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KEEP OUR KIDS SAFE
Use the supervised school crossings
We have two entrances with supervised school crossings (Herbert St and Kennedy St). Using the supervised crossing ensures the safety of students and families. Please use the crossings when parked in the middle or on the opposite side of the road. Do not walk through the bus zone.
Stick to the signed speed limit
New flashing light school zone signs have been installed as part of a Queensland Government commitment to improve school road safety. The new signs look similar to standard school zone signs with the addition of a red flashing ring around the speed limit as well as two flashing yellow lights at the top of the sign. The installation of flashing light school zone signs is proven to improve visibility of school zones, serving as an active reminder for motorists to slow down. Next time you’re dropping off or picking up your child, keep an eye out for the new signs and make sure you stick to the signed speed limit.
SUPPORT NEEDED
TOYS - We have had an increase in students bringing toys to school. Toys are only permitted at school with permission of the class teacher, for use in the classroom. Please remind your child not to take toys to school.
JEWELLERY - Staff have noticed a number of students are wearing jewellery that is not part of our school uniform. The follow is permitted to be worn:-
- Watch (no smart watches or fit bits)
- Flat signet ring
- Small plain sleeper earrings
- Small plain stud earrings (no more than 2 per lobe)
- Medical alert bracelet or necklace
- Items of significant religious belief with notification to the administration
- No facial piercings at all
Staff will be asking students to remove items that are not part of this list. Please check that your child does not wear any jewellery that is not on the list, to school. We appreciate parent support with this!
Karen Weekes
Deputy Principal
2023 NAPLAN is underway
This week saw the start of NAPLAN testing at BSS for 2023. All year 3 and 5 students demonstrated their creative writing skills on Wednesday, completing the Writing Test. Year 3 completed the Reading Test on Thursday and the Year 5’s will do their Reading Test on Friday. During Week 9 the Language Conventions Test for each grade will be undertaken along with the Numeracy Testing.
Once again, attendance is imperative during this time so please do your best to make sure all Year 3 and Year 5 students come to school every day over the testing period. Finally, a big thankyou to our fantastic P & C for doing a wonderful job ensuring all students involved in the NAPLAN testing are starting the day off right by providing a delicious, nutritious breakfast.
at our schoolThe Australian Curriculum is aligned with the Simple View of Reading and believes in utilizing an evidence based approach to the teaching of reading and spelling through Structured Synthetic Phonics. This approach is a method derived from the disciplines of speech pathology, occupational therapy and education, and presents sequential phonics instruction in conjunction with decodable readers.
Bowen State School is implementing the PLD program of Structured Synthetic Phonics from Prep to Year 4 in Semester 1 and in Year 5 & 6 in Semester 2. Significant funds have been channelled into the purchasing of resources and decodable readers to support the implementation of this new approach to the teaching of reading across our whole school.
As an Australian publisher and professional development provider, PLD advocates that literacy and learning outcomes are maximised for children when their Literacy, Oral Language and Movement & Motor skills are targeted. A parent information session will be offered early next term to provide more information around PLD at our school. In the meantime, if you would like more information, please visit the website:
Jessica Boucher
Acting Head of Curriculum
Prep D has been working hard to learn letter sounds and to segment and blend words. We have been using body movements (heads, shoulders, hips), duck hands, lines and numbers to sound out and write CVC words with the sounds that we know. One of our favourite activities is to use our ‘show me boards’ to practice writing our words. Prep D has also spent time with our new ‘Big Buddies’ from 4C! We shared books, listened to some students present their Show and Share, and watched an episode of Bluey together. We are looking forward to when our Big Buddies visit us again!
In Science, students in 3A have been learning about living and non-living things and how to identify these in our environment. We have been on a walk around the school and observed scat, tracks and signs of living things. We also, sadly, found evidence of non-living things. We are repurposing these found items in our art project to make fossils and a relief scene showing the impact of rubbish on our environment. We have used among other things shells, screws, rocks, dead coral, bottle caps, leaves from plants.
This term in science students learnt about structural and behavioural adaptations of animals. We conducted an experiment about camouflage using M&Ms and Skittles. Students pretended to be birds using a variety of beaks and could only pick up one type of food as the other was poisonous. Students enjoyed the activity and we may have had a sweet treat afterwards.
Students are using the English learning wall to help them to write an imaginative short story.
Audiologist Visiting Bowen
Karissa Ruddick, Audiologist from Mackay Base Hospital is visiting Bowen to see children who are unable to come to Mackay for assessment. She will be at the Bowen Hospital from 2pm for a few hours on Monday 17th April. She may be able to see some children on the Tuesday morning before she heads back to Mackay.
Please call the Bowen Hospital and ask for either Katharine or Janet 47868210 to make an appointment.
Kind Regards,
Janet Russell,
Child Health, Bowen