WELCOME TO THE 2020 SCHOOL YEAR

A very warm welcome to the Ormiston State School community for 2020.

For those new to our community, as new families or as first time school parents, we welcome you to our safe, supportive and nurturing school community and we look forward to getting to know you.  For those returning, welcome back.  

As always the school year starts with a rush and there are already a range of programs about to commence to provide ongoing opportunities for students to engage in outside of the classrooms.  In coming days and weeks information regarding our Mandarin Chinese program, STEM Club, Sports Aerobics, Athletics Training, Senior and Junior Choir, just to name a few, will be made available with invitations for eligible students to join the program.

Our goal is to engage every child through a diverse range of programs in The Arts, Sport, Culturally and Academically that provide a strong sense of belonging, ongoing success through improvement and a desire to contribute to the best of their ability.

We look forward to working with every family to achieve this to the best of our ability, for every student. 

We ask for parental assistance in reinforcing the before school routines.  Students should not be at school prior to 8:15am as there is no supervision and minimal teacher presence to ensure adequate safety for students. 

Students arriving before 8:30am should go to the tuck shop covered area and wait for the supervised before school activities to commence.  This includes students sitting with their parents or carers.  Parents should not wait outside classrooms with their children.  If a meeting is needed and the teacher is not in the room an appointment can be made through the office or via email to the teacher directly.

At 8:30am a recorded message announces the need for students to go to either Readers, Walkers or Sitters Clubs. These are supervised events designed to provide a range of student needs.  Students, and parents are welcome to choose an activity each day to participate in until the 8:50am school bell rings signalling all students to go to class. Students arriving after 8:30am should go straight to the activity of choice once they have delivered their bag the the classroom.

Novel Coronavirus – 2019-nCov

As you are aware, health authorities across the nation are continuing to respond to the emergence of the Coronavirus that has emanated from China.

Health authorities have late yesterday updated advice regarding the novel Coronavirus.

The following advice is now in place:
•anyone who has been in contact with any confirmed novel Coronavirus cases must self-isolate (self-isolation means staying at home and not accepting visitors) for 14 days following exposure;
•travellers who have visited Hubei Province of China need to self-isolate for 14 days after leaving Hubei Province;
•returned travellers who have visited China cannot attend school, childcare or TAFE for 14 days after leaving China including Hong Kong.

Our school always follows the advice of public health authorities in these circumstances and I thank you in advance for your cooperation and support as we navigate this situation.  Please do not hesitate to contact the school should you have any concerns or are uncertain whether this advice affects you.

School Review

2020 is the final year of our current 2017 to 2020 strategic plan.  Throughout 2020 we as a school will be reviewing our programs and practices to inform our 2021 to 2024 Strategic Improvement Plan.  As an ongoing part of this process we as a school will be seeking your thoughts and ideas on how we are progressing and how we can improve.  This will also include a departmental school review team visiting the school in Semester 2.  We welcome these processes in our ongoing endeavours to provide the best education possible for every student, every day.

Once again, welcome back to the 2020 school year.  Please do not hesitate to contact us with your thoughts, ideas or needs.

Yours in Education

Neil Randall

Principal

Welcome back to 2020! 

We hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday.  We are looking forward to seeing all of our new Ormiston State School students settle into the community.  We know they will be welcomed by all and make many new friends quickly.

To all of our returning families, it is great to see your children here for another fabulous year of learning.  Term 1 is always a busy time.  An events overview will be sent to all families in the coming weeks, however some Term 1 events to note include:

• Tuesday 4 February – Meet the Teacher Sessions. Two identical sessions run at 4:30-5pm, and 5:15-5:45pm, for parents to attend.  Classroom learning, procedures, routines and excursions/camps will be discussed. Please make the time to attend.
• Monday 17 February – Cluster Student Leadership Day, for all of our Y6 student leaders, at Cleveland District SHS
• Wednesday 19 February 9:30am – Badge Presentation Parade for student leaders
• Thursday 20 February – Bayside swimming carnival (select Y4-6 students)
• Monday 24 & Tuesday 25 February – Prep vision screening
• Monday 24 February – Young Leaders Day – excursion for student leaders
• Monday 2 March – Friday 6 March – Y3-6 Swimming Lessons
• Monday 9 March – Wednesday 11 March – Maths Incursion
• Thursday 12 March – Prep Sizzling Soundwaves morning
• Friday 13 March – School photos
• Monday 16 March – Prep hearing screening
• Tuesday 24 March – Parent Teacher Conferences
• Wednesday 25 March – School Cross Country
• Friday 3 April – P-Y2 Easter Bonnet Parade; Y3-6 Swimming Carnival

There are many other events throughout the term, so it will be a busy 10 weeks!   Please keep a close eye on dates and calendars so that your children have reminders of events.

We are looking forward to a great year!

Prep Vision Screening
Prep students should have come home yesterday with a Prep Vision Screening Permission Form.  This program allows parental consent for the Primary School Health Readiness Program Nurse to screen our Prep students’ vision.  Parents will be notified if the results require a follow up.  We highly encourage you to return the form by Friday 7 February to your child’s teacher.  Screening begins on Monday 24 February.

Mrs French on Leave
Mrs Andrea French (P-2 Deputy Principal) is on leave for Term 1.  Mrs Sally Carmichael will be Acting DP for this time.  Regards

Mrs Jackie Wilkins & Mrs Sally Carmichael
Deputy Principals

Welcome back to a new school year and a new decade! I hope you and your children had a relaxing break and feel refreshed and recharged. We have many new families starting this year in Prep as well as a significant number of students from higher year levels joining our Ormiston support family. As a support team, we look forward to working with you in our endeavour to provide the right support, to the right students in the right ways. Support can and should look different for each student. We are proud of the support we provide for our students at Ormiston.

During the Pupil Fee Days, our teachers were engaged in three days of intensive professional learning and sharing. To  assist the students to  transition to a new year level, the  SEP Support Teachers were thrilled to have the opportunity to spend sessions sharing information to teachers, teacher aides and specialist staff  about individual student’s  support needs.

Mrs Cathie Nixon, our Speech Pathologist, delivered an insightful presentation about Oral Language and Speech. She shared many strategies to support student’s language needs.

I would like to thank Ms Heather Farrell from Vision Australia, and Sharon Jaarsveldt , our regional Vision Advisory teacher, who delivered an inspiring session,  enhancing our understanding of Vision Impairment. By engaging in learning activities using goggles and vision aides, staff were able to experience what being a learner with a vision impairment would be like.

To our families of students with additional needs, we look forward to another wonderful year working in partnership with you. 

Now let me introduce you to our 2020 school Support team! 

Head of Special Education Services (HOSES) Vicki Campbell
SEP Inclusion Support Teachers – Raline Nielson, Karli Holmes, Leona Gaston
SEP Inclusion Teacher Aides – Julie Challenor, Lisa Clark, Donna Kempton and Sonya Barnett.
Learning Intervention Support Teachers – Vince Masci and Kate FordSpeech
Guidance Officer – Tara Froelich
Chaplain – Anja Bronkhorst 

Yours in Support 
Vicki Campbell and our Support Team. 

Welcome back for another school year and a special welcome to all our new families.

I am the Guidance Officer at Ormiston State School and I work each Monday and Tuesday.

What is a Guidance Officer?
Guidance officers are specialist teachers who deliver a broad range of services to school community members. They contribute to the development of a comprehensive student support and wellbeing program that is responsive to the needs of the school community.

Guidance officers may work directly with students in addition to working with a student's teachers, school support personnel, family, other specialists or external support providers.

Support offered by guidance officers includes providing advice and counselling on educational, behavioural, personal, social, family, and mental health and wellbeing issues.

Psychoeducational assessments and cognitive testing also forms an important part of the work guidance officers undertake to enhance positive educational outcomes for all students.

Guidance officers provide leadership, support and case management in responding to some of the most complex and challenging of circumstances including student protection matters, critical incidents, and mental health issues.

Mrs Tara Froelich
Guidance Officer

Welcome to music in 2020!

For those who don’t know me, my name is Kate Shaw and I’m the Classroom Music Teacher and choir conductor at Ormiston State School.

Choir this year has opened up to let as many students as possible who would like to sing to be able to join a group.  Please familiarise yourself with the following info: 

• Junior Choir

        All Year 3s and 4s welcome

        NO audition

        Friday mornings

        7.45am

        Music Room

• Senior Choir

        All year 5s and 6s welcome

        NO audition

        Thursday mornings

        7.45am

        Music Room

No experience needed, only enthusiasm! Rehearsals commence week two.

Later this term auditions will be held for a Performance Choir to represent Ormiston SS in local eisteddfods and events.

I’m looking forward to making music with as many of our 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s.  If you would like your student to attend, please respond to the SMS permission note ASAP.

See you at rehearsal,

Ms Shaw
Music and Choir Coordinator

Instrumental Music News

Welcome to 2020, I hope that everyone had a wonderful restful break and just like me are excited and ready to get back into a great year ahead of wonderful music making.

Lessons
ALL students will start lessons during week 2 and will be on either Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. A timetable will be distributed to class teachers and displayed outside the instrumental music teaching room (in the Hall) by the end of week 1. Please ensure your child has dusted their instrument off and have all the equipment they need for lessons for week two. Those students that have been assigned a school instrument will receive their instrument during their first lesson.

Band rehearsals will be as follows for this year:

Senior Band (all students entering their 2^nd or 3^rd year of playing): Wednesday mornings 7:45am beginning week 3 – 12 February.

Junior Band (all students beginning this year): Thursday mornings 7:45am in the hall – PLEASE NOTE that before school rehearsal does not begin till week 4 – 20 February (but lessons start week 2).

Stage Band: Wednesday afternoons 3pm-3:45pm beginning week 4 – 19 February.  Auditions for our extension ensemble ‘stage band’ will be held during lunch breaks in weeks 2 and 3. Successful students will be given an offer letter by end of week 3 to be returned signed by a parent providing permission to be part of this extra ensemble on top of their involvement in Senior Band. Students need to understand the extra commitment (rehearsals, performances, practice) required of them to be involved with this ensemble when deciding to audition and accept a position if they are successful. For auditions, students must perform at least one scale they learnt at the end of 2019 and one solo piece of their choice (can be from band repertoire in 2019, exercise from book, or any other music they like).

Communication: A lot of my communication with parents is done via the email address you have supplied to the school admin, so could I please ask that your address is up to date if needed.

Thank you

Thomas Melton
Instrumental Music Coordinator

Sporting News
If your son/daughter has any outstanding achievements in sporting arenas outside of school, please let me know, as I would love to share this with our community through the newsletter.

Contact via email – ahhan0@eq.edu.au

Bayside District Swimming Carnival Nominations
Students turning 10, 11 or 12 in 2020 who are squad swimmers and compete in regular club nights and carnivals will be invited to submit their best swimming times (signed off by the club coach) to be considered to compete at the Bayside District swimming carnival.  Student times will need to match set qualifying times for this event for them to be eligible to compete.  If your child is a competitive swimmer and wishes to trial for the Bayside District swim team, please have these times written and signed off by a club coach or printed from the club website and handed to Mr Hanley by Friday 7 February 2020 (Term 1, Week 2).

Once student times have been submitted and compared to qualifying times, students will be notified of their selection and will compete at the Bayside District Swimming Carnival on Thursday 20 February (Term 1, Week 4).

Bayside District Sport Trials
Students turning 10, 11 or 12 (born 2010, 2009, 2008) in 2020 will have the opportunity to trial for various representative sporting teams through the Bayside District.  It is a huge honour to be selected for one of these teams, as the competition is very tough.  Please keep an eye out for the various trial notifications in this section of the newsletter throughout the first Semester as well as any information posted on the PE news board outside Mr Hanley’s room (inside the Hall). 

Students wishing to trial must either currently play at a high club level or demonstrate a very high ability in skills. As a school, we are only able to nominate limited players for each sport to trial.  Where needed, an in-school trial will take place and the player/s will be selected. 12 year olds will be given preference when skill level is the same.

Please see Mr Hanley for trial information and relevant forms.

Cross Country Training
Cross country training will start on Monday 3 February (Term 1, Week 2).  All students turning 9, 10, 11 or 12 in 2020 are invited to collect permission notes from Mr Hanley to join the training group.  Please note that students wishing to be selected in the school team and compete at the Bayside District carnival must show a strong commitment to training sessions over the course of the term.

Students must hand completed permission forms to Mr Hanley before the start of the first training session. Please note students will not be permitted to train if they have not handed a completed permission form in.

Training sessions will take place on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 7:45am-8:30am.  Monday and Wednesday training sessions will be held on the school oval and are open to all age groups (9, 10, 11 & 12yrs) with a focus on improving fitness and developing running abilities. Friday morning training will be held across the road from the front of the school on Dundas Street East and in the park at the bottom of the hill. Friday session will be open for students eligible to compete at the Bayside Cross Country carnival (10, 11 & 12yrs… No 9yr olds) and consider themselves competitive runners. Please be aware that these sessions will be harder and aimed at building our school cross country team.

3 – 6 Swimming Lessons
In week 6 (2^nd – 6^th March) of Term 1, students from Years 3 – 6 will travel daily to the Cleveland Aquatic Centre for their swimming lessons. Students will be required to wear a swimming cap for the duration of all lessons. They will also need to bring along swimming togs, sun shirt, thongs, towel and a water bottle each day.  Please note students will not be able to participate in swimming lessons without a sun shirt or swimming cap as this is a safety requirement.  Please ensure that all personal items used throughout the week have the students name clearly labelled on them to avoid any loss of items. Invoices are going to be sent out in the first week of Term 1, please be on the lookout for these!

Mr Arthur Hanley
Sports Coordinator

Bonjour et bienvenue à la classe française à l’école d’Ormiston en 2020!

Hello and welcome to French at Ormiston State School in 2020!

French will begin for all year levels in Week 1 and we have lots of fun and learning planned.

All year levels will begin with classroom phrases and etiquette before moving onto their new modules. We will be combining the AIM method of language learning with other relevant content to meet the Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards.

We encourage all students to practise their French as much as possible at home, even if it’s just a few words. Learning French is a good grounding for learning other languages, especially Romance languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian) and English, since about a third of modern-day English vocabulary is derived from French.

Please feel free to contact us anytime you would like to discuss your child’s French education via email, through your child’s teacher or pop in to visit us. It is best to make an appointment as we both work part time.

We look forward to sharing lots of interesting times with your child in French this year.

Amitiés,

Madame Payne and Madame Wilikai

I would like to welcome back all students, staff, parents and caregivers. I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and holiday time. It certainly was a difficult time for some with the bushfires. I trust everyone was safe and their families also.

Welcome to Ella, William, Vishnesh, Rachael, Scarlett and Kirsten who are the Resource Captains for 2020. I am looking forward to working with the Leaders as they learn new skills and processes: such as how the library is run, as well as public speaking and what it means to participate in a School Leadership role.

Students can come to the library each morning after the 8:30am announcement, where they can sit quietly reading, or join in with their friends in the games room playing board games. When Reader’s Clubs are up and running they can use this time to change their books.

Please note that the it is our intention to have Readers Clubs ready to start week 6. Information will be given closer to start up.

Just a reminder to all students, parents and caregivers, the area and surrounds outside the Library is an out of bounds area until the morning announcement. Before this time students are to wait in the tuckshop area, then after the announcement proceed to either Walker’s Club (oval), Sitter’s Club (OLA), or Readers Club (Library) until ^1st bell.

Looking forward to 2020 and seeing everyone again as well as meeting all the new students and their families.

Ms E Landman
Library Coordinator

A Friendly Hello From Chappy Anja!

Welcome back to all the students, staff, and families of OSS! And a very warm welcome to every new student and family joining our beautiful community. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday; I know I did! But I am excited to be back and really looking forward to seeing what lies in store for us at OSS this year.

I love everything about the “newness” of a new year! New opportunities for learning and growing, building or developing new friendships, new challenges to be conquered and new happy moments to cherish. I love reading and to me the new year always feel like a new book being opened, a new story being written, a new chapter to explore.

On the 31^st of December last year, my daughter found a chrysalis in our garden and excitedly brought it to me. We were all in awe of this unexpected extraordinary finding. It felt like a special gift and promise of seeing a beautiful transformation taking place – wings unfolding and soaring in the new year.

We carefully placed the chrysalis in the right position inside a container and checked on it daily. Just when we started to wonder if a butterfly would truly emerge, we had the privilege of finding the beautiful butterfly on the 5^th of January! We never saw the butterfly emerging as the process happened quietly and secretly during the night. It was a joy to watch it practising its’ wings and setting it free in the garden.

I want to encourage you this year – maybe you are experiencing a similar process of transformation – be patient. Hold on to hope. You have no idea what transformation is silently taking place in a “chrysalis period” during a time that might feel as dark as the night!

It is my heart’s desire to help your children find their wings – socially, emotionally, and spiritually!

My working days this year will be Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Notices:

• Chappy Cupcakes will be on sale Wednesday 12 February at $1 each as part of fundraising for Chaplaincy at OSS. (Please let me know if you’d like to be a baker of this much appreciated fundraising initiative – anjae@chappy.org.au)

More information to follow in the next newsletter about the Chappy Programs running this term.

Blessings,
Chappy Anja

Sport Aerobics

We will be holding a sport aerobics “Come and Try” morning in the hall at 8.00am Monday 10 Feb 2020 (Week 3)

Please Note: SPORT AEROBICS NOW MONDAY MORNINGS IN 2020

Mrs Harvey, Ms Shepherdson, Miss Little, Ms Brook

Get involved in the School Banking program

Ormiston State School is excited to offer the Commonwealth Bank School Banking program to all students. School Banking is a fun, interactive and engaging way for young Australians to learn about money and develop good savings habits. Children who deposit money into their Youth Saver account through School Banking will earn an exciting reward every time they reach 10 deposits.

The rewards available during 2020 will be (2 per term):

• Terry Denton’s Activity Book
  • Mini Soccer Ball
  • Treetop Stationary Set
  • Treetop Handball
  • Tomato Seed Kit
  • Magic Mist Drink Bottle
  • Emoji Wallet
  • Snakes & Ladders Game

School Banking is also a great fundraiser for our school. Our school receives a Regular Savers Contribution of $5 for every 10 deposits processed per student as well as an Annual Contribution which is based on the number of students who made at least one School Banking deposit in the prior year. Getting involved in School Banking is easy! All you need to get involved in the School Banking program is a Commonwealth Bank Youth saver account.

You can open an account for your child in one of two ways:
1. Online: Visit commbank.com.au/school banking and click on the link to open a Youth Saver account.

2. In Branch: Visit a Commonwealth Bank branch with identification for yourself and your child, like a driver’s licence and birth certificate. If your child has an existing Commonwealth Bank Youth Saver account they can start banking straight away. They just need to bring their deposit in every week on School Banking day using their Dollarmites deposit wallet. School Banking day is Wednesday. Each week you need to bring your yellow booklet to the music room from 8:30am-9am.(Classroom beside the uniform shop.)

If you would like to know more about School Banking, please ask for a 2020 School Banking program information pack from the school office, drop in to the music room Wednesday morning to see the Banking Coordinators or visit www.commbank.com.au/schoolbanking.

School Banking commences Wednesday 5 February 2020.

We are looking forward to a great year of saving with you all,

Caroline Alcorn and Fiona Egan
Banking Coordinators