HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD€¦ · of her life. Staff Commitment - A truly fantastic group of people who are always there and never let you down. Enjoy your

HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD

Issue December 2017 www.homesteadss.eq.edu.au

Included in this edition:

Principal’s report

Presentation Night

Year 6 Graduation

Calendar of events

Birthday wishes

P&C Report

Progress Report

Visitors to our school

Around our school

School Watch

And much more!



Principals Report

Hi Everyone

It is difficult to believe the year has come to its conclusion – what an outstanding

success!

This year we focussed on

In this year’s Annual Improvement Plan, we focussed on students achieving a level

of ‘C’ or better in English, Mathematics and Science. Through quality teaching and

ongoing professional development, our students have been able to maximise their

learning. I am proud of the commitment and dedication of the teaching staff and

teacher-aides for their efforts in ensuring every student is succeeding. We have

particularly focussed on improving the quality of our reading and spelling programs

as part of achieving consistency each lesson.

Our students attendance has goal was 92% for 2017. Overall,

students attended school with a percentage of 92.74% (as of

4/12/2017). The graph highlights illness as being the major

contributor to absence. Thanks to all the parents for

supporting their child in attending school – Every Day Counts!

The school successfully implemented a ‘Same Day Notification’

strategy this year.

2018 at a Glance

Next year we look forward to improving on the progress made in 2017. We will

continue our work around teaching with a literacy focus across the curriculum.

Years 5 and 6 students will begin an on-line languages program whilst K-4 students

will be learning about other cultures through cooking, craft, costumes and so on.

School resumes on Monday 22nd

January, 2018, however the office will be open

from Monday 15th

January.

Highlights

As I reflect on the year I would like to point out some of the memorable moments

that come to mind:

We have a community with an enormous heart and generosity. This is demon-

strated every day with a ‘Good Morning!’, a smile and plenty of laughter

Happy children walking through the door every day. Thankyou kids for making

our school an enjoyable place to learn and work at.

Parent support – Every day it is wonderful to hear positive conversations about

why the school is a wonderful place, laughter and an interest in how you can

support your child’s learning.

School Camp – Fresh air, wagon rides, damper and billy tea, historical buildings

and lovely fresh country air!

Sports Carnivals – comradery, competitiveness, participation and achievement.

We were all winners!



Poetry and Bush Dances – What a bonza night and a great way to end Term 3 Steam Train ride – A trip down memory lane as the world chugged by!

Working Bee – A terrific sense of community support. ANZAC Day – Always a wonderful time to pay our respects to our diggers. Morning Teas for just about any day we can think of. P & C – A truly wonderful and passionate group of volunteers Kindy – What a fantastic year of new beginnings for our children and the com-

munity. Graduation – We say farewell to Makayla and wish her well in the next phase

of her life. Staff Commitment - A truly fantastic group of people who are always there and

never let you down.

Enjoy your holidays and end of year celebrations and I look forward to seeing you all in 2018

That’s all folks

Damien Pressley

Principal

Homestead Progress Association Thanks to the Homestead Community for your support throughout the year. Don’t forget our Community Christmas Tree celebrations are being held on Saturday the 9th of December. BBQ dinner will be supplied but please BYO drinks. There will also be a visit from Santa!!!! Look forward to seeing you all there.

Student Council

Thank you to Jenny Deal from Hughenden who kindly donated the hamper for our Student Council raffle. We have raised $226.00 from this raffle. The winner of this was Cherryl Lingard. Congratulations Cherryl!



1 Denzel Epong

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4 Maxine Leggett

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6 Peter Leggett

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15 Makayla Ford

16 Arion Isabeth

17 Peter Griffiths

18 Rhonda Isabeth

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20 Owen Hafemeister

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28 Jasper Epong

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Mackaydee chose an animal to research in Kindy. She chose the echidna. Mackaydee learnt lots of interesting information about echidnas, including the fact that they are very shy. Mackaydee also learnt that their noses are called snouts and that they have sharp claws to dig with. They also eat ants and termites. This is Mackaydee’s wonderful poster!



Hi everyone. My name is Miss Sharon and I am your newly appointed School Chaplain for 2018. I will be travelling to the school each Wednesday. I am also the Chaplain for Central State School in Charters Towers ( where I have been working 2 days per week for the past 10 years). School Chaplaincy is a Local and Federal funded program that focuses on delivering social, emotional and spiritual support, referral and pastoral care to school communities. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and happy Xmas, and look forward to getting to know the students, staff and eventually the wider community of Homestead in 2018. Kind Regards, Sharon Beveridge School Chaplain

The staff, students and parents from Homestead State School were invited by Pentland State School to an excursion in Charters Towers on Friday the 1st of December. The day included watching the movie ‘The Star’ and having a picnic morning tea and lunch in the park. We all enjoyed the day and it was lovely to catch up with our Pentland friends. Thank you very much for inviting us!



Thank you to everyone who attended our

Presentation Night on Tuesday, 5th December

2018!



“Reach for the Stars” award –Jasper Epong

Thank you to Councillor Graham Lohmann for

presenting this important award.

Kevin Bredden

“All Rounder”Award– Caleb Trebeck

Thank you to Luke Bredden for presenting this important award.









I liked our school camp because we went fishing, camping. I liked gold panning because I got some gold!

The Kindy at Homestead State School!



Homestead State School participated in one of our favourite historical and significant events for the community and the nation on Tuesday the 7th of November. The Homestead State School P&C Association catered on the day and everyone had a wonderful time. The Homestead State School students were to be commended on their exemplary behaviour and wonderful manners. The community, as always, looked forward to and enjoyed the traditional hat parade by the students. They did a wonderful job on their individual creations with much talent being displayed on the day. Congratulations to those students who won prizes in the colouring competition. We all look forward to this event next year which continues to strengthen the connections between our school and the local Homestead community.





P&C News The role of the P&C within the school community is to be a genuine partner in the school’s life, working as one with the school and the wider community to achieve the best possible outcomes for all students of Homestead State School.

The P&C-school partnership should be built on trust, respect and shared values. It should be an open, two-way relationship with the parents, school staff and Principal all working together to achieve the best outcomes for students. As a P&C: We give valuable feedback on school policies and activities. We assist to provide additional resources to be used to enhance

student learning We have the opportunity to be involved in our children’s education

This year P&C contributions to our school include:

Cross Country Medallions A new fridge for students lunches A new microwave to provide hot lunches for the students A shed to house the bikes and scooters closer to the bike track Books for Presentation Night Musica Viva for all students Arts Council in Pentland for all students Catering for School Camp Catering for Poetry and Damper Night Catering for the Dalrymple Cluster Cross Country Event Lunches for Movie Day excursion in Charters Towers

Our successful events include:

The Melbourne Cup Luncheon Footy Tipping BBQ And of course, the dinner at the Homestead Community Hall

As we all know, these events are important to our school values that include providing connections between the school and our Homestead community.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support our Footy Tipping fundraiser. It’s certainly a fun (and competitive) way to raise funds. We thank our Lifetime Member, Jeanette Curtis for her tireless efforts in coordinating this fundraiser each year. Thank you Jeanette!



It’s also been nice to have our other Lifetime Member, Kaye Griffiths back on the executive committee as our Treasurer.

One of our most successful and ongoing fundraisers is of course our tuckshop. Many contribute, but a special thank you must go to Trina Ford and Jodie Polinelli for providing delicious home-cooked meals and donating their time to conduct tuckshop each fortnight. Thank you ladies. This service not only provides funds for our school, but it also ensures our students and staff have lovely, healthy meals available all year round!

As 2017 comes to an end, we are all excited for 2018, as our P&C was chosen to cater for the entourage arriving in Homestead for the Queens Baton Relay in March.

We wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas break and look forward to working together again in the New Year.



Calendar of Events

Newsletter Items:

An issue of the Homestead Headlines will be printed at the end of each month. Anyone wishing to place an article in the

‘Headlines’ must have their article in to the school by the Wednesday before printing.

Small articles can be emailed to [email protected]

Any additional flyers or inserts must be pre printed before submission.

The next issue will be printed in January 2018.

S

School Watch

Keep a watch on our school these holidays

With the holidays fast approaching, we need you to look out for after-hours crime in our school. If you see anything suspicious, please

call School Watch on 13 17 88.

The School Watch program is a partnership between the Department of Education, Training and Employment, the Queensland Police Service

and the State Government Protective Security Service. It aims to re-duce vandalism, theft and arson in Queensland schools.

If you do see something suspicious, please don’t attempt to intervene. Call the School Watch number and let the local police or State

Govern-ment Protective Security Service deal with the matter. Keep the number handy —

13 17 88 — and let’s work together to help create a safer school

community.

School commences on Monday the 22nd of January 2018. We

look forward to seeing you then!

Documents

HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD€¦ · of her life. Staff Commitment - A truly fantastic group of people who are always there and never let you down. Enjoy your