An exciting new year

Welcome back to our families new and existing to a bright and exciting term 1. New staff and students have settled in well and the feedback around our “Meet and Greet” drop off the school supplies was tremendous. This is something that will occur in the future to support students and families transition into our school. A very positive growth in our school has seen us grow by 25 students. We will start the year with 455 students. A great outcome for the school and evidence of our growing reputation within and beyond the school community. Jeremy the Deputy Principal and I are looking forward to meeting everyone and chatting around the school. A reminder for families to feel welcome and part of all our activities. I encourage regular contact with your classroom teacher and share any concerns or worries straight away. We are ready to listen and help.

Whole school and regional priorities

This year the North Queensland region has assigned three main priorities for 2020:

1. Improving student outcomes
2. Supporting the wellbeing of young people
3. Building staff capacity

These priorities align nicely to our schools three areas to drive improvement this year.

1. Quality teaching and learning: Literacy: Reading and Writing
2. Quality teaching and learning: STEM: Application of knowledge and skills
3. Strong relationships

This year we will invest in our teachers to build capacity in these areas to support our students. We will use our high yield resources, practices and tools to guide our students and improve outcomes. As a whole school we are focussing heavily around feedback to the learner and measuring our impact through regular data conversations. We have changed our direction this year to enable staff to meet collectively, weekly and as a cohort. This allows collegial conversations and “many minds working together”. Our vision is to set individual goals for our students via feedback. This ensures true differentiation is occurring for every individual learner every day.

Looking forward to sharing more great stories happing in our school over the next fortnight. Until then have a wonderful couple of weeks.

Hard Work
Honesty
Transparency

Welcome to 2020

Welcome back to everybody returning to Bowen SS and those who are just starting here at our wonderful school. As a lot readers will already be aware, I am brand new to Bowen and have been actively out and about around the school at the beginning and end of everyday meeting all of our school’s students, parents, family and wider community. If I have not had the pleasure of meeting you as of yet, please tap me on the shoulder and introduce yourself as I’d love to hear your story.
The first couple of weeks back at school have gone off with a bang with our teachers and students all engaged in learning curriculum and classroom routines. I have had the opportunity to walkthrough and observe all of our classrooms in action this week and I am delighted to say that all children at Bowen State School are receiving an exceptional education through quality teaching from all of our staff members.

Student Leadership Positions and Parade
A huge thank you goes out to all of the year 6 students who took the opportunity to write and apply for our 2020 student leadership positions of House, Cultural and Instrumental Captains. Students applying for these positions were asked to write to a set criteria demonstrating their suitability for these roles and why they would be a great student leader for our school. Applications closed on Thursday and are now currently been read by our year 5/6 teachers and the principal Mr Payne to determine who will be our student captains for 2020.

Successful applicants will be announced on a special school parade which will be held on Friday the 21st of February at 9am in our school hall. Not only will this give us the chance to present our badges to our successful candidates, but it will also be an opportunity to recognise our new year 4, 5 and 6 student councillors for 2020.

Everybody is invited to attend the event, so please come along and celebrate our newly inducted school leaders.

Attendance

A big congratulations must go out to all of our students who attended school every day last week. A noble amount of students had 100% attendance and our overall attendance rate was 93%. Our school and regional attendance target is for every child to attend school 93% of the time throughout the year. That means that each child should not miss more than 10 days in 2020.

Please ensure that only under exceptional circumstances should your child be missing school. Examples of this would be sickness or sorry business. School is a great place for children to be where they learn important academic and social skills that set them up for a life filled of choices when they transition into adulthood. Remember that if your child does not attend school for the day, it is important to always notify our school office so we are clear about your child’s whereabouts.

If you ever need support in getting your child to attend school, please don’t hesitate to contact the school office. We have an amazing team here working on student attendance who are more than approachable and willing to help.

Deputy Principal

PBL Achievers Award

Jesse, Jace, Amber, Kaylee, Rueban-Vvalek, Dejana, Lily, Jadon, Hayley, Trinity, Blake, Macey, Tristan, Archer, Reannah, Dakota

With the recent wet weather there is a lot of mosquitoes around, so we are asking you to apply insect repellent to students before school to try and help protect them.  Please note students aren't allowed repellent at school and are not to share with other students due to posible reactions/allergies, so it must be applied before school.

Prep to Year 2- READING HUB

For this term Reading Hub will be Learning Connections activities for students in the library, from 8.10am to 8.30am, Monday to Thursday.

Year 3 & 4- BALL SKILLS

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 8.15am to 8.30am there are ball skills activities on the multi-purpose courts.

Year 5 & 6- UNDER COVER AREA

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 8.15am to 8.30am there will be handball, music and other organised activities.

In 2020, Bowen State School will be doing the Learning Connections School Program, daily. Learning Connections is a not-for-profit organisation that has been promoting children’s developmental maturity since 1976. The specific repetitive activities are based on neurodevelopmental science.

This program of physical activities benefits all students. The early movement patterns develop brain wiring and help students’ learning by:-
- improving concentration
- reducing anxiety
- assisting the brain to process incoming information
- adapting to change in response to the demands of the classroom environment

This is what Year 5 & 6 students are saying after completing the core Learning Connections program:-
"I feel energised, but not wanting to 'run around' energised. Energised ready to learn."
"I feel calm. My brain is calm."
"It helps my brain focus."
“It wakes up my body and brain and all my muscles.”

For more information on Learning Connections visit their website (www.learningconnections.com.au) or Facebook.

There will be a parent information session run by the Learning Connections Trainers on Friday, 20th March, 2020 at Bowen State School. More details closer to the date. 

STEM is a term used for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics areas of the Australian Curriculum. Bowen State School has been working on the implementation of STEM across our school, during the last two years.

This year we have appointed Mrs Therese Smalley as our STEM Head Of Curriculum. Therese’s role will be working with teachers to enhance differentiated student learning, through the incorporation of problem-solving and digital technologies.

Each year level will complete one Design and one Digital unit during the year. Classes will also have one Information and Computer Technologies (ICT) lesson per week, to develop the skills needed to access programs and tools, on the digital devices throughout the school.

Mrs Beth Harrison will be conducting the ICT lessons for Prep to Year 4.

The table below shows the way that the four areas of STEM are related.

I would like to welcome all the new families to Bowen State School and welcome back the families who were with us last year.  2020 is going to be an amazing year and we look forward to sharing it with you. I would like to introduce myself, Ann-Jay Sibley and I am the new Head of Inclusion over the Bowen Cluster schools. I am honoured to become a part of the Bowen community and have already received such a warm welcome!

I have been working in the field of Special education in the Central Queensland region for the last 5 years. I am extremely passionate about working in education and ensuring that students have every opportunity for success. I look forward to working with the district administration, teachers and staff to enhance your child’s educational experiences throughout the year ahead. My office is located at Bowen State School and I can be reached on PH: 4786 9555

It is my pleasure to announce Three Learning Engagement Teachers for 2020 Fiona Radcliffe, Janice Le Bherz and Scott Mitchell. They bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in working with students and inclusion.

Our students here at Bowen State School over the last two weeks have been learning new routines, making friendships and exploring new settings over the whole school. We wish them all the success for term one.

Hello everyone let me introduce myself, my name is Karenne Williams. I have lived in Bowen for the past 43 years. I married into a local Aboriginal family and my children attended Bowen State School.

I identify as Aboriginal with my ancestral ties to Wiradjuri or Winda Winda people from New South Wales. Recently we have discovered that we also have Waanyi heritage from up the Gulf, this has made the strong attachment that I felt growing up in Mt Isa, Cloncurry, Lawn Hill and Doomadgee.

During my life I have always felt that having a sense of Identity is a vital foundation to our mob. My family was impacted by the Stolen Generation and I have seen firsthand the impact this has had on us all.

I studied Aboriginal Social work at Curtin in Western Australia and have worked in many Statutory and Not For Profit Organisations, the more I learnt the more it was impressed upon me that to make sustainable change we need to start with our most valuable assets – our children.

So with great excitement I believe that I have come full circle but I bring a wealth of learnings from my Elders that will support my role of working with our ATSI children to best support them to come to school, remain in school and succeed.

In the role of CEC I have the capacity to work alongside parents and kinship or extended family. My greatest passion is to see our children succeed. 20 years ago I working as a teachers aide at this school and have been in awe of the changes to how our children are taught encouraged and supported to remain in school. I have the capacity to visit parents at home or at school and my door is always open should anyone need to just come ad have a yarn or two.

I have initiated Damper Day which takes place after parade on Fridays in A Block Kitchen. I would love to meet each and every parent carer or extended family member. Please accept this as a personal invite to attend after parade on Fridays, upstairs in A Block Kitchen. Our first Damper Day was successful and it was just great to be able to talk with the parents/grandparents and extended families. I have even got some tips on how to make different dampers so you will all be able to give me feedback on Fridays when you attend.

My role is extensive with Leadership Programs, Cultural Awareness, Playgroup (Indigenous Parenting Programs) and supporting our children with opportunities not just to succeed but to excel. I have meet most of our children and I am blown away by our amazing students. I would like to stress that I am privileged to be called upon to support you all in any way that will make it easier for your children to come to school regularly.

Before I take too much of your time, I would just like to say a big thank you to all you parents. I look forward with much anticipation to a productive and successful year for all our children. The Theme for this Years NAIDOC is Always Was Always Will Be, This will be the school and my focus this year making sure that our History that has been here for thousands of years, and our culture will always be the foundation of all our students learning, knowing and being.

Thanks for a great start to the year looking forward to working with and for our children.

Much Respect

The sporting calendar has been set and is looking very promising this year.

To get the ball rolling, students who are 10 (or turning 10), 11 or 12 will be able to sign up for Cross Country, Rugby League and Soccer in the coming weeks.
School trials will begin during lunch times and students will be notified by the coach for individual sports. Successful students will then head onto the Bowen          Sub-District Trials. If your child is selected to attend trials more information will be provided.

Upcoming Bowen Sub-District trials are as follows:
Netball- Monday, March 2nd 2020
Rugby League- Monday, March 2nd 2020
Soccer- Monday, March 23rd 2020
Softball- Monday, March 30th 2020

If your child is interested in taking part any of these sporting events please have them visit Miss. Horvath for training times and/or permission forms.

Cross Country Training

Bowen State School will start Cross Country training before school in preparation for our Inter-house Cross Country trials to be held on Thursday, April 2nd 2020. More information will be sent home for those interested closer to the date.