Welcome to week two of term one. Students are now engaging in their first units of work for the year.  The year has started off with extreme weather conditions.  Our school always considers student safety first.  We have had a few days where students have spent their eating and playtime indoors due to the weather conditions.  This week we will have our first assembly for the year at 9:15 am on Friday.  This is a time where the whole school assemblies together in the hall to hear whole school messages, celebrate achievement and learn which classes are being recognised throughout the school for cleanliness, Cool Coins and attendance.  All parents and caregivers are welcome to attend.

 ActivPanels

Every classroom at Calliope State School now has an ActivPanel for student learning.  ActivPanels look like an 85 inch TV, but they are specifically designed for student learning with hardened glass and twenty points of touch.  Staff who have not received professional development in the use of the Panels are participating in this over the next two weeks.  When ActivPanels are used well in the classroom they engage our students and transform learning.

Equity and Excellence is our state-wide vision for a progressive, high performing education system, in Queensland.  It underpins the support that comes to our school from the whole system. Our vision as a nation is that all children and young people are confident, creative lifelong learners active in their community.  Well-educated children live healthier and longer lives.  By coming together as a school community we have the opportunity to improve the lives of young people.

We look for equity and excellence in the education that we provide. And through education we can achieve equity and excellence for future opportunities for all of our children to support them to realise their potential.

Since the strategy was launched in Queensland in February of 2023 the system has come together and realigned operations and support provided to our school. Now is the ideal time for our school to reflect upon our plans for 2024 and to consider how we can leverage from the opportunities that are available through the Equity and Excellence strategy. The strategy is a long term plan that will guide our work over the next decade.

Gratitude

Gratitude is one of our Resilience Project themes.  In the last couple of weeks we have been grateful for a couple of amazing people in our school and community. The first person we are grateful for is a parent – Sarah.  Sarah has been seen using tongs to pick up papers at our school when she is up here.  Thank you Sarah.  Your efforts are appreciated by all.  The second person we are grateful for this week is a student who has a green scooter.  This student showed kindness by helping another student who had fallen over after school.  Our school is grateful that you showed empathy and kindness for a fellow student.  Students and Parents at Calliope State School are awesome.

Introducing Our New Instrumental Music Teacher

Welcoming Mrs Debbie Dingle to our Calliope SS community.  Debbie is our new Band Instrumental Music Teacher.  She has been in the local Gladstone community for over 20 years, teaching at many schools in our region.  Debbie is passionate about children receiving a quality music education to enrich not just their playing skills, but their lives as a whole. She also believes in creating strong links with parents as they are the biggest advocate for their child's success in everything.  She's very much looking forward to working with our students here at Calliope SS.

Parent Information sessions will be held in Week 3 for all classes. This is a great time to find out information and routines for your child’s classroom. Please see table below for times.

6 Awesome has annihilated the start of the year, hitting our stride early. We are busy establishing routines and learning our roles of leaders and learners. So far we have learned about how Australia became federated, cartesian planes, and properties of matter. We have started our self portraits and are getting ready for an amazing year. We are connected and engaged.

Congratulations to Prep C who had an amazing attendance rate for week 1. Their attendance rate was 100% for the Week!

Also, congratulations to the 17 classes which were at or above our school attendance target of 94% for Week 1.

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

All year 6 parents would have received an invitation to our ceremony this Friday to present badges to our 2024 leaders, as well as Seniors badges and certificates to our whole Year 6 cohort. This parade will be a special parade to outline the importance of being a Year 6 student at CSS and the expectations around this-setting the scene for the year ahead. As part of this ceremony, all year 6 students will recite a leadership oath.

Hi everyone! We hope everyone is easing into the school year nicely. Don’t forget to update your QKR profiles to reflect your children’s 2024 classes. Have you checked out some of the new tuckshop items on the summer menu? Our Tuckshop team have worked hard to provide some yummy options that can keep everyone cool through the summer months. We have some wonderful parents who volunteer in the tuckshop on a regular basis and other wonderful parents who just pop in when they can. And we appreciate them all! You would be amazed how big of a help it is to have a parent volunteer to spend 30-60 minutes in the tuckshop helping the team. You certainly don’t have to make a full day commitment to help out. Here are some tasks that need to be completed through the stated times of the day. If you could spare any of these times on a Tuesday through to Friday (Friday is definitely our busiest day), please reach out as we would love to have you!

• 8:15-9:00am Breakfast Club; making cups of cereal & milk, pouring juice, cutting up fruit.
• 9:00-9:30am Sticking order labels onto brown paper bags
• 9:00-10:00am Basic food prep; cutting fruit and vegetables
• 10:00-11:00am Making up Snack and Custard Cups
• 10:30-11:00am Packing lunches into class tubs
• 11:15-Noon  Washing dishes

You can put your name down for just one task at the time and day that suits you; then you’re out the door. All tasks are under the supervision of our wonderful Tuckshop Convenor, Lisa, so you won’t ever be thrown in the deep end without direction. We really do have such a great team, who are very welcoming and are always up for a laugh.

If food isn’t your thing; we would also love to hear from you if are interested in volunteering in our uniform shop, just once or twice per month! Some regular members of our team have moved onto high school and there are some spaces to fill in our monthly roster. Our Uniform shop will be back to normal opening hours from this week; Fridays 8:30-9:00am, before school parade. Please note; sales are via QKR only, no cash or EFTPOS will be available.

Our P&C meetings are usually held on the second Tuesday of each month through school terms. Our first meeting for the year will be held on Tuesday 13^th February in the Admin building at 5pm. We wish to invite everyone along and we would love to see you there. If you can’t make it but would like an opportunity to share your thoughts or ideas; please do not hesitate to reach out.

We welcome you to contact us at any time! You can email us on; communication.calliopess@gmail.com for our Communication Officer or pandc@calliopess.eq.edu.au for our Executive team.

Warm regards,

Heidi, Geoff, Angela and Lisa.

If you need to collect your child during school hours, please attend the office first, before approaching your child. You will need to sign your student/s out on the iPad and collect a slip to present to the class teacher. This procedure is necessary to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all school personnel.