Term 3 Week 5 2021

Message from the Principal

This week begins with the State Government announcing that the Covid-19 lockdown in South-East Queensland has been lifted, with effect from Sunday, 4pm. This is a relief for all in the Mary Valley as it has significantly impacted our school, with many parents and students being forced into lockdown after visiting one of the Local Government Areas (LGAs). Thank you to everyone for adhering to the guidelines and keeping our school community safe.

While this is good news for us, the Delta strain remains a risk for our community and a number of restrictions will still apply. As such, if you have recently visited one of the 11 LGAs, please ensure you limit your access to Amamoor SS and if you have to visit, please wear a mask. However, there is no requirement for children attending primary school to wear a mask, irrespective of whether they have visited one of the affected LGAs.

Please remember that it is still important to do your part to keep our school community safe. As such, please adhere to the following key messages:

• stay home if you are sick
• get tested if you have any COVID-19 symptoms, no matter how mild
• wear a face mask if required 
• check in using the Check in Qld app whenever required
• maintain physical distancing (1.5m) as much as possible
• continue to regularly check the Queensland Government COVID-19 website for updates including recent exposure sites and changes to restrictions.
  

Due to the lockdown, many activities planned for our school were impacted. Please note the following updates:

• Year 4/5/6 Camp to Noosa North Shore has been rescheduled for Week 9,   6 - 8 September
• Gympie District Athletics rescheduled...date to be advised
• Raw Art rescheduled to Week 5, Term 4
• All other scheduled activities as planned 

Although it has been a difficult time recently due to lockdowns, many other things continue at our school. New blinds have recently been installed in the Admin building, as well as the 4/5/6 and Prep/1 classrooms. Over the next few weeks, the 2/3 classroom and multi-purpose (playgroup) rooms will also have new blinds installed.

With new fridges in classrooms, our cleaners have recently received a new gerni, as well as having the washing machine plumbed and a drying rack installed. Thank you to Dave and Marcel for their work. Further to this, our groundsmen have also been busy putting up new blackboards, installing new doors and making hangers for our ukeleles! Hopefully, in the next two weeks, our new compost will also be completed. Thanks to Rachael Howard for organising the delivery of new sleepers, as well as the tireless efforts of Yana and Keith with our school garden programme!

You will soon notice some cosmetic changes happening around the school, with some new gardens being developed in time for our centenary celebrations. One of the gardens will house the new sundial being organised by Diane Cleary, while the other will house the new yardarm (flagpole) for the front of school. Also, our recently donated bottle tree, organised by Mrs Hughes, will be placed in the new front garden as part of our October celebrations.

Our newly created Homework Centre is now operating at near-capacity every afternoon until 4:30pm. Mrs Story, Mrs Alford and Mrs Toombs have all noted that students have been working hard on their homework plus enjoying extra playtime with friends and the yummy food. If you would like to access the Homework Centre for your child, please get in touch with the school office quickly, as there are only a few places left! 

Thank you to all the parents/caregivers, students and school staff who completed this year’s School Opinion Survey. We look forward to sharing our survey results with you when we receive our school report later this year. Remember also that tomorrow night, Tuesday 10 August, is census night!

With many other activities planned for the rest of the term, please ensure you keep up to date by checking out the date claimers on the left panel of the newsletter, titled 'Upcoming Events'. As always, please keep an eye on our lovely school after hours and if you see anything suspicious, please call School Watch on 131788.

Kind regards,

Tony Benzie

Prep / 1 News

2/3 Class News

4/5/6 Class News

The last few weeks have presented challenges and plenty of cancellations. Unfortunately our amazing athletes didn’t get to represent their school at district athletics, and with the cancellation of the Mary Valley Show, our students will no longer be competing with other valley schools in the cooking, arts and crafts categories. What hasn’t been cancelled is learning! We are progressing at a great rate through all our units for the semester. Ask your Year 6 student about their work on cartesian planes, or your Year 4 and 5 students about turning the poem ‘Waltzing Matilda’ into a narrative story. We’ve also squeezed in some art lessons in the additional time afforded to us with the postponing of camp. The students have created some very colourful ice-cream sundae pictures for their art portfolios.

Chappy's Corner

Hi everybody,

I hope that you are all doing well. I know that right now there is a lot of uncertainty about what is currently happening around Queensland, with many things that we were all looking forward to being postponed or cancelled. We have been so lucky up here and we are doing so well - I am proud of our school community in the way we have banded together.

I am also excited to announce that we will be holding another colour run this year. This will be held on the Friday of Week 9, the 10^th of September, and all information will be sent home next week. It has been two years since we held our last Colour Run and the response from everyone last time was fantastic. As all money raised from our Colour Run will go towards supporting chaplaincy here at Amamoor, I hope that, as a community, we can get behind this and enjoy the afternoon together.

Looking forward to seeing you around school,

Chappy Caitlin

A special donation

Just recently, our school was fortunate to receive a very special donation from one of our lovely parents, Miss Elisa Roberts. An upright piano, only six years old and in very good condition, was  relocated (by quite a few gentlemen) to its new home in the school music room. Although moving the piano to its new home took quite a deal of effort, due to it's weight, it has remained in tune and ready for use.  Thank you again to Miss Roberts and we hope you hear it making music soon! 

By Bryson and Jaxson, Year 6 

Library news...

Another donation arrives!

A BIG shout out to Julie at Mooreland Bush Nursery in Roma for your  amazingly kind and fantastic donation of a Queensland Bottle Tree for our centenary celebrations.

Although certainly not as large as the one pictured above, we look forward to planting our centenary tree in October!

News from The Arts department

The 4/5/6 class has been learning about Melodrama! They certainly are a dramatic bunch and are really enjoying playing the hero, heroine and villain. This week we did activities focusing on "asides" and use of over the top expression, voice and gestures. I can't wait to see their dramatic flair continue to develop this semester! 

Lisa Rose

Students of the Week...

Congratulations to the following students for their hard work!

Notes from the P&C

Once again, crazy and uncertain times are upon us with the COVID cluster happening in Brisbane and surrounding areas. This is leading to many cancellations or postponed activities and events. Hopefully everyone is staying healthy and safe.

With the unfortunate cancellation of the Gympie Music Muster, we are now looking at different COVID safe / socially-distanced fundraisers. If you have any suggestions please either come to the next meeting on the 18^th August, contact a P&C committee member, or write in the P&C folder up in the office. Your suggestion could be something that helps us to provide for the students with equipment or activities.

The next activity coming up is the Father’s Day Make and Take. This collaboration with the teachers is to create a special something for that special someone for Father’s Day at the beginning of September.

Preparations for our Centenary celebrations are starting to pick up speed, with our last meeting held on Friday. Come along and have a say at our next Centenary meeting, scheduled for Friday, 20 August at 3:15 in the Playgroup room, or let us know where you may be able to help on the 16^th October to make the day great. Contact Di on 0468 494 029 to express an interest to help.

Year 6 Garden Stall

This Thursday, some of our Year 6 students will be holding a garden stall at the front gates at 2:45pm. Some of the produce on sale will include...

• lettuce
• bok choi
• leek
• spring onions
• cale
• italian greens
• marigold seedlings
  

Purchases are by gold coin donation, with all money raised going back into our gardening club. Thank you for your support!

Playgroup happenings...

Rainbow Beach SLSC

Anyone for Baseball?