Beerwah State School

Student Illness & Time Out

Thank you to all of our school community for advising of your student absences and keeping students home if they are unwell.

It is essential we keep all of our school community safe and keeping your child home from school if they are unwell supports everyone. In accordance with Queensland Health Directions parents or carers of any child showing signs of illness will be asked to collect them immediately from the school.

If we are unable to reach you, your emergency contact will be called. Please ensure your contact details/emergency contacts are up to date, these can be viewed and edited via QParents or by emailing admin@beerwahss.eq.edu.au.

Please advise the school of your student absences via QParents, Student Skoolbag eforms, email admin@beerwahss.eq.edu.au or the Absentee Line 5436 5588. If you require assistance registering for QParents please contact the school, we are always happy to help.

District Athletics

This week, we had 39 Year 4,5 & 6 students compete in District Athletics at Beerwah State High School. We are so proud of our students, representing our school with their amazing athletic abilities. We will let you know how they went once results are published! A big thank you to Liz Traynor for preparing our students for this event.

Instrumental Music Workshops

This Wednesday, 8 of our senior students were invited to participate in the Glasshouse Cluster Instrumental Music Workshops held at Glasshouse Mountains State School. This wonderful experience gave our students the opportunity to learn from specialist instrumental music teachers from the district and perform with other advanced musicians from other schools. Congratulations to all students who participated and thank you to Eleanor Dalzell for preparing our students for this event.

Raw Art Workshops

The Raw Arts workshops held in classrooms last week was a huge success. Our students were immersed in Visual Art, using various media to create some stunning masterpieces. What a valuable experience. Check out our Facebook page for photos.

Masterpiece Dance

There are still 4 places available for any Year 3,4,5 or 6 student to sign up for the Masterpiece Dance Workshops. These are held over 4 lunchtimes starting 15 August. If your child is interested, please contact the Office.

Staff Update

This week, our teachers participated in a Profiling Sweep. This is a process where our teachers were observed teaching in their classrooms by a trained Profiler. The classroom teachers then met with the Profiler and received feedback on their teaching in order to improve their teaching practice. I would like to thank our teachers for participating in this very valuable process and also to Janet Thomson and Tamra Philpot who were our Profilers.

School Opinion Survey

The 2022 School Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday, 11 July to Friday, 12 August.

School Opinion Surveys canvass the views of parents/caregivers, students in Years 5 & 6 and school staff from every state school on what our schools do well and how they can improve.

Opinions on the school, student learning and student well-being are sought from a parent/caregiver in all families and students (Years 5 & 6) from each state school.

Our students will be completing this survey at school. Parents will be emailed a link to the survey in the week beginning Monday, 11 July. The email uses the subject line: School Opinion Survey for parents/caregivers, 2022.

I would ask all parents/carers who receive an email, to complete this survey as the more surveys completed, the more meaningful the data will be for our school.

Scott Bowden (Principal)

Check out our calendar of events throughout the year, via the school's website at

Beerwah State School

You can sync any event to your personal calendar by clicking to  open the event and click on the  'Add to Calendar' button.  

Check out our Facebook page for more Celebrations and what's happening at our School.

Beerwah State School Facebook page

READING

This year, we have been sharing information about the evidence-based ways to teach reading. Our curriculum team has also been reviewing our personal reading (previously home reading) program.

To inform our review, we would like to collect some feedback and information from our parents. Below is a link to a short (less than 5 mins) anonymous survey. The responses will be very important because they will give our curriculum team information make more informed decisions in how we approach personal reading.

The survey will be open until Friday, 9 July.   Click here to go to Survey

VOCABULARY

Having a wide and deep vocabulary is a strong predictor of reading comprehension because, if we don’t know what a word means, we will not be able to understand it when we read.

Vocabulary is developed in many ways – including through everyday interactions and the teaching of specific words through texts. This short video shows a way which teachers to introduce and practice new vocabulary words through reading a text to children. This process is regularly used by teachers, however, it is equally powerful at home. Together, the more opportunities we provide to develop vocabulary, the stronger it will become. See video below.

ARTS SHOW

Our Raw Art incursion was a massive success last week. A big thank-you to Ms Prior for her work organising this with the team from Raw Art. Many of the skills that children learnt during the incursion will be used to help create our Arts Show displays.

There is a note coming home this week asking for donations of re-cyclable items that students will use to create their art works. Thank-you for your help collecting these up.

Matt Deady (HODC)

"Everyone is a reader, some just haven't found their favourite book yet"

Encourage your child to read each day and borrow a book to take home to read and share with you. Please check the Library timetable for your borrowing day and bring in your red library bag.

The Library is open Monday mornings from 8:30-9am, and Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8:30am. Students can borrow on their class borrowing day at lunchtime and before school on these days. They must bring their red Library Bag. Library bags are available through the Uniform Shop for $13.00.

Library Timetable

Mrs Rachel and Ms Merwood

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is well underway and some students have collected a second form already to record their reading achievements. If you need another form pop into the Library we have lots of spares.

P&C Meetings

The next P&C meeting will be held on Monday, 15 August at 6pm in our Resource Centre Library. Please come along and meet our small and caring team. If you can’t join in person, you can always zoom in, just email P&C to get the link: pandc@beerwahss.eq.edu.au. It was wonderful to see two new members at the last meeting. 

Volunteering

Did you know, volunteering is a great way to showcase your strengths. Look for opportunities that are within your wheelhouse. Using the skills that come naturally to you makes things easier (and often more enjoyable). If you love baking, sign up to help with the bake sale. Volunteering will feel less burdensome, and your natural talents will be appreciated.

We are always in need of volunteers for a variety of purposes. Sometimes it’s just for an hour, other times a little more. Sometimes it’s even making a few phone calls from home. If you can spare some time, we’d love to hear from you. Many hands make light work and currently we need more hands!

Facebook Page

Do you ever feel like you're missing out? Do you hear about things after they happen?

Are you aware that the P&C has a Facebook page? We post regular updates on many things: Tuckshop, Uniform Shop, events, special days etc. It's a really great place to find out what's going on & it's open to everyone, not just for P&C members. A reminder is sent out at the beginning of each week so you can stay on top of things. Just search @beerwahsspandc on Facebook and click to follow so you can get the most recent information too.

Make sure you like our Facebook page to stay up to date with all that is going on from the P&C. Click here to visit the Beerwah SS P&C Facebook page  

Events & Fundraising

We sent out the Cookie Dough information last week, apologies for the technical glitch when parents tried to start their orders, it’s all fixed now and is open for another week.

We are still looking for volunteers for our community car show on Saturday, 3 September. Please contact P&C via our Facebook page or email pandc@beerwahss.eq.edu.au if you are able to assist. Should any families have businesses that involve cars or other vehicles, please get in touch as we would like to involve local businesses, especially those with a school connection.

Plants! As part of our car event, we are holding a plant sale to raise funds to purchase an oven for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden. This is a vital piece of equipment required so your children can learn how to prepare meals, won’t it be great when they can cook your dinner? We are reaching out to parents and carers to donate a plant for the stall.

If you have green thumbs, how about some cuttings from existing plants? We are also looking for attractive pots to use, no plastic pots but any unused ceramic/terracotta pots would be wonderful for us to re-pot our cuttings into. Try saving your tin cans, decorating them and punching a few holes in the base before potting up some cuttings. Get creative and get planting!

Working Bee

Unfortunately, we had to cancel our working bee for Term 3 due to urgent works that had to be carried out onsite on the same day. We will attempt another on the second Saturday of term 4 so mark it on your calendar.

New Ordering information - IMPORTANT

We are aligning with the school and moving our online sales for everything to Qkr! It’s super easy to download and use, and there are no fees for parents when you order things, and you can pay for multiple things in one transaction. Of course, it’s new for all of us so we may have some teething problems, but everyone should find it more convenient to order and pay for everything in one simple app.

Tuckshop

Updates will be provided on Skoolbag and our Facebook page for the Tuckshop re-opening & specials for this term.

Click here to download our Tuckshop Menu

Click here to order online or download the Qkr! app on your mobile device.

Last week we enjoyed a visit from our local Beerwah Library for an outreach session.  Karen came and read the childrens' story 'Dear Zoo' by author Rod Campbell, sang songs, made music with the children, and we danced the morning away. 

Come and join in the fun and social connections as your children learn through play at Kandoo Joeys Playgroup.

Kandoo Joeys is open to all families with before-school-aged children. It runs every Wednesday from 9.00am-11.00am in J Block next to the Admin Block. Each month we have a different theme and provide an environment rich with play-based learning opportunities.

You can check out the Playgroup at Home Queensland website for some fun activities, blogs, and resources and also also Playgroup at Home Queensland Facebook group. 

For more information contact Linda Merwood at admin@beerwahss.eq.edu.au

Given the ongoing COVID issues/ implications and other stressors on families, it seems timely to share this helpful website from Beyond Blue: https://healthyfamilies.beyondblue.org.au/age-6-12/mental-health-conditions-in-children/anxiety/strategies-to-support-anxious-children

The 10 practical ideas are aimed at children aged 6 to 12 years. Please consider the 9th strategy which involves an interactive, online program for the prevention and treatment of childhood and adolescent anxiety. This free program which was developed at the University of Queensland, has programs for a range of ages and parents: https://brave4you.psy.uq.edu.au/

Andrew Graham (Guidance Officer)

Helping Hands provides quality before and after school care. This service forms strong, collaborative ties with the school, children, families, and the local community; to ensure the needs and interests of every child and family are supported. We provide an environment in which children feel safe and have fun. Afternoon tea is included.

We are located in D Block which is next to the Senior oval. For the children’s safety it is a requirement that you park in the allocated staff car park and use the footpaths to walk to and from the Centre. The car park will be open in the morning 6:30 to 7:30 and afternoon 5:00 to 6:00. Outside of these times, you will need to use the normal school carpark located on Old Gympie Rd. Children must be supervised at all times by an adult.

If you have any questions please phone Helping Hands Co-ordinator Sharon on: 0448 083 043, or click on the link below.

Concerns regarding young children with difficult and defiant behaviours? The Management of Young Children Program (MYCP) is available in 2022.

The MYCP is supported by Beerwah and Landsborough State Schools (therefore no cost for these families) and is a practical and individualised behaviour support program for parents and carers of young children aged 2½ to 7 years and their families. It is a well-established and evidence based early intervention program targeting children who display defiant or oppositional behaviour with the aim of reducing such problematic behaviours in primary school and beyond.

For more information or interest in participating in the program, please see the school website link or contact the Landsborough State School office 5436 2777.

Our School has our own Skoolbag iPhone and Android App to help us communicate more effectively with our school Parent/Student community. Download the Skoolbag App to receive short messages, reminders and alerts. Parents will also be able to use eForms for absentee notes and change of details.

Click here to visit Skoolbag website

Take advantage of the QParents payments function to pay your invoices by simply logging in and paying online at any time.

If you have not registered for QParents yet, please email admin@beerwahss.eq.edu.au or call into the school office to collect the registration information. Over time, QParents will become an integral part of how we communicate with parents. Get on board now to enjoy the ease and convenience that QParents offers. More features will become available in the future.