Cranbrook Newsletter - Term 1 Week 4 2022

Principal's Message

Orange Hats - Prep Students Only

One of our safety measures to ensure prep students remain in SAFE areas is the wearing of an orange hat.  If staff see an orange hat outside the prep areas, they know to act by taking them back.  Parents of other year level students are asked to ensure that a Cranbrook School Hat is worn.  NO CRANBROOK HAT =  NO PLAY

Uniform Reminder

A massive thank you to all parents who have supported the school in a smooth transition to the school year by wearing the school uniform. 

As the P&C have asked that the uniform policy is strictly enforced, both myself and Deputy Principal, Jennifer Browne will contact parents to develop a solution to meet our end Term 1 goal of 100% of students wearing Cranbrook Shorts/Skorts/Shirts and hats.

Investiture Ceremony

Due to the current COVID restrictions the Investiture Ceremony for our Senior School Council Induction will be held on a date to be advised.

Road Safety

Parents are reminded that every time you wait on the opposite side of the road and let your child walk across the road, you are putting them in danger. We had a close call late last week simply because the child was excited to see Mum and didn’t look before crossing the road. Protect your children and walk to the school side of the road and walk them across using crossings where available.

Jewellery

Boys and girls are permitted to wear a watch, plain bracelet and two pairs of sleeper earrings or two pairs  of  plain  studs  if  these are  necessary,  one  plain  chain  necklace and a plain ring. No other form of jewellery or adornment is to be worn. Nose and other forms of face studs are not acceptable.

Parents are reminded to help the school by enforcing these expectations before they leave your home (especially the rubber band bracelets).

Term 1 Extra & Co-Curricular Activities

All students are invited to attend the Term 1 activities.  Activities are limited to a maximum of 25 students in most cases and parents will be informed if their child is unable to continue to attend due to high student participation rates.  A copy of our timetable is available to view and download below.  

Make Every Day Count in 2022

Make 2022 the year that your child doesn’t miss a day of school. Research shows that students who have good patterns of attendance are more likely to achieve at school. If students aren’t at school or don’t stay for the whole day, they are missing valuable lessons.

New Drop Off Zone Works

Townsville City Council has presented the following pick up zone redesign for construction in the Easter holidays. P&C members considered the design last night at the P&C meeting and endorsed the proposed remodelling to maximise the access to the drop off zone areas.

A very big, warm welcome to the new members of our Cranbrook Community.  Take a read and get to know them a little.

Welcome to our temporary Deputy Principal, Ms Jennifer Browne.  Jen is replacing Ms Allender while she is on maternity leave.

Did you know.....When Jen was growing up, being a defence family meant they were often posted to different towns, meaning that Jen went to lots of different primary schools. Jen studied at JCU and after spending some time teaching in various Indigenous Communities, she now calls Townsville home.  Her favourite thing to do on the weekend, is to spend time with her daughter, gardening and baking. 

Meet Ms Brooke Horwood.  Brooke is one of our Year 3 teachers.

Did you know.....Brooke loves walking her dogs on the weekend.  Cranbrook is her 2nd teacher placement since graduating.

Welcome to our new Year 3 Cohort Leader, Ms Teresa Garnett.

Did you know.....Teresa spent 6 years living in England.  She loved teaching and travelling but Townsville is now home.  Baking is one of her many loves.

This is our new Year 6 teacher, Conor Wilson.

Did you know....Conor is a born and bred Townsvillian.  This is his first year of teaching and so far, he's loving it.  On the weekends Conor puts on his Redskins uniform and enjoys playing touch football.  

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Jeff Capell

Principal

Every Day Counts - Attendance

Regular, punctual attendance at school is expected of all students.  Students should be present at school ready to prepare for the day's learning by 8:30am.

Late Arrivals

Students arriving after 8:50am must report to the office to receive a lateslip.  If a student is late, a letter of explanation from the student's parent/guardian must be presented to the office staff on arrival.

Absence

If a student is absent and the parent/guardian has not notified the school, they will receive an automated text message by 10am that day.  

Parents will receive a text message informing them that their child is absent. If you receive one of these text messages, please contact the school to explain the reason for your child’s absence.

A working mobile number should be registered with the school, if available.

Please remember that absence is only marked for the days specified by the parents. If you ring up on a Monday informing that your child is sick and they remain away from school for the following 2 days because they are sick you need to inform us that this was the reason for their absence. You can inform us after the absence via a message directly to the teacher or by contacting our absence hotline or email.

If your child is absent, please leave a message detailing:

• Child's name
• Class
• Reason for absence
• Dates or duration of absence

Absence For More Than 10 Days

What is an exemption and why do I need it?

Every parent of a child of compulsory school age has a legal obligation to ensure their child is enrolled and attending school. Parents can apply for an exemption from this obligation when their child cannot attend or it would be unreasonable in all the circumstances for their child to attend school for a period of more than 10 consecutive school days.

Situations where an application for an exemption may be made include:

• Illness
• Family reasons
• Cultural or religious reasons

If your child is exempt from compulsory schooling, you are excused from your obligation in relation to compulsory schooling. 

The school principal is not responsible for providing an educational program for your child, however they may provide advice on other educational options available. Decisions about exemptions for up to one school year are made by the principal and decisions about exemptions for more than one school year are made by the relevant Regional Director of the Department of Education, Training and Employment, responsible for the supervision of the school your child attends.   

Attendance Award - Week 3

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Next week (Week 5), our PBL lesson will be focused on Respect.  We will be learning how to show                    self-respect, courtesy and pride. 

In Week 6, we will be focusing on being responsible and acting as an Upstander.

Here is our Term 1 PBL focus outline............

Reading - Explicit Improvement Agenda

We know the majority of our parents are not teachers therefore the pause, prompt, praise method will help you out this week.  Have a go at just one of these to start with until you are comfortable with it and then try another, don't try all at once if you are not comfortable.

Below are some talking points to adopt during reading with your child.

Prep Parent-Teacher Check Ins

Cranbrook State School invites all Prep parents to book in a time to meet with their child’s Prep Teacher in the coming weeks. This will commence the three way partnership that exists in each child’s journey through school and support a positive relationship of everyone working together to achieve the best outcomes for each individual child. During this time your child’s Teacher will provide a brief update on how your child is travelling so far, raise any initial concerns or observations and give an opportunity for you to ask or share anything that you feel is relevant.

Where: Your child’s classroom

How to book: https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=70355

(New parents will need to create an account).  Please see the PDF flyer below for instructions.

When: available timeslots as below

Week 5- Tuesday 22nd February 3.10pm / 3.30pm / 3.50pm / 4.10pm / 4.30pm 

Week 6- Tuesday 1st March 3.10pm / 3.30pm / 3.50pm / 4.10pm / 4.30pm

Week 7- Tuesday 8th March 3.10pm / 3.30pm / 3.50pm / 4.10pm / 4.30pm

Week 8- Tuesday 15th March 3.10pm / 3.30pm / 3.50pm / 4.10pm / 4.30pm

Please contact our office if you have any enquiries.                                                                                                                                                          

What's On in Year 4

From the Resource Centre

This week Queensland celebrated School Library Week.  Our Cranbrook Library is always a busy hub with enrichment groups, reading intervention, class borrowing, meetings,  Book Fairs and Chappy Danielle visits.  At play times, our doors open and we see students reading with friends or with "Reading Buddies", learning cooperation, patience and turn taking whilst playing board games, building spacial awareness with puzzles and lowering stress levels with drawing and colouring in.  Cranbrook Library is certainly a humming community space!

Class Borrowing Days

Please return your child’s home reader and library books on the following days:

For students in Prep / Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3…..you must have a library bag to protect your books.

The Arts Space

This week in The Arts, our little preppies 'buddied' up with our big Year 6s!  They had a chat about what their favourite things are and what they liked to do.  In the weeks to come, they will be spending more time together in The Arts lessons, practising for a very special performance.

My New Gallery

Piano Timetable for Term 1

UPDATED.....Please check to see if your child's time has changed

Guitar Timetable Term 1

UPDATED.....Please check to see if your child's time has changed

Sports News

Prep Vision Screening

Visit by Registered Nurse for Free Prep Vision Screening

Good vision is important for a child’s educational, physical and social development. Vision screening checks for common eye conditions that may impact your child’s ability to see and therefore impact their learning and development.

A Registered Nurse will be visiting the school on/between 3-4 MAY 2022 to conduct vision screening for children in their prep year. Your child does not need a Medicare card to participate in screening.  If you wish to have your prep child participate in this free vision screening program, please complete a consent form by 24/02/2022.  Online or paper consent forms are available and will be distributed to you. Parents do not need to be present for screening, however if you would like to be, please contact the school to arrange this.

If your child’s vision is screened, you will be advised of the results in writing. If a vision concern is found, you will receive a phone call from the nurse to discuss referral to an eye health professional for further assessment. If a vision concern is identified and your child requires glasses, eligible health care card holders may be assisted with free basic glasses through the Spectacle Supply Scheme.

Participation in vision screening is not compulsory. If you do not wish for your child to participate in screening, please complete the consent form and indicate that you wish to decline screening.

If you have any questions,

please contact the Primary School Nurse Health Readiness Program on 1800 687 372.

Environmental News

Cranbrook State School developed an Environmentally Sustainability Plan 3 years ago to address the environmental concerns of our community. The plan includes sustainable practices such as recycling, composting, tree planning, plant propagation and animal waste disposal. The plan was developed following a waste audit and after the audit it was identified that the school produced over 15kg of food waste per day. This waste included whole foods such as fruit, sandwiches and burgers and after consulting with the P&C parents agreed that food waste should be sent home so wastage does not occur and parents money wasted. After consulting with parents further, the food waste that was being sent home, the majority of it was going into landfill.

In 2021, Cranbrook was successful in obtaining a grant to further enhance our environmental practices which will now see Bokashi Bins introduced classrooms for Healthy Snack composting and the collection of partially eaten food waste such as crusts, skins and cores etc which will be composted and feed to the chickens.

 The monitoring of the food waste will be completed by our environmental captains to ensure the food, such as below is not throw in the waste and will be returned home to support parents in ensuring they are not wasting their hard earned money.

Breakfast Club

Our school, in conjuction with Food Relief NQ helps our students start their day right with a wholesome breakfast.  We provide weetbix, toast and tin fruit - every morning!

Donations are no longer needed for spaghetti and baked beans, however, we'd love donations of honey please!  Thank you!    

Tuckshop news

Please check your child's 2022 class is correct when ordering through the Qkr! system.  

Love to bake? Love to make a sandwich? Love to place pies in the oven? Love to chat? Guess what.....the tuckshop can help you tick all of those boxes!  We'd love to have you volunteer with us for simple jobs such as these.  Could you spare an hour? Half a day? 9-2?  We'd love to see you.  Please call in and chat to Lillian.   Thank you.  

Healthy Lunchboxes

Did you know, it was Healthy Lunchbox Week last week!  ....but, EVERY week is important to eat healthy.  We all need the goodness from a healthy lunchbox to keep our bodies and brains focused every day at school.  Check out the website for more great information and fun tips to help us on the way.   

Spotlight on.....

Our Guidance Officer, Drew.

Drew works at our school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on the even weeks of the term.  

To get to know him a little, we asked him some questions:

Where were you born?   Townsville

What primary school did you go to?   Bluewater State School

What did you want to be growing up?   Cricket player

What's your favourite sport now?   Tennis

What's your favourite food?   Steak

A Guidance Officer  provides advice about support programs and access to helpful resources. They provide guidance and counselling services to students and their families to help guide a student's personal and social development.

Welcome to our Cranbrook community, Drew!

Sports Pride Fridays

Community News

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information in this issue of our newsletter at the time of publication. 

For all enquiries please contact our School Office on 4726 1222.