Dear Parents and Caregivers

It is without doubt to say that we are experiencing an unprecedented and unique time in our school. I don’t think it necessary to review what has already been communicated to everyone on an almost daily basis regarding the COVID-19 situation.  However, we need to be mindful that the situation changes daily and a constant attention to our school communications is vital to remain informed.

I am very grateful for the support that our school community is providing to us. Thank you for the calm and measured approach which we have been afforded, particularly when we have had to cancel, postpone or rearrange school operations to reflect the current directives.  As a staff, we are disappointed that many of our traditional school events are no longer on the calendar, and we certainly don’t have a timeframe for when things may get back to normal or when we can again program events.  I will continue to keep the community updated through SMS texts for short messages, the P&C Facebook site and through our newsletter platform.

I have included some advice and information below from our Guidance Officer for your interest and consideration. For more updates on COVID-19, please visit http://qed.qld.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media/novel-coronavirus

8 tips on what to tell your kids about coronavirus

As the number of new cases of coronavirus infection continue to rise the impact is now being felt in schools in Australia. It’s therefore important for parents to be there for their children to ease any concerns they may have about the virus and how it could affect them.  So here’s some advice for parents to help them and their children stay informed.

1. Control during uncertainty

The new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 causes the disease COVID-19, which can be like a common cold but it can also have more serious complications. Signs of infection may include: fever, cough and shortness of breath. Some severe cases can involve pneumonia or kidney failure with more serious consequences.

One reason people experience anxiety during a pandemic is uncertainty about its impact. Research during the 2009 swine flu (H1N1) pandemic found those people who struggled with uncertainty were more likely to see the pandemic as threatening, and this can lead to increased levels of anxiety.

One way to provide our children with certainty in uncertain times is with facts, for example, telling them the evidence so far shows children are less likely to experience severe symptoms than older adults.

You can also help them gain a sense of control by giving them strategies to help prevent them catching the virus.

2. Practise good hygiene

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says we should channel our concern into good hygiene.

Encourage your children to wash their hands with soap and water frequently (particularly after going to the toilet, coming from a public place, and before and after eating).

Children should also use a tissue to sneeze into and put the tissue in the bin afterwards.

3. Be careful with the news media

A quick scan of the news brings up headlines such as “Australia’s coronavirus death rate could proportionally be worse than China’s, expert warns”. This report even includes a graph showing “How likely are you to die from Coronavirus?”

Exposing children to such reports can increase their fear and anxiety.

There is a clear and strong relationship between what children see as threatening information in the media and their level of fear.

So be careful with what news media your children are exposed to. Try to watch, listen or read it with them so you are there for any questions they may have.

4. Stay with the facts

When answering such questions, use information from the World Health Organisation and other trustworthy sources to inform yourself.

Filter some of the incorrect information around preventing COVID-19 (eating garlic, having hot baths) and inform your family with the correct information. Don’t be someone who passes on incorrect information to your children or others.

5. Talk about your feelings

It’s OK to feel worried. Talking about your feelings of stress can help you work through them.

If you try to push down feelings of stress this can have an impact on your health.

As parents you only have to listen and hear your child’s concerns. You can’t promise things will be safe or certain. But you can assure them that as a family you will work together to manage whatever comes up in the future and that you are there to listen to them.

6. Don’t pass on your fear

Research from the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic showed children’s fear of the disease was significantly related to their parents’ fear of the disease.

This effect of parents passing on fear even exists when there is nothing to fear. Research showed if parents get negative information about something that is harmless, they are more likely to pass on those negative beliefs to their children and increase their level of fear.

So even if you feel stressed about COVID-19, you need to make sure you don’t pass on this fear to your children. Show them you are calm. Don’t be a carrier for fear.

7. Keep on living life

It is easy to get swept away with panic about the future and what may happen. But being future-focused only contributes to anxiety.

Help your child to focus on the now and what they are doing today. These things are in their control – work hard at school, train for netball. Continue their routine and enjoy the moments.

8. Work together

This is not a time to be selfish, but to work together and support one another.

Be kind to others (don’t steal their toilet paper) and encourage your children to be kind to others as well.  Being less self-focused helps to alleviate stress and give life more meaning and purpose.

Author: Mandie Shean, Lecturer, School of Education, Edith Cowan University.

Students Absent from School

If you decide to keep your children home from school due to COVID-19, it’s important that you advise us how long your children will be absent for and the absence will be marked as authorised.

You can also now access our new learning@home hub with a range of resources to support students to continue their learning. Please visit qld.gov.au/learningathome 

NAPLAN Cancellation

Advice has been received that all NAPLAN testing across the country has been cancelled for 2020.  I would like to acknowledge, however, the significant amount of work undertaken by our NAPLAN implementation team ( Mrs Katrina Wilkinson,  Mrs Linda Smith and our Year 3 and 5 teachers) )  which has underpinned our school preparation over the last 12 months, including the resource acquisition and student readiness tests.  This year would have been the first online tests completed at Dayboro State School.

Staff News

At the end of this term we are farewelling our School Chaplain, Mr Cameron Quirk (AKA Chappy Cam).  Cameron and his wife have been successful in their application to become pastors at a church in Coffs Harbour.

On behalf of the school, I would like to acknowledge the significant contribution Cameron has made to our school and wish him and his family all the very best as they move onto the next stage of their careers. 

Event Cancellations/Changes- UPDATED

Please note the status for each of the events for our school:-

1. Weekly school assemblies – CANCELLED until further notice. Students will be given updates each morning in the CSA each morning.
2. Parent/Teacher Interviews – please check advice from your child’s classroom teacher as to mode of delivery. Some interviews have been suspended until term 2.
3. ANZAC Day School Assembly – CANCELLED. Our school will be acknowledging ANZAC Day in an alternative way – To be confirmed.
4. ANZAC Day Community March and Service – school involvement CANCELLED
5. Visit by Radio 96.5FM on Friday 3 April – POSTPONED
6. Ice-Cream Day on Tuesday 31 March – CANCELLED
7. National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence – This Friday 27 March- AS SCHEDULED – Wear Orange
8. Prep Vision Screening – POSTPONED until October
9. Easter Hat Parade 3 April – CANCELLED
10. Crazy Sock Day – Friday 3 April – AS SCHEDULED

Term 2 events are under review and will be advised early next term.

Effective hand hygiene is vital

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, it is important to remember that effective hand and sneeze/cough hygiene is the best defence against viruses and can help prevent the spread of illness.

Lead by example and encourage your children to:

• wash their hands regularly with soap and water, before and after eating, and after going to the toilet
• use alcohol-based hand sanitiser if soap is not available
• cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or the inside of their elbow
• dispose of tissues in the bin immediately
• if they’re unwell, stay at home and avoid contact with others such as touching, kissing or hugging.

Check out the 20 second routine video for effective handwashing.

Further information about   COVID-19 is available on the Queensland Health website or Australian Government website.

Prep Information – 2021

We are already receiving enquiries about our Prep program for 2021. 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 19 August at 9.30am in our School Hall.  This will be followed up with Prep interviews for all newly enrolled students from 19-23 October and a Prep Orientation Day on Tuesday 10 November.

If you have a child born between 1 July 2015 – 30 June 2016, he/she is eligible for Prep enrolment at Dayboro State School in 2021. 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.

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 2021.

Our school says 'Bullying. No Way!' on the National Day of Action

This Friday 27 March, our school will be taking a stand together on the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. 

The National Day is an annual event for Australian schools where school communities across the nation stand as one against bullying and violence.
Dayboro State School is dedicated to creating safe and supportive school environments, free from bullying, harassment and violence.

Together, we can send clear messages to young people that bullying and violence, in or outside the classroom, are not okay at any time.

Our School is planning an “Orange Day” on Friday 27 March. We are inviting all our students and school community to wear something Orange to signify the importance of this day.

We will keep you informed about our plans and activities to celebrate the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence on Friday 27 March. Please note the date in your diaries.

Garry Drummond

Principal

Dear Families and Friends

Bullying No Way!

What is bullying?

Bullying is when someone:

• keeps picking on you again and again and tries to make you feel bad
• says or does lots of mean things that upset you
• makes fun of you a lot
• tries to stop you from joining in or make others not like you
• keeps hurting you such as hitting or punching you.

Bullying feels awful. You feel like you can’t stop it.

Bullying can happen in person or online.

 It might be something people can see or it might be hidden.

Sometimes you might have a fight or argument with someone.

If it happens once, it is not bullying even though it can be upsetting.

It is also not bullying if you sometimes fight with a friend and you can sort it out.

Bullying is not OK. Every child has the right to feel safe.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW REGARDING LEARNING AT HOME, IF YOU ARE KEEPING YOUR CHILDREN AT HOME.

The first place to visit is

*The Education Queensland Website-   Curriculum-learning@home.

The link has also been sent to all parents via text.

*Once in this site there are several important tabs to visit. See headings below:

Well Being of Students- how a typical day should be spent learning at home.

English- organised in year levels and click on learning activities

Mathematics- organised in year levels and click on learning activities.

Learning Resources- STEM, HASS and the Arts- organised in curriculum areas with links to support children’s learning.

There is no username or password required to access these online materials and they will be updated every 2 weeks.

These resources are provided by Education Queensland and give the appropriate and recommended lessons/ worksheets for children to work from at home.

Students will also be able to access their usual online learning programs- Spelling City and  Mathletics  using their own usernames and passwords as per usual.

For Sunshine Online there is a generic username and password.

Username : dayboross

Password: sunshine

NEW INFO 26/3/20: Another source of on-line activities has been sent through to us.  

Audible who are one of the biggest suppliers of Audio Books on-line (They used to be called Books on Tape, that’s how long they have been around) have made a great selection of Audio books available for streaming for free for as long as current corvid-19 situation continues. There are books for all year levels.  Use the link below:

Please remember that children are expected to wait in the CSA before School between 8:15am until the bell goes at 8:40am. The children are supervised during this time. There should not be children playing on equipment or waiting outside classrooms before this time. This is especially important at this current time as we are not having Assemblies and important messages are being relayed in the CSA before students go to class.

 

Parents are reminded that dropping and picking up children in the bus zone is not permitted. That area is extremely busy and congested with buses coming and going and it is an important safety issue. We do not want any of our children getting hurt. Thank you for keeping our children safe.

Every morning before school we have had a small, enthusiastic group of Year 1,2 and 3 children who are working hard on their Gross Motor Skills like jumping, skipping, throwing and balancing.

Important: We have made the difficult decision to cancel PT Club for the next few weeks.

Thank you Mrs Ryan!

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

Term 1 Invoices

Students have been invoiced for the following activities:

Letters have now been sent home to families. If you require a payment plan for any of the above, please don’t hesitate to contact the school.

Statement of Account

Today students will be sent home with a Debtor Statement. This is a statement to show what invoices remain owing on student’s accounts. Only students who have an outstanding invoice or credit on their account will receive the statement.

It is important to understand that this is not another invoice being issued to families. This is just to show what is left remaining. If you are in credit (i.e. a negative amount showing on the account), this can be used against any current or future invoices you may receive, including school camps.

I have gone through all of the statements and any credits that were showing on accounts have now been paid against current invoices, as per departmental policy (i.e. $6 credit for Gala Day has been placed against $10 invoice for Life Ed, leaving a $4 balance owing on the student account).

If you have any questions or concerns regarding statements, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am more than happy to explain the process to anyone with concerns.

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 27^th November 2020. This is to ensure all of our excursions are reconciled and meet financial deadlines.

Voluntary Contributions

By participating in 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.

The costs involved in the Voluntary Financial Contributions are:

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

Proceeds raised through the Voluntary Financial Contribution Scheme will benefit all students, so we encourage parents to participate in the scheme.

The Voluntary Financial Contribution Scheme is approved by the P&C each year, and is aligned to the Department of Education policy requirements.

Payments can be made from the following methods:

• Online payments - BPOINT

Click here for a direct link to BPOINT.

• 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 below.

• Paying in person.

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

Kind regards,

Clare Gault
Business Manager

Good Afternoon

I'm honoured to be taking up the reins of President for 2020 and looking forward to working with the P&C Committee, parents, school staff and all others keen to be involved with the P&C and Dayboro State School. I have every confidence that the elected Executive Committee will continue the successes of previous members and welcome any feedback and contribution that will support our desire to provide a valuable service to our school community.

We are all experiencing the impacts of COVID-19. This is a challenging time and one where everyone will be expected to do things differently. The P&C recognises the risks and acknowledges the concerns raised, especially by parents and volunteers. We are in regular contact with P&C QLD and will continue to act on the advice of the government and experts.

Tuckshop - Continuing

We are still operating our tuckshop, implementing strict hygiene practices. We hope to safely continue to provide a tuckshop service and be a sense of normal for students at this time. If this changes, we will let the school community know straight away.

Election BBQ - Cancelled

With restrictions regarding gatherings and social distancing in place, we have made the regrettable but necessary decision to cancel the upcoming election BBQ. The health of our volunteers is a key priority and we would not wish to place any further risk of exposure on any involved.

Easter Raffle - Taking Place

Drawing of our yummy Easter Raffles will take place next Monday! Please ensure you have returned all raffle tickets (including any unsold) to the office by Thursday 26th March. There are many great Easter baskets filled with eggs and other goodies to be won!

Our next P&C meeting is at 6:30pm Monday 30th March. We are exploring if and how this will go ahead with the potential that this may be undertaken online if we do proceed.

Mareeta Herricane 

President

CANCELLED : Parent Workshop ‘Helping My Child with Reading’

Monday, 30 March (Week 10 of Term 1) at 3:10 pm in the Library Seminar Rooms

Mrs Linda Smith will run this workshop in Term 2

Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTII)

Response to Instruction and Intervention is a framework for teaching and learning. Helping students succeed is the fundamental mission of our work at Dayboro State School and Response to Instruction and Intervention is a significant priority towards that end. Now in its fifth year of implementation, RTII is a signature way of working at our school.

Parents may be familiar with Tier 2 and Tier 3 Intervention and Extension notes that may come home with some students at the beginning of each term indicating that extra support, or extension, is being provided for their child by the class teacher or a specialist teacher. This is part of our whole school approach to providing high quality, differentiated instruction for all students, with careful monitoring of their progress, and then the provision of small group, or individual, support or extension in Literacy or Numeracy for those students who may need it.

RTII ensures that we as a school are targeting support where it is most needed to enable all our students to feel a sense of belonging to the school community, engage purposefully in learning and experience academic success. For more information, please refer to Every student succeeding State Schools Strategy 2017–2021. http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/about/pdfs/state-schools-strategy-2017-2021.pdf

Regards, Linda Smith

(Head of Department-Curriculum)

Maker Space

Over the last two weeks the Year 6 students who are part of our STEAM Team have been working to help us build a puppet theatre using recycled cardboard and materials from the “MakeDo” kit to hold everything together.  Last week they achieved their building goal!  We now have a puppet theatre where children can perform  puppet shows using puppet they create from materials in the maker space.  We have already seen some interesting ideas – from action scenes to soap opera inspired dramas.  In the coming weeks we are aiming to have the puppet theatre decorated.

New Books

We have added quite a few books to the Library collection over the last few weeks, including a number of graphic novels aimed at older students – most of which were borrowed as soon as they were available for loans.  J  

We are very quickly approaching the end of the term and students who currently have overdue books are asked to return these to the Library promptly.

Thank you,

Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs H.

School Banking

Important Notice from CommBank School Banking

The health, safety and wellbeing of our communities and our people is our first priority. Due to the rapidly developing situation with coronavirus, School Banking has been temporarily paused from 20 March 2020 until the start of Term 2. Please don’t bring your deposit book with your weekly banking into school and we will notify you when banking will recommence.

Dayboro State School Banking Team

Vacation care is still happening, and it is not too late to book! Excursions and incursions have been cancelled but our team are busy preparing activities and games to ensure each day remains filled with fun. Children still need to be enrolled to be able to book in. See below for how to do this.

A reminder to ensure your children have a hat and drink bottle each session they attend; staying sun safe and hydrated is vital all year around and we appreciate your co-operation in this. Cleanliness is of a high priority at the service and our team are working hard to ensure areas are sanitised and hand washing is occurring frequently.

If your child/ren will be absent from a session, please ensure they are marked absent on the iparent portal. This is done under the bookings tab by selecting the date/session and clicking the red x on the right. Please see one of our educators for support if you are experiencing issues making or managing your bookings.

Homework club is up and running Monday to Thursday from 5-5:20pm. Please see one of our educators if you would like your child/ren included in this. Gardening club will commence on Tuesday afternoons next week from 3:30-4pm. Cooking club will be on Wednesday afternoons from 3:45pm-4:45pm. Bookings are essential and should be done as early as possible to secure your spot.

Vacancies are available for both morning and afternoon sessions on selected days, and we welcome all children and families to the service. 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.