Term 4 - Week 4

Principals message

CLASSES 2024: As the end of the year draws closer, we have commenced planning for 2024. Due to a reduction in enrolments, we will have three less classes next year. Based on 2024 enrolment predications, there will be three classes in each year level. If parents have any requests regarding class placement of your child in 2024 (e.g., friendship groups, relatives, cultural groups, etc.) please arrange a meeting with a Deputy Principal to discuss your concerns or email principal@cairnswestss.eq.edu.au. Although no guarantees can be made, we will endeavour to support parent requests wherever possible.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP CHANGES: From next year we will no longer be running the Junior Leaders program. This program came about due to having two separate assemblies, whereby student leaders in year six would host the senior assembly and student leaders in year three would host the junior assembly.

Now that we have gone back to whole school assemblies, there is no longer a need for year three students to lead assemblies. Next year we will introduce a new leadership model that will enable year five students to build capability around leadership roles. I thank our junior leaders for doing an outstanding job as such a young age!

DISCO: Wow, what a turn-out we had at our school disco last week, the first in several years. A huge thank you to Mrs Feletar and the year six business studies students for all your hard work to create such a fun event. The night was well supported by our school community with lots of children in attendance and lots of fun had by all. Thank you also to our staff who volunteered their time on the night to support.

SCHOOL GATES: School gates are unlocked each morning by our school cleaners at around 7:30am. From 9:15am our school groundsman locks all gates except our front office admin gate on Mayers Street. This is a safety precaution to ensure all pedestrian traffic in and out of the school throughout the day comes past the front office. All gates are then unlocked again at 2:15pm each afternoon.

From time to time when staff are absent or on leave this procedure may be affected. If parents notice a gate is locked that should be open or vice versa, please contact the office and it will be sorted immediately.

NEW REFUGEE STUDENTS: This semester we have seen the recommencement of refugee arrivals into our school, the first since the Covid pandemic. Children with refugee backgrounds make up approximately 17% of our student populations and this is one of the factors that makes our school so unique and inclusive.

When they arrive, the majority of these children do not speak English, have had significant disruption to their education and come to our school from highly complex backgrounds.

Our school runs an Intensive Language Centre (ILC) and the primary role of the ILC is to support newly arrived refugee and migrant students in English language acquisition and in their socioemotional wellbeing. I acknowledge the amazing work of our ILC staff in supporting these children on their settlement journey and I thank the entire school community for their support of these children and families as they settle into our school and community.

Yours in Education, Jason Evert  -  Principal

Deputy Principal - Teaching & Learning

Hello CWSS community,

It was truly wonderful to welcome our school community to last week’s school Disco! So much fun was had by everyone and it was fabulous to see parents and families supporting this event. Thank you to Mrs Feletar and her Year 6 Business students for their leadership and efforts in organising such a positive event and to our school staff who attended and joined in the fun!

This Friday CWSS recognises World Teacher’s Day. This is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the teachers who are making, or have made an impact in our lives and ensure they know they are appreciated. We are so fortunate at CWSS to have a team of teachers who are committed to providing quality education and passionate about improving life outcomes for their students. I am often impressed by the teachers of CWSS who go above and beyond to bring learning to life for our CWSS students. Please join me this Friday by showing our appreciation to the world’s best teachers who teach at CWSS!

Our Prep for Prep transition program has begun every Friday 8:30-9:30am from week 2-6. This is an excellent opportunity for kindergarten aged children to visit our Prep classrooms and become familiar with our school. Our Head of Student Service, Mrs Katie Hughes and the Prep team have prepared a brilliant program to ensure our 2024 Prep students are confident and happy about starting school. If you know a Kindergarten child, please encourage their family to contact the school about enrolling their child at CWSS for Prep in 2024.

Transition is not just for our youngest students; our Year 6 students are also participating in Transition programs to best prepare them to transition to high school. Our school works very closely with Trinity Bay State High and there are a lot of opportunities this term for our Year 6 students to visit a high school, so they too are confident about their next schooling step. If you have any questions regarding high school enrolment, please don’t hesitate to contact the school.

This term our school is so fortunate to participate in a Swimming program. Our HPE teacher Mr Pudovskis has worked hard to coordinate a Prep- Year 6 swimming program held at Woree Swimming Pool. Students travel to and from the pool by bus and receive 5 days of lessons by qualified swimming instructors. Learning to swim is an essential life skill. We highly encourage every student to attend all 5 lessons of this program. Thank you to our staff for supporting our students to attend these important lessons. The swimming program is as follows:
Week 4: Years 5&6
Week 5: Years 3& 4 & 2C
Week 6: Prep – Year 2 (not 2C)

Please contact our wonderful Admin staff if you have any questions regarding payment or permission for swimming.  What an exciting place CWSS is to be! So many wonderful learning opportunities for your child to enjoy and experience.

Thank you for being a partner in your child's learning journey.

Megan Mitchell  -  Deputy Principal Teaching and Learning

Deputy Principal - Student Services

Hello families of Cairns West

First of all I want to congratulate the year 5 and 6 students who have been attending swimming this week.  They have been doing the right thing, being organised and the feedback from the pool is that they are very well behaved.  Thank you to the families who have been sorting out payment for swimming.  It is part of the curriculum and imperative that our students know how to swim.  

We have a new SSIS song coming out next week and I encourage you to like our school Facebook page so you can listen and share the songs with your extended families.  The students love engaging with the songs and on parade every second Thursday they enjoy the actions.  Come along to parade and join in the fun.

The Resilience Project (TRP) is part of our whole school Social and Emotional proactive approach.  Students get to focus on Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (GEM).  I encourage you at home to spend some time being mindful.  There are lots of different activities you can do individually or as a family.  Take an afternoon walk around the neighbourhood, practice meditation or give yoga a go.

Visit this website for more information and ideas:
https://theresilienceproject.com.au/at-home/home-2023/
 
Free, Positive Wellbeing Tips at Home - TRP@HOME
Let’s practise feeling happier! TRP@HOME is a place filled with inspiration and activities to help us improve our wellbeing and build resilience.

We are still striving to reach 80% attendance.  Please seek support if your child is refusing or having problems getting to school.  We have an array of supports we can offer.  Please check in with the office and speak to either myself, Mrs Hughes, Mr Gleave.  We have many strategies that we can use to support you and your children.

Next week Wednesday we have the Parent Advisory group meeting.  It starts at 1:30pm in the Community room with Ms Annie and myself.  We want to extend the invitation to all parents so we can get your input into the meaning and purpose of the group and develop a vision.  If you want to come and can't make it next week please touch base with myself or Annie and we can get your feedback and report back after the meeting.

Take care of yourself and each other

Hayley Lawton - Deputy Principal Student Services

HPE NEWS -Swimming - term 4 all classes

IMPORTANT SWIMMING INFORMATION:

COST: $50 payable to the office before the program commences.  
(BPOINT or EFTPOS is the preferred method of payment.  If you have any queries, please see the office.) This year, the cost of the swimming wasn’t included in the Student Resource Scheme.
•    It is strongly encouraged that all students attend this important educational opportunity, unless the student has a medical condition supported by a doctor’s note
•    The PERMISSION form must be completed and returned to your child’s class teacher before your child can participate in the swimming program  
•    I confirm that my child’s medical details held at CWSS on file are up to date
The swimming program will be based on Water Safety and Learn to Swim.  It will be administered by qualified Aust swim instructors at Woree Aquatic Centre.
Students are required to wear their full school uniform on swimming days and to bring the following;
•    swimmers
•    swim shirt
•    towel
•    bag for wet clothing
•    cap and goggles (if you choose)
•    closed shoes

Mr Paul Pudovskis  -  HPE teacher

Cairns Safer Street Activities - Term 4

STUDENT OF THE WEEK  -  TERM 4 week 3 & 4

Week 3

Week 4

WEEK 2

Week 3

Attendance - Term 4 - week 2 & 3 students

Best Attending Classes – Trophies 
Best Junior, Middle and Senior attending classes for Term 3 will be announced and awarded with the class trophy and class set of prizes. See below for winning classes 

Cowboys TRYFOR5! is an inter-school challenge, designed to address short and long term impacts of students missing foundation learning in their primary years through poor school attendance.

TRYFOR5! motivates and rewards individual classes and schools for their attendance record during the challenge period, and engages students and families using the club’s profile and ambassadors.

Cairns West State School is very excited about being a part of this initiative.     

                                          Whole School attendance TRYFOR5!  GOAL  = 75.60% 

Try For 5 Winners – Each fortnight 1 class from the Junior school (P-3) and 1 class from the senior school (4-6) class with the Best/Most Improved (alternate fortnight) attendance will be rewarded with a class set of Try For 5! Prizes. The classes will be announced on parade and prizes delivered to classes.
 
Weeks 1 and  2– Best Class Attendance (announced in week 3)
Weeks 3 and 4 – Most Improved Attendance  (announced in week 5)
Weeks 5 and 6 – Best Class Attendance (announced in week 7)
Weeks 7 and 8 – Most Improved Attendance (announced in week 9)
Term 4 – Best Junior, Middle and Senior attendance for Term 4 (announced in week 10)

Junior Class with best attendance for weeks 1 and 2 – 2A = 83%
Senior Class with best attendance for weeks 1 and 2 – 6D = 86%

End of Term Grand Prize– Trampoline 

There are 769 names in the draw so far! 

VISUAL ART DEPARTMENT

Entries have been sent in for the QTU Peace and Equity Art Award!
Good luck to all the students who worked hard to enter an art work we are so proud of the effort you all put in!

Mrs Laurila - Visual Arts Teacher

SCHOOL SAVVY PROGRAM

STEAM SHOWCASE 2023  -                                                THURSDAY 9 NOVEMBER AND FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER

STUDENT DENTAL INFORMATION