15 July 2020

Newsletter Articles

LEADERSHIP TEAM REPORT

Dear parents and caregivers,

Welcome back to the start of term 3. I hope you have had an enjoyable break and made the most of our new freedoms under the easing of restrictions.

To start off the term I am pleased to announce we have appointed our Head of Special Education Services (HOSES), Mrs Sherryn Sweeney. Sherryn comes to Jones Hill School with a wealth of experience in special education and has worked as HOSES in several schools. She has relocated from Kingaroy to join the Jones Hill team. Mrs Sweeney will join Mr Usher and Mrs Jones in our SEP team.

We also welcome Mrs Fiona Calvert who will be working with Mr Callaghan’s class on Wednesdays.

Mrs Debbie Coates will work with students in the lower school to provide intervention for reading and teaching HAAS to our P-4 students.

With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions we will begin holding whole school parades as of this Friday. At this stage we will not have any parents at parades but will continue to live stream it on FaceBook for our families.

Jones Hill will continue to ensure good hygiene with washing hands and the use of sanitiser as we have been during semester one. We would ask parents to continue to support us in this time by not entering the classrooms or congregating in groups during pick up and drop off times.

CAMP AUSTRALIA

Camp Australia have agreed to continue our service of before and after school care for term 3, while we transition the after school care to our P&C. It is planned that Jones Hill P&C will run the service from that point, which is great news for our families.

SCHOOL OPINION SURVEY

At Jones Hill we value the feedback we get from our families. Parents and Caregivers are invited to participate in this year’s School Opinion Survey and have a say about schooling during the COVID-19 lockdown. You are also given the opportunity to provide feedback about our school more generally.

Participation in the survey is anonymous and you are encouraged to take this opportunity to have your say. The survey form has been designed so that it can easily be completed on a computer or smartphone. The online survey will be available until Friday, 17 July 2020, and should take less than five minutes to complete.

To access the survey, please click on the link below or copy and paste it into your web browser:

Parent survey –

Please contact the school if you have any questions about the survey.

PREP 2021

If you have a child attending Prep in 2021 and would like them to attend our school, please contact our school administration staff. This may be done by phoning us on 54890555, calling into the office or via email on admin@jonehillss.eq.edu.au. Our staff can answer all of your questions and are happy to help. We do accept out-of-catchment enrolments and last year all of our out-of-catchment students were able to attend Jones Hill State School. By adding your child to our current waiting list you will receive information regarding our Prep Transition Programs and information sessions.

Report Cards

Due to the learning at home and at school situation at the end of term 1 and half of term 2, the reporting process will be adjusted. Report cards will be sent home on Friday 31st July (week 3, term 3) and teachers will be reporting on term 1 assessments that were completed and term 2 modified assessments.

Report cards will also have achievement and effort ratings only for English, Mathematics, Science, PE, Music and LOTE (Japanese). Comments will be included for Behaviour and Overall Comments. Absences will not be included on the semester 1, 2020 report card.

Winter Uniform

Students are expected to wear the school uniform every day. Uniforms help to establish a strong school unity and give students a sense of pride. Uniforms are available to purchase from Lowes Department Store at Central Shopping Centre in Gympie.

Black fleecy lined pullover / zip jackets are worn during winter, plain or with the school logo. Black tracksuit pants. Girls may wear black leggings under skorts. Skorts/shorts are not to be shorter than mid-thigh length.

Kind Regards,

James Watt – Principal
Stacey Seed – Deputy Principal

EVENTS CALENDAR

STUDENT AWARDS

Behaviour Awards

The following students will receive their behaviour certificates and behaviour level awards this Friday.

LEARNING: PB – Peter; PC – Maria; PR – Flynn; 1/2C – Sienna; 2B – Reaghan; 2MD – Ivie-Rose; 2/3W – Mason; 3B – Daniel; 3D – Bronte; 4MD – Tylor; 4/5W – Seth; 5CL – Vada;
RESPECT: 5R – Aurora
RELATIONSHIPS: PM – Isabella; 1L – Ashtyn;
JHSS ALL VALUES: 1H – Pypa; 6C - Macy

Behaviour Levels

SILVER - 5CL – Harry, Vada
GOLD – 5R - Florence
PLATINUM – 4/5W – Ruby, Angus

Token Awards

The following students will receive their token certificates this Friday.

20 Tokens

5CL – Everleigh

40 Tokens

PB – Nataly; 1L – Alexander, Asha, Nate; 2/3W – Jaxson, Annabelle, Breeanna, Garrett, Sunny, Mason; 3B – Lawson; 5CL – Luca, Charlotte, Makayla

60 Tokens

PB – Evelyn, Jemma, Maggie; PR – Cohen, Laylah, Nate; 1H – Abbiegail; 2/3W – Kyran; 3B – Aubrey, Emily, Archer, Summer, Clara, Savannah, Lincolne, Tyson ; 3D – Temujin ; 5CL – Charlotte, Riley, Ebony

FROM THE BUSINESS MANAGER

Hi Everyone,

Canberra Trip

Unfortunately due to the ever evolving re-emergence of the Covid-19 virus we have postponed the Canberra Trip. Many venues that we would of visited have been closed. The trip has now been booked for November. There are no set dates at this stage but we will keep you updated. It will mean that there is no snow day but we will find other attractions for that day. By then it is anticipated that all the venues will be open again and we will visit them as planned.

Isolation Cookbook

We have completed our Isolation Cookbook. It is small but has some great recipes from our students. If you would like a copy they are available from the office for $2.

PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE 2020

Let’s keep reading!

The challenge has six weeks to go, finishing on Friday August 28. All students who participate will receive a certificate.

Congratulations to PR who have had an amazing reading journey and have all completed their Premier’s Reading Challenge. Well done PR.

The Reading Centre has partnered with Channel Nine to deliver reading @home TV to support language and literacy development for children in Kindergarten to Year 3. Although students are now back in the classroom, these lessons are a great reading resource. Episodes are available on the department’s YouTube channel so they can continue to be used by students and parents.

For more information about the Premier’s Reading Challenge, please visit at the link below.

Please click the link below for a copy of the Premier's Reading Challenge record sheet.

MEET THE STAFF

Jess Dunn

Hello Jones Hill S.S. families. I am Jess Dunn and I started teaching here at Jones Hill at the start of this year. This is my fifteenth year of teaching and I am fortunate enough to be teaching the awesome 4MD with Mrs Millers

Before moving to Gympie two years ago, I lived in Weipa in Cape York for eight years where I loved teaching, fishing, camping and adventuring. I grew up in Maryborough so the move to Gympie has brought us much closer to our extended family.

I live on 40 acres just up the road from our school with my husband and three daughters, Stella, Evie and Matilda. We have a golden retriever called Leia, two guinea fowl called R2 and D2 and 12 cows. We love our place and the nature that surrounds us. We often spot echidnas, kangaroos, wallabies, black cockatoos and turtles. We even have a platypus that lives in our creek. When I am not at school or looking after my family, I enjoying running, reading, going to the beach and catching up with friends.

Thank you everyone for welcoming my family and I to Jones Hill. We look forward to many happy years here.

RELAY FOR LIFE

For the last 8 years Jones Hill School has entered a team in the Gympie Relay for Life event.

This year, Gympie Relay for Life will be joining the state-wide virtual Relay, which will be streamed online on 10 October. This Relay will focus on what makes Relay for Life so special to all those involved, and bring Relayers across Queensland together to fight back against cancer.

We know many of our students will still want to be involved by fundraising to help the Cancer Council with research and support those with Cancer and their families.

The school will be holding a mini relay event on Wednesday September 16 from 1pm to 6pm. To register your child for this event click on the link below. Registration is free but we do ask if possible for all participants to fundraise at least $20. More details of our mini relay will be in our next Newsletter.

Register here:

JONESY’S 5 CENT CHALLENGE

Each year Jonesy, our school Relay for Life Mascot, runs a class competition to raise funds for the school’s Relay Team. Money is collected in the classrooms from August 1 to August 31. The class that raises the most money will be presented with the annual trophy on parade, September 6.

So start collecting your small change ready for the August challenge. Any denomination accepted.

WANTED

If you have any of the below containers or similar with lids (black or white) please drop them to the school office.

SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT

In Week 1, all students are working on the expectation of safety in classrooms and other learning settings. 3B students have been busy writing four simple steps to follow so that everyone can have a tidy desk. Everyone followed the steps and then we took photos of our desks.

Next, we wrote some CAUSE and EFFECT statements to show what could happen if we are not safe or careful in our classrooms.

Lastly, we took different photos of some of the ways that we keep our classroom clean, tidy and safe.

In Week 2, all students are working on the expectation of learning in the playground and other supervised settings.

3B students thought about the following statements:

• Know where you should be at all times
• Follow adult instructions and directions
• Play correctly and follow the rules

What parts of our school day involves using these statements?

Where in the school will these statements apply?

We made a Y chart to show what our school environment would look, sound, and feel like if we did not try our best to follow these statements. Next, we had some fun by helping a robot called ‘Random Robot’. It needed reprogramming to ensure it has a successful day in the playground.

We wrote a set of steps for Random Robot and then during our LAB lesson we typed the steps using a font called Wingdings. We swapped our code with another classmate so that the messages could be deciphered. Here is an example.

LEMS NEWS

LEM Phonics: Why is it important to focus on words?

Word awareness is one of the concepts of print which allow students to understand how a text works and how a text can be understood in the intended way. Students need to know these concepts so that they are able to understand the ‘rules’ of how a written text works and are able to begin to understand the message. Effective readers use these skills to ‘break the code’ of written text as they engage in reading and writing activities.

Phonemic Awareness Strategy 2 is Word Awareness.

The understanding of the mechanics of a text and alphabet knowledge include:

• Knowledge that words are separated by spaces.
• Recognising the difference between symbols including alphabetic letters vs numerals vs punctuation.
• The purpose of punctuation and capital letters.
• Knowledge of the names of each letter.
• Recognition of each upper and lower case letter.
• Knowing the difference between letters and words.

As students begin to recognise familiar words and letters it is important that they are provided with the language terms which enable them to talk about the concepts they are grasping.

What you can do at home:

• Become detectives together to investigate how many words are in a sentence? “How do you know?”
• Write funny stories together.
• Find and discuss the purpose of spaces, capital letters, punctuation.
• Have fun exploring together!

(Adapted from, LEM Phonics…Ark Educational Consultancy Gregory P. O’Keefe, 2003-Updated 2008)

(Adapted from https://www.education.vic.gov.au/childhood/professionals/learning/ecliteracy/emergentliteracy/
Pages/conceptsofprint.aspx)

P&C NEWS

Pie Drive

Thank you to everyone who placed an order from our Pie Drive.

Delivery day is Thursday, July 23 from 3pm to 4pm. As we have had such a large response we will be distributing orders from our school hall.

Please drop named bags at the office by Wednesday July 22 to help us pack your order.

Family Photo Fundraiser

Would you like a beautiful family photo to hang on your wall or maybe a gift for Nanna and Poppy? Book a session at our Family Photo Fundraiser on Saturday and Sunday, August 29 and 30. Local photographer Tracey Devereaux is offering 15 minute session for only $25. This fee will go directly to our school P&C and help support all of our students. You will receive a 6x8 print of your choice. If you wish to purchase more images cost are only $35 each or a full gallery of 20+ images for $350. Tracey offers Afterpay and lay-by is also welcome.

For booking please contact our school office.

FROM THE TUCKSHOP

NEW TUCKSHOP MENU

Our new tuckshop menu started today. All families have received a copy of the menu today or see the link below. Please remember that tuckshop will open first break only on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Cody and Trina – Tuckshop Conveyers

CONTAINERS PLEASE

Keep bringing in your containers for recycling. All plastic bottles, aluminium cans, tetra packs can be dropped off to the office. Glass bottles can be brought in by adults only.

The Jones Hill SS community is doing their part to reduce landfill and keep our waterways clean. Thank you to all of our families and students for supporting this very worthy cause.