Newsletter 17 - 1 June 2022

From the Principal

Hi everyone,

The crisp windy weather is drying out our sodden oval. We should be back to having the entire oval by the end of the week- students have been able to play at lunchtime on the drier parts of the oval. AFL clinic will be on this afternoon.

The demolition works in Martin Street are progressing well and there is limited to no interruption to our normal operations. I will provide an update on this work at the P&C meeting tonight.

Qbuild have been engaged to manage the repair works to our outdoor learning area. Contractors were onsite yesterday to scope the works with Qbuild. We expect to regain access to this great learning space next term. There are plans for volunteers at the Winter Solstice to weed out the student learning gardens. Please see Mr Bryant’s piece later in this newsletter about what students have been learning in his lessons, so far this term.

There is already a mountain of jumpers and other warm clothing in lost property. Please check this area if you are missing clothing items- there’s further information from Ms Grayson in this newsletter.

I was really pleased to report to students that the combination of our new bins and their attention to securing their lunch boxes has seen a drastic decline in the amount of rubbish at our oval (there are also far fewer birds looking for food).

Mr Doug gave the students a score of 9/10 for this improvement. I have challenged the students to Take 3 for the Sea each day to clean the eating areas to perfection. Well done everybody- I am very pleased about this environmental  improvement.

Have a great week.

Simon Vaseo - Principal

Excursions

There are a few excursions coming up. Please keep an eye out for the invoices that will be emailed to parents. Please note we will not be accepting cash payments. Please use BPoint as directed on the invoice.

Restorative Practices Facilitator Training

On Monday and Tuesday this week Katherine Austin (Inclusion Leader) and myself had the opportunity to partake in the first phase of Facilitating Restorative Practices in Schools with Margaret Thorsborne. Margaret has worked as a Guidance Counsellor and is a leader in developing and facilitating restorative practices in both Australia and New Zealand. The picture is of the both of us at Brisbane South State Secondary College and the panoramic view they have from the fourth floor, where we were fortunate to do this training.

Restorative practices are the ability to bring people together after a wrong doing and see the chain of cause, effect and making things right to move forward. It has been very successful in many schools and is the preferred practice of our school when dealing with challenging situations. Our teachers have been trained in restorative practices and are supported by our leadership team.

Both Mrs Austin and myself will complete the facilitator training in two weeks. We will use our new skills to look at how we can best manage situations in our school where harm is caused by actions of others, be that bullying, classroom behaviours or damage to property or persons. This training will further build the skills, confidence, and support for behaviour management at Buranda for everyone.

Miss Lauren Grayson - HOC

Lost Property

Hello Parents and Carers,

As we move into the colder month’s students are bringing more items to school. Unfortunately, this means more items are being misplaced and ending up in our lost property basket. Many items are unnamed and therefore cannot be returned to their rightful owners.

I am encouraging you to name your students' items and prevent the ever-increasing collection.

Please see photos of current lost property, it is requested that the items be collected by this Friday the 3 June, 2022 or otherwise the items may be donated to charity or placed for resale as second-hand uniforms in the uniform shop.

Many thanks.

Miss Lauren Grayson - HOC

School Photos - Wed 15 June

Booking Parent Teacher Interviews

The portal for booking Parent Teacher Interviews will open at different times. Please see dates and times for teachers below:

Mrs Bright, Ms Border, Miss Bryant and Ms Santoro - portal opens Friday 27 May at 8am and closes Friday 10 June at 8pm.

Mrs Curry, Mrs Cetinic, Ms O'Dempsey, Ms Walters, Ms Coutts and Mrs Blanchfield - portal opens Monday 6 June at 8am and closes Friday 17 June at 8pm.

Teachers will email a link and instructions directly to parents/carers in the coming weeks. Please follow the instructions to book an interivew time. You will see the available dates and times, for your child's teacher once you have logged in. To change a booking please contact teachers directly.

Premier's Reading Challenge

The 2022 Premier's Reading Challege (PRC) has begun! A record form has already been sent home with your child.

• Prep - Year 4 (students need to read 20 books)
• Year 5 and 6 (students need to read 15 books)

Please ensure your child's name, class and grade are filled out on the form. Parents must also sign the form before returning them to the library by Friday 26 August.

Ms Stacey - Library Manager

From the Forest

Well, what times we live in! A great shift has occurred two weekends past, that paves the way for much greater action on climate change and an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.  Amazing! In my view, this is great news for our children, and their children and their children.

I have renamed this little newsletter piece, because our little school has in fact become a beautiful, little forest humming with life of all sorts.  This is thanks to the hard work of our staff and students over many years. It gives me great pleasure to stroll through the grounds now, listening to bird song, nibbling on bush tucker and dreaming in a sea of green. This week we continue the good work, planting, harvesting, weeding, pruning, learning. We also read some First Nations history and the Preps helped feed the worms.  With less than a month to the Winter Solstice, life is good in the forest.

Mr Bryant - Environmental Ed teacher

From the P & C

All parents and children are invited to the First Friday Club meeting after school this Friday (3 June 2022) for a get-together and play in Hanlon Park. It is wonderful to have the new bike and pedestrian path joining the school to Hanlon Park under Logan Road (thanks again to Laura Klein for her 9-year campaign for this much safer path for families walking to school via Hanlon Park).

The next major P&C event is a working bee to weed the school garden and the Winter Solstice on Saturday 18 June 2022. Make sure you put it in your diary.

The working bee will start at 2pm and the Winter Solstice will run from 4-7pm.

If you can help with the Winter Solstice (e.g. serving soup or popcorn), there is a sign-up sheet for volunteers at this link.

The working bee to clean up the school garden will hopefully enable the school garden to reopen in term 3, once QBuild complete some repair work to the drainage system in the garden.

Uniform shop opening hours

We’re still looking for convenors for the uniform shop and for the tuckshop.

We know lots of parents want their children to try on uniforms they’ve ordered before collecting them. The uniform shop will be open at the following times this week and next week for kids to try on and pick up uniforms:

• Thursday 2 and 9 June 2022, 3-4pm
• Friday 3 and 10 June 2022, 8-8.45am

These times are for the next two weeks but we’ll work on regular opening times in future too.

Next P&C meeting tonight

Our next monthly meeting is tonight Wednesday, 1 June 2022, at 6.30pm in the school library. Everyone is welcome to come along to share ideas for helping the school.

If you can’t make it to the meeting in person, you can attend the P&C meeting online via this Microsoft Teams link. We plan to continue in the future to hold monthly meetings both in person and online to give all parents the opportunity to attend (often while juggling kids and dinner time at home). 

Before tonight’s monthly meeting, we will have a Special Meeting starting at 6.15pm in the school library to update the P&C Constitution to reflect a 2022 version of the Model P&C Constitution for Queensland.

Chris McGrath - P&C President

E: president@burandasspandc.org.au

M: 0432899097

P&C website: https://www.burandasspandc.org.au/

P&C on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BurandaPandC

The P&C are looking for a Uniform Shop Convenor!

The P&C is currently searching for a uniform shop convenor.

The convenor is paid in accordance with the current P&C Associations Award. No experience is necessary (we can provide all needed training).

We would love to fill this role with a parent of a child in the school who is looking for a few hours of paid work a week. This parent-friendly work can be fitted around school drop-off and pick-up times.

More details on the role are available on the P&C website at this link.

Kind regards

Chris McGrath - P&C President

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