Beerwah State School

Dear Parents/Carers,

It has been another amazing fortnight here at Beerwah State school. I love visiting classes and seeing how engaged our students are in learning. I am constantly amazed at the time and effort our talented teachers and teacher aides take, in organising interesting and exciting lessons that support our students to be the very best they can be. Check out our kitchen super-stars in the pictures below.

District Swimming

Four of our very talented swimmers (Edwina, Levi, Fraser and Emmett) competed in the Glasshouse District Swimming Carnival on Friday 17 February at the Beerwah Swimming Pool.

Edwina competed in the 9 year girls 25m breaststroke event. Levi competed in the 9 year boys 25m backstroke, 25m breaststroke and 25m freestyle events. Fraser and Emmett both competed in 25m butterfly and 25m breaststroke events.

Congratulations to these four students for representing our school at district swimming. Congratulations to Levi who came 3rd in the Boys 9 years 25m Backstroke and 1st in the Boys 9 years 25m Breaststroke.

Special thanks to Carolyn Brewer (P&C President) for helping out on the day and to Mrs Janelle Murphy who was place judge.

NAPLAN

Please note that the annual NAPLAN testing has been moved forward to Term 1 this year. The NAPLAN test window starts on Wednesday 15 March and finishes on Monday 27 March, 2023. Further information about our timetable and arrangements at Beerwah SS will be distributed as we get closer to the date.

Have a relaxing weekend!

Scott Bowden

Student travel to and from school, when they are not with their parents/carers is expected to comply with the school’s Student Code of Conduct. This year we continue to have staggered starts and finishes: P-3 8:50am-2:50pm; Years 4-6 8:55am-2:55pm. Helping Hands staff collect P-3 students from the gate for the afternoon OSHC session.

CAR AND BUS

The main public car park is situated off Old Gympie Road. and is part of the government road system. It has car and bus parking and has also been designed to provide a special space to enable cars to pull up to set down and pick up students.

Looking at the school, the area to the left of the main gate is for drop off of students only.

Signage indicates a “STOP DROP GO ZONE“, “2 MIN PARKING 8am-3:30pm“ and “NO PARKING”.

• Drivers must not double park in the “Drop and Go Zone” nor leave their vehicle unattended during school drop off and pick up times, as posted on the Stop Drop Go signage.
• Please place your vehicle in a SINGLE queue and wait patiently for the queue of cars to move through the “DROP OFF ZONE“ then, after setting down/picking up your passengers, drive from the space with EXTREME caution.
• No passengers should be getting in/out of a vehicle when it is in the single queue. This is a very dangerous practice because of risk of younger students copying the behaviour of older students or adults. The car parks opposite the Stop Drop Go gate are 15 minutes during drop off and pick up time so they are available for drivers to pull into if their student/s are not yet at the Stop Drop Go gate.
• The Bus Zone is located at the end of the Car Park and is a BUS ONLY Zone.
• Signage is in place to notify drivers that this is a BUS ENTRY ONLY. Do not drive into or park in the Bus Zone and keep exits clear.
• Always drive very slowly through the car park.

If students have a concern about a problem on the bus, it should always be reported to the driver in the first instance. If that has not been possible or it is a repeat problem, they can report it to the office when they arrive at school or parent/caregivers should phone the school in the afternoon. If community members have any concern about driver behaviour in the Old Gympie Road car park they are advised to contact Police Link. The school has been advised that police prefer first hand and immediate reporting of incidents.

BIKE

Each rider must register at the office to become a member of our Kandoo Bike Shelter register. They will make a commitment to ride to and from school safely and to keep their bikes or scooters secured. Once registered, each rider will be given a special access code to enable them to secure their bike in the shelter. Students must have a lock to secure their bike/scooter in the racks.

Any children who wish to use the shelter must register prior to bringing their bike/scooter or other form of personal transport to school. This can be done at the office in the days prior to riding to school. Students who registered last year are not required to re-register this year.

Parents and carers are asked to ensure that their children have the capability and knowledge to ride to school safely and that the children can control their push-bike or other equipment used to ride to school. For example, for safety, they must be able to stop safely. They must be able to stop as they approach the school’s Peachester Road entrance and driveway and walk their bike into the shed.

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

Encouraging Reading at Home

During the Learning at Home part of COVID, the Department of Education’s Reading and Writing Centre developed a series of resources to support families with reading at home. These are great resources and are still available online. For this fortnight I’ve selected two short videos (one for P-2 and one for 3-6) that discuss everyday ways to encourage reading at home.

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

BORROWING

The Library is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8:30am. Students can borrow on their class borrowing day, at 2nd break and before school on these days. They must bring their red Library Bag. Library bags are available through the Uniform Shop for $13.00.

WEEKLY CLASS AWARD

Each week we acknowledge a class from the lower school and upper school by giving an award for being Kandoo active learners, Kandoo safe, and Kandoo respectful, that reflect our school values. Congratulations to our winners for Week 4 are 1/PJ2 and 6M1.

6M1 is the first class to have all students borrow.

LIBRARY TIMETABLE

If you have any questions with regards to sport, please phone Ms Murphy at the school on 5436 5555 or email jlmur1@eq.edu.au

Janelle Murphy (HPE Teacher)

P&C MEETINGS

Thank you to all who attended our meeting this week, we had a great turn out of parents. The P&C AGM & next meeting will be on Wednesday 22nd March at 6pm in the library. Do come along and join us, we’re a friendly bunch and always welcome new members or just come for a look to see what we discuss.

VOLUNTEERING

At our meeting we had new faces which was wonderful, some of which will be in the tuckshop each Friday, come along and say hello. We’d love to see more parents coming to help as the more parent helpers, the easier the roles are, and it’s a fun way to meet new people.

Did you know: Children whose parents are involved in their schools do better. Research has shown that children of a school volunteer make better grades and perform better on tests. They’re also better behaved, have better attendance, and are more likely to graduate and continue their education. The more parents participate at school, the more successful their children will be. There’s a great reason to volunteer!!

The P&C Association are an approved volunteer organization with Centrelink (Services Australia) so if you need to complete volunteering hours, the school is a great option. This can be extended to grandparents and other friends, they will need to apply for a Blue Card to volunteer in the school which is an easy process we can assist with. Contact us by email and we can arrange to work out how we can help each other.

FACEBOOK PAGE

If you haven’t already jumped onto our Facebook page, you should. It’s a great place to see what’s coming up, what volunteers are needed & helpful reminders in case you missed the notification. We’ll also share our tuckshop specials and any meal deal information, so if you don’t see the posts, you might miss out!

It’s also the easiest place to get in touch with P&C.

Just find our page and like us to start following. BSS P&C Facebook page

EVENTS & FUNDRAISING

We have a great calendar of events for this year, keep an eye on the school newsletters and our Facebook page for updates.

Thank you to all parents & students who joined our Parents, Pancakes & Parade morning in the tuckshop. Thanks also to our local Bank of Queensland manager Martin who generously donated all the coffees and drinks for adults. And a huge thank you to our volunteer helpers.

We need help with our Easter Egg Hunt. We need lots of people on the day to assist with various duties – selling raffle tickets, games registration, games assistants, egg distributors, general assistants, about 15 people in total so please get in touch to help out – it’s a fantastic morning for all the family. Remember, if you volunteer with your child, they get a volunteer superstar badge for their collection!

We will hold a major raffle at our Easter Egg Hunt so if any families or local businesses are able to donate prizes: products, services or vouchers, we would really appreciate them.

WORKING BEE

Term 2’s working bee will be on the 2nd Sunday of the term, as many families are busy with sports activities on Saturday mornings. The working bee will run from 9-12. We tidy the grounds, weed garden beds, spread mulch & plant native plants for everyone to enjoy.

Our children can learn so much from nature and helping it along with a little effort is a great way to connect with other parents, and great for our own wellbeing by connecting with nature.

All children who helped with their parents receive a superstar volunteer badge at parade. There are 8 to collect before receiving a volunteer flag.

RECYCLING PROGRAM

P&C are registered with Terracycle as a collection/drop-off point for various things that normally don’t get recycled. Currently there is a box in the library for the collection of old pens and stationery that no longer works (not pencils). Take a look on their website to see what can be included.

We also have a box for old dental products to get recycled. Sponsored by Colgate, please recycle your old toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, dental floss packets, and electric toothbrush heads.

Our next collection project is the GLAD® Food Care Recycling Program. We are collecting Glad® and other brand snap-lock bags, freezer bags and cling wrap. Please ensure it is clean, then bring it along to the library where we have a drop-off point beside the other boxes along the window. If you use these products in your child’s lunchbox, it’s a great way to dispose of them, rather than putting it into landfill. Now is especially opportunistic as the supermarkets are no longer accepting soft plastic recycling. This program will enter the school into a competition to win some amazing garden beds and gardening products for our kitchen garden so there’s even more reason to save your bags & wraps. Visit www.terracycle.com.au to find out more. Over time we’ll add more boxes to recycle other products. Items can be dropped off anytime the library is open, boxes are beside the window.

It’s a wonderful initiative to reduce our landfill and look after our environment. As an added bonus, P&C will receive funds as we send off our recycling donations. I encourage you to reduce your landfill and contribute to our recycling program. It makes sense for the planet, sense for the P&C, and sense for your environmental conscience.

BOOK CLUB

Keep an eye out for the next book club brochure, out this week. The brochure has a new look for this year, but ordering is still as easy as before. The best way to order is online at www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP all books are delivered to the school and distributed to each child. If you would prefer to order as gifts, ensure you select that option and your items will be available for collection from the office. The due date for orders is always stamped on the front of the brochure so don’t miss out! An extra bonus is that the school receives 15% of all order values to purchase books for our library. Books are such a wonderful addition to any child’s life and there are some amazing prices in the book club.

TUCKSHOP

Tuckshop is open Fridays, first break only at this stage. All ordering will be via Qkr! which will be made available one week before. We would love to open before school to offer a breakfast service but this is dependent on volunteers, so if you are available to assist on a regular basis, please get in touch. Also, if you or your child has ideas for the menu, please get in touch as we’d love to hear all suggestions. pandc@beerwahss.eq.edu.au

UNIFORM SHOP

The uniform shop will open each Wednesday afternoon 2.30-3.00pm, or at other times by appointment.

The best way to order uniforms is ONLINE via Qkr! It’s quick & easy & there are no transaction fees

Alternatively, an order form can be collected from the Office. Items will then be sent home with the student or can be collected from the Office.

To ensure orders are processed quickly, once you have placed an online order, please send your details to pandc@beerwahss.eq.edu.au Click here to Order Uniforms Online Click here to download the Uniform Shop Order Form-

In 2023 we have lots of fun in store with incursions to our outdoor classroom, a teddy bear picnic, a bear hunt, lots of messy play, and visits from our local library just to mention a few.

Each month we have a different theme and February is Creative play month where students are given the opportunity to use trial and error and make mistakes as they express their ideas. In February we enjoyed creative play in our school library. The children got creative making animals with playdough, designing a car track, stamp painting, and making oranges for our orange tree out of playdough. We read the book Rodney Loses It by Michael Gerard Bauer and discussed how Rodney loves to draw, but then disaster strikes when his favourite pen goes missing.

Next month’s theme for March is STEAM play. STEAM play is an inquiry-based learning approach that is aimed at children’s natural curiosity that brings together science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. Through STEAM play children learn to problem solve and develop investigation skills. They do this through exploring capacity using water and different sized containers and cups, making patterns using coloured blocks, measure toys and each other and compare them to see what/who is the tallest/shortest, design games such as a marble run, create different sounds using pots and pans as drums, and by threading beads on a string to create a necklace or bracelet.

Kandoo Joeys is open to all families with before-school-aged children and runs every Wednesday from 9.00am-11.00am in J Block, next to the Admin Block.

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

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

CHAPPY PIE DRIVE

We are holding a Pie Drive to raise funds for Chappy Mike.  This year we are using Simply Pies.  The pies are 900g for Family Savoury Pies and 800g for Sweet Pies. 

Orders and money need to be returned to the school by Monday 6th March 2023.

Collection of pies will be from 2-30pm – 3-30pm on Thursday 23rd March in the Hall.

Any questions regarding the Pie Drive please contact Coralie by leaving a message at the office.

We thank you for your support.

Chappy Mike and the Chaplaincy Committee

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.

Masterpiece Dance is excited to collaborate with Beerwah Primary School to offer convenient and affordable classes straight after school. Students can come straight from class and be picked up from the hall at 4pm. Term 1 will involve a six week trial, starting in Week 5 on Feb 23, that is open to all grades from Prep to Year 6. It will be a fun introduction to Jazz, Hip-Hop and Contemporary. If there’s enough interest, we will potentially split the groups in Term 2 to focus on Prep–Year 2 and Year 3–Year 6 to ensure high-quality classes. Miss Sarah will be the teacher in Term 1 (who actually went to Beerwah Primary School when she was a child!). Sarah is a very experienced and passionate teacher. The classes are $12 per week (normally $16 at our studio for a 60-minute class).

Enrol now: www.trybooking.com/CFNVY If you have any questions, please email admin@masterpiecedance.com.au 

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

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