Dear Parents and Caregivers

Once again, I would like to thank the 83 families who completed the annual School Opinion Survey in July. This was the largest number ever to complete the survey and I am appreciative of the time taken to share views about our school.

I have included a comprehensive report in this newsletter. I am very proud to say that we have recorded improvement in every single question at school level (in comparison to 2018) and have exceeded the results of our like schools and school across the state in every single question.  I have included the state results in the table below for comparison. This is certainly a cause for much pride and celebration for us as a school community. We have worked hard to improve in the areas identified in last year’s survey and will continue, as always, to strive for further improvement.

Day for Daniel

Dayboro State School will proudly support the “Walk for Daniel” this Friday 25 October. Students, parents and community members are invited to wear Red and meet at Roderick Cruice Park for the walk to school. Day for Daniel highlights and promotes our community responsibility to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our youngest citizen. A gold coin donation on the day will be forwarded to the Daniel Morcombe Foundation to ensure that the great work in promoting child safety, including the Child Safety Curriculum, continues into the future.

State primary schools across Queensland whose leaders are members of the Queensland Association of State School Principals, are this week displaying on their school signs the message: “Our Staff Make a Difference”.

Our state primary school staff across Queensland are proud to give students the best possible start so that they can live fulfilling, productive and responsible lives, in a world which is rapidly and continually changing.  

This week sees us highlighting the work of the dedicated staff who strive every day to ensure that “inclusive and equitable quality education” and the promotion of “lifelong learning opportunities for all” become a reality. Every day, Queensland primary school staff are making a positive difference, creating opportunities for their students, empowering the minds of young people and proudly teaching our state’s future leaders, innovators and influencers.

It is important to recognise the significance of the work that state primary school staff do. They lay the foundations on which children build their future learning. Without strong and well crafted foundations, the next stages of learning for children will be much more difficult. It is also at primary school that children experience being part of a community or group larger than their family. The social skills that they acquire will assist them to contribute effectively to society.

This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and thank Queensland primary school staff for the important role they play across our state – inside our classrooms and out in the community.

Remembrance Day

Our School Captains will represent our school on Monday November 11 at the Remembrance Day Service at Roderick Cruice Park. Our students will be involved in the ceremony, reading poetry, laying a wreath and managing the flag raising. All members of the community are invited to attend with the service commencing at 10.40am.

Prep Interviews – THIS WEEK

Interviews for incoming Prep students for 2020 are being held this week from Tuesday 22–Monday 28 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 Prep interview will be conducted by our Prep Teachers in the Prep classrooms. Please bring your Prep student to the interview.

Prep Orientation Morning

Dayboro State School would like to welcome our 2020 Prep students to an Orientation Morning on Tuesday 12 November from 9.30am. This is a great opportunity for our newest students to become familiar with the Prep classroom and experience some of the activities they will undertake in the first year of school.

Free Dress Day- Friday 8 November

The Student Council will be holding a Free Dress Day on Friday 8 November with the theme of “Celebrating Summer”. Students are invited to wear their summer themed clothing (please - no singlet tops, togs or other non-sun safe clothing) for the cost of a gold coin. All proceeds will go towards end of year Student Council activities.

P&C Meeting

The P&C Meeting for October will be held NEXT Monday 28 October at 6.30pm in the school staffroom. All welcome to attend.

Planning for 2020

Planning for staffing and classes occurs during Term 4. To assist with accuracy in planning, could I please 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 please be communicated to our 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 2020

In term 4 we commence planning for our 2020 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 1 November.

Student Leaders for 2020

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 Thursday 12 December. School Leaders for 2020 will be inducted at a special ceremony by the State Member for Pine Rivers in February 2020. Discussions with students regarding the roles and responsibilities of a School Leader will commence NEXT Monday 28 October.

The key dates for the selection process are:-

Monday 4 November – Nominations due for all Leadership Positions

Thursday 21 November – School Captain speeches and ballot

Monday 25 November – Sports Captains ballot

Thursday 28 November – School Captain interview process

Detailed information and nomination forms will be provided to interested students on 28 October.

School Opinion Survey Results – 2019

Thank you to the 83 families who completed the annual School Opinion Survey conducted by the Queensland Education Department

Garry Drummond 

Principal

Dear Families and Friends

World Teachers’ Day

This Friday we recognise and celebrate the important work our teachers do here at Dayboro State School. We are very fortunate to have a hard working, caring and supportive team of professionals who strive every day to provide a quality education for our students. Every day they are making a difference and we thank you teachers, for your dedication and the positive impact you deliver.

Last Wednesday our Instrumental Band students performed at the Peninsula Music Festival. Over 10 schools competed in our section and our Band received a Bronze Medal for their efforts. Thank you to the parents who drove students to this event and a huge thank you to Mrs Edwards for organising our participation in this event. Thank you also to our Band students who turn up to practice every Monday, practice their instruments at home regularly and who show exemplary behaviour at these events. You get a Gold Medal (from me) for participation!

Well Done everyone!

PREP OPEN MORNINGS 

This term sees the start of our 2020 Prep Orientation visits and Prep Open mornings.  See below for details. We encourage all our Prep parents and children for 2020 to take advantage of this valuable opportunity to visit our school and learn more about our Prep classrooms.  Come to as many mornings as you wish.

Yr 5 Parents Needed!

Year 5 Parents- We need a small group of Yr 5 parents who would be willing to help with the Yr 6 Graduation evening.

Date: Wednesday 11^th December -7-10pm..  You would be required for a couple of hours on the night to serve food and drinks to the Yr 6 students and their parents. We also need a small group of Yr 5 parents to help prepare the food for the night. The food will be paid for by P&C but they would like volunteers to assist in organising.

Please see Karen Ryan DP or Mia Gillies, Secretary of P&C,  if interested.  You can contact us via the office. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Now that the days are starting to get warmer please remember that it is an expectation that all children wear hats during play times and PE lessons.

The rule is “No Hat, no Play!”

Children that do not wear hats are expected to be in the CSA areas during break times.

Swimming got off to a great start last week, despite some light rain showers! It was great to see everyone remembering to wear their swimming caps.

Children will be swimming every Thursday and Friday for 5 weeks- a total of 10 lessons.  The last day of swimming will be Friday 15^th November. Please make sure monies and permission slips have been finalized.  The swimming timetable is below for interested parents.

There have been some cases in the area recently of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Please ensure you familiarise yourself with the Queensland Health Time Out Poster below for the exclusion periods for illnesses. If you have concerns, please ensure you seek advice from your Doctor.

Thank you from Mrs Ryan

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

Volunteering for Tuckshop and the Uniform Shop. The Tuckshop and Uniform Shop are P&C’s two main business entities which provide important services to our students and school families. It is vital that more volunteers are found or come forward to help staff and operate both these services. Please consider whether you can assist and can come forward to offer your time as volunteers. Both operations require more volunteers to ensure these can operate effectively, not only through the rest of this year, but especially in 2020.

Our next P&C meeting is Monday 28 October at 6.30pm (in School Staff Room). Our previous scheduled meeting on 9 September was unfortunately cancelled due to lack in numbers attending and not meeting quorum requirements, which under our Rules means we need to have seven confirmed members of the P&C Association in attendance for any general meeting to take place. Please consider being a part of our School’s P&C, by either joining or attending our meetings. It is also a great way to keep informed about what’s happening at School now and in the future via our School’s Senior Staff who also attend and provide reports and news. 

Jeff Hopkins-Weise (P&C President) 

Student Free Day

Yesterday at our Student Free Day our School Support Staff got together to work on some team building activities. The success of most organisations depends on the ability of individuals to build effective teams. The main goals of team building are to improve productivity and motivation. Having this time out of our ordinary work schedule helps to break down political and personal barriers, eliminate distractions and have fun.

Although the activities were only conducted for a short time, it was great to see how well our Support Staff work together! There were opportunities for everyone to become the leader, everyone had the opportunity to discuss their opinions of the challenges each activity faced, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Facilities Updates

Over the weekend we have had a few changes to the front office… these are the first of many changes for Dayboro State School! We have had 3 televisions installed into our Administration entrance, for our new digital signage. The 3 televisions will run simultaneously displaying videos, photos and presentations of our school. We will have the capacity to have one presentation running constantly throughout the term, as well as overriding it for temporary presentations for specific events (i.e. promoting Day for Daniel, Sports Carnivals, Prep Interviews, etc.). We will update the visitor furniture as well throughout the term.

We have moved our display/trophy cabinets, and will relocate these hopefully in the school hall where we can display them proudly to our school community.

The rest of the facilities upgrades are critical to our school’s needs, such as electronic sign-in registers, new classroom furniture, updating our playgrounds and tennis courts, and will take place in 2020.

Current Invoices

Students have been invoiced for the following activities:

• Year 6 Camp: $380.00, Due 8^th November 2019

If you require a payment plan for any invoices, please don’t hesitate to contact the school.

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.

Paying with Cash

Whilst we are progressing towards becoming a cashless school, we are also phasing out the use of payment envelopes. In Term 4, families who are paying cash for invoices will be issued a receipt at the same time of payment. This means, that we will no longer be utilising the ‘Permissions and Payments Box’ in the front office.

If students are taking the money to school, they will be required to come to the office before school or at lunch times for payments. Ideally, students making payments should be paid to the office before school, between 8am and 8:40am.

Facilities Hire

As Dayboro State School has a strong association with the local community, we allow community groups to hire certain areas of the school. Our facilities such as the Hall, Under Covered Area (CSA), Oval and Tennis Court are available to hire at a set cost.

All Facilities Hire arrangements need to be discussed with the Business Manager and are approved by the Principal. All fees go directly into the school, whether that be maintaining our grounds and facilities, or providing additional resources for our students.

For more information on our Facilities Hire, please contact the school office.

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.

On a personal note…

Lastly, as Mr Drummond mentioned in his previous newsletters, I got married on the 12^th October. I would like to thank the school and community for the well wishes I received. We had a wonderful day surrounded by love and laughter. I am in the process of changing my name, so invoices and emails you will receive by me may still have my maiden name, Ingham, on them until our HR and IT departments change it to Gault (pronounced like vault).

Kind regards,

Clare Gault
Business Manager

Fun Science and Mathematics Group Work

4B have hit the ground running this term by engaging in some fun group work activities. In science, we have been playing ‘Minute to Win It’ type games to investigate and demonstrate the direction of forces and the effect of contact and non-contact forces on objects. Some games have proven to be quite challenging, especially CD dominoes.

In mathematics, we have been collecting, representing and interpreting data. We have discovered our favourite animals, subjects, ice cream flavours and takeaway foods. We also graphed the colour of Skittles in a packet.

Great fun!

Maker Space

Over the last week our Year 6 Maker Space STEAM Team have introduced a couple of long term activities for students to participate in during lunchtimes.  There is a 30-day Lego building challenge for students of all ages.  All students who finish the challenge by completing 30 different building tasks will earn a prize.  The STEAM Team are also working with students from years 4, 5 & 6 to design ornaments for printing using the 3D printers.

In addition to these activities, other robotics, craft and construction activities continue to be available to all students during lunch breaks.

New Books

Our collection of new books on display this week have a collective theme of “Fantasy and Magic”.

Emily Rodda’s new book, “The Glimme”, is about a young boy who is mysteriously transported to a fantasy world where dragons exist and he must complete a quest to find his way home.  The illustrations in this book are wonderfully detailed and have been completed by the same illustrator who worked with Emily Rodda on the “Deltora Quest” series.

Cressida Cowell, who wrote the “How to Train Your Dragon” series, has now released the third book in her “Wizards of Once” series.  These books tell the story of unlikely allies who must work together to defeat a common foe.  The narrator for the story has yet to be revealed, and we are hoping that when book four in the series is released the mystery of the identity of the narrator will be revealed – can you guess who is telling the story of Wish and Xar? 

Neil Patrick Harris has written three titles in his “Magic Misfits” series that are all available for borrowing.   The “Wings of Fire” series has continued to be a popular series of books, and thirteenth instalment has been added to our Library collection.

For older readers, we have a collection of Disney stories that retell familiar fairy tales from the point of view of the villain in the story.

Thank you,

Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs H.