Ironside State School eNewsletter

News from Mr Johnson

Dear Parents,

P&C SWIMATHON
Next week will see our Yr 1 – 6 students participating in the P&C Swimathon in the pool, while our Prep students partake in the Runathon on the oval.

Due to Covid restrictions, we have had to limit our parent volunteers and make the Swimathon / Runathon a non-spectator event. The committee and Parent Reps have been overwhelmed with offers of volunteer help. However, we now have confirmed that we have a full schedule of volunteers rostered on across the five days. If you have not heard directly from the organising committee, while we appreciate your offer very much, we do not need you to assist with the running of the program.

Limiting parent participation, support and spectatorship was a difficult but necessary decision in light of managing the event in the most COVID-safe manner. We understand that parents who were willing to volunteer their time will be disappointed, but in our 2020 context, we appreciate your understanding as we manage the event with the interest of student health and wellbeing at the forefront of our planning.

So your family can be prepared, by ensuring that your child/ren are bringing the appropriate equipment for their event to school next week, please see the schedule for classes below.

MONDAY 14 SEPTEMBER	TUESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER	WEDNESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER	THURSDAY 17 SEPTEMBER	FRIDAY 18 SEPTEMBER
1D	All Prep classes (Runathon)	1C	1E	1A
2G	1B	2B	All Year 4 classes	1F
All Year 3 classes	All Year 5 classes	All Year 6 classes		2A
				2C
				2D
				2E
				2F

Sincere thanks to the organising committee (Isobel Khursandi, Kelly Sedgman & Fiona Hynd) for their tireless work. Thanks also to you, our community, for your understanding, support and sponsorship.

CYBER SAFETY
This week certainly highlighted the need to be both aware, as well as vigilant in the supervision, of our children’s use of social media platforms. I have copied below a link to the Australian Government eSafety Commissioner’s website, which contains useful information along with resources to support parents in the space of children and cyber safety.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

CAR SIGNS – A HUGE HELP!
If you collect your child using a vehicle please have the A4 paper sign with their first name, surname and class printed and displayed in the windscreen. The signs are predominantly for the benefit of staff. While we’re ‘pretty good’ we are yet to retain individual child and aligned family transport vehicle information!! Your help with this is very much appreciated.

IF YOU ARE SICK – STAY HOME!
I need to stress to families that the ‘previous normal’ of students heading to school if mildly unwell and “seeing how you go” does not apply in the current COVID-19 context.

I understand there is a clear difference between some anxious tummies, allergies etc. However, if your child displays cold or flu like symptoms – cough, fever, runny nose, aches, lethargy etc. They need to be at home. In these present times we need to ensure both the health and wellbeing of the individual as well as the group.

All the very best for the week ahead.

Stay safe and well.

News from Mr Murdoch

Dear parents and caregivers,

REMINDER: Parent access to school
We are maintaining our practice of ‘By Appointment’. You are welcome on site providing that you have:

An agreed appointment (including volunteers to our shops etc.)
Presented to and signed in at the administration office – our records of who was on site and when are vital at all times, but particularly in the context of our current operating procedures.

We appreciate your continued support with this.

REMINDER: Prep Swimming: TERM 4
This year our Prep students will be participating in a Water Safety Unit in HPE classes in Term 4. Prep classes will do a 4 week block of one hour swimming lessons. Dates and classes are listed below:

Prep A	Weeks 2 – 5 12 October – 2 November
Prep B
Prep C
Prep D	Weeks 6 – 9 9 November – 30 November
Prep E
Prep F

Students will be assessed at the beginning of the term, and placed in small groups based on ability. Georgie Parkes Swim School provide instructors to support the HPE teachers.

Lesson times will be advised by classroom teachers at the beginning of the term. All students must bring the following items to every class in order to participate in swimming lessons;

Swimmers
Swimming shirt or rashie
Swimming cap (lycra swimming caps are our preferred option as the children can put these on themselves)
Goggles should be worn for comfort, but are not compulsory for participation

Please support your student by helping them learn to put their own swimmers, rashie, cap and goggles on over the next few weeks. It is an important aspect of their personal development to take care of their belongings, and to be able to dress themselves for swimming lessons. Things like shoelaces can be difficult for little fingers so we can certainly help with those.

We are looking forward to having our smallest Ironside students learn some valuable water safety lessons.

REMINDER: 2021 Prep Enrolments
We are accepting enrolment applications for 2021. Receiving these applications and information now means that we are able to forward plan and make balanced determinations relating to class placements that best support our new Preppies.

If you have a little person (born between the 1 July 2015 and the 30 June 2016) who is starting school next year, could you please make contact with our Enrolments Officer at enrolments@ironsidess.eq.edu.au.

Similarly, if you know of someone with a child eligible for Prep in 2021, who meets our enrolment management plan criteria, please encourage them to contact the school to discuss the application process.

Around the School

Prep:
This week and next week the prep classes are visiting Pullenvale Environmental Education Centre (PEEC) to learn how to be nature kids. The nature kids begin their day by meeting Harvey, the bear, who shares his experiences getting to know PEEC’s outside play spaces. The nature kids then spend the rest of the day having fun and exploring Harvey’s backyard, we even got to meet the little teddies and show them that playing outside is so much fun. Harvey taught us that it is important to explore respectfully, by speaking and acting with respect to place and everything in it!

Prep PEEC

Year 1:
In 1F, students have been reading fairy tales and practicing their writing by reimagining the ending to well-known stories. Thanks to Alexa, Maddie and Kahil for sharing their work. See if you can figure out what the well-known story was!

Year 2:

News from Mrs Vecchio

YEAR 3 into YEAR 4 - 2021 LAPTOP PROGRAM PAUSE
As detailed in previous newsletters, 2021 will be a ‘pause’ year in the one-to-one laptop program so that the school can reassess the program in line with the digital demands of the Australian Curriculum.

Leveraging Digital has been identified as a pillar for the next strategic cycle 2021 - 2024. As a measure to prepare space for the work ahead, there will be no one-to-one laptop option for the 2021 Year 4 students.

Ironside State School has previously instigated a ‘pause year’ when we structurally changed from running ‘laptop’ and ‘non-laptop’ classes in 2018. This pause in 2021 for the current Year 3 cohort will provide us the time and space to make strategic and sustainable changes within a developing school policy framework.

Parents are reassured there will be sufficient devices, including desktops, laptops and iPads, available for access by all students in Year 4 2021. We are working to ensure high-quality teaching and learning continues using school ICT resources which are continually being upgraded and expanded.

SHORT STORY WRITING COMPETITION – YEARS 4 - 6
Students in Years 4, 5 and 6 are invited to write a short story of between 1000 and 1500 words on any subject.
The winner will receive $100 and have their story published on the StoryLinks website.

Entries due:                        9 OCTOBER 2020
Shortlist announced:      19 OCTOBER 2020
Winner announced:       1 NOVEMBER 2020

Send your entries via email to storylinksau@gmail.com
The winner will be announced at 3 pm on Sunday 1 November during Australia Reads at a free public session online via ZOOM. The best stories entered will be read aloud.

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY -
It must be fiction and all your own work.
Include your name, address, age, school/home school, email address and phone number.
The competition is open to all children living in Australia.
Note: all entries will be checked for plagiarism.
Send any enquiries to Mia Macrossan, Editor, Story Links: email storylinksau@gmail.com

EXCURSION REFLECTION
Year 4 students enjoyed an excellent ‘COVID-Safe’ excursion to the Queensland Science Centre. The hands-on learning experiences engaged and motivated our young scientists. Sincere thanks to the Year 4 teachers whose efforts made this experience possible, and the adult helpers whose assistance was invaluable.

Queensland Science Centre

News from Mrs Bairstow

STUDENT COUNCIL – RUOK?!
The Oasis Play Area has been a hive of bright and happy activity this week, as the Student Councillors encourage students to look on the bright side of life, and to ask for help when you’re not feeling OK. Student Councillors planned, created, resourced and provided fun activities like “Write a compliment to a friend”; “Chatterboxes”; crown making and colouring in. They are to be congratulated for their passion and enthusiasm for these events in the interest of donating to a worthwhile charity.

Please help support the Student Council in raising funds and awareness for RUOK? Day.

The Student Council are passionate about raising awareness of mental health, particularly considering the difficult circumstances of 2020 for much of our community.

We can’t collect gold coin donations because of COVID – but that will not stop us from doing good work for a good cause.

Prep & Year 1 students are encouraged to wear YELLOW Friday 11 September tomorrow. (This date is different to RUOK? Day, to accommodate the Year 1 Cross Country event)

Please help us to raise funds as you normally would, by making a ‘gold coin’ donation for wearing free dress on these special days. Any amount is appreciated and will help the Student Council in contributing to our wider community.

Donations are now open on QKR! and will close on Friday 11 September.

How to make a donation:

Log in to the QKR! App and click on the P&C Menu:

How to make a donation:

Log in to the QKR! App and click on the P&C Menu:

How to make a donation:

Log in to the QKR! App and click on the P&C Menu:

YEAR 6 GRADUATION
We are fielding a lot of enquiries and offers of support relating to the Year 6 Graduation, which is understandable given the uncertainty of how events may look different in the light of COVID restrictions.

I can assure you that graduation is certainly something that is at the forefront of all of our minds and we are doing our best to plan in uncertain times.

We have set a timeline of Week 1, Term 4 in terms of making clear decisions about what can and cannot be achieved in terms of ceremonies and celebrations. This will allow us to assess what community transition may / may not look like after the Spring holiday period and make some plans within a somewhat reasonable 9 week window.

Work is well underway for what we can manage at this juncture. The parent volunteer group organising the Year Book are working hard to gather memories; Dance Fever is booked for Term 4 (with a COVID safe plan in place) so the ‘final dance’ can proceed; and other traditions like the farewell song and the pool party will go ahead as well.

There are many thoughts and suggestions being continually discussed and considered. There are only two things that are certain at this stage though: 1. Graduation will look different to previous years, and 2. We will go to significant effort to ensure that we give the Year 6 students the best graduation we possibly can.

Stay tuned for more details, early in Term 4.

YEAR 5 NEWS – BRINGING TYALGUM TO IRONSIDE
Following on from the success of the Year 6 “Bringing Canberra to Ironside” Day, the Year 5 team have started planning their at-school camp program for our students. Activities will reflect the theme of the Tyalgum Camp – focusing on fun in the outdoors, teamwork and leadership. The day will be held mid Term 4 (around the same time as the Tyalgum Camp had been booked). We are looking forward to some fun with our Year 5 students!!

RI RECOMMENCING IN TERM 4
Religious Instruction will recommence in Term 4. Times for RI are scheduled on a Friday at the following times:

9.50am Years 4-6

10.20am Years 1-3

Students participate in RI based on parent consent on enrolment information or written communication to the school at any other time. Parents can update their preferences for their children in relation to RI by writing to admin@ironsidess.eq.edu.au.

We have been advised that Buddhist classes will recommence in 2021.