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ANZAC Service and March
Last Friday we held a whole school remembrance service for all families and students in the school hall. A huge thank you to Mrs Conway for her organisation and planning prior to the day. A highlight for me were the unique wreaths created by the students and speeches from various children including some from the lower grades. I was most impressed with the respectful behaviour shown by all and active participation from all students. A special thank you to the students in the school choir. You were amazing! This year we were fortunate to come together as a community to reflect and pay our respects at dawn services and community school march. I believe we had close to 100 students attend the march on Sunday which is outstanding. Check out the school Facebook page to view the gallery of photos. Looking forward this school event returning each year and such an important and special event for us.
Acting ARD Term 2
Graham Foster the Assistant Regional Director assigned to our school will be taking long service leave for this term. Toni Robinson will be the acting replacement. Toni has been a principal on the Gold Coast for the last 11 years at Tallebudgera SS and Elanora SS. Previously she was the principal of Vincent SS and deputy at The Willows SS and Kirwan High in Townsville. We welcome Toni back to North Queensland and are looking forward to working with her this term and sharing the current work in our school.
School priority Writing in Term 2
This term has been a very busy and an exciting time already for students and staff. We have collated our first level of achievement collection for the year and will use this as our base line data. This term teachers will be choosing marker students to track and provide feedback around specific goals aligned to writing as improving writing is a whole school focus. The North Queensland region has selected effective moderation practices around writing as a priority which aligns nicely to the direction we are focusing on. This week teachers and leaders from Bowen state School, Merinda State School and Queen’s beach State school met in staff meeting time to moderate and view writing samples across the three schools. We are committed as a community to ensure that all students move forward in their learning and that individual feedback sets our children up for the next steps in their learning. Valuable opportunities to reflect on teaching strengthens our staff capacity to be great teachers and this is truly the most important space to invest.
Looking forward to sharing more great stories around the teaching and learning this term. Until next fortnight have a great couple of weeks.
Appropriate School Uniform
Winter is coming, so here’s a timely reminder of our uniform expectations at Bowen State School.
Did you know? Royal blue jackets are available at the school office for only $25. Alternative places, like K-Hub also sell royal blue jackets and jumpers.
Some of our Year 5 and 6 Students wearing our uniform proudly
Attendance Watch
We have had a steady start to term 2 with our current whole school attendance rate for this term sitting at just under 91%. Cold and Flu season is just around the corner. Parents, I encourage you to please notify the school office every day your child is away from school. When students are away without notification a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ work goes into tracking down your child’s whereabouts, exhausting numerous internal and external resources. In most cases we find that these students with unexplained absences are away for legitimate reasons, and our obligation to track down these students was a waste of time and resources. So once again I plead that you please notify the school office every day you child is absent from school.
Jeremy Callaghan
Deputy Principal
Prep J
Prep J are so excited to be back at school and are ready for learning in Term 2! Students in Prep J are working hard on using their duck hands to segment words and then write them independently. We have also been learning about length. The children worked in pairs, using streamers to measure their height, shoe and the length of their jump.
2 D/G
This term, 2D/G have a combined English and Science unit focusing on writing information reports and learning about animal and plant life cycles. In week one, students learnt about crocodiles and have written an information report about them. They also looked at the crocodile life cycle. This week, students have learnt about frogs and their life cycle. Part of this unit also includes having classroom plants and a class pet. Each week we will observe our plants and pet red claw and discuss how they are growing and changing.
6P
Curriculum News
NAPLAN Year 3 & 5
We are preparing for the 2021 NAPLAN tests in Years 3 & 5 by ensuring that students are familiar with the test booklet format and the types of questions they may encounter. Please see your child’s teacher if you have any questions about your child participating in the NAPLAN tests
NAPLAN Dates for 2021 Tuesday 11 May-Thursday 13 May. Please make sure your children arrive at school before 8:50 on these days as we will be commencing the testing at the beginning of the first session.
Parent Teacher Interviews-Week 4
Just a reminder to make your online booking via SOBs for the 2021 Parent/Teacher Interview. A SMS message was sent to all parents with the link. All interviews will be held in the Poole Street Hall on Tuesday 11 May.
Guidance Officer Week
We are very fortunate to have Mrs Danielle Upkett as our Guidance Officer. Mrs Upkett works tirelessly contributing to the wellbeing of all students, staff and families.
Sergeant Michelle and Mr Payne thanked Mrs Upkett for her work, on behalf of everyone at Bowen State School.
GO Update
Over the past week our school has presented 29 students to our Student Engagement Hub (SEH) to create Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs) for students that need differentiation. Thanks to Head of Inclusion (HOI) Mrs Sibley; Learning Engagement Teachers (LETs) Scott Mitchell yrs 4-6, Therese Smalley Yrs 1-3 and Karen Weekes Prep; class teachers and parents for your support in this process. Here we trial and record strategies to increase successful outcomes for our students. This has been a wonderful collaborative process to brainstorm and share best practice high quality teaching for our students.
Student Engagement Hub process involves:
- class teachers implement strategies to support students
- class teacher informs parents of strategies used to support students
- strategies are evaluated, if effective continue. If not effective...
- teacher phones parents to give feedback and requests permission to refer to SEH to brainstorm future actions
Sports Update
After a very busy sporting calendar in Term 1 you would think Term 2 might slow down a little bit! Well no signs on that as yet!!
Touch Trials
The first day back of Term 2 we had our touch trials for both boys and girls. Congratulations to Emma S, Ramsey W, Matiu M, Taijanah N and Layla D who made it into the Bowen Sub District Team. Good luck to these students as they prepare for the next level of competition.
North Queensland Cross Country
Our second day back we had our Whitsunday trials for Cross Country. We ventured out to Scottville with a large contingent of students representing Bowen State School and Bowen in general. A big congratulations to Liam J, Emma S, Taijanah N, Edie J, Sonny P, Charlee S who made the Whitsunday team and are now going to compete in Townsville on the 1st June.
Football/Soccer Trials
Our students who qualified for soccer are currently in training to prepare for the next level of competition. All the best to Lateisha G, Oscar G, Kerry A and Emma S as they keep working hard on their soccer skills.
Tennis Trials
A big congratulations to Henry W who made the Bowen Sub District tennis team. He now competes next Thursday 5th May to qualify for the Whitsunday team. All the best Henry.
Rugby League Trials
Congratulations to Carter S and Deklan N who competed in the North Queensland trials for rugby league on Monday and Tuesday. While the boys didn’t make the team they should be incredibly proud for making it that far as bottom aged players. They now have the opportunity to try out for the Under 11 team next week. All the best boys!
Juggling
Yes while there are so many things happening outside of school there is still things happening at school. Our juggling team is starting to come together and the amount of students juggling, or “almost” juggling is increasing each week. We will soon start up one after school session to keep working on these skills. We have also got a date for our first performance that will be in June. It’s really exciting for the students working hard at their skills that they now have a date to work towards. More info will come about juggling in the coming weeks.
Basketball Excellence Program
While the basketball excellence program has been on hold recently due to long weekends and so many sporting events happening it is getting back into swing this week. We currently have 46 students from Grade 5/6 which is amazing and we will keep doing our sessions on Monday and Friday afternoons this term.
We also have something very exciting possibly lined up for some of these students next week. I have had meetings with Mackay basketball who are very enthusiastic about helping to develop basketball here in Bowen and the Whitsundays. While at the time of writing I can’t mention what is happening next week, stand by on our Facebook Page for what is happening.
That wraps up another very busy sports report. Caongratulations must go to all of our students at Bowen State School for the enthusiasm they are showing towards their sport. Keep it up everyone, it’s great to see! J
Leigh Dunn
HPE Teacher
Pick of the Crop initiatives are well underway at Bowen State School.
Over the Last two weeks Enviro Club members have been churning soil, spreading mulch and planting seedlings. Capsicums, zucchinis, beetroot, lettuce and silverbeet are just a few of the seedlings planted.
However, the school vegetable garden is not the only Pick of the Crop initiative happening. Teachers have been adapting curriculum content to support the healthier messaging around fruit and vegetables.
4AM & 4G recently made supreme pizzas with craft supplies. The pizzas needed to include a variety of toppings. Students used various items imitate mushrooms, capsicum, olives, cheese, ham as well as various other toppings. The students then used the pizzas to explore equivalent factions.
The Year 6 and Prep cohort have been extremely fortunate to receive a visit from Farmer Belinda and Farmer Michelle from Stackelroth Farms. Prep students studied seedlings and seeds with magnified glasses and completed lots of maths and literacy activities that explored lots of different fruits and vegetables.
Meanwhile the Year 6 students have been exploring bees. Students learnt about the importance of bees within the agricultural sector and the significant role they play in pollination. Students were given the opportunity to spin some honey, explore a native and traditional beehive and had ago at drawing a portrait just like Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
It has been a very busy and exciting start to Term 2 with plenty more to come!
