Dear Parents and Carers,
What another brilliant fortnight at Bowen State School. I continue to be impressed by the fantastic learning that is occurring in all our classrooms everyday. Our students continue to make me proud by the positive choices they are making in our school.

Explicit Improvement Agenda

This year our school’s explicit improvement agenda will continue to focus on:
* Quality teaching in English and Math’s - enhancing reading and writing standards for all of our students
* Enhancing Community Engagement – continuing to build partnerships with community stakeholders, building positive relationships with students and families, continuing our PBL journey and improving our overall attendance.
* Implementation of the Australian Curriculum

Harmony Day – 21st March 2019

Harmony Day is a day to celebrate Australian multiculturalism. Harmony Day is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background, united by a set of core Australian values. We at Bowen State School are asking all students to either wear orange (traditionally, orange represents social communication and meaningful conversation), or traditional, cultural dress. We look forward to seeing everyone take part in celebrating this day at our school Breakfast from 8am on the school parade ground.

P & C AGM – 11th March 2019

What happens at the AGM?
The AGM is when the election for P&C positions is held. Positions include President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. You are welcome to nominate yourself or someone you know OR you can just come along and find out what's going on around the school. If you cannot attend but would like to be on the P&C mailing list to find out about future meetings, events and other P&C news, please fill out a membership form in the office.
Who is the P&C?
Parents and Carers volunteering in the school.
What does the P&C do?
They fundraise for extra resources for every child in the school. The school fete, Pie Drive and Easter Raffle were three of the major fundraisers last year. The P & C also:
• Sell sports uniforms and hats from the school tuckshop
• Run the tuckshop
• Run the Mother's and Father's Day Activities
• Run the Scholastic bookclub and Book Fair
• Run the school fancy dress disco

None of these things happen without volunteers! So if you can give a couple of hours of your time this year to help at upcoming events, please sign up to the mailing list to stay in the loop and let us know when you can help out.

Some things the P&C have helped fund in recent years:
• Funding for the fans in the school hall
• We helped fund school camps and excursions
• Funding for the new bell system
• Fund new books for the library

5 reasons to lend a helping hand at school
1. Your kids love seeing you at school
2. Meet new people and make new friends
3. Learn new skills or build on the ones you have
4. Find out what's going on at school
5. Science says community participation makes you happier!

Hope to see you on March 11th at 6pm in the school Library for the AGM.

Have a great week 7!

Deputy News

“You can not fill from an empty cup”

I think a lot of us underestimate the power of this simple statement. In order for us to look after, love and support those closest to us and in order to show up as our best selves, we need to fill our own cup. Simply put, take care of your own wellbeing so you are able to take care of others. Just like on a plane, when they tell you to fasten your seatbelt before helping others. In order to bring the best of yourself to others, you must bring the best to yourself first. Self-care is not selfish. (Exert from Hello Brain)

At Bowen State School, we are working on ensuring that the health and wellbeing of our students is a key focus through Social Emotional Lessons being delivered each fortnight. These lessons cover concepts such as self-awareness and self-management whilst directly linking to the Australian Curriculum.

We are also focusing on supporting the health and wellbeing of our staff through professional development opportunities and the establishment of a Staff Wellbeing Working Group.

Staff Absence

We have some upcoming staff absence throughout the remainder of term with some teachers taking leave. We are fortunate to have a number of relief staff who have taken on the responsibility to fill these positions. Individual classes will be notified if their teacher is taking leave and their associated replacement. Please contact the office if you have any questions regarding this.

Kind Regards,

Mrs Elizabeth Mayo

Prep/1C

Prep/1C are settling into the daily routines beautifully. In English, our theme is ‘the Ocean’ and stories we have read include ‘The Rainbow Fish, Pout Pout Fish, Nugget and Fang and There’s a sea in my bedroom as well as a variety of Non-fiction texts. Students are learning to give details about characters and events and retell the story. Our Prep students have begun writing words phonetically and constructing sentences with support.

In Prep/1C we practise ‘The Daily 5’ which allows the teacher to read, every day with every child. Other stations include, read to self, listen to reading, word work and SSP. Student groupings change regularly depending upon their varying needs as a reader.

Our Math rotations have been hands on and engaging. Prep students have been sorting a variety of objects according to a rule, matching numerals to 10 to quantities and making simple patterns. Year 1 students have explored teen numbers, partitioning, addition and subtraction stories and growing patterns so far.

2C

In science this term we need to combine materials to make a Lunch Box. We have been completing different science investigations on materials to discover what materials are strong and waterproof. The children loved making predictions and then testing them.

3C

We have had a great start to the new school year. At the moment we are busy writing a persuasive letter to Ms Malouf to convince her to change something in or around our school. Some of the topics we are writing about are: adding a pool or basketball court, longer play times and no homework. We have learned how to write a traffic light paragraph using different persuasive language devices. We now know all about high modality words, modal adverbs and rhetorical questions.

4/5C

Students in 4/5 C have been learning all about exploring the solar system. Students were fascinated to discover the importance of the sun and the effect it has on earth. They have researched factual information about the solar system and discovered how scientific advancements have affected people’s lives, help us solve problems and how science knowledge develops from many people’s contributions.

Miss Hartley

5/6C

In 5/6C we have been busy reading the book ‘Wonder’ for Chapter Chat. Each week we read a set number of pages, complete a variety of tasks and then have a weekly twitter discussion with other students. This helps us to think more deeply about the messages in the book, improve our reading comprehension and to learn how to be safe when talking to others online.

TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More!

Within the Bowen State School staff, we have four Professional Learning Teams led by members of the Middle Leadership team.

They are:
• the Community Engagement Team led by Allison Conway (Music);
• the Enrichment Team led by Mr Ben Seago(Year 5);
• the Positive Behaviour for Learning Team led by Laurel Insch (Year 1/2); and,
• the Social and Emotional Learning Team led by Lauren Hartley (Year 4/5).

These teachers make up the Middle Leadership Team, which is led by Katie Korn (Year 4).

The purpose of these Professional Learning Teams is to improve the school experience for all students at Bowen State School.

Allison Conway, Community Engagement Team:

As the Community Engagement Team Leader, I lead an enthusiastic team that aims to organize events that will encourage people to connect with the school in a safe, supportive and respectful manner so that our school community becomes stronger. Sports Days, Harmony Day, NAIDOC and other special events are planned to offer opportunities to share experiences with all members of the school community. We also hope to build strong relationships with community organizations that will provide opportunities for students to connect to their community so that we can teach children to become valued members of their community.

Ben Seago, Enrichment Team:

This year we are excited to bring Enrichment to the forefront of the school. Enrichment in school means finding a way to enable our students to think independently, creatively and critically. We will be trialling some new extra curricular opportunities across the year, so keep an ear out and make the most of the opportunities when they come about - starting with Secret club! (Shh!)

Laurel Insch, Positive Behaviour for Learning Team:

The PBL Team consists of a dedicated and passionate group of staff members who help support and implement PBL (Positive Behaviour for Learning) at Bowen State School. We meet fortnightly to ensure consistency of practice within our school.

PBL is about teaching students to behave – modelling, reinforcing and rewarding appropriate behaviour. The PBL Team organises a lesson that is taught in every class once a fortnight. The whole school then focuses on this value for the following 2 weeks.

Ask your child what the focus of PBL is Bowen State School.

The PBL Team is also responsible for our Gotcha reward system which has some exciting new rewards this year for students who trade in their Gotchas. We organise 2 Gotcha rewards during lunch times each term and help with end of term and end of year rewards as well.

We are also in the process of ordering some new signage for our school so our school values are visible for the whole school community.
The PBL Team is looking for a parent representative, so if you are interested, contact Mrs Mayo in the office.

Lauren Hartley, Social Emotional Learning Team:

My name is Lauren Hartley and I’m the team leader for Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Our team consists of: Mr Adam Goode, Mrs Torkington, Mrs Steen, Mrs Flaherty, Miss Robinson, Miss Sassen, Miss Ross and Mrs Floyd.

Right now our focus is based on implementing the Personal and Social Capabilities learning continuum set out by ACARA. Each fortnight classroom teachers are provided with a focus topic and activities which are based on the “Building Resilience” program.

Learning and social and emotional wellbeing are strongly linked and align with our Bowen State School Vision. We feel it is our responsibility to ensure that we are explicitly teaching students the skills they need to be effective learners and successful community members.

At Bowen State School we all work really hard to support students with their wellbeing. We strive to create a healthy supportive school environment. We strive for students to feel calm, happy and to achieve success. We do this in a variety of ways from developing a safe, supportive environment with strong staff, student and family relationships to explicitly teaching Social Emotional Learning (SEL) across the whole school every Monday in partnership with Positive Behaviour and Learning (PBL). Through targeted teaching in small groups. Or more individualised support through case management. We always strive to offer opportunities for students to use their strengths and to achieve success.

In 2019 and beyond we are also working really hard on Staff Wellbeing as a priority. We are working hard to ensure that staff are feeling calm, happy with strong work satisfaction which in turn increase positive outcomes for our students. We have two target areas we are working on:

1. Empowering staff to look after their own self care.

2. Creating supportive, happier and healthier workplaces.

This week staff connected with Chloe Santarossa from Embodied Fitness and Yoga whom offered her services to discuss with staff the importance of life balance. Choosing an area that is not where we want it to be then choosing an action to focus on for the week and beyond. It is through daily habits and rituals being created that real change occurs. Chloe also shared a vegetable rich recipe listed below for us to share as part of our self care in eating enough vegetables daily. These fritters are delicious and would be a fantastic addition to the lunch box. If you give them a go, please let me know your thoughts. We are very lucky at Bowen State School to have staff with such expertise and passion, please give them a shout out for their efforts if you get the chance in person, over the phone or via a post it note. As our students families you are part of our school community ….. are you as parents and carers looking after your own self care? Perhaps that is discussion for our next newsletter stay tuned.

I have moved to Bowen from the Gold Coast to commence my first year of teaching as a District Relief Teacher at Bowen State School. Living on the Gold Coast I worked as a Personal Trainer for six years as health and fitness is one of my passions.  I am looking forward to meeting the whole school community and exploring all the beautiful areas of Bowen.

Maryamore Mason