Buderim Mountain State School eNewsletter

Term Calendar

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Term 3 and a big welcome to all of our new families - we have had many new enrolments from interstate, overseas and the local area. We hope you enjoy your time with us at Buderim Mountain State School. We have another big term ahead - this term is 10 weeks in length and finishes on Friday 15 September.

2024 Prep Enrolments

Please be aware that this term we will continue taking Prep enrolments for 2024 and we thank families who have submitted enrolment forms already. Through submitting enrolment forms early, it assists us with planning for the 2024 school year. If you are aware of any families who would like further information on our Prep program, Mr Readshaw will be taking Prep enrolment tours most Mondays from 9:30am throughout Term 3 – please book through the school office. Please see https://buderimmountainss.eq.edu.au/enrolments/prep for more details.

Year 4-6 Athletics Carnival

Congratulations to all of our Year 4-6 students for your efforts at last term’s athletics carnival. It was terrific to see so many students participating throughout the course of the day. A special mention must go to the following age champions:

2011 Boys – Eli T

2011 Girls - Isabelle R

2012 Boys – Will O

2012 Girls – Aaliyah T

2013 Boys – Henry R

2013 Girls – Mia F

Well done to Yuamala house who were the overall winners on the day with Cheropin in 2^nd place, Walla in 3^rd place and Iterra in 4^th place. Congratulations also to Yuamala who were the Toohey’s Cup Relay winners.

A big thanks must go to Mr Hawes for organising the day as well as all staff who assisted. Thank you to all of our parents and carers who were able to attend and support our students. It was a great day!

Well done to Olivia D and Will O who represented BMSS at the Qld State Cross Country Championships from Saturday, 15 July to Monday 17 July 2023 in Hervey Bay. Both students ran very fast races on a challenging course.

A Taste of the Arts

On the evening of the 22^nd of June, our talented Dance troupe and Rock bands elevated the energy in the hall, with their powerful, upbeat performances. Our Chappy room was transformed into a mini theatrette, with seating at full capacity for each of the entertaining short skits by our Drama club. After brief busking bouts across the school, The Instrumental Music students treated audiences to outstanding performances in their respective ensemble bands. Out Art club produced some beautiful artwork in the library and the hearts of our Buderim families melted, when the choir sang a beautiful rendition of Wonderful World, by Louis Armstrong. In between the array of amazing acts, our community was treated to a delicacy of tasty treats at the Banksia Café, courtesy of the fabulous Tuckshop team and their diligent volunteers.

A huge thank you to our wonderful school P&C, who supported the organisation of this inaugural event. Many hours were also spent compiling, scheduling and rehearsing the performances, with thanks to the dedication and commitment of our students and BMSS staff. We thoroughly enjoyed producing this special showcase for our Buderim community.

A Taste of The Arts was originally envisioned as a casual opportunity to perform a few songs for the parents of students enrolled in our Instrumental Music Program. However, over the past 12 months our Extra-curricular Creative Arts program has grown to feature many other groups, who were also equally keen and proud to showcase their performances at this event. We sincerely appreciated the amazing support of the Buderim community on the evening and we look forward to another opportunity to showcase our Creative Arts program later in the year- stay tuned!

The Arts Teaching Team- BMSS

On Thursday 22nd June, all Year 5 students had an awesome day and participated in many leadership challenges during the Elev8 Leadership Day. To be successful in the events, we had to work together, encourage each other and show qualities of a good leader. My favourite thing about the day was that no matter if my team won or lost, everyone always had a smile on their faces and celebrated the other teams' wins. Everybody showed amazing sportsmanship, and never left anyone out. The most popular event was the Japanese Blindfold Fields. To do this event, one person in our group would put on a blindfold, then goggles that had duct tape around the glass to stop any light coming through, so we were completely blind! Then that person entered the field and had to listen to their team’s instructions to try and find an object without being able to see. It was a challenging event, but everyone accomplished it and it was the highlight of the day. We look forward to continuing our leadership journey this year! Lilly R 5T

On Friday the 26^th of May, our Preppies and friends from Milford Lodge and Little Village Childcare Centres celebrated Under 8’s Day in style! We were very lucky to have a visit from the Ambulance, Fire Brigade and Surf Life Savers. The children enjoyed getting their faces painted by Suzi the Facepainter and running through the awesome obstacle course provided by Juiced Up Groms. We were very grateful to Woolworths Buderim for providing the biscuits and yummy lollies so our Preps could decorate their own special treats. We would also like to thank the parent volunteers who supervised the children as they explored the different activities. A wonderful morning was had by all!

Prep Super Sound Celebration

On Thursday 23^rd June, the Prep students had a dress up day for Super Sound Celebration! This event acknowledged all the effort each Prep student has put in to their learning to develop their alphabet letter-sound knowledge. The students had free choice to dress up as anything starting with their favourite sound. There were many fantastic costumes including fairies, dinosaurs, superheroes, fairy tale characters and even Harry Potter! Each class rotated through all of the other Prep classrooms where we participated in activities that started with the letter-sound of that class.

In Prep F there were fairy wands and Fish. In Prep D there were dinosaur craft and many dinosaur activities. In Prep C there were cobra craft and construction. In Prep B there were bug masks, bug fingerprints and bug games. In Prep S there were sand, slime and snow fine motor activities. In Prep LF there were blue bots and letter mazes to enjoy. At the end of all of the activities, we had a celebration parade and dance. Thank you to our parents for helping with our costumes and congratulations to all of the Prep students for learning their letter-sounds.

Year 1 Under 8s Day

Year 1 had a wonderful time on Tuesday 23rd May celebrating Under 8s day. We had the best weather for our outside activities. The students spent the morning walking around taking part in a variety of creative and energetic activities. Thank you to all the parents who came along and took part, we all had so much fun.

Prep 100 days of School

To celebrate 100 incredibly awesome days of learning, our prep cohort dressed as if they were 100 years old. The children sported reading glasses, drawn on wrinkles and grey hair. Many needed walking sticks to help them navigate the exciting learning experiences with a 100 theme. These included completing a 100-repetition exercise circuit, decorating a crown with 100 stickers, making a 100 days brighter necklace, completing 100 second challenges and other counting to 100 math games. The children are definitely 100 days smarter!

Year 4 Australia Zoo Excursions

Year 2 How does it work incursion

On Monday 12 June, we went to the science incursion. Our teachers were Tina and Glen. We conducted investigations to find out how toys move using forces. We made a toy skateboard, a ball and cup game and a fossil and a ribbon wand. My favourite thing was investigating all the toys and seeing if they were push, pull or both. By Ally C 1/2H

Year 2 Under 8s day

On the last Wednesday of Term 3, Year 2 students gathered on the Year 2/3 playground to celebrate Under 8s Day.

Students participated in a range of activities including bubble blowing, totem tennis, painting, kite making, playdough play, fairy bread making and much, much more. They enjoyed the freedom of being able to move between activities independently and spending as much or as little time as they liked at each one.

A big thank you must go to the wonderful parent volunteers who ran the various activities.

Year 6 Camp

On Wednesday morning of camp the tuckshop area was bustling with people, bags, pillows and backpacks. When year 6 arrived at school we ticked our names off and put our bags down in our class line. Each bus held two classes and the trip was about an hour long, although all the buses had to wait to catch the ferry across the Noosa River to the camp site. When we got there, we went into our class groups and were told our cabin buddies. After we put our bags away, we assembled at the barbeque area and were walked to lunch in the canteen.

Camp managers picked volunteers to serve the meals, then they asked for a table of campers to do the dishwashing. All the meals were delicious and filling; we even got to go back for seconds! After each meal we had to take away our dirty plates and wipe the tables. We were really well fed with pasta and meatballs, butter chicken and burrito wraps all featuring on the menu. Breakfasts were filling as well, and included both hot and cold courses!

The six classes headed off to their activities with each group following their own timetable. During canoeing a few lucky people got to experience falling out of their canoes! The water in Lake Weyba was mucky and a little bit cold. However, we got to see animals like sand crabs, stingrays and kangaroos near the edge of the water, and we got to swap canoes with people and do other activities like canoe races and games. We were all excited for each activity, especially bouldering, because it was a new venue that had just been prepared this year. At bouldering we listened to a safety video and then we got to climb and hang off a pull bar; if we could make it to the top at the end of the session, we were allowed to play bouldering games. Archery was fun although only a few people were able to hit a bullseye. For the giant catapult we were split into two teams and had to first build the catapult, then play a game launching tennis balls. All students were thrilled to get a go on the giant swing, and the leap of faith. For the giant swing the class would have to pull a rope and the person on the swing would be dragged up high, pull a cord and release themselves. Then they would feel their stomach drop as they swung out ….and down! The leap of faith was also thrilling; you would climb up a tall pole, then jump off and touch a suspended ball. Mountain biking was cool because all the bikes were new and worked really well. Once we had gone for a little ride on our bike, we got to go onto the pump track which had banks and tabletops. Team building involved all sorts of team games and involved lots of fun and laughter.

Whilst on camp we got to see so many native animals such as kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets, lizards, crabs, stingrays and many others. The night hike was amazing, although a bit damp! We got a unique wildlife experience out in the bush, and for a brief while the clouds cleared and we could see dazzling stars and constellations like the scorpion and southern cross. Laser tag was the other night activity, and it was very engaging. However, the green team (Iterra) won all three death-matches! In spite of this, everyone enjoyed laser tag very much.

After lunch on Friday, we packed up our cabins and surprisingly had not a lot of lost property! We took lots and lots of final camp photos, including groups shots, class photos and crazy pics too! A final head-count saw us board the three coaches and begin the drive back to school. We all enjoyed camp more than you can imagine, with each Year 6 student making many special memories.

Aisha M, Ruby P & Danica R – Class 5/6S

Year 6 Readers Cup

Throughout Term 2, our Readers Cup team who consisted of; Aaliyah T, Alex M, Elijah R, Maddie S and Leila F met with Mrs Williams to review the required books and discuss possible questions.

On 6^th June, Immanuel Lutheran College hosted 30 competing primary school teams from across the Sunshine Coast region for the 2023 Readers Cup. Our fantastic BMSS team put in a valiant effort to not only read the five selected novels but to then work together and compete as a team to answer all competition questions on Readers Cup day. With each competition round, the energy and excitement in the hall was palpable!

Congratulations to Chevallum who were victorious on the day. Our BMSS team placed 12^th overall – a fantastic effort!

School Leaders

My name is Liam K.

My house is Yuamala.

My favourite subjects are P.E and Math.

My favourite moment at school was when my name was called when Mr Allan and Mr Jenkins were calling who the student leaders were.

My interests are fishing, golf, table tennis and reading.

When I grow up, I want to be a teacher.

Something interesting about me; I grew up in Bamaga, a small remote town in Cape York at the very tip of Australia. I have been to the most northern part of Australia which is called Pijinka. I’ve been to Thursday Island and saw many crocodiles in creeks and the ocean.

My name is Matthew.

My house is Yuamala.

My favourite subjects are English, Art and Science.

My favourite moment at school was the Bli Bli water park because we got to swim and bounce on the bouncy castles, and we got to play with our friends.

My interests are gaming and animals.

When I grow up, I want to be in any job.

Something interesting about me is that I have pet chickens.

My name is Maggie K.

My house is Cheropin.

My favourite subject is Performing Arts.

My favourite moment at school is when I meet new people and when I have fun with friends.

My interests are dancing, baking and mountain biking.

When I grow up I want to be a Doctor or a Nurse.

Something interesting about me is that I have the same initials as my Grandmother.

Hello! My name is Aaliyah, and I am a Yuamala Student Leader.

I have many interesting subjects at school, but my all-time favorite has to be Aspire plus English. Aspire plus is a gifted program for students at our school and I love how it pushes me to my limit and confronts me with exciting new concepts.

Aside from having amazing extra circular and academic activities, my favourite part of school has to be viola, my instrument. The instrumental program is a great way to practice something that you have never experienced before. I love how it brings students together.

My interests are in music and swimming, and my parents played a huge role in introducing me to these incredible areas.

I am the co-captain of the sustainability committee and that opened my eyes to the career opportunity of an environmental engineer. I want to be an environmental engineer because they play an important role in our environmental matters. They are like secret spies. They fix problems that no-one knows about.

NAIDOC week

Week 10 of Term 2 saw the school celebrate NAIDOC Week. We had Dion Drummond come to school and speak with all students about the culture and history of First Nations People from far north Queensland. Dion told stories, shared and explained different artifacts, and invited students to participate in learning traditional dances. Students were very engaged by his performance, and learnt many things about our First Nations Peoples' culture and history.

Food Drive

During the last few weeks of Term 2 all families were invited to donate food which then went to The Shack, Nambour which is a community help centre. $500 which was raised from the free dress day also went to The Shack to help with purchasing food, clothing and sleeping bags. Thank you to everyone who donated or came to school in free dress.

School Opinion Surveys

The annual suite of School Opinion Surveys will be conducted in Term 3 and will close on 18 August 2023. All families, school staff and students in target year levels (5 & 6) will be invited to participate. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what our school does well, and how we can improve.

An invitation to complete the Parent/Caregiver Survey will be emailed to one parent/caregiver per family in the week by the 24 July. The invitation will be sent from the Department of Education, not the school, and it will have the subject line School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2023. Check your junk email folders if you can’t find it. The survey can be completed as soon as the invitation is received and will take approximately 5 minutes using a computer, tablet or smart phone.

Roborave 2023

The RoboRAVE event has continued to grow in size since the inaugural event in 2021. This year’s event was held over 2 days. On Saturday we entered 6 teams across two events – ‘Amazing’ and ‘Line Follow’. It would be fair to say that a lot of persistence and resilience was needed by all students across these events with their temperamental robots not quite doing what the students wanted them to do. However, I am pleased to say none of the teams gave up and they stuck to their tasks right throughout the day. It was Sumo’s turn on Sunday with approximately 800 – 900 students turning up to battle for sumo supremacy. Some of our Year 5 teams had success with their robots with ‘Buderim Gladiators’ (Alexander Mc and Alexander C) making the Round of 16 and the ‘Sumo Stars’ (Kaylee Mc, Mia F and Kai C) finishing 6th. Similar to Saturday’s students, our Sumo teams had their own battles with their robots and coding as well.

Finally, a big shout out to Miss Ange for helping to prepare the students this semester and for assisting them over the weekend. Also, a big thank you to the staff who help out with the program during the week at school – Ms Peall, Mrs Candosin and Miss O’Keefe.

PS – Thanks to the Fielke family for some of the photos.

An opportunity for parents and our school Guidance Officer and Chaplain to connect, learn and support each other. Please see the attached flyer for more information.

2024 Classes

At the start of next term, we will begin the process of developing class lists for 2024. This process is always predicted for the beginning of the school year and confirmed on the eighth day of the new school year. At Buderim Mountain State School, we have a very detailed process, which takes place over a number of weeks to create classes. This includes use of a software program to assist with the creation of classes based on gender, academics and appropriate learning partners.

If parents have any specific requests regarding their child’s placement for 2024, please send an email to our administration staff by Friday 15 September to info@buderimmountainss.eq.edu.au. Please be aware of the following:

Parents are not able to request a specific teacher for their child.
Please do not submit any requests for your child to be placed with another child, as all children will do this at school, by choosing up to 5 learning partners they would like to be in a class with – we do guarantee that they will be placed with at least 1 of the learning partners they have requested.
Generally, the request needs to identify characteristics or concerns relating to your child which you feel need to be taken into consideration in regards to class placement.
Students will be informed of their provisional 2024 class in the final week of the school year (Wednesday 6 December) via an email to parents.
While all requests are given due consideration, please be aware that it is not always possible to guarantee these requests.
We are unable to consider any requests submitted after the due date (end of Term 3).

Report Cards and Parent Teacher Inteviews

Congratulations to all students who have worked to their full potential this semester. All parents and carers were emailed a copy of your child’s report cards last week - Friday 14 July. This report card included a summary of each student’s achievement levels across all learning areas as well as students’ ratings for their effort in each learning area. Students also received a result for their overall behavior as well as a general comment. If you have not received your child’s report card, please check you junk folder, and if you still have not received it, please let the school office know.

Please also be aware that parent teacher interviews will be offered next week (24-28 July). Individual teachers determine the times of their availability during that week and once again, we have used the SchoolZine online booking system for parents to book interviews. Classroom teachers have sent out invitations in week 1 to all parents to make their appointment via the online system. Should you have any issues with booking online, please contact your child’s teacher.

PERKS

In our most recent PERKS lesson our Year 1 to 6 students further built on their knowledge and understanding about RESILIENCE.

We all know that RESILIENCE is the ability to bounce back again and again when things don’t go our way. Our students have explored what behaviours would be evident when we are being resilient and what behaviours we would see if we are not.

A big part of becoming resilient is learning to ask ourselves “How bad is it, really?”

The CATASTROPHE SCALE can be used to help us put our problems into perspective. Problems may be rated from 0 (no problem) to 10 (worst ever). This helps us understand that some problems may not be as bad as we first thought.

In a book called The Resilience Project, the author Hugh Van Cuylenburg describes his experiences in a remote desert community in India where despite the community having very little to call their own, they were incredibly happy.

He learnt from these people that practising GRATITUDE, EMPATHY & MINDFULNESS daily leads us to be happier and more resilient. He calls it the GEMs to make us more resilient rich.

GRATITUDE is paying attention to what we have, not what we don’t have. It is the act of being thankful and appreciating what you have in life.

Mrs Brennan spoke with students about how they could write in a GRATITUDE journal daily by just answering some simple questions:

What are three things that went well for you today?

OR

What was the best thing that happened to me today?
Who am I most grateful for today and why?
What am I looking forward to most about tomorrow?

EMPATHY is putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes and trying to imagine what they are going through. Showing empathy for others makes us more likely to treat people with kindness. Being kind to others also makes us happy.

MINDFULNESS is being calm and living in the present moment. We can practise mindfulness in an organised way by completing meditation, breathing exercises, mindful colouring etc or in a more casual way by just paying close attention to what we are doing and not letting our mind wander. Mindfulness is good for our physical and mental health.

We will be practising all of these GEMs with our students and hope that parents will find it useful to follow up with these at home.

ICAS Assessments

ICAS test purchasing is now closed and all tests will be held in the STEM lab on the below dates in Term 3. Participating students will be sent home more information in the coming weeks in preparation for the testing dates. If there are any further queries, please contact Jo Macan jmaca47@eq.edu.au (ICAS School Coordinator).

Testing will be conducted before school hours on the following dates and times.

Subject/Paper	School Year	Official Sitting Date
Digital Technologies	3-6	8^th August, 2022 - 7.45am Start
Writing	3-6	10^th August, 2022 - 7:45am Start
English	3-6	15^th August, 2022 - 7.30am Start
Science	3-6	22^nd August, 2022 - 7.15am Start
Spelling	3-6	24^th August, 2022 - 7.30am Start
Mathematics	3-6	29^th August, 2022 - 7:15 am start

Playground Access

This is a friendly reminder our students are not permitted on the playground equipment before or after school. This equipment should only be used with teacher supervision which happens during the play breaks.

We appreciate your support in ensuring our students are safe.

Curriculum Corner

During the last few weeks of Term 2, we had our year level planning days in preparation for Term 3 curriculum delivery. Teachers from each year level spent a full day unpacking the curriculum requirements and the summative assessment tasks. We discussed and brainstormed ways we can help our students aim for the ‘A’ and ‘B’ descriptors in the assessment tasks.

These year level planning days at the end of each term (to prepare for the following term) are vital in ensuring continuity across all classes in each year level. They give our students the best possible access to the Australian Curriculum, while also differentiating curriculum and teaching strategies based on each student’s academic needs.

Kristie O’Keefe
(Head of Curriculum)

Uniforms

Thank you to all families who ensure students are in full school uniform each day. As the weather has been cooler this term, it is important that all students continue to wear the correct Buderim Mountain State School winter uniform. We are fortunate to have excellent support from our parents in ensuring students are in full school uniform each day. Thank you for continuing this and only wearing the following winter uniform to school:

Unisex jackets – bottle green and maroon double fleece with embroidered logo
Unisex pullovers – bottle green and maroon double fleece with embroidered logo
Long bottle green tracksuit or cargo pants, or bottle green tights under skorts
Additional winter items must be plain bottle green or maroon in colour (including jumpers)

Parades

Parades will continue each week at the following times with parents welcome to attend:

Tuesday Prep & Year 1 2:20pm
Wednesday Year 2 & 3 2:20pm
Thursday Year 4 2:20pm
Friday Year 5 & 6 2:20pm

Parades include the presentation of weekly awards, messages and occasional performances.

Principal’s certificates, banners and medallions are usually presented twice per term. Any awards that are submitted by the Wednesday in the week prior to the dates shown below will be presented on these parades:

Week 5 8-11 August P-6 Principal awards
Week 10 12-15 September P-6 Principal awards

Staffing Update

Please be aware that the following staff will be replaced while they are on leave in the coming weeks:

Staff Member	Class	Replacement	Dates
Jo McCormack	4M	Felicity Carr	14 to 18 August
Jodie Prowd	Year 4 Support Teacher	Mr Ben Grayell	10 July to 8 December
Ms Jeffers	4J	Ms Slatin	18 July – 25 July

From the Office

Upcoming events and payment dates

Year level	Title	Due date
Prep	Street Science	25/07/2023
Year 1	Wildlife HQ Zoo	21/07/2023
Year 2	Sea Life	31/07/2023
Year 5-6	Interschool sport	28/07/2023

Please make sure that you have paid the amounts in full by the due dates. Payment for excursions can be made:

QParents
BPoint
Payment window- open Wednesday 8:00am-9:30am

QParents Frequently Asked Questions

How much do I owe?

QParents enables you to view invoices as well as details of paid invoices. Click the ‘To Pay’ checkbox next to any invoice to make a payment.
Note: If you are viewing the payment screen within the combined student view (accessed through the Payments tile on your home screen), click on the student name which will navigate you to the individual student profile where you can make a payment.
Watch this video for an overview of the payments screen and making online payments in QParents.

If I pay an invoice does that mean my child can attend the event?

You will need to give your ‘consent’ (permission) for your child to attend. In the past, we have sent out permission letters however we now use QParents to gain your consent. It is important that you provide consent (your permission for your child to attend the event) as well as pay for the invoice.

I notice QParents has ‘Consent Management’. What is this?

Consent Management is a new feature in QParents. It enables you to provide consent (permission) for events/excursions. This is a great feature as it removes the paperwork previously required for every school event your child would attend (please note, you still need to pay for the event as well as give your consent- two part process).

Cleaners Wanted

Buderim Mountain State School is seeking casual relief staff for cleaning. This position requires the applicant to hold a current Paid Working with Children Blue Card and a criminal history check. Previous experience in working in a school environment as well as in the cleaning industry would be beneficial. Please refer below for the generic role description:

Cleaner

As the Cleaner you will contribute to the efficient and effective operation and environment of the site by providing a high level of cleaning. These include:

Ability to carry out cleaning duties with limited supervision and cooperatively participate as a team member
Cleaning and sanitising of classrooms, toilet facilities and sick bays; vacuuming; mopping; sweeping; hosing; blower vac; rubbish disposal and litter control; removal of graffiti; other appropriate cleaning duties as directed

Hours operate in a split shift, usually 5 - 8am and 3 - 6pm

This position reports directly to the Business Manager.

If you are interested, please submit your contact details and a resume/CV to our Business Manager, Heidi Reitsma (hreit3@eq.edu.au).