Welcome to Term 3! We hope everyone has had a restful and enjoyable break.

Although some restrictions and measures have been lifted across Queensland, the Department of Education has advised schools to continue existing routines and practices to maintain and assure the health and safety of all learners, staff, parents, carers and community members.

For the first few weeks at least, some existing processes will remain in place as outlined below.

Drop Off and Pick Up Arrangements

For now, our school will continue to have restricted entry by parents and carers. We request that no one passes the Administration Building. We will maintain our previous plan for before and after school entry and exit. Staff will be available every morning at the designated gates to escort students to their classrooms. Every afternoon, our students will group in their exit areas with siblings to exit at 3.15pm. Family groups meet at the youngest siblings exit area. We ask that social distancing is still maintained between adults in this space as per the State Government’s recommended 1.5m.

Please remember that staggering your collection times up to 3.30pm, may be an option for your family to avoid the peak collection times. Our preferred pick up option is to use Stop, Drop and Go.

Social Distancing, Visitors and Illness

All schools must encourage staff, parents and other adult visitors to observe physical distancing measures by not congregating in areas inside or around the school, particularly at peak Drop Off and Pick Up times. Schools need to ensure any visitors must comply with the onsite health and safety measures, including not attending the site if unwell, maintaining physical distancing requirements and practising good health and hygiene.

Under the Queensland Chief Health Officer Directive, any student who is unwell must not attend school and should remain at home until well. All schools must ask parents or carers to collect their child from school if they are unwell.

Parade

Parade will continue to be online to ensure large gatherings of adults do not occur. Each Friday morning, a link to our Digital Parade will be available on our School Facebook page for families to celebrate and recognise the efforts, successes and achievements of our learners and staff.

Communication

Although face to face opportunities to meet with your child/ren’s class teacher are currently limited, please never hesitate to make contact via telephone or email. All teachers are responsive and maintain regular communications with our families. Class teachers should always be your ‘first port of call’ and will be well positioned to answer any queries, address any concerns or provide any information or support.

The work undertaken by staff in Term Two, together with the amazing collaborative efforts and support from families has positioned us well for Term Three, particularly as measures and restrictions in schools are reduced further. The Leadership Team would like to take this opportunity to thank all Calliope State School Staff for their ongoing efforts and commitments, going above and beyond to sustain high levels of support to all students. A special thank you is also extended to you, for working with us, being understanding and supportive as we all navigate what has been a challenging time, that has also brought about new opportunities.

Semester One Report Cards

Semester One Report Cards will be emailed to all families next Monday. Now is a good time to check that we have your current contact details. If more than one nominated person requires copies of Report Cards, please contact our Administration via email admin@calliopess.eq.edu.au or on 4975 8333.

Term 2 Principal’s Awards

At the end of Term 2 we acknowledged one student from each class for their achievements throughout the term. Congratulations to our Term 2 recipients of the Principal’s Award for demonstrating being safe, respectful and responsible learners throughout the term.

School Photos

Our 2020 School Photos will take place this Thursday, 16 July. Please ensure your child is wearing the Calliope State School uniform (no sports shirts) on Thursday. Any hair accessories should also be in school colours. Photos will be individual ones this year.

Under 8s

During the last week of Term 2, our Prep-Year 2 classes participated in Under 8s activities. It was a different version for 2020, as each cohort had their own session to explore a range of activities. It was a creative time for all and thank you to our teachers and teacher aides for their efforts in organising and running the sessions.

Prep Enrolment for 2021

Enrolment packages for Prep 2021 are now available from the school office. Information sessions will be held later in the term for parents. Dates will be advised as further guidelines regarding the lifting of restrictions are released from Education Queensland.

If your child turns five by June 30 2021, he/she is eligible to enrol in 2021. The table below is a guide to assist families to determine Prep eligibility.

School Opinion Survey

2020 School Opinion Survey and Schooling During COVID-19 Survey

Parents and Caregivers are invited to participate in this year’s School Opinion Survey and have a say about schooling during the COVID-19 lockdown. You are also given the opportunity to provide feedback about our school more generally. Remember that when answering the questions, it is about the 2020 school year. Participation in the survey is anonymous and you are encouraged to take this opportunity to have your say. The survey form has been designed so that it can easily be completed on a computer or smartphone. The online survey will be available until Friday, 17 July 2020, and should take less than five minutes to complete.

To access the survey, please click on the link below or copy and paste it into your web browser:

Parent survey – https://survey.qed.qld.gov.au/form/Parents-HaveYourSay

Please contact the school if you have any questions about the survey.

We welcome our new families to Calliope State School and look forward to working with all families throughout the term.

Regards

Raelene

P&C News!

Ready to go for Term 3! We hope that all of our families had a fantastic winter break. We certainly had a few cool days in there.

Cookie Dough Fundraiser

Thank you to everyone who registered and collected orders for our Cookie Dough Fundraiser. The tubs are arriving TODAY. If you participated in this fundraiser, you can pick your tubs up from the carpark at BUNTING PARK BETWEEN 2PM and 4PM TODAY. Please contact us via pandc@calliopess.eq.edu.au with any questions.

Tuckshop

This term, Tuckshop will be open First and Second Breaks. The whole menu will be available at First Break and ice creams, slushies, snacks and drinks will be available at Second Brea. We are still cashless, due to COVID procedures, so make sure you place all orders on the Flexischools App.

Flexischools

We have found an alternative to Flexischools which is more user friendly for our families and our P&C. Throughout this term we will be transitioning to use QKR, but don’t worry, this will be a slow transition. For now, Flexischools is still in use and this is the best way to order your tuckshop and uniforms. We will keep you updated as the transition begins in the coming weeks. Watch this space!

Term 3 Fundraisers

Our P&C are currently confirming the fundraisers for the term. To stay up to date, you can follow our Facebook page – Calliope State School P&C and continue to read our piece in the school newsletter each week.

Hopefully everyone had a smooth first day back yesterday, with the kids back at school. We look forward to another term at Calliope State School!                        

Your P&C Team

Tenielle, Sian, Bec & Kate

Welcome back to Term 3. The Positive Behaviour for Learning lesson this week is: Responsible – Routines. Like any workplace, school is filled with routines that are there to help in a variety of ways. The only way routines work; however, is if we all play our part in following them. Some ways routines help a school include:

• helping us maximise the learning time;
• helping us reduce problem behaviour;
• helping us make students feel safe;
• helping all students to learn to the best of their abilities.

Please take a moment to revise the importance of routines with your child/children. This may be a chance to help reinforce some of the routines you would like to establish at home.

Fantastic Fun Friday is on in Week 2 and the theme is ‘Free Dress!’ Be sure to remind your child/children to get their stamp chart in to be a part of the day. We will keep you posted on when Fantastic Fun Friday returns to the hall.

Also, Calliope News is still on Facebook every Tuesday at 9.00am. Please like and share it.

Thanks.

Brian Rowe

Student Welfare Teacher

Each year the University of NSW conducts assessment tasks (competitions) for children across the South Pacific in a variety of subjects. The objective of these competitions is to help parents gauge the progress of their child against children in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. These competitions are not compulsory, but are open to families willing to pay the cost to have their child participate in the task.

There are a variety of competitions to enter. Parents can enter their children in as many of these as they choose. We encourage parents to talk to their children to consider taking on this challenge. Children should consider tackling the subjects they demonstrate confidence in. eg: if they’re good spellers, try the spelling competition. We will be offering the competition to students in years 2-6. All tasks are online.

Once again our P and C is recognising the achievements of students in last year’s testing by sponsoring the cost of those students in the tests that they were successful in. Those students receiving this sponsorship were emailed their letters last week.

Any other students who would like to complete an ICAS test will require entry/permission forms. All forms are to be emailed home and emailed back to school for 2020. If forms are required, please email Kylie Kettle at kkett3@eq.edu.au for them.

Payment is required by Friday 3 August