2025 TERM 1 WEEK 2
Principal Report
Welcome to the 2024 school year!! A special welcome to our new students and families. We are all looking forward to getting to know you and to helping you over the coming weeks and months.
A huge welcome to our new teaching staff members Mr Browne, Mr Barclay and Ms Clark. All staff are settling quickly into their new workplace and are enjoying working in the Amamoor community. Furthermore, we welcomed last week Charlotte our permanent psychologist as part of the Student Wellbeing Package. Our 2025 Speech and Language Pathologist Claire also visited yesterday to work with our staff and students. For Term One, Sharon James, Guidance Officer, will be replacing Adam Burke who is on leave. Our school chaplain position may be filled in the next few weeks with a candidate currently completing their required training. We are fortunate to be supported by the North Coast Region which provides services, resources and facilities for people with identified needs and professionals who assist them. A sincere thanks as well to Mr Hall and our volunteer Jason who spent many hours over the holidays preparing the school through lawn mowing and whipper snipping to ensure the grounds look as amazing as they do! We are always appreciative of any volunteers to support in and outside our classrooms.
2025 will continue to see Amamoor deliver ‘learning, working and growing’ as our school motto states. Last week and continuing into the term, and year, we will have a series of practice evacuation, fire and lockdown drills. These offer a proactive approach to combat unpredictability by allowing our students, staff and visitors to familiarise themselves with all possible exit routes. By consistently practicing these routes and reflecting upon shortcomings etc, all individuals are calm and respond efficiently. Apart from the core business of teaching and learning in the key learning areas of English, Mathematics, Science, HASS, Technology, The Arts and HPE all students across the school will also partake in Japanese and Swimming Lessons. Library time will be undertaken during general class time with Mrs Alford with Year 5/6 on Mondays, Prep/Year 1 and Year 1/2 on Tuesdays and Year 3/4 on Thursdays. Weekly Tuesday The Arts lessons for all P-6 students with Mrs Valamis have been exciting. HPE with Mr Boyd on Wednesdays will also include some extra curricular events with our community with Hockey and Rugby League Gala Days booked in as well as Swimming Carnival and Cross Country. There will be a P&C Association AGM with a date and venue to be advised. Keep informed about school and class happenings by perusing the newsletter (a copy can be found on the school website or via email) attending P&C meetings, reading your child’s class curriculum newsletter each term and reading emails from class teachers. QParents forms are updated regularly and the community support is appreciated to complete these forms in a timely manner. If you would not like to provide consent for your student to complete the activity, please ensure you complete the form with the no option so we are aware that it has been considered.
We appreciate the time spent by our families to fulfil the booklists for 2025. Teachers spend time ensuring that the booklist reflects the needs of the class. If you have been unable to purchase certain items, the school is happy to source the book or item for your family and an invoice will be provided to you. We will be ensuring all students have the items they need by the end of Week 4 for those families waiting on items on back order.
GENERAL REMINDERS It is timely at the start of a new school year to remind everyone about a few school expectations.
- NO HAT, NO PLAY AT ALL! A hat is one that has a broad brim – not a cap.
- Student Absences: It is a requirement that student absences are explained. This can be done by phone call, note, QParents or email either before the absence if it is a planned one, or after the event. Unexplained absences are recorded in the student’s records. Parents are reminded of the importance of sending children to school every day. Being at school every day counts, with one day absent each week quickly adding up to two months of missed lessons in a year. Research shows that students who have a good attendance record are more likely to achieve high results. Unless your child is ill, it is expected that your child will be at school learning every day of the school year. More information on the importance of regular school attendance is available at http:// education.qld.gov.au/everydaycounts/i ndex.html
- Uniforms: school shirt with blue skirt/skorts or shorts. All students are to wear broad brimmed hats and shoes and socks. Socks need to be worn at ankle height – not half way up the shins or at knee height. Uniform shirts can be purchased from school office. All items needs to be named please, especially with swimming this term.
- Jewellery: The only jewellery items allowed to be worn at school are sleeper or stud earrings, cignet rings and medic alert necklaces/bracelets.
- Temporary tattoos/makeup: These items are not permitted. This includes fingernail polish.
- Arrival time at School: 8:15 am
- Mobile Phones/Ipods/personal digital assistants/etc: Students are discouraged from having these items at school. If one comes to school, it needs to be named and placed at the office. They can be collected from the Office at 3:00pm. From Term 1 2024, students across Queensland must have mobile phones switched off and ‘away for the day’ and notifications disabled on smartwatches during school hours. Our school is committed to enhancing student wellbeing and creating a learning-focused environment free from distractions. Away for the Day means that phones (and other electronic devices) are to be taken to the office upon arrival at school and picked up at the end of the day. Smartwatches will need to have ‘Notifications’ switched off. To find out more, visit https:// tinyurl.com/329kup6u
- Lunch box contents – healthier food options such as sandwiches or similar (rice cakes, wraps) and fruit are encouraged to be eaten before the packaged biscuits and chips. Water only in water bottles. NO chocolates or lollies.
Healthy Lunch Box Week
Healthy Lunchbox Week is an initiative of Nutrition Australia that aims to inspire Australian families to create healthy and enjoy able lunchboxes. Did you know children consume around 30% of their daily food intake at school? Most of this comes from the contents of their lunchbox. What children eat during their day at school plays a crucial role in their learning and development.
Healthy Lunchbox Week helps families prepare healthy lunchboxes by:
- inspiring healthy lunchbox ideas and recipes
• informing a healthy lunchbox balance across core food groups
• awareness of lunchbox food hygiene and safety.
Why 4 - 10 February? Occurring at the start of Term 1, Healthy Lunchbox Week provides timely information for families as they return to the routine of daily lunchbox packing. It also supports schools and teachers to share healthy lunchbox messages within their school community. https://www.healthylunchboxweek.org.au/
Lunch Box Ideas/Recipes
Office Update
Student absentee/Late arrivals/ Early pick up procedure:
Please remember to call the school early in the morning if your child is going to be away or late for school so your child's absences can be recorded correctly.
If your child is absent from school without explanation you will receive a SMS text message that morning to your mobile phone asking for absence reason. Please reply with a simple SMS answer.
If your child arrives late in the morning please let the office know to avoid a SMS text message.
Please let the office know if collecting early so your child is signed out for the day.
Naplan
Dates to Remember
Library
Prep Vision Screening
Prep Vision Screening team will be here February 21.
Prep/1 Class
P&C
Tuckshop
