Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome to Term 4.  I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday and are now ready for another busy term.  This newsletter contains a lot of information about school operations and important dates for the term. Could I also encourage our school community to keep up to date by visiting our school Facebook page at;

Our School and Covid-19

Until such times that the operating guidelines for schools change, the arrangements put into place last term will continue into Term 4.  Schools are required to ensure that there is a continuation of social distancing in place for adults accessing the school grounds.

For our school, this will mean maintaining the following measures into Term 4:-

• Continued staggered start and finish times for our Prep-Year 1(+Year1/2) classes
• Waiting outside the school grounds if collecting your child/ren
• Contacting your child’s teacher via phone, Class Dojo or email if you wish to discuss an issue or concern
• Only accessing classrooms and teachers if a prior arrangement has been made and COVID-SAFE documents have been completed
• Refraining from accessing the school grounds unless collecting a sick child or attending to business at the school office.

Parent Volunteers are able to assist in school classrooms at the invitation and discretion of classroom teachers and after COVID-SAFE documents have been completed at the school office.

School assemblies will continue in Term 4, however these will still be inaccessible to parents. However we will continue to provide images and details to parents via our school Facebook page and newsletter. Information will be provided regarding school events such as Year 6 Graduation in the next couple of weeks.

Once again, thank you to our Dayboro community for maintaining support for our school as we navigate the complexities of the current situation. 

Prep Interviews

Interviews for incoming Prep students for 2021 will be held in Week 3 – Monday 19-Friday 23 October. Thank you to the many new families (and existing families) who have booked an interview. Please contact the school office as soon as possible if an interview time is still to be organised. The  interviews will be conducted by our Prep teachers in the Prep classrooms.  Please bring your Prep student to the interview and ensure that all enrolment requirements are fulfilled by checking with the school office.

Planning for 2021

Planning for staffing and classes occurs during Term 4. To assist with accuracy in planning, could I ask at this stage:-

1. Prep Enrolments – Could these be finalised as soon as possible by delivering the enrolment forms and birth certificates to the school office. An enrolment for Prep cannot be confirmed until all the required documentation has been submitted.

2. Leaving Dayboro State School (excluding Year 6) – if any of our families are aware that they are moving from the area or the school, could this be communicated to the school office as soon as possible.

This information assists us greatly with estimating teacher and class numbers for the new year and your assistance would be much appreciated. 

Class Formations for 2021

In Term 4 we commence planning for our 2021 class groupings.  The starting point of this preparation is an invitation to parents to provide important student or educational information for consideration. Requests for individual teachers cannot be considered as staffing will not be finalised for some time and some teachers may be moving to different year levels. Please note that while the issues that impact on the educational needs of the student are a high consideration, our ability to fulfil requests may be limited by staffing allocation, class size numbers and the small number of year level cohorts.  Please email any considerations to principal@dayboross.eq.edu.au  by Friday 6 November.

Term 4 end date has changed

The Department of Education has announced that Term 4 will finish on Wednesday 9 December.  This will mean some changes to the final week of our school calendar, including Year 6 Graduation occurring on Monday 7 December and Break Up Party Day and Final Assembly on Tuesday 8 December. An updated school holiday and term dates calendar is available from https://education.qld.gov.au/about-us/calendar/term-dates

Student Leaders for 2021

Our new school leaders will be selected in Term 4. The process will take place throughout the term and will culminate with the announcement of the new leaders at the final school assembly on Tuesday 8 December. School Leaders will be inducted at a special ceremony by the State Member for Pine Rivers in February 2021.  Discussions with students regarding the roles and responsibilities of a school leader will commence from Monday 26 October.

The key dates for the selection process are :-

Monday 2 November- Nominations due for all leadership positions

Thursday 19 November- School Captain nominee speeches and ballot

Monday 23 November- Sports Captain nominee ballot

Thursday 26 November – School Captain interview process

Detailed information and nomination forms will be provided to interested students on 26 October.

Upcoming Events for October

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, some changes have been made to upcoming school events.

• Year 5 Camp is next week from Monday 12- Wednesday 14 October;
• School photos are now occurring on Monday 19 October ;
• Book Week Costume Parade will be happening on Wednesday 21 October, however due to COVID-19 restrictions , parents will not be able to attend this event and
• Day for Daniel will be recognised on Friday 30 October, however our traditional walk through town has been cancelled. Students will be invited to wear red and a gold coin donation will be requested to go towards the Daniel Morcombe Foundation’s development of child safety curriculum materials.

School Opinion Survey Results

Thank you to the 81 families who completed the annual School Opinion Survey conducted by the Department of Education. Once again, I am very pleased with the results and express gratitude to our school community for the ongoing support  as we strive to make everyday count for every student. As this survey was conducted differently this year, I am not able to provide comparative data to previous years.  (‘n’ is the number of people who responded to that particular question)

Helping Hands Congratulations

Helping Hands have been announced as the successful tenderer for the provision of Outside Hours School Care for our school for the next 3 years.  Helping Hands have already been our provider for the past 9 years and this represents a continuation of their service to our school community.  We look forward to continuing our partnership with Helping Hands into the future. 

Sports Congratulations

Congratulations to Chrystian B in Year 5M  who has been selected for the Queensland Indoor Cricket Development Squad after his impressive performance at the U12s State Finals in Toowoomba during the holidays.. Congratulations Chrystian!

Garry Drummond

Principal