2023 Term 2 Week 2
From the Principal's Desk
Welcome back to Term 2! Hopefully you each had a lovely holiday period and were able to spend quality time with your families. During the holidays the school had some minor repairs conducted, which included replacing the old louvres in the back of Prep/1 and 2/3 classrooms to prevent further water ingress during storms. Dave and Tom continued to work hard on our gardens, as well as our extensive lawn areas and cross country track.
The first week of this term saw some of our senior students complete their requirements for leadership. Declan and Makayla attended their investiture parade on 21 April, while Leila attended hers the following week. Congratulations to these leaders for receiving their leadership badge. Our next opportunity for leadership recognition will hopefully occur before the end of this term.
Our school held an ANZAC Day Parade at on 24 April. Representatives from the Mary Valley Returned Services League also attended. Again, it was a very moving parade, with our senior students performing very well. Each class made a wreath, which were laid at the base of the flagpole. A poppy was also placed on each memorial in our ANZAC garden during the parade, in recognition of those who served. Thank you to all of the families who attended the Imbil service on the 25th of April. It was lovely to see so many students from Amamoor in uniform representing our school on this special day.
Quite a few students from our school recently travelled to Maryborough to represent the Gympie District softball team in the regional competition. It was a fantastic accomplishment by our students, with Amamoor nearly comprising 50% of the district team! Congratulations to Makayla, Brock, Declan, Gracie, Deklin, Maddie, Xanthe and Kirra! Still on sport, next week the district Cross Country championships will be held at One Mile, Gympie. We have three students competing at this event and we wish Leila, Brock and Brady all the very best.
On Sunday, 7 May, the Amamoor Parents and Citizens association (P&C) will be holding a fundraising event for our school. If you could spare some time, even an hour or two, it would be most appreciated. The fundraiser is a sausage sizzle, and it will be held outside Bunnings Gympie from 8 - 4pm. Shifts are usually two hours, either cooking, taking orders or helping to serve. Please contact the P&C President, Neil Gurnett on 0410 586 749 or the school office, if you could help.
It is lovely to see that our attendance rate is slowly creeping upwards! Our target for the year is 93%, and at present, we are sitting on 90.4%. Every day at school is so important for the development of each child and we encourage you to help us make sure that 'Every Day Counts.'
Our curriculum offerings continue to broaden at Amamoor, with students accessing a wide range of opportunities. This term sees choir commence with Mrs Wilson, as well as Chappy Club and an Art Club every Friday. This is on top of the Visual Arts and Kitchen-Garden programmes that are already happening on a Friday!
Our school calendar, on the left of this page, is continually updated with upcoming events, so please make sure you keep abreast of these. The Gympie Show holiday is on Friday, 19 May, with our Mini Sports Carnival scheduled for Wednesday 7 June. Our Under 8s Day will be the following week, on 14 June.
Every Friday, commencing next week, our Art Club will be operating during second break in the 4/5/6 classroom with Miss Broome. This club will allow interested students from Year 2 and above to participate in a fantastic programme, with a focus on creating recycled 'steam punk' art works. Each term will have a different focus...stay tuned!
Our new chess board pieces have recently arrived, with students eagerly wanting to play. These chess pieces stand around 40 centimetres tall and are available for students to play every day. Hopefully this addition will encourage more students to learn how to play this strategic game!
Playgroup continues to happen every Friday morning, from 9am to 11am. All are welcome, with a gold coin donation kindly requested. I would like to personally thank Hanna Robinson for all of her hard work last year and welcome Anika Campbell, who will be running Playgroup for 2023.
I look forward to seeing you around the school over the coming weeks.
Kind regards,
Tony Benzie
Prep/1 Class
2/3 Class
4/5/6 Class
Anyone for Chess?!
Our new Chess Pieces arrived this week. It has been great to see the students playing at lunch.
Around the Library
Kitchen/Garden Programme
We have had a busy start to Term 2. Last week the Year 4/5 students made Anzac biscuits. (Good job too! Staff even had a sample). This week, classes have been weeding, germinating and harvesting plants. We have harvested radish, paw-paw and cherry tomatoes.
Visual Arts Programme
Leadership Investiture
Congratulations Declan, Makayla and Leila on your Leadership Investiture for Round 1.
Round 2 will be held later in Term 2.
Student of the Week
Congratulations to Indy, Brady, Deklin, Max, William, Freyja and Marshall!
Choir
Behaviour Focus
Every fortnight, our school focuses on a different behaviour. This last fortnight has seen students focusing on 'Respecting others by keeping hands and feet to yourself.' Students from Years 4,5 and 6 have written a few notes about this below...
'Starting next week, our behaviour focus will be 'Follow instructions the first time!'
Anzac Day
Thank you to all the families for turning out on ANZAC Day to march with the school. Lucky the weather held off! We held an ANZAC Day Service at the school as well.
Thank You to Phil Jensen, Guest Speaker from the Mary Valley RSL for attending on the day.
Regional Softball
Yesterday, we left Amamoor early in the morning. When we arrived at Maryborough we got changed into our softball uniform. We went through catching, throwing and pitching drills. When we finished lunch we went straight into playing games. First we met our team (Maryborough) and versed Bundaberg then we played two other games. "Possible" and "Probables" then versed each other to decide who would then move on to represent the region at the state-level championships. We had a great day and a fantastic experience!
Xanthe King
Kirra, Xanthe, Maddie and Makayla representing Gympie District Girls team.
Chappy News
Term 2 has got off to a flying start for chaplaincy! This term I have started a lunch-time 'Chappy Club' for Years 4 to 6. During this time, students can come into the multi-purpose room and enjoy a variety of fun activities. This time also gives me an opportunity to get to know our students better as well. Not to mention, just having some fun hanging out together!
Building and maintaining good friendships is such an important skill for students to develop at an early age. So too, is showing respect towards each other, as well as staff, family and community members. To help facilitate this, I have also started running friendship and respect groups with various grades, which will run throughout the term. I would hope that through these groups our students would develop healthy and respectful relationships with their peers.
Check out the photos of students involved in the various group activities.
Have a great week!
Breakfast Club
The YMCA Schools’ Breakfast Program has been supporting schools since 2006 and provided over 7 million breakfast meals across South-East QLD. In 2021, the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy, as part of the Queensland Government’s commitment to support individuals and families in immediate financial crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, provided the YMCA Schools’ Breakfast Program with funds to support schools, within and beyond SEQ, who have identified the need to provide food to students and/or their families. The YMCA is deeply appreciative of this funding which has enabled them to reach to more schools in need of support.
Amamoor State School appreciates the ongoing assistance provided by YMCA in facilitating our Breakfast Programme.
Community Events & News
