Eight Mile Plains State School eNewsletter

From the Principal

Staying Safe Against Germs at School

As we reach the half ways mark in Term 4, it’s important to remember that while school is a place for learning, playing, and growing, it’s also a place where germs can spread quickly. With hundreds of students sharing spaces and materials, germs can easily pass from person to person. Keeping everyone safe and healthy is our shared responsibility!

Here are some simple, effective ways to protect yourself and others from germs:

Wash Your Hands Regularly

Handwashing is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of germs. Make sure to wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after using the bathroom, before eating, and after coughing or sneezing. If soap and water aren’t available, use hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer is available in all classrooms and common areas of the school.

Cover Coughs and Sneezes

Always cough or sneeze into a tissue or your elbow to prevent germs from spreading into the air and onto surfaces. Throw the tissue away immediately and wash your hands to stay clean.

Avoid Touching Your Face

Our hands come into contact with many surfaces throughout the day, and touching your face can transfer germs to your eyes, nose, or mouth, making it easier to get sick.

Keep Your Distance if You’re Feeling Unwell

If you feel unwell, especially with symptoms like a cough or fever, it’s best to stay home until you’re feeling better. By doing this, you’re helping to prevent the spread of illness to others. Please let us know if your child/ren are absent from school by phoning 3340 6333 or via email at admin@eightmileplainsss.eq.edu.au

Clean and Disinfect Shared Surfaces

In classrooms, shared items like desks, computers, and play equipment are wiped down regularly. Teachers and staff are working hard to keep our learning spaces clean, but students can also help by tidying up and being mindful of hygiene.

Healthy Habits Build Strong Bodies

Maintaining a healthy immune system is also key to staying safe. Get plenty of sleep, eat a balanced diet, and drink lots of water to help your body stay strong and fight off germs.

By practicing these simple habits, we can work together to make our school a cleaner, healthier place for everyone.

Stay healthy and safe!

From the Deputy Principal

Newsletter Term 4 week 4

Leadership Opportunities for Year 5 Students

Year 5 students with an interest in leadership positions for 2024 have been actively working to prepare for their leadership journey. Students shortlisted from the written application phase will have their interviews in the coming weeks. This year, our students have embraced the process, demonstrating their skills and strengths and what they can offer to the student leader team. We are impressed by their commitment to leadership and personal growth.

Do you know what your child is viewing and doing online?

The internet is having an increasing influence on the social development of children. Social media, smart phones and other technologies provide children with wonderful opportunities to learn, be creative and socialise. However, just as with face-to-face interactions, sometimes behaviour between people is inappropriate. Online content can be posted instantaneously, which creates risks for children when they publish messages without thinking about future ramifications. Once it’s online, it can be extremely difficult to remove. Importantly, just like in the real world, not everyone is a friend. While people can use apps, websites, chat rooms and other online tools to send positive words, compliments and congratulatory messages, others can use the technology to send nasty and inappropriate messages or pretend to be someone else. As parents and carers, you play a key role in supporting your child to have a positive and safe online experience

Major social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch and Google, have age limits. Yet, we know that some students have these accounts or use their parent’s account. If your child has one of these accounts, do you know what they are viewing or doing online? What is your child being exposed to, or creating themselves? Every case of cyberbullying that has been reported to me over the years has not occurred during school time. As a school we discuss and teach our students about the appropriate use of online tools and platforms and about cyberbullying. We also monitor students’ use of technology for learning during school.

eSfatey Commissioner : The eSafety Guide – Do you want to know about the latest apps, games and social media that your child is using? The eSafety guide includes important advice about their safety features, including how to use the settings to report online abuse and protect personal information. https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

Online safety in Queensland state schools The Department of Education (the department) supports every child and young person in Queensland state schools to learn and engage safely in the digital world. With the rise of technology and increasing access for young people, the Online Safety in Queensland State Schools document provides guidance on how the department responds and supports schools, students, parents and the community, in keeping young people safe online. https://www.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/145756/online-safety-in-qld-ss.pdf

This document covers the available resources created by the department, tailored to inform and educate students, parents, teacher and the community to address online safety issues. It identifies the important roles played by government and non-government educators, the broader school community, and families.

From Head of Department - Curriculum

Picnic Night – Save the Date

We would like to warmly invite all of our families and school community to attend the Eight Mile Plains State School Annual Picnic Night, held on the top oval of the school, on Tuesday 26th November, from 5:30pm until approximately 7:30pm.

More information regarding event details will be shared with families in the coming weeks.

We hope that you will be able to attend this end of year celebration.

Awards Ceremony

Each year, our school recognises and celebrates the outstanding achievements of our high-performing students across the school. This year, the Eight Mile Plains State School Award Ceremony will be held on 2^nd December at 8:45am in the Under Cover Area.

Our school has recently reviewed and refined the criteria for the selection of the Academic Award, Citizenship Award and Academic Growth Award recipients.

There will now be two (2) types of Academic Awards, Gold and Silver, with the addition of an Instrumental Music Medallion.

The criteria for these awards are as follows:

Gold

Any student from Prep – Year 6 who achieves an average GPA across both Semester 1 and Semester 2 reporting period of 4.8+

No N ratings of achievement

Silver

Any student from Prep – Year 6 who achieves an average GPA across both Semester 1 and Semester 2 reporting period of 4.2 – 4.79

No N ratings of achievement

Instrumental Music Medallion - Awarded to a student who has demonstrated a high level of achievement and growth across both Semester 1 and Semester 3 reporting period.

Definitions:

Grade Point Average (GPA) – LoAs are converted to a number and averaged across all subjects each term (A=5, B=4, C=3, D=2, E=1).

GPA are expressed as a number between 0 and 5, to two decimal places

A rating of N indicates the student is Not Rated for that area.

Level of Achievement (LoA) – commonly referred to as grades, these are A-E ratings with A being the highest and E being the lowest.

The Citizenship Award is presented to one (1) student per class who has consistently demonstrated a very high level of respect and responsibility across the school community this year.

The following criteria are used to select this student:

Behaviour and Effort Matrix
Self-Management	- Expresses emotions appropriately - Develops self-discipline and sets goals - Works independently and shows initiative - Demonstrates confidence, resilience and adaptability
Self-Awareness	- Recognises emotions - Recognises personal qualities and achievements - Understands themselves as learners - Develops reflective practices
Social-Management	- Communicates effectively - Works collaboratively with peers and staff - Negotiates and resolves conflict using self-management strategies
Social-Awareness	- Appreciates diverse perspectives - Contributes to civil society - Understands relationships

Other criteria may include, but are not limited to:

Deliberately takes the initiative to enhance the school’s social climate
Willingly accepts leadership challenges and “Have a Go” attitude
Actively contributes to the school’s positive tone through reliable, responsible and inclusive conduct
Wears school uniform-overall pride in school and self

The Academic Growth Award is presented to one (1) student per class who has consistently demonstrated a personal responsibility to their academic growth across the curriculum this year.

The following criteria are used to select this student:

Recognition of positive growth which has been apparent during the year
Participation, effort and attitude towards daily work
Displayed willingness to accept support/advice
Demonstrated a deliberate effort to improve classroom performance and behaviour

The Sporting Age Champion Award is presented to one (1) male and female student for each year (10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old) who has performed as the top athlete across both the cross-country competition and the athletics carnival this year.

The following criteria are used to select this student:

Based on District, Regional, State Representation achieving high representative honours in 10 – 12 Years (age) School Sport

Models excellent sportsmanship on and off the field
Is committed to the team and training responsibilities
Models leadership in sporting environments
Assists in the development of fellow athletes and teams

2025 - Booklists

We are pleased to advise that we will using Jaybel Office Choice for the 2025 back to school packs this year. Jaybel is a 100% Australian family owned & operated school supplier. We’ve been working with Jaybel to make sure your child has an easy start to the new year.

We have selected the best products and quantity that we believe will last for your child’s needs for the full year.

Please ensure that your child has everything listed on the year level forms to start the 2025 school year.

Placing Orders

Ordering is fast, secure and convenient. Simply visit www.jaybel.com.au/booklists
Enter your school code and password then follow the easy ordering steps.
For Year 1 to Year 6, our School Code: BTSEM001 & Password: EM2025

N.B. Prep students will receive a different School Code and Password. This and other information regarding the Prep Book Packs will be emailed to relevant families.

If you prefer not to order online, please call our booklist team on 07 3423 5888. They will assist you with placing your order and taking payment over the phone.

Important information regarding delivery of Year 1 – Year 6 Book Packs

Orders placed before 8^th December 2024 will be FREE delivery, orders placed after 8th December 2024 will incur a delivery fee of $9.95.
Orders placed before 3rdJanuary 2025 will arrive before Term 1 2025.
Deliveries will commence on or before 9^th December 2024. Orders are shipped with Authority to Leave and do not require a signature on delivery.
Once the order has been dispatched you will receive an order tracking number via email.
For assistance with the website, your order, delivery information, or a general enquiry, please email sales@jaybel.com.au or call 07 3423 5888.

G.A.T.E.Ways Workshop – Term 4

The Greek philosopher Plutarch once said that the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but rather a fire to be kindled. The G.A.T.E WAYS Mind: Blown! workshops scaffold students through processes of philosophical inquiry, ideation, design, and acquisition of sophisticated critical and creative problem-solving strategies and techniques. Cross-disciplinary links make this program accessible to students wielding a wide range of gifts, talents and passions. All it takes is one thought, one idea, to catch alight, and you’re on the way to being completely and utterly mind: blown!

Years 1-3 Friday 1 November (Week 5)

Years 4-6 Friday 8 November (Week 6)

If your child has been nominated, please remember to register them for our last workshop of the year.

2025 Uniform Shop Hours

BTS_2025_Newsletter_Ad_Eight_Mile_Plains_SS_Artwork_20241017.pdf

Year 2 Butterflies

What a great start to the term. We are well underway with learning about lifecycles. Grade 2 have been lucky enough to experience some stages of the Monarch Butterflies lifecycle. We received the chrysalis and housing cubes to watch the changes as they occur. Before we knew it the chrysalis had begun to darken and a butterfly emerged within a few days. We left the butterflies wings to dry and harden in the cube for 2 days and released them into the garden at school. Students are learning to understand and compare the different lifecycles of animals in English and Science. We photographed the different stages for the students to observe and write about.

Weeks 1 - 4 Prep W

Weeks 1-4 in Prep W

This term Prep W have been investigating different movements and why objects roll, slide, twist, turn and fly. First, we needed to look at 3D shapes and how they move. We found out that if an object is curved or round than it will roll. We noticed that objects with flat surfaces slide but only placed onto smooth surfaces. The rougher the surface the harder it is to slide. Our hypothesis is that if you have a flat bottom on a smooth surface, it will slide more easily than if you have a flat bottom on a rough surface. The same can be said that if you have a curved or round object on a rough surface it will not roll as easily as a round object on a smooth surface. We are looking at the relationship between motion and force. We learnt that motion is when something changes position or moves from one place to another, for causes motion, for example, the force of push and pull. Next, we will be trying out our theories about swinging and twisting.

We have also been using our bodies during swimming and learning about how to safely swim in water and what to do if we get into trouble while in a pool. We also know about how important it is to sit on the bus with our seat beats on and quietly wait until we reach our destination. Luckily the weather is just perfect to be swimming.

With not long to go before we finish our prep year; we are making the most of our learning as we head off into year 1.

Our Last Term! - Busy Bees - Prep/1

Welcome to our FINAL TERM of school for 2024.

Thank you to Mrs N, Miss Vikki and Miss Clarke for taking such good care of the students in my absence.

Term 4 is usually a very busy term with so many things happening and it has started with the best fun of all...... THE COLOUR RUN! Thank you to our amazing P and C for running such a fantastic event for the students of Eight Mile Plains State School!

We are also attending swimming lessons each Tuesday for 6 weeks, hosting GATEWAYS , commemorating Remembrance Day, running our PrepStar Progam for our up and coming Prep students, celebrating Graduation for our Year 6 students, holding our annual Family Picnic Night, Meeting our new Teacher for 2025 and participating in Water Play at the end of the term! WOW!

Please enjoy some photos from The Colour Run!

Thank you to Miss Vikki our class photograper for taking the photos!

Colour Run Fun!

Swimming

Check out some photos from our first week of swimming!

Swimming - Busy Bees

ENGLISH

In English this term the students are working on information reports. They will be learning how to write an information report including features and descriptions of their chosen animal, their habitat and diet, and any other interesting facts they find. We have been busy so far this term learning all about hens and this week we are learning about owls.

*Ask your child what they know about owls - they are very interesting and unique creatures!

MATHEMATICS

*In Mathematics the Prep students are looking at counting and place value, measuring the length, mass and capacity of objects and location - describing position and direction.

*The Year One students are looking at counting and place value, counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s beyond 100, partitioning numbers into more than two parts, identifying one half, describing and representing growing patterns, representing addition and subtraction number patterns and representing and interpreting data.

Our Science unit of work this term is called 'ON THE MOVE'. Throughout this unit of work the students will develop an understanding of how things move. They will explore the push and pull forces they can use to move objects in ways such as sliding, bouncing and spinning. Through investigations, the students will observe and gather evidence about rolling objects and explore the idea of fair testing. Sounds like FUN!

Here are some action shots from the classroom!