26 October 2016

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

The Windsor State School Fair is always a biennial highlight and WindsorFest was no exception! What a brilliant community event we all enjoyed last Sunday! Everything came together in perfect unison; perfect weather, perfect organisation, and a perfect blend of stalls. WindsorFest was flawless! The main purpose of any school event is to bring everyone together and harness our wonderful sense of community. I am humbled by the support we receive from everyone directly involved in our school and the wider local community. Our students, parents, grandparents and staff give one hundred per cent to help make Windsor a respectful, cohesive and altruistic community. Thank you for your generosity, hard work and encouragement; together we achieved something great!

Behind every successful event is a great team of people and WindsorFest is no exception. Twelve months ago, we had no one to organise this event; however, in typical Windsor SS custom, people came from everywhere to create a dynamic team! As with all past Fair convenors, the Windsorfest committee worked extremely hard to make this year’s event a success, often juggling their own commitments and careers. I’d like to thank everyone associated with WindsorFest for your hard work and determination. I would particularly like to pay tribute to the P&C WindsorFest subcommittee, specifically Lisa Carter, Angela Kenyon, Kirsty Taylor, Helen Thompson, Hayley Morice, Megan Angliss, Louise Thompson, Anne Cairns and Bianca Chapman. Their hard work was clearly evident throughout the day. In all, WindsorFest raised approximately $50 000 for the P&C coffers which, in turn, supports learning outcomes for the students at our school.

Over the last few weeks, we received notification of transfers for the 2017 school year. Sadly, some of our great teachers have been either transferred to other schools or are leaving Windsor State School:

• Mrs. Miranda Daunt to Griffin State School, North Coast Region.
• Ms. Anna Prokop to Happy Valley State School, North Qld Region.
• Ms. Nikki Roos to Brighton State School, Metropolitan Region.
• Ms. Alice Lethbridge to St Marks Anglican Community School in Hillarys, Perth.
• Ms. Georgie Mewburn to pursue further study and a career change.

I would personally like to thank each of these teachers for their efforts and commitment to the children of Windsor State School during their time here. I wish them all the best and look forward to hearing of their adventures and achievements in the future.

Matt Keong
Principal

World Teachers’ Day

World Teachers' Day, is celebrated in more than 100 countries world-wide and was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1994 to celebrate the role of teachers in society.

World Teachers' Day is held internationally on 5th October. As the day usually falls during school holidays, Queensland celebrates on the last Friday of October each year. This year, we will celebrate World Teachers’ Day in Queensland this Friday 28th October.

Our P&C holds a breakfast each year to not only recognise and applaud the wonderful work of our teachers but also our amazing support and ancillary staff. Our teacher-aides, admin staff and cleaners also contribute to our success. I thank the parent body for this public affirmation of the people who make Windsor SS the wonderful place it is. It is common knowledge that the most readily identifiable positive impact on student learning outcomes is the quality of the teaching. We all know Windsor has the best as evidenced by our ever increasing enrolments, high levels of community support and excellent school achievement data.

No matter our career paths… doctors, lawyers, accountants, self-employed, School Principals, we would not be in the position we are today without the work and effort of the inspirational teachers who helped us and prepared us for our future careers. I join with the parents and students of the Windsor community to thank our teachers and staff for the job they do to change and improve the lives of our children.

Why not download a free 2016 Teacher Appreciation certificate from the Qld College of Teachers website to present to your teacher this week?

Prep 2017 Enrolments

Our planning for 2017 is well underway and it is very exciting to see so many new enrolments for 2017. Windsor State School is approaching 100 new Preps, in-catchment, rapidly. We are now planning for Transition Day that will take place on Friday 18th November from 9am-11am. Invitations will be sent out to all in-catchment enrolments who have now had interviews. If you have a child starting Prep in 2017, live in-catchment, and have not submitted your enrolment forms to the office, I ask that you do this ASAP to ensure you don’t miss Transition Day.

Currently, we have an out-of-catchment zone waiting list of over 40. Regrettably, I am now certain that Windsor SS cannot take any enrolments from outside our catchment boundaries.

If you know of people who live in our catchment and intend to enrol at Windsor SS in 2017, please ask them to contact Admin on 38664333 to arrange an interview asap.

Planning Classes for 2017

We are well underway with our planning for the 2017 school year. I urge all families to ensure they have returned their enrolment intention form as soon as possible. Early in the new term, we will begin our individual class plans for 2017. Our teachers use their knowledge of students, their educational and developmental needs in planning fair and equitable classes for the new school year.

Parents who believe they have information that needs to be shared about their child’s development may email me at Matthew.Keong@eq.edu.au with this information. Please ensure the subject line of the email is: Classes 2017.

Requests for individual teachers and the need to be with friends are not required nor considered.

Playgrounds after school

It is great to see students and families enjoy the wonderful facilities and playgrounds straight after school however I need all of the community to please support this practice in the following ways.

If students are to use the playground after school parents must be actively supervising from right next to the playground. Playgrounds are also only available for use after school until 3:30pm, this is 30 minutes after school is finished. From 3:30pm all playgrounds are required for our after school care program and as such must be vacated. Please remember that all playgrounds are ‘off-limits’ before school. I appreciate everyone’s support with this.

WindsorFest Raffle Prize Winners!

Prize 1: The Ultimate Home Coffee Experience: Nick Kerwin
Prize 2: 7 Nights’ Resort Holiday Accommodation in Australia or New Zealand: Christine Leicht
Prize 3: 2 Adults and 2 Children Tickets to Sydney with Tiger Air: Jasmine Chant
Prize 4: 6 month gym membership to Corporate Box, Lutwyche: Kerry Ward
Prize 5: Flights to Auckland- 2 adult tickets are included: Kay Gibson
Prize 6: 12 month membership to Powerhouse 4053 Gym, Stafford: Kiri
Prize 7: 3 nights’ accommodation on Bribie Island: Wendy Findlay
Prize 8: Mercedes Benz Child’s Pedal Car: Saminda De Silva
Prize 9: Enjo Floor Cleaner Pack: Hazel Coalter
Prize 10: 1 Vintage Style Yellow Adult’s Cruiser Bicycle: Lachlan Stewart
Prize 11: 1 Yellow Child’s Bicycle: Michelle Wilmot
Prize 12: Australia Zoo Family Pass for 2 Adults and 2 Children: Giovanni Pernigano

Congratulations to the Windsorfest Raffle Winners. Please contact Admin on 38664333 if you are yet to collect your prize.

Deputy Principal’s Report

During Term 4, teachers will be collecting and moderating evidence to make overall judgements to award final ratings on the end of Semester 2 report cards. Each semester, schools report on student achievement against the requirements of an Australian Curriculum Achievement Standard. These standards relate directly to content/skills that have been taught and assessed during the Semester 2 reporting period. This ‘on-balance’ judgement is based on evidence of student performance in assessment folios (DET, 2016). It is important to recognise that the Australian Curriculum clearly outlines the expectations of a ‘C’/‘Sound’ standard. If your child achieves a ‘C’ they are operating at the year level standard/expectation. A ‘C’ means that the student is achieving everything required at their corresponding year level at school. Therefore, attaining a ‘C’ for Achievement means your child is on target for their age and year level.

When making ‘on-balanced’ judgements, teachers use all relevant areas of the Achievement Standard to arrive at an overall result. For example, to receive an overall ‘A’ for English, the student must show evidence of achieving an ‘A’ standard in both the receptive (listening, reading and viewing) and productive modes of communication (speaking, writing and creating). The same applies to Mathematics, to receive an overall ‘A’, students must demonstrate an ‘A’ standard for the proficiency strands of Understanding and Fluency as well as Problem Solving and Reasoning.

Semester 2 report cards will be emailed home on QParents after 3pm, Monday 5th of December (Week 10). Please ensure your email contact details are up to date with the school office prior to this time. If you would like to discuss your child’s results with the classroom teacher, please arrange a suitable time for a Parent/Teacher meeting.

As we come closer to the end of the school year, remember: “Every Day Counts”! Just a little bit of time away from school may not seem much but…

Roxanne O’Donoghue
Deputy Principal

Master Teacher’s Report

Master Teacher Update

Reading

Before school Reading Intervention

Just a reminder that these programs have already started.

Digital reading

Remember, reading is not just confined to books.

Is your child using ABC Reading Eggs, ABC Reading Express or Sunshine Classics at home? Just a reminder that our school subscribes to these educational programs.

Reading Eggs is a fun and motivational program for 3 to 7 year olds. It is designed to teach children to read while they play.

Reading Express targets students from 7 to 12 years of age. It focuses on reading and comprehension. It has a wonderful library of e-books and motivational games.

A subscription to Sunshine Classics and Sunshine online began this term. Many classes are using Sunshine Classics for their home reading. The students are assigned set books to read and comprehension activities to complete. It provides a great tracking system for the teachers. If the student records his/her reading, the class teacher can listen to the reading too.

These programs will assist in building your child’s reading stamina and independence. Check with your child’s teacher or contact me, if you do not have a user name or password to access these programs.

Writing

Writing Highlights

Our Playgroup, the Windsoroos

Having fun at Windsoroos

2016 Term 4 dates:

Donations for the Windsoroos

We would like to thank the Windsorfest committee for thinking of us and donating some of their unsold products.

We are still looking for:

• previously loved metal cooking utensils: (for the sandpit)

• An old non-working microwave to put near the sandpit to cook our sand cakes
• Dress-ups for the home corner (shoes, bags, hats, costumes…)

Thank you for recycling!

Jan Moore

Pastoral Care Focus

Raising Independent Kids

Our kids start life with us doing everything for them, but it’s healthier for everyone if things don’t stay this way. Our kids will always depend on us for love, encouragement, protection, guidance and support. But given that our kids will most probably only be under our care for a relatively short time in their lives, it’s up to us to teach them how to do life for themselves.

Kids thrive in secure relationships and the freedom to make choices within limits. Independence develops in age-appropriate steps and giving kids opportunities to assess a situation and take responsibility for their actions gives them the confidence to want to be independent. Confident, independent kids stand a much better chance of learning how to take control of their lives. Kids develop independence from success, failure, disappointment, teamwork, perseverance and resilience, and independent kids are more likely to be successful and achieve in school and life generally.

No one independence call fits all

Every kid is unique, especially when it comes to temperament and skills set. Some kids like to play at home, others will prefer to spend their lives glued to a screen, and then there are the tearaways who can’t wait to fly, baby fly!!

Independence is age-appropriate, but it’s also maturity-appropriate. Just because a child has the gross motor skills to handle a pair of scissors, doesn’t mean he has the temperament to be responsible with them. Just because a tween is old enough to join her friends at the shopping centre, doesn’t mean she’s mature enough to resist the peer pressure to hang around the bus stop with the boys.

As parents, it’s up to us to know our kids. It’s up to us to make the judgement call on independence. To do this, we have to consider our child’s age, maturity, temperament, confidence, skills, trust, self-reliance and good old-fashioned nous. To be left unattended and unsupervised, regardless of whether it’s within or outside the home, kids also need to be aware of safety and what constitutes potential harm. If we’re going to (legally) leave our kids alone and unattended, we need to be sure they have the maturity to know what to do in an emergency and how to get help.

Creating opportunities to be independent

Play: encourage creative play, use of imagination, co-operative and collaborative play with other kids and appropriate, supervised risk taking on safety standard equipment.

Cleaning up: allow kids to clean up their mess, pick up their toys, and put things away.

Chores: draw up a roster with clear guidelines, keep chores age-appropriate but start as early as a child can understand that a certain household job is their responsibility.

Choices: let them choose clothes, dress themselves, and make a sandwich with fillings of their own choice.

Responsibility : for their own alarm, school bag, sports equipment, teddy on board, making their own breakfast, getting the spoon from dish to mouth, getting somewhere on time, use of technology.

Self-care: provide stools and steps to reach taps to wash hands, hooks and rails low enough for towels, teach teeth cleaning, hair shampooing and rinsing, ensure they have access to shelves, cupboards and laundry basket.

Role modeling: thinking through consequences, risk assessment, traffic and stranger danger, ways to resist peer pressure, encourage questions, discuss age-appropriate freedom.

(Source: https://youcandoitparents.com.au/ go to the website to read more or to register for YCDI Parents).

Day for Daniel

Friday the 28th of October is Day for Daniel. For a gold coin donation, students are invited to wear red to school on this day to support the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. The foundation aims to help raise awareness about child safety and protection. It aims to help empower children to Recognise, React and Report if they feel something is not right.

This is not just a ‘Free Dress Day’. If your child does not wish to wear red to school on this day, they are to wear normal school uniform. Wearing red could be anything from a complete red outfit to a red hair ribbon!

National Bandana Day

Friday the 28th of October is also National Bandana Day. Bandanas will be on sale for $4.00 before school near Constitution Building Monday-Thursday of that week and Student Councillors will go around to each class to sell any remaining bandanas on Friday the 28th of October. The money raised from the sale of the bandanas goes to Canteen, to help support young people living with cancer.

Windsor’s Got Talent!

Have you got a talent that you want to showcase? Preparations will soon be underway for the annual Windsor’s Got Talent! Students can start to think about entering the event and what performance they may like to prepare. Nomination forms can be collected from Mrs Vincenzi’s room and close on the 2nd of November. Closed auditions will be held in Week 8 and the final performance will be on Wednesday 7th December (Week 10) from 11.40am. Parents are welcome to come and watch the show!

The Breathe Project

Just Breathe…These simple words have been flying around our school this week along with one simple breathing technique. This technique aims to enhance mindfulness and wellbeing and reduce stress and anxiety.

The Breathe Project is an independent health promotion initiative empowering youth, schools and communities with one simple breathing technique. The project teaches students and teachers how to practically use this technique and integrate it into the classroom.

This term, Breathe Project Founders Kat & Bodhi dropped in to educate Windsor SS students and teachers on how to breathe correctly and they also encourage parents to join the project. More information is available via the link below.

QParents

Our school now has QParents. Parents should have received an invitation email or letter by now and it’s great to see that so many parents have registered already.

If you have not received an invitation, please advise us immediately. QParents will soon become an integral part of how we communicate with parents. Get on board to enjoy the ease and convenience that QParents offers.

Help us become more ‘paper-less’ by registering for QParents now!

School Stuff

There are three simple methods for filling orders through Schoolstuff:

• ONLINE: Go to the link below at any time to place your order. You can either have your order despatched to your chosen address or it can be collected from our warehouse. Orders are despatched on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays.

• PHONE: Call us on 33917000 and we will place the order for you.
• RETAIL STORE: Visit our store at 81A Caswell St East Brisbane for an instant service. Our staff will pick and pack your order for you while you wait. The store is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays 9am -4pm throughout the year, including school holidays.

ENRICHMENT UPDATE

SCIENCE FAIR 2016

The first ever Windsor Science Fair was a huge success. With 26 teams entered across years 3-6 saw an array of investigations, experiments and the showing off of cool science concepts. Congratulations to first place winner Lewis Foster for his investigation into how ‘Age affects reflexes’. Second place to Rosie and Jack Hildebrand for demonstrating magnetism and electromagnets and Third Place to Ellen Hamilton for her experiment “What variable helps plants grow best”. Student Choice award went to Rohan Bell for creating very large smoke rings with a garbage bin. After the event, a very kind Denzil Hildebrand donated a prize to be awarded to a year 3 entrant who displayed all of the 5 keys in the event. The year 3 winner was Noah Parker and William Christie. Well done boys and thank you Mr Hildebrand.

LEGO ROBOTICS

Last week 30 year 5 and 6 students attended QUT’s The Cube and participated in a Lego Robotics- Driving our future one day program. It was fantastic to see the children highly engaged in working with Robotics, and coding in a collaborative way. Skills essential for the future.

ENRICHMENT ROOM

Just a reminder: the enrichment room is open Monday and Tuesday first break for design thinking challenges, Lego robotics, BeeBots, ProBots, puzzles or any other creative thinking projects desired.

Warm Regards
Emma Kemph

Tuckshop News

Sushi Tuesday Returns

Mark your diaries, Sushi EVERY Tuesday in Term 4.

The sushi day trial last term was a great success for the students and as a fundraiser for the school. We are pleased to announce that it will be a regular Tuesday option this term.

Volunteers Needed

To make this possible we need volunteers to pack the orders once delivered for only an hour on Tuesday's between 10.00am and 11.00am - would suit any parent who ducks off to the gym after drop-off. It's only an hour, and it will mean so much to the kids to have sushi as a regular option at school. If you can spare an hour of your time, please add your name to the roster.

Delicious, fresh and healthy sushi will be delivered as a first break meal option at the Windsor State School tuckshop on Tuesday's, starting on Tuesday 25 October.

For just $2.80 each, they come individually packed with a soy sauce sachet, and all rolls are Gluten Free.

Pre-order on Munch Monitor by 10am on Monday, to have delicious fresh large Sushi Rolls (approx. 10cm) available at first break on Tuesday every week.

Menu options available are:

• Tuna Salad Roll
• Teriyaki Chicken Roll
• Crispy Chicken Roll
• Avocado Roll