I cannot believe that I am sitting at my office writing the last newsletter for 2018. In reflection we have had such a successful year. I look forward to all of the end of school year events that are still to come e.g. presentation night and Year 6 Graduation. 

This is a time where we say goodbye to students and staff as they move on to their next adventure. To all our Year 6 students, goodbye and good luck as you venture into high school. We have seen so much growth and development this year. The next stage is exciting. Enjoy this next stage.

Mrs Newberry, Miss Paxton, Mr Stapleton, Ms Anderson, Mrs Jarvis, Miss Ponting, Mrs Gaudry and Mrs Barker, I wish you all the best as you leave our school community next week. All of you have made an impact on our school, a legacy that will be remembered and cherished. Good luck in your future endeavours.

To all our families leaving the Queens Beach community, good luck in the future. It is always hard to say goodbye, may we meet up again one day.

To all families, have a wonderful Christmas break. May you have a restful and peaceful holiday season. I look forward to seeing you in January ready for another school year. Let’s hope the year slows down a little in 2019.

Classes 2019:

As mentioned earlier in newsletters, there will be 2 multi-age classes next year. Please be aware that all classes are balanced with behaviour and academic performance. If your child is placed in a 3/4 class and in Year 3, they are not placed in there because of academic excellence and subsequently if your child is in Year 4 and in the 3/4 class, they are not in there because they are struggling. We teach the Australian Curriculum and the students in these classes will be learning age appropriate curriculum. 

Next week in your child’s report card, there will be his/her teacher in 2019.

Below is the staff list for 2019.  We welcome Jessie Pawson and Ryan Gilmour to Queens Beach SS. We also welcome back Lauren Doyle from maternity leave. Mrs Sally Hannemann will be teaching our Year 5 and 6 students Spanish in their LOTE (Language other than English) lessons. Mr Jason Osman will be teaching the instrumental classes in 2019.

Prep: Miss Pawson (Prep P), Mrs Mitchell (Prep M) and Mrs Enfantie (Prep E)

Year 1: Mrs Yasso (1Y), Mrs Homewood (4 days)/Mrs Granich (1day) (1HG), Mrs Turner (4 days)/Mrs Granich (1 Day) (1TG)

Year 2: Mrs Davison (2D), Miss Shum (2S)

Year 2/3: Mrs Butt (formerly Gardiner) (2/3B)

Year 3: Mr McNee (3M)

Year 3/4: Mrs Moxham (3/4M)

Year 4: Mrs Love (4L), Mrs Hatherall (3 days)/Ms Shand  (2 days) (4HS)

Year 5: Mrs Hodge (5H), Miss Dell (5D)

Year 6: Miss Jurgens (6J), Mrs Greive (formley Wales) (6G), Mr Gilmour (6GL)

Specialist Lessons: H&PE: Mr Fletcher, Technology: Mrs Scharf, Music: Mrs Kreymborg (3 days), LOTE Spanish: Mrs Hannemann (1 day) and Instrumental: Mr Osman

Student Support: Student Support Leader: Mrs Doyle (7days a fortnight), Support Teachers: Mrs Chidley (Prep-Year1), Ms Collins (Year 2, 2/3, 3, 3/4) and Mrs Bullemor (Years 4-6)

Leaders of Learning (Curriculum Leaders): Mrs Kirkpatrick (Prep-Year 3) and Ms Gummow (Years 4-6)

Deputy Principal: Mr Insch

2019 School Dates:

School begins on Tuesday 29th January. We will also be offering families to drop off their child’s book packs before school starts and meet your classroom teacher for 2019. This will take place on Wednesday 23rd January 1:45pm-3:30pm. 

Report Cards:

Report cards will be sent home middle of next week. In your child’s report card will be a slip of paper informing you of your child’s teacher in 2019. 

I would to like to thank all our families for a wonderful year. I would like to thank the P&C for their efforts this year. The P&C are getting shade installed at the Stop, Drop and Go Zone, through their hard work this year. I hope everyone has a wonderful break, and if I don’t see you face to face, have a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year. See you in January 2019.

Yours in Education

Mark Wrigley

Attendance

Attendance for the last fortnight has been well above our goal. Since our last newsletter we have had an attendance rate of 93.52%. Wednesday was an amazing day with 96.6% of our children at school. I would love to see this level of attendance more often. I have set the challenge of having our highest attendance day ever next Monday. I have selected Monday so we can all be here to support our staff jumping from the plane. Let us see if we can obtain 98% or more for the day.

Attendance daily – 95% or more 

40% or more of students in Top 2 Academic Bands

85% or more with C or Higher in English

NB Bowen Police Liaison Officer and Bingalie Project Officer both support families to increase their attendance rate from below 80% to 95% or higher

Hello again, everyone.  As I am writing this there are only seven school days left for the year, and those are likely to disappear just as quickly as the previous one hundred and ninety odd other school days that have come and gone already.

I think one of my highlights of the year was the Movember Foundation sky diving event.  It was fantastic to see Mr Wrigley, Mr Bidgood, Mr Stapleton and Mr McNee arrive in style on the school oval last week.  Some of you may be aware that another eight or nine people also did a jump at the Bowen aerodrome the Saturday before; I was one of those lucky people who got to go sky diving at someone else’s expense. This event seemed to be a real success overall, and all those students who were able to watch their principal and teachers land on the school oval will remember that experience for a long time. 

There is another chaplaincy waffle night coming up on Monday the tenth of December.  These nights are usually on a Wednesday, but this time around it will be Monday.  As usual, bookings are encouraged, and l am happy to organise this for anyone who would like to attend, or bookings can obviously be made directly with Le Sorelle . I am very grateful to the people who have supported these events in the past, as they are a valuable source of funds to support the school chaplaincy service in the Bowen region.  Le Sorelle have been very generous and supportive of these events, and I would like to say another big thankyou to them for their ongoing support of school chaplaincy.

This week on parade we also took the chance to acknowledge the people who have contributed in some way to our breakfast programs which have been running on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.  Woolworths has been contributing toward this by donating fruit every week towards the Wednesday morning breakfast program since the beginning of the school year.  I would like to acknowledge their contribution and say thank you to them for their support.

There have been many other people contributing to the breakfast programs in different ways. Many of you would have seen Mr Peter Fallon standing behind the barbecue cooking pancakes most Tuesday mornings, and if you happened to look through the tuckshop window when you walked past early, you may have seen him washing up as well.  Thank you Mr Fallon.

Many other people have contributed pancake ingredients, fruit, or other items needed to run these programs, and I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped out in any way.  These programs are only possible when many people contribute, and there is always a need for more help in these areas.  I would love to talk to anyone who is interested on volunteering or contributing in any way next year so these much appreciated programs can continue.

I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas, and all the best for the year to come.  This is Chappy Glen signing off for 2018. 

Chappy Glen

This year the school will only have an online newsletter.  There will be no paper newsletter.  The online newsletter will be emailed to parents and will also be accessible from the school website, a link on Facebook and also on the QSchools Ap.

If you have an email and didn't receive the newsletter, please contact the office so we can update your details.

The tuckshop is always looking for volunteers.  Even if it's just for an hour come in and see Amanda and  put your name on the roster.

The tuckshop is trying to help with waste by providing spoons for snacks.  If you have any spoons you can donate they would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Amanda

Watch out in your banking books over the next few weeks for a Lucky Token.  If your child receives one they can come to the office to choose a lucky dip prize.

Due to changes in bank procedures our school banking day will now be Wednesdays.