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Congratulations Mr Callaghan
This week Mr Callaghan accepted an Acting Principal position at Hughenden State School for six months starting in January 2022. This opportunity is a great promotion and opportunity for Mr Callaghan his wife Laura and baby Paige. Mr Callaghan has been a great support to the staff at our school and has led various projects improving the outcomes for all our students and staff. Whilst Mr Callaghan is in this acting role we will be going through a recruitment process for the six-month period. I would like to thank Mrs Karen Weekes who will be acting in this role in term 1 next year. Good luck Mr Callaghan on your western experience. I am sure our families and staff will be dropping into say G’Day on the way past.
Important school events
As we approach the end of the term it is very important families monitor the notices coming home and regular Facebook posts. During the last four weeks of the term we have many whole school activities and rewards to offer. We will be communicating to families upcoming events through our various platforms as we would like to keep everyone informed.
School strategic direction
The leadership team has been working hard in collaboration with teachers to finalise this year’s work and plan out the priorities for 2022. Our school budget will be embedded within this plan and the human resources and support will triangulate our explicit improvement agenda. We are drafting three priority areas for 2022.
- Refining Bowen State Schools moderation practices.
- Strengthening the lesson delivery of the curriculum (pedagogy).
- Strengthen our Instructional Coaching Cycles.
We will continue to strengthen high quality teaching in reading and writing across the Australian Curriculum through intentional collaboration, stronger alignment and greater precision.
Looking forward to sharing more great stories around the teaching and learning this term. Until next fortnight have a great couple of weeks.
School Captains Application Process
School Captain applications closed today. Thank you to all those students who put themselves out there and applied for the 2022 roles. Currently, Mr Payne is going through all of the written applications and will shortlist on Monday to announce who will have the opportunity to interview and deliver a speech. The process is relatively quick with Students finding out if they have made it through to the next round on Monday 15th, then interviewing with Mr Payne on Wednesday the 17th, and finally delivering their speech to students and staff before the crucial vote on Friday 19th. Successful candidates will be announced at our final awards parade on Friday the 3rd of December. Good luck to all of those brave students giving it a go!
Attendance
Well done to the following classes for achieving 93% and above for attendance over the past week
2MG had 99% attendance which is absolutely amazing!
Jeremy Callaghan
Deputy Principal
3 L/P
Mila Southern English Assesment
Hello!
My name is Sally and I’m a Swomee-Swan.
I want to tell you how I was forced to leave my home – ahhh … Home, sweet home.
It all started back when grass was still green, the sky was still blue and most of all …. TRUFFULA TREES!
Oh, those trees, sooo soft and pretty. My sister and I played and sang in them all day long, …. ‘til the Once-ler came.
He made a – a – a thing out of the tuft of one of the trees. Then he cut down more trees.
Just how are we going to nest our poor eggs?
No! We can’t just lay them on the ground – the Bar-ba-loots will step on them.
Soooo, no and we can’t put them in the pond the Humming-Fish will hum them down their throats.
So where do we put them?
The Once-ler made a shop, there was black stuff coming out of the chimney. My sister and I just kept playing in the trees. Then he made a machine with axes – not one, not two and not three but four axes! It cut down trees ten times faster. My sister and I just kept playing then we tried to sing … we couldn’t.
The black stuff was in my throat! We could not sing!
“COME WITH ME SWOMEE-SWANS! COME FAST!” the Lorax yelled. We flew off to him and he sent us away.
We didn’t want to leave – well I didn’t want to at least. But we couldn’t stand the Once-ler chopping the trees down. We had to leave. We tried hiding in the tufts of the tress but there were not enough trees so we had to leave.
I felt tears running down my face as we said our goodbyes. I felt the cold air as we flew through the sky.
We left.
Check out our wonderful writers from Year 3. These students were given the task to write the story of the Lorax by Dr Suess from another characters perspective. Enjoy!
PREP M
For English we have been learning about characters in a story. We were so excited to have Bowen Childcare and Early Education come to visit our classroom. Together we listened to the story Edward the Emu and then got to paint the main character. We had so much fun showing the children from childcare how we sit with whole body listening at BSS and follow instructions.
Week 6 Newsletter – 2MG
2MG have been super busy lately constructing sturdy, waterproof lunchboxes fit for the Principal. Scientific testing is underway and there are many clever designs for Mr Payne to choose from.
Our class has also been learning about poetic devices and innovating a poem to make it their own. We’re learning all about flip, slide and turn in Math and using this transformation knowledge to follow and create directions in Technology.
Reading Groups have been productive this term with lots of students making exciting gains with sight words and reading accuracy – well done kids!
1 W/P
IW/P spent time colouring in poppies for our very special Remembrance Day parade.
When Mrs Witts asked 1W/P what Remembrance Day meant to them these are a couple of their responses.
Eli said "I remember the people who went to war to make our lives great."
Jessica said " I remember the people who went to war to save our country from more fighting."
This week I have met with many parents seeking support for their child. At Bowen State School we are lucky to work with parents that are invested in setting their children up for success. Feedback from parents is that this website is really helpful hence the sharing with the parent community https://raisingchildren.net.au/school-age. If your child is needing extra support during this busy time of term when pressure is a little higher than usual as we are full throttle undertaking assessment tasks have a look at these resources to help. Your child maybe asking you to play more than usual, this is often their way of seeking support to co regulate! Often, they don’t have the skills to explain how they are feeling and will simply ask …. “Can you play with me?”
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)
This Mondays PBL lesson will focus on: Respectful. Respect the rights of others to learn! We will be targeting ‘gotchas’ for those whom display this behaviour and the values of being: safe, respectful, responsible and a learner.
The PBL team has heard that some students are in excess of gold gotchas. Keep posted for Pop Up rewards including:
- Disco
- Air conditioned computer room time at lunch
- Tug of War
- Sporting challenges
To name a few over the next two weeks. We are building up to our BIG end of term reward, wet play rewards on Thursday last week of school. All students will attend. Students displaying appropriate behaviours all year will participate in the full session. Students with major behaviour misconduct throughout the year will have a timed out reflection prior to participating for a portion of the time.
CEC Ms Karennes Report for Term 4
Can’t believe it’s week 4 of this term, it has been a very busy but fulfilling term as the school has seen the initial development of Stage 1 and 2 of the Yarning Circle. If I may I would like to share the rationale for this Project.
The concept of creating a Yarning Circle became a reality when Ports Corp Project Manager along with Juru Enterprises Project Manager, spoke about the pylons that had been retrieved when the Heritage Listed Jetty was being repaired.
During discussions about the NAIDOC Theme for 2021 which is Healing of Country, Julie and Jess discussed their ongoing involvement with the school. The discussion went to the NAIDOC theme of Healing, and before long we had a plan that would involve the use of some of the pylons as Totem Poles that we could set into a Yarning Circle.
Discussions progressed and soon we had the concept of creating a larger yarning circle, this would provide the school and soon discovered the wider community with a First Nation Yarning Circle Type. This would allow services in the community that sought a place that would allow for yarns and sometimes hard yarns to take place in more equitable surroundings. To date we have the Whitsunday Council, Children’s Services, Youth Justice and many more services that work with-in the Bowen Community who have committed to utilising the circle.
I would like to share with you some ideals that the Yarning Circle will provide. First this is not a Sacred Circle, it is not a Ceremonial Circle, it acknowledges that the Juru people are the Traditional Owners so will be identified as such. There will be a very large Mural that is being undertaken by a local Bowen Juru man along with complimentary Art work on the Totem Poles. This will in no way be a significant Juru site, we are paying our respects to the Owners of this land the Juru people.
For millennium’s more than 2,600 first nation peoples from countries around the world have used the Yarning Circle as a way of sharing stories, discussing issues, ways of knowing, learning and communicating. Who would have known that in the 21st century researchers are now utilising and acknowledging this exchange is used for many methodologies and theories that support human development, social constructs and mindfulness.
I hope that this explains why we have chosen to utilise timbers that were cut at the same time as the timbers for our school, our First Nations peoples were brought to the brink of extinction, but we acknowledge that this has also been the case for other First Nation people. Healing of Country has allowed the school the opportunity to bring together natural resources that have been used since first contact in the 1860’s. The meaning is evident in that these 2 resources separated for over two centuries now together represent that healing for all peoples in the Bowen community has begun!
There has been much anticipation around the Circle’s construction, I am very proud of our students who have participated in designing and creating this beautiful space. There has been a few ulcers when we discovered that the ground was so uneven that it required the builder dedicate much more time to the initial stages of the construction than we anticipated.
We couldn’t not have completed this Stage 1 and 2, of the construction if not for the generosity of Pilchers.
Mr Geoff Pilcher attended a meeting in July where we proposed the initial construction plan, if Pilchers had not taken this project on, we would have been seriously at risk of not completing.
Pilchers/Hillary’s/Bowen Hardware/Pilchers Cement/Queensland Bulk Ports took on this Project without payment, I cannot express my gratitude for these kind gestures. This Project will remain for many more decades and is an acknowledgement of the Bowen communities’ awareness of this being a much needed addition to our school and community.
When discussing this stage of the construction, Geoff Pilchers advised that he could only give the Stage 1 and 2 a week to complete, as he had several constructions to commence. Despite this the Pilchers Team did not stop until the Stages were completed even when this involved after hours.
The time, dedication and professionalism of Pilchers and Hillary’s has been commented on by locals and visitors alike, who have shown keen interest in the Project. We as a school are indebted to Pilchers/Hillary’s/NQBP as the finished Stage 1 and 2 demonstrates the great work these local business have done on behalf of the school.
But there’s more, we as a school have been amazed at the willing donations from our local businesses such as Hillary’s that have provided without cost materials and manpower to the completion of this project. Bowen Hardware have also provided the timber for the ground work. Pilchers Mitre 10 provided all the cement to secure the pylons and build up the flagpoles and have promised to provide native trees and plants to enhance the area. North Queensland Bulk Ports have generously provided the school with funding, manpower and Crane Hire, Photography and 2021 Cowboys Jerseys to be auctioned. Whitsunday Mayor Mr Willcox, provided the funds to purchase 3 Flagpoles that represent our 2 First Nation Peoples. Businesses such as Live Life Pharmacy in Gregory Street, have donated funds towards the Circle. It was very satisfying to see every business that was approached was willing to support this project. It really encourages us all that this concept has been so accepted, the common theme from our Bowen Community is “well done we really need this”. There are many more names to add, and they will be suitably acknowledged by signage displayed around the Circle.
There is more to come and we will share this with you next Term. Please check out our Photo’s from the first Shovel to where we are now. Thank you again to the parents and families who purchased tickets in the Cowboys Jersey, your contribution has certainly added to the final stages of the project.
FYI we still have a Current Framed Cowboys Jersey that we will accept offers for, you can ring our Admin should you be interested in purchasing this sought after collector’s item.
Thank You
Karenne Williams CEC Bowen State School
Thank you to everyone who attended the information evening for new students wishing to start Instrumental Music in 2022. Please return your expressions of interest to the office as soon as possible. Any parent who wishes to find out more about the program (and could not get to the info evening), there are extra copies of the information package at the office.
Current students:- Please return your intent to continue form to the office as soon as possible. Please return this form even if you will be at Bowen State High next year (I teach there also), and also please return if you do not intend to continue playing.
Regards, Amanda
