Welcome back to what is bound to be a very busy but exciting term for our school community as we head towards the conclusion of what will be a very successful year for our school and our students.

I hope you and your family enjoyed a wonderful holiday together. The children have settled back into school routines very quickly, they all look happy and relaxed after their holidays. They seemed to welcome the return to learning, meeting up with their friends and greeting their teachers with a smile.

Thank you to Mrs Mal Lange for managing the delivery of the new building.  We have the following classes in our new building: 2C, 2F, 2H, 3A, 3B, 3F, 3G, 3L, 3R, 5M and 5J.

We’ll have an open morning on Thursday, October 13, 8.20 - 8.40am for parents to come through the classrooms to have a look. All parents are welcome to go through.

Tonight, we have our parent session with Dr Justin Coulson, 9 ways to a resilient child.

Bookings are now open for Rochedale SS Community Event with Dr Justin Coulson, Monday 10 October, 6-7.30pm in the Gym.  Please note this is an adult only event, we have a 490-seat capacity. Click on the link below to register https://www.eventbrite.com/e/happy-families-with-dr-justin-coulson-tickets-413888470557

Click here for further information on the session Parent Session Link

Happy Families membership

https://www.happyfamilies.com,au

Classes for 2023

We are beginning to make plans for 2023 classes. If you are not intending on returning to Rochedale State School next year can you please advise Amanda Ross via email - aross184@eq.edu.au

School resumes on Monday 23 January 2023 for all children from Prep to Year 6. All state schools are staffed on the Day 8 Enrolment data collection at the start of the school year. Whether we form straight classes or multi-age classes is dependent on enrolment numbers on Day 8 – 2 February 2023. Parents are reminded that class composition, teacher year level allocations and class placements are all subject to adjustment post Day 8.

For audit purposes, it is vital we have correct enrolment numbers at the commencement of the 2023 school year. If you will be returning later than the school start date, please also indicate your intended date of return and reason such as visiting family overseas. You will be requested to complete an acceptable evidence form, please email Jane Jeffrey - jjeff157@eq.edu.au

Please note that classes and teachers can change depending on enrolment numbers.

The Leadership Team, support staff and class teachers will work together to place students in a class for next year. Staff have deep knowledge of students, their needs and which students they should not be placed with for next year.

The aim is to construct well-balanced classes in which students can work and perform to their full potential. Due consideration is given to the student’s academic needs and their social/emotional needs when placement is decided. Your trust in our decision-making, your acknowledgement of the time and care that goes into this process and your respect for the competence and dedication of every member of our staff team are greatly appreciated.

Should parents wish to have input to the process they are asked to email their ‘request for consideration’ to the relevant Deputy Principal.

Please note we will not take requests for particular teachers.  A new class and a new teacher is an opportunity for children to make new friends and to have new learning experiences.

Requests should outline your child’s learning needs and the considerations that you believe would assist your child to be successful at school in 2023. Closing date for this correspondence is Monday 24 October, request for consideration will not be accepted after this date.

Shuffle Up Day will be held on Friday 2 December, students are placed into the class group and teacher for 2023.

UOI Parent Overviews  At Rochedale SS, we value the communication between home and school. To assist you with keeping up to date with your child’s learning, you will receive your UOI Parent Overviews at the beginning of the unit.  This document provides essential information addressing the learning in your child’s year level. Please see your class teacher if you have any questions.

NAPLAN 2022 Individual student reports for our Year 3 and 5 students who participated in the National Assessment of Literacy and Numeracy were sent home last week. Once again, our students made us exceptionally proud both with their collective cohort results and also their individual results which aligned well to their performance against the Australian Curriculum Standards.

Student Achievement

The Opti-MINDS Challenge is an opportunity for all those with a passion for learning & problem solving to showcase their skills & talents in an exciting, vibrant & public way.

Congratulations to the following students who  participated in this year’s Optimind Challenge.

Thank you to Ms Jen Franco and Ms Katie Mc Govern for supporting the students in the Optiminds challenge.

Congratulations to Joshua A, Year 5, who won the national Aquathon, what a fantastic performance!

Bebras Challenge The Bebras challenge is designed to help students explorer their talents and passion for informatics and computational thinking with engaging challenges. Participating in the challenge is free and the tasks can all be completed without any preparation or studying. Students from 6 to 18 years old work through a set of tasks that focus on different topics and skills within informatics and computational thinking.

During this Bebras round, we had 110 Students participated from RSS this round, achieving 13 High Distinction, 18 Distinction, 11 Credit, 34 Merit and 34 Participation awards.

Queensland Mental Health Week

This year, Queensland Mental Health Week takes place from 8 October to 16 October. At Rochedale State School, we are committed to supporting, valuing and promoting the mental health and wellbeing of all members of our school community.

This year’s theme for Mental Health Week is “Awareness, Belonging, Connection” reflecting the important factors that help people maintain positive mental health and wellbeing.

Awareness is about understanding the things we need to maintain and boost our mental wellbeing, and knowing when we need to reach out for help and where to get it.

Belonging is about looking out for each other, ensuring we feel safe and supported, and understanding that however we feel, we’re not alone, and that there are others going through the same thing.

Connection is about our relationships with our friends, families, and those that we care about, as well as the groups, clubs, and networks around us that we rely on to help keep us happy and healthy, wherever we live, work, or play.

This week, I’ll be attending the 2022 Principal’s Conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. Mr Tom Grimson will be acting Principal in my absence.

Have a great week.
Melissa

At the end of last term Year 4 completed their Sharing the Planet Unit of Inquiry. The Central Idea was living things depend and impact on environments.

Throughout this unit students inquired into:

• the interdependent relationship of living things
• how nature and living things impact their environment
• how environments can be sustained

In the action part of the inquiry cycle, students researched endangered animals and created information posters to share their knowledge with the community to help raise awareness and encourage support for the species.

Well done to the year 4 students for their active engagement in this unit of inquiry. Throughout the unit, students further developed self-management, research and communication skills, enabling the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned and synthesise it within an enduring understanding.  

Natasha Floyd
Head of Department- Curriculum

 ​2023 Prep Enrolments are now open!

Enrolments for Prep 2023 are now open for children born between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018. Children must be five (5) by 30 June in the year they enrol. Applications for enrolment will only be accepted for students within the school catchment area (or siblings of a current 2022 student). Unfortunately, we won’t be offering any out of catchment places for 2023. For further information, please contact our school Enrolments Officer, Mrs Amanda Ross on PH: 3340 8333 or

E: enrolments@rochedalss.eq.edu.au

We have completed our first Nude Food Thursday with success. However, we would love to improve our results from our bin audits! You might like to cook some muesli slice or muffins to prepare for this Thursday!

Please remember:

• Use reusable containers
• Try for no foil or plastic wraps

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

 From your Waste Warriors

2022 ROCHEDALE STATE SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY
 Thursday October 13  -  PREP TO YEAR 6

This year’s inter-house cross country competition highlights the full participation of our students in an extended run over our ovals.

All year levels will be represented over the morning and it will be full of participation, exertion, sweat and energy for the Preps to year 6.

Parents you are most welcome to come and experience it with us.  

Parents and friends please stay in the designated areas to spectate our cross country events. These areas are located near the tennis courts and also down past the sports shed on the mound & in the small ravine.

The race event program lists each year level and they will run in their own time slot and have approximately 10-15mins to complete the course. Please note these starting times are approximate only - the time slots are as follows below:

Looking forward to a great cross country!
Mr Brown

Our Scholastic Book Fair is nearly here! It will open in Week 4 so come along to find the best new books and help to earn free books for our library. Flyers will be coming home soon.

The following invoices are due for payment as follows. 

PLEASE NOTE 

Due dates for incursions/excursions are final.  No late payments or permission forms will be accepted after the due date.  

Students who have not returned the permission or made payment by the due date, will not be able to participate in the activity.

If you have not received an invoice please contact the office. All payments are to be made by our preferred method of BPoint online.

Office Hours

The school office is open each day from 8am to 4pm. 

Student State School Consent

It is the school’s usual practice to take photographs or record images of students and occasionally to publish limited personal information and student materials for the purpose of celebrating student achievement and promoting the school and more broadly celebrating Queensland education. Consent to use your child's name, photograph, voice/video recording or year level is requested at time of enrolment via the "State School Consent Form". If you wish to make changes to consent for your child please request a new State School Consent Form from the school office. 

Facility Hirers

Please find attached the current list of the community groups that hire our school facilities.

ABSENCE LINE 3340 8388 or

text 0427 890 693 (24 hours)

*******IT IS NOW A REQUIREMENT THAT ALL STUDENT ABSENCES BE REPORTED ON THE DAY OF THE ABSENCE TO THE SCHOOL OFFICE*******

If your student is absent and the school has not been notified of the reason, a text message will be sent to parents by 9.30am requesting a reason for the absence. If you receive a text, please reply and explain your child's absence to avoid reeceiving a follow up phone call from the school office.

To report a student absence:

Please call the absence line on 3340 8388 or text our SMS line on 0427 890 693.  These lines are both open 24 hours a day. You can also use the SMS line to report a planned late arrival to school eg; doctor's appointment. 

When recording an absence on either our phone line or SMS line, please state the following:

1. Your name
2. Student's name
3. Student's class
4. Reason for absence

Please speak clearly and slowly and help us with spelling of names when calling the phone line.

SNACK SHACK NEWS: Tuckshop (eq.edu.au)

Unfortunately, some of the new menu items will be rearranged to accommodate some recent staffing changes. We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused and thank you for your understanding and your continued support. We are still committed to the new menu, and we will continue it update it over the coming weeks. Here at Rochedale State School Snack Shack, we are very lucky to have a very supportive community and we appreciate how the families have maintained the support. Reminder: Qkr order cut-off is 8.45am for that day's delivery. Orders can be placed at any time during the day or night for the next day's delivery. Mums, Dads, and Grandparents make great volunteers, why not give it a try? Your child will love seeing you there! See what we do and how we prepare all the lunches on site. If you can spare some time, even if it is only half an hour in the mornings (when you do school drop off), every little bit helps. Make new friends and have a laugh. We are always looking for new volunteers. Any concerns or questions you may have please email tuckshop@rochedalesspandc.com.au or tsmanager@rochedalesspandc.com.au

RSS P&C - Team Snack Shack 

UNIFORM SHOP NEWS: Uniform shop (eq.edu.au)

Please note: We are open for over-the-counter sales! Please feel free to come in and visit us now, as we are back to being open every Monday & Wednesday during term time 8.15am-9.15am & 2.15pm-3.15pm. We have changed our POS system to Square, due to the previous one no longer being fit for purpose. Please be patient as we learn the new system. We are no longer able to deliver Qkr orders direct to the classrooms. All Qkr orders are now delivered to the teacher's pigeonholes for the teacher to collect and then distribute to your child. This will happen on Mondays & Wednesdays. Or if you prefer you can pick up on the day in the afternoon, but please let us know by email so that we can hold on to it for you. Please speak with your teacher in the first instance if you do not receive your order. We appreciate your patience during this adjustment. Every effort is made to ensure the orders are delivered directly to the teacher for distribution to your child, if your order has not arrived by Thursday each week, please email your teacher. Winter stock has now arrived and is ready for you to order. Any questions or concerns can be sent to uniform@rochedalesspandc.com.au

P&C NEWS: P&C (eq.edu.au) 

Our next General Meeting - Tuesday October 25 at 7pm. All are welcome. We will be saying goodbye to some of our Executives at the end of this year. Why not come along to a meeting, no need to join immediately. There are many benefits of volunteering. Volunteering provides you with a sense of purpose, a sense of community, it increases your social skills and allows you to make many new friends. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pandc@rochedalss.eq.edu.au

ROSHCA NEWS: ROSHCA (eq.edu.au) 

All information regarding enrolling at ROSHCA can be found on the school's website or by emailing us at roshca@rochedalesspandc.com.au

Kind regards,
Michelle Duncan
Admin Asst. RSS P&C
07-3340-8365