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News of permanency
On the last day of term one I was informed that I was successful in my relocation application to Bowen State School as the permanent principal. Since my arrival in term three last year I was humbled by the friendly and supportive team here at Bowen State School. We have wonderful children and families who help me each day. Can I thank you all for your kind comments on our Facebook page. I am looking forward to chatting with families face to face as we used to prior to COVID-19. Bowen is a great little community and my family and I are looking forward to now putting our roots down permanently.
Great start to term 2
Can I thank all parents and families for supporting the school during this difficult time. Information being sent home has been predominantly around the “Learning from home” and requirements around “Essential Workers.” Teachers are working hard at school to keep the connectivity going with families and are touching base regularly to check in with your child’s learning. We understand parents are not teachers and this new role of “home tutoring” would be a challenge. Students will need breaks throughout the day and the wonderful television broadcasts can be used as another platform to support your child. Remember to take a big breath and hopefully we will all be out of this current situation soon.
As part of our assessment and reporting feedback to families, we will be running parent/teacher meetings remotely this term in weeks three and four. Prior to weeks three and four, you will be contacted via Dojo or See Saw to negotiate a suitable time to conduct this short phone conversation. We will be discussing the learning from term one, celebrating the growth of your child and providing feedback on areas to develop.
Strategic work and planning
As always, even during these difficult times staff at Bowen State School we are continuing to work hard behind the scenes building capacity around our strategic focus around maths problem solving and reading to improve the outcomes for all students. It is important to keep the momentum moving by upskilling our staff ready for the exit from restrictions and support students once they return to “normal school life”. It is important that we remain agile and nimble to individual needs of our students and are continuing to connect in with families remotely to keep the learning moving.
Thank you Kimberly Gregory our wonderful BM
Sadly can I announce that Kimberly Gregory our Business Services Manager has accepted a position with Bowen Rail. Kimberly has been a great asset to our school. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kimberly for her 5 years of service to Bowen State School and I personally have appreciated her friendly and supportive personality. Kimberly has achieved great things in her role and keeping our school moving forward. Thank you again and best of luck in the next chapter.
Looking forward to sharing more great stories happening in our school over the next fortnight. Until then have a wonderful couple of weeks.I believe in:
Hard Work
Honesty
Transparency
Notifying the School that Your Child is Ready to Learn Everyday
Thank you to everybody for keeping in touch with us every school day to communicate how your child is learning. It is important for us to know the whereabouts of all of our students during this unprecedented time so, we can ensure that every child of Bowen State School is safe, whether they are at school or at home.
Just to clarify the process, there are a few ways you can notify the school and save our wonderful office staff a number of unnecessary daily phone calls. Check below to see what the process for notifying the school is for you:
You are an essential worker and your child is attending school
In this case, it is business as usual. We will mark the roll at school. If your child is sick and unable to attend, then ring the school office to notify them prior to 9am.
Your child is learning at home online
Your child will have to check in prior to 9:30am on their online classroom platform (ClassDojo or Seesaw). This is usually by liking the classroom teachers greeting post in the morning. If you have more than one child, then you will have to do this for each teacher of your children’s post.
If your child is sick and unable to check in online, you should notify the school office. Just as though your child was sick and couldn’t attend school.
Your child is learning at home with paper
If your child is unable to learn online, you should have collected paper copies of materials for your child to learn from each day from the school. If this is how your child is learning, then you will need to notify the school office every morning before 9:30am. A quick phone call or a short reply to our text is suffice.
Three quick ways you can communicate with our school office during Covid-19
Phone call – Call our office staff on 4986 9555
Email – Write an email to admin@bowenss.eq.edu.au
Text – Reply to our text message with your child’s name and reason for being absent. The text is sent every morning we have not heard from you.
Please keep in touch with us at BSS every school day during these testing times. This has made lighter work for our incredibly busy office staff and we are very appreciative.
Wellbeing
As outlined above, our class teachers are capturing student learning progress via ClassDojo or Seesaw. They will follow-up with individual parents via phone call and capture the difficulties or successes that you child maybe encountering. Where teachers have concerns around engagement and wellbeing, students will be referred on for further support - We have a team of staff members dedicated to undertaking targeted support for those students who need it the most.
Beyond what our staff are offering, there are a number of other agencies available to help support you and your family during these testing times. Please find in this newsletter a quick reference guide of various support agencies available to you, kindly constructed by members of our staff.
Thank you to everybody in our community for their support of our students. We are all in this together. Remember if you ever feel unable to cope because of overwhelming or intense emotions ask for help and seek support.
Jeremy Callaghan
Deputy Principal
We would like to welcome two new staff members to our school.
Allison Durling is teaching 3W and Julie Groves is our new DRT.
Some examples of the wonderful work our students of 1H/P are doing at home.
Year 1 students and Mrs Insch’s year 2 students have drawn a character from the stories they worked with in class. Year 2 students drew Fox and year 1 students drew Gerald.
Growing seed heads has been a favourite Science activity in Year 4 this term. Students at home and at school planted lawn seeds in Week 1 into a plastic cup and are now observing the daily growth. Some are very hairy and others are a little bald. Now we are investigating why?
This year many of our families took the time to commemorate ANZAC day at home. Students who were at school also took part in remembering those who have served our country.
MRS UPKETT’S CHALLENGE
Email me a photo of you completing a task on the ‘Self Care at home challenge’ I’ll create a slideshow to share with our school community so we can stay connected!
#only send photos that you are happy to be published on school facebook page
If you are needing extra support GO referral process is still in place. Please phone the school or email dupke3@eq.edu.au to make contact.
Stay well. Danielle