DATES TO REMEMBER

31 March Last Day of School

17 April Easter Monday

18 April Term 2 begins

19 April Cross Country

24 April ANZAC Day parade 9am

25 April ANZAC Day

1 May Labour Day

8 May P&C Meeting 9am

9-11th May NAPLAN—Yrs 3 & 5

9-11th May Mothers’ Day Stall

15-19 May Chappy Week

18 May Music Camp

19 May Walk Safely to School Day

ANZAC Badges for Sale after the

holidays $1.00 each

28 March 2017

PRINCIPAL-Ms Marni Morrison

D/PRINCIPAL– Mrs Alison Prendergast

Harmony Day is celebrated on the 21 March every year. In Australia, it is a day to celebrate our diverse and multicultural society; it is about community participation, inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. At Serviceton South State School we have 43 cultures represented and 38 languages spoken. To celebrate the diversity within our school community we celebrated Harmony Day with a special parade at 9am in the hall. This commenced with a Parade of Nations to celebrate each of the 43 countries represented at our school, followed by dance performances by our Vietnamese, African and Samoan communities, a Bilingual song by our Prep 2 students, and the recital of a German poem. Our School Choir closed the parade beautifully, singing the song, “We are the World”. Thank you to our school community for embracing and celebrating our diversity.

From the Principal….

It seems like only yesterday I was welcoming everyone back from the Christmas holidays, and now we are facing our spring vacation in only a couple of days. Where does the time go?

Thank you to everyone who provided their opinion on the new school uniform. We will be making a decision before the end of the week so that sample uniforms can be made and displayed for further feedback early in Term Two.

We have a few people on leave at the beginning of next term. Mrs Garbellotto will be away for the first three weeks and will be replaced by Ms Peters. Mrs Kuzewicz will be back for a week, working with 5B while Mrs Middleton and Mrs Bridger are on leave. Mrs McDonald will also be on leave for the first few weeks next term, with Mrs Stojanovic taking the class full time.

I am looking forward to spending a week exploring southern Vietnam during the coming holidays and I wish everyone a happy and safe break. We will see everyone on Tuesday 18th April, ready for more wonderful learning in Term Two.

Happy Easter! Ms Marni Morrison Principal

Curriculum Corner

NAPLAN Next term students in Years 3 and 5 will take part in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests. Testing will be held on Tuesday 9

th, Wednesday 10

th

and Thursday 11th May. These tests are

designed to give a point in time snapshot of a child’s progress and are an important tool for comparing this progress with peers within the school, across the State and also across Australia. Further information will be provided to our families next term on how you can help you child in the lead up to NAPLAN.

Indigenous Creative Writing Workshop Congratulations to the selected students from Serviceton South State School who recently attended the Indigenous Creative Writing Workshop at ACU to work alongside Indigenous author/illustrator, Gregg Driesse. Our students displayed exemplary behaviour and are to be commended on their engagement in the program. Thank you to Ms Cusack who accompanied our students to this event.

Indigenous Creative Writers Workshop written by Dawn Nikkelson

The Indigenous students attended ACU last week. During this trip we met an author called Gregg Dreise. He was the author of Silly Birds and The Illustrator. He has an interesting life with his family being half German and half Indigenous. He told us some amazing stories about his tribe and was highly entertaining. He also inspired us to write our own stories. He asked us all to write about the 5 senses about a photo in front of us, it was fun to write down how the places made us feel. Gregg was a funny man who made us all laugh. It was a little sad when we had to say goodbye. I hope Gregg comes for a visit again.

Dawn Mars House Captain Student Councillor

Cross Country Due to recent wet weather, our cross country carnival for our students in Years 4-6 was postponed. This event will now take place on Wednesday 19 April commencing at 1:30pm on the top oval. All parents and carers are welcome to attend.

Student Council News On Tuesday, the Student Council Committee held their first fundraising event for the year, selling Zooper Dooper ice blocks at second break for 50c. Thank you to all of our students and staff who purchased an ice block to help raise funds to purchase further equipment for lunchtime activities.

Years 5 & 6 Camp Last week, all students in Years 5 & 6 were provided with information about our proposed

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school camp for 2017. An exciting and adventurous camp has been planned for Term 4 at Midginbil Hill for 3 days/2 nights. For us to proceed with this booking, we need to meet the minimum number of students required by the campsite. Please ensure your expression of interest is returned to the office before the holidays.

Our New Gem Shop is Open!

Students can now purchase their prizes in the Gem shop. Prizes cost between 20 and 100 gems and soon we will receive new stock of SSSS branded items for the Gem Shop.

Kindness Club

This term we started the KC club or the kindness and caring club. The purpose of the club is to encourage everyone to develop empathy by thinking about the situations of others. We have made Pom Pom animals for people whom we know are sick and Rocky Road for people we care about.

Rocky Road

2 packets of Cadbury milk chocolate buttons melted.

Add in a packet of large marshmallows, jelly babies, chocolate honey comb pieces cut into 4 (you can swap the honeycomb for malteasers or clinkers if you prefer). Mix well together so that all the lollies are covered in chocolate. Pour into a shallow dish lined with baking paper 30cm x 15cm. Refrigerate until firm. Cut into squares and enjoy.

We respectfully acknowledge the Jagera people, the Traditional

Owners of the land on which this school stands.

Interschool Chess

On Tuesday 23 March, Vincent, Jake, Anthony and Matthew represented our school at an interschool chess tournament at Jindalee State School. The boys did their best, and were placed sixth out of fifteen teams. Jindalee State School won the competition, with Ipswich Grammar coming second and Good News Lutheran School coming third. Serviceton South will be hosting the next interschool tournament for our region, which will be held on Tuesday 30 May.

Year One Excursion - Walkabout Creek

On Thursday 16th March, the Year 1s went on their Science excursion to Walkabout Creek Wildlife Centre. We were all very excited to learn more about healthy and unhealthy

habitats, meet some Australian animals up close, and explore the National Park. Thank you to the parents and carers who came along to help supervise. We had a fantastic day!