215 Queen Street,SOUTHPORT,QLD,4215,Australia Phone: (07) 5531 9111

Website: https://southporss.eq.edu.au/

Email: admin@southporss.eq.edu.au

Principal's News

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we finish up for the September school holidays I would like to publicly thank the school community for the warm welcome to Southport. It only took a matter of days before I realised what a special school this was. My 10 weeks have been thoroughly enjoyable and completely rewarding each and every day. I am a very privileged man to be the Principal of Southport State School. The September holidays are a great time to recharge the batteries, rest up and get ready for the final sprint to the end of the year.

Early Morning Reading

Every morning of the week our brilliant support staff have identified Year 1, Year 2 and Year 4 students who would benefit from intensive reading intervention. This sits outside of the normal classroom teaching and learning taking place each day, but plays a vital role in building the foundation skills of early readers. If your child received a personalised letter inviting them to attend, please do your very best to get them to this additional support, every day, every learning opportunity matters.

Extension Work

In Year 2 and Year 4 we have identified some high performing students who we believe would benefit from additional support and extension work. This isn’t about extending the students to work from the next year level but building the complexity of understanding in their current grade level. These additional lessons occur at different times of the week so if your child received a peronalised letter inviting them to attend please reiterate the importance of attendance at home. Attendance isn’t compulsory but highly recommended for the continued improvement of all individuals.

Newsletter Change

Next term you will notice a slight change to our newsletter. As a school we believe this is a positive one and I hope this is something well received from our community. It will give the school additional avenues to engage, share and celebrate the great things that take place in our school every single week.

Phones

I have noticed an alarming trend of students bringing in phones to school. The Southport State School policy allows phones to be brought to school, however on arrival each day these phones are to be handed into the school front office, then collected at the end of the day before exiting the school. This

isn’t negotiable and is aligned to Education Queensland’s behaviour policy.

Planning for 2018?

As we come to the end of Term 3, our administration team is also beginning our planning cycle for 2018. So this is the time that we ask have you enrolled all of your children for 2018? Do you have a Prep student starting? Do you have friends that should be enrolling their child into Prep?

Plus the big question, will you still be with us in 2018? If at any point during Term 4 you know you will be exiting Southport State School, if you could let the office know so that as we begin drafting class structures we are aware of our ins and out to make the most accurate predictions possible.

Deputy Principal's News

Mrs Maria Thompson - Prep - Year 3

THE 'ONCE AWARD'

We are continuing to collect a selection of students’ books each Friday afternoon to review the implementation of Southport State School’s Bookwork Policy. Books are collected at random and certificates are presented on parade to one junior and one senior student demonstrating a high standard of bookwork. The award is called the ‘Once Award’ titled after our catch phrase: “Do it nice or do it twice”.

We are pleased to announce the Week 8 Junior Once Award recipient was Kayden (Prep) and the Week 9 Junior Once Award recipient was Baiden (Year 3). Congratulations to Kayden and Baiden for neat handwriting, correctly ruled margins, accurately dated and titled work. We look forward to watching the progress of all students as they develop their skills and pride in their work.

POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR for LEARNING (PB4L)

VALUES FOR THE FORTNIGHT

At Southport State School we promote and encourage the following values which have been identified by our school Community. These values are upheld by both students and staff:

“I am a Learner, I am Respectful, I am Safe”

Each week we promote one of the values and talk to students about the behaviours associated with them.

In Week 9 the celebrated value is ‘I am Respectful’

Respectful behaviours in the tuckshop area include:

I wait patiently in line

I only use my own money and eat my own food.

I will sit down to eat my food

In Week 10 the celebrated value is ‘I am Safe

Safe behaviours in the classroom include:

I am only in classroom when a teacher is present

I make sure my teacher knows where I am at all times

I move around safely

Southport State School is committed to providing quality education for all in a safe, respectful and disciplined learning environment. We believe these values teach and promote our high standard of responsible behaviour.

ATTENDANCE

Every day counts

We would like to remind everyone of the importance of sending children to school every day. Being at school every day counts, with one day absent each week quickly adding up to two months of missed lessons in a year. We are still striving to reach our goal of 94% attendance in all year levels.

Unless your child is ill, it is expected that your child will be at school learning every day of the school year.

More information on the importance of regular school attendance is available at http://education.qld.gov.au/everydaycounts/index.ht

Our average attendance for last week was:

Year level Average attendance percentage

Prep 88%

Year 1 93%

Year 2 93%

Year 3 86%

Year 4 87%

Year 5 89%

Year 6 91%

Congratulations to all our Year 1 and Year 2 students for achieving the highest attendance percentage last week, keep up the great effort. As a school we have a target of 94% attendance - you are so close. Let’s work together to achieve this in every class every day!

Recent spates of illness have significantly impacted our student attendance this term.

ILLNESS OR INJURY AT SCHOOL

Parents or carers of students who report to the office either sick or with an injury, will be contacted and advised of the nature of the illness or injury. Parent or carer advice will be sought regarding the option of a short time of rest and observation in sick bay or collection from school.

If parents or carers elect for their student to remain in sick bay and there is no improvement, they will be contacted again to collect their child. The school does not have the facility for children to remain in the sick bay for more than half an hour.

Therefore, it is not a good idea to send children to school when they are sick in order to see if they get better during the day.

Education Queensland has an exclusion policy for children suffering from various infectious diseases eg: Mumps, Measles, School Sores etc.

The school has facilities to deal only with minor injuries such as cuts and grazes. Parents and carers are advised if a minor injury may require further medical attention.

In more serious cases, parents and carers are contacted immediately. If they are unavailable, the nominated emergency contact person is contacted. If there is no response, the Qld Ambulance Service (QAS) is called.

The QAS is called to assist with all accidents resulting in serious injury or urgent need for medical attention.

Please ensure that current information is available at the office for emergency contacts.

BEING ON TIME FOR SCHOOL

Equally as important as attendance is being on time each day. The first school bell rings at 8.50am as a signal for students to get a drink, go to the toilet and return to their classroom in preparation for learning. The second bell rings at 8.55am when all students should be seated in class ready for morning messages, roll marking and the start of learning. Students arriving to school after 8.55am are often unsettled for the day as they may have missed morning messages, roll call or even the beginning of the morning lesson. Please support your young person by assisting them to get to school prior to the second bell.

ENROL NOW IN PREP FOR 2018

Prep is the first year of school and provides the foundation for your child’s education. From 2017, it became compulsory for Queensland children to undertake Prep prior to entering Year 1. Prep is a full-time program at our school and our teachers are committed to planning, designing and implementing programs that will engage your child.

We are now accepting Prep enrolments at Southport State School for all families within our catchment area. Those outside our catchment area will be accepted on a waitlist basis.

One you have submitted your enrolment application you will be invited to attend an enrolment interview with a member of the leadership team. Upon acceptance of your child’s enrolment and to begin the transition into school we will offer you and your 2018 Prep student an opportunity to attend our planned transition activities occurring in Term 3 & Term 4 of 2017. These transition activities are designed to:

build relationships with friends, teachers, school staff and other parents

learn about Prep routines

discover new and exciting learning environments

most importantly make the transition to Prep an exciting and enjoyable adventure

If you have any enquiries or are seeking an enrolment pack, please do not hesitate to contact us on 5531-9111 for further information.

LET’S CELEBRATE - PREP

Prep B have undertaken two pieces of expressive artwork this term. The artworks were cross curricular projects, incorporating topics covered in literacy and science.

The Frog on the Log piece - Began through the exploration of rhyme in the literacy unit. Students selected the most popular rhyme which then unfolded into a creative directed drawing session. Students were really challenged on their fine motor skills and attention to detail as they sketched with care their own representation of a frog. Students completed their art piece by painting their backgrounds, exploring textures, adding natural elements such as leaves and logs and finally displaying their developed handwriting skills by independently writing their rhyme.

The Beach - Is an artwork combining two topic areas explored in Science this year. In Term 2, students developed an understanding of weather and how it affects living things. The beach landscape represented in the artwork reflects students understanding of their local climate, in particular that of Gold Coast summers. In Term 3, students explored materials and their properties. students used a variety of materials, discussed their properties and textures to create the features on their landscape.

Prep B have put incredible effort, care and enthusiasm into their work. The art pieces were on display in the Art Show.

Mrs Barton

Daily Writing in Prep D

Congratulations on writing these sentences independently.

LET’S CELEBRATEYear 1/2

https://savethebilbyfund.com/get-involved/save-bilby-challenge

Create... Inspire... Act...

The Greater Bilby is one of Australia’s iconic native animals but it faces many threats that challenge its survival in outback Australia.

In our 2017 competition, we asked Australian school students of all ages to produce a film / animation, piece of creative writing or poster to inspire greater public support for saving these threatened marsupials through action, education and raising awareness.

Congratulations to the following students for their awards:

Name Class Award

Anika T 1/2D Runner Up - Save the Bilby Poster Competition 2017

Shelley 5A Runner Up - Save the Bilby Poetry Competition 2017

Great achievement, Anika and Shelley

Mrs Grace

LET’S CELEBRATEYEAR 6 STUDENT LEADERS

Congratulations to the Year 6 students who are supporting the ladies in the Snack Shack to serve toast of a morning.

Ceanne and Marley were recently snapped during their ‘shift’ in the tuckshop.

Don’t forget, students can get toast at the tuckshop each morning up until 8.40am.

Thank you, Year 6 leaders, for your efforts and assistance!

Upcoming Events at Southport State School

Date: Time: Event:

15th

Sep Last Day of Term 3

16th

Sep - 2nd

Oct

School Holidays

2nd

Oct Student Free Day

3rd

October First Day of Term 3

Deputy Principal's News

Mr Andrew Stewart - Years 4 to 6

Bebras:

It’s official! Southport State School have received some fantastic results in the Bebras Australia Computational Thinking Challenge. Students were presented their certificates at assembly during Week 10. Well done students and thank-you to Mr. Milo for organising this. Please see below for our results. We’d love to see double the entrants at least next year.

Year 6 Canberra Trip 2017:

This holiday sees 40 of our Year 6 students heading to Canberra and Sydney. This trip is non-stop action so if you’d like to follow their progress, daily Facebook updates will be posted. A very special thanks to our dedicated teachers who have volunteered 6 days of their holiday time to make this trip possible – Mrs Shelley Whittaker, Mrs Rebecca Muino and Mr Milo.

Science Competition:

Our first year entering the 2017 Griffith University Gold Coast Schools Science Competition and we have a prize winner. Congratulations to Harshitha from 3A who received a Highly Commended in the Communicating Science category for Year 3 and 4. Special thanks to Mrs Helen MacAteer for organising this and Miss Madeline Morrow for also supporting. The following students also participated and need to be commended:

Name Class

Jessica R 1C

Pauline U 2B

Alice H 2C

Sarah D 2C

Zanderson T 2C

Nisa 4C

Til J 4C

Hanna K 4C

Abinayan R 5B

Sameer B 5B

Footy Colours Day:

Friday of Week 9 saw many proud students displaying their football colours from a variety of teams across all codes. It was great to get out with a bag of balls and see the Junior Oval become a sea of activity and kicking. It was also great to get out to the Senior Oval and play a game of “Force Em Backs” with a group of Year 5 students. Thanks to Mr Darren Lovett and the Student Council for organising this event and the P&C who came around to collect the money. We’d like to see even more students in their team colours next year.

Persistence:

There are many ways to help children be persistent. Some are:

Congratulating them when they keep working on something they find frustrating.

Acknowledging that there are times when we all have difficult, boring or frustrating things we need to.

Replacing “I can’t be bothered”, with “I sometimes have to do things I don’t feel like doing. No pain, no gain.”

Think – “If I stick at this and not give up, I’ll get it done.”

Head Of Curriculum News

Typing Tournament Online

All students at Southport State School now have access to the program Typing Tournament Online.

A huge congratulations to 2A, 4A and 4B who have all made the World Leader board in the last 2

weeks!!

Premiers Reading Challenge

Children and students who complete the challenge will have their efforts recognised through the receipt of a Certificate of Achievement signed by the Premier of Queensland. These will be handed out next term.

Congratulations to the following male and female students, in each sector, that read the highest number of books throughout the challenge

P-Y2

Angeline – 1A

Y3 & 4

Ella - 4C

Khalani – 4C

Y5 & 6

Nauvoo - 5A

Jasmine N- 6B

Congratulations to the winning class 4Cwho read a whopping 1795 books in total throughout the

competition! They will be rewarded with a pizza party this week.

Mathlete Class Award

Two Mathlete Classes of the week are announced on assembly. One for P-2 and one for Year 3-6. This will be based on the highest number of participants across the class engaging in the Mathletics/Math Seeds.

Congratulations

1A

3A

Acting Head of Curriculum

Gabrielle Bowcock

31st Annual Athletics Championship

The "31st

Annual Athletics Championship" was held on Thursday the 7th

September and was a fantastic day for all involved.

The theme for this year was Southport Emoji’s and as you can see both staff and students looked amazing. Once again Southport State School won the award for small schools March Past. Special thanks to Mrs Susan Talley for her creative flair, the mobile phones stood out in the crowd and received lots of positive comments.

The following students attended the sports day and competed in races and individual games:

NAME CLASS

Maddison C Prep B

Patrick 1B

Jack R 1C

Hope 2C

Jemma D 2B

Jaylee G 3A

Emilia C 3A

Dylan 3B

Toby M 4A

Zack 4B

Naz A 4B

Kynan E 6A

Sam B 6B

Thank you to the parents who were able to come along and watch their child/children, your cheering and support was very much appreciated.

And lastly to the SEP staff involved, it can be a long, hot and tiring day but year after year their enthusiasm never wavers.

Chris Bell

Tristine Collin

Shelley Green

Toni Hamilton

Clare Newall

Christy Reid

Susan Talley

P & C News

School Banking

Commonwealth banking is on Fridays. If your child is not already a banker, you can sign them up by following the link below:

ttps://www.commbank.com.au/personal/kids/school-banking.html

RagTag'd

Don't forget to activate your tags if a tag has been sewn into your child's jumper. This way, you will be notified when the jumper is returned to lost property.

P & C Meetings

Please consider attending just one P&C meeting for the year. So much important information is discussed and it really is a good opportunity to be involved in your child's school. At the last meeting we had only 3 parents! Anyone is welcome meetings usually last for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Next P&C meeting is on Tuesday 10th October at 3:15pm and will be held in the staff room which is located in the Administration block.

Facebook

Like us at Southport State School P&C

Email: pandc@southporss.eq.edu.au

Student Of The Week Award - Week 9

I am Respectful

CLASS NAME

Prep A Harper

Prep B Maddison C

Prep D Oscar J

1A Talei C

1B Nathalie D

1/2D Summer O

2A Dana V

2B Amaya K

2C Laylah K

3A Aurorah W

3B Baiden L

3C Tristan B

3D Benji C

4A Toby M

4B Jacob G

4C Nisa I

5A Rocco A

5B Chantelle T

5C Justin M

6A Jessica C

6B Amahli H

6D Marcus B

Student Of The Week Award - Week 10

I am Safe

CLASS NAME

Prep A Suriya

Prep B Korey G

Prep C Ariana E

Prep D Bobae Y

1A John D

1B Jack J

1C Poem C

1/2D Andrew D

2A Harlem N

2B Akanksha S

2C Onyu B

3A Rhiyannah T

3B Dylan O

4A Logan Q

4B Asher A

4C Keean C

5A Bailey A

5B Joshua S

5C Jack D

6A Kekoa P

6B Reece P

6D Jackson W

South Coast Touch Football

Congratulations to Anne-Marie Kiria Ratu who captained the victorious South Coast Touch Football Team at the QLD School Championships held in Ipswich last weekend.

Anne-Marie has now been selected for the QLD Touch Football Team which will compete in Adelaide later this year and we wish her the best of luck.

Borobi Colouring In Competition

The ‘Draw Yourself With Borobi’Colouring in Competition has begun.

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) CEO, Mark Peters today announced that up to 500 people from one lucky Gold Coast school community will have the chance to attend the Opening Ceremony rehearsal in the lead up to the official opening of the Games.

Students you need to show off your creative side by completing a colouring in sheet featuring the popular GC2018 mascot Borobi.

To enter:

1. Go to our library and get a copy of the Borobi colouring in sheet from Mrs Williams, Mrs Bowcock or Ms Rene.

2. Parents your job is to to upload the completed artwork to https://www.gc2018.com/borobi-schools and complete the online entry form.

Please note: students may enter the competition as many times as they like, but must submit different artwork each time. Full terms and conditions can be viewed on the website.

Entries are open until 20 November before a random draw is held on 21 November 2017 to choose the school whose students will get a first look at the GC2018 Opening Ceremony.