6 September 2019

Principal’s Piece Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We have had a very exciting week this week, as

we have been celebrating Book Week. The

parade today was amazing. Thank you to all the

parents who came and for helping our children

with their costumes. Also a big thank you to all

the staff who dressed up as well. We will be

Author Yvonne Mes with students

Van and Teo

Last Wednesday, our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Years 4-6, along with their parents

and carers, participated and in a smoking ceremony as part of the Gift of Gallang program. This cleansing

and healing ceremony is an ancient aboriginal custom that involves burning various native plants to

produce smoke, which has cleansing properties and the ability to ward off bad spirits from the people and

the land, and make pathway for a brighter future. Thank you to Inala Wangarra for supporting our students

and families, through strengthening the connectedness and sense of belonging in culture and community.

Principal piece….

Dear Parents and Caregivers, Last Friday, we held our Multicultural Day where we celebrated the cultural diversity of our school community. A number of our students performed traditional dance during our parade. It was a great start to the day and the children then participated in a number of activities throughout the day. A very big thank you to the volunteers, students from Glenala State High School and the teachers who organised the event.

We also welcomed two new staff to our school this week, Ms Ashleigh Cuthbert who is working in 1B for the remainder of the year while Mrs Smith takes leave. And Mrs Sandra Brock, who is an additional teacher in our Inclusion Team and will be supporting our upper school students with disabilities. We wish Mrs Smith all the best.

As we head into the last couple of weeks of this term, it is important to remember that we encourage student arrival from 8:30am and if they are here earlier that they go straight to the library. Also, school finishes at 2:45pm. While we care very much for our students and will look after them till parents arrive. It is unreasonable to expect the school to care for your children past 3:00-3:10pm. If you are unable to collect your child by 3pm, please consider after school care options including Inala PCYC, who provide a bus service each day. It is also vital that we have your current contact details, so we can call you if your child is still at school.

Until next time

Marie Whitfield Principal

Multicultural Day Celebration

Queensland celebrates Multicultural Month in

August each year. It is an opportunity for people

from all different cultures to come together to

share, experience and acknowledge the diversity

in our community. Serviceton South is proud of

our multicultural community and celebrated

Multicultural Day on Friday 30 August

commencing with a parade. Students shared their

culture through a variety of performances

including our Vietnamese, Indian, African and

Samoan dance groups and our school choir sang

‘We Belong’. It was wonderful to see so many

parents and community members attend this

special event. Following parade, all students

participated in a range of rotational activities

where many cultural experiences were shared

across the school. Thank you to Kummara Inala

and our many parent volunteers who supported

our school on this day.

Thank You

Teacher Aides Day

This Friday 6 September is Teacher Aide Day

where we recognise the great work our Teacher

Aides do to support our students and Teachers.

As a staff, we will be recognising our teacher

Aides on Thursday with a special shared lunch.

Teacher Aides provide assistance that goes a

long way in our classrooms, providing the extra

support some students need to get the most out

of a lesson and supporting our teachers to

organise engaging and educational activities each

day. On behalf of our school community, we

would like to say a big thank you to all our

wonderful Teacher Aides for the work they do

every day.

Support Staff Week

Last week was Support Staff Week and here at

Serviceton South we celebrated and

acknowledged the fabulous staff who help keep

processes running smoothly across the school.

Thank you to Melissa and Marg in the office, Mr

Trent our Grounds Officer, Charles our ICT

Technician and Peta our Speech Pathologist who

support staff and students as needed. Our

students have safe, engaging and appropriate

learning environments because of their dedication

and commitment to our school. Thank You.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent Teacher interviews are an opportunity to

meet with your child’s teacher to discuss their

progress and academic achievement. Interviews

run for 15 minutes and will be held on Tuesday 17

September and Wednesday 18 September in the

school hall, commencing at 3pm and finishing by

6m. An Interview Booking form was sent home

with each student on Monday giving parents and

carers the opportunity to indicate a preferred date

and time. Please have this returned to your child’s

class teacher by the due date. Our teacher aides

Mrs Nguyen and Mrs M are available to translate

for our Vietnamese and Somali families.

Swimming Prep-Year 2

Next term students in Prep–Year 2 will participate

in a structured swimming program for their HPE

lessons. Swimming instruction will be at Dunlop

Park Pool, Corinda with trained instructors and all

lessons will be completed in small ability groups.

The swimming program will take place on

Wednesdays for 5 weeks commencing on 9

October (first week back after the holidays).

Permission forms were sent home recently which

provided information on what the student needs

to bring and cost of the program. The full payment

must be paid at the office by the due date. If you

are experiencing difficulty making this payment

please see the office.

Yr 5 & 6 School Camp: Payments Due

A reminder to all families who have a child

attending the 2019 school camp, the final

payment is due by Friday 20 September. No late

payments can be accepted as the school is

required to pay the campsite before the

September holidays. If you are experiencing

difficulty in making payments for camp, please

see the staff in the office. Further information

regarding camp, including ‘What to Take”,

Medical Forms etc will be sent home in the

coming weeks.

Cyber-Bullying Session

Recently our school adopt-a-cop, Senior

Constable Belinda Wilcox, visited all students in

Years 6 to speak about Cyber-Bullying and

Cyber-Safety. Students in our communities,

including Serviceton South, are increasingly

accessing social media and other platforms

through their mobile phones and ipads. This often

occurs after school, on weekends and during the

holidays, however the issues experienced online

(out of school) are then often brought into the

school environment. This results in staff having to

work through the issues with the students.

Belinda spoke to our students about the law

surrounding online bullying, the impact that online

behaviours can have on self and others and

examples of what it might look like. We

encourage all parents to have open

communication with their child about what they

get up to online, set clear boundaries and rules

for use, including parents having access to

passwords and limiting your child’s time on

electronic devices. It is important to be aware of

the minimum age requirements on each app as

most students at primary school are legally too

young for the apps they are using.

Year 6 Graduation

(Save the Date)

Please note that our Year 6 Graduation ceremony

will be held on Monday 9 December in our school

hall in the evening. This is for our Year 6 students

and their immediate families.

Further information along with invitations will be

provided in Term 4.

Literacy and Numeracy Week

This week we celebrated National Literacy and

Numeracy Week. Every day the students were

able to engage in a different activity that allowed

them to have fun with either a numeracy skill or a

literacy skill. Wednesday was also Indigenous

Literacy Day so the activities for this day were

focussed on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

perspectives.

Miss Gough from 1A spent most of her lunch

breaks engaging in the activities with the students

and had a ball. Thank you Miss Gough for all your

hard work and thank you to the other staff and

students who participated this week.

Breakfast Club Students are encouraged to have a healthy and nourishing breakfast before a big day of learning. We are very lucky to have a five day breakfast program running in our school. We have two sittings in the morning.

Sitting times are:

8.00 – 8.15am and 8.15 – 8.30am

If your child is not attending Breakfast Club, they should arrive at school at 8.35am ready to begin learning at 8.45am.

Book Fair

Book Fair is here again! In week 10 this term we

will be holding Book Fair on Tuesday and

Wednesday afternoons from 2:30 – 5:00pm in the

library. The Book Fair will be open before and

after some Parent Teacher interviews so please

pop into the library, peruse and perhaps purchase

a book for your child. For every book purchased,

the school receives reward dollars, which are

then spent on new picture books, big books and

teaching resources for our school.

A Scholastic Book Fair is a fun event at your

school that will enable a hands-on experience

where children can discover a love of books and

ignite a life-long passion for reading. After all,

children read more, understand more, and are

more likely to continue reading when they have

access to many books, and have the opportunity

to choose what they read.

Debating Team

On Wednesday 4th September our debating team

travelled to Grand Avenue SS to compete in the

Interschool Debating Competition. Fiona, William,

Ramadan, Caidence, Esther, Roni, Lillian and

Jevon competed in four different debates

throughout the day, arguing, “Anything can be a

Toy, Gambling Ads Should not be Prohibited,

Space Exploration is a Waste of Money and

Technology is Not Stealing our Lives”. Although

we didn’t come home with the trophy, the

students represented our school proudly and

carried themselves confidently and respectfully

throughout each of the debates.

Prep Father’s Day

On Friday our Prep classes had a special

afternoon celebrating Father's Day with our Dads,

Grandfathers and Uncles. We had lots of fun craft

activities to do with our special visitors including

card making, key rings, my dad rocks magnets,

ties and much more. Thank you to all who were

able to make it.

Ocean Stars Marine

On Tuesday 27th August, the Year 1 cohort had a

spectacular incursion from Ocean Stars. Our

students dove under the ocean and explored

many amazing under water animals, their

features and the special habitats in which they

live. Students participated in the program “Ocean

Survival” where they interacted and touched

beautiful ocean friends, such as sea stars, sea

cucumbers, hermit crabs, sea urchins and even a

special appearance from a Baby Shark.

Serviceton South State School staff and student

wish to acknowledge and thank the Ocean Stars

team for their hard work and for providing a truly

outstanding educational adventure that

enchanted a young generation to care and

respect our oceans and there creatures.

We respectfully acknowledge the Jagera people, the Traditional

Owners of the land on which this school st

DATES TO REMEMBER

06/09/2019 Prep A Parade Performance

10/09/2019 Year 3 & 4 Street Science Incursion

12/09/2019 Year 6 SES Natural Disaster Visit

13/09/2019 Year 3B Parade Performance

17/09/2019

Parent Teacher Interviews

3.00pm – 6.00pm

18/09/2019 Parent Teacher Interviews

3.00pm – 6.00pm

17/09/2019 Scholastic Book Fair

18/09/2019 Scholastic Book Fair

20/09/2019 Year 6A Parade Performance

20/09/2019 Inala Adopt- a -Cop Awards

7/10/2019 Public Holiday

8/10/2019 Term 4 Commences

09/10/2019 Swimming Commences Prep – Year 2

10/10/2019 Little Lorikeets Commences