Dear Families and Friends

Welcome back to Term 2. We hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable break.  The children all seemed very excited yesterday to be back, especially after their extended break, and had lots of great stories to tell about their holidays and Easter adventures.  We were very disappointed that so many important events in our school calendar had to be postponed or even cancelled. But…. we are looking forward to Cross Country and Gala Day being on this week instead.

EXCITING PBL NEWS!  Each week we give a Principal’s Award to a student who displays consistent and reliable efforts in living our school values of being Safe, Responsible and a Learner every day and in every way! The children who receive this award each week will now be invited to a Principal’s Morning Tea held in Week 10 of each term. More details to come. Also, those students who receive our special Golden Gotchas will now get a special certificate and go into the draw to receive one of four Sheriff’s Awards, also given out at the end of each term. This is a prize voucher and certificate presented by Sgt Ken on Assembly in Week 10, of each term and recognises those students who go above and beyond, to demonstrate excellent citizenship at our school.

IMPORTANT NEWS ABOUT MEDICATIONS AT SCHOOL

Education Queensland has issued advice to schools regarding the administration of medications to students.

All medication, including over‐the‐counter medications, e.g. paracetamol, ibuprofen or alternative medications, are identified as drugs or poisons that may cause side effects. As such, the school requires medical authorisation from a prescribing health practitioner, e.g. doctor, dentist, optometrist, but not a pharmacist, to administer any medication to students, including those bought over‐the‐counter.

Unlike parents/guardians, school employees are unaware of a student’s complete medical history, and are unable to provide ongoing, direct supervision of the student for the course of their illness. They are therefore unlikely to recognise if a student is having adverse effects to any medications administered. Health practitioners also have knowledge of medical history in order to determine which over‐the‐counter medications are appropriate, dosage amounts and potential side effects or interactions with other medications.

What you need to know:

• The school can no longer administer any medication, including over‐the‐counter medications, e.g. paracetamol, ibuprofen or alternative medications identified as drugs or poisons that may cause side effects, to students without medical authorisation from a prescribing health practitioner e.g. doctor, dentist, optometrist.
• Medical authorisation from a pharmacist cannot be accepted.
• Over‐the‐counter medications currently stored at the school will no longer be administered to students without medical authorisation.
• Listed emergency contacts for the student are able to personally attend the school and administer over‐the‐counter medications to their child if they do not wish to obtain medical authorisation.

Please ensure your medication details are updated with the school and that you have alerted office staff to medical conditions that we need to be aware of.

Thank you to our P&C for their dedication and organisation over the last term and for the terms to come! You even held an extra meeting to ensure one of our events to come is going to be the best ever. We are looking forward to supporting the Mother’s Day stall on the 7^th May.

Thank you from Mrs Ryan

Our Vision: “To inspire students to reach their full potential in a safe, caring and educationally challenging environment.”