10 May 2024

Dates to Remember

Principal News

I hope this message finds you well as we navigate another productive week here at Grand Avenue State School. As we continue to celebrate the dedication and hard work of our school community, I want to take a moment to shine a spotlight on a group of individuals who are truly the unsung heroes of our educational journey: our volunteers.

Volunteers are the backbone of our school. They contribute countless hours of their time, energy, and expertise to support our students, teachers, and staff in various capacities. Whether it's assisting in the classroom, organizing events, chaperoning field trips, or lending a helping hand with administrative tasks, their contributions are invaluable and deeply appreciated.

Among these dedicated volunteers, I would like to extend a special acknowledgment to our Parent and Community (P&C) executive team. This group of individuals plays a pivotal role in shaping the educational experience of our students and enhancing the overall school environment. Their tireless efforts and commitment to excellence have a far-reaching impact on our school community.

The P&C executive team works collaboratively with school administration, teachers, and parents to identify areas where support is needed most. They spearhead fundraising initiatives, coordinate enrichment programs, and provide valuable feedback on school policies and initiatives. Their leadership, passion, and vision are instrumental in fostering a positive and inclusive school culture where every student has the opportunity to thrive.

Beyond their organizational duties, the P&C executive team serves as ambassadors of goodwill within our community. They cultivate strong relationships with local businesses, community organizations, and other stakeholders to foster partnerships that benefit our school and its students.

In addition to our P&C executive team, I want to extend a special acknowledgment to all the parents who generously volunteer their time and talents to organize and support various school events throughout the year. From assisting at discos and movie nights to helping out at the recent Mother's Day stall, your enthusiasm, creativity, and unwavering support enrich the lives of our students and bring our school community closer together.

The success of events like our recent Mother's Day stall is a testament to the power of collaboration and collective action. It is heartening to see parents, teachers, and students come together to create memorable experiences and celebrate the spirit of community. Your dedication and generosity not only make these events possible but also create lasting memories that enrich the fabric of our school community.

We will celebrate our volunteers on the National Volunteers week coming up on 20 May to 24 May with an afternoon tea invite, please look out for an invitation. If you are thinking of being a volunteer, please contact the P&C team.

As we head into a new season and weather becomes cooler, please ensure you are clear around the winter dress code.

Grand Avenue State School uniform dress code reinforces in students a pride in their own appearance, instils recognition of themselves as an integral part of Grand Avenue State School community, and assists in developing pride in representing the school. Issues of equality, health and safety, and expense are also factors that contribute to the establishment of the following Student Dress Code.

The aim is to:

• Promote equality amongst all students.
• Develop a sense of pride in, and identification with our school.
• Provide durable clothing that is cost effective and practical for our school environment.
• Maintain and enhance the positive image of the school in the community.

Grand Avenue State School believes as a school community that there are benefits in students following an agreed dress code. These benefits include:

1. Appropriateness: Guarantee that all students are dressed appropriately for all school activities.
2. Safety: Promote a safe environment for learning by enabling identification of our students in the school grounds, while travelling to and from school and on excursions.
3. Equity: Promote an effective teaching and learning environment by eliminating the distraction of competition between students to wear more expensive or fashionable clothing and avoid the pressure on parents to purchase fashionable clothing.
4. Expense: To minimize the cost to families.

In line with the Education General Provisions Act 2006, staff and the Parents and Citizen’s Association of the Grand Avenue State School have endorsed the following Student Dress Code for all students.

Grand Avenue has a dress standard in relation to

• Clothing worn by students, including headwear and footwear
• Students’ personal grooming and hygiene

The Grand Avenue student code reflects school community standards and is consistent with occupational health and safety and anti-discrimination legislation.

Uniform Shop

During school terms, the Uniform Shop is open daily from 8:15am to 9:30am. At the end and beginning of the school year, extra opening hours will be available, and details will be posted on the Facebook page and placed in the Prep Welcome pack.

Cash and EFTPOS are available.  Uniforms can also be ordered online via Flexi schools www.flexischools.com.au. Uniforms ordered this way are given to the child's teacher and sent home with the child.

Our Winter Dress Code is

We have a busy term ahead – don’t forget we have Active School Travel Day – every Friday!

Term 2 Whole School Events

Whole School Assembly – Friday 17 May – 2:00pm Hall

National Volunteers thank you day – Monday 20 May

P&C Day – Friday 24 May

Whole School Assembly – Friday 31 May – 2:00pm Hall

P&C Movie Night – 6:00pm – 8:00pm – Friday 31 May

National Reconciliation Week – Monday 27 May to Friday 31 May

School Support Staff Recognition Week – Monday 3 June to Friday 7 June

World Environment Day – Wednesday 5 June

Athletics Day – Prep and Year 1 – Wednesday 12 June

Evening of Music – Wednesday 12 June

Athletics Day – Year 2 and Year 3 – Thursday 13 June

Whole School Assembly –  Friday 14 June – 2pm Hall

Athletics Day – Year 4 to Year 6 – Friday 14 June

School Cleaners Day – Monday 17 June

Attendance Pizza Parties – Tuesday 18 June

Under 8’s Day – Friday 21 June

Until next time,

From the Deputy Principals

Grand Avenue SS's Outdoor Prep Play Education Program

This term, our Prep children have begun engaging in an exciting Outdoor Play Program. This initiative is designed to provide enriching, play-based experiences that align with the Australian Curriculum while fostering holistic development.

The program, conducted three mornings a week for 45 minutes each session, is carefully structured to offer a diverse range of activities. These activities include role play, gross motor play, construction, fine motor play, and games, all of which contribute to the children's physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional growth.

Play, is widely recognised as a crucial component of early childhood education. It provides children with opportunities for exploration, discovery, and hands-on learning in a natural environment. Through our program, children not only develop their motor skills but also cultivate a deeper understanding of their surroundings and the world around them.

In addition to promoting physical development, the Outdoor Play Education Program serves as a platform for learning across various domains. Teachers utilise this time to facilitate language development, social interaction, and the acquisition of numeracy and literacy skills. By integrating these learning outcomes into play-based experiences, we aim to make learning both meaningful and enjoyable for our students.

Additionally, the program encourages collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity among the children. Through cooperative play and peer interactions, they learn valuable social skills that are essential for their future success both in and out of the classroom.

We believe that by incorporating outdoor play into our curriculum, we are providing our students with a well-rounded education that nurtures their overall development. We are dedicated to fostering a love for learning and exploration that will serve our prep students well throughout their academic journey and beyond.

Every Day Counts

Did you know that we love seeing your children at school every day? Missing school means missing out on learning- which can often make it difficult to catch up.  Being at school every day leads to some great benefits such as:

• Learners are more likely to stay on track and progress academically
• More opportunities to take part in social and emotional activities in their classroom
• Develop habits of ‘showing up’ at school, in sport and other areas of life
• More likely to have stronger social and peer connections

If you are having difficulty getting your child to school, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for support.

Big Bang Science

Last week our year 4 students were fortunate to attend the Big Bang Science Show, where they were immersed in the wonderful world of science. This particular science show taught our students all about natural and processed materials.  

‘At Big Bang, we had to make a device to run smoothly down the flying fox to keep the pom pom person safe. My favourite part was another experiment where we watched elephant toothpaste explode!’ – Bella 4F

Until next time,

Year 5 – Camp Warrawee

Camp is coming up fast and we can’t wait. Students will be attending ‘survivor camp’ at Warrawee on Brisbane’s northside. Survivor Camp is one of the most beneficial character-building school camps around – and no, we don’t mean on a deserted island. Unlike the TV program, food and shelter are provided and no one gets voted off. Through exhilarating outdoor activities, this school camp for teenagers and children will teach teamwork, problem solving, leadership and resilience.

Over three action-packed days in native Queensland bushland, students form 'tribes' and work together to complete a series of themed challenges. Tribes reflect and debrief after each activity and score their performance based on teamwork, initiative, group participation, group planning and team spirit.

Spell-a-thon

It’s SPELL-A-THON time! Spell-a-thon is a fundraising event designed to be both a fun and an educational activity for our children.

Spell-a-thon is a literacy based way for our children to help fundraise for our school. The teachers in the school have prepared the list of skills and will be encouraging your child to participate and have fun.  There will be lots of fun prizes awarded. Prizes will be based on sponsorship collected and also every child who completes all their skills successfully will be entered into a prize draw where they could win fun prizes in each year level.

This year the student council are raising funds to replace the fitness trail equipment.  Projects like these are of great benefit to all students in the school.  Please encourage your friends, relatives and neighbours to sponsor your child and help us make Spell-a-thon 2024 a great success.

IMPORTANT SPELLATHON DATES

Understanding Anxiety in Children

www.emergingminds.com.au

A child’s life is full of big moments and new experiences, like the first time they ride a bike or their first day at high school. Feeling nervous or anxious is normal as children grow up, learn about the world and experience new things.

This resource aims to help parents understand when their children or young people might need some extra support to manage their fears and worries, and the role you can play in reducing the risk, or impact, of anxiety for them.

Anxiety is a common reaction to stressful or new situations. It’s our body’s way of letting us know when to be on guard as part of our ‘fight or flight’ response. Depending on the situation you’re facing, anxiety can feel like slight nervousness through to a racing heart and excessive sweating. Most of the time these feelings come and go, and don’t last long. But these feelings can become a problem if they persist and prevent us from doing things that are important to us.

Just like adults, children feel anxious sometimes. But if anxious feelings last a long time, cause distress and/or prevent your child from doing activities that are important and meaningful to them (like going to school or seeing friends), they may need support to learn how to manage these feelings. By identifying and addressing issues early, you can help to reduce the risk of your child experiencing anxiety into adolescence and adulthood.

The good news is that there are simple, practical strategies that parents and children can use to prevent and reduce the impact of anxiety on daily life. The goal is to help your child develop skills to manage anxiety so it doesn’t get in the way of them doing the things they enjoy and living their best life.

No parent wants to see their child unhappy or fearful and it’s natural to want to protect your child. But enabling or allowing them to avoid the situation, object or person that causes them anxiety ultimately does more harm than good; and forcing them to confront those things doesn’t help either. The challenge for many parents is finding the balance between these two approaches

Learn more about supporting your child and practical strategies they can try at home.

Year 5 News

Students in Year Five have been reading a historical narrative: Tom Appleby: Convict Boy, by Jackie French. The novel follows a young boy at the tender age of eight, chimney sweep Tom Appleby, who is convicted of stealing and sentenced to deportation to Botany Bay. As one of the members of the First Fleet, he arrives in a country that seemingly has little to offer – or little that the English are used to, anyway. Students are exploring narrative structures and language features from the text. They will complete a comprehension task from the book, and will also create a short story influenced by the novel.

Students in Years 5 and 6 are incredibly excited for ‘Gala Days’ for sport, which is being held on two Fridays in week 5 and week 6 (17^th and 24^th of May). Coaches from Soccer, Rugby League and Netball have begun training for Interschool Sport competitions, preparing players for the upcoming fixtures.

Dance News

International Dance Day 29 April 2024 at Forest Lake State High School

For International Dance Day, our Troupe and Hip Hop dancers along with some students from Pallara State School went to Forest Lake High School to have a day celebrating all things DANCE. We learned a jazz, hip hop and contemporary dance choreographed and taught by the students from Forest Lake High. We had the opportunity to perform the dances we learned, and also show some of our school taught dances including our two troupe jazz items and a small snippet of our hip-hop routine. Finally, we were put into small groups consisting of students from Pallara, Grand Avenue and Forest Lake High students to come up with some choreography of our own for a hip-hop dance. Overall, I very much enjoyed International Dance Day as it was a great opportunity to improve my dancing whilst also having lots of fun.

Amelia Year 6 Dance Captain

International Dance Day was great fun and definitely a day I looked forward too! All the students from FLSHS were lovely and had choreographed some excellent dances for G.A.S.S and Pallara State School. They choreographed different styles of dance such as jazz, hip hop and contemporary. Overall, this experience was amazing and very enjoyable. Something that a lot of people at G.A.S.S looked forward to was show and tell at the end of the day. Where we got to preform our troupe and hip hop dances, “Let’s Get Ridiculous, Party Train and hip hop dances Bia Bia and Kiss Kiss”

Manaia Year 6 Dance Captain

Library News

Mother's Day 

Thank you to all the students who contributed to our Mother's Day competitions in the library. Our colouring in competition winners from Prep - Year 2 are Veeha Naik 2E and Mithuran Yogeswaran 3A.  Our poem winner from Year 3 - 6 is Eleanor Berting from 6E. These students will receive their prize at next week’s whole school assembly.

Author of the Month

The library has started a fantastic initiative to promote reading and explore the works of different authors! Each month we promote a specific author, this month it is Roald Dahl.

If you have a favourite author you'd like to highlight, you can create a flyer to introduce the author and their works to the other students. We will display your flyer in the library and collect books written by your favourite author library so other students can read books written.

Book Club - Starting Soon!

At Grand Avenue, we believe in the power of reading to ignite imaginations, inspire creativity, and broaden horizons. We're excited to introduce our Book Club, designed to make it easier than ever for your child to discover and enjoy great books while supporting our school.

How it Works:

Sign Up: Download the Loop app and register your child for the Grand Avenue Book Club.

Browse and Purchase: Explore the wide selection of books available through the app and make your purchases.

Earn Rewards: For every purchase made through the Book Club, Grand Avenue earns rewards points that can be used to purchase additional resources for the school.

Enjoy Reading: Your child will receive their chosen books directly, ready to dive into new adventures and stories!

Benefits of Joining:

Convenient access to a diverse range of books for all ages and interests.

Support our school with every purchase, helping us to provide even more resources and opportunities for our students.

Encourage a love of reading and lifelong learning in your child.

Chess News

Guidance Officer News

Action for Happiness is a great website to learn more about happier living. There are a range of resources available on the website including articles, videos, and programs. Each month, Action for Happiness issues out a calendar where you can focus on one wellbeing goal for each day. See below for the calendar for the month of May.

Action for Happiness website 

Premier's Reading Challenge

We will again be engaging in the Premier’s Reading Challenge.

The Premier's Reading Challenge is not a competition but a way to encourage students to develop a love of reading for life. Through the challenge children and students are given an opportunity to develop their appreciation of the English language and additional languages, and are encouraged to explore and enjoy a wide range of literary texts.

Children and students can participate in the challenge within their school, early childhood centre or as individual readers (home-educated students, students whose schools are not participating in the program or children who are not enrolled in an early childhood centre).

Children and students who complete the challenge have their efforts recognised through the receipt of a Certificate of Achievement. Early childhood centres will also receive a centre-wide certificate of recognition for their involvement.

or a student to successfully complete the Premier's Reading Challenge they are required to read or experience the number of books indicated below:

• Prep to Year 2—read or experience 20 books.
• Years 3 to 4—read 20 books.
• Years 5 to 9—read 15 books.

The Challenge commences on 7^th May and runs until 23^rd August. Experiencing a book includes classroom or at home activities such as shared reading, listening and reading along with a book, or being read to.

The requirement for Year 5 through to Year 9 students to read 15 books rather than 20 books acknowledges that older students are likely to select longer, more complex books that may take them longer to read.

All students at Grand Avenue will be taking part in the Premier’s Reading Challenge, and are encouraged to select a range of fiction and non-fiction books suited to their reading ability.

PBL News

This week, Grand Avenue’s positive behaviour focus is to respect everyone by using appropriate language at school!

In our classrooms, we identified what appropriate language is and how others feel when they are not spoken to respectfully. We also looked at ways to express ourselves respectfully in different situations.

This provides a great opportunity for you to talk with your child about this week’s focus and how they can also use appropriate language in other situations.

Community Notices

Congratulations Max and Lillyth!

Congratulations to both Max and Lillyth for recently earning themselves a spot at a national ice skating competition! They will both travel to Sydney to represent Queensland in June! We wish you the best of luck Lillyth and Max, what a fantastic effort. 

2025 Year 7 Enrolments at Forest Lake SHS 

Forest Lake SHS will be showcasing their fabulous school on Thursday 16 May with tours leaving every 15 minutes between 3:30pm and 5:30pm.  You'll visit their Year 7 classrooms, the Library and Performing Arts Centre; their Sports Hall, Playgrounds and Science Labs.  2025 Enrolment packs will be available from our administration office.

All Year 6 students are also invited to try out for their Programs of Excellence - Academic, Dance, Esports, Instrumental Music and Rugby League - with information on dates provided in the enrolment packs.

ADVERTISEMENT FOR SCHOOL CROSSING SUPERVISOR

CASUAL POSITION VACANT

A casual position exists for a School Crossing Supervisor at Grand Avenue State School.   

The hours of work for the School Crossing Supervisor may be up to an hour and a half on any school day in all weather conditions.

Commencement of work for the successful applicant is dependent on:

• The favourable outcome of a health assessment carried out by a duly qualified Medical Practitioner according to the guidelines in the “Notes for Medical Practitioner” on the School Crossing Supervisor Scheme - Health Assessment Form.

• The applicant must either hold a current Blue Card or be eligible to apply for a Blue Card to the Commission for Blue Card Services. An applicant will not be employed by the Department of Transport and Main Roads unless they meet this criterion.

Department of Transport of Main Roads will organise and fund both Medical and Blue Card for selected applicant. Interested applicants should send their Resume to Jo Philp at ipswichroadsafety@tmr.qld.gov.au by Friday 24^th May, 2024