Bowen State School eNewsletter

End of Term
As we enter the final week of term one I would like to reflect on the amazing achievements of term 1. Some of the major events were: Student leader parade, badge parade, sporting events including the school swimming program, Harmony day, NAPLAN and Cross country. What a great spread of rich sporting and cultural activities so far this year. We have been working closely this term on the Explicit Improvement Agenda ensuring we are differentiating the learning in English for all students. Staff have been meeting fortnightly off class to reflect on their teaching and look for the next steps for the learners. Teachers bring evidence of student work to the table and align conversations to the standards of the A, B and C for the unit of work.

Next term we will be engaging with regional support staff to commence actioning our feedback from the Inclusion Scan and Assess. We are looking forward to guidance around moderation and tracking our students requiring adjustments. This is a large investment from the region and our staff will benefit greatly to support our learners.

Staffing
I would like to formally congratulate Darryl Mac Innes for his successful appointment to the permanent grounds position at Bowen State School. Darryl brings a wealth of experience in the farming industry and skills required for the role. Darryl is an ex Bowen State Student and shared great pride of our school and high standards for the future. Darryl will commence in the first week of the school holidays. Thank you to Terry Shambrook who supported the school in an acting grounds role during our transition to replace Clint Jorgensen.

P&C
Recently the P&C held their annual AGM. I can announce that from this meeting we were successfully able to fill all executive positions. The new 2023 team is:

President: Kirsten Siggins Vice President: Lisa Taylor Treasurer: Olivia Gordon Secretary: Debbie O’Sullivan

We are looking forward to an amazing year and focus on outcomes for our students. It has been great to see more families joining our monthly meets. TEAMS has been a success with three families linking in regularly from home. I encourage more families to attend to understand the decisions made and opportunity to have a say around the ways of working in our school.

Safe holidays
I would like to in closure wish all our Bowen State School families a safe and restful school holiday period. A great time for students to recharge and rest in our beautiful Bowen district. To families travelling I wish safe journeys to your destinations and look forwards to hearing all the exciting recounts when we return to school.

Christien Payne
Principal

Our whole school attendance for Term 1 is 87%.

Our attendance target is 93%.

KEEP OUR KIDS SAFE

Online Safety

Our Year 3 – 6 students recently listened to a Cyber Safety talk delivered by Queensland Police Service as a partner to the ThinkUKnow Program. Students learnt about the impact of long hours of gaming on the brain and some of the risks of chatting online.

An interesting fact from the presentation:-

34 Years is the average age of video game players. 77% of players are aged 18 years or older. 43% of those aged 65 and over play video games

As the holidays approach and some students may want to spend more time on electronic devices it is important for parents to be more aware of their child’s online activity. These are some important tips from the ThinkUKnow website.

I urge every parent to take a few minutes to read the information ‘Gaming, devices and what you need to know’. There is more great information available on the website https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/resources-tab/parents-and-carers.

Gaming devices and what you need to know

Gaming devices and what you need to know 1.77 MB

Karen Weekes
Deputy Principal

Orange was the colour to wear last Friday as we celebrated Harmony Day at our multicultural breakfast fiesta.

A very big thank you to all the wonderful parent, student and staff donations and assistant.

We travelled around the world tasting and enjoying many cultural dishes and drinks. All of the cuisine represented the heritage and culture of students at Bowen State School.

Thank you very much to Sergeant Michelle O’Regan and Michelle Wright - Councillor for Div 4 Whitsunday Regional Council our special guests for sharing the morning with us.

Check out the video below:

https://fb.watch/jzngdV_ZW9/

2023_Term_1_Chaplaincy_News.pdf

In preparation for Harmony Day, Prep/1 L had been investigating the New Zealand culture. We explored the different parts of New Zealand and had a look at where Mrs Reibel's family was from. We watched some videos of the Haka and even tried a child version. Mrs Reibel told us all about lolly cake, a traditional food. We decided as a class that this is what we would make together to share with our school community for Harmony Day. On Thursday, afternoon we mixed all of the prepared ingredients together to make a cake to share. I think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed having a taste.

During this term 1W worked on “Chance”. We talked about events that WILL happen, WON’T happen or MIGHT happen. Emily, Toby and Ngoc Lam illustrated some work and offered justifications for their decisions.

In Science 3D have been learning to make observations to determine if an object is living, non-living, once living or never living. We have observed the features of different animals to determine which group they belong to and have had to justify our choices using scientific language.

In Art we have been creating artwork using found objects. These objects were either biodegradable, recyclable or reusable. We have created a fossil using these found objects and have created a plaster relief sculpture to show our chosen landscape (ocean) and then represent what can happen in these landscapes when we pollute them.

The students have worked hard and have produced some magnificent artwork. Well done. Happy holidays from Mrs Daley and Mrs Sexton.

6S have been working hard in preparation for our upcoming Art Gallery which will showcase the artistic learning that has occurred throughout the term. The unit has centred around interpreting and analysing 'mixed media sculptures' which has then culminated in students planning and then creating their own mixed media sculpture that addresses an issue in the world that they are passionate about.

Recently, we were also fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in a Touch Rugby clinic, which the children thoroughly enjoyed. All this on top of the normal day to day learning and growth that has occurred has meant we have had an extremely busy first term!

This week, classes participated in their end of term PBL Rewards session for students who had achieved 3 Golden Gotchas. Classes teamed up in their year levels to watch movies and eat popcorn, go on a pirate treasure hunt by solving maths problems, doing art activities, playing games outside and many more fun activities! Students thoroughly enjoyed celebrating all their GREAT behaviour choices this term. Have a safe and enjoyable holidays and we look forward to seeing everyone for an even better Term 2.

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