrs Schrodter who has been channelling her ‘Creating, Innovating and Imagining…’ Habits of Mind with some clever, cheerful, thoughtful and artistic displays for our beautiful library. They certainly have created much interest for students and staff.

Our fantastic library team and ICT support look forward to the year ahead.
Mrs Sutton and the Library Team

Our eager P-3 Wynnum Warrior scientists will be totally immersed in Biological Science throughout Term One 2022.

Prep: ‘Growing Well’ (Needs of Living Things)

Year One: ‘Dinosaurs and More’ (External features and environmental needs of living things)

Year Two: ‘Watch it Grow’ (Life Cycles)

Year Three: ‘Feathers, Fur and Leaves’ (Categorising living things based on observable features)

Our young biologists will gather data through all senses as they participate in investigations of the characteristics of living things and their needs for growth.

Life cycles will be actively observed, with wonderment and awe, through hands-on investigations of live specimens in the P-3 Science Lab. A Cricket House, Ant Farm, Mealworm Discovery Tray, Butterfly Chrysalis and Zebra Finches will be displayed in the P-3 Lab for all to care for and learn from! Preps will also be involved in planting seeds and caring for their plants while observing and recording plant growth.

This Friday, 11^th February is ‘International Day of Women and Girls in Science’. Unfortunately, due to current restrictions we will not be able to hold lunchtime investigations inside the lab as we did last year. This year an informative ‘Women in Science’ interactive display will engage all interested scientists outside the P-3 Science Lab to celebrate, and learn from, the amazing achievements of women in Science!

I cannot wait to start teaching Biological Sciences with Prep to Year Three classes in Term One!

Sue Crowe

Sport Update with Haydn Blair

Hello parents and carers. My name is Haydn Blair and I am excited to be joining Wynnum State School as the new Physical Education teacher.

Swimming lessons during class PE time, will commence Week 2 (Monday 14 February). Please see table below for your child's class allocated swimming day.

During swimming, we will be focusing on aquatic safety, sculling, treading water and floating skills, different stroke techniques and entries and exits in different situations. The ultimate goal is to increase the swimming and water safety skills of all students. For the seniors of the school, we will also be performing some survival sequences and learn safety rules for a range of aquatic environments.

Swimming notes were handed out to students this week. Please ensure they are returned to the homeroom teacher as soon as possible. No permission = No swimming.

It is that time of the year for district trials. Students can now nominate to participate in the following trials:

Swimming Boys and Girls 10-12yrs
AFL Boys 10-12yrs
Basketball Boys & Girls 10-12yrs
Netball 12yrs Girls
Netball 10-11yrs
Hockey Boys and Girls 10-12yrs
Golf Boys and Girls 10-12yrs

If your son/ daughter would like to trial for any of the above, please send them to see Jas in the office. *Please note there is a selection criteria to attend the trial. If your child/ren do not meet the criteria they unfortunately will not be allowed to trial.

This is just the start to a great year planned for PE!

Haydn Blair
PE Specialist

Welcome to our 2022 Prep Students

We wish to extend a warm and happy welcome to our new 2022 Prep students and families. It has been an exciting week for all our Preppy's, settling in to their new routines, making new friends and becoming familiar with their Prep and specialist teachers. Please enjoy the photo gallery below of some of our Prep students engaging in some fun learning this week at Wynnum State School.

Do you have an hour or more a week to volunteer in our school tuckshop? The P & C would love to hear from you. Please register your interest with the school office asap on 3893 5111.

P & C News - Uniform and Tuckshop Update

Welcome!

The WSS P&C Executive Team would like to welcome you all to the 2022 school year! We hope that everyone had a wonderful break and are now excited to be back at school!

For all our parents and caregivers new to the school, especially our Preppie parents and caregivers, we would like to extend an extra warm welcome to you and are excited to meet you in the coming months. To give you a quick introduction of what the P&C is – we are a group of volunteers trying to support our school by providing services to our students through our Cafeteria and Uniform Shop, the Wynnum Wahoos, our amateur swim club, and organising fundraising events to raise much needed money for the school to invest towards quality educational outcomes for all our students. Last year we were able to fundraise enough money for the school to buy new laptops for the students and we look forward to working with the school and all of you this year to support another important investment into our school resources. We also partner with the Year 6 Student Council supporting their separate fundraising activities and enlisting their help for our Mother’s Day and Father’s Day stalls.

Our first Executive Meeting will be held on Wednesday 16 February at 6pm in the conference room of the Administration block. The Annual General Meeting will be held Thursday 17 March 2021. This is when the P&C Executive Committee for 2022 will be and general memberships are accepted for new members or renewed for existing members. Note that you do not need to be a member to attend any of our meetings.

We appreciate how busy everyone’s life can be, however, we encourage you all to get involved in any way you can, either by attending one of our P&C meetings, volunteering some time in the cafeteria or at a special event during the year. As the saying goes – ‘many hands make light work’ and your involvement will also help build a stronger and safer school community.

Mega-Bite Cafeteria

Our ladies from the Cafeteria are especially excited to welcome back all our students. A new menu has been created based on the feedback and suggestions from last term and it is available on Flexischool. Please make sure to update our child’s class before placing your first order.

Tricia and her team are always looking for new volunteers and would welcome anyone who is interested in helping out. Please contact Tricia on 0449804427 to discuss further. Please note that all volunteers at our school will need to be vaccinated in line with the Government’s Health Direction.

Uniform Shop

Thank you everyone for your patience while we are waiting to get more stock. We understand that it has been very stressful for everyone not knowing when uniforms will be available for purchase and we really appreciate your understanding that this situation is out of our control. While the order for new stock was placed in time last year, the current COVID-19 situation has substantially delayed the shipment from Vietnam. We are hoping to soon have good news and will share them with you as soon as we can.

Wynnum Wahoos Amateur Swim Club

Operated by volunteers, this subcommittee of the P&C runs club nights each Friday 6pm in Terms 1 and 4 at the school where children are encouraged to participate, strive for personal achievement and improvement, and have fun. It is a family friendly atmosphere with canteen facilities and swimming merchandise available. The club would love to welcome more families this term and are looking for volunteers to assist with operations. For further details please email wynnumwahoos@gmail.com

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.

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Term 1 -Week 1 10 February 2022