Dear Parents/Caregivers

Thanks to Christine Johnston, our staff and our students for making the Year 6 camp great! Feedback from staff, students, the camp operators, when our students were on activities and the general public gave encouraging feedback about our Calliope State School students.

 I am writing this as transition days are on at Calliope State High School for our year 6 students. A great way to see a snippet of high school life for our children.

 Just like to drop another sincere thank you, to our parents on two fronts. The interactions I have at the front of the school at the end of the day, are cool, and the parents who make such an effort to come to our Friday assemblies. I realise that there are so many parents with other obligations that make attending not feasible. To the parents who have some time in that time slot and use it to come to our assemblies I just want to say thank you.

 We have experienced a lot of wet days this term. This is a heavy lift on our staff and students, because everyone on the wet days has less open space. I appreciate the staff and students working with us to make the wet days as good as possible for everyone on deck.

 I am looking forward to the last week and a half at Calliope State School. Moira Mackenzie returns to her role as Principal for 2023 onwards from leave. The school community has worked through the last two years so well with the changes that happened during that time, and having Moira back will keep building on the work in classrooms and break times.

 Have a great rest of your week

 Kind regards

Pete Stansfield

Principal Teacher

Calliope State School

Calliope State School has been fortunate to have a fabulous Instrumental Music program lead by Angie Clifton (Woodwind, Brass, Percussion) and Shanice Andersen (Strings) throughout 2022. Next year, the Instrumental Music teachers will be changing for Calliope State School as circuits are readjusted. We will welcome Chris Allen (Woodwind, Brass, Percussion) and Grace Rackemenn (Strings) in 2023. The teachers will be doing a handover in Week 10, to ensure a smooth transition for our IM students.

We thank Angie and Shanice for the wonderful work they have done at Calliope State School over the past few years and wish them well at their new schools.

Calliope Carols

On Friday night our school participated in the Calliope Community Christmas carols. It was wonderful to see so many students performing in the carols as part of choirs, class groups and instrumental music groups. Thanks go to Miss Williams and Ms Davis for their work with the choirs and year level groups, singing their carols. We also thank Ms Clifton and Ms Andersen for their work with the instrumental ensembles. The new addition of the teacher choir was well received.

Thank you to all the families enjoying this fabulous community event run by our Calliope Rotary Club. Thank you to the Calliope Rotary Club for hosting this event again in 2022.

YEAR 6 CAMP

From all reports, the Year 6 students had a fantastic time on camp last week. They were still smiling when they arrived safely back at school on Friday; albeit very tired and ready for their own bed. A huge thank you goes to our staff who gave up a large amount of their own time to plan and prepare for the Year 6 camp and to those staff who supported the students whilst on camp including Mrs Johnston, Mrs Smith-Ashton, Ms Heather, Ms Philp and Ms Whale.

SPORTING STARS

Here are some photos of Seth at his Gokart Race in Las Vegas. He had an amazing time and gained so much from the experience of street racing in a different country. Wow, what an amazing opportunity and accomplishment! We will be keeping an eye out for you in the future Formula 1 racers.

Welcome to Week 9!

This week's PBL focus is ‘Play areas ’. The lesson focuses on students using the correct play areas and knowing the rules around each area.

PBL Reward - Water Play

Please remember to check the timetable below for which day your child has water play on. There will be alternate activities for those wishing not to participate. 

They will need;

• Packed board Shorts
• Rashie
• Towel

The PBL meeting set for this week is now cancelled.

More information regarding our first PBL meeting in Term 1 2023 will be out closer to this time.

Congratulations to 5A who had an amazing attendance rate for Week 8. Their attendance rate was 96.66% for the week!

Also, congratulations to the 6 classes which were at or above our school attendance target of 94% for Week 8.

Remember, every day you are away is a learning day lost.

P&C NEWS 

We really are at the end of the year now, with just 9 days to go it is time to say farewell to the current grade 6’s and welcome to the new Preps! We wish the grade 6’s best of luck with the new adventure into high school. We welcome the new preps and their families to our school, may the journey ahead be one full of laughter, learning, and excitement. We can’t wait to see what next year brings.

 P & C Meeting 

Next Meeting: Next Meeting: Tuesday 07/02/2023, at 6 pm in the admin conference room. If you would like to add anything to the agenda or send apologies, please email secretary.calliopess@gmail.com. This will be the first meeting of the new year and we encourage parents to come along and discuss (as long as it’s in the agenda) their ideas for the new year. We welcome all parents and new members, btw you can be a member without taking on a role.

AGM Meeting

Will be held on the 07/03/2023, at 6pm in the admin conference room. At this meeting all positions will be declared open, and a new executive voted in. We also have the opportunity to create working groups. We encourage all parents to come along and take part in this important process. If there is no executive voted in there is a long and difficult process of closing the P&C and an even harder one of starting it back up again.

QKR

Please remember to change your children’s class details at the start of the year on QKR so that we can ensure your child’s tuckshop and uniforms go to the right classrooms and children.

Tuckshop News 

The amazing Miss Lisa and Miss Mel will be working hard till the very last day to provide food for our kids, this means we still need you! Miss Lisa can always use an extra set of hands or two each tuckshop day to make sure your kids get their food as quickly as possible at break times. Friday is Miss Lisa’s busiest day; it is always a rush to get your child’s food ready and packed on time so an extra pair of hands would be appreciated. If you’d like to lend a hand, please contact Miss Lisa via our Facebook page or pandc@calliopess.eq.edu.au  

Parents are reminded that ice creams and ice blocks need to be collected from the tuckshop by the students with their paper bags. Without your help, the tuckshop will not be able to continue to run as it does. 

Taste Buds Fundraiser 

Taste buds are a variety of yummy spice blends, savoury salts & rubs and versatile mixes and the best part is you can order online, and they are delivered straight to your door. Remember to use the code Calliope at checkout to fundraise for your kids. Feel free to share the link with friends and family. More information on the Calliope State School P & C Facebook page or Visit https://tastebudsfundraising.com.au/?ref=Calliope 

Uniform Shop 

 We will be opening the uniform shop on Tuesday 6^th December from 4:30pm to 5:30pm for parents to come along and shop for next year's uniforms. If you can’t make it during this time, please remember that you can order via QKR. We will also open the uniform shop on Thursday 19^th January 2023 from 4:30pm to 5:30pm for parents to come down and purchase uniforms before the beginning of school. Otherwise the Uniform shop is via appointment only; if you need to make an appointment, please email the uniform shop email address below. Otherwise, orders can be done on QKR. *Please note that orders can take up to 3 business days to fill after the day of order.* These items are then taken to the office, and the students are contacted to collect them. If you haven’t received your uniform order, please check, if it has been three days, that it’s not in your child’s school bag (we all have that one child :p ) and that it’s not in the classroom. Please remember if you have any concerns the admin ladies are probably unlikely to be able to solve them, contact us via our Facebook page or email uniformshop.calliopess@gmail.com   

Volunteer Reminder 

I would like to take this moment to remind everyone that we are volunteers, we are parents, we are employed by other organisations or companies, and that, unfortunately, although it would be amazing, we do not have endless hours in the day. Please, when contacting us be patient, be polite and be kind. We know it may be frustrating not getting a response straight away however please understand you are not being ignored, we just may be busy and will get to it as soon as possible. If you would like to help lighten the load and volunteer, please reach out we would love to have you on board. As a group of volunteers, we understand how difficult it is to find time for everyday life, let alone adding fundraising events to the calendar, so thank you for sparing some time to help us work towards providing funding for the children of our school.

Please don’t hesitate to stop us and say hi and ask questions.  

Your P&C Team, 

Tenielle, Kate, Bec & Geoff. 

Is your child starting Prep in 2023?

If your child is born between 1/07/2016 - 30/06/2017, they are eligiable to be enrolled into Prep in 2023.

Please contact the office ASAP on 4975 8333 for arrange an Enrolment Pack and organise an Enrolment interview. 

Planning for classes is underway and it is important that we have all our new Prep students enrolled and on our system, ready to be allocated to a class. 

For further information, please contact the office. 

What a great year it’s been for the Woodwind/Brass and Percussion program here at Calliope State School. The students have shown their musical talents through performing at a variety of events.

Both Beginners and Senior bands have put their best foot forward every time they step out on stage, especially at out Art’s Spectacular where we joined with Calliope SHS students.  We also competed at the local Gladstone Eisteddfod and I couldn’t be prouder as a conductor regarding their performance and etiquette.

Fanfare, which is our band biannual state wide competition, was held earlier in the year and again the Calliope kids stepped up working their magic with great feedback from the adjudicator which we took on board to improve our ensemble.

The year 6 students put their leadership cap on and helped the beginner students settle into the 2022 band during rehearsal every week before school, helping them with notes and following the music.

We are very lucky in Queensland to have an Instrumental Music program in our schools that run free of charge for lessons and ensembles weekly allowing students to have the opportunity to learn an instrument.  It is commonly known that learning an instrument not only sustains and feeds the brain but it also improves so many other cognitive and physical aspects of the human body.

I would like to say thank you to all the parents/families/staff for the support you have given the students so that they can become a well rounded human being with a spark of musicianship.

While I have been at Calliope for some years there is a change in the air. Calliope will be having a new face of the Woodwind/Brass and Percussion program from 2023 while I move into another school program in the district. Again thanks for all the support over the years.

Remember, life is not a rehearsal.

Book in your Summer Holiday Program with Helping Hands Calliope today and secure your spot!

Friendships are made at our Summer Holiday Programs. Building friendships and creating new ones is what we are great at.

Some of the activities on offer with Helping Hands these holidays,

• Excursion to FunZone in Rocky
• Excursion to Gladstone Cinemas
• Laser Tag Incursion
• Science Adventure

Plus many more! 

Book now https://bit.ly/hhn-summer-program-2023 or find out more by contacting Aimee on 0409 267 755 or emailing calliope@helpinghandsnetwork.com.au 

Head lice are common in children (particularly between the ages of 3 - 11 years) and have nothing to do with personal hygiene or cleanliness. 

While head lice don't carry disease, their bites can cause itching and skin irritation. 

To reduce your child's risk of getting head lice, you can ensure long hair is tied up, discourage the sharing of brushes and combs and minimise head-to-head contact with others.

Remember, anyone can get head lice. These critters have no preferences for hair colour or type, age or ethnicity.