Beerwah State School

Dear Parents/Carers,

As our temperatures start to soar, please remind your children to bring their drink bottles to school every day and to stay hydrated throughout the day. All students need to wear a school hat if they would like to play outdoors during break times. Please make sure your child’s name is clearly marked on their school hat.

Leadership Strategic Planning

Our Leadership Team met last week to strategically plan for 2025. This included budget allocations, class structures, timetables, staffing and our Annual Implementation Plan for 2025 which will focus on teaching and learning, student behaviour and well-being.

Our predicted student numbers for next year are 220. This is very pleasing, as we were anticipating much lower numbers due to the loss of a big year 6 cohort moving onto high school for the second time in two years. It is wonderful to see our student population gradually grow in the lower school and to hear positive stories about our school in the community. At this stage we are planning on 9 classes for 2025. This structure will allow for some growth in each year level. If we have a reduction in student numbers, we will have to change the structure to 8 classes. Unfortunately, we can’t make that decision now.

You will receive notification later this term on your child’s class and teacher for 2025. Please remember that if we need to change the class structure, your child’s class and teacher may change on Day 8 of 2025.

Student behaviour

We have been focusing on improving student behaviour this year and supporting students to be the best they can be both in the classroom and the playground. We have implemented many strategies this year which have had a significant positive impact on behaviour. Our soccer league program has taught our senior students many team playing skills around resilience. This has decreased behaviour incidents on the Oval by 80%. We have introduced an alternate activities timetable at lunchtimes. This timetable has reduced playground incidents by 70%. We are also focusing on classroom behaviours and have implemented many PBL strategies and professional development sessions around managing tricky behaviours.

I am asking all parents/carers to assist us by regularly talking to your children about the whole school behaviour focus of the week. Also, please do not send your child to school before 8:30am each day. We do not have supervision in the tuckshop area until 8:30am and it is important that we have a settled start to each day in order to setup our students up for success. We have Helping Hands on the school grounds for any families that need before or afterschool care.

School Supervisor Visit

Martin Leach, our School Supervisor visited our school at the end of Term 3. He was very impressed with all the work we are doing around Curriculum and Pedagogy. He said we are doing all the right work not only with teaching & Learning but also with well-being and behaviour management. Thank to our teaching staff for your hard work and dedication you show each and every day.

Surf Skills

Surf skills lessons commenced last week. Feedback from students, staff and the community is extremely positive. Our students are having an amazing time learning very valuable skills. A huge thank you to Mrs Murphy for co-ordinating this. Many hours of work have gone into planning and training for this. Great job!

Vacation Care

I am thrilled to let you know that Carolyn Brewer and I met with Helping Hands management last week and we have been able to secure vacation care over the Christmas holidays at our school to support our families!

Details for the Holiday Program are:

Monday 16th - Friday 20th December

Closed for 2 weeks

Monday 6th January - Friday 24th January

Open 6.30am - 6.00pm

2025 Preps are able to commence with Helping Hands from Monday 6th January

AFL Interschool Sport

A huge thank you to Ms Murphy and Miss Rachel for organising and supervising Interschool Sport AFL on Friday 18th and 25th of October. Students played extremely well, winning all four games and showing great sportsmanship throughout the entire day.

World Teachers Day

This week, we celebrated World Teachers Day with a special afternoon tea, after school. Our teachers go above and beyond for our students each and every day. Thank you to all of our teachers for their hard work and dedication this year. Thank you to the teacher aides for organising the afternoon tea and the P&C for organising a special teacher’s raffle.

Day for Daniel

Our school supported Day for Daniel to raise awareness of child safety.

It was great to see so many students supporting this event by wearing red today! Thank you to Mr Deady and the Student Council for organising this day.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Scott Bowden

Assessment and reporting

We are quickly coming up to the assessment period in many of our units of work. These assessements are for us to see each child’s progress in their leaning and allow us to make A-E judgements in report cards.

Often we find children will something like ‘good’ or ‘bad’ if we ask them ‘how was school today?’ To support children during this time, and get some more detail in their answers, it’s helpful to ask more open-ended questions like:

“What was the best thing about school today?”

“Tell me about what you’re learning during insert subject here?”

“What’s something that you’re learning to do in insert subject here?”

These kinds of questions can help stimulate a conversation and allow us to then see how children are feeling about their learning.

Student council

Student council are very excited because their 2025 project is coming together. All year, they have been fundraising to buy artworks/signage for the toilet doors. These have now arrived and look great. In the coming weeks Mr Deady, Mr Rob and student council will be install the new signs.

Khaki Day

Our Khaki day is coming up on 15 November. This fundraiser is on Steve Irwin Day and raises fund for Wildlife Warriors, which continued the work to Steve Irwin to protect and preserve wildlife.

Children wear khaki and bring gold coin donations on the 15th.

Stanley River incursion

On Monday 28 October, we will have teachers from the Stanley River Outdoor Education Centre coming to deliver our annual leadership program to our Year 5 students. Our applications for 2025 leadership positions will come out soon after that.

Check out our calendar of events throughout the year, via the school's website at

Beerwah State School

You can sync any event to your personal calendar by clicking to  open the event and click on the  'Add to Calendar' button.  

Check out our Facebook page for more Celebrations and what's happening at our School.

Beerwah State School Facebook page

"Everyone is a reader, some just haven't found their favourite book yet"

BORROWING;

Tuesday 3/4, 4/5, 5/6A, 5/6B, 5/6C                    Return books on Monday.

Wednesday Prep1 , Prep, Yr1/2                        Return books Tuesday

Thursday yr 3, Yr 2/3                                           Return books Wednesday 

If you require a Library bag they are available through the Uniform Shop for $18.00.

If you have any questions with regards to sport, please phone Ms Murphy at the school on 5436 5555 or email jlmur1@eq.edu.au

Janelle Murphy (HPE Teacher)

Come and join our awesome school community in 2025 Prep-YR6.

Enrolling is easy, see the editable enrolment forms on our school website under the Enrolling tab, email back to admin@beerwahss.eq.edu.au or drop into the school office to collect a pack. Once we receive the completed documents, we will book your meeting and tour with our Principal Mr Scott Bowden. 

2025 Prep Stay & Play Events are a great way to start transitioning your child into prep. See the attached flyer for coming dates and book via email admin@beerwahss.eq.edu.au 

Our Prep 2025 Meet the Teacher event will be towards the end of term 4. An invitation will be posted to all of our enrolled 2025 preps and watch Skoolbag/Audiri for dates & times. 

Kandoo Joeys Playgroup is on every Wednesday from 9-11am for all babies to Pre-prep children, this is a great way to start transitioning your Pre-prep and meet other families that will be joining prep with you!

 Yr1 - 6 Enrolments Open - If you have friends looking to relocate to a new school. We are open to all year 1-6 levels in 2025.

P&C Meetings

Thank you to all who came to our recent meeting, we made some small but great decisions, outlined in the information below.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday 18th November, week 8 at 6pm in the library. We will spend this next meeting finalising plans for 2025, events, fundraisers and how we can help the school to help our children.

Come along and join us and see how you can be a part of a really important group of caring parents and citizens who want to make a difference in our children’s schooling lives.

Volunteering

Did you know: Beerwah Primary P&C Association is comprised entirely of volunteers, and many services wouldn’t be able to be provided if it wasn’t for the important, vital contribution they provide.  Our volunteer efforts help: 

· improve the quality of school life for our children and teachers 

· spread the word and increase awareness of important issues 

· bring new insights, ideas and introduce new ways of working 

· get people involved in meaningful work 

· benefit the community at large 

· change the world! 

The P&C Association are an approved volunteer organization with Centrelink (Services Australia) so if you need to complete volunteering hours, the school is a great option. This can be extended to grandparents and other friends, they will need to apply for a Blue Card to volunteer in the school which is an easy process we can assist with. Contact us by email and we can arrange to work out how we can help each other.

Facebook Page

We try to keep our Facebook page very active with all our notices here along with the Audiri (formerly Skoolbag) app.

If you haven’t already jumped onto our Facebook page, you should. It’s a great place to see what’s coming up, what volunteers are needed & helpful reminders in case you missed the notification. We’ll also share our tuckshop specials and any meal deal information, so if you don’t see the posts, you might miss out!

It’s also the easiest place to get in touch with P&C.

Just find our page and like us to start following. BSS P&C Facebook page

Events & Fundraising

Grant Success!!!

As mentioned in the principal update, P&C have been fortunate to be awarded a grant from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund. With this grant, we will finally have a permanent shade structure on the oval. This will be fantastic for break times, sports lessons, outdoor activities, school events, community events and so much more! Keep an eye on our newsletter and Facebook page for progress updates. Fingers crossed the construction will begin soon.

Community Bake Sale – calling all bakers!

The P&C have been invited to host a bake sale at the inaugural Beerwah Heart Crop Swap on Saturday 9th November from 9-1pm. We are seeking bakers to contribute to our sale, things like slices, cupcakes or cookies. We are also seeking volunteers to help sell the goods. If you can spare 30-45 minutes on the day we would be very appreciative, it is tricky for just one or two people to manage the whole time. Please email or message through Facebook if you are available: pandc@beerwahss.eq.edu.au Come along to the event to see what it’s all about, another wonderful community event organised by the council.

Christmas Raffle

It’s hard to believe but we are not too far away from the end of the school year, so we are thinking about Christmas already!!! This year we will send home raffle tickets to each family for our Christmas raffle. We have a number of fabulous prizes on offer, make sure you see the note with the tickets in a couple of weeks. Tickets are only $2 each and with the top prize valued at $170, it’s well worth the investment to have a chance at winning.

Entertainment Book

Don’t forget to keep an eye on our Facebook page for offers for the Entertainment membership. There are continuous bonuses, and we get 20% of the purchase price for our fundraising. With the Christmas holidays just around the corner, this could make a fantastic present for someone, or yourself! Not only are vouchers for discounts in QLD or Australia, but they also even stretch to Bali! Have a look at their website: www.entertainmentbook.com.au Plus, there are currently offers of 5% off all Virgin Flights! When purchasing, remember to select Beerwah State School as your chosen fundraiser.

Recycling Programs

Let’s group together to try and make small changes to help our planet. By recycling as many items as possible, we can reduce the amount of landfill.

We are registered collectors for TerraCycle for those hard to recycle items.

Please collect:

· empty toothpaste tubes

· old toothbrushes

· pens, highlighters, texters and markers that don’t work

· Glad (or similar) packaging – zip-lock bags or cling wrap.

We collect these items to send to TerraCycle who will turn them into useful products. If you’d like to know more, please have a look at their website www.terracycle.com.au.

Donations can be dropped off to school, collection boxes are available in the library.

The school is also registered to collect drink cans and bottles through Containers for Change. There are bins throughout the school so you can drop off your recycling as you bring your child to school.

Book Club

The next issue will be sent home soon with some great bargains are ideal for Christmas presents – it’s never too early to start thinking about those gifts! The best way to order is online at www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP all books are delivered to the school and distributed to each child. If you would prefer to order as gifts, ensure you select that option and your items will be available for collection from the office.

An extra bonus is that the school receives 15% of all order values to purchase books for our library. Books are such a wonderful addition to any child’s life and there are some amazing prices in the book club.

Tuckshop will be open each Friday in term 4 (unless otherwise advised). All ordering will be via Qkr! which will be made available approximately one week before. All orders need to be placed by 6pm the Thursday prior so our volunteers have time to shop. The menu can be viewed on the tuckshop noticeboard and on Skoolbag. Each week there is a different special for $5 and additional snacks and drinks can be ordered too.

If you have a little time on Friday morning to give Sarah a hand, she would be very grateful. Just 20 minutes to chop some fruit, or stick the labels on bags, that would be a huge help. Running the tuckshop is not a job for just one volunteer! pandc@beerwahss.eq.edu.au 

Uniform Shop 

As mentioned in previous newsletters and correspondence, uniforms are now available from The School Locker in Maroochydore.

Ordering is online or in-store, it’s so simple and convenient. Plus, by setting up your free Student Advantage Membership online, you will access special members pricing where applicable.

If you don’t have this information, look at the school website for details.

If you are uncertain of the size you require, one of each size of polo shirt and dress will be available in school to try on. Appointments need to be made in advance, please email janie.bssuniformshop@gmail.com to arrange an appointment.

The P&C have second-hand uniforms available for sale at drastically reduced prices depending on the condition. Contact Janie at the above email address if you would like to have a look at what’s available.

If you have uniforms that are too small, or if your child is leaving school, please drop in your uniforms to the school office as we will happily re-sell to another family who can use them.

With limited volunteers and fundraising opportunities, this is one avenue that will help all families, and the P&C Association.

Did you know that Qkr! Can be accessed from any web browser? If you prefer to use a computer or tablet or unable to download the app, simply go to https://qkr-store.qkrschool.com/store/#/home and set up your Qkr! account to access school payments, uniform shop, and tuckshop ordering.  

Kandoo Joeys is open to all families with before-school-aged children. We open every Wednesday morning from 9.00am-11.00am from Weeks 2-9 of the school Term. You will find us in J Block, next to the Admin Block. Bring along a hat and some morning tea for your little one and come and join in the fun and social connections as your children learn through play. 

For more information contact  playgroup@beerwahss.eq.edu.au  

Helping Hands provides quality before and after school care. This service forms strong, collaborative ties with the school, children, families, and the local community; to ensure the needs and interests of every child and family are supported. We provide an environment in which children feel safe and have fun. Afternoon tea is included.

We are located in D Block which is next to the Senior oval. For the children’s safety it is a requirement that you park in the allocated staff car park and use the footpaths to walk to and from the Centre. The car park will be open in the morning 6:30 to 7:30 and afternoon 5:00 to 6:00. Outside of these times, you will need to use the normal school carpark located on Old Gympie Rd. Children must be supervised at all times by an adult.

If you have any questions please phone Helping Hands Co-ordinator Sharon on: 0448 083 043, or click on the link below.

Concerns regarding young children with difficult and defiant behaviours? The Management of Young Children Program (MYCP) is available to support you.

The MYCP is supported by Beerwah and Landsborough State Schools (therefore no cost for these families) and is a practical and individualised behaviour support program for parents and carers of young children aged 2½ to 7 years and their families. It is a well-established and evidence based early intervention program targeting children who display defiant or oppositional behaviour with the aim of reducing such problematic behaviours in primary school and beyond.

For more information or interest in participating in the program, please see the school website link or contact the Landsborough State School office 5436 2777.

Our School has our own Skoolbag iPhone and Android App to help us communicate more effectively with our school Parent/Student community. Download the Skoolbag App to receive short messages, reminders and alerts. Parents will also be able to use eForms for absentee notes and change of details.

Click here to visit Skoolbag website