The staff and I would like to welcome all families, new and returning, to what promises to be an exciting and rewarding year at Caloundra City Private School. I would also like to welcome Mrs Lisa Montgomery who has joined us from Harvey Bay to teach Year 1 and Mrs Kate McGovern who is returning to her Teacher Assistant position in the Learning Support area. It was lovely to see so many enthusiastic and happy students return to school this week, eager to undertake the experiences of their new year level and class. The students have all settled in really well and have certainly had lots of exciting holiday stories to share. We have also welcomed our new City Stars Kindergarten students who are commencing their school learning journey as well as a number of new families across all year levels. We wish all our new families a special CCPS welcome and we hope you enjoy your time at school. We look forward to working with you and I know that our school community will welcome you all and assist in the orientation process. The commencement of a new school year is a great time for parents and carers to communicate to their children the importance of schooling and the great value you personally place on school and education. Explain to your child that treating everyone with respect, being on time and in school everyday, wearing the correct uniform and working hard in class is important to you. These are also important life skills. The value you place on these will be the value your child holds. I know you will continue to work with us, so your child can grow in confidence, with a love of learning and a determination to be the best person they can be.  We will do everything we can to help your child to do their best. Let us know if we can support you in any way. Remember we operate an open-door policy – feel free to book an appointment with your child’s class teacher if you have concerns or need support, help or advice.  Important Dates for Term One There are many important school events occurring this term. The School Calendar with event dates can be found on the Parent Portal, which can be accessed through the School’s website. Please check the Portal at least twice a week to ensure you stay up to date with events in and around the school. Swimming and Surf Awareness and Beach Activity Program The Junior School Physical Education will continue to incorporate the Queensland Surf Lifesaving Surf Awareness and Beach Activity Program as well as swimming lessons for all students. Years 3 to 6 students will attend swimming lessons during Week 2 concluding with the Years 3 to ­12 Swimming Carnival on Friday 7th February. They will then participate in the Surf Lifesaving program in Term Four. Prep to Year 2 students will participate in the Surf Lifesaving program in Weeks 5 to 8 of Term One and then have swimming lessons followed by their Swimming Carnival in Term Four. Class Buddy Program We will continue the Class Buddy system this year, which involves the students in the Junior School buddying up with another class to participate in a number of shared activities. The buddy classes for this year are: Kindy and Year 3 Prep and Year 4 Year 1 and Year 6 Year 2 and Year 5 Whole School Assemblies This term we will be holding our Whole School assemblies in Weeks 3, 5 and 7. The assemblies will take place on Wednesday mornings at 8.30am in the Raelene Boyle Hall. The next Whole School assembly will be on Wednesday 12th February. This will be our School Leadership Assembly and the Junior School Captains, House Captains, Student Council Representatives and our Year 3 to 5 Class Captains will be announced. Junior School Assemblies Our fortnightly Junior School Assemblies will continue to take place in the School Hall on Wednesday mornings at 8.30am. Each fortnight a class will be scheduled to present an item. The first Junior School Assembly will be held on Wednesday 5th February. Students from Year 6 will be making a presentation and Merit Certificates will be awarded to selected students from each class. All parents, grandparents and friends are encouraged to join the students from the Junior School at this assembly. Request for Volunteers for our Support-A-Reader Program The students participating in our Support-A-Reader program last year continued to make great gains in their reading ability and we would like to thank all the parent volunteers who assisted with this program. Due to its success, we would like to continue the program in 2020. We are running another Support-A-Reader training session this term and are looking for parents to assist with this program. You will be trained in the best strategies for assisting students with reading and will be asked to support students in the Junior School. The training session takes approximately 45 minutes and then we ask that you work with one or two students once or twice a week for approximately 15 minutes/session. If you are interested in assisting with this program please come and see me or email me at gfrisby@ccps.qld.edu.au. You Can Do It Program This year we will be continuing to implement the You Can Do It Program in the Junior School. The main purpose of the program is to support communities, schools and families in a collective effort to optimise the social, emotional and academic outcomes of all young people. Its unique contribution is in identifying the social and emotional capabilities that all young people need to acquire in order to be successful in school, experience wellbeing and have positive relationships including making contributions to others and the community. The program focuses on building the social, emotional and motivational capacity of young people. It encourages prevention, promotion and intervention efforts in order to build the social and emotional strengths of young people. Confidence, Persistence, Organisation, Getting Along and Resilience are the social and emotional strengths that provide the five foundations of the program. These foundations are nourished and supported by 12 positive Habits of the Mind (Ways of Thinking). In the program, the patterns of thinking that enable young people to manage their own learning, emotions and behaviour represented by the 5 Foundations are made explicit. We will focus on each of the 5 foundations and 12 Habits of Mind throughout the year. Our focus for Weeks 1 to 3 is on the social and emotional capability of ‘Organisation’. Students will be involved in discussions about what strategies and behaviours help them to be organised. They will be reminded that ‘Organisation’ is Doing my own jobs ​Following instructions Keeping my belongings tidy Planning my homework so I have enough time Lining up on time Organised thinking is: Setting goals Planning time Being prepared Taking care of jobs until they are finished It would be appreciated if you could support this program at home as it helps reinforce the importance of these social behaviours. Class News The Class News segment in the Junior School section of the newsletter will continue this year. In each newsletter, a class will share some of the wonderful activities they have been working on with the school community. This segment will commence in the next newsletter with students from the City Stars Kindergarten class sharing some of their exciting experiences from their first week of school. Kind regards,  Mrs Gabrielle Frisby Head of Junior School