31 January 2018

Newsletter Articles

Across the Principal’s Desk…

Parent Representative Email Consent

At Windsor, we are extremely fortunate each year that we have a dedicated group of parents that volunteer to be our wonderful 'Class Reps'. As you could imagine, obtaining and collating emails, along with other information, is a very lengthy process for our Class Representative organisers. Therefore this year, we are implementing a new consent process that will speed up everything for our volunteers.

Please complete the following survey so that the school can share the identified information with the Class Representative organisers. Your consent will remain for the duration of your child's enrolment at Windsor SS.

As always, please contact the office if you have any questions,

Something to ponder…

Don’t become preoccupied with your child’s academic ability alone. Instead, teach them to sit with those sitting alone. Teach them to offer help. Teach them to be kind. Teach them to be a friend to the lonely. Teach them to encourage others. Teach them to think about other people. Teach them to share. Teach them to look for the good.

This is how they will change the world!

New beginnings – An exciting year ahead

With every new school year comes changes to our staff. We welcome the following people to our team of highly skilled teachers and support staff.

Joining us in 2018 are the following Staff Members:

Mr Matt Keong – Deputy Principal, returning to Windsor
Mrs Sharyn Hadden – Year 3 – 6 Student Support Teacher
Ms Courtenay Lee – Prep D classroom teacher
Ms Felicity Hoang – Year 1B classroom teacher
Ms Natasha Rowland – Year 2B classroom teacher
Mrs Joanna Horan-Barrick – Year 3E classroom teacher
Mrs Fiona Bryant – Year 5D classroom teacher
Ms Lela Sing – Year 5B classroom teacher, returning to Windsor SS
Ms Kelly Maasz – Inclusion Teacher
Mrs Georgie Kerr, Mrs Brooke Harding, Mrs Ruth Millar, Mrs Felicia Wenham, Mrs Danene Kozarov – who are joining our wonderful teacher aide team.

I know that you will all embrace our new staff and make them feel very welcome as part of the Windsor community.

Parent Information Evenings

On Tuesday 6th February our annual ‘Meet the Teacher Evening’ will be held. This enables all parents to meet teachers and become familiar with how year levels and classrooms will operate. These meetings “set the scene” for the year ahead. “Meet the Teacher” meetings are a valuable way to learn about the specific year level, curriculum, organisation, routine and procedures. For those parents who have more than one child at Windsor, we have arranged two separate half hour sessions so that you can move easily to various classrooms.

The first session is 5.45 - 6.15pm followed by 6.30 – 7.00pm.

These meetings will be conducted in year level teaching teams. At these meetings, the classroom teachers will introduce themselves and share important information that you will find valuable when supporting your child/children throughout the year. These meetings will focus on important areas that directly impact on student learning and classroom organisation.

Some information during these meetings may differ from teacher to teacher so, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask or arrange another time to meet. This is your opportunity to learn about the year level, teacher and classroom so that all are informed and ready for a successful year. Please make yourself known to us also, the Admin team, as we will be around classrooms throughout the evening.

Air Conditioning

Over the Christmas holidays, four classrooms and the hall have had new air conditioning installed courtesy of the school P&C’s efforts. These classrooms (4C, 4D, 5A & 5B) were all selected due to being the most susceptible to hot conditions and will only be used for cooling as opposed to heating up rooms in winter. The P&C is continuing to assess the financial timing around further installations of air-conditioning and would welcome your ongoing fundraising support to achieve this. With further future installations the same approach will be taken with those classrooms most susceptible to hot conditions having priority over all others. I would like to thank and acknowledge the efforts of the Facilities Sub Committee and the wider P&C, both past and present, for their outstanding efforts in achieving this fantastic outcome and encourage our school community to get behind and participate in the P&C’s efforts to improve our classroom environments.

Communication

Over the last few years, communication between the school, teachers and community has become much easier with improved technologies, such as email and social media. As a society, we are now inundated with information and communication, all the time, which is positive but can also impact people’s well-being. As a school, we endeavour to keep parents informed about teaching, learning and special events as much as is humanly possible. However, as imperfect human beings, we also have limitations and sometimes errors are made. We thank you for understanding that there may be times when a breakdown in communication occurs unintentionally due to the complexity of any school environment.

As our school values are all about RESPECT, please be mindful that teachers/school staff are not available 24 hours/day, 7 days/week and have a right to their personal time. Communication outside of school hours and on weekends may go unanswered until appropriate times. Emails that arrive immediately before school, or during valuable teaching/learning time may not be even seen until 3pm. It is not unreasonable to allow 48 hours for an email reply to arrive from teachers/staff during the school term.

Naturally, the class teacher is your first point of contact for specific questions/concerns related to your own child. Please email/speak with them directly to make an appointment. Please also note, that if you have any queries which are generic in nature, please send your email to admin@windsorss.eq.edu.au. If advising of a student absence, the most effective way is to send an email to admin@windsorss.eq.edu.au, or to call the absence line on 3866 4360, or log an absence through the QParents app.

Given the sheer number of emails, which I receive daily, it is unlikely that I will respond to emails regarding day-to-day operational issues in a timely fashion. For any questions/concerns such as student learning or behaviour related specifically to a year level, one of the relevant Deputy Principals as below will be of assistance;

Mr Matt Keong – Prep – Year 2 Deputy Principal, mkeon1@eq.edu.au
Mrs Roxanne O’Donoghue – Year 3 – 6 Acting Deputy Principal, rodon60@eq.edu.au

Student safety is PARAMOUNT…

Drop off and Pick Up

In any school, the set down and pick up of students is always a challenge. Prep students need to be dropped off and collected by an adult each day and parking is at a premium around the school. Please do not leave your car unattended in the STOP, DROP and GO Zone on Constitution Road or Harris Street. Brisbane City Council and Police will be out in force regularly. The best way to go is to park within walking distance a few streets away and do the pick-up and drop off that way.

The zones outside the school is a 2-minute drop off from 8-9am and 2:30-3:30pm every school day.

All parents need to observe the no parking on yellow lines around the school. Police and council officers will be out checking on offenders. These lines are for safety, especially on street corners to allow for visibility. You are endangering the lives of students and others who need to see when crossing the road. It could be your child one day!

Crossing the Road

Most of the time we have supervisors from Queensland Transport Road Safety on our crossings before and after school at the peak times. You must follow their instructions. They are in charge of the crossing when on duty. Please ensure that you take responsibility for teaching your child where to cross. If you are interested in becoming a crossing supervisor, please contact the school reception. We always need more!

Walking or Riding to School

We do encourage as many of our students and parents as possible to Actively Travel (walk or ride) to school. With this comes some significant responsibility to ensure your child is ‘road aware’ at all times. Please speak with them about wearing a helmet, even if riding a scooter.

School Assembly

Each Monday we will hold a whole school assembly in the hall from 2pm. Please join us during this time to celebrate student achievements and hear all about upcoming events and whole school focus areas. Any ‘special awards ceremonies’ (i.e. School Leadership inductions, ACE Awards, Easter Bonnet parade etc) will be held in the morning from 9am. These events and starting times will be communicated to the school community well in advance.

Please note that we host the 2018 School Leaders’ Induction from 9am on Monday 12 February. I look forward to seeing you there.

School Newsletter

As mentioned in a recent email, the newsletter will go out fortnightly, beginning this week and continuing every even numbered week each term. If you have any community notices, both internal and external for the school, please send your request for inclusion to admin@windsorss.eq.edu.au. Please note that any inclusion in the newsletter remains at the schools discretion.

Have a fantastic fortnight,

Grant Baker
Principal

Deputy Principal’s Report

RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOUR & CODE OF CONDUCT

Pastoral Care: Social Emotional Learning

YCDI is a program that teaches children a number of different skills that they need to be successful and happy, not only at school but during their years in primary, secondary school and beyond. “Successful” means every child doing the best they can. “Happy” suggests children who like themselves and have a good self-esteem, have friends, work hard in learning activities at school, challenge themselves, help others in need, and make school and home a safe and organised place to live and learn. YCDI aims to establish an environment where children will not spend a lot of time feeling extremely sad, worried or angry and will not want to fight with others or spend a lot of time alone and withdrawn from play or work activities.

There are 5 Foundations (5 Keys) that young people need to develop in order to be successful and happy. These are: CONFIDENCE; PERSISTENCE; ORGANISATION; GETTING ALONG AND EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE.

Although these words may seem “very grown up”, especially for Early Childhood, the YCDI program will introduce each Foundation (Key) with a character: Connie Confidence; Pete Persistence; Oscar Organisation; Gabby Get Along and Ricky Resilience. The Foundations (Keys) will also be emphasised in Social Emotional focussed teaching and Pastoral Care, through children’s stories, in creative lessons and activities and in songs. These different components will give your child time to learn about and practise each Foundation (Key) thoroughly. It is important that parents talk to children about the 5 keys and use the language of You Can Do It at home also!!

Our Whole School Responsible Behaviour Plan has been developed around students’ behaviour choices and their commitment to our school rules, beliefs and values (Respect for Self; Respect for Others; Respect for the School). Bronze (C- Satisfactory), Silver (B- often very good), and Gold (A- consistently excellent) levels are achieved when students achieve specific criteria. These criteria are related to the school beliefs and values about RESPECT and the development of the 5 keys to success and happiness, CONFIDENCE; PERSISTENCE; ORGANISATION; GETTING ALONG; RESILIENCE. All students (except Prep) begin on Bronze at the beginning of the year and may apply for Silver (after 4 weeks on Bronze) and Gold (after 6 weeks on Silver) as the year progresses.

Students may progress up, or down, these levels as a result of the choices they make. Again, being a Silver or Gold student reflects an awareness and understanding of our schools’ values and beliefs about Respect and the development of the five foundations. It is the responsibility of each student to follow the process when applying to become a Gold/Silver student. This process includes completing an application, demonstrating that they meet the criteria of behaviours, negotiating with classroom teachers and acquiring the necessary signatures to confirm that they demonstrate each of the criteria. Students in Years 2-6 may begin their applications for Silver in Term 1, Week 5 beginning Monday 20th February 2017. Class Teachers will present and discuss the criteria sheets with students to set goals.

The school acknowledges positive role models of behaviour in many ways throughout the year (merit badges; public acknowledgements). This year, we will celebrate students’ efforts and achievements in class and at special parades throughout the year.

MEET THE TEACHER EVENING – NEXT WEEK

On Tuesday 6th February our annual ‘Meet the Teacher Evening’ will be held. This enables all parents to meet teachers and become familiar with how year levels and classrooms will operate. These meetings “set the scene” for the year ahead. “Meet the Teacher” meetings are a valuable way to learn about the specific year level, curriculum, organisation, routine and procedures. For those parents who have more than one child at Windsor, we have arranged two separate half hour sessions so that you can move easily to various classrooms.

The first session is 5.45 - 6.15pm followed by 6.30 – 7.00pm.

These meetings will be conducted in year level teaching teams. At these meetings, the classroom teachers will introduce themselves and share important information that you will find valuable when supporting your child/children throughout the year. These meetings will focus on important areas that directly impact on student learning and classroom organisation.

Some information during these meetings may differ from teacher to teacher so, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask or arrange another time to meet. This is your opportunity to learn about the year level, teacher and classroom so that all are informed and ready for a successful year. Please make yourself known to us also, the Admin team, as we will be around classrooms throughout the evening.

STUDENT COUNCIL DISCO

The Student Council welcomes everyone back to the New Year with a Disco on Thursday, 15th February, the first Disco for 2018. This Disco helps to raise money to support student council projects at the school, including our World Vision Sponsor Child.

Tickets will be available in the Early Years Precinct, before 8:50am in the week leading up to the Disco ($5.00 single ticket; $10.00 family ticket- 2 or more).

The Disco times are as follows:

Prep-Year 2 - 5:15pm-6:30pm
Year 3-6 - 7:00pm-8:30pm

All Prep-Year 2 students must be accompanied by their parent/guardian at all times during the Disco. Parents/Guardians, you are responsible for your own children. Teachers will supervise at the Year 3-6 Disco. Parents are not required to stay at this Disco, but must collect students promptly at 8:30pm from the Hall. Children will be kept at the Hall until Parents arrive to collect. Food and drink will be on sale at the Disco.

ACTIVE SCHOOL TRAVEL

Active School Travel promotes clean and green, active and healthy school travel modes such as walking, cycling, carpooling and public transport. Over the next three years, our school will receive a range of free resources, tools, incursions to enable active travel to and from school.

By leaving your car at home, at least one day a week on our active travel day, we can reduce traffic congestion at the school gate, improve our students’ road safety awareness, create a cleaner environment, and improve our health and fitness!

Each student has an Active School Travel Passport at school. Students can earn a stamp once a week, by actively travelling on ‘Walking Wheeling Wednesday’. Also, each week on parade, the Golden Boot trophy is awarded to the class that had the highest percentage of active travellers on ‘Walking Wheeling Wednesday’.

In addition to these incentives, there will be a number of special events this year to help further promote actively travelling to school. These include:

Term 1: 16th March – Windsor SS celebrates Ride2School Day “Bling Your Bike/Scooter”
Term 2: 18th May - Walk Safely 2 School Day “Crazy Socks Day”
Term 3: 17th August – AST Scavenger Hunt (more info to come)
Term 4: 30th November – End of Year Celebration Breakfast

QParents

Our school also has QParents. Parents will receive an invitation email or letter to register this week. Prep parents will also receive a Student ID card containing an EQ ID number to register.

If you do not receive an invitation (QPAO), please advise Admin ASAP. QParents is one of the ways we communicate with parents, get on board to enjoy the ease and convenience that QParents offers.

QParents is also the means by which parents access Student Reports. It is important to register now as printed reports are no longer sent home at the end of each Semester. Help us become more ‘paper-less’ by registering for QParents now!

ROOKIES2REDS

This term, Queensland Rugby is offering the Rookies 2 Reds program Monday afternoons 3.15pm-4.15pm on the Windsor State School bottom oval from the 23rd of February to the 23rd of March. Download the flyer below for more information about the program and how to register your child.

Follow Windsor SS on Facebook & Twitter!

Get the most up-to-date information and school alerts by following Windsor State School on Facebook and Twitter @Windsor_SS

You can also access important school information and alerts, including Facebook/Twitter, via the QSchools app! Download it now and keep informed of everything that is happening at our school.

Anxiety in Children – Why Does Anxiety Happen?

Karen Young, an Australian psychologist, has worked in private practice, in organisational settings, lectured and has extensive experience in the facilitation of personal growth groups. She has an honours degree in Psychology and Masters in Gestalt Therapy. Recently, she posted the following on her website:

Anxiety can be a shady character and can often appear in ways that don’t look like anxiety. Because of this, it can be difficult to know when your child is anxious. Anxiety has been doing its thing since the beginning of humans, and it’s brilliant at it. What it’s not so great at is announcing its presence in gentle, clear ways that preserve the capacity for any of us to meet it with a strong, steady, ‘Oh, there you are,’ and an even more powerful, ‘It’s okay, I’m safe – you don’t need to be here right now’.

Anxiety is the work of a strong, healthy brain that’s a little overprotective. It comes from a part of the brain called the amygdala, which keeps us safe by getting us ready to fight for our lives or run for it. The amygdala is instinctive, so if it thinks there might be danger, it will act first and think later – and the unfamiliar, the unknown, humiliation, embarrassment, separation from important people, can all count as danger. When the amygadala is triggered, it initiates a surge of neurochemicals to make us stronger, faster, more powerful, and more physically able to deal with a threat. Sometimes, the amygdala can work a little too hard and hit the alarm button too often when it doesn’t need to. It is NOT a broken brain, but a strong, healthy, capable brain that’s working a little too hard and being a little too overprotective.

Back when the threats we humans faced were mostly physical, the most anxious of us probably would have been the most likely to survive. An anxious brain would have made us more alive to any threats, which would give us the survival edge. Now, the dangers we face are less physical threats and more psychological ones. We no longer face the possibility of being dinner for a furry predator, but we do face very real psychological threats such as failure, rejection, exclusion, humiliation, disconnection from the people we care about – and the list goes on. The brain still fires up in response to threat, exactly as it’s mean to, but when the threats are psychological stressors, the fight or flight response doesn’t serve us so well. When there is nothing to fight or flee, there’s nothing to burn the fight or flight neurochemicals that surge through us, so they build up and cause the symptoms of anxiety.

Karen Young https://www.heysigmund.com/

Read Karen’s full article at:

Master Teacher’s Report

Welcome back Windsoroos!

At Windsor State School, we are once again very excited about running our Playgroup, the Windsoroos. It is an early years Playgroup, affiliated with Playgroup Queensland, designed to foster parent/carer, child relationships and provide networking connections.

Windsor State School pays the Playgroup Queensland annual membership fee which covers insurance. Every year, all families fill in a registration form and sign the weekly attendance sheet. The information will be kept on file and submitted to Playgroup Queensland. Each week we ask for a gold coin donation to cover the costs of consumables.

Our playgroup is for families of children, 0 – 5 years, who reside in the Windsor State School catchment area.

Parents, carers, children and babies meet together each Friday from 1.30 to 3.00pm in our relaxed Early Years Precinct to share knowledge, seek advice and gain invaluable support. We begin our afternoon in the Helping Hands area under the Constitution building. Helping Hands is our Before and After School Care provider and they readily and happily support and assist with our Windsoroos.

The Playgroup will recommence on Friday, 2nd February, 2018, and will continue to operate in alignment with the school terms.

2018 Timetable for the Windsoroos:

As the Early Years precinct will be a learning and teaching environment every Friday afternoon, we ask that all parents, carers and children respect the students, teachers and the young Windsoroos and stay away from the Early Years Playground. Please wait under the buildings or the meeting place until 3pm.

For more information about our playgroup, please click on the attachment below.

We look forward to having fun and growing with you and your child/children at the Windsoroos Playgroup.

Helping Hands

Hey Everyone

Welcome back to another year at Windsor State School! We all hope that you had a fantastic Christmas and New Years break and are ready and rearing to go for the start of the new school year. We have had a fabulous start to the new year, we welcomed back our existing families and welcomed new families to the service which meant that we got to meet most of the Preps for 2018. It has been delightful getting to know the new families and getting to see our old friends return and hearing all about their adventures overseas and across the country.

We had so much fun during Vacation Care meeting all our new friends from within the community as well. We went bowling and to the theatre to watch Beauty and the Beast along with having visitors from Bazil Grumble to run a clay workshop and the guys from Splashtastic that helped us have fun with water games. We also had visitors from various community groups like Windsor Fire Station, Stafford Police and Queensland Rail on our Community Day. The children got to shoot the hose with the Firies and get their fingerprints taken with the Snr Constable Michelle and learn all about rail safety with David. We also had an inflatable waterslide which was a huge hit with Erin and Elise even having a go – it was definitely needed for the crazy hot days we had!

We look forward to bringing some new and exciting programs and events this year starting with our Cricket workshops on Thursdays with Tom and we are talking about starting some other skill workshops as the term and year goes on so please keep your eyes peeled for any announcements. Remember it is free to sign your child up to Helping Hands and we do allow any kind of booking – weekly, fortnightly and casual so be sure to get your enrolment pack from either the service or school office. We also have electronic enrolment and booking capabilities through this link below.

Look Forward to seeing you all around the school, make sure you say hi – we love a chat! And enjoy your beginning of Term 1!

Vacancy- School Crossing Supervisors

A casual position exists for a School Crossing Supervisor at Windsor State School.

Some pre-employment conditions apply. Currently recruiting for 5 days per fortnight however the suitable candidate may be required to work up to five days per week in all weather conditions, 1 hour 30 mins per day on a rostered basis.

The current rate of pay is $28.18 per hour.

Commencement of work for the successful applicant is dependent on:

• The favourable outcome of a health assessment.
• A Positive Notice Blue Card (you do not need to have a blue card to apply for the position)

Closing date for applications: As soon as possible

Completed applications should be returned to:

The Business Service Manager
Windsor State School
Harris Street
Windsor Qld 4030