Term 4 Week 8 Newsletter

From the Principal

Thank You for Supporting Our New Before and After School Procedures

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our school community for your cooperation in following the new before and after school procedures. Ensuring that students are not dropped off before 8:15 am and are collected promptly in the afternoon plays a crucial role in keeping our children safe. It also helps them feel comfortable and secure within the school environment, knowing that familiar routines are in place. Your ongoing support is greatly appreciated and contributes to a positive atmosphere for all our students. Thank you for working together with us!

Transition Day - Friday 6 December

We are excited to announce that Friday, 6 December will be our Transition Day. On this day, students will find out their classroom and teacher for 2025. They will have the opportunity to spend time with their new teacher and classmates, helping them to build relationships and become familiar with their new learning environment. This day is a wonderful chance for students to ease into the upcoming school year, setting a positive tone and ensuring a smooth transition. We look forward to this special day and the excitement it brings for the year ahead!

Week 11 Plan – 9 to 13 December

Please be advised that during Week 11 (9 - 13 December), the school will remain open for supervision only. Students will participate in a variety of activities run by different teachers on different days. Please note that children will not be supervised by their regular classroom teacher and will be placed in various rooms throughout the school, rather than their usual classrooms. On Friday, 13 December, we ask that students wear old clothes, as it will be a cleaning day. They will be assisting with cleaning classrooms and furniture, which may involve water and could result in them getting wet. Thank you for your understanding and support as we conclude the term!

Welcome to EMPSS

We would like to warmly welcome Darlene and Andrew to our staffing team. Darlene Smith is our acting Business Manager who supports the school’s financial activities and resources. Darlene comes to us with a wealth of experience in a large bay side school. Please see Darlene if you have any questions or concerns regarding invoices or the student resource scheme. We would also like to welcome Andrew McPherson as our acting Grounds Officer. You will see Andrew out and about our school caring for our facilities and grounds. If you come across Andrew or Darlene, please say hello!

From the Deputy Principal

Newsletter Term 4 Week 8

2025 Student Leader

Our student leader selection process for 2025 has been impressive. Being a part of the interview process and listening to the students talk about their views on leadership, the Eight Mile 8 and future projects for school improvement and student engagement, certainly left me in awe of their vision and commitment. We are not quite yet finished with the selection process. Over the next few days selected students will be undertaking their speeches for students in 3 – 6 who will vote as part of the selection process. These positions are highly contested by our student body. We will announce the 2025 student leaders at the rewards ceremony in week 10 and the Investiture Ceremony will be held early in Term 1 2025, where all student leaders will be inducted and receive their badges.

We would like to officially acknowledge all students who found the confidence to nominate to be part of the student leader selection process. Even though they may not be successful in obtaining a leadership position in 2025, all applicants should be very proud of themselves. We are very confident that the 2025 seniors will represent EMPSS at a high level and be amazing role models for our younger student body.

After school pick up

Safety of our students is paramount all day, every day and that includes when students are leaving the school grounds. We understand that when collecting students via the car park and STOP & GO area in the afternoon that it can be very busy, especially between 2.30pm and 3.00pm. There can be congestion and no parks available, and your patience is required when entering and exiting the car park.

We require your assistance in making the area safe and efficient as possible. At NO time should a car stop in the drive and a student leave the waiting area to enter that car, this blocks other drivers view, holds up traffic and creates an unsafe environment. ALL vehicles must park (in an appropriate car space) or wait at the STOP & GO area. There is no parking and leaving your car in the STOP, DROP and GO, and please keep moving to the front of the area.

From Head of Department - Curriculum

Families of students in Prep

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.

· Your School Code: BTSEM002 & Password: EM2025

· 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 your Delivery

Orders placed until 05-Jan-2025:

• Enjoy FREE delivery directly to the school.

• Orders will be delivered to your child's classroom before first day of school.

• Alternatively, you can opt to have your order delivered to your home address for a delivery fee of $9.95 (including GST) per order.

Orders placed from 06-Jan-2025:

• A delivery fee of $9.95 (including GST) per order will apply, and your order will be delivered to your home address.

If you require assistance with the website, your order, delivery information, or have any general inquiries, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@jaybel.com.au or call us at 07 3423 5888.

Booklists

Families of students in Year 1 – Year 6

Please ensure that your child has everything listed on this form 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.

· Your School Code: BTSEM001 & Password: EM2025

· 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 your delivery

· Orders placed before 8th December 2024 will be FREE delivery,

· Orders placed after 8th December 2024 will incur a delivery fee of $9.95.

· Orders placed before 3rd January 2025 will arrive before Term 1 2025.

· Deliveries will commence on or before 9th 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.

· Contact sales@jaybel.com.au if your order hasn't arrived by January 15th 2025.

Swimming – Term 4

This term, EMP has provided an opportunity for students in Years Prep – 6 to participate in our whole-school swimming program, aligned to the Health and Wellbeing – water-safety aspects of the Australian Curriculum.

We have had a positive response from the school community, with many of our students attending regular lessons throughout the six-week block.

Throughout the program, students have learnt the essential water-safety skills of safely entering and exiting the pool, submergence in the water, swimming survival skills and sequences and stroke correction.

I would like to acknowledge the commitment of our staff who ensured that students were ready on time, escorted safely to and from the pool and assisted with supervision. I would also like to congratulate the students for their engagement and participation in the program.

Swimming and water-safety are integral to keeping our children safe around bodies of water and we look forward to providing swimming lessons for our students again in 2026.

Assessment and Reporting

We are now heading into the final weeks of term, with the teaching focus moving from teaching content, skills and understandings, to gathering information about student learning and outcomes. Over the next few weeks, students will be completing a number of assessment tasks in class. The results from these will form part of their overall grade for each learning area. It is essential that students are at school every day so that they don’t miss any important work.

Report cards will be distributed to families in the last week of school. The report cards will consist of information about a student’s achievement against the reporting scale in each learning area provided. In addition to this, there will be a grade for behaviour and effort and a behaviour comment. Reports will not include an overall comment.

If you have any questions regarding assessments or your child’s progress, please contact your child’s classroom teacher.

News from Chappy Sonia

Eight Mile Plains S.S. Term 4, 2024

What’s been happening…… I cannot believe we have nearly come to the end of another busy year at EMPSS.

As of term 4, I have officially been here a whole year. And I am so thankful to be a small part of such an amazing school community.

What’s been happening……
I cannot believe we have nearly come to the end of another busy year at EMPSS.

As of term 4, I have officially been here a whole year. And I am so thankful to be a small part of such an amazing school community.

Breaky Club

A big shout out to some of our school families who have donated to our breakfast club over the past 3 terms.

We have had a continuous supply of margarine, vegemite, honey and strawberry jam to last us through the term. It really is lovely to see the staff, parents and students having a piece of toast and catching up before the school day begins.

Lunchtime activities

I have been enjoying bring out the two bags of various balls and bats for the students to use during lunchtimes. I encourage them to use them to find a friend or friends to play with.

We have also started skipping time with my large ropes. I forget to get pictures of them skipping as I am one of the peoples turning the rope. Skipping really get their hearts racing!!

“Calm colouring” is on most Thursdays each fortnight. This is a quieter time for the students that like to relax and chill outside the library on the mates, especially on those warm days.

If we have one mouth and two ears, does that say we should listen twice as much as we talk? What a thought!

Pancake Breakfast for year 6 students… is happening in

Week 10 on Thursday 5^th Dec. Yum!!

 It’s a small way of saying congratulations on completing their final year at EMPSS!

Looking forward to our Family Picnic evening next Tuesday. Last year was such a special time to be community and celebrate all the good thing about our students, staff and what they have achieved this year. Hope you can make it.

Chappy thought………

In our chaplaincy service we talk about thing we have control over and things that we don’t. This little example has been a help for me at school with my role here. Maybe it’s something that might help you too.

Get Involved
If you would like to be apart of our breaky club next year to make and serve toast and fruit to our students and staff, pleas contact me by email. It runs every Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 7:30 preparing to serving from 8 till 8:25am.

My email is sonia.lowe@suchaplaincy.org.au

Thank You for being you!
 Chappy Sonia.

2025 Uniform Shop Hours

Helping Hands News

Helping Hands will close for two weeks over the Christmas break from 20th December and will reopen on the 6th January.  New Prep Students can attend from 6th January.

Bus Information for 2025

Tuckshop Hours

Tuckshop will be available on the last Wednesday & Thursday, 11th/12th of Term 4. 

Tuckshop will be closed on the last day of school, Friday 13th for cleaning and stock take. 

Tuckshop will re-open the first week of Term 1 2025.

Family Picnic Night Information

From the P & C- Family Picnic Night

At the upcoming family picnic night on Tuesday, 26 November, the P&C is holding a BBQ, as well as a raffle, to help our fundraising efforts for the new shelter at the front of the school.  If you are able to volunteer some time during the event, please click on this link and sign up: https://volunteersignup.org/MJT88
We have over $2,000 in prizes to be won generously donated by our sponsors, as well as a couple of additional prizes. 
Thank you to our sponsors:

• Dental Health +
• Ray White Rochedale
  
• P&C Uniforms
• Riverlife
• James Martin MP
• Merlo Coffee
• Renegade Roasters
• Hotel HQ Underwood
• Lions @ Springwood
• Cr Steven Huang
• Bunnings
  
  

Tickets start from $2.00 and can be purchased using the QR code or by clicking on this link: https://www.raffletix.com.au?ref=3ku9z
We look forward to seeing you all at the picnic night!

News from Prep W - Mrs Wright

Prep W end of 2024

Good afternoon from Prep W,

As we reach final weeks as a class group, I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported Prep W during 2024. Without this support our year would not have been as productive of as fun. We have finished our assessment for English, Maths and Science last week so this week we took lots of opportunities to engage in all of our favourite things as well as continued to participate in routines to ensure consistency. We created a tower for our Technology assessment while reading Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss. Yertle stacked turtles up as high as can be using ‘bout five thousand, six hundred and seven turtles until he came crashing down because he had an unstable tower. We also looked at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and how even though it leans it is still standing after a very long time. Then it was Prep W’s turn to become engineers and create towers that could stand up by themselves.

We had an amazing time talking about how our families have changed during 2024. Some families welcomed new additions. We collaged our families’ using photos of calendars to set the scene and using different materials to illustrate our families. It was lovely to relax and discuss why are families are special and special places we like to go.

Swimming has finished and the children learnt so much over the last 6 weeks and it was wonderful to see children that started out scared of putting their head under water becoming confident swimmers. We also had the opportunity to work with our Year 6 buddies on our Recycle Rangers and they helped with researching information about insects, owls and hens. Finally, we are working so very hard on getting our Family Picnic Night performance just right for next Tuesday. We are so excited about doing one of our favourite songs in front of our love ones.

Mrs Rixon and I have very much enjoyed working with Prep W Class for the last year and feel confident that all students will be ready for Year 1 2025. I felt the learners have made so much progress in their ability to concentrate, engage, communicate and develop so many other skills and all the while we had so much fun… even in the very busy times! Thank you also to the class support staff as they have been a true asset in the development of our young people as well. Their fun and energetic ways, as well as true understanding about how they learn has shone through.

Best wishes for a great summer break, hope you get a chance to enjoy everything that is important to you and I look forward to see everyone’s happy, relaxed faces in 2025.

Prep W - Fun & Learning!

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News from Busy Bees - Mrs Scharf

News from 2S and 2NH

We are almost there! With only 3 weeks to go, we are busy completing assessment and learning tasks. Please ensure your child is at school each day where possible as we will be working on these tasks daily.

I am looking forward to seeing you all at Picnic Night this coming Tuesday to see our amazing performance. Please keep an eye out for further communication about this.

A big congratulations to students this year. We have seen some amazing growth, both academically and as people. Please encourage your student to talk to you about their progress and what they have done this year that has made themselves proud. This may be acts of kindness or school work.

Thank you for a wonderful year and we wish our students and families all the very best for an amazing 2025.

News from 4A - Mrs Allen

ICAS 2024

News from Mrs Allen

Monday’s parade saw the culmination of the ICAS 2024 season. During Term Three, 47 EMPSS students, from Year 2 to Year 6 participated in online assessments for Digital Technologies, English, Mathematics and Science.

On parade students were presented with a folder that contained their certificate for each of the assessments they completed.

This year 25 students completed the Digital Technologies Assessment, 36 students completed the English Assessment, 43 students completed the Mathematics Assessment and 27 students completed the Science Assessment.

The following students participated in all 4 assessments.

Year 2: Jasman, Sara N., Jack and Jake

Year 3: Muhammed

Year 4: Lucy, Jolenna, Gureet, Sebastian, Tanya, Ethan, Daniel, Ezra and Chasca

Year 5: Dean, Vivian, Delilah and Elijah

Year 6: Josiah, Ryanav and Michael

The remaining students participated in between 1 and 3 assessments.

Year 2: Archer, Jasmine and Emily

Year 3: Alexander, Vihaa, Harnidh, Sophia, Manreet and Lewis

Year 4: Feras, Khidr, Sarah, Caleb, Kadyn, Sage and Rayyan

Year 5: Annie, Lyall, Lucia, Sihun, Jason, Ameena and Anshi

Year 6: Eishaan, Gabriel and Amanah

Certificates for ICAS are awarded to students to inform them of their ranking within Queensland. These are the certificates awarded.

High Distinction – top 1% of participants in Queensland

Distinction – next 10%

Credit – next 25%

Merit – next 10%

Participation – remaining students

The following students receive special mention for their ranking in each assessment.