February

22 Mackay Dis Hockey trials

25 Mackay Dis Netball trials

26-28 Y5/6 Talk About It program

28 Mackay Dis Squash trials

28 PV Touch Football trials

March

1 Mackay Dis girls Rugby L trials

1 NQ Cowboys Cyberbullying presentation

1 Free Dress Day ~ NRL theme

4 Chess Tournament ~ Round 1

5 & 7 Y5/6 Talk About It program

6 Swimming Carn ~ Pioneer Pool

7 P&C Meeting 6pm

18 School Photo Day

Date Claimers

Spotlight

General Information

Office Hours 8am—3.30pm

Parade Every Monday at 8.50am

Newsletter every 2nd Thursday

PCYC After School Care 4942 3296

Absence Line: 4959 4366

Issue 2

21 February 2019

McColl Street, Walkerston 4751 Telephone (07) 4959 4333 E-mail admin@walkerstonss.eq.edu.au Web http://walkerstonss.eq.edu.au

Free Dress day Friday 1st of March.

NRL theme

Dental Forms have been sent home.

Due back 1st March. Spares available

from office.

Principal’s Report— Mr J Feeney

We’re approaching the half-way mark of Term 1 of what has already been a very

busy term. And, it will continue to be just as busy for the remainder! Permission notes are coming thick and fast, so please keep an eye on your children’s bags to make sure they don’t miss out on the opportunities which pop up over the course of the year. With most visits, there is a fairly significant amount of paperwork which needs to be done behind the scenes. This is particularly true for sports which lead into further levels of competition. Therefore, if notes aren’t returned by the due dates, children won’t be able to participate. We don’t want anyone to miss out!

Next week, children in Year 5 and 6 will have the opportunity to participate in the ‘Talk About It’ program, which is a Sexual Health and Relationships program aligned to the Australian Curriculum run by Life Education, the team who also provide the Health Harold van for all students. We have participated in this program for several years now, and feedback from parents has been very positive. There is some information available on their website. If parents have any questions, I encourage them to attend a parent information session which you will receive information about in due course. I’d also encourage our Year 4 parents to attend if possible, as it will be offered to your children next year.

On Friday next week, the NQLD Cowboys will be attending our school to help start a conversation around

cyberbullying. We will be celebrating this event by holding an NRL-themed free-dress day for a gold-coin donation. I would encourage all parents to be vigilant when it comes to monitoring your children’s online activities, and to read the terms and conditions of social media sites your children participate in. We are aware that some of our students are using sites like Facebook and, more recently, Tiktok, which have minimum age requirements that our students don’t meet. The age requirements are important, as these sites encourage children to upload videos, images and information about themselves. Often, primary-school aged children post videos or information of themselves online which they would never dream of divulging in person; the fact that it’s through a computer rather than in person makes it feel anonymous, but of course, it’s not. Children can also make comments online which they wouldn’t say in person, making cyberbullying a big problem for children in this day and age. Please keep an eye on your children’s online activities, and monitor what they are exposed to online.

On a lighter note, the building works which have been impacting on us all for the past few years are progressing very well now, and we expect to be able to start moving into our final classrooms in a few weeks’ time. I’d like to thank the community for their patience. While it’s been a difficult experience for us all, I’m sure you’ll agree that the finished classrooms are now a much better learning environment for our children.

Our You Can Do It targets for weeks 5 and 6:

Confidently and proudly wears

correct school uniform.

Follows teacher’s instruction to complete work.

Ricky Resilient says to: Connie Confidence says to:

McColl Street, Walkerston 4751 (07) 4959 4333 E-mail admin@walkerstonss.eq.edu.au Web http://walkerstonss.eq.edu.au

Cultural News

Recorder Band

The recorder band have been practicing the national anthem over the last couple of weeks. We have been invited to once again this year participate in the ANZAC Day service in Walkerston. As this is in week 1 of term 2 we do not have a lot of time to prepare. Please ensure if you are in recorder band you come to practices on Wednesday at 2

nd lunch.

Instrumental

Senior Concert Band started this week. Please remember to come for an 8am start.

Choir

Choral festival is well on the way. Next week we will finalise the concert information and send out to all. Tickets for this event will not be available from the MECC until 9am March 11. Students participating do not require a ticket.

Musical

There has been an exciting amount of interest shown in this years school musical. All we can reveal at this stage as it involves pirates, ninjas and fairies and auditions will be held in week 9 and 10 for lead roles. The musical is open to all students in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6. We will be looking for some students to also take on backstage, sound, lighting and other behind the scene jobs.

Safety Circus

On Wednesday, 20 February, Year 3 students went to St Johns to see the Safety Circus Performance with other Year 3 students from around our area. We had a very fun time. The show was like a circus with acrobats, clowns. dancers, magicians and of course, a ringmaster. The performers sang lots of catchy songs that involved safety as well as getting us involved in dances and actions to help remember safety tips. We learnt about how to stop bullying and why we need to wear our helmets when we are riding our bikes, scooters and skateboards. We also learnt about the Safety Net which is at the tip of our fingers when we need to consider who to go to for help. There were two policemen. One policeman started the show but at the end both policemen finished the show. When the show was finished, we were very lucky to meet the performers. Year 3 students then walked safely back to school. The Safety Circus was an excellent performance.

Written by Sophie Vassallo and Alysha Perry.

Chappy News

It has been a busy start to school with Chappy retreat and professional development before the term began. I am currently in the process of completing my diploma in youth work and this week I have been doing training in suicide awareness, prevention and intervention. Safetalk and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training are programs that can be completed by anyone and are sponsored by the Run for MI Life Organisation. There is training available every month for anyone who is interested. Contact Run for MI Life or Grapevine for more information.

Breakfast Club

I would like to thank all of the local businesses who support Breakfast Club - Walkerston Bakery, Walkerston Fuels and the Social Café, My Chiropractor and O’sheas Hotel. Remember breakfast is available to all members of the school community until 8.40 am every morning. We are currently looking for donations of fruit. This can be home grown. Donations can be left at Breaky Club or the school office.

I hope you all have a great week. Let me know if I can help.

Cheers and Blessings

Chappy A

McColl Street, Walkerston 4751 Telephone (07) 4959 4333 E-mail admin@walkerstonss.eq.edu.au Web http://walkerstonss.eq.edu.au

Student of the Week Awards for Week 2 & Week 3

Class PA Louisa Vassallo—For always being super organised and ready for learning. Well Done Louisa!

Charlie Brennan—For showing great confidence when tackling new tasks. Keep up the good work Charlie!

Class 1B Sienna Kitto—For always getting on with others and being a wonderful class friend to all.

Class 34C Cooper Venz—For offering to help his classmates without being asked to. Keep up your thoughtful and caring ways!

Logan Cunningham—For excellent sentence construction and showing capable skills with a character description.

Class 5B Lilah Smith—For always striving in all tasks to do her very best.

Class 6A Layla Contor—For following class and school rules carefully and setting a great example for

her classmates.

Scarlett Kiem—For showing a keen interest in wanting to enhance her written work with better

vocabulary. Well done!

A NOTE FROM YOUR SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHER

School photos are almost upon us again! The school has engaged MSP Photography to create our school records this year and you are

invited to purchase prints of your child.

Photo day is the 18th of March. On photo day, every student will be photographed regardless of whether you are purchasing or not.

Your child will bring home a personalised order envelope from the photographers. Please take care to read and follow all the instructions carefully. This will ensure your

order is processed smoothly and efficiently and will help you to avoid any late fees.

For those of you ordering online, you will notice a new, improved version this year. Please take care to follow the instructions carefully and ensure you log onto

www.msp.com.au to enter your child’s shootkey.

Additional order envelopes are available from the school office for separated parents, blended families and grandparents. You will need to collect these on or before photo day and give it to the photographer on photo day. Be sure to write “Mum’s order” or

“Dad’s order” on top of your envelope.

To order a sibling or friends photo, please collect Sibling and Friends Order Envelope from the school office on or before photo day, or order it online at least 24 hours in advance. Please note: Sibling photos are only for siblings who all attend the school. If your child has been photographed in a special group (ie sports team or leadership team), order envelopes will be available in the weeks following photo day. Please

watch this newsletter for information when they will be available.

As school staff are unable to help with photography enquiries or payments, please direct your questions and comments directly to MSP Photography by phoning

4921 3355 Thank you for your co-operation and we look forward to a great photo

day.

Keep smiling!!!

McColl Street, Walkerston 4751 Telephone (07) 4959 4333 E-mail admin@walkerstonss.eq.edu.au Web http://walkerstonss.eq.edu.au

Physical Education News

Firstly we have an extremely busy term this term with our school carnivals as well as majority of our sports trials for school sports.

Thank you to everyone who has handed in his or her swimming notes by the closing time. This allows us to help organise staff accordingly for this day. Students who have not returned a Nomination will be remaining at school on the day. An extra shout out to those people who have already paid their money.

Cross Country training finally got off to a great start last week with 54 students signing up for training. Well done! Training cards will be going home this week. It is important to have a good breakfast before training on these days. Please remember to come in your training clothes and pack a uniform to change in to for hygiene reasons.

Remember no permission note, no hat = no training.

Our Athletics carnival is scheduled for the last week of school this term. The Senior students (9yrs to 13yrs) will be having their carnival on the Wednesday over at West Leagues Club, while the Ball Games and Junior Carnival will be held on Thursday. Please note that the 1500m event will be run on Friday, 29th March commencing at 8am and 800m events will be run on the Tuesday 2nd April in the afternoon, before our main day.

School sport consists of students representing our school at a sub district level (Pioneer Valley Trials), then if they are successful there they would be invited to attend the Mackay District Trials, which then lead onto the Capricornia Trials, which then leads to State Titles. All students that participate in a Mackay Trial are required to pay $5 to the school. This helps cover the cost of running the trials.

I anticipate on getting information out to you as soon as possible once I receive it.

The website for Capricornia Sport is https://capsport.eq.edu.au/CalendarandNews/EventsCalendar/Pages/Eventscalendar.aspx

The website for Mackay District School Sport is

http://capsport.eq.edu.au/Districtsport/Mackay/Pages/Mackay.aspx or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MackayDistrictSchoolSport

Or following them on Facebook by entering Mackay District School Sport

Trials have been held for the following sports and congratulations need to go to those students who are showing confidence to have a go at the trials. Their names are listed beside the sports and the information is correct as of printing deadline.

Swimming – Vaughn Wyatt (Pioneer Valley)

Netball – Charli Bostock, Maddison Burgess, Sarah Kucks, Paige Larson (Pioneer Valley)

Basketball – Maddison Burgess (Pioneer Valley)

Cross Country – Training in progress

Ruby League, Touch Football Rugby Union, Cricket, Athletics, Softball, Tennis will follow in quick succession.

Hats, Shoes and PE Lessons

All students require a school hat to be able to complete their Physical Education Lessons. These lessons are just as important to their schooling as that of their written subjects. The school has a sun safe policy, school uniform policy, work place health and safety policy that reinforces the essential need of each child having their own hat each day they attend school. Students are not allowed to play outside

without their hat at break times and therefore if they do not have a hat for their PE lesson they are not able to participate. Below is the days in which I see the students, so please can I ask for your assistance in making sure that they have a hat and appropriate closed in footwear (not slip ons) on their PE days.

Tuesday – 3A, 3B, 3/4C, 4A, 5A, 5B, 5/6C, 6A.

Wednesday – 3/4C, 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, Prep/1C, Prep A

Thursday – Prep A, Prep/1C, 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B.

Friday – 6A, 5/6C, 5A, 5B, 4A.

Medical Certificates and Non-participation notes.

As PE is a set requirement of the Australian Curriculum that requires to be assessed and reported on like other subjects taught at school, if your child is injured or unable to participate in a lesson it is a legal requirement for them to either have a medical certificate or a written note from their parent/guardian explaining why they need to be exempt from the lesson that day. If there is no note then students are expected to participate in the lesson.

Sign up for the following clubs are happening if you are interested

Mackay Athletics Club – 2nd March anytime between 9am and 1pm at 193 Boundary Road Ooralea at the Mackay Aquatic & Recreation Complex. Ph: James 0431973129 if you need more information.

Hockey Sign on and Fun Day this Saturday at the Harney St 8am is under 10 fun day 10am come and try.

Hawks Softball Sign on Day 2nd March 2019 at Theo Hansen Park 10am to 1pm Contact: Hawkssoftballclub@outlook.com or Facebook Hawks Softball Club Mackay

Kids Try-Triathlon and Aquathon:

Saturday 23rd February 2019

Ages: 5-12 years (age as of 31st December 2019)

Time: 7:30am Registration – 8:00am Race Starts (based on age and distance).

Location: Blue Water Lagoon, River Street, Mackay

Online Registration: https://www.eventrbrite.com.au/e/kids-try-triathlon-tickets-54582139649

Details:

This event is non-competitive/novelty. The swim will be in the lower level lagoon in waist deep water so kids can choose to swim and run or swim, ride the Blue Water Trail and run. If your kids would like to participate, please complete a race registration online.

Registration is at 7:30am with the Mini Kids kicking off at 8:00am

Event Distances includes:

Kids Aquathon

5-6 Years – 50m swim /500m run

7-9 Years – 75m swim/1000km run

10-12 years – 100m swim/1500m run

Kids Triathlon

7-9 Years – 75m swim / 3.2km cycle / 1km run

10 – 12 year – 100m swim / 4.3km cycle / 1.5km run

This is a Triathlon Queensland Sanction Event and is aligned with the Triathlon Australia rules for ages and distances.