Dear Parents and Caregivers

Six years ago, when I commenced as Principal of PBSS, I had a vision to create a school culture that encapsulated the best of what public education could offer. My aim for Palm Beach State School was to become the school of choice for our local community, and for families not to drive past to attend other schools, as was the case. This involved setting high expectations in academic achievement, quality teaching and learning, upgraded facilities, wonderful student behaviour (the list goes on) … and equally important to create a friendly, supportive, kind culture. Together, we have certainly achieved this goal. In fact, from the declining student enrolment figures of 435 in 2015, through to the current enrolment of 760 and the projected enrolment of 805 next year, I didn’t realise just how many primary aged children were in our local area, nor how much our school enrolment would grow! Our enrolment management plan enacted from 2017, has been closely adhered to since then, to ensure PBSS is only for our Palm Beach community and to limit any unnecessary growth.

Last week was a bitter sweet moment, when the ‘face’ of our school changed with the commencement of the long-awaited $10 million learning centre. There were moments throughout the week that I, like so many others, took a deep breath and paused for moments of reflection as I watched the demolition process begin. However, on the positive side, I was excited to see the building commence, which will provide our students with modern and first-class facilities to enhance all that education has to offer.

The Education Department has also recognised the significance of this building for PBSS, and today, the Minister of Education the Honourable Grace Grace, visited our school and celebrated the commencement of the building with an official ‘Sod turn’. You may see snippets of this on a variety of media and social media platforms tonight and over the next few days.

Morning Drop Off at Kiss & Go

As a courtesy to all school community members, please be aware that the morning drop off in Kiss & Go requests parents and drivers to remain in their car and students to depart the car promptly. We encourage the kisses and cuddles to occur as you get into the car at home and any last-minute messages spoken about on your way before reaching the Kiss & Go zone! This drop off area is becoming very congested and it is important that cars move to the front of the queue where possible, encourage your children to be independent in grabbing their bag etc as they promptly leave the car, and drivers to also be prompt to leave the zone. Thank you for your support in this.

Change of Tuckshop – Menu and Ordering

The newly appointed tender for the tuckshop commences after the holidays, Monday 12 July. There will be menu and ordering changes. These changes and further explanation will be emailed directly to all parents later this week, including instructions on how/when to register for Quickcliq (the new ordering app).

Menu … The new menu that will be offered is quite extensive, kid friendly and offers food and snacks that may have not been everyday items on our previous menu. All the new items fit in the mandated traffic light system for food sold in Qld school tuckshops.

Ordering … All ordering will be via the app ‘Quickcliq’, or via a paper bag system for those that prefer.

Emergency lunches … From the start of next term, the office will not be supplying emergency lunches. In conjunction with the school, the tuckshop has set up an emergency lunch system that will involve a call from the office to let you know your child has no lunch, then you, the parent, will ring Quickcliq to order and pay for the emergency lunch, Quickcliq will then let the tuckshop know and your child will receive the emergency lunch which will be from a limited selection. Further information regarding this will also be communicated in the email you will receive.

Flexischool Refund

A reminder that Flexischools will cease at the end of this week. To receive a refund of any funds that you have linked to the app, please follow the instructions below.

To cancel Flexischools:

Go to the Flexishools app (or website)
Select My Account icon
Select Close Account
Select Refund my balance back to me or Donate to charity (You may be prompted to enter your bank details for the refund)
You will receive an email stating that your account is closed

School Opinion Survey

The annual suite of School Opinion Surveys will be conducted in Term 3 and will close on 30 July 2021. All families, school staff and students in target year levels (5 and 6) will be invited to participate. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what our school does well, and how we can improve. An invitation to complete the Parent/Caregiver Survey will be emailed to one parent/caregiver per family in the week beginning 5 July. The invitation will be sent from the Department of Education, not the school, and it will have the subject line School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2021. Check your junk email folders if you can’t find it. The survey can be completed as soon as the invitation is received and will take approximately 5 minutes using a computer, tablet or smart phone. Parents/caregivers who do not have access to the internet at home are welcome to complete their survey online at the school. School computers/iPads will be available.

Term 3 Staff Update

With over 80 staff there are always evolving HR changes due to health, wellbeing and/or family circumstances. At this stage we are looking forward to the return of Greg Locke, our PE teacher, from the start of term three. On the other side, our Arts/Music specialist, Miss Lainie Carter, will be taking leave for the term. This year the plan was for Miss Carter to teach across four areas of The Arts, one each term – Music, Drama, Media and Dance. As it was prearranged for her to teach Media in term three, we have replaced her with Mr Dan Low who will be teaching a Media Arts C2C unit to all Year 1-6 classes. Our strings teacher, Miss Elizabeth Chandler, is also taking leave in Term 3. At this stage we are unaware of her replacement as instrumental music specialist teachers are not organised through the school.

Beach Buzz Palm Beach State School

Issue 9 · 23 Jun 2021

In this issue