Welcome back

Welcome back all families to an action-packed term four. I hope all families had a great break and enjoyed the beautiful Bowen weather. My family enjoyed spending time in the area and going to the beach and all there is to offer. As we approach the end of the year, we will be conducting a list of modified school events with the easing of COVID restrictions. As these school activities approach, we will communicate with families via Facebook and the school newsletter. Keep an eye on our school sign as this is also a point of information.

As a staff we are looking at reflecting on the work we have undertaken this year and the positive outcomes in the results of our students. Improving the reading and mathematical problem solving outcomes for all students remains a priority. We spoke about the refined and precise work this term and where the next lift might be. We want to see how many students we can get over the line. The recent parent/ teacher and student meetings were a wonderful opportunity for families to share recent assessment and data collection to guide the next steps in the teaching and learning. We will use the remainder of this term to consult with staff and draft our thoughts based on the current data to guide our Explicit Improvement Agenda in 2021

World Teachers Day

On the first day back to school this term we celebrated “World Teachers Day” at Bowen State School. I addressed the staff at a special briefing to acknowledge their tremendous efforts each and every day, improving the outcomes for the students at this school. Each classroom teacher received a new iPad to support their work in the classrooms. The ipads will be used for uploading e- books for professional learning, capturing evidence of students written work and providing collective feedback to all students. Ongoing professional development around these will ensure our teachers can effectively use this handy resource.

Improvements within School Opinion Data

This week I have included data from our pulse survey completed by families. Overall, we did extremely well and the responses from our students, staff and parents are triangulating to give a clear message about this school. Congratulations to everyone within our school community for acknowledging all the hard work undertaken this year to build on and improve outcomes for our students We will be looking to analyse this information and review the feedback in ways we could improve into the future.

Prep playground launch

At the beginning of 2020 we were successful in an application to Abbot Point Operations for a community grant for a new playground for our playgroup which is perfectly located for our Year 1 and Prep students to also access. This week we formally opened the playground and invited special guests to celebrate this momentous occasion.

I believe in: Hard Work Honesty Transparency

Christien Payne

Principal