Inclusion team visit

Last week the leadership team spent three days with the NQ Regional Inclusion Team to review current school practices and look at improving some of the school referral processes and systems for our students requiring adjustments to their learning. I shared with staff, post this workshop, the alignment to our school Annual Strategic Plan and the triangulation to one of our 2023 key actions: “Lead a Bowen SS inclusion forum to build teacher and staff knowledge, understanding and capability aligned to policy”.

The sharp and narrow feedback from the team will help us assign the key support for teachers and professional learning opportunities. This year Education Queensland launched the new road map for State Schools “Equity and Excellence.” Inclusion is largely represented in the policy. The work that we have committed to this year will strengthen each student's opportunities to access the curriculum and reach his/her full potential.

School camp

Can I thank our wonderful staff for their careful planning and preparation for the Year 6 Camp at Seaforth Outdoor Education facility this year. It was great to hear the positive feedback around the change of venue and a facility that is offering a better experience and more suitable accommodation. The cold weather certainly didn’t hamper the enthusiasm from the students and the photos shared to date include many memories of a great experience. Thank you to the staff who supported camp this year. I thank you for your professionalism and supervision of our precious students over the last three days.

Prep enrolments

Have you considered your child’s next steps and transition to Bowen State School for Prep 2024?  Shortly we will be promoting our transition schedule and share the important upcoming dates as part of this process. Our friendly office staff can provide enrolment forms and answer any questions in the meantime. Please contact the office for more information. Looking forward to meeting all our incoming families and students this year ready for Prep 2024.

Thank you,

Christien Payne

Principal

Our whole school attendance for this term is currently 89.99%.

As we reach the half way mark of the term, I urge all parents to ensure their child comes to school each day as teachers are providing essential learning for the end of term assessments.

Congratulations to PD for having the highest attendance with 99.23%.

Fantastic to see these classes having 100% attendance on one day over the past week.

STUDENT COUNCIL

The student council have held three meetings this year. Class captains have done a great job at sharing their class voice about projects to fundraise for and possible fundraising ideas. It is wonderful to see our student council leaders running the meetings.

KEEP SAFE AT PICK UP AND DROP OFF

Please keep our students safe at these busy times by ensuring you use these areas correctly.

Loading Zones (Kennedy & Poole Streets) - Passenger vehicles are allowed to stand in loading zones (but not park) for no more than 2 minutes when picking up or dropping off passengers.

‘Classroom Walkthroughs’ were completed this week at Bowen State School. The leadership team thoroughly enjoyed visiting classrooms across all year levels of our school. Throughout these visits student bookwork checklists were completed and feedback was given to each class around what needed to be celebrated and what would be the focus for our next steps in relation to student bookwork. Learning Walls were also observed and the ‘5 questions for students’ were asked to ensure we have assessment literate learners in all of our classrooms at BSS.

PCYC Re Engagement Program (PREP)

The PCYC and Bowen State School have co-created a program to support strong engagement in the community and strong engagement at school.  Students work offsite weekly led by Community Development Officer Lynn Butler and Sergeant Michelle O’Reagan, supported by Mrs Upkett, to engage in activities that:

1. Promote connection to community to strengthen sense of belonging
2. Promote the use of strong communication skills
3. Promote teamwork and the challenges that come with that, waiting turns to speak, speaking up to share ideas, negotiation skills, working with a range of personality types
4. Leadership skills – show initiative, making plans, including all, leading by doing

This is just to name a few. Students connect with different organisations, businesses and local locations where their boundaries are pushed to practise skills mentioned above. 

This term's group is shown below at Mullers Lagoon completing a challenge that also involved motor planning and motor control in cohesion as a team. 

Welcome to Week 4!

As identified by our school data, this week’s focus, which will carry us through next week as well, is ‘Being Respectful’. Specifically it is establishing and maintaining positive relationships with others.

Establishing positive relationships is vital for young people, as it not only makes us happier, improve our feelings of security, and provide meaning to our lives, it also affects both mental and physical health.

Proven links include lowering rates of anxiety and depression, higher self-esteem, greater empathy, and more trusting and cooperative relationships. Strong, healthy relationships can also help to strengthen your immune system, help you recover from disease, and may even lengthen your life.

Strategies for helping your child to establish and maintain positive relationships include:

• encouraging the use of positive greetings and responses to greetings
• listening to others
• including and accepting others
• taking turns and being patient
• helping others to problem solve using words
• celebrating positive achievements
• saying sorry or admitting you are wrong (It’s OK to disagree or have different opinions!)

Thanks and have a great week.

PBL Team Leader

Emma Chandler

Students have begun learning dance routines. Once these performances are ready, a date will be set when they will be performed at a showcase event one evening. This will most likely occur early in Term Three.

At this time, students have been asked to begin thinking about costumes for the performance.

The performance items are listed so that you may be able to assist your child with their costume choice.

• Prep D and Prep R- Agadoo (Tropical Party Theme.)
• Prep/1L, 2/3R and 5/6H are combining for a compilation of all-time favourites ranging from Thriller to Gangnam Style
• 1M and 1W- Witch Doctor (Partner Dance)
• 2I, 2M and 2W- Staying Alive (Disco)
• 3A and 3D- Greased Lightning
• 4C, 4G and 4T- Time Warp
• 5B and 5M- Line Dancing
• 6H and 6S- Their own choreographed routine to Baker Boy’s song, “Meditjin.”

Please do not go to great expense when helping your child to organise a costume for this event. Be creative with resources you already have.

If you have any questions please contact Allison Conway via email- aconw5@eq.edu.au or phone the school on 47869555.

Prep D have been learning about 2D shapes. We have been exploring their attributes and have discovered the difference between curved and straight lines. We counted the sides and corners of shapes and sorted them into groups. We have been on a ‘Shape Hunt’ throughout the classroom where we discovered so many 2D shapes in our environment!

Prep 1/L have been exploring all things that are 2D shapes and 3D objects. We started our learning journey looking at the difference between 3D objects and 2D shapes and what we could find around our environment. We spent time looking at what features both 2D shapes and 3D objects have. Did you know that 3D objects had 2D shape faces? Well, our Year 1s spent some time stamping 3D objects to find the 2D faces. Once we learned all about shapes and their features, we celebrated with making our very own 2D shape monsters. 

This term 4T have been learning about forces in Science. We have been using games to investigate and demonstrate the direction of forces and the effect of contact and non-contact forces on objects. We used our knowledge of forces to make predictions about these games and play them safely. Here we are trying to use the force produced when you wave a book to push a ping pong ball into a square within 60 seconds. It was absolutely tougher than it looks!

Students in 5B have been working on their Visual Arts assessment. Students were required to create a clay creature that linked to their personality. Students enjoyed researching animals, personality traits and designing their creatures. All creatures looked amazing! They should be very proud of their efforts.