22 May 2019

Newsletter Articles

LEADERSHIP TEAM REPORT

Hi Everyone,

As you may be aware Mrs Seed has been Acting Deputy Principal since Mrs Grogan retired last year.

This year we have undertaken a merit process to appoint a new Deputy Principal. We received a highly competitive pool of applicants from across the state. Interviews were conducted at the start of this term and it gives me great pleasure to announce that Mrs Seed was the successful applicant and is now the permanent Deputy Principal. Congratulations to Mrs Seed, a great result for a hardworking and highly dedicated educator.

NAPLAN

We were very proud of our year 3 and 5 students last week, when they participated in the NAPLAN testing. They all displayed the effort and attitude needed to do their very best. Later in the year, parents will receive a NAPLAN report, showing your child’s results.

Life Education

The Life Education Van is here at Jones Hill State School for the next 2 weeks. Classes will be attending lessons and it is important that your child participates in the Life Education lessons every year as the program builds on itself in a cumulative fashion and is part of the Australian Curriculum.

The Early Primary programs focus on: Basic physiology; Importance of nutritious food, water, fresh clean air, exercise and sleep to maintain health; Sun protection; Safe and unsafe use of medicines; Identifying potentially unsafe aspects of the environment and ways to safely deal with them (e.g. finding a syringe in the playground).

Middle School programs focus on: Basic physiology; Safe and unsafe use of medicines; Bullying and communication skills; Cyber safety; Making informed choices.

The Upper Primary programs focus on: The effects of non-medical legal drugs (e.g. nicotine and alcohol); How children can effectively deal with influences to join in unsafe situations; Dealing with potentially harmful substances; Making informed choices.

The fees for the Life Education program are $7.00 per student. If you joined the SRS (Student Resource Scheme) this is included. If you are not in the SRS (Student Resource Scheme) an invoice for $7 will come home with your child.

Life Education – Free Parent Session

There will be a free Parent Session in the Life Education Van on Monday 27th May at 9:00am. Everyone is welcome and this is your opportunity to learn about the program your child is doing and to ask questions. Niki, the Life Education Teacher, will be running this session.

LEMs Parent Session

There will be a LEMs Parent Session this Wednesday from 4-5pm in the library. Child minding is available. Come along and learn about LEM Phonics, how to help your child and to ask questions. All welcome!

District Athletics Trials

This Wednesday 22nd May and Thursday 23rd May we have a large number of students competing at the Gympie District Athletics Trials. Mr Littler, Mr Rentz and a teacher aide will be at Albert Park both days to help run the events and support our students. We wish all of our competitors good luck and know they will represent Jones Hill SS with pride.

Woolworths Earn and Learn

Do you shop at Woolworths? Don’t forget to collect the Earn and Learn stickers for our school. In the past few years this program has provided many free items across many subjects to enhance the learning experiences of our students. Sheets are available from the Jones Hill Office for you to fill with stickers. These sheets are then placed in the green box in front of our reception desk.

Containers to the office please

Jones Hill State School families and community members have been fantastic at supporting our efforts to keep the environment clean and rubbish free!

We appreciate all your support. Please send in your containers to the JONES HILL State School OFFICE – plastic bottles, cans, tetra packs, glass bottles (parents please deliver these to the office, not students).

Great job, Jones Hill community!

Kind Regards,

James Watt - Principal
Stacey Seed – Deputy Principal

EVENTS CALENDAR

PARADE AWARDS

The following students will receive awards on Parade Friday May 24 at 9:00am in the Hall.

Behaviour Awards

LEARNING: Edith (PC), Chayce (P/1R), Shaeya (1B), Sunny (1S), Sadie (1/2H),Bella (2W), Chloe (3MD), Luca (3/4D), Seth (4N), Charlotte (4W), Nate (6C).
RESPECT: Mason (PM), Callym (5MW).
ALL VALUES: Kyran (2S), Mackayla (3R), Mackenzie (5C), Hannah (6G).

Token Awards

20 Token Awards

40 Token Awards

Silver Level Behaviour Award

5C – Myles

SWPBS NEWS

Last week, P/1R focused on transitioning quietly at the end of eating and play times. We discussed and role-played respectful transitions, including:

• Waiting quietly in the undercover area
• Being an active listener and following instructions
• Respecting the personal space and property of others
• Lining up quietly
• Walking to our classroom quietly and safely

This week, P/1R focused on respectful behaviour in the classroom. The students discussed expected behaviours, then wrote and illustrated a sentence. Expected behaviours include:

• Keeping our hands and feet to ourselves
• Raising our hand to speak
• Waiting our turn
• Using manners
• Listening and following instructions
• Looking after classroom equipment
• Trying our best
• Being nice to others

LEMs

See flyer below for our latest LEM’s Parent session.

MATHEMATICS ROCKS

WHAT is number fact fluency?

It refers to the ability to recall the basic facts in all four operations (+ - x ÷) accurately, quickly and effortlessly. When children achieve automaticity with these facts, they have attained a level of mastery that enables them to retrieve them from their long-term memory without conscious effort.

WHY focus on number facts?

Number facts are important because they form the building blocks for higher-level math concepts. Through automaticity children free up their working memory and can devote it to problem solving and learning new concepts and skills.

HOW do we learn number facts?

Children develop ‘thinking strategies’ that assist them to recall number facts. These strategies need to be efficient and meaningful.

*Listed below are some thinking strategies for addition and subtraction:

*Here are two games to play at home! Please click on the links below:

TEDDY BEARS’ DAY OUT

Our annual Teddy Bears’ Day Out will be held on Thursday June 13 from 9am to 10am. This is a morning for our current Prep students to show the 2020 prep children and their parents how fun school can be. We look forward to meeting our new prep students and parents.

UNIDENTIFIED BANK TRANSACTION

We have an unidentified bank transaction in our system. If you have received your statement and noticed what’s owing is greater than what it should be, please come into the office with proof of your deposit and we will investigate this for you.

READERS CUP NEWS

The annual Readers Cup competition is on again and our team known as the Jones Hill Juggernauts are reading around the clock to prepare for this challenging event. Our team is made up of four incredible team mates - Alice, Lily, Georgia and Kate. On the 29th of May we will join approximately thirty other school teams from the Sunshine Coast to battle it out for the title of Regional Winner. We have read four novels and one picture book and tried to come up with questions that we think the quizmaster might ask. I would like to say a special thank you to Karen Foxlee (Author) for volunteering regularly with quizzing the students. Congratulations to all the Juggernauts and we wish you the very best of luck on the day!

SonBlake
Teacher – Grade 1

WAKAKIRRI UPDATE

JHSS will be performing live on stage in the 2019 Wakakirri Primary School Challenge on Thursday, July 25, 2019 at The Events Centre, Caloundra. Coming home this week will be information in relation to the purchasing of tickets, DVDs and merchandise.

MEET OUR TEACHERS

Simon Usher – SEP Teacher

Hello.

I’m Mr Usher, the guy on the Harley and the undisputed JHSS Hand Ball Champion for 2019.

I live in Currimundi, down on the Sunny Coast with my lovely wife, our seventeen year old daughter, fourteen year old son, two dogs, three snakes and too many cats.

Surfing, dirt biking with my son, heading up the beach with the family or jamming on my sax with my mates in a band are my favourite things to do, when time permits.

Being the very best version of me and the teacher your kids need at this moment at JHSS is my absolute priority, and the genuine welcome I have received from the school, families and kids since commencing in Term 1 has been most humbling.

I most grateful for the opportunity to be a part of your community, and please do continue to be awesome.

VOLUNTEERS

From 20–26 May 2019 is National Volunteer Week and the theme this year is “Making a world of difference”. We here at Jones Hill School would like you all to know that all our volunteers really do make the world of difference. Parents, grandparents, family and friends volunteer in our school in so many ways and here are just a few:

• helping children in the classroom
• helping with camps and excursions
• helping in the library
• working in the tuckshop
• being on the P&C Committee
• attending P&C meetings
• helping with fundraising
• donating to fundraising
• working in the garden
• helping with a working bee
• coaching a sports team

We would like to express our gratitude to the many volunteers who choose to spend their precious time in our school community. We could not survive without the dedication of our volunteers and their tireless efforts. While often words are not enough to show the depth of our appreciation, we do want to share a few words to say “Thank You” for all you do!

RELAY FOR LIFE

On June 7 our student leaders will be holding a Pyjama Day for our Relay for Life team. Staff and students are invited to wear their PJs to school and bring a gold coin donation to help raise money for the Cancer Council, a very worthy cause.

You can help Mr Watt and Mrs Seed answer these questions!

To raise money for our student Relay for Life team we are holding a HAIR RAISING FUNDRAISER.

If we can raise $1000, Mr Watt will have his head shaved on parade Friday October 18. For an extra $500 we will get to see Mrs Seed’s lovely long locks turn purple.

To donate to the HAIR RAISING FUNDRAISER please place you donation in an envelope and place it in the specially marked box in our office.

It’s not too late to join our year 6 Jones Hill School Relay for Life team. This year we have decided to extend the invitation to all students. Relay for Life is a community fundraising challenge raising vital funds to support cancer patients and the Cancer Council.

Although the event runs overnight (3pm Saturday October 26 to 9am Sunday October 27) the students will only participate from 3pm to 7:30pm on the Saturday. Fundraising events will be held at the school including our yearly 5 cent class challenge in August. Students may also ask for sponsorship donations from family and friends.

If you think your child would like to represent the school at this event please contact Mrs Hurren as soon as possible (email jhurr5@eq.edu.au). Further information will be sent home with students to explain registration (including cost) and details of the event. Please note students from Prep to Year 3 will require a parent or guardian to supervise them on the day.

If you would like further information please contact Mrs Hurren.

P&C News

P&C Trivia and Pizza Night

P&C Pie Drive

Forms for the P&C Pie Drive went home to students this week. This fundraiser will go towards school resources for the students. All orders are to be returned to the office by the10th of June. Please clink on the link below for a copy of the fundraising form.

Tuckshop Volunteers

The tuckshop is looking for volunteers to work Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00am till 11.30am. If you are able to help out please call the schools office on 54890555.

New Tuckshop Menu

This week a new menu for our Gum Tree Café was sent home with students (eldest in the family). Please click the link below to see a copy of the new menu and how to order online.

CAMP AUSTRALIA

Hello everyone, Jess and Jules here from Camp Australia, your out of school hours care provider. Here is our latest news.

Vacation Care

Camp Australia have indicated that we need to have eighteen children attending After School Care every day to be able to operate Vacation Care, and our numbers are definitely rising, slowly but surely. We are still working on this as we completely understand it's something our community needs and really wants. We have been doing everything we can think of in terms of promotional activitities at Jones Hill State School. All suggestions are welcome, please let Jules know. We have been making connections and liaising with the Director at Goodstart Early Learning Centre (over the road) and we both want to work together to fulfil the needs of the Jones Hill Community in terms of OSHC and Vacation Care. The Director of the Goodstart Early Learning Centre is very happy to recommend us in situations where they cannot accommodate and are reaching full capacity, so fingers crossed we get some recommendations and our numbers increase.

Suggestion Box

We now have a ‘Suggestion Box’ on the signing in bench. We encourage anyone to pop in any ideas they may have to help improve our service. Any feedback or ideas will be greatly appreciated. Please make sure you add your name so we can get back to you.

Library Sessions

Our library sessions are very successful and the children are asking nearly every session, “are we going to the library today?”. They particularly love the educational computer games and the spaghetti or beans on toast we make at the Thursday sessions. Thank you for your patience with the change from Wednesday to Monday morning last week, due to NAPLAN and the hall tidy up from the weekend’s event.

There are no more changes to our sessions for the rest of term 2 and here’s a reminder of the Library days - every Wednesday morning (park in nearest car park and drop off at the Library) and alternate Thursday afternoons 30th May, 13th June, 27th June (children still meet in the hall at 3pm and we all walk up together). Thank you all very much for your co-operation with this so we can provide your children with different experiences in OSHC.

Basketball Net and Money for Lego

You may have noticed that our basketball net has been lying on its side as unfortunately the base has been damaged. Thankfully, arriving next week, is a brand new one. We have managed to sell the damaged one for $100 and will be buying Lego for the children - so every cloud has a silver lining.

Talking of money for Lego, we would really like to buy the children some more construction resources as this is something they love to do. Camp Australia has given us the opportunity to win an extra $500 for resources each term through a Reward and Recognition program they run. The way to win the $500 is to earn points and the Co-Ordinator with the most points at the end of the term wins the $500. We are up against every other Co-Ordinator and OSHC Service in Queensland. One way points are awarded to us is when a parent provides positive feedback on their Parent Portal. If you have observed me doing anything that deserves a mention, please get onto your Parent Portal, and scroll down to the bottom of the main page, click 'leave feedback' and type something awesome on there for JULIA MORTLEY. Thanks heaps everyone.

Notices

You will have noticed we now have portable shelves for the children to put their bags on and above these we put important notices for you to read. Please ensure you check these every day and maybe even take photos of the ones that are important for you to remember. Thank you very much for your co-operation with this.

To the left of the shelves and notices is our board with the weekly Program and Menu. Take a look next time you’re in to check out the great activities we are doing and the yummy snacks we are eating. Please check the Jones Hill Facebook Page for weekly photos of fun things we've been doing!

As always please do not hesitate to pop in and see Jules at the hall for any information you need on the Out of School Hours Service that we provide here at Jones Hill School.

See you next newsletter.

Jess and Jules
Out of School Care Providers - JHSS

HOT SHOTS TENNIS EXCELLENCE PROGRAM

Gympie and District Tennis Association Coaches Brett Cottrill and Matt Watkins will commence Hot Shots Tennis program from Tuesday 7th May at Jones Hill State School. Groups will be held on Tuesdays - Grades 5 and 6, Wednesdays - Grades 3 and 4, Thursdays - Grade 2 and Fridays - Prep and Grade 1, at first break from 11.00am to 11.40am for a MINIMUM BLOCK OF 7 WEEKS. Costs will be $85.00/pupil, $160.00 for 2 children or $210.00 for 3 children in the same family.

To register for the program please contact Brett Cottrill on 0417746795 or return the completed form back to the office by Tuesday 7th may.

We accept the Get Started Sporting Vouchers.

Please make cash payment or cheques payable to Brett Cottrill.

Direct Deposit: B A COTTRILL. BSB 014585 ACCT 583359786 including students name as reference.

Note: After school Hot Shots games and Fixtures start are on every Thursday at The Reg English Memorial Tennis Centre Cartwright Road Gympie from 3.30pm to 5.30 pm FREE MEMBERSHIP !!!