Principal's Patch

Years 3-6 Deputy Principal 2023 

Next year Mr Upton and his family are taking the opportunity to do a trip of a lifetime and travel around Australia. As a result, we will have a Deputy Principal filling in for Mr Upton until he returns in 2024. 

We recently conducted a state-wide merit recruitment process and I am happy to announce that Mrs Melinda Bransden will join the Palm Beach team as Deputy Principal for 2023.  Melinda joins us from Pacific Pines Primary School and brings many years of experience across various schools in the South East Region.  

We welcome Mel to our school and wish Tyson and his family all the very best on their travels and hope they make a lifetime of memories while they are tripping around. 

Christmas concert 

We are all very excited to have our school community back in our school for our 2023 Christmas Concert next Wednesday. Each class has been working really hard on a performance to wow parents and carers and we can’t wait for this much anticipated event. 

Please come along and support our hardworking P&C who are doing a fantastic job in supporting our school. Gates open at 3:15 with student meeting their teachers at 3:45 and performances kicking off at 4pm. 

Further information of performance times etc will be sent home via Dojo and also via social media. 

2023 School leaders 

Congratulations to our Year 5 students who have nominated for school leadership positions and last week presented their speeches to their Year 4 and 5 peers. All candidates did an amazing job and should be very proud of themselves for the courage they showed in delivering their speeches. Students have now been shortlisted and will be interviewed by the leadership team as the final stage in the process to select our school leaders. 

We look forward to announcing our 2023 school leaders following this process. 

Meet the teacher 

Our ‘Meet the Teacher’ morning is on Monday 5th December at 9.30am.

During this 40-minute session your child will go to their 2023 classroom and meet their classmates and class teacher for 2023.

The ‘Meet the Teacher’ session will be finished at approximately 10.10am and your child will then return to their current class. 

More detailed information has been sent to our Prep 2023Prep families outlining where to meet etc.

Athletics carnivals 

What a great couple of days over the past two weeks with our athletics carnivals. The excitement among students was palpable and it was so great to have such large numbers of parents and community in our school to cheer their children on. 

I have been at many schools during my career, however I have never seen such a sense of pride in the students representing their house. Also, and most importantly there were overwhelming levels of great sportsmanship and encouragement from all students. 

The support and enthusiasm of our sports captains during both days should also be recognised as they did and outstanding job helping on the day and generating excitement and healthy competition among the houses. Well done leaders!

Congratulations to our senior carnival winning houses and age champions below: 

u8's - Will Britton, Dylan Clarke and Amira Sands

u9's - Milla Dyce, Pepper Bowden and Sebastian McLeod

u10's - Iluka Wall and Tamati Tiopira

u11's - Avaya Devett and Kai Veering

u12's - Isabella McLeod and Will Miglioraza

Overall House -

1st- Dolphins -393pts

2nd - Sharks - 375 pts

3rd - Stingrays - 258 pts

A special thank-you to Mr Locke for his organisation of our athletics carnivals and Pete our facilities officer for his work in getting our oval ready to go, a job well done! 

Swimming carnival 

We were very disappointed for our swimming carnival to be postponed on Monday. We have been able to lock in a new date of Tuesday 6th December from 11am – 2pm. More information will follow in the coming days. 

Giving back to our community 

We are very proud to be contributing back to our community. Our Year 1 students recently donated vegetables and herbs harvested from our school garden to the Palm Beach Food Pantry. What a great way to instill a sense of community in our students by contributing to a cause that makes a difference to those in need. 

Thank you Mrs Bassi for your continued hard work in our school garden. 

Band performance

Congratulations to our Junior and Senior Bands who performed wonderfully for their parents on Tuesday afternoon. It was great to see their progress in Term 4 and how they have developed as musicians. Thank-you to the parents who help with hours of at home practice for them to progress to this level. 

Thank you to Ms Kesting for her on-going work with our instrumental students. 

2023 Book pack drop off 

So you can begin to prepare for next year, 2023 book pack drop-off will be on Friday 20 January from 8am – 9am. Please put this in your diary!

Uniform Shop holiday hours 

To begin the new school year in 2023, the uniform shop will be open on Wednesday 18th, Thursday 19th and Friday 20th January from 8:30am - !2:00pm

New bell times 2023  

Currently at Palm Beach SS, teachers open their doors at 8:30am with instruction starting at 8:45am. 

Teachers in Queensland work under the Teaching in State Education Award 2016, which outlines teachers’ industrial entitlements under the Industrial Relations Act 2016. 

To ensure I am complying with the above award, from 2023 teachers will not be required to open their doors at 8:30am. Some teachers may choose to do this; however, it will not be an expectation that all teachers do so. 

Instruction will begin at 8:45am in all classes. Bell times will be altered to reflect this change. A bell will sound at 8:40am signalling for students to move to their classrooms and an 8:45am bell will sound to signal the beginning of the learning time. All other bells throughout the day will remain unchanged.

Report cards 

Teachers are currently busy finalising assessments in order to write student report cards. End of year report cards will be e-mailed home in week 10 on Thursday 8 December. 

NEW PAYMENT WINDOW HOURS

As of 16 January 2023, the payment window will be closed Mondays.

EFTPOS  will be available 

Tuesday to Fridays until 11:30am only