29 November 2017

Newsletter Articles

LEADERSHIP TEAM REPORT

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to our last newsletter for 2017!

2017 has been a very successful year for Jones Hill with our students demonstrating high academic growth, achieving zone and state representation in sport, winning the State Showcase for Early Years Excellence, welcoming SAGE Music Academy to the school,

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Jones Hill staff for their dedication and work. It is because of the wonderful staff we have that our school maintains the great reputation and success we enjoy.

It is a credit to you as parents that we have such well-rounded global citizens that are growing into lifelong learners. We are a very lucky community.

P&C Achievements

Another fantastic year for our P&C. This year they have completed the air-conditioning of the whole school, fundraised in many events, led the school’s reintroduction to the Gympie Music Muster and continued to hold events such as discos. Your time and dedication to our school is greatly appreciated.

At the end of the year we will farewell some families that have been tremendous contributors to our school community as their student’s move onto high school. In particular I would like to acknowledge the contributions of Steve Delisser, Carmel Window and Lisa Van Doran who have worked tireless hours over a long period of time and been big supporters of our school community.

Staffing

Mr Hammond will return again in the You Can Do It role.
Mrs Rodgers will join our team from Emerald.
Mrs Crow will join us from Charters Towers.
Mrs Dodd will join us from Maryborough.
Mr Powell will join us from the Torres Strait.
We welcome back Mrs Mansfield and Mrs Loughland from maternity leave.

We farewell Mrs Austin who has been successful in winning the principal position at Wolvi State School. Our loss is definitely Wolvi’s gain. Mrs Austin will be a great asset to their community.

Mr McEnery will join another PE circuit in 2018, so we will farewell him for next year.

Mrs Grogan will begin leave next year with the view to retirement. Mrs Grogan has been a great principal and deputy principal at Jones Hill. She has had a long and successful career, not in Gympie but around Queensland. We will be farewelling Mrs Grogan on Awards night. I have personally appreciated Mrs Grogan’s support and caring nature in my time at Jones Hill. She is a wonderful educator and will be sorely missed next year. I hope you can join us on Thursday night to say goodbye.

We farewell Mrs Luke who has received a transfer to North Lakes and wish her well at her new school. A new strings teacher is yet to be appointed.

Next year we are predicting to start the year with an extra class, making 17 classrooms. There will be some minor moves of rooms with the year 5 classes relocating to the music rooms and the music room moving up beside the Rainbow Room.

Year 1 students will receive new furniture to start 2018. Our classroom renewal has seen new furniture delivered to all classes from Prep to year 3 and also year 5 classes.

Class lists and teacher allocations are close to being finalised and will be displayed on the notice board under the old administration block next Wednesday, 6 December.

Thank you to our school community for your support during 2017 and I wish you a safe and Happy Christmas.

Debtors Statements will be sent home tomorrow to remind parents what is outstanding on their accounts. We do realise that some of these accounts are not yet due, the statements are merely reminders.

Kind Regards,
James Watt and Helen Grogan

EVENTS CALENDAR

PARADE AWARDS

The following students will receive awards on Parade Friday December 1 at 9:00am in the Hall

Thumbs Up Certificates

20 TOKENS: (1B) Tyler F; (4Z) Erin H

40 TOKENS: (3G) Lucas R; (3/4C) Xander R; (4Z) Carter A, Jack T, Jessica H

60 TOKENS: (PM) Billy G, Jack G; (PC) Regan M; (1Z) Laylalee W; (2A) Lillly S; (2S) Taylah B, Jonah M; (2/3L) Kobi M, Cooper M; (3/4C) Allie C , Drajon D, Thomas F, Ella H, Hayden L, Ella C; (4Z) Theodore C, Jacobi L; (5M) Axton F, Alisha Q, Brady W; (6G) Daryon T

80 TOKENS: (1B) Cooper S, Xander K; (1Z) Addison M, Charlize C, Sianna D, Finley L, Cooper M; (2A) Jayvyn H; (2/3L) Rafferty K, Flynn A; (3G) Harry M; (3/4C) Savannah A, Bailee G, Poppy M, Deacon M, James W; (4Z) Thomas B; (5M0 Billy R, Hayley S; (6G) Alec B, Riley S; (6C) Josh T

100 TOKENS: (PM) Grace M, Bronte S, Jakob R, Temujin S; (PR) Ethan A, Chelsea L, Linkin M, Sienna S, Amarli T, Hunter T, Kaylah T, Bella B; (PC) Aubrey A, Savannah B, John C, Amahni G, Breeanna H, Danika K, Archer S; (1Z) Riley W, Rieland D, Tylor T, Lachlan W; (2A) Eli H, Zeke M; (2S) Ruby D, Rhianna M; (2/3L) Eli R, Casey J; (3/4C) Ellia L; (4Z) cody F, Hannah P; (6C) Ryan B, Ebony B, Saxon H, Eva W; (6G) Ethan D, Harley L, Kaitlyn V, Tyler C Amalia D

Behaviour Awards

LEARNING: (PC) Letisha J; (PM) Clara M; (PR) Lily C; (1B) Sienna-Grace E; (1Z) Jazmyn H; (2A) Crystal R; (2/3L) Eli R; (3G) Kaitlyn W; (3/4C) Ellie L; (5M) Axton F

RESPECT: (5M) Eva Z

RELATIONSHIPS: (6C) Ryan B

ALL VALUES: (2S) Izabel B; (4Z) Marcus T; (5/6N) Chloe B, Brodie F

GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS

Ensure you attend the Musical production 3:30pm Friday 1st December. Please invite extended family to enjoy this entertaining production. A large cast have been working very hard and will present music, dance and a humorous twist on the well known tale that will be sure to captivate. Gold coin entry.

LEMS

P&C NEWS

Annual AGM

The P&C Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday, 19 February 2018 in the Library. Everyone is welcome. The night will begin with a ‘Welcome B.B.Q.’ starting at 6:00pm.

JHSS Parents and Citizens Association 2017 Review

2017 started for the P&C even before the school year commenced, after learning that the School’s Administration had secured a significant Queensland Government Gambling grant over the Christmas break. We were able to assist them by helping to raise a shortfall in money required to air-condition the remaining classrooms which was finally achieved by the end of Term 1. Air-conditioning the entire school cost close to $100 000 and was achieved well before expected. Saying that, it could not have happened as swiftly if it were not for the extra effort provided by three amazing women: Carmel Window for overseeing not only a successful 2016 School Fete but a profitable one; Kelda Kraft, who spent months negotiating with the Lowes organisation to take-over our uniform sales on commission and to buy our large and aging shelf stock at a reasonable price. And, had it not been for the diligence and professionalism of Tammy Pengelly, who took it upon herself to submit the successful application for the Gambling Grant.

In February we conducted the Annual General Meeting, whereby everyone sits around a table with their best poker-faces on, praying not to be nominate for a position. At that meeting, the P&C’s rock of knowledge, Carmel Window, stepped down from the Presidency; while Sasha Baxter also stepped-down from her long time role as the Fundraising Coordinator. Time moves on and the association is far stronger for their participation over the years. By the end of that meeting I moved up from Secretary to President, Jaime Hammersley-Young took over my position; Louise Younger remained Treasurer, as did Jason Zerner as Vice President.

The 2018 AGM is our next scheduled meeting on February 20th next year. If you ever thought that you might like to get more involved with the school then this is the time to do it. Your P&C is always in need of new volunteers and the energy that they bring.

At this point it is a fitting time to acknowledge the long service to the school of the Van Doren, Window and Delisser families. These three families are moving on as the last of their children enter High School. They have each given much to the our school over many years and have been stalwarts of the P&C during this time.

This year I have had the pleasure of guiding a wonderful small team of volunteers that have tirelessly committed to fundraising activities such as a Car Boot Sale, Mother’s and Father’s Day stalls, Athletic and Swimming Carnival canteens, the Spring Carnival canteen, The Gympie Music Muster, The Matty Hillcoat Truckies Day Out, Bunnings BBQ, Election Sausage Sizzle, the Christmas Concert, and a Disco each term with special thanks to our DJ, Janessa Keogh.

This fundraising effort has enabled us to provide close to $30000 to the school this year for areas that the Government allocated budget does not adequately cover, such as;

• $15 000 to Air-conditioning
• $4000 to buy new PC’s
• $3200, made up of $200 to each class for additional resources
• $2000 subsidy to assist keeping Dance Fever classes affordable
• $1300 for Positive Behaviour rewards such as Green Day and Iceblocks and other gifts
• $1200 which was part of a matched grant to acquire new sports day marquees.
• $1000 for new home readers
• $1000 for oval repair
• $850 for year 6 graduation gifts
• $250 to assist with the Eco Garden
• $200 for a face painting kit which can be utilized by both the P&C and the school

Our primary focus now is on a new playground for the senior students. Over several years we have been saving for this project which will cost in excess of $75 000. This year we added another $3000 to those savings, bringing the total to $8500. The school has identified a significant grant which if successful would fully fund this playground but it requires the school to have $27000 capital committed to the project prior to applying. Noting we currently have $8500, we are concentrating our fundraising efforts towards a goal of attaining that extra $19000 by June next year when the grant application closes. With hard work and a lot of crossed fingers we may obtain that grant and have a fantastic playground by years end.

The other role of the P&C is to maintain a functioning tuckshop for the students; to do this we buy stock and pay the wage of the convenor, all while trying to keep prices low, but keeping the tuckshop from making a loss. 2017 has been a transition year for our Tuckshop due mainly to the Government’s compulsory implementation of the ‘Healthy Choices’ program. The P&C Executive along with our Principal James and Convenor Jo, spent many hours researching, developing and implementing the necessary changes to the tuckshop as well as looking at ways to improve areas of service. Unfortunately for the P&C and for the school community, Jo decided to move-on after 10 wonderful years as our Convenor and we wish her all the good fortune in her new endeavours. We also thank you to Jo for the training she provided to our new Convenor, Jodie Benyon. We recently held a renaming of the Tuckshop competition. The winning entry was submitted by Tyler R from Year 1B being; ‘Gum Tree Café. Currently there is a second competition to create a logo for this name which will result in a new sign being erected over the tuckshop for the start of 2018.

We can only achieve these goals with your support and patronage of our fundraising efforts, and I hope you can see how every dollar raised helps all of our children to receive a better education and heighten their enjoyment of their school. If you have ever thought of helping out as a volunteer, can I please ask that you make that effort as we really need a helping hand to maintain an active P&C which strengthens the capability of our school.

Col Morley - P&C President

Christmas Holiday Twilight Junior Tennis Fun

Gympie and District Junior Tennis Association coaches Brett Cottrill and Matt Watkins will be conducting 6 Fun Events and coaching clinics in the holidays on Monday 11th Dec, Wednesday 13th Dec, and Friday 15th Dec (1st week) and Monday 15th Jan, Wednesday 17th Jan, and Thursday 19th Jan (Last week) at The Reg English Memorial Tennis Centre on Cartwright Rd. The tournaments will be held from 5.00pm until 7.30pm. Costs $20 for 1 event, $35 for 2 events, $45 for 3 events in the same week. Great prizes and plenty of tennis for all. Levels from beginners to advanced are welcome. Family Discounts. Sausage sizzle and or pizza included at each event.

Enquiries and bookings to Brett Cottrill 0417 746795.

Entries for each tournament close 4.00pm day prior to the event.