Dear Parents and Caregivers

Last Friday our School Environment and Management Committee hosted a Tree Planting day. Classes gathered on the school oval to take part in planting the 122 trees donated by Cr Darren Grimwade and the Moreton Bay Regional Council.  Our students enjoyed the opportunity to contribute to the beautification of our school grounds, for now, and for our future generations. A big thank you is extended to our Schools Officer, George for preparing the many dozens of holes, to Mrs Smith for coordinating the day and to Cr Grimwade  for his ongoing commitment to our school.

School Opinion Survey

Envelopes containing details about the 2019 School Opinion Survey were sent home with the eldest in the family yesterday.  This is an important survey for our school, and I would like to encourage as much participation as possible.

Each year, our Department of Education undertakes a survey of parents/caregivers to gauge their satisfaction with important aspects of schooling.  All families are invited to participate in the survey using the personalised username and password contained in your envelope.

I hope that everyone will consider completing the survey before the closing date of FRIDAY 23 AUGUST. Please do not hesitate to contact the school administration if any further information is required.

Walkathon – This Friday 2 August

The P&C Walkathon will be held this Friday 2 August from 9.00am on our school oval. The theme for this year is “ What will I be when I grow up”. Students have been issued with their sponsorship forms and we are grateful for any support which can be given to our P&C with this annual fundraiser.

Show Holiday

I wish to advise that Dayboro State School will be closed on Monday 12 August for the Brisbane Show holiday.

Prep Enrolments -2020

We are already receiving enquiries about our Prep program for 2020. We are pleased to provide information and enrolment information anytime at our school office.  However, I am able to advise that our Prep Information and Enrolment Morning will be held on Wednesday 28 August at 9.30am in our School Hall.  This will be followed up with Prep interviews for all newly enrolled students from 14-18 October and a Prep Orientation Day on Tuesday 12 November.

If you have a child born between 1 July 2014 – 30 June 2015, he/she is eligible for Prep enrolment at Dayboro State School in 2019. Please note that Dayboro State School has an Enrolment Management Plan in place – please check at http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/catchment/ for further information.

We have had several enquiries regarding enrolling at Dayboro Prep from outside the catchment area. Families who view Dayboro as their school of choice are very welcome to submit an enrolment application, however the outcome of the application will not be advised until late October when available places are allocated in the order of receipt. 

I would be pleased if this information could be circulated to people who are known to you and are wishing to enrol in our Prep program in 2020.

Garry Drummond

Principal

Dear Families and Friends

Thank you to our Student Leaders - Zaisha, Oscar, Max, Amy, and Chappy Cam for helping us to host the Student Leader Cluster meeting at our school last Tuesday. We hosted over 50 School Captains from local schools. The focus was on “Team work.” The students worked in mixed groups of four to complete challenges and find solutions to a variety of problems. They worked collaboratively to come up with a team name and team quote that represented and reflected the dynamics of their team.

The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD)

Over the next few weeks, Dayboro school staff will be undertaking The NCCD on School Students with Disability.  The NCCD takes place every year, in all Australian schools and collects data on:

• the number of students in the school receiving an adjustment or ‘help’ due to disability
• the level of support the students are receiving to access education on the same basis as other students

A fact sheet with details about the NCCD was included in last week’s newsletter.  If you have any additional questions, please contact Tracey Hammond at Dayboro State School: 3425 6111.

REGULAR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

Did you know? Research shows that in Queensland, higher student attendance at school is associated, on average, with higher student achievement.

Why is regular attendance at school important?

Regular school attendance will mean that your child gets a better chance at life. Your child will achieve better when they go to school all day, every school day:

• they learn better
• they make friends
• they are happier
• they have a brighter future.

Why must I send my child to school?

Under Queensland law, you must make sure your child of school age is enrolled and attends school all day, every school day unless they have a reasonable excuse. Illness, doing work experience, competing in a school sporting event or going on a school excursion are reasonable excuses for being absent from school.

Principals decide if the excuse given for your child’s absence is reasonable.

Avoid keeping your child away from school for:

• birthdays, shopping, visiting family and friends, if they sleep in, looking after other children, minor check ups or care such as hair cuts.

Routine medical or other health appointments should be made either before or after school or during the school holidays.

While it is a last resort, it is important to understand that you may be prosecuted if your child is not attending school regularly.

 What should I do if our family is going on a holiday in school time?

You are encouraged not to schedule holidays during school time. If your family holiday is during school time, let the school know in advance and talk about what arrangements can be made for your child. Depending on the circumstances the school may be able to provide tasks for your child to complete while they are absent or assist you to organise an exemption from schooling.

 Do I need to let the school know if my child has been away from school  

Yes. You must let the school know the reason why your child is absent from school – either beforehand, on the day of the absence, or as soon as practicable after your child’s return to school.

Having problems getting your child to school for some of these reasons?

• won’t get out of bed in the morning
• won’t go to bed at night
• can’t find their uniform, books, school bag …
• slow to eat breakfast
• haven’t done their homework
• watching TV
• have a test or presentation to do, have an assignment to hand in
• it’s their birthday.  A set routine can help

• have a set time to go to bed
• have a set time to get out of bed
• have uniform and school bag ready the night before
• have a set time for starting and finishing breakfast
• set a time for daily homework activities
• speak about school positively
• be firm, send your child to school every school day including their birthday and the last day of term!

 What should I do if my child won’t go to school?

You should contact the school as soon as possible for advice and support.

Queensland Ready Reading

The Ready Reading program invites parents and community members to make a difference in their local community by volunteering in schools to support children’s reading.

Reading is a powerful tool to help children grow their vocabulary, language skills and imagination. It helps them to develop life-long skills that will support their future growth and learning.

The Department of Education’s Reading Centre and Volunteering Queensland are working together to help improve literacy for children in Queensland by training up to 3000 volunteers to share their knowledge and time to foster a love of reading.

To Register your interest in becoming a Ready Reading volunteer - click on the link below.

Dance Fever continues every Thursday for the next 10 weeks. Thank you to everyone who has finalised payments.  We are looking forward to seeing the students show us their Dance Moves at the Family Dance Night in September.

Thank you to Mrs Di Evans for volunteering to come and read with Yr. 1 and 2 students every week. Your help is greatly appreciated and the children love it too. 

Thank you to Mrs Smith, Mr Briskey and the SEMP team for organising the planting of over $500 worth of trees donated by Cr Grimwade last Friday. Not only was it a wonderful way of improving our environment but the morning created a sense of pride and belonging for the students of our school.

Thank you from Mrs Ryan 

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

Year 5 Camp

A reminder to parents that the payments for the Year 5 Camp are now due. If you have not yet made payment, please ensure you contact the office as soon as possible to arrange this. The office will begin to send notifications home to parents this week, for those who have yet to pay.

Year 6 Camp

Mrs Cassell will be providing students with the letters and permission slips for Year 6 camp today. The camp is being held in November, and will cost $380 per student. Please see the letter for more detailed information. If you wish to begin a payment plan for this camp, please contact the office as soon as possible to arrange.

Payment: Plans & How to Pay

Payment plans are available for all families, whether you are experiencing financial difficulties or you would prefer to pay for excursions / camps in a lengthy timeframe. Payments must be made regularly, and must be completed by 29^th November 2019. This is to ensure all of our excursions are reconciled and meet financial deadlines.

There are several ways to pay for excursions and school activities at Dayboro State School:

• Online payments - BPOINT

By clicking on the BPOINT link on your invoice, it will take you directly to the website to pay.

• Paying by phone.

If you do not wish to process payments online, you are able to pay by phone using a credit/debit card via BPOINT 1300 631 073.

Please quote the CRN and invoice number located at the bottom of the invoice. .

• Paying in person. You can pay in person at the Dayboro State School Administration using EFTPOS, Visa, MasterCard or cash.

For the safety of our students and staff, we are progressing towards becoming a cashless school. We no longer hold cash on the premises, and as such are only able to accept the correct cash as we do not have any change available. Unfortunately, we are no longer offering the option of BPay at Dayboro SS. If you are using BPay or have the school bank account details saved in your banking history, we respectfully request you delete these details. BPay is no longer recommended by the Department of Education to use for these reasons, and as such we need to comply with policy. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Voluntary Contributions

It’s not too late to donate to the Voluntary Financial Contribution Scheme! The below details outline the cost involved, as well as a link to pay online. Payments can be made directly to the school also via Cash or EFTPOS.

 The costs involved in the Voluntary Financial Contributions are:

• $50 per student; or
• $100 per family of two or more enrolled students.

The Voluntary Financial Contribution Scheme is approved by the P&C each year, and is aligned to the Department of Education policy requirements. By donating to the Voluntary Financial Contribution Scheme, Dayboro SS is able to provide classroom resources, home readers and other consumables to enhance learning activities for Literary, Numeracy, Science, Art and Technology.

 To pay the Voluntary Contributions online, click here for a direct link to BPOINT.

National Tree Day

On Friday 26^th July we celebrated National Tree Day by planting some beautiful native trees in our Rainforest Corridor, extending the existing area along our back fence. A massive thank-you goes to Darren Grimwade for donating $500 to the school to purchase the plants, to Mrs Smith and the SEMP committee for organising the day and the timetable for students to participate, and to our wonderful students who eagerly and carefully planted all the trees. A massive thank-you also goes to our Schools Officer, George. Last week George hired a ‘Dingo’ and dug the holes in preparation for planting. Mrs Smith and George ensured there were enough gloves, masks and mulch for the students to use, and George has been busily preparing each tree to ensure its establishment into new soil takes. It is the little things like this that often go unnoticed, but we as a school are very appreciative for all the extra effort our staff go to, to ensure students’ learning is not just based in a classroom. Thank-you so much to all those involved in the success of this day!

Dayboro State School is very fortunate to have such dedicated and enthusiastic staff, and I am so grateful to be a part of this school and community.

Kind regards,

Clare Ingham
Business Manager

ICAS 2019

This year we are again offering the opportunity for students to participate in the ICAS tests at Dayboro SS. ICAS is developed by UNSW Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of New South Wales, with over 35 years’ experience in educational assessments.

ICAS is designed to target students’ higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics and Science.

Your child is invited to participate in 2019. From 2019 the ICAS tests will be conducted online, later in the year and have increased in price to $14.50 per test.

This year we are offering three tests: Science, Maths and English. Parent information letters were sent home with all students in Years 2-6 today.

If your child(ren) would like to participate in one or more of these tests, please return the permission slip and all entry fees by:

Friday, 9 August, 2019. NO ENTRIES CAN BE ACCEPTED AFTER THIS DATE.

Regards, Linda Smith (Head of Curriculum)

Thank you Everyone!

Last Friday, 26 July, the students of Dayboro State School planted 122 trees and plants, joined by Councillor Darren Grimwade from Moreton Bay Regional Council, for National Tree Day. It was a beautiful, warm day and students worked enthusiastically in groups of three to plant, mulch and water the new plants along our rainforest boundary. Many thanks are given to George Briskey, our Facilities Officer, who prepared all the holes, shovelled mulch into buckets for students, filled up watering cans and assisted students on the day. Students wore huge grins as they carefully placed their plants in their new homes and admired the growth of last year’s plants.

Dayboro State School would like to thank Councillor Grimwade for Council’s very generous support of $500 worth of native plants and trees to extend the flora corridor along our school fence line. Thank you also to our parent helper, Mr Peter Humphreys, who assisted filling up watering cans, mulch buckets and freeing some root-bound pots!

Linda Smith (on behalf of the SEMP Committee)

100 Days of Prep

Recently, the Preps celebrated their 100 days at school. We have been counting each day and learning about tens and ones in the process. Both Prep classes celebrated by doing all things 100! Such as painting dots, making glasses and measuring things we could do in 100 seconds. We also got to share our special 100 Days cake. It is hard to believe that 100 days has passed already for the Preps this year. We are sure the rest of the year will be filled with exciting learning opportunities too.

Vicki Johns and Suzanne Tidswell

(Prep Teachers)

Book Week Displays

We have started setting up some of our displays in preparation for Book Week.  Students have been very excited to see their wonderful pieces of work being added to the displays over the last two weeks.  See if you can identify the Book Week shortlisted books that have been the inspiration for our displays.

Graphic Novels

Throughout the last 18 months we have been working to develop a wider selection of books within the Graphic Novels section of the Library.  Graphic Novels provide opportunities for readers to engage with texts using images and condensed text.  Some of the new Graphic Novels being added to our collection this week include a few titles from the “Percy Jackson” series and the first three books from the “Lucy & Andy Neanderthal” series written by Jeffrey Brown (one of the authors of the “Jedi Academy” series).                       

Book Week

This week we would like to spotlight another category of children’s books shortlisted for prizes during Book Week this year.  In the Young Readers category entries may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for readers from the middle to upper primary years. Ages 7-12 years.       

From this category we really enjoyed the story “Brindabella”.  Not only is it an enjoyable story about a boy named Pender who cares for the natural world, but Ursula Dubosarsky cleverly switches between main characters to tell events in the story from the point of view of both Pender and the kangaroo joey he rescues.

Upcoming Book Week events:

• August 21^st – Book Week Character Costume Parade
• August 22^nd – Meerkats Book Week performances for P-2 and 3-6. Notes and invoices for this event were sent home last week.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

A reminder that the 2019 Premier’s Reading Challenge is still running – keep on reading! 

Thank you,

Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs H.

What’s happening at Helping Hands?

This week at Helping Hands we have been busy building nature kitchens, sandpit zoo’s, drawing/painting sunrises and sunsets, and water painting. We have been able to see a high level of creativity and enthusiasm in these activities. Handball and soccer continue to be well received this week, and games such as cricket, edore, master, and oz tag kept our children active in both before and after school sessions.

Inside the house we had children following their enthusiasm for role play in the doll house area and home corner. Board games were a favourite this week, particularly in the morning sessions with children competing against educators in games such as trouble, cluedo, the logo board game and our new word-a-round game. Skills such as memory, quick thinking, spelling, counting and problem-solving skills helped the children play these games with success.

Our homework club is back up and running for the new term, and it has been great to see so many children spending time on their own homework and helping each other through their homework. This runs from 4:30-5pm Monday-Thursdays, please see one of our friendly educators if you would like your child to be included in this.

Interested in before and after school care? We currently have vacancies available for mornings and afternoons on selected days. To enrol your child, please visit www.helpinghandsnetwork.com.au, selecting Dayboro as your service and following the prompts to access the iParent Portal. If you have any issues, please contact Jenny at the service on 0459 991 697 or our customer accounts on 1300 612 462.