Principal's Message - 4th June

QPS Art Show

Our school will be hosting an Art Show on Thursday 8 August 2024. Every student will have art showcased in the show reflective on their learning in our Visual Arts specialist program delivered by Mrs. Kelly Caldwell. The theme for this year's show is ‘It’s Alive’ and will include art from our students in a range of mediums and forms.

Parents and carers can purchase tickets for $5.00 per person. Tickets can be purchased online through the TryBooking website or using the QR code on the Art Show advertisement.

Our Art Show will be open to the public from 11am to 2:30pm and then open to families and students from 3:30pm until 7pm. The show will be hosted at the local community church on Learmonth Street. We will be seeking parent volunteers to assist in the setup and pack-down of the show and in providing baked goods for sale.

Book Here

Year 3/4 Camp Parent Information Webinar

Thank you to the parents and carers who attended the Year 3/4 Camp Parent Information webinar last Monday 27 May. Despite a few technical difficulties at the beginning, the presentation ran smoothly and provided comprehensive information to families about the camp and how to prepare your child for the experience. Families can access a recording of the webinar and information slides via Compass. I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation for the efforts of Ebony Tannouri, Harry Thompson, Megan Fullard and Melissa Fitzgerald in putting together and delivering such a comprehensive presentation for our families. I hope that families are able to use some of the strategies explored in the webinar to set your child up for success in preparing for camp. It is going to be a wonderful and enriching experience at Camp Kangaroobie for our Year 3/4 students.

Year 3/4 Queenscliff Erosion Walk

Last Tuesday 28 May, our Year 3/4 students ventured on a walk to the beaches in Queenscliff with Mrs Vistarini and Naomi Wells from the Bellarine Catchment Network. Students learnt about the impacts of erosion on our local beaches and how native flora and fauna are being affected by erosion, including the native endangered species of the Hooded Plover. Naomi shared insightful knowledge about native plants and animals with our students connecting it to their learning in Science about soil health.

Year 1 Litter Bandits

It has been wonderful to see a large number of our Year 1 students showing appreciation and care for our playground and gardens by being Litter Bandits at break times. Last week, a group of Year 1 students were determined to pick up as many pieces of litter found in the playground as possible with the aim of keeping our grounds looking beautiful and clean. I am so proud of their efforts, care and initiative. Thank you!

Students and families are encouraged to pack nude food lunch boxes. This means leaving packaging at home where possible to reduce waste at school. In the event students bring packaging to school in their lunch boxes, they are to ensure they put their rubbish and wrappers in the bins located in the playground or place their rubbish back into their lunchboxes to take home. This will ensure our school playground is kept clean and beautiful for us all to enjoy, as well as taking active steps to care for the environment.

Ride and Scoot to School Day

We had planned to do an official Ride and Scoot to School Day this coming Friday 7 June. However, the event has had to be cancelled due to not having enough parent volunteers available to support the supervision of students riding to and from school. We will plan to host another Ride and Scoot to School Day in Term 3.

Huff and Puff

Last week, we had a tremendous turnout of students attending Huff and Puff on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Students enjoyed participating in a range of physical activities including numbered soccer, rob the nest and chasing tails. We encourage all students to get to school early to be active and join in the fun.

Over the past few weeks, we have had a large number of Year 5/6 students apply to be Huff and Puff Leaders. These leaders will assist Mr Thompson with the setup and pack up of Huff and Puff each day, assist in the planning and promoting Huff and Puff at assemblies, co-design activities to foster student voice in the program as well as assist in the designing of posters to advertise the initiative across the school.

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to be Huff and Puff Leaders:

- Maya Epstein
- Aydin Sayegh
- Lennox Tuttle
- Kitty Britton
- Sophia Erichsen
- Laila Follett
- Jamie Dean
- Annabelle Clingan

Prep and Year 1 Police Visit

This coming Friday 7 June, our Prep and Year 1 students will participate in an incursion delivered by Victoria Police. Students will have the opportunity to meet local police officers, learn about emergency services and how they help our community and get an exciting tour of a police car.

Year 3/4 STEM Robotics Workshop - ‘Maths with Dash’

Today our Year 3/4 students participated in a STEM robotics workshop titled ‘Maths with Dash’. Students learnt how to create and apply visual coding to generate mathematical solutions. The Year 3/4s were challenged to apply coding skills and mathematical strategies to solve problems. They used visual block coding with the Dash robots to create and solve mathematical solutions linked with their numeracy topics. Students worked in teams to problem solve, created a range of simple coding sequences, measured distances and used their knowledge of angles to accurately code their robot to move.

Division Soccer

On Wednesday 12 June, our Year 5/6 students will be representing our school at the Division Soccer Championships at Myers Reserve in Bell Post Hill. Our students will be competing against schools from the Geelong district, after their fantastic efforts at the recent Lightning Premiership. The Year 5/6 students have shown enthusiasm and dedication in preparing for the event by training at recess and lunch over the past few weeks. We wish them all the best on the day and I know they will represent our school with pride and stellar sportsmanship.

Assembly

Parents, carers and friends are invited to attend our Week 9 Assembly on Friday 14 June May at 9am on the basketball courts. We will have students sharing their learning from Year 1, 3/4TA and 5/6C. We will also be presenting Excellence Certificates to celebrate the dedicated learning efforts of our students and presenting our new Huff and Puff Leaders with their badges.

King’s Birthday Long Weekend and Curriculum Day

I hope all of our families can enjoy an extra long weekend this weekend coming with the King’s Birthday public holiday held on Monday 10 June and a Curriculum Day on Tuesday 11 June. Students will not be required to attend school on Tuesday 11 June. School will resume on Wednesday 12 June.

School Council

I look forward to meeting with our School Council on Monday 17 June 2024.

As we enter our first week of Winter, I hope all of our families are keeping warm and healthy. Please remember to keep your child at home if they present with cold and flu symptoms or are unwell. We want to minimise the spread of illness and Covid in our community. As the weather is getting cooler, please ensure your child comes to school wearing suitable Winter school uniform, including jumpers and jackets. Thank you for your support.

I hope all of our families enjoy a wonderful, warm and relaxing long weekend. I look forward to seeing you at our next Assembly on Friday 14 June.

Nyatne baa Gobata

(Thank you and take care)

Mat McRae

Principal

Class News

Year 2 News

The Year 2 students have been learning about data collection in numeracy this week. Students have enjoyed collecting data and creating their own lists, tables and graphs. We have been learning about the most efficient ways to collect data and how to create a bar graph using data that we have recorded. We also answered questions about our results and findings. Students have been practising their multiplication facts, where they answer as many questions as they can in 10 minutes as a warm up.

Year 3/4 TA News

Chairs on Strike!

In Year 3/4 TA, our chairs went on strike! Faced with the challenge of winning them back, students had to use their persuasive writing skills to convince the chairs to return. Each student crafted a persuasive letter, focusing on sequential language to organise their arguments and exploring various persuasive devices. We also emphasised the importance of understanding different perspectives in persuasive writing, encouraging students to address the points raised in the chairs' letter. It was quite an interesting afternoon working without chairs, and the students embraced the challenge with humour and enthusiasm. See their responses below!

Science News

It’s been a fun and busy start to Term 2 in science. Most of our classes have been lucky enough to help get our veggie garden started, planting a variety of veggies and painting signs. We have some important veggie garden monitors from grades 3-6 watering the garden twice a week and have already noticed our plants getting bigger.

Grades prep, one and two have all been learning about living things and life cycles. The preps enjoyed a special visit from their grade 4 friend Ella who has become an expert on the lifecycle of a moth. She created a poster to explain the lifecycle and showed the students her pet caterpillars that had begun building a cocoon.

Grade 3/ 4 have now moved on to Earth and Space science. With their focus being on erosion, they went for a walk to the beach to listen to Naomi Wells (Coastal and Education Program Leader from the Bellarine Catchment Network) educate them about local sand dunes, erosion and the hooded plover.

In grade 5/6 students have examined animal adaptations and just started their STEM Design project for Zoos Victoria. I look forward to seeing what enrichment ideas they come up with after working their way through the design process.

Physical Education and Sports update

We have had lots of action in our regular Physical Education classes this term. Students have completed two weeks of swimming, football and netball clinics and a surprise trial of hockey presented by coaches from Hockey Geelong.

On behalf of all the students at QPS we would like to extend a HUGE ‘Thank You’ to both Ken Lugsdin and Laura Clark from the Queenscliff Football and Netball Club for volunteering their time and sharing their expertise with our students.

In PE over the next few weeks, we are utilising grant funding from Sporting Schools Victoria to engage a gymnastics coach in two weeks of classes at the St Aloysius Parish Hall. We will have equipment set up in the hall and students will visit in their regular PE sessions to participate in these activities.

It has been another busy few weeks at school with many opportunities provided for students to represent Queenscliff Primary School and participate in sporting events. Below are reports written by students involved in Cross Country running at Eastern Gardens and Football and Netball lightning Premiership held at Shell Road in Ocean Grove.

Mixed Netball report by Willow L and Kitty B:

In the first game QPS mixed team defeated Wallington with a score of 5 to 0. The goal scorers in the first game were Jack H, Emilia H and Willow L. Our positions in the first game were: Willow GS, Annabelle C, Emilia H GA Asher GK, Kitty was WA and Lily was WD the rest were off.

The second game we played against Saint Leonards white, and we lost.

When all the games were finished, we did a fun mini game with our mixed team and no bibs won.

At the end of the day Wallington Blue won, thank you for giving us this amazing opportunity. And we look forward to more fun events like this.

Girls Netball report by Maya E and Olivia W:

Last Tuesday the grade 5/6 students went to Ocean Grove to compete in the Footy and Netball Lightning Premiership. The girl’s netball team consisted of Maya, Olivia, Sass, Winter, Mae, Ruby, Lottie, Elli and Laila.

Just after we arrived at the netball courts and footy ground we started to train. Our first game was against Portarlington Red. Olivia played centre and goal defence and maya was goal shooter and goal attack. Maya scored 12 goals and Yay we won 17 to 2.

We went on to our second game with confidence. The score was 5 to 7 so close but unfortunately, we lost and then we played Wallington 17 to 2 unfortunately we lost again.

In our final game we played Portarlington Blue, Olivia was goal defence and wing attack, and Maya was wing defence and off the court in the second half. I intercepted the ball and fell on my knee and there were lots more injuries but sadly we lost.

Football report by Ravi P and Jai V:

We went to Ocean Grove to play four games of footy. It was heaps of fun and we won two out of four games. We all came back tired and sadly we didn’t make it to round two but at least we had fun.

Cross Country report by Oliver K and Loretta B:

In week five, 11 representatives from grade 3 to 6 were driven to Eastern Gardens by Mr Churchill to compete in the division cross country event, the representatives were: Alice H, Nyah L, Tommy M, Marcel S, Xavier G, Oliver K, Charlie H , Loretta B, Beau M, Zuri L and Henry M.

It was a great day for running the sun was out and everybody tried their very best. Xavier made it into regionals coming in seventh place. After everyone finished their events, we all came back to school tired after a big day of running. Everybody did an amazing job and are excited to try even harder next year.

Community News

Pottery
Bball