Professional Learning

Last Wednesday and Thursday I had the privilege to collaborate with Karen Weekes the Deputy Principal and 150 North Queensland schools at the Principal business days in Townsville. Over the two days we heard the key messages around diverse learners. Many of the sessions were targeted around supporting “first nations students” to be connected and ensure cultural understanding and strategies are in place to ensure engagement is a high priority. A huge proud moment was the shout out to Bowen State and the work happening in our school within this space. Kylie Smith the Regional Director praised the work of our very own Karenne Williams Community Education Councillor CEC for her efforts to support our first nations students and build staff capacity around culture. It made me realise how lucky we are here at Bowen State School to have such wonderful staff supporting positive outcomes for all.

I enjoyed the networking with other Principals and spent the two days with Mr Callaghan. He is making many positive impacts within his community and working hard on the facilities and learning environment at Hughenden State School. He said to say hello to everyone! Coming back to the school this week has provided the opportunity to network with the leadership team around the important key messages and work within the delivery of the Australian Curriculum. I will be cross checking the important links to our four-year plan and note that next term we will be finalising and endorsing the sharp and narrow direction for Bowen State School. Thank you to the leadership team who remained back at school to ensure the teaching and learning continued smoothly.

SFD

This Friday the staff at Bowen State School will be engaging in a day of professional learning. The focus is based around clarity and reflection of the regional professional development around reading provided this year. A chance for staff to pause and discuss the learnings and actions for Bowen State in 2023. We will also be providing time for teachers to plan the next unit of work for Term 4 and allow time for teachers to unpack the units of work. I will be presenting the final draft of the four-year plan and providing opportunity for staff to give feedback.

Last Few Weeks of Term

The last few weeks of Term 3 will be exciting and action packed with student rewards and whole school celebrations. A reminder for families to ensure students are getting lots of sleep, have a healthy breakfast, packed lunch and drinking lots of water. The end of the term is tiring. Staff and students are less resilient due to this and an import and timely reminder to look after each other. Bowen State School has a great whole school framework Positive Behaviour for Learning PBL which incorporates social and emotional social skills into the explicit teaching of appropriate behaviours. At this time of the term we ramp up PBL to ensure the systems are in place to support a safe and positive environment right up until the end of week 10.

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

Christien Payne
Principal

Our Year 1 Students have been working very hard all term and were able to celebrate with PBL Rewards! The Year 1 students enjoyed their PBL Reward Time on the big kids' playground. 

On Wednesday 24th August, the Year 1 students had a visit from the Bowen Fire & Rescue team. They talked to the students about learning their home address in case they need to call '000' for an emergency so that you can inform them where you are. They taught the students about 'Getting Down Low and Go Go Go!' if there is a fire in your house and 'Stop, Drop and Roll' if you are on fire.

The Firies will return on Wednesday 7th September to show off their Firetruck.

ECDP has been a buzz of excitement this term as we learn about animals! Insects have been our favourite so far.

This term 1J have been reading a series of books written by Anthony Browne. They all feature a chimp named Willy that wears a sweater vest. We had to invent our own character to fit into one of these stories for English. We looked at patterns in Mathematics and used our knowledge of patterns to decorate our own vests to match the main character in the books. These are displayed proudly in our classroom. 

Students in Year 5 have been listening to, reading and viewing the narrative poem, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ by AB Paterson. They have been learning about the life of a shearer and squatters from 1895. Also, the students had learnt something new, that AB Paterson is on the $10 note.