2021 P & C Executive

I would like to share with the community that we have held the annual AGM to finalise the executive positions at Bowen State School P&C for 2021. Thank you to the following community members, the supporting roles are now filled by:

We are currently looking for a president and vice president for the year. Please contact the office or come along to our next scheduled meeting on Monday 14 June at 3:30pm to join our great team. Can I share an extract from the recent principal report shared to the P&C in acknowledging Michelle Wright our outgoing president. On behalf of Bowen State School, I would like to acknowledge and thank Michelle Wright for her commitment and support in her long-term of P&C president at Bowen State School. The school has benefited greatly from your tireless work particularity around supporting large school events such as the school fete over the years. Thank you on behalf of us all.

Parent teacher and student meetings

Parent teacher and student interviews were held in the school sports hall this week and a great opportunity to provide feedback to parents on student progress. It is great to be able to re connect face to face with families to share growth and provide the next steps in the learning for our students. A wonderful opportunity for families to get the opportunity to talk to the school staff and support team. A reminder that all parents are welcome back into schools and volunteers are most valued and welcomed.

Term 2 Writing sprint

This week staff engaged in powerful conversations around the output of student work and the next steps for their learning. At Bowen State School we work collaboratively and collectively to determine options and goals based on the writing output and evidence collected. The photos in this week’s edition show the intentional collaboration and deep conversations that were conducted. It was so good to have five trainee teachers currently on placement here at Bowen State School in the session and coming along on this journey with us. Well done!

Looking forward to sharing more great stories around the teaching and learning this term. Until next fortnight have a great couple of weeks.

Change to Curriculum Reporting Comments and Time of Distribution

I am pleased to announce that after consultation and agreeance with our school’s P and C, there will be a change to how we communicate your child’s academic progress in their report cards.

Student report cards will now be streamlined and less condensed in the subject area comments. From now on your child’s report card comments for each subject area will be a brief informative passage of what your child learnt for the semester. Accompanied by an effort grade and an overall achievement grade.

At our face to face parent/teacher interviews, teachers will be able to go into personalised, in-depth detail about what curriculum descriptors your child has progressed from and are working towards. We also encourage you to keep in regular contact with your child’s teachers and have these discussions throughout the year.

Teachers will still write a personalised comment on your child’s behaviour at school and an overall comment regarding your child’s progress.

Report cards will also be issued a little later than usual to maximise learning time at the end of term 2. Instead of report cards being distributed at the end of term 2, they will now be issued slightly later at the end of the first week of Term 3.

Why the Change?

Curriculum comments are extremely time consuming for teachers and simply confusing for parents, with complex, non-parent friendly educational language from the Australian Curriculum.

Nearly every parent we have spoken with gave a common response that they don’t truly read all of (if any) of the curriculum comments, but value more the Effort grade and Academic mark for each subject area. All parents valued the behaviour and overall comments found at the end of the report cards.

Teachers are also usually under pressure to have student assessment completed, marked, moderated and finalised by the end of week 8 of the term to allow time for proofreading and time for the distribution of the reports to happen by the end of the term. With the change, your child will be exposed to more meaningful learning time right up until the end of week 10 of the term, giving them more learning opportunities to understand and demonstrate their learning.

How will you still be informed about your child’s learning?

As a school we have a range of supportive strategies to engage parents and carers in their students educational outcomes, achieved through face to face parent teacher interviews, case management, intervention programs, and parent phone calls from teacher and admin. Furthermore, our doors here at school are always open and we encourage you to keep popping into school to have a chat with your child’s teacher to talk about their learning whenever you can.

Jeremy Callaghan                                                             Christien Payne

Deputy Principal                                                                 Principal

Sports Update

It has been a slightly quieter fortnight in the world of sport, however quite a lot of preparation for upcoming events going on in the background.

Basketball Excellence Program – Under 20 National Championships

What an amazing opportunity this was for 11 lucky students involved in the basketball excellence. These students travelled to Mackay to watch the best talent that Australia has to offer in the Under 20 age group and some American players who are in a develop academy here in Australia.

We were then incredibly lucky to meet and greet and buddy up with one of the Victorian Women’s teams as well as meeting the NBA Global Academy players. To cap off the day all players were given their own ball to take home and practise with.

My initial plan was to take students down to this event to be able to watch basketball in action, it became so much more than this! We can’t thank Rob from Mackay basketball, all the players and coaches and representatives from Basketball Australia that made this day possible. Something I don’t think any of us will forget!

We are looking to continue building our connection with Mackay basketball into the future and there may be more opportunities for students during the June/July school holidays. We will keep you updated as more information about this comes to hand.

Preventing domestic and family violence

May is Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month

In May, we are reminded once again that domestic and family violence (DFV) is never acceptable. We all have a role to play in bringing an end to domestic and family violence. There are actions we can all take:

• modelling appropriate behaviours, for example, to resolve conflict
• recognising DFV when it occurs, including gender-based comments that are disrespectful of women
• knowing what support is available both within the school and through external support services
• engaging in appropriate intervention strategies (when it is safe to do so)

Queensland says: Not now, not ever. Together.

The Queensland Government is continuing to implement strategies that support people who experience DFV and to create a culture where DFV is not tolerated.

Visit the Queensland Government’s Domestic and Family Violence website  for more information on:

• staying safe
• reporting domestic and family violence
• accessing specialist domestic violence services
• practical community and government supports for those affected
• supporting someone impacted by domestic and family violence
• legal assistance.

DVConnect Womensline
Phone 1800 811 811 (24 hours, 7 days)

DVConnect Mensline
Phone 1800 600 636 (9am to 12 midnight, 7 days)

1800RESPECT
Phone 1800 737 732 (24 hours, 7 days)

Kids Helpline
Phone 1800 551 800 (24 hours, 7 days)

Elder Abuse Helpline
Queensland phone 1300 651 192, rest of Australia phone (07) 3867 2525 (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday)

Instrumental Music Update

Our students are gearing up for the Mid-Year Workshop and Concert that is being held on Tuesday June 8^th. Some students are also performing at the Anglican Church on the day. The Workshop is held at the McKenna Hall at BSHS from approx. 9-2:30pm and will prepare students for the evening concert at 6-7pm. All the local High and Primary State Schools are involved and sending students. An information form was sent home on Thursday last week, if you missed out then please ask Mrs. Conway or the office for a copy as ALL of our students are involved. There will be more updates as we get closer to the 8^th of June.

Students should be taking their instruments home each week to practice, it isn’t acceptable for students to be using a school instrument if they are not going to practice during the week. We rely on students to do their set homework/practice each week so we can progress and not be stuck on the same exercises and music for long periods. The progress of the band relies on students doing some practice each week and their attendance at band rehearsals. If the IM teacher is away for a lesson then students should still try and move forward by one page when they practice – we can help them with any problems in the next lesson.

Band rehearsal is held at 8am-8:45am on Thursday mornings and senior students should be attending each week so that the band can prepare for the upcoming performances. If a student can’t get to band rehearsal by 8am then they should just come to rehearsal as soon as they walk in to school.

Yours in Music,

Jason Osman