1st August 2017

St Helens News L e a r n i n g w i t h F r i e n d s

TERM CALENDAR

Thursday 3rd August 100! Hope performance Tuesday 8th August Chess Tournament Tinana SS Friday 4th August Last day for Mr Cross Saturday 19th August Family Field Day Friday 25th August Book Week Dress up day Friday 1st September Junior Reading Challenge Friday 15th September Last day of term 3 Tuesday 2nd October First day of term 4

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As you would be aware, this Friday is the final day at St Helens for Mr Cross before he departs for England to teach at Claycots Primary School. Mark has been working at St Helens since 2004 and in that time has forged wonderful connections with students, staff and parents. There will be an opportunity for parents to say farewells to Mr Cross after parade next Friday in the hall over a cup of tea or coffee. On behalf of the entire school community I would like to acknowledge the amazing contributions that Mr Cross has made to St Helens and wish him the very best for the next phase of his career in England. Replacing Mr Cross as Head of Curriculum for the remainder of the year will be Mrs Foskett. Congratulations to Mrs Foskett on her successful application for the position. I am looking forward to working closely with Martine as she supports teachers with the delivery of curriculum. Teaching the Yr3F class for the remainder of the year will be Ms Beth Dunstan. A note from Mark Cross I wanted to take the time to say a massive thank you to the entire school community for being such a wonderful part of my life for the last thirteen years. I have enjoyed working with parents, staff, community groups and of course our students to make St Helens State School an energetic and vibrant place to learn and grow. Over my many years of employment at St Helens I have witnessed outstanding growth, from a small school with approximately 80 students to the school we know today of 315, even with these larger numbers we manage to keep an inclusive, inviting school community that remains focused on our students. I am extremely proud of every student that I have worked with, the level of commitment, integrity and respect that our students have is brilliant.

As I leave St Helens I go with so many wonderful memories and with an enormous amount of pride. Once again thank you to everyone for your support and assistance. This Thursday (3rd August) at 12 o’clock Student Council will be hosting a performance by the 100% HOPE Choir. The choir is from Uganda and will be singing and dancing to some traditional Ugandan music. The children who are in the choir live in Hope Village. There will be a cost of $3 per student that will be donated to 100% HOPE on the day of the performance.

Eisteddfod Representing the school next week at the Eisteddfod will be a number of St Helens students, including both year1 classes, drama club students and the Senior Choir. We look forward to the year1 students giving us a rehearsal of their performance on parade this Friday.

National Plant a tree day

Last Friday our Yr2 classes participated in National Plant a Tree Day. Students planted a variety of native trees adjacent to the outdoor classroom area we are currently developing. I would like to acknowledge the wonderful support of Toyota for sponsoring this initiative and providing the plants as well as T shirts and gloves for the students.

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Field Day Stalls If you know of anyone that would like to have a stall at this year’s Family Field Day, sites are $15. Please call Emily in the office for more details on 4120 2222.

P&C News The P&C are looking for volunteers to help on Family Field Day. Even if you could just donate 1hour of your day to help out that would be greatly appreciated. The P&C are running a basket raffle on Family Field Day. Please find the donation sheet up in the office. Each class has been asked to help out and donate something to go into the baskets.

Family Field Day Our annual Family Field Day is being held on Saturday the 19th of August. As we have done in previous years, Bill Amusements will be providing the rides for the day. This year we will have the Crazy Wave, Super Slide, Pirate Ship, Merry go round and 2 Castles to cater for various age groups.

Unlimited ride passes can be purchased (cash only) from the office at the discounted price of $28 for each child. Unlimited ride passes are available on the day for $32 or you can buy individual ride tickets. At the end of the day Bill’s Amusement will donate 20% of the profits to our P&C, which will go straight back into the school.

Choir News There is a note coming home this week regarding our performance next week in the Maryborough Eisteddfod. Don’t miss your opportunity to come along and see the students perform on Monday at 8:30 at the Brolga Theatre.

Zone Athletics A significant number of our students aged 10 and up will be competing at the zone athletics carnival this Friday. Congratulations to the students on making it to this level of competition. We wish you all the very best for your events this Friday.

Coming Soon - Reading Rainforest - Book Fair! 15th -19th August

Please help support our library by coming and purchasing a book from our book fair. You can also check out the awesome rainforest display. All purchases benefit our school library. There will be books, posters and a large variety of stationary to choose from. Dates: Tue 15th to Sat 19th August Time: 8:15am – 9am before school 2:45pm – 3:45pm after school All day Saturday at the field day Place: Library

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Earn & Learn Earn & Learn is back! Anyone from our school community – parents, grandparents, neighbours and friends who shop at Woolworths can collect stickers for your kids. For every $10 spent between the 26th of July to 19th of September 2017 you earn a sticker. Complete a sticker sheet and drop it into a collection box at school or your local Woolworths store. The school can choose resources from MTA for free when all the sheet have been tallied up.

Dinner Table Topics

Prep – Don’t forget to wear your winter woollies tomorrow and to be at school on time. We fly to Antarctica in the morning!!! Our Passports are ready to go and so are we!! Year 1A – Just a friendly reminder we are looking for donations of any size chocolate bars for our Field day stall. Please bring to the classroom. Year 1R – Thank you to all the families who have donated prizes for Family Field Day. Our spinning prize wheel is still in much need of donations. Small prize donations such as colouring books, bubbles, playdoh and other knickknacks would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. Year 2B – Thank you to those parents who have already started sending in 1.25 litre bottles of soft drink for Family Fun Day. Keep them coming as we need about 150 bottles!!! We are all started getting excited about the event and look forward to our stall being successful.

Year 2C – Just a reminder to parents to send in your $3 contribution to our plant stand for Family Field Day. This week the children will begin making their origami pots ready to put the seedlings in. An extra reminder to send in excursion permission and medical notes. Final payment for the excursion is due on Tuesday the 29th of August. Year 3F – Year 3F are looking forward to meeting Ms Dunstan next week. I’m sure everyone will make her feel very welcome. Year 3N – We have been trialling new Maths warm-ups each week in class. These have been very engaging (and often competitive)! Ask your child which warm-up has been their favourite. Also, please keep working on multiplication facts at home, as we move into new content in Maths. Keep an eye out on Class Dojo for suggested activities you can do at home with your child.

Year 3/4H – If there are any 3/4H parents who have a gazebo that we can borrow for the Family Field Day, please contact me at school or by email ahutt17@eq.edu.au. We will require 2 for the day. Thank you.

Year 4S – Dear parents, with Family Fun Day fast approaching we would like any donations of toy prizes for our class stall. Please bring the donations directly to the class. Closer to the day we will ask the students to volunteer to help man the stall and volunteer some of their time for the morning. Year 4/5H – We have been analysing poems in English lessons. Share with your child your favourite poem from when you were a child. Don’t forget $3 for 100% Hope on Thursday! Year 5H – Thank-you to all the families who have started selling raffle tickets to raise money for our Fraser Island excursion. If you sell out of tickets or would like some to sell, please feel free to see me.

Year 6M – The students are working towards achieving success this week with a new learning goal system in place. Ask the students how this works and how we measure success.

FOR SALE

Size 16 school shirts $15 each. Please see Emily in the office

Star of the Week

Prep Possums

Vanessa Daw For working really hard to improve her writing. Great effort!

Prep Wombats

Mia Dullahide For being an excellent role model to all her peers.

Year 1A Malachi Thomas For making great progress with his camera words and reading!

Year 1R Dylan Irving For making spelling connections when reading. Great spotting Dylan.

Year 2B Jakara-Rose Gibbs For having a positive attitude towards learning and always trying your best.

Year 2C Joby-Jye Gibbs For working hard on your handwriting.

Year 3F Noah Short For an improvement in your commitment to your work. Well done!

Year 3N Aiden Jeffrey For the fantastic progress you have made in Maths this term. Your commitment is outstanding.

Year 3/4H Stacey-Lee Menzies For your contribution to group activities and helping others.

Year 4S Charlie Byrne For the bravery you show when contributing to our class discussions.

Year 4/5H Tobius Price For an improved effort and attitude to his learning.

Year 5H Paige Crole For bringing your positive attitude to the classroom everyday.

Year 6M Tahlia Gossip For always leading by example. Your classroom behaviour and commitment is exceptional.

Library Alerah Simpson For enthusiastically answering questions during this week’s library lesson. Well done!