Beaudesert State School Newsletter

We are already in Week 8. Time sure does fly. Last year our school met our target for English A-C achievement across the school and for this we are very proud. In 2022 we have lifted our goals to:

a.       85% of students achieving a A-C in English

b.       50% of students achieving a A-B in English

c.       100% of students in Prep and Year 1 achieving a A-C in English

These high expectations and school goals are what we will be working towards as a school team this year and I look forward to reporting back our progress at the end of each semester. You can help us by ensuring your child is at school every day with the only exception that they are sick. We really appreciate your support with this. This year our Deputy Principal, Ms Gauld, is leading the Student at Risk: Attendance team who will be closely monitoring student attendance and providing support to our families where needed.

Please note the following for notes for the remainder of the term.

School review

On Thursday 24th March – Monday 28th March we will welcome Mr Keith Graham, Mr Peter Kelly and Mr Brad Clarke from the DET School Review Team. School reviews are conducted every 4 years and provide schools with valuable feedback to set the next 4-year strategic agenda. The review team will be speaking with all staff and key community stakeholders over these 3 days and will likely speak with our parent community at the school gate or during our Cross Country Carnival on the oval.

Thank you for making them feel very welcome to our school community.

Parent Teacher interviews

All parents, in all year levels, are strongly encouraged to meet with their child’s teacher at our parent teacher interviews on Monday 21st March from 3:10pm – 7:00pm in the following locations:

Prep – Year 2                     Hall

Year 3 – 4                            Library

Year 5 – 6                            R Block

Our school strongly encourages parents to work with us in their child’s education and value your partnership. Some questions that may help you in a parent teacher interview include:

1.       What is my child learning?

2.       How is she or he doing?

3.       How do you know (how she or he is doing)?

4.       How can she or he improve?

5.       What supports can I provide and can you provide if she or he is struggling? When will we check in again?

If you require a longer meeting time slot, please arrange this directly with your class teacher. Alternatively, if you are unable to join us on Monday, please arrange an alternative time with your class teacher to meet and discuss your child’s learning.

Facility upgrades

Works have finally commenced on the A Block upgrade which is expected to be completed in July. We look forward to our new building and appreciate the significant financial investment by South East Facilities to ensure we have up to date resources within our school.

The staff car park upgrade will likely commence in April which will make the staff car park and Ecole Street student entrance unusable. If you drop off or pick up your child from Ecole Street, please look into alternative arrangements in the coming weeks.

Our school is focussed on maintaining and improving our facilities to provide up to date learning environments for our students. Last year we secured a $70 000 grant to support classroom upgrades in C and B Blocks and we look forward to these being completed over the Easter and June/July school holidays so classrooms and learning are not disrupted.

Swimming Carnival

Our school has made the decision to postpone our Swimming Carnival to Term 4 this year. With the disruption to the school term, we believe this is in the best interests of our students and staff. Term 4 also provides us with the opportunity to use our Swimming Carnival to support February district swimming trials.

Cross Country Carnival

Our Cross Country carnival will take place on Friday 25th March from 9:00am on the oval. Students have been encouraged to meet with Mr Brimelow for training and classroom teachers have also been providing opportunities in class for training where they can.

Parents and community members are very welcome to attend our carnival, however, it is not appropriate for anyone other than Beaudesert students and staff to run the course. Thank you for understanding.

Students attending the carnival are welcome to dress up in their sporting house colours for the day. Please remember that all dress ups must be sun safe and with appropriate and safe running shoes. School hats are to worn.

COVID update

All schools are back to COVID normal operations and we are so happy to welcome families back into our school. I will continue to send out notifications of confirmed positive cases in our school until the end of the term. RAT tests will also be available to students this term when they present to the office sick. Taking a RAT test home is at the parent’s discretion.

Thank you for alerting our school when your child has been confirmed positive. 

Students wearing sunscreen to school

Our Sun Safe policy asks parents to put sunscreen on their child before attending school. Our P&C kindly donates sunscreen to each classroom every year. If you would not like your child to wear the school provided sunscreen, please let your teacher know.

Emergency Drills this week

This week we will practice our evacuation and lockdown emergency drills. Please do not be alarmed if you hear these drills in the community.

Off campus activities

Representing our school in the wider community is a privilege and for this reason it is expected all student behaviour is of the highest standard. Off campus activities include, camps, excursions, sporting events and Year 6 social events at the end of the year. Your teacher will remain in contact with you around behaviour incidents at school so you are aware of how your child is going and will also let you know when your child is no longer eligible to attend an off-campus event.

In the upper year levels, attendance is also a key factor for eligibility to attend off campus events, including Kingfisher Cup and social events. Whilst we understand family circumstances where COVID quarantine has been required, a large number of students are reporting they are not attending school because it is their birthday or they simply didn’t want to. Please ensure that your child attends school every single day when they are not sick.

2022 P&C Executive

The year we welcome a new P&C Executive.

Mitchell Rogers                                 President

Chris Griffin                                        Vice President

Treasurer                                            Natalie Ford

Secretary                                             Mandy Payne

All families and community members are welcomed and encouraged to join our P&C. Our next meeting is on Tuesday 19th April from 6:00pm in R Block. The best parking is via Eaglesfield Street and we hope to see you there.

School Photos

School photos will be held on Tuesday 29th March in the Hall. Please call the office on 5540 1111 if you have any questions. 

PAYMENT REMINDERS

• Year 4 Camp - $200, Deposit $50 due 10th March Balance due 5th May
• Year 5 Starlab incursion - $12 due 31st March
• Instrumental Students - $30 or $50 due 31st March

As always we have a mountain of lost property piling up at school. A lot of it is unnamed which makes it extremely hard to get it returned to the rightful owner. If your student has lost any items direct them to the lost property bins which are located near the undercover area at the end of the year 6 classroom block or you're welcome to pop in for a look yourselves. Please check there if your children are missing any of their belongings.

PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL BELONGINGS ARE CLEARLY LABELLED!

I am so thankful for our school and for the opportunities we have to promote a kindness culture. One of the ways we do that is through our Kindness Project that runs throughout the year. Each week, students are given a challenge to complete. This week with our National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence, we have two challenges! One of their challenges is to write down things we are thankful for, and the other one is to write down what they think kindness is and how they can practice kindness. These ideas are written on a strip of coloured paper that we are going to make into the longest kindness chain. Hopefully we can manage an even longer chain than last year! It has been so encouraging to hear students each week, sharing with me their acts of kindness, whether that is saying hello to new students, giving compliments and even helping with chores at home. Each of us has the ability to be kind to others, and it makes such a difference in the world we live in, including in our own lives. Why don’t you ask your student what they wrote on their kindness link and start a conversation on the different ways we can be kind.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy practising kindness in your own homes and in the community.