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Launching Pick of the crop
Last Friday we welcomed the team from Health & Wellbeing Being Queensland who travelled from Brisbane alongside special guests from our community to officially launch the pick of the Crop. Dr Robyn Littlewood the CEO of Well Being Queensland was blown away by our parade and behaviour of our students. Robyn shared this with the students and staff on the day.
As part of the launch Sargent Michelle from the Bowen PCYC organised a tour of some local farms to view produce and a chance to see inside a packing shed where Bowen tomatoes were being processed. The team were highly engaged and surprised at the scale of what Bowen produces to large food companies such as Woolworths and Coles. The next step for Bowen State School is to develop an action plan with Olivia Gordon the coordinator and set some goals for Bowen State School. We will align these right back to the vision of the program to increase the intake of healthy, fresh fruit and vegetables for our students. Olivia will be writing up the work in this space each fortnight and share with families through the newsletter and Facebook page.
Strength within prep enrolments
I would like to thank Karen Weekes our Early Years Coach for her pre organisation and communication with every future prep family. Last week we conducted prep enrolment interviews with parents and children. This was a wonderful opportunity to continue to strengthen our relationship with families and learn more about each child entering prep in 2021. We have exceeded over 50 enrolments which is outstanding. Could I please remind parents if you haven’t handed in your enrolment forms to the office to please do so and encourage all your friends and contacts to choose Bowen State School for their child’s future. Thank you to all the feedback from families at the interviews. This will be valuable information for our thoughts with next year’s transition to prep.
Changes to upcoming school events
As we move towards the end of the year our staff are working hard to finalise some important traditions within the end of year events and activities. To date with COVID restrictions the following plans are either endorsed or awaiting further refinement. We will continue to inform families and communicate updates to ensure everyone is clear on the expectations and requirements to allow some normality of school events.
- Year 6 Graduation (Day event) Endorsed and information to be continued to be shared with families
- Swimming carnival Friday 27 November (Day event) split again into a junior and senior carnival 1 parent only allowed to attend per family
- Awards parade Monday 30 November Week 9 (morning session) split during the morning session with a junior parade to be then followed by senior parade (two family members per award recipient) further information to be shared
- Christmas concert TBA
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
Christien Payne
Principal
Crunch Time of Term
The end of the school year is approaching fast which means a busy time our students in all of our classrooms. Over the next few weeks students will be starting to complete their final assessment pieces. These assessment pieces will be graded and go towards each students final reporting grade, so attending school every day is absolutely crucial. If your child is sick or you know that you are going to be away, please contact your child’s teacher to discuss what arrangements can be made so that your child can complete their assessment pieces and get the report card grade they are truly capable of.
Jeremy Callaghan
Deputy Principal
P M
In Science we have been having fun making predictions and investigating how things move around the school and comparing their properties. We have been exploring spinning (hula hoops), rolling, bouncing and sliding.
In English, in preparation for our upcoming assessment we are learning to listen to a story and link a characters description to his/her actions and an event.
1 W/P
Some of 1W/P have been reading about how to make parachutes. We made one by following the instructions and then we tested it out. Sadly none of us could land it on the bullseye. Better luck next time.
2 M
What’s been happening 2M? We’ve hit the ground running this term and have achieved so much already!
Term 4 has seen students learning about the probability of events, properties of 2D and 3D shapes, and more recently, transformations. We’re all pretty keen to begin writing our Superhero narratives next week and from our practice writing, they’re bound to be entertaining. Soon, students will design a lunchbox and spinning toy for Science and Technology which will keep us busy and get those creative juices flowing.
We’ve also had particularly excellent attendance this term which resulted in our class winning the attendance trophy for the first time in 2020. Top effort!
I am really enjoying hearing the students develop their reading skills and confidence in class reading groups – well done 2M. Keep up the great home reading boys and girls.
4 A/M
6F
6F have been learning about the dire circumstances of Southern Asian moon bears through the lens of both a literary and informative text. They are examining the impact on the reader of the structural, language and visual choices made by the author in his/her efforts to convey the message about the plight of these adorable creatures.
PBL News
Week 4 saw us enjoying PBL celebration activities. Students in P-2 had a very bubbly time at a disco and Year 3-6 students were actively involved in trying to win against our team of teachers in various sports challenges. Our teachers have been issuing lots of gotchas to our students and will continue to do so over the coming weeks. Ask your child if they have been given a gotcha and what they got their gotcha for. Our current focus is on Being a Learner - being an active participant in ALL classes throughout the school day.
GO Update
This week I have been enjoying connecting with staff and students via the Positive Behaviour for Learning PBL rewards. We call it wrist band rewards, we now gear up for working hard to achieve gotchas to trade for wrist bands for the Week 8 rewards (handball and biscuit icing).
The PCYC Re Engagement Program (PREP) is going great guns. We have been lucky to be undertaking ninja gymnastics with Ms Nicole Brown (gymnastics coach) alongside Sargent Mchelle O’Regan and Community Development Officer Mrs Rachel Miller. We provide learning experiences in an alternative environments, we learn new skills, add pressure and practice new life long skills. These skills are then practiced in the school and home environments.
The student council sent out a fabulous message today as we participate in Day for Daniel. Recognise when something doesn’t feel right, react (remove yourself from the situation) and report to a trusted adult. It’s important that all students are supervised by their parents or trusted adults when at home and out in the community. We strive to keep all our students safe in the Bowen State School community.
Welcome back to Term 4 2020, transitions are the key this term. We are working on transitions in all learning environments across our school, from old classrooms to new classrooms and from one year level to the new year level. Our students will be having reading groups in their new spaces in their new year level blocks and visiting on numerous occasions closer to the end of term. Some of our year 6 students will be having additional visit to make high school transition smooth on Wednesdays each week from week 5.
It is with excitement that some of our ECDP students will be transitioning to their new schools for 2021. Our ECDP students at Bowen State have been visiting not only the Bowen State School Prep classrooms each Monday, as well as music lessons and PE lessons.
ECDP will have their last day of 2020 on Monday 23rd November - Week 8.
Pick of the Crop
A big healthy hello to the wonderful staff, students and families of Bowen State School.
I am so honoured to have been appointed the North Queensland Coordinator Pick of the Crop, an exciting new initiative by Health & Wellbeing Queensland which will support schools in promoting the consumption of fruit and vegetables in all students.
Last Friday we launched this new program with an official parade at Bowen State School and welcomed to our school Dr Robyn Littlewood CEO Health & Well Being Queensland, Mat Dick Public Health Nutrition, Mayor Andrew Wilcox, Cr Michelle Wright and our P & C President, Sargent Michelle O’Regan PCYC Bowen & Stackrelroth farms, Belinda Williams Stackleroth Farms, Eilish Walker Growcom and Carl Walker Bowen Gumlu Growers Association. It was a fantastic morning celebrating the wonderful produce that our very own community has on offer.
By working together we are ‘making healthy happen’.
Instrumental Music Recruitment
We are starting to recruit for Instrumental Music this year by testing year 3 students this week and sending home some information to parents next week.
There will be a parent information evening in a few weeks in the Music Hall. While I can demonstrate my own instruments I’m unable to let students try the mouthpieces etc this year due to Covid19 restrictions. More information will be sent out shortly.
Band News
Lessons and band are on until the end of week 9. The senior and beginner students are working on music for a parade or lunch concert. We will also try and video a performance for parents in the next few weeks.
Yours in Music,
Jason Osman
Safety Circus is coming to our school-Tuesday 03 November @ 9am
Safety Circus is a professional, dynamic and engaging production which aims to address three major safety concerns that face children today.
- Protective Behaviours: Safety networks and teaching we can talk with someone about anything no matter what it is.
- Bullying
- Bicycle and non-motorized wheeled recreational toys; the wearing of safety helmets and safety equipment to prevent injury.
The show is presented to Year 3 students and will be held in our Poole Street Hall, commencing at 9am.
Check out the Safety Circus Facebook Page for more information.