Principal's Piece
SCHOOL OPINION SURVEY 2022
The School Opinion Survey is open until Friday, 12 August 2022.
To have your say, check your email for an invitation from the Department of Education titled School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2022.
Can’t find your invitation? If your family has more than one parent/caregiver, check that they haven’t received the invitation and/or check your junk email folder.
The annual suite of School Opinion Surveys will be conducted in Term 3 and will close on 12 August 2022. All families, school staff and students in target year levels (Years 5 and 6) will be invited to participate. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what our school does well, and how we can improve.
Parents/caregivers who do not have access to the internet at home are welcome to complete their survey online at the school. School computers/tablets will be available.
FREE PREP VISION SCREENING
Good vision is important for a child’s educational, physical and social development. Vision screening checks for common eye conditions that may impact your child’s ability to see and therefore impact their learning and development.
A Registered Nurse will be visiting the school on Monday 29 August 2022 to conduct vision screening for children in their Prep year. If you wish to have your Prep child participate in this free vision screening program, please complete an online consent form by 23 August 2022. See link below. Paper consent forms are available and will be distributed to you upon request. Parents do not need to be present for screening; however, if you would like to be, please contact the school to arrange this.
If your child’s vision is screened, you will be advised of the results in writing. If a vision concern is found, you will receive a phone call from the nurse to discuss referral to an eye health professional for further assessment. If a vision concern is identified and your child requires glasses, eligible health care card holders may be assisted with free basic glasses through the Spectacle Supply Scheme.
Participation in vision screening is not compulsory. If you do not wish for your child to participate in screening, please complete the consent form and indicate that you wish to decline screening.
Please click on the following link to access the Online Consent Form and Parent Information Letter: https://visionscreening.health.qld.gov.au/ParentalConsent/13126dUn. Alternatively, you can scan the QR code below:
Please note: The consent form link will close on Tuesday 23rd August 2022.
If you have any questions, please contact the Primary School Nurse Health Readiness Program on 1800 687 372.
PREP TRANSITIONS 2023 – PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS
Our Prep Parent Information sessions will be held on Thursday August 11 at Calliope State School. Sessions be at 9.15am and repeated at 5.00pm.
The sessions are for parents and children do not need to attend. Please book in for a session by visiting the school office, phoning 4975 8333 or emailing admin@calliopess.eq.edu.au.
Enrolment packs will be available at the session as well as the office from August 11.
Interviews will be held later in the term, from September 5.
If you have any inquiries about Prep for 2022, please contact the office.
MYPOLICE GLADSTONE – INTERNET SAFETY TIPS, SOCIAL MEDIA
Gladstone, it’s time to keep talking about how children and teenagers are using mobile devices and social media.
It was recently brought to the attention of Gladstone Police that some children and teenagers are being exposed to high levels of violent and graphic material through the Snapchat messaging function.
Snapchat is a very popular photo and video sharing social media application.
Multiple reports to police were that ‘groups’ were being created in Snapchat’s messaging function, meaning that messages were being shared with large numbers of children.
Whilst the group may have initially started with a small group of other children all known to each other, others would be added and would often end up being communication with unknown users.
Reports also received were that children were randomly being added into already existing large groups of users unknown to them.
While this is problematic in itself, select children would then share videos of very violent acts into the group that they likely located on the internet.
The end result of this, was that many children were unwillingly, potentially exposed to footage that could cause significant harm to them.
As outlined during the last post, offenders identified in these situations may be dealt with by police under section 210(1)(e) Queensland Criminal Code Act 1899 – Indecent treatment of children under 16.
- Any person who—
(e) without legitimate reason, wilfully exposes a child under the age of 16 years to any indecent object or any indecent film, videotape, audiotape, picture, photograph or printed or written matter is guilty of an indictable offence.
Let’s now talk about how to help and try to stop this happening.
Have open communication with your children about Snapchat and how they are using it.
Young people should only engage with other users on Snapchat who are known to them.
And importantly in relation to this topic, if they are added into a group message on Snapchat (or any other social media application), they should not accept unless they know who is in the group and what is being talked or posted about.
It is very important that if things go wrong online and children are exposed to something that causes them concern, that they feel able to tell a trusted adult.
This topic is confronting, but so is the online material that children are exposed to.
Please help us to keep them safe by talking and learning together.
Keep an eye out for our next post…
INCURSION
On Wednesday 17 August 2022, Dion Drummond Indigenous Performance will be visiting Calliope State School as part of our Reconciliation Action Plan and NAIDOC Week celebrations. In his school visits, Dion shares tales and artefacts from his cultures, teaching students about the different traditions of both Torres Strait Island and Aboriginal storytelling, song and dance.
An information letter, including the permission form, will be sent home this week. Cost is $5.00 per student and payment can be made at the office (EFTPOS) or via BPoint. Cash payment can not be accepted. Payment and permission forms are due back by Monday 15 August.
150TH ANNIVERSARY LUNCH
Please see the invitation to the Luncheon for our 150 Year Celebration on August 27, 2022. There are limited seats so please get in early if you want to secure yourself a seat.
Copy and paste the link on the bottom into your browser and this will take you to the booking platform.
There will be Fair on this day for all to attend (no bookings necessary). The Fair runs from 1pm to 5pm.
STAFF MEMBER OF THE WEEK LEADEDRSHIP AWARD – Kris Booth
FINAL THOUGHTS
Regards
Coralie Ditchmen
Acting Principal