Newsletter Term 4 Week 3
PRINCIPAL’S PRATTLE
Over the weekend and up until
Wednesday, I have had the
privilege of managing the Wide
Bay 15 Years Girls Cricket team
at
the
Queensland
State
Championships in Gympie. This is
a role I have done for many years and a role I
thoroughly enjoy and receive great rewards at
seeing young people achieving and developing in sport.
I am sure all students who are involved with sport
receive enormous benefit from participating in the
events but also make many new friendships. Please
encourage your child to participate in our sporting
activities and remember that just because we come
from a small town doesn’t mean opportunities do not
exist.
Sharmaine Garcia is one of our students who has
achieved great things in athletics. Sharmaine went
to State Athletics last week and participated in the
100 and 200 metre events. Sharmaine trained very
hard with her mum and dad during the lead up to the
event and was rewarded with Personal Best times at
the championships.
Our school community is
extremely proud of Sharmaine and her achievements.
In the holidays, I took the time to read Bruce and
Denise Morcombe’s story “Where Is Daniel?” It is
an absolutely outstanding recount of the family and
the tragic loss of their son Daniel. It provides some
extremely graphic details of events but in doing so
provides you with an awareness of how things simply
occur. I encourage all parents and guidance to
continue to promote child safety and discuss aspects
with your child. Bruce and Denise Morcombe have
shown strength throughout this tragedy and have
developed excellent educational programs for
students and parents. Biggenden State School uses
these resources as part of our Pastoral Care and
School Wide Positive Behaviour lessons. I encourage
all people to visit the Daniel Morcombe website and
access the resources: www.danielmorcombe.com.au
PRE-PREP PROGRAM:
23 October 2014
Biggenden State School Pre-Prep program occurs
again this Friday. The Pre-Prep students participate
in an excellent program that prepares them for Prep
the following year. Mrs Sonia Johnson has many
years of experience in the Prep classroom having
taught Pre-school prior to the Prep year being
introduced to our school system.
STUDENT FREE DAY
On Monday 20th October, 2014 a student free day
was held. Staff members travelled to Gayndah to
participate in the North Burnett Cluster
Professional Development Day.
All staff have
provided me with excellent feedback on the day,
where many have highlighted the Michael Carr-Gregg
sessions on Cyber Bullying and Mental Health issues.
PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES
On Friday, 24th October, 2014 Mrs Judy Dohle and
myself will travel to Rockhampton to participate in
the final Junior Secondary School Professional
Development session conducted by Education
Queensland and Griffith University. The day will
involve us reflecting on our practices and refining
our school Junior Secondary Action Plan.
AWARDS NIGHT
On the 12th November, 2014 is the Annual Biggenden
State School Awards Night. This year students will
be required to wear school uniform for this event.
Students may choose to wear the formal school
uniform or the maroon and gold daily uniforms. Girls
will not be permitted to wear the maroon
knit short skirts. If you have any
questions regarding this, please do
not hesitate to contact the school
to seek clarification.
VOLUNTEERS:
Do you have any spare time? Biggenden State
School need volunteers to help with many
programs. We need help to hear students read,
say their sight words and to help with the
Stephanie Alexander Program. Volunteering and
working with students is extremely rewarding.
Please contact the school if you can give some
time.
ATTENDANCE:
Big on Heart – Respect – Responsibility – Learning.
While Striving to Excel
Newsletter Term 4 Week 3
Attendance at Biggenden State School is a focus
area. Once again this term we will continue to strive
to achieve our attendance goal of 96.3% across the
school.
YEAR LEVEL
WEEK 2 TERM YEAR
TO
4%
DATE %
PREP
96.92%
97.7%
1
95.56%
97.8%
2
93.76%
94.4%
3
91.12%
94.4%
4
82%
91%
5
82%
85.9%
6
95%
96.7%
7
87.5%
88.8%
8
96%
92%
9
80.84%
84.6%
10
97.14%
98.6%
The Year to Date overall percentage is currently
91.6% with the Semester 2 percentage at 89.8%.
Data shows that if your child misses 8 days in a
school year, their learning is affected greatly. It is
compulsory for students to attend school and I will
be making appointments with parents/caregivers
whose child is showing high absenteeism to discuss
the matter further. We as educators have an
obligation to teach students and provide them with
the best learning opportunities available. Parents
have an obligation to ensure students attend school.
Absences will have negative effects on student’s
academic results.
Please remember that the school must have
absenteeism explained. Parents/caregivers need to
contact the school when students are away. Please
remember that learning does occur every day and
the staff are more than happy to prepare work to
give to students to ensure they do not fall behind
when they are absent.
SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR
This term our school wide positive behaviour topics
focus on being Big On Responsibility. Week three
focuses on looking after your belongings.
We
encourage students to name their equipment and
organise their belongings. Another great topic that
can be followed through at home.
SCHOOL RULE:
HEADLICE
23 October 2014
There is always the possibility that your child’s hair
may become infested with headlice while he/she is
attending school. Continual checking for headlice
will hopefully eradicate the reinfestation.
Please assist us in eliminating Headlice from our
school by checking your children’s hair regularly, and
treating the entire family if any infestations are
found.
It is extremely important for you to check your
child’s head for head lice and keep checking every
2 days until there are no head lice found for 10
consecutive days.
If you do find head lice, commence effective
treatment immediately and be sure to complete the
process of treatment. This will help prevent head
lice from spreading. Teachers will reduce head-tohead contact activities while head lice are known to
be around.
If for any reason you are having difficulties treating
the head lice on your child effectively, please
contact the school on Telephone: 4127 6333.
FRUIT BREAK:
Fruit/protein break is held in the Primary School
each morning for students to stimulate their brain
for the learning time ahead of them. Fruit/protein
break is also occurring in the Secondary School.
Students are to take with them a piece of fruit or
protein at the start of classes
and it
can be eaten in class at a time
they
choose but must be before
the
commencement of Period 3.
Students
will
not
be
permitted to leave the room to
collect their food nor will they
be permitted to eat unhealthy
food during this time.
BREAKFAST CLUB:
Breakfast Club is held every Wednesday
morning in the Home Ec Room and a special
thankyou again this term to Biggenden
Foodworks, Biggenden Apex Club and
the Biggenden State School P & C for
sponsoring this great initiative. We
are always looking for donations and
parent/guardian assistance with Breakfast Club.
Honey, vegemite, jam and milo are required for
Big on Heart – Respect – Responsibility – Learning.
While Striving to Excel
Newsletter Term 4 Week 3
Breakfast Club if anyone could donate them, please.
A Big thankyou to Angel Dickens who donated much
needed items yesterday to our breakfast club.
A special thank you
to Moira Thompson
our school chaplain
who
co-ordinates
breakfast club each week. Moira does great work in
our school and the Chaplaincy program is always
looking for donations to ensure Moira’s great work
continues. Chaplaincy is not fully funded by the
government and a great deal of fundraising is
required to maintain this excellent program.
BIGGENDEN STATE SCHOOL WEBSITE:
Please remember that the school has an active
website which is constantly being upgraded with
newsletters, information and documents. Please go
to www.biggendess.eq.edu.au.
Biggenden State
School also uses the QSchools App. Please contact
the school if you need further instruction on
connecting to the App.
LITERACY AND NUMERACY RESOURCES:
Inserted in this week’s newsletter is an excellent
resource on assisting your child with literacy and
numeracy.
23 October 2014
Tyson Buckley Yr 3/4
For working very hard
in maths
Aleah Tayler
Yr 5/6 For her terrific transition
into Biggenden State School and always having her
homework completed.
Tyson & Aleah
GOTCHA WINNERS:
Primary
Secondary -
-
Janay Brady
Cara Tucker
PREP – YEAR 2 AWARDS
Oscar Wykes Luke Burt
Ryley Gibbs
Madeleine Radel
Oscar Wykes
40 Sight words
Reading 60 books
Spelling
Trying very hard to finish her
work.
Luke Burt
Ryley Gibbs
Madeleine Radel
OCTOBER
24
Eye Testing program Under 8’s
NOVEMBER
5
Ajax/Milo Swimming Carnival (NEW DATE)
12
Awards Night
13
Biggenden & District Swimming Trials
19 – 21 P-6 Boyne Island Camp
27
Year 10 Dinner
28
Final Day for Year 10’s
DECEMBER
12
End of 2014 School Year
School Resumes
Tuesday 27 January 2015
PARADE AWARDS
STUDENTS OF THE WEEK:
UNIFORMS
It is now only 9 weeks until Christmas. Parents must
order their child’s / children’s uniform needs for
2015 now.
Order forms have been sent home but are available
from the school office.
ALL ORDERS MUST BE
RECEIVED BY 28 NOVEMBER. ORDERS WITH
CORRECT PAYMENT AND CONTACT DETAILS CAN
BE LEFT AT THE SCHOOL OFFICE FOR
COLLECTION BY THE P&C ASSOCIATION.
These will then be available for collection before
school next year. Dates for the uniform shop to be
open will be advised at a later date The P&C
Big on Heart – Respect – Responsibility – Learning.
While Striving to Excel
Newsletter Term 4 Week 3
23 October 2014
Association will no longer be carrying numbers in
each size and would appreciate your assistance with
this matter.
SPORTS NEWS
ATTENTION
Please note the formal school
uniform is now available to all
students in years 7 – 10.
Boys – Black pants & white shirt
Girls – Maroon Skirt & white
shirt
AJAX v MILO
SWIMMING CARNIVAL
Wednesday 5th November
9.15 am start
Order forms are available at the
school office.
These items are not in stock in
the uniform shop so must be
ordered in. No surplus stock will
be ordered.
All welcome
PREP – YEAR 6 CAMP
Last week you should have received a letter outlining
all the details about the upcoming camp to Boyne
Island.
Awards Night
Please remember the deposit of
$25.00 needs to be paid by 31
October so numbers can be
finalised. Any students wishing to
join the camp after this date will
need to pay the full price of $165.00
If you have any enquiries about the camp please
don’t hesitate to contact the school.
CHAPLAINCY NEWS
Memorial Hall
7.00 p.m.
Wednesday 12
th
November, 2014.
Presentation of academic, sporting
and special awards
R.A.O.K. Have you done your act of kindness for
someone?
After school Kids’ Club meets every Tuesday 3pm to
4.30pm. Free food, activities and a chance to star in a
Christmas Play
Free Dress - Fashion of the Field
Melbourne Cup Day, Tuesday 4th
Big on Heart – Respect – Responsibility – Learning.
All welcome to attend.
While Striving to Excel
Newsletter Term 4 Week 3
23 October 2014
November. Gold coin donation towards Biggenden
School Chaplaincy
TUCKSHOP
Over the next few weeks leading up to Christmas
some items may become unavailable as we near the
end of the year in preparation for the defrosting
freezers. Alternative items will be given.
Friday 24th October – Meal Deal Day $5.00
Pie, Lamington or Choc Cake and a drink.
Lamingtons and Chocolate Cake can be purchased
separately for $1.20 each.
Please order in a paper bag as usual.
Big on Heart – Respect – Responsibility – Learning.
While Striving to Excel